Water, water everywhere
October 30, 2008
Satyajit Ray’s film Shatranj ke khilari satirises two determined chess-playing nawabs who are so engrossed in their game that they ignore the evaporation of their princedoms by the British.
The two Indus Waters Treaty Commissioners are their modern counterparts.
Since the Indus Waters Treaty was signed in September 1960, these two officials, representing their countries, have played the game uninterruptedly, determined to checkmate each other on technicalities, while in the background their countries gradually dehydrated.
The Commissioners have met 99 times, one short of a century. That the game should have continued for so long despite 1965 and the 1971 wars, military standoffs and political stand-downs, is a tribute less to the tenacity of successive Commissioners than to the skill of those who drafted the original Treaty.
An economist who recently retired from the World Bank has predicted that the next war between Indian and Pakistan would be over water. His predecessors sixty years ago feared the same, hence the deal. They could see clearer than Pakistan or India would admit the disastrous effect of Cyril Radcliffe’s ragged solution to the division of the Punjab and its five rivers.
Radcliffe had hoped that the two new nations might evolve ‘some joint control and management of the irrigation system’. He left the largest irrigation system in the world on one side of the border and the source of its waters on the other.
Unlike India which has innumerable options, Pakistan is dependent entirely upon the Indus. It accounts for one quarter of Pakistan’s GDP, two-thirds of its employment, and sustains 80% of its exports. Any future Pakistan has as an agro-based economy is again in the hands of India.
Until scientists can find a substitute for water (so far they have been adept only at inventing different types of containers), every country in the world will have to come to grips with pressures from water stress, water scarcity, and water criticality (the officialese for drought).
Our grandparents will remember at a time in the 1950s when the per capita availability of water was a comfortable 5,177 M3 per head in India and 5,300 M3 in Pakistan. Our generation has seen it fall drastically to about 1800 M3 and 1100 M3 respectively. The critical level is 1000 M3. Meanwhile the IWT Commissioners continue to quibble over ink long since dried while our rivers themselves are drying up.
The issues between the two countries have been too well-ventilated to be repeated again here Wullar Barrage, the Kishenganga Project, and more recently the Baghliar Dam. While neither signatory may or indeed can unilaterally abrogate the IWT, there may be some justification for improving the procedure being followed by the Commissioners to resolve issues. The aggrieved writes to his counterpart, who then refers it to his country’s Ministry for its views, which in turn sends it to the executing agency for comments, and then back again. Sowing seasons are lost as the complaint meanders through the rivulets of officialdom.
It is a slur to both Indian and to Pakistan that when they could not agree with each other, they agreed to be bound by the decision on the Baghliar Dam issue by a neutral expert nominated by the World Bank. That such an appointment was in accordance with the terms of the IWT is immaterial; what saddened many patriots on both sides of the border was that Cyril Radcliffe found reincarnation in a Swiss engineer Raymond Lafitte.
It is not for a Pakistani to quote the Taittiriya Upanishad to an Indian readership but recognising that the Upanishads were composed when the Indus was still young, one should repeat its message -’Water is food.’- to two agrarian neighbours, dependent for their nourishment on the same water sources.
Over the years, India has negotiated water treaties with Bangladesh (1972), Bhutan (1993), and Nepal (1996). It is time that in our geophysical basin, countries created after Creation should learn to accept that politics is not (as Napoleon maintained) simply a matter of geography, but a matter of common survival.
The Indus problem was once described as an engineering problem, rather than a political one. Although neither President Asif Ali Zardari nor Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is an engineer, hopefully, their recent meeting in New York will lead to a cohesion of political wills. After all, their people do not drink ink.
Source: The Daily Star
Classified loans of four SOBs up by Tk 1076.80cr in Q2
October 30, 2008
The classified loans of four state-owned commercial banks went up by Tk 1076.80 crore or 1.87 per cent in the April-June period this year, despite various government steps for reducing the amount, Bangladesh Bank sources said.
