Rabindranath Tagore:An Environmentalist And An Activist

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.

Volume-I,Issue-5,August 2012,p10-12

Rabindranath Tagore:An Environmentalist And An Activist

by

Dr.Debesh Bhowmik

Introduction

Tagore was an environmental pioneer. RabindranathTagore first became concerned about man’s impact on the environment after seeing an oil spill at sea on his way to Japan in 1916, The experience provoked Tagore to write at length about his annoyance at the way modern man was failing to respect nature. Tagore was a great teacher of environmental economics as well as an environmental activist  .At least one century ago, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on the environment was very  much relevant today.His  philosophy on the environment is related with sustainable rural development which is closely correlated between nature and human being.He imagined an integrated approach of sustainable development through revival of rural industry and increasing agricultural growth with community development.This essay endeavours to highlight some of his ideas on environment and how did he really implement it.

Tagore ideas and implementation on environment
Tagore not only wrote extensively on man’s relationship with the environment but also implemented it too by building Santineketan. It is surrounded by greenery on all sides. He created an example for the whole world in terms of the relationship between nature and humans. Tagore denounces human aggression on nature as an admirer of Ecocriticism which was evident in ‘The Tame Bird was in a cage’ (The Gardener, Poem No. VI). According to Peter Barry in Beginning Theory Human beings consider culture as a great achievement.  Humans should understand the roles assigned to them at a macrocosmic level. Any human aggression will end in a disaster for the whole bio sphere.As William Rueckert says, “The conceptual and practical problem is to find the grounds upon which the two communities – the humans, the natural – can coexist, cooperate, and flourish in the biosphere”. Cooperation is the key to the survival of the humans in this biosphere.

In fact, Tagore plays with the notion of climate, proposing a correspondence between politics and the environment. As the doctor advises Madhav that “on no account should [the child] be allowed out of doors” , he implies that the outside air will worsen his condition, as it happens when the Raja’s messenger arrives and orders “all doors and windows” to be open .Philosophically as well as in reality,Rabindranath was very much conscious about the environment and the evils of environmental damages through pollution.He felt that the air,water,soil  pollution hinder the people whether they are rich or poor but the poor will be mostly affected because of speedy urbanization, deforestation,and declining of standard of living of poor people.He gave a detailed analysis how urbanization affected rural life adversely  in a writing entitled “The Robbery of the Soil” which was read at the meeting of Viswabharati Samiti on 28^th July 1922 . He emphasized that it is urgent to return the same by the people who plundered the nature.He thought tree planting ceremony(“Briskharopan”) integrated with the ceremony of “Barshamangal” (wellcoming for Rainy season) and “Hallakarshan”(ploughing) because the first two are naturally correlated with season for higher growth and the third one is to give food for the poor or produce for the earth and its people.

In 1928, 14^th July,”The Planting of Trees” ceremony was held first in Shantiniketan, Biswabharati where , on that occasion ,tress of Mango, Guava, Papaya, Jackfruits, were distributed to the farmers of Ballavpur,Khejurdanga etc with 50% subsidies.On that day,Rabindranath himself was present  and attended with students having colourful dresses and flowers.Tagore first delivered some slokas and recited some poems which were as follows,

“ Oh Earth !hold the wealth of trees/ and keep it in your breast “, or , “Oh Cloud!bell the Indra’s organ with serious tones of  hymns/under the  blue sky” , or , “ Oh wind! You did not ignore/ your flute had started in the Ashar”,or , “ Oh sky! You have bold eternal  vision”, etc.The attended students and women recited along with Tagore.At the end of the Ceremony, Rabindranath  recited his own poem named “Mangalik”, eg,

“ The needs of soul may be full to the child alive,

The strength may give full of honey  air with golden touch of worlds’ palace.”…..

Presently, this ceremony is held on 22^nd Sravana.The students of Biswabharati planted saplings with dancing, reciting,singing including conch playing.Likewise they prayed for help from ghosts reciting the poems which explains , earth    , misdeeds,strength,desert,universe ,so that the sapling may become a big tree with flowers and fruits and become able to human welfare.He loved and performed this ceremony because he said,” Trees  of the earth are cut for several necessities and the earth became nacked by plundering its shadows of clothes. It increased the temperature of the air and damage the fertility of the soil. The homeless forests tend to warmth by unbearable hit of the sun. Keeping these words in minds, we held the ceremony of tree planting which is nothing but the function of  filling  in the gaps of plundered mother’s wealth.”He understood that tree planting is urgent to save the planet from warming.So he was bound to say, “The danger is imminent because of deforestation.To save the danger,we have to recall the god of the forests ,so that it can save this land and can bear fruits, and allows shadows.”(Gupta and Chakraborty,1987).Therefore,the thoughts of Tagore on preserving the environment was nothing but to grow more trees and to protect forest.The ceremony of planting trees was considered as a symbol of praying trees for maintain environment to save the planet from global warming and to make the world an abode of peace which is a green world to live in.

