Articles by Achin Vanaik

outlay will go to augment the expenditure intended to keep these forces in a happy frame of mind. This will however imply that correspondingly less will be available for purposes of economic development. And whatever will be available will be ill- spent. Punjab has already proved the point. Armed might cannot take care of a mass malaise, but helps to aggravate it. If Khalistan has all of a sudden begun to look as less than an otiose proposition, it is altogether possible that the irrationality of what the union government is indulging tn will enhance the prospect of similar breakaway movements rearing their heads elsewhere in the country.

Gorbachev's Delusion Achin Vanaik Despite the lacunae in the INF treaty its significance, which is essentially political, does not diminish. Gorbachev has been willing to accept that it is not necessary for the USSR to have nuclear 'parity' with the US, but that it is enough to maintain 'reasonable sufficiency' in order to possess an adequate nuclear deterrent. His mistake, however, is in promoting the illusion that capitalism is so 'reformable' that it will accept and work for a completely nuclear free world.

integrated whole, natural calamities taking place in one corner of the country are no concern either of the other parts or of the government at the centre; it is the government of the state where the calamity takes place which has the onus of taking care of the problems that arise in the wake of a drought or a flood. The ministry has been particular to stress the point that the national insurance fund it has in mind will not be contributed to by the union government, the contributions will flow exclusively from the states. Since all insurance schemes work on the principle of a ceiling of award or compensation, it also follows that, however devastating a calamity, a state government could, under the proposed new arrangements, expect to receive funds to cater to relief only up to a point. Beyond that point, human beings and livestock are expected either to liquidate themselves or to fend for themselves. The born-again cliche of socialism is only to impress the newspaper-reading crowd. This government, particularly this ministry, has imbibed its philosophy from president Ronald Reagan's administration; disaster relief must be privatised, and each state government must pay for the relief it wants; if it does not pay, or pays less than what the desiccated accountants and their computers say it ought to, it will be either cut off from funds or paid in driblets.

and a public issue of Rs 5 crore, both at par.
CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA, holding the number two position among the nationalised banks, made a record profit of Rs 24 crore in 1986 against Rs 6.75 crore in the previous year. Its total deposits as on December 31, 1986 stood at Rs 7,135 crore. Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Bombay on March 31, Central Bank of India's chairman and managing director M N Goiporia said that it transferred Rs 3.07 crore as dividend to the union government. Total credit at the end of 1986 stood at Rs 3,821 crore showing an increase of Rs 356 crore or 9.3 per cent during the year. Priority sector credit rose by Rs 185 crore to Rs 1,572 crore at the end of the year, an increase of 43.6 per cent which is substantially higher than the norm of 40 per cent. Similarly the share of direct agriculture in net credit was 15.3 per cent against the norm of 15 per cent. The share of weaker sections was 11 per cent. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe beneficiaries claimed 52 per cent of the total credit disbursed under differential rate of interest scheme, against the stipulated norm of 40 per cent.

A Clever Game Achin Vanaik THE Ministry of External Affairs along with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) organised a seminar on peace on November 21 and 22 at the India International Centre, New Delhi, This was partly to commemorate the UN declaration of 1986 as the ''international Year of Peace", perhaps partly as a prelude to Gorbachev's visit. Coming as it did not so long after the reports about Pakistan's testing of a nuclear trigger device, there may have been a few who hoped that it might also be effectively used to build up domestic pressure for India to embark publicly on a nuclear weapons building programme. The invitees were defence specialists, interested journalists and academics and retired as well as serving government officials.