Sector-wise Budget 2017-18 : Highlights – At a Glance

Opening Remarks

·       Our govt was elected amidst huge expectations; underlying theme was good governance

·       Massive war against black money has been launched

·       Govt now seen as a trusted custodian of public money

·       Focus on energizing youth to reap benefits of growth

·       World economy faces considerable uncertainty

·       Three major challenges for emerging economies: US Fed stance, uncertainty over commodity prices especially oil prices, signs of increasing retreat from globalization as protectionist fears build up 

Tax Administration

·       Black Money: No cash transaction above Rs. 3 lakh

·       Transparency in political funding: Parties continue to receive anonymous donations; proposed system to c lean up limits maximum amount of cash donations to Rs. 2000/=. No limit to payment through cheques or digitally. Amendment proposed to RBI Act to issue electoral bonds. Every party will have to file returns within specified time

·       Exempt FPI Category 1 & 2 investors from indirect provisions

·       Time period of revising tax returns reduced to twelve months income

·       Personal Income Tax: Rate reduced to 5% for income bracket Rs 2.5-5 Lakh. All categories to get uniform benefit of Rs 12.500 per person. Levy of  10% surcharge on bracket Rs 50 Lakh-Rs 1 Crore

·       Personal Income Tax: To have simple one page form for taxable income up to Rs 5 Lakh

·       Direct tax collection not commensurate with income/expenditure pattern of India

·       We are largely a Tax non –compliant society; predominance  of cash in society enable tax evasion

·       After demonetization; data received  will increase tax net

·       Real Estate: Changes in capital gain tax

·       Concessional withholding rate will be extended to 30 June2020 and for  rupee-denominated masala bonds

·       Start-ups: Relaxing holding rules

·       MAT not to be abolished at present; to allow carry forward for 15 years

·       Corporate tax rate: MSME’s rate (annual turnover less than Rs 50 Crore) reduced to 25%

·       Limit of cash donation for Charitable Trusts reduced to Rs 2000/=

Fiscal Management

·       Total Budget expenditure  Rs 21 trillion

·       Rs 3,000 crore to implement various budget announcements

·       Defence expenditure  excluding pensions is Rs 2,74,114 Crore

·       Consolidated outcome budget for all ministries being created

·       FRBM review panel has recommended debt-to-GDP of 60%

·       Fiscal deficit for FY18 pegged at 3.2% of GDP

·       Revenue deficit for FY 18 at 1.9%

·       Public Service

·       To use Head post office for  passport services

·       Defence: Centralized defence travel system developed

·       Defence: Centralised Pension distribution system to be  established

·       Govt recruitment: To introduce two-tier exam system

·       Considering introducing laws to confiscate assets of economic defaulters

·       High-level panel chaired by PM to commemorate Mahtama Gandhi’s 150^th birth anniversary

Digital Economy

·       India at cusp of digital revolution

·       Govt to launch 2 scheme including cash back scheme for merchants

·       AADHAAR  Pay for people who don’t have mobile phones

·       Focus on rural and semi-urban areas

·       To strengthen financial inclusion fund

·       Panel on digital payments has recommended structural reforms

·       To create payment board at RBI

Financial Sector

·       FDI policy: FIPB to be abolished

·       Commodities market: Panel to study legal framework for spot & derivative market

·       Resolution mechanism for financial firms

·       Cyber security: Computer emergency response to be set up

·       Listing of PSEs will foster public accountability; revised mechanism for time-bound listing

·       To create integrated public sector oil major

·       Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana: Lending target at 2.44 trillion

·       Stand-up India scheme: Over 16,000 new enterprises have been set up

Infrastructure

·       Total Capex & development expenditure of railways pegged at Rs 1,31,000 Crore

·       Railways: Passenger safety fund corpus set up. Unmanned level crossing to be eliminated by 2020

·       Railway lines of 3,500km to be commissioned

·       To launch dedicated tourism/pilgrimage trains

·       500 stations to be made differently-abled friendly

·       Cleanliness in Railways: To introduce Coach Mitra facility. By 2019, bio-toilets for all coaches

·       Railways to offer competitive ticket-booking facility. Service charge withdrawn from IRCTC

