Shri Venkaiah Naidu has long experience, and is well-versed in the intricacies of Parliamentary procedures: PM

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today joined the members of the Rajya Sabha, in welcoming Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, as Chairman of the House. 

The Prime Minister began his welcome remarks by recalling that today, 11^thAugust, was the day when a young revolutionary of the freedom struggle, Shri Khudiram Bose, was hanged by the British. He said that the event reminds us of the sacrifice of those who fought for freedom, and the responsibility that this places on all of us. The Prime Minister said that Shri Venkaiah Naidu is the first Vice President born in Independent India. He added that Shri Naidu has long experience, and is well-versed in the intricacies of Parliamentary procedures. 

Recalling his long association with Shri Venkaiah Naidu, the Prime Minister said Shri Naidu is always sensitive to the requirements of the rural areas, the poor and the farmers, and his inputs on these issues have been of immense value. 

The Prime Minister said that the fact that people from humble, rural background, today occupy the highest positions in India, shows the maturity of Indian democracy, and the strength of India’s Constitution.

Following are PM's remarks:

Hon’ble Chairman, heartiest congratulations and good wishes on behalf of the House and on behalf of the countrymen! 

Today, the 11th August, reminds us of a significant event in history. On this day, a youngster aged 18 years, Khudiram Bose, was sent to the gallows. It tells us about the struggle for independence and the sacrifices and reminds us of our responsibility towards the nation. 

Respectable Shri Venkaiah Naidu has become the first Vice President of the country, who was born in independent India. I think maybe he is the only Vice President who has been associated with this environment for so many years and knows the nuances of the House. The Country has got a Vice President who is familiar with everybody and everything - from the members to the committees, to the proceedings of the House. 

His public life started with the JP movement. During his student days, Jayaprakash Narayan led a nationwide agitation for good governance; and he proved himself as a student leader in Andhra Pradesh. Since then he started developing his personality, be it in the Vidhan Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, and had also expanded his field of work. And today we all have elected him and handed him over the responsibility for this position. 

Venkaiah ji is the son of a farmer. I have had the privilege of working with him for many years. Be it for a village, for the poor, or for the farmers, he had been providing his inputs all the time while studying these topics very closely. He was the Urban Development Minister in the Cabinet too. But I always felt that during the discussions in the cabinet he used to talk more about farmers and the problems of rural areas than the subjects related to urban areas. This topic was close to his heart probably because of his family background and childhood which was associated with villages. 

As Venkaiah ji has taken over the office of the Vice President, it is our responsibility to familiarize the whole world with it. There are also responsibilities which should be viewed in isolation from the politics. India's democracy is very mature. Indian constitution is very powerful. The significance of the constitution that our great men had bequeathed to us is such that the people who have the constitutional posts in India today are those who were born in rural areas or had poverty stricken family background; they have not come from any rich family. The presence of people from humble background in the highest posts of the country for the first time itself demonstrates the dignity of the constitution of India and the maturity of India's democracy and this pride is the pride of the 1.25 Crore people of India. Thus, I can clearly see the inheritance that our forefathers have given us. Once again I would like to bow down those constitution makers. 

Venkaiah ji is a great personality with austerity and great oratory skills. He possesses these rich endowments in his personality and we are familiar with his debating skills. And sometimes when he makes speeches in Telugu, it seems that he is running super-fast. But for that there should be clarity in thought and the ability to connect with the audience. It is not about playing with words; those who are associated with the world of oratory are well aware that just playing with words can never touch anybody's heart. But when one expresses his ideas with conviction which are based on a vision and beliefs, then the person touches the heart of the people. And Venkaiah ji has always been successful in this regard. 

It is also true that there is no such MP today, who doesn’t appeal to the government for the development of rural areas day in and day out - be it the Government of Dr. Manmohan Singh ji or mine. One such demand is for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in their respective areas. It is a matter of pride for all the MPs that the idea of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was envisaged by our very Vice-President, the Venerable Venkaiah Ji. This can only happen when one can empathise with the poor, the farmer, and the oppressed and is determined to take them out of their problems. 

