11-07-2016 (Important News Clippings)
To Download Click here.
Date: 11-07-16
दुनिया भर में विशेषज्ञों पर उठ रहे हैं सवाल
नीति-नियम / मिहिर शर्मा
दुनिया भर में विशेषज्ञ अब ऐसे जीव बन चुके हैं जो जोखिम में हैं। अमेरिका में राष्ट्रपति चुनाव अभियान में डॉनल्ड ट्रम्प और बर्नी सैंडर्स ने जानबूझकर विदेश नीति या अर्थशास्त्र के ज्ञात जानकारों की सलाह मानने से इनकार किया। ट्रम्प को लगता है कि वह इतने चतुर हैं कि सबकुछ खुद ही सोच विचार सकते हैं। वहीं सैंडर्स ने अपने अभियान से कमोबेश यह स्थापित किया कि ज्यादातर अर्थशास्त्री कॉर्पोरेट या सत्ता प्रतिष्ठïान से जुड़े हुए हैं और उसे विश्वसनीयता प्रदान करने की कोशिश करते हैं। इस प्रक्रिया में दोनों ने हकीकत से दूर और विरोधाभासी वादे किए। बहरहाल ट्रम्प नामांकन हासिल करने में कामयाब रहे। वहीं सैंडर्स को डेमोक्रेटिक लेफ्ट का ताज मिला। इस बीच चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी चिनफिंग ने बार-बार उन अर्थशास्त्रियों का उल्लेख किया जो विश्वविद्यालयों में माक्र्सवादी रुझान से भटक रहे हैं।
Date: 11-07-16
नीतिगत मदद से होगा मेक इन इंडिया साकार
श्याम पोनप्पा
मेक इन इंडिया को बाजार तक पहुंच तथा तमाम अन्य बातों के लिए नीतिगत मदद की आवश्यकता है। खासतौर पर जब बात उन्नत उपकरण हासिल करने की हो। बता रहे हैं श्याम पोनप्पा
अगर सही आकलन किया जाए तो कहा जा सकता है कि मेक इन इंडिया के तहत भारतीय निर्माताओं के लिए सहयोगी नीतियों के क्रियान्वयन की आवश्यकता है। खासतौर पर जब बात उन्नत उपकरण हासिल करने की हो। इससे यह मुद्दा उठता है कि तरक्की के नाम पर हमारी सरकारें दरअसल हमारे लिए या हमारे साथ कर क्या रही हैं। सरकारें इसलिए क्योंकि यह समस्या संप्रग-2 से भी बहुत पहले की है और अब तक चली आ रही है।
इन पहलुओं की शुरुआत सार्वजनिक नीति और व्यवहार के संदर्भ में प्राथमिक लक्ष्य और संगठनों के साथ होती है। इसमें आवश्यक तौर पर बाजार पहुंच शामिल होती है और इसका विस्तार प्राथमिक और द्वितीयक कानूनों के निर्माण तक होता है जिसमें मौजूदा कानूनी और पारंपरिक आवश्यकताएं शामिल होती हैं। इसके बाद विस्तृत नियम और प्रक्रियाएं होती हैं, आर्थिक और वित्तीय संपर्क होते हैं और संस्थागत एवं परंपरागत बदलाव होते हैं। इसके अलावा भी तमाम अन्य बातें हैं। इसके बावजूद, इन सभी पर विचार होना चाहिए और मजबूत विकास के लिए इन पर काम भी होना चाहिए। खासतौर पर सामरिक क्षेत्रों में नीतिगत समर्थन आवश्यक है। उदाहरण के लिए स्थानीय बाजार तक पहुंच सुनिश्चित करना, शेयर और ऋण के लिए वित्त जुटाना, बढिय़ा लॉजिस्टिक्स और प्रभावी बुनियादी ढांचा।
उच्च तकनीक वाले विनिर्माण क्षेत्र में कोई घरेलू स्टार्टअप अनुबंध प्रदान करने वाले रसूखदार लोगों के दायरे में जगह कैसे बना पाएगा? इस प्रश्न का उत्तर है कि वह ऐसा नहीं कर पाएगा जब तक कि उसे एक दूरदर्शी सरकार का सहयोग नहीं हासिल हो। अन्यथा तो भारतीय विनिर्माण कंपनियों को अपना बढिय़ा उत्पाद विदेशी बाजारों में पेश करना पड़ता है, उसके बाद ही वे देश में अनुबंधों के लिए जद्दोजहद ककर पाते हैं।