·       New metro rail policy to be announced

·       Roads sector: National highways allocation at Rs 64,000 Crore

·       AAI Act to be amended to enable monetization of land resources

·       Transport sector: Allocation at Rs 2 trillion

·       Telecom Sector: Allocation to Bharat Net programme at Rs 10,000 Crore

·       Digi-gau initiative to be launched

·       To make India global hub for electronics manufacture

·       Export infra: New restructured central scheme to be launched

·       Total allocation for infrastructure Rs 3.96 trillion

Poor & Underprivileged

·       Women: Mahila  Shakti Kendras with Rs 500 Crore corpus

·       Stepped up allocation to Rs 1,84,632 Crore for various schemes for women and children

·       Affordable housing to be given infrastructure status

·       Action plan to eliminate leprosy by 2018, TB by 2025, reduce IMR to 29 in 2019

·       To create additional PG medical seats

·       Two new AIIMS in Jharkhand & Gujarat

·       New rules for medical devices

·       Labour rights: Legislative  reforms to simplify existing labour laws

·       Allocation to SCs increased to Rs 52,393 crore; STs to Rs 31,920 crore, Minority affairs Rs 4,195 crore

Youth

·       Education: System of measuring annual learning outcomes, emphasis on science

·       Innovation fund for secondary education

·       Reforms in UGC: Colleges to be identified based on ranking  and given autonomy

·       Propose to leverage IT with launch of SWAYAM  platform for virtual learning

·       National testing agency to be established for all entrance exams, freeing CBSE & AICTE

·       100 Indian international skill centres to be established with courses in foreign language

·       To launch skill acquisition and knowledge awareness  -  Rs 4,000 crore

·       Special  scheme for  creating employment in leather/footwear sector

·       Tourism: Five special zones to be set up

Farmers

·       Farmer  credit fixed at record level of Rs 10 trillion; will ensure adequate flow to underserved areas

·       Soil health cards: Govt to set up mini-labs in Krishi Vignan Kendras

·       Long-term irrigation fund in Nabard-corpus at Rs 40,000 crore

·       Model law on contract farming to be circulated

·       Dairy processing infra fund with corpus at Rs 8,000 crore

·       Dedicated micro-irrigation fund with Rs 5,000 crore corpus

Rural Population

·       Mission Antyodaya to bring 1 crore  households of pverty

·       MGNREGA: Participation of women now at 55%

·       MGNREGA: Rs 48,000 crore allocated

·       MGNREGA: using space technology in a big way

·       Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yogna: Rs 1,9000 crore allocated; along with states, Rs 27,000 crore to be  spent in FY18

·       Pradhan Mantri Awas Yogana: Rs  23,000 crore allocated

·       100% village electrification by May 2018

·       Rural livelihood mission: Rs 4,500 crore allocated

·       Mason training for 5 lakh people

·       Panchyat Raj: HR resource programme to be launched

·       Rs 1,87,223 crore for rural programmes

Implementation of pay panel award likely to be deferred

The announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on February 29

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee 

With a massive financial resource crunch estimated for 2016-17, the government is planning to defer the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award.

Last week, the Union Cabinet approved the formation of an empowered committee of secretaries to work out ways for staggering the award through more than one financial year, instead of letting the Rs 1,02,100-crore bill from the implementation of the award come up at one go.

A top-ranked official said one of the options for the empowered committee was to defer the increase in allowances for central government employees, while letting the rise in pay for all scales to go through. According to finance ministry figures, the ratio of allowances to pay for these 4.7 million employees is 1:1.4. For instance, the Budget estimates in 2015-16 pegged the salary bill for all central government employees at Rs 60,731 crore, whereas the tab for allowances is Rs 84,437.4 crore.

The step would allow Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to keep the Budget numbers for this financial year and the next close to the targeted 3.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) that he has committed himself to. For instance, even if the annual expenditure for 2016-17 were kept at about Rs 18 lakh crore (almost unchanged from Rs 17,77,477 crore in 2015-16), the Pay Commission recommendations would add another 5.5 per cent to it.

Given the sluggish pace of GDP growth and the almost negative deflator, the aggregate Budget numbers would otherwise be impossible to sustain on the back of the current trend in growth of tax receipts - just 50 per cent of the Budget estimates after the first eight months of the year, according to Controller General of Accounts data. The assumptions being worked on in North Block are that these might not change dramatically in the next financial year, too.

The announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on February 29. The formation of an empowered committee for the pay panel recommendations, again a first for the central government, is meant to bring all stakeholders on board in the exercise.

The official explained ministry-wise consultations with the department of expenditure in the finance ministry, in the run up to the Budget, were mostly over. Those discussions had proceeded on the assumptions that the Pay Commission recommendations would be implemented. It was now necessary to bring the secretaries of key departments on board about the need for a drastic cut-back on those estimates.