Bangladesh Bank governor Saleh Uddin Ahmed will hold a meeting with managing directors of the four state-owned banks on Monday at the central bank head office to review the situation and take measures for reducing the huge classified loan amount.
The central bank in its financial analysis reports showed that the classified loans have increased to Tk 15289.37 crore or 32.37 per cent till June 2008 from Tk 14212.57 crore or 30.50 per cent in March, 2008. Among the total loan amount of Tk 47383.05 crore, the classified loans figure of four SoBs was Tk 14212.57 crore in March.
In June 2008, the classified loan amount of four SOBs was Tk 15289.37 crore against the total loan amount of Tk 46142.75 crore .
The classified loan figure of Sonali Bank went up to 44.35 from 36.09 per cent in the period while the amount of Janata Bank declined to 15.99 per cent from 16.48 per cent and Rupali Bank decreased to 39.34 per cent from 40.25 per cent. The figure of Agrani Bank increased to 29.79 per cent from 29.17 per cent.
In CAMELs rating, Janata Bank was performing fairly while the Sonali, Agrani and Rupali were performing marginally.
The capital deficits of four SoBs were — Sonali Bank Tk163.92 crore, Janata Bank Tk 48.53 crore, Agrani Bank 0 and Rupali Bank (minus) Tk 25.26 crore
Source: New Age
Cyclone leaves trail of devastation: Death toll 15
October 30, 2008
Cyclone Reshmi lashed country’s coast, killing at least 15 people and injuring 200 more and caused damages of crops of 2.8 lakh hectares in southern region.
The storm, spawned by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, struck late Monday, inundating hundreds of villages, levelling several thousand huts and knocking down electricity poles, officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
At least 10 bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed houses in Barisal district, a hard-hit area 75 miles south of the capital, Dhaka, they said. Another five people drowned in neighbouring Patuakhali district.
Some 200 villagers were injured and many were taken to hospitals, they said.
The officials said rescue workers were trying to reach people with drinking water and food.
Our Barisal Correspondent adds: Different types of crops were fully and partially destroyed and damaged on 2.28 lakhs hectares land worth Tk. 1,000 cores by cyclone Reshmi, in 11 districts under Barisal Agriculture Region.
Barisal Regional Agriculture Extension office sources said field level workers of the department are now busy about assessment of the damages and giving advice to the farmers.
These affected crops include Ropa Aman, Bona Aman, Boro seed beds and winter vegetables.
Cultivation of Aman paddy, the main crop of the southern region, was done on 8.32 lakh hectares, and other varieties of crops on 0.53 laks hectares in 11 districts under Barisal Agricultural region. These districts are Barisal, Jhalakati, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Barguna and Bhola, six districts of Barisal division and Faridpur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Rajbari and Madaripur.
Crops on more than 1.79 lakh hactres of land suffered damages with 0.25 lakh hactres fully damaged by cyclone Reshmi in six districts of Barisal division.
Crops on more than 200 hectares of land in the most affected areas situated under Pirojpur and Jhalakati districts were destroyed fully and crops damage on 25,046 hectares of lands.
Cyclone Reshmi affected crops on about 0.24 lakh hectares of land including 0.6 lakh hectares were fully destroyed and .18 lakh hectares were partially damaged out of 1.35 lakhs hectare of cultivated lands in the other five districts of greater Faridpur region.
Ninety percent of the total crops were fully affected in 11 districts by cyclone Reshmi in the Barisal division.
AED officials said a short shower is immediately needed to wash away the sand and mud deposited on some varieties of crops including under blooming Aman and winter vegetables.
Grapes may help lower blood pressure: study
October 30, 2008
Grapes helped lower blood pressure and improve heart function in lab rats fed an otherwise salty diet, US researchers said on Wednesday.
The findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, may help people with high blood pressure, they said.
“These findings support our theory that something within the grapes themselves has a direct impact on cardiovascular risk, beyond the simple blood pressure-lowering impact that we already know can come from a diet rich in fruits and vegetables,” Mitchell Seymour of the Cardioprotection Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan said in a statement.