अब जरा पहले ही देरी से गुजर चुके और लंबित डिजिटल इंडिया पहल के ऊपर विचार कीजिए। राष्ट्रीय जनतांत्रिक गठबंधन (राजग) के प्रथम कार्यकाल के दौरान पेश किए गए बड़े बदलावों और सीमित ब्रॉडबैंड के साथ मोबाइल टेलीफोनी में असीमित वृद्घि के बाद भी नीतिगत जगत में कुछ खास बदलाव नहीं आया है जिसकी बदौलत ब्रॉडब्रैंड में वृद्घि को बल दिया जा सके। खासतौर पर ग्रामीण भारत में।
देश के विनिर्माण क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को इस बात से जूझना पड़ रहा है कि सरकार अपनी ही नीतियों पर टिक नहीं रही। बहरहाल वह एक अलग मसला है। नीचे दिया गया उदाहरण एक और समस्या को उजागर करता है। मान लेते हैं कि एक विनिर्माण स्टार्टअप उद्यम है जिसने कुछ नवाचारी बेतार उपकरण कबाड़ से तैयार किए हैं। इसके उत्पाद ऐसे हैं जो टेलीविजन, डाटा और ध्वनि सेवाओं तक ब्रॉडबैन्ड संचार के इस्तेमाल को बढ़ा सकते हैं। खासतौर पर ग्रामीण और उपनगरीय इलाकों में। उनमें से कुछ उत्पाद शुरुआती परीक्षण में अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्तर पर प्रतिस्पर्धा के योग्य हैं। ऐसे उत्पादों को तैनाती के पहले उनका परीक्षण करने के लिए नई नीतियां बनानी होंगी। हमारे देश में ऐसी परंपरा नहीं रही।
अब तक इन उपकरणों के लिए कोई बड़ा अंतरराष्ट्रीय खरीदार भी नहीं है क्योंकि इन उपकरणों के लिए कोई अंतरराष्ट्रीय बाजार बनाया ही नहीं गया। ऐसा इसलिए क्योंकि विकसित देशों में फाइबर और तार का गहन संजाल है और वहां ऐसे बेतार उपकरणों की मांग बहुत सीमित है। एक बार आकार और कीमतों में गिरावट के बाद विकसित देशों में बाजार बन सकता है लेकिन वह बहुत उलझी हुई स्थिति है। इसके बावजूद भारतीय कंपनी को अपनी अधिकांश फंडिंग के लिए विदेशी निवेशकों पर निर्भर रहना पड़ता है क्योंकि उनके लिए अपने उत्पाद को बाजार में लाना एक बड़ी मशक्कत है। सहयोगी नीतियों के साथ ये उपकरण ब्रॉडबैन्ड के विस्तार में जबरदस्त भूमिका निभा सकते हैं। इसके बजाय इन भारतीय उद्यमियों को पता चला कि ऐसे उद्यम के समर्थन की कहीं कोई भूमिका नहीं है।
इतना ही नहीं बल्कि हर कदम पर नीतिगत बाधाएं मौजूद हैं। उदाहरण के लिए ऐसी कंपनियों को अपने उत्पाद का परीक्षण करने के लिए कोई फ्रीक्वेंसी मुहैया नहीं कराई गई हैं। ऐसे हर परीक्षण को भारत सरकार द्वारा नियंत्रित धीमी प्रक्रिया में अंजाम दिया जाता है। स्पेक्ट्रम के दुरुपयोग की आशंका को देखते हुए यह समझा जा सकता है कि उसका आवंटन किस कदर चिंता का विषय है लेकिन ऐसे उच्च तकनीक वाली विनिर्माण इकाइयों के आवेदन को निपटाने की कोई सुसंगत व्यवस्था भी देखने को नहीं मिलती है ताकि वे अपने उपकरणों का परीक्षण कर सकें।
डिजिटल इंडिया को बढ़ावा देने के लिए यह आवश्यक है कि ऐसी कंपनियों को बढऩे का अवसर दिया जाए। लेकिन इसके बजाय हमारी नीतियां अनुत्पादक प्रतीत होती हैं। बाजार की बात करें तो सरकार कंपनियों से और कंपनियां एक दूसरे से प्रतिस्पर्धा करती नजर आती हैं। बाजार ढांचे या नीतियों को लेकर ऐसा कोई सकारात्मक घटनाक्रम नजर नहीं आता है जो तेज और समुचित विकास की ओर ले जाए। ऐसी नीतियों में इस्तेमाल से बची हुई फ्रीक्वेंसी का प्रयोग अथवा साझा नेवटर्व साझेदारी जैसी सुविधाओं का प्रयोग संभव किया जा सकता है। अगर अंतिम छोर तक ब्रॉडबैन्ड सुविधा देने के लिए बिना इस्तेमाल किया हुआ स्पेक्ट्रम सेवा प्रदाताओं को मुहैया कराया जााता है तो ग्रामीण उपभोक्ताओं तक ब्रॉडबैंड की सुविधा पहुंचाने में मदद मिलेगी। वहीं सेवा प्रदाताओं को भी साझा बुनियादी ढांचे से बढिय़ा राजस्व हासिल होगा।
