The WTO has failed developing nations-Aurelie Walker Monday 14 November 2011

In the 10 years since the WTO pledged to deliver pro-development changes, developing countries have been completely sidelined by the global powers
Ten years ago, a new World Trade Organisation that put developing country needs at the centre of the international trade negotiation agenda was proposed. The Ministerial Declaration adopted at the start of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations, on 14 November 2001, was a promising response to the anti-globalisation riots of the 1990s.
But the WTO membership has failed to deliver the promised pro-development changes. Finding "development" in the Doha Development Round today is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Developing countries have been completely sidelined by the economic and political interests of global powers.

Here are 10 examples of how the WTO has failed the poor:

1. Cotton: the Fairtrade Foundation revealed last year how the $47bn in subsidies paid to rich-country producers in the past 10 years has created barriers for the 15 million cotton farmers across west Africa trying to trade their way out of poverty, and how 5 million of the world's poorest farming families have been forced out of business and into deeper poverty because of those subsidies.

2. Agricultural subsidies: beyond cotton, WTO members have failed even to agree how to reduce the huge subsidies paid to rich world farmers, whose overproduction continues to threaten the livelihoods of developing world farmers.

3. Trade agreements: the WTO has also failed to clarify the deliberately ambiguous rules on concluding trade agreements that allow the poorest countries to be manipulated by the rich states. In Africa, in negotiations with the EU, countries have been forced to eliminate tariffs on up to 90% of their trade because no clear rules exist to protect them.

4. Special treatment: the rules for developing countries, called "special and differential treatment" rules, were meant to be reviewed to make them more precise, effective and operational. But the WTO has failed to work through the 88 proposals that would fill the legal vacuum.

5. Medicine: the poorest in developing countries are unable to access affordable medicine because members have failed to clarify ambiguities between the need for governments to protect public health on one hand and on the other to protect theintellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.

6. Legal costs: the WTO pledged to improve access to its expensive and complex legal system, but has failed. In 15 years of dispute settlement under the WTO, 400 cases have been initiated. No African country has acted as a complainant and only one least developed country has ever filed a claim.

7. Protectionist economic policies: one of the WTO's five core functions agreed at its inception in 1995 was to achieve more coherence in global economic policy-making. Yet the WTO failed to curb the speedy increase in the number of protectionist measuresapplied by G20 countries in response to the global economic crisis over the past two years – despite G20 leaders' repeated affirmations of their "unwavering" commitment to resist all forms of protectionist measures.

8. Natural disaster: the WTO fails to alleviate suffering when it has the opportunity to do so. In the case of natural disaster, the membership will have taken almost two years to agree and implement temporary trade concessions for Pakistan, where severe flooding displaced 20 million people in 2010 and caused $10bn of damage. Those measures, according to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, would have boosted Pakistan's exports to the EU by at least €100m this year.

9. Decision-making: the WTO makes most of its decisions by consensus – and achieving consensus between 153 countries is nearly impossible. But this shows another failure of the WTO: to break the link between market size and political weight that would give small and poor countries a voice in the trade negotiations.

10. Fair trade: 10 years after the start of the Doha Development Round, governments have failed to make trade fair. As long as small and poor countries remain without a voice, the role of campaigning organisations, such as Traidcraft and Fairtrade Foundation, which are working together to eliminate cotton subsidies, will remain critical.

The WTO has failed to live up to its promises over the past decade, which reveals a wider systemic problem in the global community. True and lasting solutions to global economic problems can only come when the model of global competitiveness between countries becomes one of genuine cooperation.

Not all the amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act cleared by the Union Cabinet last week inspire public confidence or meet the objective of filling gaps in domestic anti-corruption law. Critically comment.

Cabinet approved the ammendments in Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 that provide for classifying corruption as a heinous crime and longer prison terms for both bribe-giver and bribe- taker. The proposed amendment act will also ensure speedy trial, limited to two years, for corruption cases. This is done in view of country's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption more effectively.

