THE LAST PAGE
“ When the king becomes
stronger & controls the nation , petty thief, terrorists n traitors feel d
heat n complain of intolerance in d society.” Chanakya ( 371—283 BC).
Does this mean, Chanakya’s
style of best admin practice is
Autocracy??? Chanakya was no
democrat; did Netaji want an autocratic India???
Hello all & welcome to
2016’s 1st edition of The Last
Page. This month, I shall deal
on the ongoing quest for
the final call on growth u/ MOdi Regime first. 15+ months are over since the Euphoria began &
he gave a momentous lecture as a
dalit / underprivileged PM of India .
Around 18 months later where do we stand?
And, why? Sensex is back to
almost where he began , after going up
to 30K mark. Shall it touch that mark again & shall India
ever be able to match China? If yes, then how? We
shall deliberate on, whether
economy is going on the right
track. As usual, my essay
shall be a consortium of essays that depict n draw the
ultimate picture very meticulously. At the end, you shall be the final call taker whether Govt
is in right direction. We whole heartedly welcome what has been done.
Yes, Fundamental changes are happening
& Structural changes are all sweeping
us. But can the real
masses benefit this way?
Modi’s Gujarat model itself is
questionable in so far as overall development & HDI growth has been
lackluster there. Along with GOI, we shall try to
discuss on the role of RBI in infusing growth stimulus.
Second, we shall discuss
on Tolerance , thru different
angles n paradigms. Intolerance of all sorts are overflowing
in the nation , as more n more
impediments to growth are besetting us.
Then, we shall deliberate
on Swachhata in detail & the pros, cons , possibility, reality of NAMO’s
slogan from practical perspectives.
Lastly, we shall
deal in comparative
growth models of our states,
their relative pros n cons and compulsive junoon of us to stay in developed states despite all odds.
How we love to adapt to uneasy lives.
And a bit of China
shall also be in the palate, both on pros
side & cons. It is still a dragon , but like war ravaged zones , big cities are sending back truck
full of labor from closed industries’ bunkers to
rural side.
In the face of serious attack of China on global economy, we got the following piece from Mr P
Chidambaram as a comparison between the Dragon & the dwarf , which subdues
all unnecessary exaggeration n glorification of
Indian economic decade by the BJP hierarchy.
***India became independent in 1947; the Communist Party of China
(CPC) proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949. However, the two
countries are not siblings separated by two years. India’s multi-party
democracy is constantly compared with the one-party system of China. When China
grew at a blistering pace, as it did for nearly three decades, India’s growth
rates, pre-liberalization and post-liberalization, appeared tepid and insufficient.
When China’s growth rate has slowed down, some in India—and many in the
government—seem to think it is a cause for celebration!
China has been the main driver of world growth for a decade.
Through the 1997 Asian currency crisis and through the 2008 international
financial crisis, China continued to grow at an unprecedented rate. China
became the world’s factory—from toys to shoes to steel to capital goods. China
also accumulated the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves which at one
point stood at an unbelievable $4 trillion. It was only a matter of time before
Chinese entrepreneurs got into the leader-board in non-manufacturing. Among the
world’s leading service sector companies are China Mobile, China Life Insurance
and Alibaba. Among the world’s top five banks, three are Chinese banks.
China’s focus
Keen observers of China are agreed that China’s leadership
remains focused on two issues. The first is to maintain the absolute control of
the CPC over all organs of the state and all entities in the country and the
second is to promote rapid economic growth and become the world’s largest
economy. In the pursuit of the latter goal, China’s economy has gone through
many ‘transitions’ and is undergoing one today. It has to transit from
manufacturing to services, investment-driven to consumption-driven economy, and
export-led to domestic demand-led growth. Besides other causal factors, the
pain and price of the transition are reflected in the slowdown of GDP growth
and the depreciation of the currency (yuan).Despite the slowdown to 6.9% in
2015, China had a record trade surplus of $595 billion. Despite capital flowing
out at an average rate of $100 billion a month during the last eight months,
China’s reserves are at $3.3 trillion. Despite world demand falling, China’s
exports in 2015 declined by only 2.5% over 2014. And despite bad investments,
rising debt and loss of confidence among savers, the yuan depreciated by only
6% in 2015.In comparison, India’s GDP growth in 2015-16 is not likely to exceed
7%, India’s exports have declined by 18.08% during April-December 2015 over the
same period last year, there will be a current account deficit of about $30
billion, and the rupee has depreciated by 9% during April 2015 to January 2016.
The stock market indices are back to the levels they were in May 2014. Job
creation has practically collapsed.
Empty boast
There is no reason to boast that India is “doing better than
China” or that “India is the fastest growing large economy”. India’s economy
must transit from consumption-driven to investment-driven and from services-led
to manufacturing-led. We will also experience pain. Competition among countries
is different from competition among companies. It is not a zero sum game where
the pain of one country will be the gain of another. If China’s demand falls,
it will import less from India. If commodity prices do not recover, China will
continue to dump its products in India and Indian producers will suffer. If the
yuan’s volatility roils world currency markets, the rupee will also be hit. It
is believed that the RBI may have spent $3.6 billion in the first two weeks of
January to arrest the depreciation of the rupee. So, in the short run, China’s
woes may cause us more pain, not less. Last September, it was reported that the
Prime Minister had called a meeting of industry leaders to discuss whether and
how India could take advantage of the situation where the Chinese economy
appeared to be in trouble. Some advisers are reported to have presented the
situation as an ‘opportunity’ for India. Even now, there are some commentators
who believe that India can take ‘advantage’ of the situation. Such advice is
not only misplaced but could lead to misjudgments and wrong prescriptions for
the problems that the country is likely to face.
The transition
The Prime Minister must indeed initiate a dialogue. The
conversation should be about the real issues: the exchange rate and how India
should deal with the probability of some depreciation; the travails of Indian
producers and how the government can help them in the near term; how to arrest
and then reverse the decline in exports; and how to enthuse Indian investors to
make investments in the real economy (especially in manufacturing industries)
when the reality is that many current projects are either stalled or have been
scrapped. Above all, the Prime Minister must begin a conversation on how to
initiate and manage the transition of India’s economy that I referred to
earlier. China is not India’s sibling, nor is China India’s nemesis. It is a
country that has recognized the imperative and the difficulties of transiting
to a market economy and is struggling to find the right mix of policies. India
is in the same situation.
Website: pchidambaram.in/@Pchidambaram_
2015 has seen a decade of
decay in birth rate among downtrodden, whereby backward Muslim
& not so backward Hindu growth rate &
demographic distribution has stabilized at 87-10 in AP to TN 88-6, MH 80:12, AS61:34, WB
71: 27, JK 28:68, UP 80: 19, GJ 89:10,
overall 80:14. However, Muslims have
better women skewing % at 951 to 1000 as against Hindus with 936 women to 1000 men. Does it indicate more empowerment despite
purdah & lesser dowry burden in
Muslims ???