This thought was reflected in his poem entitled “ Brikshbandana” which is translated and is given below;

Oh! Brave hero of the soil,

Announce your struggle to free the soil

From the deep desert fort,

This war goes on and on …and forever,

You born on the open bank of the unaccessible islands

And sit on the throne of the greenery by your

Utmost patience swimming the ocean;

You came forth on the midst of distance hills

On all the grounds of stones

Write the ballads of victory in the leaves astounding the dust

On the markless shores and fields and

Found your own way forward…….

Tagore always thought environment as a part and parcel of integrated rural development whose ingredient factors were agricultural development , cooperative movement,and rural industrialization.On agricultural development his idea was based not only on higher yield but also on improvement of technology. As a zaminder, he believed that land should not be distributed to the ignorant riots who could not keep up the land right from the exploitation of zaminders. He said, “My objective was to rouse the confidence of the farmer in his own power. Two themes recurred in my mind. One, the title to land, in justice, does not belong to the landlord, but to the cultivator. Two, there will be no improvement in agriculture without co-operative based collective farming. Tilling subdivided and fragmented lands with primitive ploughs is as futile as carrying water in a sieve.”

To save the rural poor farmers from poverty , he established Sriniketan in 1922 where he revived cottage industries which may tend to rural wealth in future.Rural artisans can maintain their livelihood from that activities and the produced commodities. Rabindranath  requested to Elmhurst who was interested about Indian Agriculture and gave him the responsibility of Sriniketan for rural industrial reconstruction.Elmhurst was fully  coordinated with Santosh Ch.Majumder,Gour Gopal Ghosh and Kalimohan Ghosh in the revival  of rural cottage industries.

In Sriniketan , he introduced the weaving,batik and batik printing,leather works,pottering, spinning etc from which  the basic commodities were produced and the  rural poor meet their needs and  can earn.In Sriniketan he was also introduced a training centre in which the selected youth from the rural areas from several districts were trained the courses of rural industry,cottage industry,and the problems of rural industry.Moreover , they were trained on rural health and primary health care.Even they were taught on the village organization and co-operatives.Along with these training ,physical exercise, punctuality, ethics and  amusement were the additional courses of learning. After the completion of the courses,they returned to their villages to organize such courses for implementation on the mode of the production processes to uplift the rural poor.

But Santiniketan was ignored and marginalized by the imperatives of a competitive capitalism and nationalism. Even,Sriniketan was included in this fobia.Thus,within some years,the crisis started, Although,Leonard Elmhurst sent money amounting to Rs 50000/- per year for running the Striniketan.The King of Baroda usually sent 6000/- per year during 1924-1934 and afterwords it was stopped.Tagore collected money to show dances, dramas in Patna,Lahore, Delhi, Meerat, Joypur,Ahmedabad and Mumbai  and lastly appealed to the people for helping Sriniketan.

His ideas on rural development is obviously interlinked with rural rural money supply institutions and thus,he established  “Patisar Krishi Bank” in 1905. He was also aware of the unpredictable nature of Indian agriculture and arising out of it, the swings in the hopes and despair of the Indian peasant community. He was certainly not unaware of the basic exploitative nature of the colonial administration. He knew that for the drudgeries of life to be lifted, age-old dependence on nature couldn't be converted into another kind of deprecating dependence – that is to look up to the State for succour. So the fundamental premise on which he based his community development programme came to be "self-help and enlightenment."

Tagore felt that the integrated rural development under the sectors of education, health, economics, and welfare should function multilaterally. He felt that Patisar Krishi Bank will endeavour to free rural poor from their indebtedness. In this context , he wrote, “We cannot alleviate poverty by sentimental rendering of poetry. We must gird up our loins and get to work. ” Ultimately, this bank ran about 30 years. And at last, in 1927,Vishwa Bharati Central Coopearative Bank was set up.