The status quo on allowances would also allow the government to ignore the demand made by various staff associations to raise the minimum level of salary for employees. The Pay Commission has suggested that the minimum should be Rs 18,000 per month; the unions have demanded that it should be raised to a band of Rs 19,000 to Rs 21,000 a month. Such a change would have created a ripple effect. About 70 per cent of the government employees are bunched in the non-executive ranks; the starting salary for them tops about Rs 42,000 a month, show calculations by the Commission. Even a modest increase in pay for them would cascade the bill for the government by another Rs 50,000 crore annually. The award of the Commission is slated to take effect from January 1 this year.

A key element in the plan to defer some elements of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations will be the railway ministry. Government managers reckon the powerful unions of the Indian Railways need to be brought on board for this plan to be successful. The higher wage bill for the Suresh Prabhu-led ministry works out to Rs 28,450 crore a year, only a shade less than the yearly loss it makes on its passenger services at present. No formal communications have been sent out to the railway unions by the committee. "It will follow once the empowered committee has decided to take a call on which allowances to clip," said the official.

In a recent television interview, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha had said the Pay Commission recommendations were the biggest headache for his ministry, struggling to keep the aggregate expenditure of the Union government under control.

By the kind courtesy of

http://www.business-standard.com/budget/article/implementation-of-pay-panel-award-likely-to-be-deferred-116011800038_1.html#.Vp0KwbDiESU.blogger

Hawker to hacker-cracker, Haryana boy’s tech dreams soar high

Microsoft offers Virender Raika, son of a labourer, Rs 4.85-crore annual package for his extraordinary anti-hacking skills. He is a golden boy who never had a silver spoon in his mouth. He had dreams, but no wings. Yet he flies high. Twenty-one-year-old Virender Raika, who worked as a hawker to fund his studies, has developed an extraordinary anti-hacking software which has earned him a plum job at Microsoft.

The whopping Rs 4.85 crore annual package offered by the software giant comes as an add-on for a lad who couldn’t go to the IIT — despite getting through the entrance — as he had no money.

Born in Pehowa village in Kurukshetra, Virender says the going was always tough for him. “After my father who works as a labourer fell sick, I had to take up the job of a hawker. I soon realised that the money won't suffice. So, I started giving Physics tuitions,” says the boy who was in Panchkula to interact with students.

A class X topper, Virender did part-time jobs to fund his Class 12 education. He qualified a scholarship entrance to study further and even got through the IIT, but couldn’t pursue it due to lack of funds.

Quiz him on his anti-hacking project and his eyes light up. “The idea to develop an anti-hacking system struck me while I was watching a movie. I saw a girl hacking into a system and then I thought why not develop a system that has a foolproof security. There are ways to hack into a system but no permanent way to secure it. So by working on various cyber theories, I made an anti-hacking system,” says the tech-wizard.

Virender gave a demo of his project through video-conferencing to a group of expert hackers at Microsoft’s office in Hyderabad. The Chief Financial officer of the Microsoft, Peter Klein, who was keenly observing the demo online, was so impressed by Virender’s skills that he offered him a job straightaway. The Haryana boy, who is pursing his BTech from IGNOU, has been told to join in November.

On his future plans, Virender says he wants to open his own company in India. “I want to do something for my country. We are so dependent on the US for technology. I want to turn the tide,” he says. Virender’s father Gyan Chand and mother Shinder still don’t know what exactly their son has developed. “We both are illiterate. We just know that Virender has got a job of 4.85 crore and companies from China and Japan are pursuing him,” says Gyan Chand.

A Call by Gen VK Singh Ex Army Chief

Army warns PM: China can deploy 500,000 troops on LAC

by Shishir Gupta
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A Stern Warning : Must be taken
note of by the Government of India

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New Delhi : China now has the capability to deploy and sustain more than half-a-million troops for over a month on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in case of a high threat scenario with India.

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Combining deft defence diplomacy with India’s neighbours and major infrastructure upgradation in restive Xinjiang and Tibet, Beijing is expected to be increasingly assertive towards New Delhi and may put pressure on Arunachal Pradesh in near future.

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This threat perception and assessment in the form of a presentation in South Block was given to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A K Antony, National Security Adviser S S Menon, Principal Secretary T K Nair and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar by the Indian military brass last month.

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While the government is tight-lipped about the presentation, the military brass told the PM that Chinese PLA has acquired the capability to deploy 34 troop divisions (one division has 23,000 troops) along the LAC in case of a high threat scenario by pulling out troops from Chengdu and Lanzhou military regions. When compared to the Indian strength of nine holding divisions along the northern borders, the PLA with a defence budget estimated at $150 billion holds overwhelming advantage.