In a study sponsored in part by California grape producers, Seymour and colleagues examined the effects of ordinary grapes on rats that develop high blood pressure when fed a salty diet.
Some of the rats ate a diet containing a powder from red, green and purple table grapes and a high-salt diet. Others were fed the grape powder and a low-salt diet. The powder, which contained the same nutrients in fresh grapes, allowed the scientists to measure the rats’ intake carefully.
After 18 weeks, the rats that ate the grape-enriched diet had lower blood pressure, better heart function, reduced inflammation throughout their bodies, and fewer signs of heart muscle damage than rats that ate a salty diet but no grapes.
“The inevitable downhill sequence to hypertension and heart failure was changed by the addition of grape powder to a high-salt diet,” Dr. Steven Bolling of the University of Michigan, who heads up the lab, said in a statement.
Bolling said he thinks flavonoids, beneficial chemicals found in grapes, green tea, cocoa and tomatoes, could be having an effect on blood pressure. Flavonoids have been shown in other studies to have heart-health benefits.
Food producers are keen to show the health benefits of their products. Studies sponsored by chocolate makers, almond and walnut producers have shown various heart benefits, including reducing inflammation in blood vessels and lowering the risk of heart attacks and stroke.
Grape powder comprised about three percent of the rats’ diet. For humans, that would be about nine servings of grapes a day. One serving is about 15 grapes.
The California Table Grape Commission provided financial support for the study and supplied the grape powder. Other sponsors included the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure.
Source: The Bangladesh Today
Google looking to invest in energy sector: NYT
October 30, 2008
Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc is increasingly looking at the energy sector as a potential business opportunity, the New York Times reported.
Engineers at Google are hoping to unveil tools soon that could help consumers make better decisions about their energy use, the paper said.
Google has hired engineers who are conducting research in renewable energy, former government energy officials, scientists and even a former NASA astronaut, whose experience with electronic gadgets is being put to use to develop energy tools for consumers, the Times said.
It added that the company’s philanthropic unit, Google.org, is considering large investments in projects that generate electricity from renewable sources.
“We want to make money, and we want to have an impact,” Dan Reicher, director for climate change and energy initiatives at Google.org, told the Times.
But with a recession looming and oil prices dropping, investors might pressure Google to curtail its clean energy ambitions, the paper said.
Calls to Google seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Source: The Bangladesh Today
Panel to keep watch on financial storm
October 30, 2008
The government is going to form a panel to advise it on measures to pre-empt any negative impacts of ongoing global financial meltdown on the economy, an adviser says.
The move comes on the back of appeals from experts that the interim administration puts in place a taskforce as the world grapple with worst financial turmoil in 80 years.
“We have decided to form the Monitoring Management Advisory Committee in the shape of a taskforce. We will sit within a few days to form the committee,” the finance and planning adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, said in an interview with bdnews24.com on Wednesday.
The committee will be composed of experts from government and non-governmental economists, with Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed as the head, the adviser said.
Salehuddin is already leading a government committee to keep an eye on the swirling economic storm.
He added that the committee will review the development of incidents concerning economy and will advise the government on prompt measures.
“As concerns are mounting with all sorts of opinions and recommendations regarding the global crisis’s impact on the national economy, the government has decided to form the committee” Mirza Aziz said.
Experts, including Awami League presidium member and former finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit, permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in Geneva Debapriya Bhattacharya and others have been urging the government to form a taskforce to monitor the global economic condition.
“Not exactly a taskforce, but the Monitoring Management Advisory Committee will be in the shape of a taskforce,” Mirza Azizul commented when the experts’ urges were brought to his notice.
Source: The Bangladesh Today
Highway decision deferred again
October 30, 2008
A cabinet committee has postponed a decision on the much-delayed Dhaka-Chittagong Highway expansion project, citing on-going court proceedings on the matter.