Today, while Vankaiah ji is amongst us as the Vice President, we might face a little problem in adjusting in this House for some time because just like the lawyers in the Court feel strange when a lawyer from the Bar becomes a judge; a similar feeling may develop that he used to argue and debate with us in the House till recently, but now he is there as the Vice President! So some of us, especially for the Members of this House, who have worked with him as a friend and a colleague for so many years, may feel odd but it is the uniqueness of our democratic system that we develop our style of working within the system. 

I believe that a person like him who has come from within the system and has been in the Rajya Sabha for so many years shall show us the path and guide us in the House as the Chairman of the House. I have full faith and I believe that a positive change is to come. And today as Venkaiah ji is accepting this dignified post, I would quote a few lines: 

’अमल करो ऐसा अमन में, 

अमल करो ऐसा अमन में, 

जहां से गुजरे तुम्‍हारी नज़रें, 

उधर से तुम्‍हें सलाम आए।’’

And I would like to add -

‘‘अमल करो ऐसा सदन में, 

जहां से गुजरे तुम्‍हारी नज़रें, 

उधर से तुम्‍हें सलाम आए।’’

Heartiest congratulations and thanks a lot!

Indian Army Orders People Near Doklam to Vacate Their Village

New Delhi: The Indian Army has ordered the evacuation of a village close to the Doklam India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.

According to sources, a few hundred villagers living in Nathang village have been asked to vacate their houses immediately. Nathang is 35 km from the site of the two-month old standoff between Indian and Chinese troops.

It was not immediately clear if the order had been issued to accommodate thousands of soldiers of the 33 Corp who are reportedly moving from Sukna towards Doklam or whether it was a precautionary measure to avoid civilian casualties in case of a skirmish.

Villagers of Nathang, a small village with just a few hundred inhabitants, whom News18 spoke to, confirmed witnessing heavy troop movement in the area of late.

While the Army officially did not talk about the troop movement, some senior military officers called it an annual exercise that takes place in September, but has been advanced this year.

According to some reports, the Indian Army has called the troop movement in the area a regular maintenance move. The reports went on to quote army sources as saying that the military is in a 'no war, no peace' mode.

This, in military parlance, means being in a confrontational position with the enemy.

The state-controlled Chinese media has in the last few weeks been beating war drums quite incessantly. In a recent editorial published in China Daily, India was warned that “the countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun”.

The editorial, titled New Delhi should come to its senses while it has time, went on to state that the window to peacefully resolve the standoff in Doklam was closing as the row enters its seventh week.

“The countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun, and the clock is ticking away the time to what seems to be an inevitable conclusion.”

This is just one of the several vitriolic articles that have appeared in Chinese news agency Xinhua and their newspaper Global Times, in recent past.

The face-off between Indian and Chinese troops though is two months old now.

It started in mid-June in Doklam tri-junction when Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area. China building a road on that site, India feared, would allow Chinese troops to cut India’s access to its northeastern states.

As per China's claims, it was constructing the road within its own territory.

Since the standoff, India has constantly batted for a dialogue but China has demanded immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops before a dialogue or peace process is initiated

Countdown to India-China military clash has begun: Chinese daily on Doklam standoff

Upping the rhetoric over the ongoing Doklam standoff, an editorial in the English-language China Daily, which focuses mostly on an international audience, has warned that the countdown to a clash between India and China has begun.

Titled, 'New Delhi should come to its senses while it has time', the editorial says that the "window for a peaceful solution is closing."

"The countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun, and the clock is ticking away the time to what seems to be an inevitable conclusion," the piece reads, commenting that a clash can be easily avoided be avoided if New Delhi heeds Beijing's demand that Indian troops unconditionally step back from the standoff site in Doklam.

Soldiers of the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army have for seven weeks been locked in a high-stakes, but peaceful standoff. The face-off was sparked after Indian troops stopped a Chinese PLA unit from extending a road on the Doklam plateau in a region contested between China and Bhutan

The China Daily editorial, which is just the latest in what has been a series of jingoistic articles that have been churned out by the state-backed media in China, says that Beijing wants to avoid conflict.

"Beijing has time and again sent the message that to avoid conflict all India needs to do is withdraw all its troops from an area that based on historical treaties, historically expressed agreements and long-exercised control both have long agreed is Chinese territory," the piece says.

China Daily goes on to refer to a recent Chinese Ministry of Defence statement to say, "There is a "bottom line" to the restraint shown by China to India's trespass... Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear will have got the message. Yet New Delhi refuses to come to its senses and pull its troops back to its own side of the border."