His co-operative concept was extended to the famous idea of Grain Bank.Thus, he established a co-operative Grain Bank in 1928 at Sriniketan .Even, a few Co-operative Credit Societies were formed in Santalpara where most of them were landless labours. During the same year, another credit society was set up at Ballavpur.

Thus we found that his integrated rural development approach is not independent of each other stated above rather it is functionally related with sustainable development that should be raised from the bottom level in true sense of the term. In 1910, he wrote,

You depressed those who will fall down you also,

You keep them behind and they pull you back

You lay then dark of ignorance

They make wide difference covering your good

You will be equal to all through looking down upon.

So, his sustainable rural development concept was so integrated with agriculture , rural industry and rural money supply ie cooperative banking  with a comprehensive manner so that production and distribution become environment friendly. Otherwise, the nature may take revenge and livelihood of rural people may suffer. This is clear from his famous poem ,(Shesh Saptak -44)

My old age room ,that I made by mud, and I give its name “Shyamali”

When it breaks, it will lay like sleeping and mix with the lap of mud

It will not protest in the broken pillar and will not quarrel with the earth

It will not build  ghosts houses of deaths showing bones from broken wall….

Rabindranath Tagore’s views pertaining to eco-ethical human living and sustainable development are based on ancient Indian philosophy, especially embedded in the Upanishads. Tagore considers Nature and human life as integral parts of the single entity, the omniscient, omnipresent, ubiquitous (sarbang khallidang), attribute-free (nirguna) Brahman. So Tagore emphasizes symbiosis and balance between man and all other aspects of the mundane world (plants, other living beings, the Earth, atmosphere and the rest of the universe), and between man and the world beyond (moksha).

In “Aranya Devata”, Tagore opines that modern man indulges too much in luxurious and profligate living. So long as he used to live in and around the forest, he had a deep love and respect for the forest and therefore he used to live in perfect symbiosis with it and its plants and animals. Wanton destruction of forests, in order to supply timber for city life, brought about a curse on human race. Paucity of rainfall endangered human life and the rapid spread of deserts started engulfing human habitation in various parts of India. So, Tagore emphasizes, we should retrieve our love and respect for the forest and restore symbiosis with the forest in order to avert peril.Tagore’s views on ecological stability and symbiosis between man and Nature have been elaborated in the article “Tapavan”.

Conclusion

To day we are concerned about environmental disaster. Environmental imbalance intensifies poverty. Therefore, his thoughts on rural development and poverty alleviation were environment friendly, because his notion concisely can be stated as ,

[i]Identify poverty from a total perspective using a holistic framework. [ii]Invest in agriculture, and improve the lot of the farmers; [iii] expand co-operative movement and encourage community-based development.[iv]Introduce scientific farming, establish agricultural bank.[v]Expand cottage industry.[vi]Focus on environment friendly development.

On environment , Tagore believed that : “...owing to deforestation a calamity is imminent. To escape this peril we have to propitiate the goddess of forest to protect our land, give us fruits and shade which are her blessing.”

His environmentalism really reflects  in Shantiniketan  and Sriniketan.The economy of Shantiniketan showed his concept on integrated rural development.The hegemony of nature in Shantiniketan and his modern Viswabharati  reflects his thoughts of sustainable development.As he said that,

We, two live in the same village , that’s our only happiness

The Magpie  birds sing  in their trees

Their songs fill our hearts .

………. The two villages are very close

A field between the two

Many bees in their forest, make honey in our forest

The worshipping China Rose garlands  of their banks flow in our metal banks

The dishes of blossom- flowers of their  village  were sold in our village hat(hub)….

Lastly , the modern Germans felt on the thoughts of ecology of Rabindranath .Tagore’s love of nature was inspired by the awareness that all living beings, including animals, trees and plants, are endowed with a soul. On this level of consciousness, human beings are equal with “low” creatures and plants. We are all co-creatures of God’s creation. Accordingly, Tagore’s praise and worship of nature is born of a deep spirit of togetherness and feeling of a creational bond between humans and nature. Such a sense of unity is missing in modern Western ecology. It tends to emphasize the usefulness of nature and the necessity of a natural environment for the practical survival of mankind. Thus, with his poetry and his essays, Tagore can inspire a deeper understanding of and togetherness with the natural environment. Uma Dasgupta(2008) rightly wrote that   Tagore was a deeply independent and unorthodox personality who found a way of expressing this through the fashions and orthodoxies of his environment interplaying of nature and nature.