“The award of the contracts was not approved due to legal complexities,” finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, who chaired a meeting of the cabinet purchase committee Wednesday, told reporters.
The Tk 1750 crore project was meant to expand the 198-kilometre Daudkandi-Chittagong stretch into a four-lane highway.
Bangladesh’s nine top contractors who won the 10 separate components for Tk 1,751 crore quoted lower than the Tk 1,795 crore estimate by the Roads and Highways Department engineers.
The contractors, bidding for a second time on same terms and conditions after the first was cancelled, submitted a total of 95 bids for the 10 contract components.
If the largest road construction contract in this country’s history is awarded without delay as recommended by the tender evaluation committee, the expanded highway would be ready to handle the traffic load by June 2011.
“The communications ministry earlier ordered twice to cancel the proposal on the same tender. Following a writ against the ministry’s decision, the High Court stayed the ministry’s order,” the adviser said Wednesday, explaining the latest decision by the cabinet committee.
The disputed ministry decision to cancel the tender was attributed to the condition that the winning bidders give the precious performance security in seven days instead of 28.
The first tender was floated in Sept 2006, bringing six foreign and 10 local companies into the fray.
Of these, three foreign and seven local bidders were recommended by the technical committee to the ministry.
In April 2007, nearly seven months after the bidding process began, the tender was cancelled “without assigning any reason”.
The project received a push from chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, who in his anniversary address to the nation on Jan 12 this year promised to fast-track the process.
In March, a second tender was called, under the same terms and conditions as in 2006.
The pre-bid meeting, before the close of the tender, brought together most of the pre-qualified contractors.
When the tender evaluation committee sent its report to the ministry, one of the 10 bidders – National-Navana Construction Joint Venture – who submitted the highest quotes in all 10 components lodged a complaint about the 7-day performance security clause.
The unsuccessful bidder alleged that the clause asking the successful bidders to deposit the performance security within 7 (seven) days after issuance of letter of acceptance is a violation of the Public Procurement Rules.
Navana Construction took part in both tenders and had not raised any objection during the pre-bid meeting or as the bidding drew to a close.
The ministry at this stage sought clarification from the Central Procurement and Technical Unit or CPTU, the author of the much-vaunted PPR.
Said CPTU: “The procuring entity under clause 4 (12) of PPR can modify or add in ‘tender data sheet’ or ‘particular condition of contract’ if it is not inconsistent with the particular clause of PPR 2006 and 2008.”
On July 7, however, the ministry told the RHD chief engineers that it was cancelling the bidding process, citing “inconsistency” caused by the insertion of the 7-day deadline for performance security.
The winning contractors went to the court, securing a High Court order that asked the ministry to explain the cancellation and stayed the decision.
The Supreme Court, following an appeal, ordered a speedy disposal of the writ petition at the High Court.
The ministry, meanwhile, sent a summary to the cabinet committee seeking to sway the advisers so that the cancellation decision was cleared.
The July 28 meeting of the cabinet committee instead assigned two secretaries to see if the PPR was indeed flouted and if the ministry was right in ordering the cancellation.
A cabinet committee meeting on Sept 16 again ignored the communication ministry plea to cancel the tender and decided to seek “opinion” from the law ministry.
The law ministry did not see any violation of PPR in giving the 7-day deadline for performance security. The opinion followed an inter-ministerial meeting that too failed to take a clear decision, sending the issue back to the cabinet sub-committee on public procurement.
Source: The Bangladesh Today
Bangladesh salvages draw in second Test
October 30, 2008
AFP, Dhaka
Bangladesh fought hard to stave off an embarrassing defeat against some quality New Zealand bowling as the second Test of the BRAC Bank series finally ended in a draw on the fifth and final day here on Wednesday.
New Zealand clinched the two-match series 1-0 after they won the first Test at Chittagong by three wickets. They nearly pulled off a highly unlikely win after the first three days were washed out.