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As part of major infrastructure upgradation in Tibet and Xinjiang, China is doing the following:

* Connection with all counties in Tibet with border roads completed. Road network increased from 51,000 km in 2008 to 58,000 km in 2010. Plans to increase black topped roads by another 70,000 km on the anvil.

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* Extension of Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmund to Lhasa and thereon to Shigatse (close to Sikkim). Rail connectivity is planned to link Kathmandu, Myanmar, Bhutan, Pakistan and Central Asian republics. Eleven new rail lines on the anvil in Tibet and Xinjiang for rapid deployment of PLA.

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* There are eight airfields in Tibet, including five operational ones; 18 air bases in Tibet and Xinjiang have the capability to put India under range of Sukhoi 27 aircraft.

* The Indian security concerns get multiplied when this Chinese advantage is backed with an all-weather friend like Pakistan.

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Beijing is in the process of supplying four F-22 frigates along with JF-17 aircraft to Islamabad. PLA has pushed some 1,000 troops in PoK for upgradation of Karakoram Highway and to link it with sea ports of Karachi, Gwadar and Bin Qassim. This will not only give strategic depth to Pakistan but also allow PLA to control the Persian Gulf.

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China’s Dong Fang Electric Supply Corporation and Pakistan Railways have also signed a feasibility study contract on a Havelian-Khunjerab Pass rail link.

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The military brass also gave information on Chinese inroads into Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

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http://www.expressindia.com/story_print.php?storyId=788722

THE GOVERNOR (Lt. General J.F.R. Jacob) WHO FOUGHT A SILENT BATTLE IN AN ECOLOGICAL HOTSPOT

Paying tribute to a decade-old decision we need to value more

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By A Correspondent

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The post-independence history of Goa has had some good periods. One brief but golden period was Lt. General J.F.R. Jacob's term as Goa's Governor from April 1998 to November 1999, during which time he oversaw a number of short-lived governments.

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The highlight of this period was the imposition of President's rule in the state during the first half of 1999. During this period, the Governor ruled with a team of only three people; the Governor himself and his two advisors Alban Couto and M.N. Buch.

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During Lt. General Jacob's rule, the secretariat was made accessible to ordinary citizens and surprise visits were made to bus stands, local hospitals and the Collector offices. Corruption was completely eliminated. Significant improvements were made to infrastructural facilities related to power, water, transport and medical health. Night landing facilities at Dabolim airport were established.

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Lt. General Jacob had inherited a state which was on the brink of financial crises after previous governments borrowed huge sums of money from financial institutions. By the time Lt. General Jacob's rule had ended, he raised enough money to pay back all these loans. He went a step further by securing a grant of Rs 50 crores from the center to improve state administration.

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Several press reports which were issued during the end of President's rule focused on calls by the public to extend this rule in the state. At the same time, Lt. General Jacob was always non-partisan in his approach so he stepped aside, thus paving way for a democratically elected government in June 1999.

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Of all the decisions Jacob made during his rule, one has outlasted the rest in terms of its impact on subsequent governments and on the people of Goa.

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Considering the geographical size of the state and the impact of this decision on the politics and economics of the state, it may be the boldest move that any state in the Indian Union has made to date on the environmental front.

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The decision threw all the political parties in complete turmoil and united all of them as they opposed his decision. Lt General Jacob's decision also united several sections of citizens whom supported it. The decision gained the attention of neighboring states viz. Karnataka, thus influencing the natural resources protection policies of this state regarding its northern areas bordering Goa.

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In a state where revenue gained from the extraction of natural resources has been the historical mainstay of the state's economy and funding of political parties, this decision was one of the biggest blows to that source of revenue. The decision was also unexpected because it came from the most unlikely source: the seat of official authority. This was one of Lt. General Jacob's last decisions before the end of President's rule. The unique nature of the decision makes it worthy of further exploration and analysis.

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The dominant view of "development" is primarily involved with economic growth. However, this view is not an inclusive or all encompassing. Any economic development which comes at the cost of balancing human development and natural resources protection can hinder long term growth.

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Securing the natural resources of a state from being exhausted is of the utmost importance when trying to ensure a balanced growth model.

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Goa has been blessed with a forested mountain range which runs from north to south on its eastern border with Maharashtra and Karnataka. This range is a part of a larger mountain range called Western Ghats which begins in Gujarat and then passes through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and further into Sri Lanka.