But these amendments have some problems and not all amendments inspire public confidence or meet the objective of filling gaps in domestic anti-corruption law.

1)The Bill drops the protection accorded to bribe-givers if they depose during trial, thereby deterring those coerced into giving a bribe from subsequently testifying against offenders. A distinction ought to have been made between collusive bribery and bribery under coercion.

2)The sanction provision ought to have been restricted to prosecutions that flow from deviations from public policy, laws and regulations but possessing un explained wealth, caught red handed cannot be actions in the course of official functions, and in such cases prior sanction cannot be required.

3)Policy for retired officials and those currently in service are not in sync. This act only covers serving officials while CrPC protected retired officials from prior sanction.

4)There is a single clause of criminal misconduct which should be revistied.

5) Another use of term “possession of disproportionate assets” will be proof of “such illicit enrichment”. It is to be hoped that this will mean the prosecution need not prove the intention to amass wealth, as such an additional requirement would allow those in possession of ill-gotten wealth to escape the law.

Although there are some positive changes as well like time frame, curbing commercial entities, power to trial courts but if the loopholes existed after amendments can be pluged in parliament then it would help in giving public confidence and will make our democracy more stronger.

Ans2:

The recent amendments accepted by the Cabinet for the due changes in the Prevention of Corruption Act calls is an answer to the continuous debate.

Some of the positive developments done in this direction that will also help in meeting the country's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption more effectively are :

1) Recognition of corruption as an heinous crime. This will enable a psychology attitudinal change in the society. This has been recognised by increasing the punitive action for the bribe giver as well as the bribe taker.

2) Removal of protection accorded to the bribe-givers if they depose during trial. This will ultimately lead to deterrence of the coerced bribe giving

3) provides for issue of guidelines to commercial organisations to prevent persons associated with them from bribing a public servants as against the current law against only individuals.

4)Speedy trial has been facilitated by fixing a time frame for the grant of sanction and completion of trial. And also, trial court can itself deal with the process of attachment of property instead of a district court expediting the process

Even though after a lot of deliberation, the Amendment has still failed to address the key issues in corruption jurisprudence.

1) "Sanction" provision ought to have been restricted to prosecutions that flow from deviations from public policy, laws and regulations. As activities like being caught red handed, possessing unexplained assets etc are not part of official functions, hence cannot require prior sanctions

2)Subsuming most offences now covered under 'criminal misconduct' into a single clause should be revisited - this opens a backdoor for some form of abuse to slip through the net

3)Change made to the offence of possessing 'disproportionate assets' - is suffice to be a proof of such 'illicit enrichment' might only be effective if the prosecution need not prove the intention to amass wealth, otherwise it would only leave open a back door to escape the law

4)While defining the terms in the law 
----there has been no distinction made between collusive bribery and bribery under coercion

5) There is still a problem with the serving and retired officials. The law should be brought in consonance with the CrPC.

A recent study has analysed that the Climate change could drive to extinction as many as one in six animal and plant species. Critically examine how climate change would affect plants and animals.

Climate change (CC) is one of the biggest risks to our planet. It is characterised by catastrophic effects including accelerating sea level rise, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves. These adversely impact plants and animals in the following ways:

Effect on animals: 
(1) Melting arctic ice removes hunting ground from polar bears.
(2) Warmer water temperatures will cause fish population to decline as many species like salmon, trout require cold water to survive 
(3) CC results in coral bleaching leading to a collapse of these ecosystems which sustain huge numbers of fish.
(4) Rising sea level and changes in salinity could decimate mangrove forests, leaving many species without a habitat. 
(5) CC also results in loss of habitat for species that use beaches to lay eggs and raise their young. E.g. Turtles and seals. 
(4) Floods and severe drought can sound a death knell to ecosystems. While floods degrade water quality, droughts can deprive animals of food, shelter and water.
(5) CC can altered food availability for migratory species. These birds arrive on schedule to find their food sources, insects, seeds, flowering plants, have hatched or bloomed too early or not at all. This results in change of migratory and behavioural pattern of such birds.
(7) Rising temperature can causes animals to shift to a higher altitudes, thus affecting the distribution of species. Species which cannot quickly adapt to the changes on account this shift perish. E.g. the American Pika.