The home team was facing a possible follow-on and with it a defeat at 44-6 before brilliant knocks by all-rounders Shakib Al Hasan (49) and Mashrafe Mortaza (48) helped them avoid the ignominy of batting for a second time.
With not much to play for, the tourists batted a second time and reached 79-1 before both captains decided to call off the match. Jesse Ryder followed his 91 in the first-innings with an unbeaten 39 while Aaron Redmond made 30 not out.
Opener Jamie How was dismissed for eight.
Earlier Hasan and Mortaza put on a fighting 78-run stand for the seventh wicket which enabled Bangladesh to declare their first innings at 169-9, six more than required to avoid the follow-on.
Resuming at 13-3, the home side lost Mehrab Hossain (seven) when off-spinner Jeetan Patel turned one sharply into him, trapping him in front of the stumps.
Opener Tamim Iqbal, who saw three wickets fall in one Daniel Vettori over on Tuesday, took the score to 44 in the company of Mushfiqur Rahim before both fell in successive overs. Vettori had Iqbal caught off a miscued drive while Rahim gloved a short delivery from paceman Iain O’Brien to wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum after scoring seven.
Mortaza and Hasan took Bangladesh past their lowest Test score of 62 made against Sri Lanka at Colombo last year before Vettori ended Hasan’s resistance by trapping him leg-before. Vettori was the pick of visitors’ bowling with 5-66, finishing with 14 wickets in two Tests. O’Brien, who finished with 3-31, had Mortaza caught before Abdur Razzak (16 not out) avoided follow-on.
Bangladesh’s hopes of levelling the two-match series were dashed by bad weather on the first three days and by sloppy batting on Tuesday.
New Zealand, who beat Bangladesh by an innings victory in three days at Hamilton in 2001 after the first two days were washed out, had harboured similar hopes until lunch before Hasan and Mortaza batted solidly. There have been 19 cases of a Test match finishing inside two days but no team has ever won a Test after the first three days were washed out.
Scorecard
New Zealand 1st innings: 262-6 declared
(J. Ryder 91, B. McCullum 66)
Bangladesh 1st innings: (overnight 13-3)
Tamim c Taylor b Vettori 24
Zunaed st McCullum b Vettori 4
Ashraful lbw b Vettori 0
Rajin Saleh lbw b Vettori 0
Mehrab Hossain lbw b Patel 7
Rahim c McCullum b O’Brien 7
Shakib lbw b Vettori 49
Mashrafe c Flynn b O’Brien 48
Abdur Razzak not out 16
Shahadat c Vettori b O’Brien 4
Extras: (lb2, nb2, w6) 10
Total: (for nine wkts decl) 169
Overs: 58.1
Falls: 1-13 (Siddique), 2-13 (Ashraful), 3-13 (Saleh), 4-26 (Mehrab), 5-44 (Iqbal), 6-44 (Rahim), 7-122 (Hasan), 8-155 (Mortaza), 9-169 (Hossain)
Bowling: Mills 9-4-22-0 (2nb), O’Brien 13.1-3-31-3 (6w), Patel 15-6-45-1, Vettori 19-6-66-5, Redmond 2-0-3-0
New Zealand 2nd innings:
J. How c Razzak b Mortaza 8
A. Redmond not out 30
J. Ryder not out 39
Extras: (b1, nb1) 2
Total: (for one wkt) 79
Overs: 31
Falls: 1-8 (How)
Bowling: Mortaza 5-1-14-1, Alam 3-1-12-0, Razzak 7-1-12-0, Hasan 2-0-2-0, Hossain 6-0-20-0 (1nb), Siddique 2-0-2-0, Ashraful 1-0-4-0, Mehrab 4-0-11-0, Iqbal 1-0-1-0
Result: Match drawn, New Zealand wins Test series 1-0.