No justice was delivered
by murderers of Union
Carbide to Bhopal victims & India, fighting for much lesser restriction
on GNG limits for unfettered growth, is
apprehending its capital surpassing
Beijing in pollution.
***Just to cut cost of administration Gandhi wanted dominion
status of India which in his interpretation INDEPENDENCE."The iniquities
sampled above are maintained in order to carry on a foreign administration,
demonstrably the most expensive in the world. Take your own salary. It is over
Rs. 21,000 per month, besides many other indirect additions. The British Prime
Minister gets £5,000 per year, i.e. over Rs. 5,400 per month at the present
rate of exchange. You are getting over Rs. 700 per day against India's
average income of less than two annas per day. The Prime Minister gets Rs. 180
per day against Great Britain's average income of nearly Rs. 2 per day. Thus
you are getting much over five thousand times India's average income. The
British Prime Minister is getting only ninety times Britain's average income.
On bended knee I ask you to ponder over this phenomenon. I have taken a
personal illustration to drive home a painful truth. I have too great a regard
for you as a man to wish to hurt your feelings. I know that you do not need the
salary you get. Probably the whole of your salary goes for charity. But a
system that provides for such an arrangement deserves to be summarily scrapped.
What is true of the Vice regal salary is true generally of the whole
administration.
A radical cutting down of the revenue, therefore, depends upon
an equally radical reduction in the expenses of the administration. This means
a transformation of the scheme of Government. This transformation is impossible
without Independence."
"But the resolution of Independence should cause no alarm,
if the word Dominion Status mentioned in your announcement had been used in its
accepted sense. For, has it not been admitted by responsible British statesmen,
that Dominion Status is virtual Independence? What, however, I fear is that
there never has been any intention of granting such Dominion Status to India in
the immediate future."
Now, question is, why cannot India take the lead? Let us
see
****Coming to GDP growth
@ Indian storyboard, since the inception
of RTE, the real growth in quality of
education has really deteriorated n
depleted. And the no of seats vacant in
engg colleges is between 12K & 28 K. Around 80% of MBA
& MCA seats are vacant, too. So, India
has seen mushrooming 11744 agro deaths in 2014 & her NCRB putting
2015 figures at a juggled 5650 . How? Of
9 crore agro households, we have 58%
rural ones & 70% of this no lives on <an acre of land, earning 4152/- pm, against an exp of 5403/- pm. Even
better marginal farmers with land
holding between 2.5—5 acre ( 25% in no)
also run on a monthly deficit of around Rs 800/- pm. Arjun Sengupta
Committee put average monthly income at
even lower at just 2115/- pm. It is a
reckoned fact that till NERGA was in full force, an
additional of 40/- to 80/- per day* 100 days
used to come to each adult of such households, reducing their needs to go out to fertile states in search of jobs. We saw a
wane on emigration from Telengana n Jharkhand
to AP-MH & Bihar respectively
& in fact, Punjab lobby was up in
arms as the rich agro state faced acute dearth of cheap n bonded labor. As a staunch opponent of Senonomics, HDI in not a principal development indicator for Dr Pangharya & Dr Subramanyan, the 2 right
eco stalwarts & so they have
prescribed reduction of NERGA to bare minimum. The statistics proves it
all. As depicted by GOI’s MRD
website on NERGA, approved labor budget has got reduced to just 221 cr in 14-15 against 279 cr in
12-13. Person-days generated has also
come down from 230 cr to 166 cr in the same period. Average wageday per
household is also down from 46 to 36 ( same
trend for SC/ST), & no of
households completing 100 wage days is down from 52 lac to 25 lac ( 15-16 just 11lac) Total households participation has also come
down from 5 cr to 4 cr. GPs with nil exp on this count is also
up from 25 K to 32 K & now 39K. This year just 12 lac jobs are completed against 12-13’s 26 lac. % component of labor in NERGA jobs is down to
24 from 28 & wages exp this year is
just Rs 20 K cr against 12-13’s Rs 27 K Cr. % component of agro is up by 10%
over 12-13’s 56%.
Indian Express 30.1.16---Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan
has indicated that “existing loans will have to be written down significantly” by
banks in order to tackle the rising menace of non-performing assets.Rajan, who
made some plain speaking about the banking sector, also said “some banks will
have to merge to optimise their use of resources” and advised the government to
allow the boards more freedom to differentiate their (public sector) banks and
offer more compensation for bank directors.“If loans are written down, the
promoter brings in more equity, and other stakeholders like the tariff
authorities or the local government chip in, the project may have a strong
chance of revival, and the promoter will be incentivised to try his utmost to
put it back on track. But to do all this deep surgery, the bank has to classify
the asset as a non performing asset (NPA), a label banks are eager to avoid,”
Rajan said. Alternatively, instead of deep surgery, the banks could apply band
aids, they could “extend and pretend”, lending the promoter the money he needs
to make loan payments. “The project’s debt obligations grow, the promoter loses
further interest, and the project goes into further losses,” he said while
delivering the CD Deshmukh lecture in New Delhi.Public sector banks are sitting
on over Rs 7,00,000 crore stressed assets (including NPAs and restructured
loans). The RBI has already asked banks to review certain loan accounts and
their classification over the two quarters ending December 31, 2015 and March
31, 2016. The RBI has a list of accounts which banks will have to recognise as
NPAs on the books even though on payments, they are not 90 days behind on the
due dates.As bank health recovers, the issue of PSU banks mergers can be
addressed, he said. “Almost surely, some banks will have to merge to optimise
their use of resources. But talking of bank mergers, which take a lot of
management attention, especially when each bank management is preoccupied with
dealing with stressed assets, is probably premature,” Rajan said. He said more
decisions need to be decentralised from the government to the PSB boards, once
they have been fully professionalised. “If we want to address the concern that
many public banks have identical strategies and are competing for the same pie,
we have to allow the boards more freedom to differentiate their banks,” Rajan
said. On compensation for board members, Rajan said: “We have to pay board
members of PSBs a market compensation if we are to attract decent talent.”While
the profitability of some banks may be impaired in the short run, the system,
once cleaned, will be able to support economic growth in a sustainable and
profitable way, he said.
So, banking system in India
is at one of the evil roots. Can India take a cue from Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate declaration?? Can’t RBI too make CDR/ SLR as near 1?? Or, what if
the GOI puts in the whole of Rs
17K crore mopped up just in last 3 months into welfare economy?? Just 1% of
budget deficit increase on GDP
releases to economy Rs 9 lac
crore. And , when Rs 16 lac crore of bank
funds are blocked in industries, what
better way is there to garner some more funds??
Now, let us hear, what Mr
Rajan says on that—
Rajan said that macroeconomic stability during the global
turmoil cannot be risked and the government and RBI should continue to bring
down inflation.