Effect on plants:
(1) Increased forest fires.
(2) Increased invasion by alien species may occur.
(3) Plant genetic composition may change in response to the selection pressure of climate change.
(4) Certain plant species which are endemic to the Arctic and coastal region will be completely destroyed.

Therefore, the combined effect of CC will affect the rich biodiversity of our planet.

-vk

Ans2:

every life form has a comfort zone with in which only it can survive. when this is altered the life become impossible. Alteration in climate triggers many challenges as follows.

1. rise in temperature. 
it may drive certain species into extinction. this is more common in oceanic and tundra eco systems. the migrating birds would face challenges.

2. abrupt rain busters and droughts- 
it may effect plant and animal life adversely.

3. rise in sea levels 
This would engulf small islands where distinct species may lose their habitat

4. coral extinction- 
it may be resulted due to delicacy of coral reefs. this may have an adverse impact on entire oceanic life pattern.

5. key species may be lost-
it is when key species are lost, entire ecology would be at risk.

6. activation of new pathogens-
like ebola, pandora virus would result into new diseases.

7. natural disasters-
the incidence of floods, flash floods would claim more lives. their incidence is linked to climate change.

8. melting glaciers 
this would result into extinction of specific eco systems like himalayan ecosystems.

thus change in climate is the biggest challenge that entire planet is facing today. unfortunately human contribution has a major chunk here in this case. hence it is high time to act upon this challenge. we "all together" should act in this regard.

Rapid urbanization has brought urban water supply in India under increasing pressure. Critically discuss the magnitude of the problem, its causes and consequences.

Water is being considered as one of the most important social input.Around one-third of the country's population lives in urban areas and this number will only increase in future owing to migration to cities.All this along with expanding industrial and agricultural activities has resulted in tremendous increase in demand of the water without subsequent increase in supply thus problem.

Causes of the this problem can be linked to various factors including majority of the urban areas do not have their independent sources of water supply and depend on some other areas both within or outside the concerned state.Lack of coordination between the concerned departments,states results in turf wars,blame games between the two resulting into imbalances of demand-supply and all this often results in drought and flood types situations in contrast to the time of need.Case of Delhi-Haryana fight over water epitomizes this.Moreover whatever water is available is also not used efficiently owing to reasons like water pollution,wastages due to leakages etc.According to some estimates around 20% of the water is being wasted during supply to cities because of one or more reasons.Some critics also blame schemes like free-water like the one by the incumbent Delhi government for for high wastages.

Consequences of all this includes:-
1)Less availability of water,will increase water inequalities further among rich and poor
2)Adversely impacts sanitation which in turn along with others can results in communicable diseases like malaria,diarrohoea.Infants are most vulnerable to it.This will put pressure on the already stressed health infrastructure.
3)as people esp women have to travel to long/medium distances for water it will result in wastage of time which could have been used more productively had there been no water problem
4)Will impact industrial process,agricultural sector in the cities which can have an impact on vegetable prices in specific which usually is being grown in and around urban centres for catering to the city demands
5)Eliminating menaces like open defecation under Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan will face a jolt.Rather it can increase the cases of open defecation owing to water scarcity
6)All this can in the worst case results in social tensions.

Water is an important constituent in today's life therefore requires prime importance from all including governments,society.On the supply side coordination between states,reducing leakages,searching alternative sources of water supply,reducing water pollution,rain water harvesting are some options on the supply side.In comparison on the demand side efficient use of water reducing wastages,focus on reuse and recycling followed by water audits for check on usage is the way forward.


