Page 278 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

has a turnover in excess of 150 crore ( 1.5 billion) per annum. Invaluable thorium deposits would
be affected, which are too important for our nuclear fuel requirements.

Professor Tad Murthy, the world renowned tsunami expert, who advised the Government of India
on the tsunami warning system and edited the Tsunami Journal for over 20 years, has also warned
that the present Setusamudram route may result in tsunami waves hitting Kerala more fiercely. In a

reply to a query regarding the Sethusamudram’s impact, he wrote, “During the Indian Ocean tsunami
of December 26, 2004, the southern part of Kerala was generally spared from a major tsunami,
mainly because the tsunami waves from Sumatra region travelling south of the Sri Lankan island,
partially diffracted northward and affected the central part of the Kerala coast. Since the tsunami is a
long gravity wave (similar to tides and storm surges) during the diffraction process, the rather wide
turn it has to take spared the south Kerala coast. On the other hand, deepening the Sethu Canal might
provide a more direct route for the tsunami and this could impact south Kerala.” Putting a virtual stop

to the controversial Sethusamudram canal project, the Supreme Court on April 21, 2010 decided to
wait for a “full and comprehensive” Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) on the feasibility of an
alternative route through Dhanuskodi instead of Ram Setu.

MAJOR WORLD ORGANIZATIONS

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)

As the name suggests it is an international organization dealing with the rules of trade between
nations. It constitutes the permanent institutional framework for the multilateral trading system. WTO
came into being on January 1, 1995 and at present consists of 150 member countries. Its permanent
HQ is in Geneva. Before its formation, the General Agreements of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had
been providing the rules for the global trading system since 1948.

Largest GATT round of negotiation which lasted from 1986 to 1994 led to the WTO’s creation.
During Uruguay round, over 60 developing countries, now part of WTO implemented trade
liberalization programme. Later summits were held at the following venues.

First summit was held at Singapore in 1996. The next summit was held at Cancun in 2003.

The last summit at ministerial level was held at Hong Kong in 2005.

World Trade Organization had a very turbulent start right from its inception where the trade
interests of member countries were found conflicting. Especially the disagreement was between the

developed and developing countries as agriculturists/farmers of respective countries felt they will be
severely harmed by WTO’s agreements.

Countries like India and Brazil are developing. Whereas countries like EU and US are the
developed ones. These developed countries want the Indian goods to be exported to them on its