राजस्व में सरकार की हिस्सेदारी में भी इजाफा होगा। इस प्रकार विरासत में मिली समस्याओं, अनुचित विदेशी मॉडल और सहयोगविहीन स्थानीय विनिर्माण मिलकर विश्लेषकों, शिक्षाविदों, प्रशासकों और विधिक समुदाय सभी को भ्रमित करते हैं। निर्णय प्रक्रिया में शामिल लोग समस्या के आकार से भयभीत होते हैं। इसके लिए जटिल वित्तीय पुनर्गठन की आवश्यकता है। इसके अलावा भी अन्य बदलाव अपनाने होंगे।
ऐेसे में प्रश्न है कि क्या किया जाए? यहां सरकार को हस्तक्षेप करना होगा और समझदारी से कदम उठाने होंगे। जिस प्रकार बिजली की आपूर्ति केंद्रीय पहल, समन्वय और अंशधारकों की भूमिका के बिना सफल नहीं हो सकती है ठीक उसी प्रकार ब्रॉडबैन्ड और संचार नेटवर्क भी बिना समस्या निवारण संबंधी रुख के आगे नहीं बढ़ सकता। केवल सरकार ही इन मसलों पर सकारात्मक ढंग से मदद कर सकती है। मंत्रालयों और नियामकों को इस संबंध में जरूरी पहल करनी चाहिए। वे सभी सेवा प्रदाताओं, आपूर्तिकर्ताओं और एजेंसियों को साथ लाकर एक ऐसा हल निकाल सकते हैं जिसे व्यवहार में आजमाया जा सके।
Date: 11-07-16
Madras High Court’s brave judgment on creative freedom
Why not extend its remit to all banned books?
The July 5 judgment of the Madras High Court, delivered by chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Pushpa Sathyanarayana, opens with Voltaire’s stinging defence of free speech: “I may not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” With these words, the court upholds the literary freedom of Perumal Murugan, author of Mathorubhagan (translated into English as One Part Woman).
Murugan, his translator and publisher have been hounded for the last two years by zealots who wanted to ban the book. The judges say, “The choice to read is with the reader. If you do not like a book, throw it away….Yet, the right to write is unhindered.” Murugan’s novel, about the agony of a childless couple, Kali and Ponna, touches upon many themes including sexuality, social taboo and religious custom. It was critically acclaimed in its original Tamil version, published in 2010. However, zealots got into action when a highly praised English translation appeared in 2014. Murugan was accused of hurting the pride of a region, a community, slandering religion, promoting promiscuity and so on. In an order that ranges across the realms of literature, constitutional rights and freedoms, perceptions of morality, Freud, DH Lawrence, Shamaresh Bose, Kalidasa and much more, the judges say there is no absolute standard of public morality or literary taste: to each her own, and to the writer, the freedom to express his thoughts creatively. If people feel a work of imagination could create social violence, it is the duty of the state to enforce law and order. The same state must also protect freedom of expression.