"As Brazil's experience suggests, the enormous costs of
becoming an unstable country far outweigh any small growth benefits that can be
obtained through aggressive policies. We should be very careful about
jeopardising our single most important strength during this period of global
turmoil - macroeconomic stability," he said here.Delivering the CD
Deshmukh Memorial lecture, Rajan said there is a public discussion whether
India should yet again postpone fiscal consolidation path .
"Unfortunately, the growth multipliers on government spending at this
juncture are likely to be much smaller, so more spending will probably hurt
debt dynamics. Put differently, it is worth asking if there really are very
high-return investments that we are foregoing by staying on the consolidation
path?" he said. "So we actually expanded the aggregate deficit
in the last calendar year. With UDAY, the scheme to revive state power
distribution companies, coming into operation in the next fiscal, it is
unlikely that states will be shrinking their deficits, which puts pressure on
the centre to adjust more," he said.
In folded hands, now let
us ask , sir, tell us, what ‘s to be done?? Kly tell us straight, no round about talks.
Professor Nouriel Roubini who was sharing the stage with
Panagariya at the ET GBS agreed that the current government is moving in the
right direction. "Key thing for India is to continue what they are
doing but the country needs to accelerate their pace of reform," Roubini
said.
Respected Rajan Sahab, why cannot India deficit finance the Rs 70 K crore? And what is
this govt’s role on Rs 6 lac
crore held up in a handful of
industries? Just Rs 3770 crore of black money was
recovered by GOI; is it even
peanuts in economic reforms??
ET, 15.6.15---The RBI has since January cut the repo rate by 75
basis points and is regarded by its critics as being behind the curve,
especially in relation to counterparts in Asia that have opted for aggressive
cuts to boost growth. The government has been quick to get off the starting
blocks with April spending at a two decade high of 8.7 per cent of the amount
budgeted for the entire fiscal year. This pattern is set to continue.
"Early spending can give the much needed impetus to growth," the
official said.
Why cannot RBI go a
step bolder & bring in d revolution??? Just
read below, amidst all menaces n
messes of NPAs & mismanagements, tagged to
both PSu & pvt banks ( more on psu banks obviously) , but undeniable remains the contribution of
SBI & a host
of other banks in nation building,
leaving apart their economic
ruining by political circles.
India Today 23.1.16 , Mahesh Naik—
Kalim Khan, 26, cycles to every nook and corner of the Aul block
in Kendrapara district, some 100 km from Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa, to
sell ITC's Mangaldeep agarbattis, Sunfeast Yippee noodles, Fiama/Vivel soaps
and Aashirvaad flour. Till a year ago, the college dropout with a family of
close to a dozen to support, was unemployed. His life changed after he enrolled
for 15-day training at State Bank of India's (SBI's) Rural Self Employment
Training Institute (RSETI) that it conducts under tie-ups with big companies
such as ITC "Our household income has doubled. I have also taken a bank
loan of Rs 50,000 to expand my business," says a beaming Khan, who earns
up to Rs 8,000 a month. Khan's younger brother is now eagerly waiting for the
next training programme in the district so that he, too, can join.
Khan is among the 139,805 rural youth who have got employed out
of the 295,830 that SBI has trained since 2009 at its 11,160 RSETI programmes
across 116 branches. It has, over the past one year, substantially scaled up
the initiative by tying up with several companies such as Larsen & Toubro,
Kansai-Nerolac Paints, Ambuja Cements and TVS Motors. The aim is to generate opportunities
for people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Such initiatives, plus the sheer reach of its 16,000-plus
branches (of which 66 per cent are in rural and semi-urban areas) and one-fifth
credit exposure to agriculture and small and medium enterprise, or SME,
segments, got SBI selected as the best in financial inclusion initiatives in
the Business Today-KPMG Best Bank awards for 2015.
SBI's financial inclusion initiatives date back to 1951, when
the first Five-Year Plan was launched. Until then, commercial banks, including
SBI's earlier avatar, Imperial Bank of India, used to focus primarily on urban
India. However, it was in 1973 that these initiatives started getting really
big and the bank started involving all its branches in a large number of welfare
activities and social causes. It was, for instance, among the first ones to
support self-help groups. It has also become a serious player among banks in
encouraging self-employment in rural areas through RSETI. More recently, it was
at the forefront of opening no-frills accounts under the Prime Minister Jan
Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
SBI's seriousness about skilling of rural youth can be gauged
from the fact that it keeps track of its students for two years to check on
their development and ensure that they are employed. It is also using the RSETI
platform to teach people about banking. "Financial inclusion is in the DNA
of SBI employees," says a former chairman of SBI.
The BC Plan
India's largest bank has been actively covering inaccessible
villages through its banking correspondents or BCs. BC is a representative
authorised to offer services such as cash transactions in areas where the bank
does not have a branch.
SBI, a pioneer in this, has close to 60,000 customer service
points. "Apart from being cheap, the model creates employment for BCs, who
receive commission from the bank for each and every service that they
offer," says Rajnish Kumar, Managing Director (National Banking Group),
SBI. "We had a three-year financial inclusion plan for covering villages and
panchayats. It started with places with a population of 10,000 and then came
down to 5,000 and then to 2,000. I can say we have 100 per cent achieved our
objective of financial inclusion," he says.
Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana
SBI had 85 million financial inclusion accounts, of which 44.5
million were under the PMJDY, as on September 2015. Close to 50 per cent
accounts under the PMJDY are active. The average balance is Rs 700. "Once
more and more funds start getting transferred into these accounts under the
Centre's direct benefit transfer scheme, they may become more active,"
says Kumar. The reason Kumar is sure about this is the integrated approach
adopted by the government. "It's not just an account. It comes with credit
linkage and insurance too," he says. SBI has already disbursed Rs 5,000
loan each to 170,000 account holders in the category. "All account holders
under the PMJDY are eligible for the loan. But we lend only when we see regular
transactions for six months." He adds, "We are being careful in
lending as we can't just burden the people with debt. We also have to see if
they can repay".
Kumar says the PMJDY accounts are not going to be a loss-making
proposition for the bank. "These are sticky accounts, and once opened will
stay with the bank for long. For instance, even if there is Rs 1,000 crore in
these accounts, it gives the bank an income of Rs 50-60 crore," says
Kumar. The math is simple. The bank pays the savings bank rate of 4 per cent
and deploys the money at 9-9.5 per cent. "We are sure about recovering the
money over a period of four-five years," he says.
Going Digital
SBI, like other banks, is betting big on digital channels, especially mobile, to reach out to people in rural and semi-urban areas. "We want small value transactions and small deposits and remittances to come through the digital channel," says Kumar. Last August, it launched its digital wallet, Buddy, for smartphone users. It is also planning to launch a similar version for feature phones to reach out to the masses. "By February-end or March we will roll out our mobile offering for phones with basic features that will be sufficient for making small payments such as buying tickets or paying for daily needs," says Kumar.