References

Basu,R.L.,2009,The Eco-Ethical Views of Tagore and Amartya Sen .Cultural Mandala,Bulletin of the centre for East West Culture and Economic Studies,Vol-8,No-2,Dec, 56-61

Bhowmik,Debesh.,2012,Rabindranath Tagore:An Environmentalist and An Activist.International Research Journal of Humanities and Environmental Issues,Vol-1,Issue-5,August,10-14

Biswas,Kumud.,2011,Rabindranath and the World of Nature.bologi.com

Dasgupta,Uma.,2008,Rabindranath Tagore : A Biography.OUP.

Frederick,Suresh.,2008,Human Aggression on Nature:Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore.

Gupta Subrata and Parimal Chakraborty.,1987,Rabindranather Arthanaitik Chinta.Modern Column, Kolkata.

Habib,Kishwar.,2006,Thoughts Behind Shantiniketan.Star,Vol-5,No-93,May5,

Kampchen,Martin(forthcoming):Rabindranath Tagore in Germany.www.parabass.com

Mukhopadyaya,Swapan.,2011, Rabindranather Pallybhabana O Gramin Arthaniti.Punashcha , Kolkata

Nayak,Kunja Bihari.,2008, Sustainable Development:An Alternative Approach in Rabindranath Tagore’s Vision (Serial Publications,NewDelhi)

Rahaman, Atiur .,2011,Tagore thoughts on environment.www.priyo.com

Sen Amartya .,1995, Tagore and his idea.www.google.co.in

Sengupta,Kalyan.,2005,The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore. Ashgate Publishing.

Viswa Bharati.,2011,Thoughts on Agriculture,Environment and Rabindranath.Seminar,17 April.

 

May Day - the Real Labor Day

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May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.
The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.
The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.
Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.
It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in Moscow's Red Square. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day - a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and sit in traffic jams.
Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations of radicals. Emma Goldman, a young immigrant at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her political birth. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, called upon the poor to direct their anger toward those responsible - the rich. Instead of disappearing, the anarchist movement only grew in the wake of Haymarket, spawning other radical movements and organizations, including the Industrial Workers of the World.
By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business, mainstream unions and the media have covered up an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for it's historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today.
As IWW songwriter Joe Hill wrote in one of his most powerful songs:

Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might
Take the wealth that you are making,
It belongs to you by right.
No one will for bread be crying
We'll have freedom, love and health,
When the grand red flag is flying
In the Workers' Commonwealth.

CAN CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSE EARTHQUAKE?

Can climate change cause earthquakes?

A new book suggesting a link between man-made climate change and increased seismic events has got some stick. A look at the science shows the theory isn't nearly as mad as it's made out to be - but it doesn't necessarily merit the apocalyptic publicity spin.
When Professor Bill McGuire of University College London introduced his new book Waking the Giant: How a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes on the Guardian's science weekly podcast a few weeks ago, he started with a warning: "It does sound a bit mad, but it isn't..."
So do we face an age of "geological havoc" thanks to man-made climate change, as  McGuire told his audience at the Hay literary festival last week? Motor journalist and climate skeptic Jeremy Clarkson doesn't buy it, labelling McGuire's theory "science fiction" in the Sunday Times yesterday.
It's hard to see how anyone could invoke climate change and earthquakes in the same sentence without getting some stick, and Clarkson isn't the only person to treat the notion that a changing climate can affect the ground beneath our feet with derision. But a closer look suggests the theory not only makes sense, it also appears to have historical precedent.
Waking the Giant
McGuire's book examines what the planet has done in the past as the climate has changed naturally, and makes a convincing case for a historical relationship between natural climate change and some geological activity. Given the speedy nature of current climate change, it seems reasonable to take from this that our current human-driven climate change will have geological consequences - indeed, Clarkson concedes that the "theory that global warming can affect the fabric of the planet is based in fact".
However, some of the publicity around the book has prompted headlines which ask if climate change might " unleash geological mayhem". This seems quite unhelpful; after all, one man's imminent geological mayhem might be another's long-term rumble.
We had questions about exactly what kind of changes might occur, and when. So we got in touch with McGuire and asked him if he could give us a more precise view of what he thinks might happen.
The argument
First, though, the theory. The argument goes like this: when the climate changed naturally in the past, and the planet emerged from an ice age, large ice sheets covering much of the planet retreated. They were so heavy that the resulting release of pressure on the earth's crust caused it to 'bounce back', triggering earthquakes, tremors, and even volcanic activity along pre-existing fault lines.
Right now, the Earth is still responding to the end of the last ice age some 20,000 years ago when temperatures began to rise, causing large ice sheets to retreat, as shown here:

Rate of crustal bounce-back following the end of the last ice age, as modelled by Paulson et al. (2007). Source: NASA.
McGuire suggests that if man-made climate change leads to more large ice sheets disappearing - like the one covering Greenland - this could lead to more shakes, rattles and rolls.
What's the scientific evidence?
It's worth noting here that although the historical relationship between ice sheet retreat and geological change is pretty well documented, research looking at more recent man-made climate change is rather sparse. A 2009 meeting at University College London concluded that, since climate change in the past has probably increased some 'geological hazards';

"Anthropogenic climate change therefore has the potential to alter the risk of geological and geomorphological hazards through the twenty-first century and beyond. Such changes in risk have not yet been systematically assessed."

To us that does sound like an endorsement of the general theory. But the last part says that the risks of dangerous changes in the earth's surface due to man-made climate change haven't yet been intensively investigated. Roland Burgmann, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Live Science (in 2007) that changes in ice cover can affect the earth's crust, but more research is needed to work out the scale of the risk and where effects like earthquakes might happen.
What's the timeline?
It's also not very clear from the publicity around the book when exactly we're supposed to be worried about any 'geological mayhem' occurring. Are we talking in the next century, or the next millennium?
When asked on the Guardian Science podcast whether his worries about Greenland could materialise this century, McGuire says:

"Not by the end of this century, no [...]."

But contrast this with a video promoting the book, where McGuire says:

"[T]he worry is, that if we don't act very soon, then the Earth is going to bite back with a real vengeance over the next 70-100 years."

We put it to McGuire that this wasn't particularly clear. He replied that, although the Greenland ice sheet is not going to fully disappear by the end of the century (it would need to be kept at a sufficiently warm temperature for a few thousand years for that to happen), there is a study suggesting that we could see more earthquakes in Greenland in coming decades.
He also said that in Alaska "the response - in the way of earthquake activity and giant landslide frequency - is already apparent". Here he's probably referring to research like this paper showing an increase in small earthquakes between 2002 and 2006, thought to be down to ice loss.
Of the potential for volcanic activity triggered by climate change he told us:

"[W]e don't have a handle on how quickly we will see a response [...]. It may, however, be a while before we can distinguish any elevated level of activity from the normal background. In many ways, pinning down how quickly the solid Earth will respond this time round is no easy task and has to be speculative to some degree."

Essentially, this is the 'it's complicated' caveat so common in scientific conclusions. But as you will have spotted, these explanations are couched in considerably more careful language than some of the publicity for the book.
Following the Hansen model?
There does seem to us to be a disparity between McGuire's publicity for the book, with its emphasis on the most dramatic possible outcomes from his hypothesis, and the more careful statements he's made in scientific papers and outside the publicity circuit.
In discussing temperature change this century in his book, McGuire's predictions err towards the upper end of the scale, and he also talks of facing sea level rise comparable to that at the end of the last ice age, when sea level rose at an average of one metre per century - within the range of projected sea level rise for high-end scenarios of temperature rise. In both this, and his tendency to talk in stark language, McGuire seems to be borrowing a leaf from James Hansen's book.
McGuire told us in an email:

"We are currently on a high-end emissions scenario track and prospects for getting off this any time soon look pretty bleak [...]. These scenarios are Met Office Hadley Centre scenarios that build in carbon feedbacks, and are - in my opinion - very realistic. In relation to sea level, the consensus now is that a 1 - 2m rise is most likely by 2100."

McGuire is also clearly coming from a particular viewpoint:

"The language used in scientific papers is always careful, but released from the constraints of peer-reviewed journals we are able to express our thoughts in a more personal manner - as James Hansen in the US has done so effectively. My personal opinion is that climate change will be catastrophic - even without any geological response."