The judgment says our ancient literature took a more relaxed approach to matters sexual than many contemporary observers. The judges conclude their argument, dismissing all calls to proscribe Murugan’s book, with these brave and noble words: “Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.” This is a noble sentiment. Will the government have the courage to apply it to several other books that stand banned?
Date: 11-07-16
Development vs environmental security:
How to kill an ecosystem
By Sukanta Chaudhuri
Kolkata is flanked on the east by a vast tract of wetland. It has thrown up a unique challenge in weighing development against environmental security. At stake is the well-being, or even the survival, of a city of 4.5 million.
The East Kolkata Wetlands cover 12,500 hectares, including 4,000 hectares of fish farms or bheris, criss-crossed by a system of creeks and canals. Kolkata Corporation does not have any sewage treatment plant. The entire sewage flows through these canals, purifying itself in the bheris that act as oxidation ponds, and draining out through the Kultigong river towards the Sundarbans.
The canals also absorb the city’s monsoon storm-water. Its garbage is offloaded at nearby Dhapa to sustain market farms. The area yields 55,000 tonnes of vegetables and 10,500 tonnes of fish a year. Farming and recycling sustain 20,000 families directly and some 50,000 indirectly.
If the wetlands are effaced, the loss in food supply would be the least part of the damage. It would leave the city without means of disposing of its waste, especially its sewage, and its abundant storm-water. Come monsoon, and Kolkata might annually face the paralysis and health hazards witnessed in Chennai last year.
Above all, we would destroy a unique eco-friendly system of waste disposal: costing nothing, generating substantial production and employment and ensuring an immense depolluting zone bordering the city. No other wetland recycling system anywhere exceeds 100 hectares. Experts cross the world to see Kolkata’s wetlands. But the city’s otherwise articulate population is oblivious.
The apparent rural tranquillity of the wetlands is misleading. They have always been prone to violence: earlier, to drain fisheries for ricefarming or flood them back again. Today, the greatest danger is from realtors and big-time encroachers.
On paper, the wetlands enjoy ample protection. A landmark high court judgment of 1992 has been reinforced over time, culminating in international recognition in 2002 under the Ramsar Convention. The government and corporation have declared their commitment. Yet, 185 cases of encroachment, including colleges and housing estates, have reached the courts, and 14 eviction orders issued though not executed. One-off administrative fiats have been equally destructive, in one case, reducing the open land within aparticular tract from 43% to 3%.
Today, a still greater threat looms over the wetlands. Under a new environmental regime, states will be free to form their own guidelines. Bengal’s new environment minister, who is also mayor of Kolkata, has declared his intention of ‘developing’ the wetlands and even having their Ramsar status annulled. The Ramsar authorities might themselves delist wetlands that cease to be such.
The mayor has arguments on his side. He is right in saying that the system of solid waste disposal needs expansion. In itself, this would not alter the land use pattern. It would allow scientific separation of wastes, so that toxic matter does not contaminate the soil or water. It would require only a small fraction of the land, and leave the water bodies untouched.
But the mayor also argues that the city-side segment of the wetlands, west of Kolkata’s Eastern Bypass, is already a concrete jungle: why should the rest be sacrosanct? That is like saying that a man who has lost three toes might as well lose both legs.
The truth is that the wetlands are ‘real estate in waiting’, to quote Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, a leading expert and crusader. Today, real estate arguably constitutes West Bengal’s biggest industry, and 12,500 hectares is a lot of land. No wonder the authorities are keen to open it for development.
But first, they owe the citizens of Kolkata a few answers.
- How will they dispose of 750,000,000 litres of sewage a day, not to speak of 2,500 tonnes of garbage? Funds might be obtained for sewage treatment plants on a gigantic scale. But besides the transitional and operational challenges, the sheer retrogression in terms of environmental management would be indefensible, with incalculable effects on citizens’ lives and probably on climate change. The wetlands are a mini-biosphere with threatened and even unique species.
- Where would they channelise storm-water during the monsoons?
- In an alarmingly polluted city, what would happen if this carbon sink were replaced by urban settlements, not only removing but reversing the depolluting factor?
- How would 50,000 families, often displaced from their land, find alternative livelihood? Battles have been fought on precisely this issue in West Bengal in the recent past.