SBI is also not losing the opportunity to use the new
differentiated banking licence route to achieve its financial inclusion goals.
It has taken a 30 per cent stake in Reliance Industries-owned payments bank
that will roll out soon to provide services in unbanked areas.
Challenges
Challenges
SBI wants to touch the lives of people in many ways, but there
is a high cost attached to financial inclusion initiatives, which is one of the
reasons why private sector banks are not big in the space. Its aim is not only
to reach people at the bottom of the pyramid but also to offer them credit,
savings, investment and insurance products. "When we talk about rural and
semi-urban areas, what they currently require is a basic bank account, ability
to receive money in the account, small credit and social security through government
pension schemes, and personal accident and life insurance. Investments are
nowhere on the horizon," says Kumar.
"Due to the rising cost of acquiring customers, some banks
are taking financial inclusion initiatives under the umbrella of corporate social
responsibility," says a banker, on condition of anonymity,
While SBI is using every opportunity to serve the unbanked, it
is also conscious of the risks. In fact, agri and SME loans are among the
biggest contributors to the deteriorating asset quality. Both contribute 9 per
cent each to the bank's gross non-performing assets. "It's not just about
bringing more people into the banking system and giving them loans for income
generation. We also have to see that they generate sufficient income to repay
the loan," says Kumar.
Now, a glimpse at ET
GLOBAL SUMMIT, NEW DELHI , JAN 2016.Same old
wine in new bottles & continuous monologues OR
Any new directions??
You may be interested to know that: ( said an enigmatic PM
in ET Global Business summit)> India's highest ever production of ethanol as
blended fuel, benefiting sugar cane farmers, was in 2015. > The highest
number of new cooking gas connections to the rural poor was achieved in 2015.
> India's highest ever output of coal; generation of electricity was
achieved in 2015
> India's highest ever quantity of cargo handled by major ports was in 2015. > India's highest ever increase in railway capital expenditure was achieved in 2015. > India's highest ever rank in World Bank Doing Business indicators, was achieved in 2015.
> India's highest ever quantity of cargo handled by major ports was in 2015. > India's highest ever increase in railway capital expenditure was achieved in 2015. > India's highest ever rank in World Bank Doing Business indicators, was achieved in 2015.
All of what Modiji said on 30.1.16 were correct.
Coal deficit regime is past & all
thermal plants of India are coal surplus today. And Coal
inventory at mine heads of CIL is 40 million/ 4 crore MT. But , respected Modiji, has anything of what you
have said , contributed to greater
income for the masses/ greater
purchase power??
in 2013-14, the total number of National Highway
kilometres awarded was about 3500. This more than doubled in the first year of
this Government to nearly 8000 kilometres, an all-time high. This year we are
planning to award 10,000 kilometres. Let me give you more examples of
quantum leaps. The Shipping Corporation of India which made a loss of Rs 275
crore in 2013-14 made a profit of Rs 201 crore in 2014-15. This is a turnaround
of Rs 575 crore in one single year.
Modji gave 3 sermons for
growth----greater managerial efficiency. It means removing unnecessary controls
and distortions. Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. new opportunities for
citizens to progress and also give them a choice of opportunities.
increase the quality of life of the common citizen and even more so, the
quality of life of the poor. Quality of life may have an economic aspect, but
it is not economics alone. If a government is progressive, and runs an honest
and efficient administration, the biggest beneficiaries are the poor. I know
from my experience, that poor governance hurts the poor more than it hurts
others. Therefore, improved governance is as important as economic reform.
He said, “We have introduced a new and
comprehensive program of crop insurance. This empowers farmers to give their
best, with the State providing cover against risks beyond the farmer's control.
We have introduced soil health cards to empower our farmers We have also issued
a record number of debit cards to them. India is now one of the few countries
where the market share of an indigenous credit card brand exceeds 33%. The
Smart City mission has several 'firsts'. It is the first time that certain
areas in cities will be comprehensively developed in a systematic and
qualitative way. These areas will act as 'light houses' which will eventually
influence the rest of the city. It is the first time that there has been
such extensive citizen consultation. Nearly 2.5 million people participated
through contests, discussions, polls, blogs and talks on the MyGov platform.
This is a major break from the top-down approach to urban planning. We
have for the first time appointed several heads of public sector banks from the
private sector. Transparent auctions have cleaned up the natural resources
sector which was riddled with scandals. We have ended the era of high level
corruption. We have to eliminate bad subsidies, whether or not they are
called subsidies. But some subsidies may be necessary to protect the poor and
the needy and give them a fair chance to succeed. Hence my aim is not to
eliminate subsidies but to rationalize and target them.1,827 Central laws have
been identified for repeal. Out of these, 125 have already been
repealed. Bills for repealing another 758 have been passed by the Lok
Sabha and are awaiting the approval of the Upper House.”.” W
Modiji, we know, 1.5 years are not at all sufficient for delivery. But u created that euphoria. In 2014. Today, both top line & bottom line of Steel industry are down & mirred deep into red. Malice is
much deeper & way out of the crisis is not visible. Your people are
busy beating Hindutva &
untouchability & intolerance
drums … Yaa, you have done all of above,
but for whom?? How many of us have
benefited?? Sensex is falling. Forget
Steel, even Cement is unable to
look up. Days are worse than when NAMO began after a decade of misgovernance & indecisiveness.
Unless govt chips in largely to arrest
the recession, mass job loss ( open exit policy is in force) cannot be arrested. A CFO / CMO / CEO of a start up
gets retrenched , to be hired @ 50% & bond, by another…
Induced by steel, Stainless steel etc sectors , GOI has imposed anti dumping duty on Imports, to get a further surprise of equivalent price cuts
by Chineese giants the next day. Iran is
open today; Russia n Japan arte holding
excess stocks ; minerals are trading at rock bottom prices …but exports
have stopped for steel products…
and in an open world , capital / engg goods industry is strong enough to stop steel
industry’s ploy to sell
swadeshi costlier steel, abandoning
cheaper steel from China, Korea, Japan n Russia, especially Chineese dumps. Simply by restricting steel imports
to your very close Adani port ( most distant from east) may not serve enough purpose. This year, steel, cement, power & a host
of other industries incl IT n start ups
are expecting lay offs ( a
handful of Rs crore employments too) ,& very marginal increment n promotion. Modi sir, this was the last thing we imagined when we voted you
to power overwhelmingly . And all of us
across Bihar, Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab are not full. There is no Congress,
as a messiah you rescue us. Open the fund flows, let poor get richer, let
inflation be a bit more but
let projects kick off…Yes, your
IASes
***The thrill is gone: Where India stands after almost two years
of Modi’s leadership
Washington: The thrill is gone, lamented the late blues guitar
master B B King. Of course, when playing the blues he couldn’t really begin a
song by exuding the joy of life. But those opening words of that King
composition kept playing in my mind while spending the past few weeks in India.