Perhaps it's not that surprising that book authors will try and make their work sound exciting. But there are no end of newspapers willing to pounce on catastrophic visions of the future in order to perpetuate the 'it's an apocalypse/it isn't happening' see-saw that makes up the worst end of climate reporting.
McGuire is not shying away from discussing high-end scenarios, which is fair enough. But in our view he should make clear that this is what he is doing, and also more carefully communicate the uncertainty in his work. After all, it appears to be decidedly early days for this research.
(Source-The Carbon Brief)

How the Nepal Earthquake Happened

(wall street journal)
 

A little before noon Saturday in Nepal, a chunk of rock about 9 miles below the earth’s surface shifted, unleashing a shock wave—described as being as powerful as the explosion of more than 20 thermonuclear weapons—that ripped through the Katmandu Valley.
In geological terms, the tremor occurred like clockwork, 81 years after the region’s last earthquake of such a magnitude, in 1934.
Records dating to 1255 indicate the region—known as the Indus-Yarlung suture zone—experiences a magnitude-8 earthquake approximately every 75 years, according to a report by Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology.
The reason is the regular movement of the fault line that runs along Nepal’s southern border, where the Indian subcontinent collided with the Eurasia plate 40 million to 50 million years ago. 

Damage from Saturday’s earthquake in Katmandu, Nepal. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images 

 

“The collision between India and Eurasia is a showcase for geology,” said Lung S. Chan, a geophysicist at the University of Hong Kong. The so-called India plate is pushing its way north toward Asia at a rate of about 5 centimeters, or 2 inches, a year, he said. “Geologically speaking, that’s very fast.”
As the plates push against each other, friction generates stress and energy that builds until the crust ruptures, said Dr. Chan, who compared the quake to a thermonuclear weapons explosion. In the case of Saturday’s quake, the plate jumped forward about 2 meters, or 6.5 feet, said Hongfeng Yang, an earthquake expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Saturday’s quake was also relatively shallow, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Such quakes tend to cause more damage and more aftershocks than those that occur deeper below the earth’s surface.
After an earthquake, the plates resume moving and the clock resets. “Earthquakes dissipate energy, like lifting the lid off a pot of boiling water,” said Dr. Chan. “But it builds back up after you put the lid back on.”

‘Earthquakes dissipate energy, like lifting the lid off a pot of boiling water. But it builds back up after you put the lid back on.’
—Lung S. Chan, geophysicist at the University of Hong Kong

Nepal is prone to destructive earthquakes, not only because of the massive forces involved in the tectonic collision, but also because of the type of fault line the country sits on. Normal faults create space when the ground cracks and separates. Nepal lies on a so-called thrust fault, where one tectonic plate forces itself on top of another.
The most visible result of this is the Himalayan mountain range. The fault runs along the 1,400-mile range, and the constant collision of the India and Eurasia plates pushes up the height of the peaks by about a centimeter each year.

Despite the seeming regularity of severe earthquakes in Nepal, it isn’t possible to predict when one will happen. Historic records and modern measurements of tectonic plate movement show that if the pressure builds in the region in a way that is “generally consistent and homogenous,” the region should expect a severe earthquake every four to five decades, Dr. Yang said.
The complexity of the forces applying pressure at the fault means scientists are incapable of predicting more than an average number of earthquakes that a region will experience in a century, experts say.
Still, earthquakes in Nepal are more predictable than most, because of the regular movement of the plates. Scientists aren’t sure why this is.
The earth’s tectonics plates are constantly in motion. Some faults release built-up stress in the form of earthquakes. Others release that energy quietly. “Some areas, like Nepal, release energy as a large earthquake, once in a while,” said Dr. Chan. “These regions all have different natures for reasons geologists don’t really know.”

 

Reinvigorate Trade to Boost Global Economic Growth

 

Reinvigorate Trade to Boost Global Economic Growth

By Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF
Address at the U.S. Ex-Im Bank Conference
Washington, DC, April 23, 2015