Source: The Bangladesh Today
Britain urges China, Gulf states to help global bailout fund
October 30, 2008
AFP, London
Britain pressed countries including China and oil-rich Gulf states on Tuesday to contribute to a proposed new IMF fund to help poorer governments threatened by “contagion” from the global financial crisis.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who travels to the Gulf at the weekend, said the International Monetary Fund’s current 250- billion-dollar bail-out fund was not enough and called for it to be extended rapidly to help countries in need.
Proposing a new IMF funding arrangement, he said it “would draw on the resources of those countries with substantial reserves, in order to bolster the resources available to those countries in need of (IMF) support.” Brown is due to leave for the Gulf on Saturday and is expected to raise his proposals with leaders there.
“It’s the countries that have got substantial reserves, the oil-rich countries and others who are going to be the biggest contributors to this fund,” he said, adding: “China also has very substantial reserves.” “There’s a number of countries that actually can do quite a lot in the immediate future to make sure that the international community has sufficient reserves” to help crisis-hit countries, he said. “What I’m clear is, that the (IMF) fund we have is not enough. We’ve got to extend it.”
But Brown’s call risked getting a cool reception in the Gulf. OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri said Tuesday that the oil-producing cartel could not be expected to bail out the world.
“What is surprising me is everybody looking at OPEC to bail out this crisis. In OPEC, we are most of us very poor countries, we cannot bail out this crisis,” he told an industry conference in London.
“This crisis created in the States must be solved within the States, they are capable of doing it,” he added at the Oil and Money conference.
Brown said he had discussed his proposals in the last few days with IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“We have seen in recent days the financial crisis spreading to other countries-middle-income countries, Eastern European countries. Capital flight has made a number of countries potential victims of this crisis,” he said. “So in the last few days I have discussed the risk of contagion and the need to stabilise economies right across Eastern Europe.”
He added: “It is clear that the whole of the international community must have an interest in stopping this contagion, to prevent the worsening of the global economic downturn.”
Source: The Bangladesh Today
GP blames missed IPO deadline on global meltdown
October 30, 2008
Grameenphone missed the deadline for listing on the capital market because of the ongoing global financial meltdown, and the public offering will not be brought to market before March, the company said on Wednesday.
Anders Jensen, CEO of the country’s largest mobile-phone operator by subscription, briefed the media on the status of the firm’s move to become a publicly-traded company at GP headquarters where the financial statement for the third quarter of 2008 was released.
GP said it posted revenues of about Tk 4500 crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, up 11 percent from the same period of last year, though its average revenue per user (ARPU) has fallen. The revenue grew around 7 percent to about Tk 1500 crore in the third quarter of this year from last year’s.
The company’s Bangladesh operations head sought to allay uncertainties about the Initial Public Offering, saying the process was very much on track, albeit delayed, thanks to the global financial turmoil and other challenges.
“We have been delayed as a consequence of global credit crunch where international investors have been a lot more hesitant… because international markets are more volatile,” said Jensen.
“We planned to resubmit an updated application to SEC within the fourth quarter. But the entire process will not be complete until the first quarter of next year,” he added.
The third quarter saw a further cut in the average tariff rates, which led to 25 percent decline in ARPU over last year’s figures.
The subscription growth was also offset due to the ongoing churning of barred non-registered SIMs during the third quarter of this year.
The total revenue, however, rose 7 percent mainly due to subscription growth, which was partially offset by the declining ARPU, the statement said.
The number of subscriptions rose 0.5 million from second quarter and by more than 5 million compared with third quarter of last year, while the market share remained stable at 46 percent
Based on the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s re-registration directive, GP has barred 692,000 subscriptions, of which 544,000 were churned out this quarter, while the remainder will barred in the next quarter.
“The overall subscriber growth has slowed down primarily due to the existing high SIM tax, which is limiting the affordability for the customers with limited income.
“However, as the telephone penetration rate is still low at around 30 percent even compared with other regional countries, there is major potential for growth going forward,” said Jensen
“With the withdrawal or reduction of the SIM tax, a much larger number of people mainly in the rural areas will be able to enjoy the benefits of modern mobile technology,” he said.
Source: The Bangladesh Today