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The Western Ghats was designated as one of the 18 ecological hotspots in the world at the United Nations Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. This international designation put the Western Ghats on par with the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and Indonesia and other countries.

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In addition to being a reservoir of botanical and zoological wealth, the Western Ghats is also one of the last refuges of the elephant and India's national animal: the Royal Bengal Tiger. It is also the catchment area of the south west monsoon and is a watershed for all the rivers and tributaries which flow west into the Arabian Sea and east into the plains of peninsular India. These rivers and tributaries are the life-line of fishing and farming communities.

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In Goa, this mountain range traverses across the eastern talukas of Sattari, Sanguem and Canacona in a north to south direction.

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Certain areas of the mountain range were already under legal protection because they were part of the Mollem Wildlife Sanctuary (admeasuring 240 sq kms) in Sanguem taluka and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (admeasuring 95 sq kms) in Canacona taluka. However, the range was open for illegal encroachment, mining, tree felling, poaching in unprotected areas in Sattari taluka which fell north of Mollem sanctuary and the areas to its south in Sanguem and Canacona talukas.

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In March, 1999, a group of activists from Goa, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai and Belgaum called upon the Governor at Cabo Raj Bhavan and apprised him of these areas which needed long term protection. They also discussed the presence of the tiger in these magnificent forest ranges of Goa.

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Lt. General Jacob had already issued instructions to his Conservator of Forests Mr. Richard D'Souza regarding the protection of Mhadei and Netravali forests. Mr. D'Souza was present during the meeting and the Governor asked him to hasten the administrative work related to granting legal protection to the unprotected forest ranges of Goa.

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During the next couple of months, the forest department collected data on local ecological and cultural areas of importance and from international publications on tiger habitats which specifically refer to these regions as one of the finest tiger habitats in the world.

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On 2nd June 1999, Lt. General Jacob notified two new protected areas in Goa's mountain ranges. The two new notified areas were the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary admeasuring 209 sq kms in Sattari taluka and the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary in Sanguem taluka admeasuring 211 sq kms. The sanctuaries were appropriately named after the main tributaries of Goa's lifelines -- Mandovi and Zuari.

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The Mhadei tributary originates from the forests of Sattari and the Netravali emerges out from the forests of Sanguem.

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With a single stroke, the entire Western Ghats mountain range of Goa was consolidated into one single contiguous protected unit admeasuring 754 sq kms. After President's rule ended in Goa, the elected politicians left no stone unturned in efforts to denotify these areas. A one-man committee was appointed to suggest ways and means to revoke the notifications. Mr. Mazalkar, an ex-forest officer, was chosen for the task. Fortunately, revoking a notification of a wildlife sanctuary requires approval from the Wildlife Advisory Board of India. Repeated attempts by the Goa government to alter the notified areas were stalled at the centre.

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In 2003, Claude Alvarez of Goa Foundation petitioned the matter in the Central Empowered Committee (CEC); a special bench appointed by the Supreme Court of India to oversee matters related to environmental issues. The petition was related to the closure of mines within the two sanctuaries.

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The CEC passed an order favoring Goa Foundation's petition.

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In the last decade, several environmentalists supporting the two sanctuaries have drawn the ire of politicians. Amongst them is Rajendra Kerkar from Sattari who despite being subjected to threats has tirelessly mobilized the opinions of villagers and the general public in support of the notified areas.

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In year 2000, Kerkar launched the Vivekananda Environmental Awareness Brigade (VEAB) specifically to counteract attempts to revoke the notifications and to raise ecological awareness in rural communities in Sattari taluka. Concerned NGOs and citizens did their best over the last decade to oppose all government efforts to make any changes to the notifications.

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Some of those who have rallied for the sanctuaries are as follows: Paresh Porob, Nirmal Kulkarni, Tullaluh D'Silva, Nitin Sawant, Amrut Singh, Vijay Gaonkar, Clinton Vaz, Ramesh Gauns, Gopinath Gavas, Sebastian Rodrigues, Pankaj Lad, Arnold Noronha, Siddarth Karapurkar, Deepak Gavas and Parag Rangnekar amongst others. Frederick Noronha, Mayabhushan Nagvekar, Govind Khanolkar, Hartman D'Souza and the Times of India correspondent from Goa Paul Fernandes are amongst several journalists who have written in support of the sanctuaries in the local and national newspapers.

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Noted Goan scientist Dr. Nandakumar Kamat who regularly writes on a diverse range of issues in Goan newspapers has consistently written in support of the two protected areas.