Good afternoon. I would like to thank Susan Axelrod for her kind introduction, and thank you to the U.S. Ex-Im Bank for giving me the opportunity to speak about the importance of expanding global trade – especially at this point in time.
Let me start by saying something that often gets lost in the nitty-gritty of trade discussions. If you care about growth and innovation; if you care about jobs and the real incomes of the middle-class; if you care about poverty reduction and greater economic fairness; if you do care about all these things, you need to be serious about fostering global trade.
The IMF cares deeply about these issues and has been committed to the idea of open trade that is – ideally – underpinned by multilateral agreements and institutions. More than 70 years ago, the founding fathers of the IMF created an institution that was designed to prevent a return to the self-defeating economic policies of the Great Depression – including trade protectionism and competitive currency devaluations.
Let me quote Article 1 of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement: “The purpose of the IMF is to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income.”
Fast-forward to the global financial crisis of 2008, which marked the latest turning point in global trade. When that crisis struck, trade protectionism became the dog that did not bark. Contrary to some expectations, the world did not see a rampant rise in old-style trade barriers. And trade volumes rebounded after a sharp initial drop. This was a reflection of the unprecedented level of international cooperation that prevented a global economic meltdown.
But the financial crisis has helped put a damper on growth in global trade. 2015 is likely to mark the fourth consecutive year of below-average trade growth, with at least one more year of disappointing growth to come, according to the latest WTO predictions.
In other words, one of the engines of global economic growth has slowed down, because of cyclical forces but also because of structural factors. This trend must be reversed.
Reinvigorating trade is not just a “nice-to-have”. It is an “essential-to-have” – to help prevent what I have called the “new mediocre” of low growth over a long period. This is why the international community, including the G-20, is pushing for trade reforms as part of a comprehensive policy package to lift growth and employment.
With this in mind, I would like to touch on three issues:

• Why do we need a better trade engine?
• How can we shift global trade into a higher gear?
• Which trade policies should economies pursue?

1. Why do we need a more powerful trade engine?
Let me start by briefly outlining the case for a better trade engine. This audience knows it well, but sometimes we get so involved in the details that the big picture gets lost. Trade is good for growth. How?
a. Reforms – including new trade agreements – encourage countries to further specialize in the goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage. By using their existing resources more efficiently, they can help lift world production and consumption.
In other words: specialize in what you do best, trade for the rest. The classic gains from this strategy include lower prices for consumers and companies – and therefore higher real incomes – and a greater variety of goods and services available for purchase.
b. Trade reforms can also have a powerful indirect effect on growth by igniting and amplifying other structural reforms. For example:

• Trade reforms can increase external competition in product and services markets.
• They can encourage key infrastructure investments – think of new ports and new roads.
• They can spur innovation through R&D and “learning by exporting”.
• And they can strengthen institutions by encouraging better governance and a better business environment.

c. All this would help policymakers to reverse the decline in productivity growth in advanced economies and boost productivity in emerging and developing economies. Recent IMF research shows that lower productivity is a key driver of declining potential growth rates in advanced economies and – perhaps even more so – in emerging market economies.
What this means is that we have reduced our estimate of the speed limit at which economies can currently drive. In advanced economies, for example, potential annual growth fell to 1.5 percent in the past two years, down from 2.2 percent in 2001-07. Reversing this trend is essential to lift global growth over the medium term.
d. In summary, open trade is an important contributor to job creation. As you, Fred [Hochberg] said yourself, “millions of American workers have jobs that depend on trade”. In 2014, for example, exports of goods and services directly and indirectly supported an estimated 11.7 million U.S. jobs. And by encouraging greater specialization, trade fosters industries that are more competitive and, therefore, more sustainable.
And let’s not forget the impact of trade on global poverty reduction. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty over the past three decades.
2. How can you shift global trade into a higher gear?
So, I think there is a compelling case for a better trade engine. But how can policymakers shift global trade into a higher gear – my second point.
For at least three decades before the 2008 financial crisis, global trade regularly grew at twice the rate of the global economy. It is now expanding at – or below – the rate of the global economy. This slowdown is largely because of two structural changes in global trade.
a. One is the maturing of existing global value chains – in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia – while new value chains are not being formed.
To reverse this trend, policymakers need to unlock the trade potential of other regions. South America, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa: these are the regions that would greatly benefit from being better integrated into global value chains. It would be good for them and good for the world.
b. The second factor holding back trade growth is the slowdown in trade liberalization in recent years. For example, multilateral negotiations have stalled, and regional trade initiatives have not matched the transformative effect of, say, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
This is why policymakers need to press ahead with negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP, as well as on its transatlantic cousin, the TTIP.
Research by the Peterson Institute finds that the TPP could boost world income by $295 billion per year over the next decade. It also finds that the TTP would raise U.S. incomes by 0.4 percent, or $77 billion, per year. The U.S. could gain a comparable amount from TTIP, according to estimates by the European Union.
We all know there are considerable discussions over the models that are being used to generate these hard numbers. But I think we get the point:

• Recent developments in the U.S. Senate suggest that these important trade deals can be areas of cooperation between the Congress and the President.
• On the other side of the Atlantic, progress on trade would be immensely helpful in lifting growth and confidence in the European Union.
• The Japanese government is also keen to use the TPP to inject greater competition into its low-growth economy.
• And emerging and developing economies would benefit from better integration into the global economy.