The thrill indeed is gone, even if the popular mood isn’t quite bleak yet.The
excited anticipation of India about to turn a corner that was evident in the
early months of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government appears to have
evaporated, within India as well as outside. Disappointment has begun to eclipse
optimism about the country’s medium term prospects. For a short while India’s
image shone across the world. Citizens of the largest democratic nation on
earth, clamoring for profound change, had peacefully replaced one government
with another. A bit short of two years later, however, not much has
changed. India remains where it was. The economy isn’t doing badly even if the
growth rate of 7.5% is disputed by some. India and the US are two modest
standouts among the world’s major economies most of which, from China to the
EU, are being buffeted by winds of slowing demand amidst gathering uncertainty.
Falling oil prices, the benefits of which the government hasn’t passed on to
consumers, have helped control inflation and allowed a reduction in official interest
rates. While a few innovations in the economic structure have been implemented,
badly necessary major reforms haven’t been carried out, partly because of
opposition politics but also because of poor executive handling. Without
delving into details we can look upon the economy as a relatively positive spot
in the picture of India as it appears to global spectators. That overall
picture remains unimpressive. Too many blotches have appeared on it. These have
internal as well as external dimensions. On secular tolerance, on freedom of
speech, on institutional functioning and on other liberal democratic markers,
India’s image has been damaged. What many feared would be a capitulation of the
Modi government to tendencies and demands of the far right in fact happened in
several instances that featured prominently in the international media to sour
global public opinion. On top of that came a slew of news stories of the
pollution menacing health and longevity in Indian cities. Of the world’s 20
most polluted cities, 13 are in India, including the worst – the capital city
of Delhi. Visiting India today is not an enticing idea. It was in his
aggressive worldwide pursuit of external relations that Modi surprised
observers and critics in his first year as prime minister. He used personal
diplomacy as a singular tactic to win over minds and develop international
goodwill. He undertook many more foreign trips in that first year than had any
previous prime minister. Smiles, bear hugs and vigorous handshakes formed his signature
style of dealing with global leaders. But was it effective? Not really, if you
are looking for any significant change in the quality of relationships with
major powers. Relations with the US chug along in pretty much the same way as
they did under the previous government, notwithstanding two visits by President
Barack Obama to India and two by Modi to the US. Ditto for China and the EU,
though India’s level of understanding with Japan has improved noticeably under
Modi and Shinzo Abe. Globally, India’s face remains in the second row. In the
neighborhood, bear hugs haven’t worked well with Nepal and Pakistan. Anti-India
feelings are growing in Nepal; there is talk in Kathmandu of a balancing need
for better Nepal-China ties. And, as the fallout of the last optically
impressive unannounced visit by Modi to Lahore demonstrated, no amount of
hugging and smiling can change the reality of the Pakistani military’s outlook.
Every civilian move to advance towards better India-Pakistan relations is
thwarted by a military-intelligence inspired terrorist attack in India that
leads to a derailment of the peace train. In Pakistan, it’s the generals and
spooks of Rawalpindi who are in charge of strategy and external relations, not
the civilians in Islamabad. All in all, not much has changed for India after
nearly two years of Modi’s leadership. Granted, it may be too early to expect
any real change. But the thrill of expectation has gone.
****Bigots and charlatans are controlling culture and education,
says Pranab Bardhan
Economist Pranab Bardhan, Professor at Berkeley coined the
phrase “Bhagwat vs Bhagwati” for the growth vs Hindutva challenge facing the
BJP government. He has recently published a collection of his popular essays
entitled, ‘Globalisation, Democracy and Corruption: an Indian perspective.’ He
tells TOI’s Sagarika Ghose that today Bhagwat co-exists with Bhagwati.
One of the campaign promises of the BJP was to end the scams of
the UPA. Has corruption significantly declined since the BJP government came to
power?
Even ignoring the current scams in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and elsewhere, it’s a little superficial to think that corruption has decreased
since this government came to power, because the structural reasons for
corruption remain. A few years back we used to hear about the mining mafia, we
don’t hear about it that much now. This is largely because the prices of
minerals have gone down globally and political allocation of mineral and other
natural resources doesn’t make much money anymore. So the decline of the
resource-related scams has little to do with the Modi government. Election
expenses are an important structural source of corruption. The ruling party
spent a staggeringly large amount of money (collected one presumes from the
corporate sector) in the last national election and there must be a payback
some time. Also, a lot depends on what we call ‘corruption’. Cronyism is also a
form of corruption. This government, like the previous one, gives huge tax
concessions and other favors to the corporate sector, a sort of corporate dole,
often to politically-connected business groups.
Also when the main monitoring agency for corruption, the CBI, is
subject to political manipulation, how can corruption be checked? In China
local officials are promoted on the basis of how well the local economies under
them perform. There’s thus an in-built check against stealing too much because
if the local economy suffers, officials don’t get promoted. In India officials
are promoted according to seniority, so there’s no check on looting. Structural
reform in administration is important if you want to end corruption.
Co-operative federalism is a buzz word of this government, is it
working well?
Co-operative federalism is a catchy slogan but there’s not yet
enough to go by. The last Finance Commission moved in the right direction
providing for more of tax proceeds going to states. However, earnings from
central cesses like the Swach Bharat cess and the education cess are not shared
with the states. Also, schemes which were earlier sponsored by the Centre have
been pushed to the states so their expenditure liabilities have gone up. In the
midst of talk of devolution of power, there seems to be more centralization of
authority in the PMO than ever before. Before the Bihar elections when Modi
announced in a public meeting a large special package for Bihar with an
auction-style drama, without consulting the state officials, that is
cooperative federalism Modi-style. There was a feeling that the Planning
Commission was distributing money arbitrarily but its replacement the Niti
Aayog has no power to distribute such money. Such monies are now allocated by
the Finance Ministry. How is this federalism? Niti Aayog is just another think
tank; its financial allocation powers have been taken away, which is why many
chief ministers don’t take it too seriously. Also, most decisions about the
so-called smart cities are being taken centrally, states are hardly involved.
Your overall assessment of the economic policies of the Modi
government?
Lots of catchy slogans, the PM is an excellent spin master but
follow-ups do not match the dramatic initial gestures. Some schemes with new
names are simply continuations of earlier programmes, as in streamlining of
subsidies, direct benefit schemes, Aadhar and coal auctions. Swach Bharat is a
continuation of Nirmal Bharat and the unexamined issue is, why many toilets
built under the earlier programme were not used. There are several questions
here, including the important one of Hindu cultural taboos about toilet
cleaning.The biggest problem to me is that this government came to power on the
promise of creating jobs, which has hardly been kept so far. You see, the so
called `Gujarat model’ is a high growth model but it’s not a job-creating
model. Much of growth in Gujarat was in petrochemicals, petroleum refineries
and pharmaceuticals; those are highly capital-intensive or skill-intensive.