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On a national level, several NGOs and the Indian Wildlife Advisory Board have vigorously defended the two sanctuaries. Bittu Sahgal, Editor of Sanctuary-Asia, India's leading magazine on Wildlife, has visited the region in the last decade. London-based Ms. Carmen Miranda -- a prominent member of the Goan diaspora who has been involved in a relentless battle against destructive mining activities in Goa – has always been vocal of the need to further consolidate these regions.

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Slowly over the last decade, the official status of sanctuaries has been entrenched. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), New Delhi added the sanctuaries to the list of protected areas of India. The MOEF also disbursed funds from the centre to Goa for the management of the new areas. These funds were returned to the centre because they were not utilized by the forest department. However, the forest department officially acknowledged the two new sanctuaries in its official records, posters and pamphlets.

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Last year, after more than a decade, the forest department commenced work on transferring the regions from its territorial department to its wildlife department. Creation of additional posts, recruitment of staff and identification of boundaries are some areas on which some progress has been made. The sanctuaries have also been incorporated into the documentation of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) appointed by the MOEF in March 2010 and the State's regional plan for year 2021.

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Despite these developments, more needs to be done swiftly.

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Over the last couple of years, there have been reports of tiger sightings in Goa. Last year, a tiger was brutally killed in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and the news of the killing was widely reported in the local and national news media. The killing was also referred to in the Lok Sabha by the Union minister of Environment and Forests Mr. Jairam Ramesh during a question hour session. The matter was investigated, arrests were made, and the case continues.

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The Goa forest department has not carried out a regular and properly conducted tiger census by using modern techniques and methods. The tiger's presence has always been down-played by the department. It is ironic that Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary (admeasuring 550 sq kms) and Anshi National Park (admeasuring 250 sq kms) in the Uttar Kannada district of neighboring Karnataka are Project Tiger Reserves with special funding from the state and centre. These two regions are geographically contiguous with south Goa.

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After the two sanctuaries in Goa were notified on 2nd June 1999, the Karnataka Wildlife Division had proposed the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary admeasuring 550 sq kms to the east of the Goan mountain range. This was done in the third week of June, 1999. The proposal clearly mentions the presence of the Royal Bengal Tiger in the region -- a view based on the survey done by the then-Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) of Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary, Avtaar Singh. Mr. Singh has been trained at the prestigious Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun.

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In February 2010, the Karnataka Forest department finally notified the Bhimgad Wildlife sanctuary (admeasuring 131 sq kms to the east of the Goan mountain range). Once again, the notification clearly mentions the presence of the tiger. It is ironic that Karnataka has taken affirmative steps to protect the Tiger's habitat to all regions bordering Goa while Goa has downplayed the tiger's presence and allowed the tiger's habitat to be plundered by mining interests.

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The need of the hour is to do all in our means to 1) Declare the entire 754 sq kms mountain range of Goa as *Goa Tiger Reserve*; and 2) Get the Project Tiger program extended northwards from Karnataka into Goa 3) Enforce the one km ecologically sensitive buffer zone west of the entire protected belt as clearly laid out in the State Regional Plan 2011 and 4) Enforce a complete moratorium on mining in Goa.

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The people of Goa owe something to Lt. General Jacob. As Chief of Staff (COS), Eastern command, he is well known for his critical and decisive role in masterminding the surrender of the Pakistani Army in the 1971 war, the birth of Bangladesh and the emergence of India as a regional power.

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This is been clearly acknowledged by Pakistani author Shuja Nawaz in his book *Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its army and the wars within*. But small facts about him are less known.

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When he visited London as Goa's Governor to attend a Commonwealth meeting of NGOs, he paid for his own airfare and accommodation to avoid imposing a financial burden on the state. This fact was cited in an editorial in a local newspaper after his term ended. Today, in his late eighties, he lives a retired life in a modest apartment in Delhi.

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In giving Goa the finest administration it has ever had (albeit for a brief period), Lt. General Jacob left behind a legacy for Goans to cherish. After the notification of the two sanctuaries, he had stated that the declaration of saving the forests of Goa was a much bigger victory than the surrender of Pakistani forces during the Bangladesh war.

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The writer of this article who has worked closely with the Governor and the forest department staff during the notification process appeals to the 14,000 strong Goanet online network to collectively work towards the conservation of Goa's priceless natural heritage and prevent it from falling to the forces of destruction and greed. This is the minimum we can do for a man who has been brilliant, courageous and selfless all throughout his life towards India and the welfare of its people.