So, on all sides, there are good incentives to cut deals. Political leadership is now needed to push these deals over the finish line.
c. The same goes for the WTO deal struck in Bali at the end of 2013. This agreement, if fully implemented, would cut trade costs and deliver an economic boost of US$1 trillion annually. The Bali deal is particularly important for developing economies because of its focus on trade facilitation, which involves reducing red tape and streamlining customs.
Let me be clear: there are signs of progress on trade. But the global community can – and should – be much more ambitious.
3. Which trade policies should economies pursue?
Which brings me to my third point – what are the trade policies that economies should pursue?
The IMF has recently reviewed its own policy advice to make sure that trade remains an essential element of our operational work. This includes our technical assistance and our annual assessments of our members’ economies.
Of course, policy advice has to be country-specific. But let me give you our view on three broad categories:
First, most advanced economies will be largely focusing on the “21^st century trade issues” such as opening services markets and making regulatory systems more coherent. The TPP is a good example because it seeks to address crucial issues such as intellectual property protection and treatment of state-owned enterprises.
Second, many emerging market economies, especially in South Asia and Latin America, can still benefit greatly from integrating into the global economy through traditional trade liberalization. This may include unilateral efforts to open up trade and encourage foreign direct investment, especially in infrastructure. In Asia, in this decade alone, overall national infrastructure investment needs are estimated to be $8 trillion.
Third, for developing economies, trade and integration into global value chains should be a central plank of their development and growth strategies. Again, trade facilitation will be key. The IMF stands ready to support this transition to a less protected environment. Think of the fiscal implications of lower tariffs and the challenges of sequencing reforms. On all this, the Fund can provide hands-on advice and training.
Conclusion
Let me conclude by quoting one of the sharpest thinkers of his generation. Two hundred years ago, the French philosopher Montesquieu said – and I will give you the French version first:
“Le commerce guérit des préjugés destructeurs: & c’est presque une règle générale que, partout où il y a des mœurs douces, il y a du commerce; & que, partout où il y a du commerce, il y a des mœurs douces.”
“Trade is the best cure for prejudice. It is an almost general rule that, wherever there is good citizenship, there is trade, and that, wherever there is trade, there is good citizenship.”
The most destructive economic prejudice is trade protectionism. Policymakers must remain vigilant about the old-style, in-your-face protectionism and about the new protectionism that is based on non-tariff measures.
Smart efforts to reduce and dismantle these barriers should be strongly supported. This is why the IMF welcomes preferential trade deals such as the TTP – which we believe should eventually be open to other countries that meet its requirements.
The key question is how to make preferential deals more coherent with multilateral efforts. How can we achieve eventual multilateralization – preferably in the context of the World Trade Organization? How can we avoid trade fragmentation – the “spaghetti bowl” of competing regimes and preferences?
I strongly believe that global deals deliver far more than any other approach. Rather than simply bolstering existing trade connections, multilateral deals allow new trading relationships to be formed. They are a global solution to a global challenge.
The last major global trade agreement is now 20 years old. The world can do better than that. As I said at the beginning, if you care about growth, you need to be serious about global trade. It is now time to get serious about trade.
Thank you.

India's Saving Investment Gap

 

India’s saving investment gap

India’s saving rate at % of GDP is increasing at the rate of 2.10% per year from 2000 to 2012 , on the other hand  , Investment as % of GDP  is stepping up at the rate of 3.70% per year during the same period. This domestic imbalance creates several problems in macro  economic variables which ultimately produces disequilibrium of the economy.India’s saving Investment gap is accelerating since 2004 ,but it was favourable before 2004.In the figure the blue line shows the investment rate where as red line is the saving rate .It is very much clear in the figure that the gap is widening .

          The government should observe this situation seriously and take appropriate measure to restore balance in domestic economy. In China, Korea and in some other Asian economies the situation is reverse, that why they are easily overcoming the external balance. If we are able to balance this fundamental gap ,then we may tackle the unemployment problem more easily. Fiscal policy alone cannot make up this gap but needed suitable  monetary policy also. Obviously , the integration of external balance policy as well as fiscal monetary policy will be justified.Moreover, nobody cares.