The editorial then reiterates points that have previously been raised by Chinese media - that India has entered China's territory and that New Delhi's "audacity in challenging China's sovereignty may come from its own sense of inferiority and insecurity in the face of China's rapid rise to prominence in the region."

"India's trespassing is changing the long and legally established status quo in the area and is thus an act that China has no option but to resist," the editorial continues as it, again, says that the ball is in New Delhi's court as far as preventing a conflict is concerned. "...being at loggerheads serves neither side any good, and a violent clash is still avoidable, even at this late stage," the article reads.

Concluding with a Chinese proverb, the piece ends, "He who stirs up trouble should end it, as a Chinese proverb goes. India should withdraw its troops while the clock is still ticking. It will only have itself to blame if its stubborn refusal to heed the voice of reason leads to consequences it regrets."

Diplomacy to defuse India, China border crisis slams into a wall: Sources

NEW DELHI: India's diplomatic efforts to end a seven-week military standoff with China have hit a roadblock, people briefed on the talks said, prompting Chinese state-run media to trumpet rhetoric of "unavoidable countermeasures" on the unmarked border.

China has insisted that India unilaterally withdraw its troops from the remote Doklamplateau claimed by both Beijing and Indian ally Bhutan.

But China did not respond to India's suggestion in the talks that it move its troops back 250 metres (820 ft) in return, said one source with close ties to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's government
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Diplomacy to defuse India, China border crisis slams into a wall: Sources

By Reuters | Updated: Aug 08, 2017, 06.04 PM IST

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In the low-key diplomatic manoeuvres that took place outside the public eye, the Chinese countered with an offer to move back 100 metres (328 ft), so long as they received clearance from top government officials.

NEW DELHI: India's diplomatic efforts to end a seven-week military standoff with China have hit a roadblock, people briefed on the talks said, prompting Chinese state-run media to trumpet rhetoric of "unavoidable countermeasures" on the unmarked border.

China has insisted that India unilaterally withdraw its troops from the remote Doklamplateau claimed by both Beijing and Indian ally Bhutan.

But China did not respond to India's suggestion in the talks that it move its troops back 250 metres (820 ft) in return, said one source with close ties to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's government.

In the low-key diplomatic manoeuvres that took place outside the public eye, the Chinese countered with an offer to move back 100 metres (328 ft), so long as they received clearance from top government officials.

But there has been no comeback since, except for China's mounting warnings of an escalation in the region, which it calls Donglang.

It is a logjam, there is no movement at all now," said a second source with knowledge of the talks.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry, which has repeatedly urged India to withdraw, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the state of talks.

Indian troops went into Doklam in mid-June to stop a Chinese construction crew from extending a road India's military says will bring China's army too close for comfort in the northeast.

Their faceoff since, military experts say, is the most serious since going toe-to-toe in the 1980s, with thousands of soldiers each, elsewhere along the 3,500-km (2,175-mile) border.
China has held off going to war in the hope New Delhi would see reason, the state-run Global Times, which has kept up a barrage of hostile commentary, said on Tuesday.
If the Narendra Modi government continues ignoring the warning coming from a situation spiralling out of control, countermeasures from China will be unavoidable," it said.

The border crisis caps a year of souring diplomatic ties between the Asian giants, even though trade between the fast growing economies is rising rapidly.

India has grown concerned at China's ties to its arch rival Pakistan, viewing their trade corridor across Kashmir as an infringement of its claim to the whole of the region.

Modi refused to join President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road initiative to knit together Asia and beyond, making India the lone country to boycott a summit in May.

China has warned New Delhi not to be drawn into a Western military alliance led by the United States and including Japan. Modi has sought closer ties with both.

"There will be no happy ending for this confrontation," Indian foreign policy expert C. Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express newspaper, adding that India was unlikely to give in.

The second source said the worry was the standoff could drag on into a summit of BRICs nations China is hosting next month.

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Indian military officials say there is no troop buildup on either side, nearly two months into a standoff that involved about 300 soldiers just 100 metres (328 ft) apart on a plateau 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level.

China has accused India of massing troops, however, and state media have warned against a fate worse than its defeat in a brief border war in 1962.