They do not give jobs to the relatively uneducated unskilled vast numbers of
India’s youth.There’s not been much follow through on the jobs front, despite
Make in India, Skill India, etc.
So, who is winning Bhagwat or Bhagwati?
There is a kind of division of labour in the new regime between
RSS and its ex-pracharak PM. Incremental economic reform (some of it a
continuation of the policies of the UPA regime) will not be objected to by the
populist-nationalists in the RSS, as long as the latter are given a free hand
in controlling the agenda of education, culture and history.The Dinanath
Batraisation of textbooks (in effect distorting history and poisoning the minds
of young people) continues, which is the long-lasting damage. In India there’s
always been an unhealthy amount of state control over education and culture,
but the current regime has mobilised an unusually large number of bigots and
charlatans for this job. In general the average competence level of ministers
in this government is quite low (compared, say, even to Vajpayee’s government).
Bhagwat and Bhagwati exist in tandem. If the economy doesn’t do well, and young
people get frustrated, they can always ratchet up the cultural stuff–cows, love
jihad, beef, and the rest of it. There was a surge in the creation of bank
accounts for the poor a few years back when NREGA wages started being paid into
bank accounts. The Jan Dhan yojana is more vigorous, but will not mean much as
long as the accounts remain dormant. Budget cutting and inordinate delay in
wage payments are slowly smothering NREGA.
And Modiji is continuing
the blame of his mis-governance on UPA.
Or, should we say, or , should we say, Pangharia & Arvind Subramnyan are
trying to hide their obscurity behind the veil of some
artificially created follies of
Dr Sen??? And our FM Arun Jaitleyji is still juggling among 3.3 & 3.9% of GDP as Budgetary deficit target !!!! Why???
Why cannot India manage with a Budget deficit of >5%?? In 2013 US had it 6.8% &
UK,8.2%. France had it 4.9%. However, yaa, US deficit is today down to
2.7%. And if Bank of Japan offers
loans @ negative interests , why
not India
***Shillong, Jan 29 (IANS) Suicides by famers in India are
likely to be reduced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-farmers schemes,
BJP leader Vijaypal Singh Tomar said on Friday."Unlike during the Congress
government, the BJP government has taken steps to address this issue (farmer
suicides) by launching several schemes which will protect the interest of the famers,"
Tomar, the president of the BJP Kisan Morcha, told journalists here.
He said that over 2.5 lakh farmers committed suicide and 3.7
crore farmers have left farming during the last 15 years due to "the
mismanagement of the Congress and its failure to adopt policies which should be
in the interest of the faming community". However, Prime Minister Modi has
taken several decisions including the sanctioning of Rs.50,000 crore for the
five year plan for implementation of Prime Minister Krishi Sichai Yojana, out
of which Rs.5,300 crore was released during the first year," he said,
adding the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme has also been launched earlier
this month.
Stating that excess rain and hailstorm have been included in
natural calamity category, he said: "The amount of compensation has been
increased for the crop damage up to the extent of 33 percent instead of 50
percent."The limit of compensation has been increased from 1 hectare to 2
hectares. The amount has been increased from Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.4 lakh in case
of death of farmers due to natural calamity."Tomar also noted that 14
crore farmers will be given Soil Health Card in the next three years for which
the government has allocated Rs.568 crore.
It is not being assimilated by public of India, what NAMO is really up to? How many cards is he having in his pocket? In this age
of packaging & propaganda of
such package, in this decade of
publicity n NAMO is too good at
that. He has already estd himself as White House’s best choice n bajaoed
band of Congress. Congress’s game
is also too crippling, too
shrewd--- by disallowing bills’ passage at Rajyasabha one after another, Rahul Gandhi is trying to arrest the uninterrupted flow
of industrialists’ funds to BJP,
until tey restart heir flows to
Congress. There are signs that the
regime of corruption shall be back again.
And, NAMO’s party has offered /
rejuvenated corruption in different
states , at several junctures.
But all is not at all
unwell at our national front. MUDRA is
doing quite well, if not extremely. Howsoever
, any leftist policymaker can easily draw an analogy to contend
it as another Senonomics
tool of welfare.
***** Aashish Chandorkar, a Management Consultant based in Pune
and working in Mumbai., who holds diverse interests across politics, economics,
sports and Bollywood. & tweets at @c_aashish. Writes the following article in Swarajya---
The initial signs are promising and the design improvements made
seem to be working on the ground, though whether Mudra is a game-changer or
not, we’ll only know by the time the Union Budget for 2017-18 is presented
In the 2015 budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced
the launch of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana for refinancing and developing micro
units – small individual and enterprise borrowers – who usually find it
difficult to get loans from Indian banks. While the Jan Dhan Yojana was about
increasing banking penetration and financial inclusion, this scheme provided
the complimentary view on the ability to use credit to grow small businesses.
Mudra (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) was
launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 April, 2015 – one of the earliest
schemes from the 2015 budget to be made operational. The initial corpus for refinancing
was set at ₹20,000 crore
where the initial refinancing rate was around 6.7 percent. The corpus was to be
used over four years.
Since then, MUDRA has been converted into a subsidiary of Small
Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). The government has also approved
setting up a credit guarantee funds against MUDRA loans budgeting for a credit
off take of ₹100,000 crore
under the three buckets (Shishu – loans up to ₹50,000, Kishor – loans between₹50,000 and ₹500,000, and Tarun – loans between ₹500,000 and ₹10,00,000). The fund operated by
National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. has been set up with an initial
corpus of ₹3,000 crore.
How does Mudra work?
MUDRA refinances banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) and
non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) for the loans they extend under this
scheme, with more than 150 institutions included under the scheme. The
government owned banks were set targets for disbursing these loans with the
2015-16 target of ₹122,000 crore. The banks have managed to approve lending of ₹72,000 crore till mid-January and
while the target may not be met fully for the year, the approval figures will
end up close to the target by the time the financial year ends.
The Shishu category of the loans has the highest share of
approvals at about 40 percent while the Kishor and Tarun categories have an
approximate share of 30 percent each currently. The financial institutions
which have availed of the refinance to the maximum extent are Bank of
Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, and State Bank of Travancore.
The MFIs have been more active at seeking refinance with large
players like SKS Microfinance, Ujjivan, and Equitas participating. Of the
approved ₹5,000 crore
refinance in the first year, the participating institutions have drawn around ₹2,000 crore so far. The need for
refinance may not have been felt with the relatively low credit growth in the
economy and with financial institutions avoiding locking their lending rates
with respect to the refinance rate they can avail of from MUDRA.
How is it doing?
The scheme has been availed of by around 1.7 crore borrowers,
and with an average household size of 4.8 individuals, the scheme touches 6.5
percent of the country’s population. Small ticket loans were always available
via the banks – at least in theory. So what’s the difference this time? Based
on conversations with a few beneficiaries of the MUDRA loans as well a few bank
managers who have sanctioned these loans, a few things stand out.