These questions may not trouble fly-by-night realtors, but responsible corporate stakeholders must address them. And they cannot but weigh upon the city, state and Union governments; on everyone intending to live or work in the space of the lost wetlands; and on every citizen of inner Kolkata, who (all else apart) might be trapped without access to drainage outfalls. Would Kolkata remain viable as a metropolitan space? What would be the consequences for the state’s economy?
Crucial decisions about the wetlands might be taken soon and heavy pressure brought to bear on the exercise. The parties most favouring the conversion must realise that it would ruin their own interests along with all others. They will have killed the goose yielding them a steady supply of golden eggs.
(The writer is Professor Emeritus, Jadavpur University, Kolkata)
Date: 11-07-16
Growth no longer means jobs:
Inflexible labour laws, rapid technological change have caused employment generation to stall
R Jagannathan
Where are the jobs? This is the question Prime Minister Narendra Modi is repeatedly asked by his political opponents. One answer he has given recently in media interviews is that the jobs that are being created are invisible in the statistics: loans from the Mudra Bank are enabling self-employment, and as these micro businesses grow, they will add employees, one or two at a time. Hopefully, they will ultimately create millions of jobs in an economy that is releasing one million youth every month into the job market.
While creating a nation of micro-entrepreneurs is better than doing nothing, there is a grimmer reality at work: stable and quality jobs are not growing fast enough, if not actually contracting. While job statistics are woefully inadequate in the Indian context, one source that gives us good data is the Labour Bureau’s quarterly survey of employment trends. It covers eight employment-intensive sectors – textiles, leather, metals, autos, gems and jewellery, transport, IT/BPO, and handlooms and powerlooms.
In its latest report covering the July-September 2015 quarter, the Bureau found that 1,34,000 jobs were created in these sectors. But the average for the last eight quarters was just over one lakh jobs per quarter (2013-15). This is lower than the 1.5 lakh jobs created in the previous eight quarters (2011-13), and really bad compared to the eight-quarter average before that (nearly three lakh jobs every quarter in 2009-11).
The Indian jobs machine is stalling, and stalling badly. A longer-term snapshot based on National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows the same trend: during 1999-2004, 60 million jobs were created; during 2004-10, just 27 million. This implies that during the slower growth period of NDA-I, more jobs were created than in the faster-growth years of UPA-I and the first half of UPA-II, before the wheels came off completely during the final years of UPA-II. Though the jobs data provided by the Labour Bureau and NSS are not comparable, the trend is unmistakeable.
An HDFC Bank report uses another number to make the same point: India’s employment elasticity, which measures growth in jobs compared to every percentage point rise in GDP, is heading south. In the 1997-2000 period, this elasticity was 0.39 – meaning for every 1% rise in GDP, jobs grew by 0.39%. This elasticity came down to 0.23 in the next decade, and fell further to a measly 0.15.
Growth no longer means jobs.
The causes for this jobs slowdown are many: inflexible labour laws, that make firing difficult, ensure that employers prefer more automation to more hires. This is happening not only in manufacturing, but high-quality service industries like IT too. In the January-March 2016 quarter, three of the Big Five Indian IT companies (Wipro, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra) saw net hires decline. While this may be a short-term blip, there is little doubt that automation and productivity increases have slowed down hiring in IT.
According to a pink newspaper, the headcount required to generate $1 billion of software revenues has fallen by half in the last six years. Industry leaders like Vishal Sikka of Infosys and TCS’s N Chandrasekaran are retraining staff for higher levels of automation, with lower-skill work being automated.
Globalisation is another issue: when labour can move freely across borders, either legally or illegally, jobs will go to the cheapest workers. In the European Union’s free market for labour, the high level of inward immigration into Britain was one reason for the pro-Brexit vote on June 23.
Economists like to rubbish the idea that globalisation and automation are job destroyers. They are right, for jobs destroyed in one sector will be made up elsewhere. Today, as kirana shops fold up, big retail and online marketplaces may be creating lots of jobs at checkout counters, warehousing and logistics. But are they doing so at a rate fast enough to take up the slack?