"We will keep engaging with China to resolve the dispute. War cannot solve problems," Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament, sticking to a conciliatory stance.

Still, both have flexed their muscles.

Last month, China held live-fire drills on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau near the site of the standoff, state media said.

India's army ran low-key exercises in the Ladakh sector of the western Himalayas, where previous disputes have flared, though it is thousands of miles distant from Doklam.

"The chance of a conflict is low, nobody is expecting Xi Jinping to go to war before the Communist Party's congress," said Srikanth Kondapalli, a China specialist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, referring to an Oct-Nov meeting expected to confirm a second five-year term as partygeneral secretary for the Chinese leader.

Indian economy: Latest GDP estimates show the worst is not over

Finally, we have the numbers we have been waiting for. The latest GDP estimates are out, showing how the Indian economy steadily decelerated through the past year — a slide that got only worse with demonetisation. For the full year ended March 31, economic growth slowed to 7.1% from 8% a year earlier, and slipped sharply to 6.1% in the January-March quarter — the slowest in 13 quarters. The numbers vindicate what critics of demonetisation had predicted. These also deflate the government’s claim that the economic pain from its November 8 decision to scrap high-value currency notes would be temporary, with limited impact. Yet, most policy makers continue to be in denial.

Sample this: The government’s chief statistician, TCA Anant, refused to link the slowdown through the third and fourth quarter to demonetisation that brought widespread economic disruptions and sharply depressed both consumption and investment demand, with sectors such as construction and retail sales being the worst hit. Arvind Subramanian, the government’s chief economic adviser, said he thinks the worst is over. Finance minister Arun Jaitley argued what happened over the last two quarters of 2016-17 was more of an extension of the deceleration that had already set in from July.

I sincerely hope they do not believe in what they have said — that they have been forced by their occupational hazards to make these comments. Because, a closer scrutiny of the estimates points to a scenario that is more worrying than what the headline numbers would suggest.

The growth in gross value added (GVA), which factors out indirect taxes from estimating the value of GDP and is seen as a more appropriate measure of economic expansion,was 5.6% in the fourth quarter. The frequent revisions in excise duties on fuel and fuel products, which we saw through 2016-17, explain why GDP growth in the quarter turned out to be a half percentage point higher than the growth in GVA.

Further, if the impact of government spending and agriculture is factored out, the growth of GVA for the rest of the economy turns out to be just 3.8% in the January-March period. The corresponding figure in the same quarter a year ago was 10.7%. In other words, the deceleration in the sectors that the economy leans on for jobs and sustainable growth was much sharper than what we see in the headline GDP numbers. The construction sector, hardest hit by the note-ban decision, contracted; financial services grew just 2.2% and growth in mining slowed sharply.

All of these explain why the news of unemployment has returned to make headlines. Ironically, many of the victims continue to support demonetisation, with the hope that it would weed out corruption, destroy black money and help script a better future for them. The numbers we have now do not present a rosy outlook for the immediate future, however.

The most worrying pointer from the latest GDP data relates to investment demand. It slipped sharply through the year to end with a 2.1% contraction in the last quarter, underscoring an environment of fast-eroding business confidence and shrinking opportunities to find and deploy new capital.

To say that the worst is over would not only be naïve, but disastrous in its consequences. Make no mistake, even the sustained rally in the stock market should not be construed as evidence of either improving sentiments or the fundamentals getting better.

The Sensex has been rising because of expectations that the Reserve Bank of India would cut interest rates on the back of moderating inflation, that the monsoon will be good enough to spur demand and that the government will finally resolve the long-pending problem of bad loans. It is also hoped that the goods and service tax (GST) will be a game-changer.

As of now, these are hopes and expectations, and just that. There is little on the ground to suggest things will turn around soon. If anything, come July 1, we might see yet another disruption, when GST rolls out.

India jumps 19 places in WB logistics index

India has jumped 19 places in the latest World Bank ranking in the global logistics performance index. The World Bank, in its latest once-in-two-year Logistics Performance Index (LPI), said India is now ranked 35th as against the 54th spot it occupied in the previous 2014 report.

While Germany tops the 2016 rankings, India is ahead of comparatively advanced economies like Portugal and New Zealand. “In the latest ranking India has gone past countries like New Zealand, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Latvia and Indonesia who were ahead of it in the index,” the report said. Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

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