The first difference is the relative ease of establishing
identity and bona fides. One big challenge in Indian banking world for those
without multiple identity and address proofs is to prove that they are who they
claim to be. This is a complicated process just for opening bank accounts, let
alone for availing banking asset products.
With the Jan Dhan Yojana in place and the instances of Aadhar
seeding increasing – albeit voluntarily given that the mandatory linkage of
Aadhar is limited by Supreme Court directions – this first procedural hurdle of
approaching a bank and initiating a conversation has been eased. For MUDRA
loans over ₹200,000, the
number of identity and address proofs required and the Know Your Customer (KYC)
process does not ease, but those availing a higher ticket size loan are also
more likely to be able to comply with these norms.
But Why was Mudra needed in the first place?
Getting credit for small businesses usually means making a
mockery of the“going concern principles” – banks almost always insist on personal guarantees and
minimum turnover to approve loans. One has to first show that one has enough
capital or assets to not require a loan before the loan can be approved! This
catch-22 can be resolved by availing loan against property or by finding
guarantors to secure the loan. All in all, the probability of a small business
or a first time entrepreneur qualifying for a small ticket seed capital loan
has traditionally been minuscule.
With MUDRA, where banks have targets to fund new businesses and
there are no collateral requirements, the only hurdle is to convince the credit
officer or the bank manager that the borrower should be lent money. This is a
function of business plan viability, personal credentials and of course a
discretionary credit decision process, which is a part of any lending activity.
All of these were traditionally necessary, but not sufficient. In MUDRA, the
necessary conditions become the sufficient ones in most cases, easing the pain
of the borrowers. Another traditional area of harassment for borrowers has been
banks asking the borrower to purchase a life insurance policy and make the bank
the beneficiary to cover the mortality risk. With the refinance and now the
credit guarantee fund in place, this requirement seems to have gone away too
for borrowers.
Another great operational feature which links back to the Jan
Dhan Yojana is the delinking of the approval from the disbursement. Using Rupay
denominated debit cards, the borrower can draw the right amount of money
required for their business requirements. The withdrawal as well as the
repayments can be made on a daily basis and the lenders are being
instructed to calculate interest accordingly.
The operational features thus make the process simpler for the
real small borrowers – those looking for ₹200,000 or below. As per the National Sample Survey Organization
(NSSO) data, India has close to 6 crore small and medium size enterprises.
There are several individuals who aspire to set up small businesses but can’t
mostly due to credit limitations. MUDRA seems to be the most beneficial for the
smallest borrowers from this huge potential universal set of borrowers. Based
on various discussions with the bank managers and credit officers, about 70percent
of the applications coming in for MUDRA loans are approved on an average.
What’s the catch?
Any credit scheme which encourages low margin, high volume
lending will have its pitfalls. There have been reports of loans being
disbursed to relatives of bank officers or unworthy recipients. These are areas
where the finance ministry cannot really put any effective checks and balances
– ultimately the credit decision resides with the individual banks. But this is
not a MUDRA specific problem – the quality of credit decision process in India
has anyway not been very rigorous in the last decade, as the extent of stressed assets
in the banking system shows.
Banks have also been demanding higher percentage coverage for
potential nonperforming assets (NPAs) and coverage of trading firms – small
firms which have limited physical assets but high working capital requirements
and hence are prone to higher number of frauds – under the credit guarantee
fund. As the fund scales up over the next few months, it remains to be seen
exactly how the guarantee process will function.
The first set of loans approved and disbursed will complete a
year in the next few months. The biggest success of the scheme will be if these
loans continue to pay their equated monthly installments (EMIs) on time beyond
this initial first year period. The repayment structure is specific to each
loan, and hence the data on the level of NPAs can only be collected and
analyzed with some rigor towards the end of 2016. If the initial set of
borrowers stays true to their loan repayment terms, it will increase the
confidence level of banks to cast a wider net when approving MUDRA loans in the
future.
The central government, specifically the ministries like
Finance, MSME, Renewable Energy, Textiles, and Agriculture, should spend
quality time and effort educating people about MUDRA. The scheme can also get a
leg up if the elected representatives help popularize it in their respective
Lok Sabha or assembly constituencies – especially talking about success stories
– stories which let individuals become financially independent.
So is MUDRA a game changer? We will know by the time the Union
Budget for 2017-18 is presented. As long as the 2015-16 loans are repaid, the
lending process should further improve over time. The initial signs are
promising, and the design improvements made seem to be working on the ground.
Now, let us ask some
serious questions---a) why is SBI , the
nation’s top lender still sticking to Home loans
instead of SSI loans in its
priority schedule? b) If it is because
NPAs are lowest in that sector, &
even in Car loan sector , next question to ask is what
RBI governor asked & no politician
dares ask. That is , why NPA % is highest
with/ on Rs 6 lac crore
blocked in a hand
So, can we dissolve the
Shameful reality of untouchability from Indian mindset to achieve a real cleanliness
movement?? And can we purify the mindset of a handful
of industrialists n their lobbies in politics & governance to
free up black n white wealth of people
of d nation blocked up??? If yes, India
shall march forward.
Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan lashed out at
promoters of defaulting companies for continuing to live lavish lifestyles
despite owing thousands of crores to banks.
"If you flaunt your birthday bashes even while owing the system a lot of money, it does seem to suggest to the public that you don't care. I think that is the wrong message to send.""If you are in trouble, you should be cutting down your expenses," said Rajan in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Vijay Mallya, promoter of Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya had recently celebrated his 60th birthday in style in Goa despite his Kingfisher Airlines owing banks over Rs 7,500 crore.
"If you flaunt your birthday bashes even while owing the system a lot of money, it does seem to suggest to the public that you don't care. I think that is the wrong message to send.""If you are in trouble, you should be cutting down your expenses," said Rajan in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Vijay Mallya, promoter of Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya had recently celebrated his 60th birthday in style in Goa despite his Kingfisher Airlines owing banks over Rs 7,500 crore.
Rajan said that this was not about being against big businesses or successful businessmen and neither was it a Robin Hood issue. "This is an issue about the wrongdoers among the community who raised the cost of borrowing for everybody."A fortnight back, he had asked central bank staff not to hesitate in going after the rich and powerful. Earlier, Rajan identified corporates who were showing signs of financial weakness but were not yet classified as defaulters. Banks were asked to classify them as defaulters and make provisions toward the same. Classifying the loans as bad debts prevents lenders from throwing good money after bad and compels them to initiate recovery proceedings by recalling the loan amount and selling assets.
It was a surprise for India
not just to advance to the 50th spot on Ease of business, but as high as
6th global spot on BPI ( baseline Profit Index) . So, if a foreign capital
comes into India instead of US ranked 26th & China ranked 60th , profit
potential is too high ( just after 5 countries) , whatever uneasy it may be to
do business here. And why not?