Ans2:
Urban centres are centres of economic growth. These centre are putting extreme pressure on the natural resources for their existence. Water is the critical resource exploited exponentially leading to decline of ground water table.
- As Gandhi ji said, nature has enough for need but not for greed. The unregulated and illicit mismanagement of using the water has made the problem grave.
- Contamination of (surface water by dumping industrial & household waste and acid rain due to air pollution; also the ground water by leakage organic waste dump, clinical waste & radioactive isotopes dumping sites).
- The magnitude of the problem is grave if left unregulated:
1). Water borne disease leading loss of person productive hours and expenses over health.
2). Highly populated sites are highly contagious thus can easily lead to epidemic.
3). Arsenic and fluoride can impact the pregnant women and children severely even leading to deficiency in brain of new borne.
4). If the urban center are like Mumbai or Delhi can impact the economy of the country badly.
5). Issue for mass revolution and political instability thus making the city prone to external interference.
The government with better regulation can sort out the problem:
1). Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme (AUWSP) was launched to provide water to towns with population of less than 20,000.
2). The Zakaria Committee recommended the water requirement per head per day 204 litres for cities with population between 5 lakh and 2 million and 272 litres for cities with population more than 2 million.
3). Limiting the allocation of water and waste management for curbing the contamination can be the game changer.

The language problem was the most divisive issue in the first twenty years of independent India, and it created the apprehension among many that the political and cultural unity of the country was in danger. How was it overcome? Critically examine.

india which seen its parttion on religion basis was afraid of bulkanisation of india further on linguistic basis considering its linguistic diversity and regional supirioirty on the basis of language and culture over national assimilation.

two seperate issue which haunted indian democracy and strenghtened sepratist demand were

1.issue of national language and offcial language.Hindi was supported by many due to majority speaking but was rejected by non Hindi speking states due to fear of percieved intervention in their language and culture.official language commision was set up in 1955 which later decided to hindi language as official with english as assosiate language with gradual replacement of former to later.
but due to huge protest OFFICIAL LANGUAGE ACT 1963 and later amendement by Indira govt. hidi language as official language with english as assosiate language with no time limit.

apart from it in consttituion sch 8 consider 22 language as indian languages.

2.Second issue was complex issue that is reorganization of states on lingustic basis.soon after independence every provinces has movement like SAMYUKTA KARNATKA,VISALANDRA MOVEmENT and other states like gujrat,maharastra.punjab and tamil nadu were demading seperate states
.Dhar commision appointed to resolve issue rejected the idea of devision of statses on linguistic basis. but later fazl commision accepted the idea and suggested 14 states on the basis of language. later state reorganization act 1956 created states and resolve the iisue although still some small pocket were not satisfied but major problem were resolved.

so language is mojor linking factor but also can be seen as factionist factor which was the case in post independent india.This was Nehru's vision and dream of uniting india and also efforts of potti sriramulu(VISALANDHRA MOVEMENT) which solved the problem and avoid separation of states.

Ans2:

Linguistic identity has been a strong force in the multilinguistic Indian society. The language issue in India manifested itself in two forms:

(A) Dispute over Official Language
Upon independence, it was decided that Hindi be adopted as the Central Government's official language (OL). This move was opposed by speakers of other languages, who feared that adoption of Hindi as the OL would place them at a disadvantage in the educational and economic spheres besides being a threat to their culture. This group advocated the retention of English as the OL. However, this suggestion was unacceptable to the proponents of Hindi, who saw English as a symbol of imperialism. While the constitutional makers recognised the fact that Hindi was spoken by the majority and played an instrumental role during the national struggle, they could not ignore the interests of other linguistic groups. Therefore, a compromise was arrived at - both Hindi and English would be used as official languages till 1965, after which Hindi would become the sole OL. The idea was to ease the transition of the use of Hindi by promotion of Hindi education. But the spread of education was too slow to make an impact and ultimately the Official Language Act was amended in 1965 to adopt bilingualism indefinitely.