Economists also seem to discount the larger political and social reality that restricts jobs mobility: people do not change as fast as they need to, nor do governments and laws change fast enough to enable this. When Google delivers us our first driverless cars, the millions of chauffeurs driven out of work will not immediately know whether they should invest in becoming auto mechanics or electronics engineers. Skilling up, and moving cities and countries to where the jobs are, are not seamless processes.
It is worth recalling that while the industrial revolution in Britain ultimately created lots of jobs, the process took nearly 50-100 years to happen. Today’s world may not take that kind of time to adjust, but the rate of adjustment between young and old is not the same. This partly explains why the young voted to stay in the EU, and the old did not.
A fast-changing world needs even faster speeds in information dissemination about jobs and trends. But there is always a time and spatial gap between job loss and gain that is not easy to bridge. Jobs lost today may take years to recoup. And future technologies like 3D printing may hollow out manufacturing even faster. An academic paper by Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A Osborne says half of existing jobs could be automated in 10-15 years.
The equation we need to watch out for is simple: can human adaptation catch up with the speed of technological change?
Date: 11-07-16
Guns and race:
In America, this flammable mix is a superpower’s Achilles heel
America is convulsing with violence and protests, following the killings of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by white police officers in excessive shows of force. The city where President John F Kennedy was shot dead acquired notoriety again as a black sniper killed five Dallas policemen. Race is America’s Achilles heel and the election of a black president may have deepened rather than bridged its racial divide. But superimposed on that are America’s absurd gun laws which permit virtually unrestricted gun ownership.
The Dallas shooting, like the Orlando mass shooting which killed 49 and injured 53 last month, was carried out with a military grade rifle that can be bought off the shelf. In a context where guns are freely available to citizens, police too become militarised and trigger-happy. America’s racial divide is uniquely flammable and healing it is a long-term project. But gun control is something that can be initiated relatively easily through legislation, leaving America less vulnerable to murders and massacres whether motivated by race, terrorism or simply someone gone round the bend. By not doing so the world’s sole superpower appears to be shooting itself in the foot, sometimes literally so.
Fewer shooting incidents would take the edge off the racial confrontation that’s shaping up on America’s streets as well: neither black citizens nor policemen need be so fearful. And that would go some way towards healing the racial divide. Instead another can of worms appears to have been opened by the Dallas police: they killed the sniper with a robot bomb. What happens when such remotely triggered robot bombs get into the hands of those intent on causing destruction and mayhem? Could they replace assault rifles as the next weapon of choice?
Date: 11-07-16
Force of democracy:
SC right to decry permanent use of AFSPA, a balanced view is needed
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which provides extraordinary powers of force to soldiers deployed in disturbed areas, has long been a bone of contention between human rights activists and those favouring a strong state response to terror and insurgency. The Supreme Court has now rightly drawn a line under this raging dispute by ruling that indefinite deployment of armed forces in ‘disturbed areas’ under AFSPA “mocks at our democratic process” and symbolises a failure of the state.
In a landmark judgment, a two-member apex court bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Uday U Lalit has raised serious questions on the deployment of security forces in Manipur under AFSPA since 1958. Their 85-page judgment goes to the heart of the matter, reminding us that the purpose behind deployment of armed forces was to ensure normalcy would be restored within a reasonable period and that “normalcy not being restored cannot be a fig leaf for prolonged, permanent or indefinite deployment of the armed forces”.
The use of military force may be essential to maintain law and order in emergencies but this cannot be made into a permanent state of affairs. AFSPA was enacted in 1958 and has remained in force since then in Nagaland and Manipur (except Imphal), from 1990 in Assam and Kashmir, and from 1991 in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh. No catastrophe happened when the Tripura government lifted AFSPA in 2015.
The apex court is also correct in ordering a probe into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters in Manipur in the last 20 years. As it argued, each such case of killing in disturbed areas should be enquired into. We need to tread with caution though on the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Centre’s submission that a person carrying weapons in violation of prohibitory orders in a disturbed area is ipso facto an ‘enemy’; as defined in section 3(x) of the Army Act. The court is right that “killing an enemy is not the only available solution” but equally, we cannot bind the hands of our soldiers so that they become ineffective or, worse, sitting ducks in conflict situations. The Supreme Court in the Naga People’s movement case had upheld the Army’s operational guidelines for such operations with very clear ‘dos and don’ts’, and these should remain valid.