17th April

Decoupling revisited

The article comments on the possibility of ‘decoupling theory’ to find some validity owing to the present economic growth in India and China despite their western counterparts bleeding with stagnant to negative growth. 

While stock markets in India and China have jumped 25-30% from their lowest levels, markets in US has remained largely flat throughout the year. With that indication it is safe to assume that economies like India and China would register 5%+ GDP growth even when OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies remain in negative territory. Decoupling theory received a setback when Wall Street crashed with effects on real economies around the world as well which is true in static sense but taking a dynamic view it seems that the theory needs a revisit as decoupling would take place for the next few years. Emerging markets like India and China are not only set to grow impressively but also provide anchor to prevent world growth from sinking. Next five years projections put OECD economies to grow by no more then 1% while if India and China continue to grow around 6-7%, it is largely possible that their share in the world GDP may increase from 45% to 60% by 2015 which may lead to some decoupling actually. 

On the flip side it is possible that these emerging economies may get coupled with developing ones which is largely possible since India and China try to develop their domestic market as a shock absorber to decouple from the downfall in the western markets.

Regional Jurisdiction

The article talks about the importance of the Ajmal Kasab’s case with respect to its consequences on the national and international legal framework to deal with such situation. The trial is also important to reaffirm the equality of our legal-judicial system.

The debate on national and international legal frameworks to deal with situations is on owing to the globalized nature of terrorism which involves trans-national actors and thus demands a global legal framework that can address the issue of international jurisdiction. While International Criminal Court remains underrepresented, the issue is particularly pressing for South Asia owing to its much more familiarity with the terrorist acts and future spread of it. Such South Asian legal framework also needs to envisage the law beyond the territory of nation state and also beyond the domain of concerns on the legality of external intervention. However, the Kasab trial is also important to reinstate the feature of our judicial and legal system to be fair and equal even though he might be of non-national status and a terrorist. What is important is prosecution of each and every individual involved in this attack even if they remain beyond our reach.

Finally, in this scenario, the prospect of developing a regional framework to protect the citizens and prosecution of criminals and terrorists is certainly positive in the future.

They pollute too

The article talks about the pollution created by the spam mails that is unimaginable and if better technology is used, it could be reduced to a significant level which would help make the planet greener by reduced emissions of CO2.

A study by the climate change consultants ICF reported that the energy spend in sending a spam, detecting it and deleting it could power 2.4 million US homes. Carbon Footprint of Spam study also indicates that 33 billion KW of power used in spam detection process emits 17 million tonnes of CO2 or same amount of greenhouse gases as 3.1 million passenger cars, burning 7.6 billion liters of petrol. While McAfee is an obvious disinterested party that sells spam filtering technology, there is also some merit in the argument that if every inbox has a filter, it could save some 75% of the energy i.e. taking 2.3 million cars off the road. Also on an average every business user is calculated to be spending 131 kg of CO2 on e-mails which means that the technology can reduce 28 kg of from that amount which is equivalent of driving 93km less. 

While e-mailing is certainly a better and greener technology then paper based communication, a little improvement in the technology can make it even greener. Moreover, for India the comparison of spam with number of cars holds more significance post-Nano and could be better medium to compensate for the car jams to be seen on Indian roads in future.