(B) Linguistic Organisation of States
The demand for reorganisation of States on linguistic lines arose immediately after independence. The national leadership was opposed to such reorganisation as it was thought that the same would undermine national unity and integrity. As a consequence, the Dhar Commission and the JVP committee, both rejected language as the basis for reorganisation. The demand only intensified especially in the Telugu speaking regions of Madras State, where agitation was led by one Potti Sriramulu. His death after a 56 day hunger strike forced the government to create the first linguistic state - Andhra. This was followed by the appointment of the State Reorganisation Commission to examine the question holistically. The commission broadly accepted language as the basis of reorganisation and this was followed by a massive reorganisation exercise.

"If Pakistan joins other SAARC countries to sign the Motor Vehicles Agreement and fully implements the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit and Trade Agreement (APTTA) it signed in 2011, the subcontinent could see a revolution on the roads.” Elaborate and examine how this benefits India.

APTTA is a trade agreement which provides Pakistan with access to market of Central Asia and Iran, while landlocked Afghanistan gets access to Indian and Chinese Market. Agreement requires transit of Afghan trucks on pre-settled routes along approved corridors and within specified time

SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) is envisaged as an agreement for regulation of Passenger and Cargo vehicular traffic among SAARC countries. Only Pakistan among all member countries has not signed it owing to apprehensions regarding type goods that will be supplied to Afghanistan from India

Impact on region: If Pakistan agrees and implements for both agreements it will result in closer regional economic integration through enhanced regional connectivity, along with realization of SAFTA to its full potential

Impact on India:
With APPTA agreement being fully implemented by Pakistan, India will get access to market of landlocked Afghanistan, along with Central Asia and Iran. Also, India can engage more positively with Afghanistan in its recovery and fight against Taliban and ISIS.

IF Pakistan agrees to MVA, India will benefit economically and culturally through enhanced regional cooperation, helping in trade as well as people-to-people interaction. Also, India can push harder for much needed roadway through Bangladesh for connecting strongly with North east states and to boost India’s ‘Act East Policy’

Ans2:

In today's globalised context, regional trade is the way forward. While, the SAARC region has made progress in integrating itself with the global economy, it continues to be characterised by low intra-regional trade. The absence of physical connectivity by a network of highways/roads hampers the economic integration of the region and this is mirrored in the low regional trade volumes. It is against this context, that the implementation of the MVA and the APTTA must be analysed. If fully implemented, the MVA and the APTTA, will enable the seamless transit of passenger and cargo vehicles between the member states of SAARC especially Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and this would benefit India in the following ways:
(1) Closely integrate the Indian economy with the those of the neighbouring SAARC nations. This would open an alternative reality for India.
(2) This will lead to the reduction of costs and time, thus making cross border trade more efficient and attractive. 
(3) The seamless movement of people will encourage people-to-people contact and boost the tourism industry, which is the mainstay of many in India.
(4) This will be especially beneficial for regions such as the North East, which could then be easily accessed from Bangladesh, thus enabling the effective and efficient integration of the NE region with India. 
(5) Such integration will help India deal with the challenges thrown by natural disasters especially in the remote and inaccessible frontier regions. 
(6) Insurgency and terrorism in the remote border regions can also be effectively checked.
(7) It will result in drawing the SAARC nations into a closer orbit with India. This will help counter the increasing Chinese influence in the region.
(8) It will provide India with land route to Central Asia, which will help secure her energy security.
(9) It will help catapult an economically stronger South Asian region with India at its centre onto the world stage and allow it to play a greater role in global governance.

Ans3:

1) Despite sharing long borders, the SAARC countries have
failed to evolve a Motor vehicles agreement that would allow seamless movement
of goods and people across borders.

2) The Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade and Transit
Agreement (APTTA) of 2011 is yet to be fully implemented as Pakistan doesn't
allow Afghan trucks to pick up goods from India and Indian trucks to carry
goods to Afghanistan.

Benefits for India :

1) It will improve India's access to markets in Afghanistan and Central Asia, making exports
easier and imports cheaper.

2) Economic integration will foster political comity between India &
Pakistan.

3) It will create jobs for youth in Af-Pak, leading to reduction in Terrorism.

4) It will increase people to people contact and improve cultural ties. If the
transfer of people becomes regulated, then unregulated human trafficking can be
checked.

5) Integration of SAARC and development of SAARC trade routes would nullify the
concept of China's "One Belt One Road", policy and thus help in
countering Chinese regional hegemony.

The benefits are not for India alone but for all participants of SAARC as they
grow mutually and peacefully on the lines of European Union or ASEAN. All
participants will have access to each others' markets as countries get
connected from Kabul to Chittagong.

Ans4:

The biggest beneficiary with the joining of Pakistan in the SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement and the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit and Trade Agreement could well be India along with key regional players like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
India's gains:
1.While allowing Kabul's access into India and thus to the east of India to Nepal and Bhutan, Pakistan might allow India for trade and transit through the Wagah towards the Central Asia.
2.India stands gain a lot in terms of access to meet it's energy needs through transport and gas pipelines.India's good relations with Iran could be an added advantage given recent developments in the relations between Iran and the US that could make Iran a key regional player in the middle east.This will allow significant presence for India in that region.
3.The rising Chinese presence in the region is making India insecure and counter any assertion by the Chinese, it is important that India contribute to the growth and prosperity of the region.To this end, India might have to invest in the infrastructural development of the region.
4.India has been in the forefront during the two biggest rescue and relief operations recently.One being Operation Rahat in Yemen and the other in Nepal.This could allow India to be a key player in the development of a security architecture in the region.The rising menace of ISIS and other Jihadist groups will need the collective strength of the key players in South Asia where India could lead the task of shielding the region from insurgencies and also extend their support to fight terror in the neighborhood.
5.This could be the beginning in the direction to a political solution to the deadlock between India and Pakistan.The resolution of key issues between India and Pakistan could be a huge boost to the security and economy of South Asia as a whole.

It is suggested that the Indian government, like the US, should consider permitting open and registered lobbying by interest groups and NGOs. In the light of recent controversy over funding and functioning of certain NGOs and action against them by the government, critically examine the merits and demerits of the said suggestion.

Lobbying in India is not illegal in India but is sometimes equated with corruption. However, there is a difference between lobbying and corruption. For example, Civil Services (Conduct) Rules clearly define the acceptable conduct for the civil servants including the monetary value of the gifts they can accept without and with reporting to the government. In order to clarify the difference betwen the two in practice, rationalization of Civil services (conduct) Rules should accompany a legislation to rgulate lobbying.

Lobbying in India is not a new phenomenon. Organizations like MKSS and Green Peace have a history of lobbying for RTI and environment related laws. Lobbying allows the citizens and interest groups to have 'voice' and allows for functional 'participatory democracy'.

The regulation of lobbying by the government will have its pros and cons defined by the type of legislation adopted.

Pros.
1. On one hand, registered lobbying groups may result in 'open lobbying' which means greater transparency by allowing for public scrutiny of suggestions
of interest groups and their own funding.
2. It is often said that bargaining power of interest groups also define the benefits that they get from lobbying. Better organized and better funded groups with limited objectives are generally more successful. Regulation would allow yet un organized and yet un recognized interest groups to form, for example from civil society and participate in a more democratic and open lobbying.
3. It may as well prove an alternative to political agitations by improving G2C and C2G interaction.

Cons.
1. The regulatory body specified in the legislation thereof, if not independent,
may restrict the registration of lobbying groups that do not align
themselves to the mainstream ideologies while curbing their freedom of speech and expression.
2. The regulatory checks may introduce bureaucratic hurdles that would make lobbying a job only for professional lobbyists.

Ans2:

Lobbying per se in not illegal in India but it is not recognised or regulated by any legislation like in the US. Various interests groups such as corporate bodies like FICCI, CII, NGOs and media like Amir khan's Satya Mev Jayate do lobby the government. There is nothing wrong with petitioning the government to take up issues but it is important that it is done in a transparent and fair manner and is not detrimental to the cause of inclusive development and the rights of the poor.

The debate centres around the ethical and unethical practices around lobbying. In other words, using bribes, blackmail, paid news and media content and rigging surveys and research etc. are unethical practices which currently prevail. So, some of the merits of registered lobbying could be:

-Open and registered lobbying could ensure that no unethical considerations are made to influence policy making.
- By legally defining lobbying and national interest, NGOs accused of anti national activities could then openly engage in their mandated activities
- This would also bring in more transparency and accountability of the stakeholders and check conflict of interest
- ad hoc and arbitrary policy making could benefit from information provided by various lobby groups resulting in informed policy making and thus help cut down on litigation and agitations
-would give India more favourable image abroad

Demerits
- Some argue that registered lobbying could lead to increase in corruption as it is going to be increasingly difficult to differentiate between lobbying and bribery. For instance quid pro quo is going to be difficult to establish.
-Unrepresented groups could be left out and suffer as a consequence.
-The powerful corporate lobbies could hijack the policy making agenda and the less articulate citizens could be made the scapegoats

India herself spends millions of dollars lobbying the US government and other interest groups and benefits from it. So registered lobbying may not solve all of our issues of fixing accountability but its absence has led to an increasing suspicion of civil society in India.

Ans3:

Interest groups or pressure groups use lobbying as a tool to
represent their concerns to the government by gaining access to power corridors
in the government.Industry bodies like FICCI and CII often lobby to put forward
their ideas and suggestions in preparing key government policies related to
reforms, particularly the general budget.Ministries have consultative groups to
welcome opinion and create a consensus among stakeholders of public
services.Interest groups from the Civil Society like the peasant groups,trade
unions, student unions also have an opportunity to channelise their concerns
since most of them are politically controlled.Interest groups,in the past were
able to successfully initiate dialogue on issues concerning public interest and
manged to shape policies.A striking example being the Janlokpal Movement by
India Against Corruption in making a law regarding the appointment of an
independent ombudsmen to investigate issues related to graft.In the light of
the recent crackdown on NGOs by government, there's a suggestion of making
registered lobbying legal in India,the positive outcomes of implementing such a
decision could be:

1.Lesser number of public protests leading to lesser
disruptions

2.Lobbyists could be able to bring a broad consensus among
the stakeholders by bringing the issues directly to table.This will also help
the stakeholders to understand the intentions of the government better.

3.Could avoid the blanket decisions on apolitical groups
that are working outside the issues creating distrust between the government
and the civil society.

4.Could complement the government in making laws through a
representation to the parliamentary committees and consultative groups.

On the flipside, the decision could hurt the public service
delivery in the following ways:

1.A third of India's population is poor and the influence of
powerful groups could easily overpower the decision making.

2.Conflict of interest is one of the biggest culprits causing
corruption in India that goes unnoticed.A recent example of issues of conflict
of interest in the Parliamentary committee looking into tobacco sale in India
clearly shows that powerful business groups and political lobbies further their
interests through government decisions.

3.A significant number of the population lack awareness and
money power to represent their concerns to the government. Legalizing lobbying
could ignore their concerns completely and leave them out of the policy making
proces
Government should take a steady approach towards such
suggestions.Looking at our institutional set up, it is important the public
institutions are made transparent and accountable to avoid any coercion between the stakeholders in decisions related
to public interest.Lobbying might not be the only necessary remedy.