Layoff has been made easy as
never before. Laid off employees of 1 start up are being
offered 50% package & bond by another start up. And India scores just 38 % in terms
of transparency & cleranliness in governance. NAMO should clean
Indian governance first before embarking on SB journey.
Even amidst this, Amazon , Flipkart etc are making huge losses
& spending Rs Crores for talents to
head shows. On Rs 1K Cr turnover , E
Comm sites are losing Rs 1.7 K cr.
Mumbai accounts for 53.51% of total deposits held by all the
four metros in the country — Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, according to
the Reserve Bank of India. The city had bank deposits of Rs 15,72,580 crore at
the end of March 2015, way ahead of Delhi which had `871,898 crore as term
deposits.Mumbai accounts for 18.90% of the total all-India bank deposits of
`83,17,250 crore. In other words — out of every `100 deposit in the bank,
`18.90 is held in Mumbai. The high deposit base is because Mumbai is where the
headquarters of several top corporate houses including the Tatas, the Ambanis,
the Birlas and the Mahindras are located.
Deposits in Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan accounts cross Rs. 30,000
crore !!
* 20.38 crore PMJDY accounts opened
* Rs. 30,638 crore Deposits
* 1.26 Lakh Bank Mitras
* 9.32 Crore Suraksha Bima Policies
* 20.38 crore PMJDY accounts opened
* Rs. 30,638 crore Deposits
* 1.26 Lakh Bank Mitras
* 9.32 Crore Suraksha Bima Policies
We are hearing about Rs 2 lac crore being released by Mr
Nitin Gadkari just for Maharashtra over
next 5 years. But how much has he released in last 18 months?
TOI, 12.9.15---road transport and highways ministry will add
nearly 50,000 km of roads to the National Highways (NH) network in the country
in the next six months. This addition within two years of the Narendra Modi
government will be more than twice the length NDA-I had added in its six years
and over three times of what UPA added in its 10-year rule. Sources said in the
past 15 months, the new government has added about 7,000 km of roads to the NH
length and at present it's little more than one lakh km. Road transport and
highways minister Nitin Gadkari has announced to take it to 1.5 lakh km by this
year end. Between 1998 and 2004 when the NDA was in power, about 23,814 km was
added to the NH network and during the 10-year rule of the UPA government, a
total of around 18,000 km were designated as NH. On how the ministry is now
going about including more stretches as NH, an official said, "While
process of notification to include about 15,000 km under Bharat Mala and
joining backward areas in the NH network is under way, we are carrying out
feasibility study for large chunk of stretches that states have forwarded for
upgrading them as NHs. This would be about 20,000 km." Sources said adding
length is crucial to maintain the pace of award, which has been increased to
about 30 km a day. Putting its focus to accelerate highway construction as
growth multiplier, the Modi government plans to continue this high target of
award of works for 3-4 years. On Thursday MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said
the PM has set a target of constructing 30 km of roads per day, increasing it
from the current 13 km per day. Road transport and highways ministry officials
said that by April, the construction would be 17-18 km per day and will be more
during the next fiscal year. Investor interest in the roads and highways sector
has grown in recent months after the government resolved four major issues
responsible for stalled projects or slow progress. Land acquisition has been
expedited and in the first five months of this financial year 4,272 sq km have
been acquired. "In August, we acquired 1,620 km, which is a rare case. We
hope to maintain this pace and people are now taking the compensation since
there is clarity on the applicability of new Land Acquisition Act," said
an NHAI official. Investor interest in the roads and highways sector has grown
in recent months after the government resolved four major issues responsible
for stalled projects or slow progress. Land acquisition has been expedited and
in the first five months of this financial year 4,272 sq km have been acquired.
"In August, we acquired 1,620 km, which is a rare case. We hope to
maintain this pace and people are now taking the compensation since there is
clarity on the applicability of new Land Acquisition Act," said an NHAI
official.
Considering that monitoring and quick resolution of issues
pertaining to individual projects is another major roadblock for faster
completion of projects, Gadkari has also directed all senior officials from his
ministry, NHAI and NHIDCL to spend eight days a month in the field. Moreover,
the government has streamlined the prior statutory approvals for construction
without any hitches. "We have no dearth of funds as well. Even we may not
need to raise the entire Rs 42,000 crore through bonds during this year, as we
still have enough of fund. The plan to sell completed highway projects is
likely to generate Rs 50,000 crore and that can be used for taking up more projects
on government funding mode," said a government source.
Great , Nitin sir.
Kindly update your status
report vis a vis the position as on 1.3.15---
What was promised in last budget------------Mint
1.3.15-- Jaitley announced a significant increase of Rs.70,000 crore in
investment in infrastructure in 2015-16 over the current year, with a focus on
railways and roads. The money will come from an additional public investment
outlay of Rs.1.25 trillion over that of 2014-15. Jaitley said an aggregate
annual increase of more than 0.5% of gross domestic product can be expected in
public capital expenditure.The allocation for roads and railways
is Rs.40,000 crore each, an increase of Rs.14,031 crore
and Rs.10,050 crore respectively over the current fiscal year. “I intend
to establish a National Investment and Infrastructure Fund which will find
monies to ensure an annual flow of Rs.20,000 crore to it. This will enable
the trust to raise debt, and in turn, invest it as equity in infrastructure
finance companies such as the IRFC (Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd) and NHB
(National Housing Board). The infra finance companies can then leverage this
extra equity manifold,” the finance minister said. The economic survey said
that the stock of stalled projects at the end of December 2014 stood
at Rs.8.8 trillion, or 7% of gross domestic product (GDP). A proposal to
set up five new power projects of 4,000 megawatts (MW) each in a so-called
plug-and-play mode through a transparent auction system was also made.“This
should unlock investments to the extent of Rs.1 trillion,”said Jaitley.
Jaitley said the focus will be on providing connectivity to 178,000 unconnected
habitations by all-weather roads. “This will require completing 100,000km of
roads, currently under construction, plus sanctioning and building another
100,000 km of roads,” the finance minister said.
And what we have
got-----------
From Private
capital sources---------
Foreign direct investment (FDI) received in construction
development sector from April 2000 to September 2015 stood at US$ 24.16
billion, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
–
The Government of India
has earmarked Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.5 billion) to develop 100 smart cities
across the country. The Government released its list of 98 cities for the smart
cities project in August 2015.
BNP Paribas Lease Group,
subsidiary of BNP Paribas Group, has acquired 5 per cent stake in Srei
Infrastructure Finance, by selling its entire 50 per cent stake in Srei
Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) to Srei Infrastructure Finance, thus allowing
them to play a larger role in the infrastructure finance business.
Private equity giant
Carlyle Group is planning to invest Rs 500 crore (US$ 75 million) in Feedback
Infra, which could make the US firm a major shareholder in the Gurgaon-based
infrastructure services company.
In the month of November
2015, among various areas of infrastructure spending by the government, the
roads segment led in terms of tenders issued (59 per cent of total tenders) and
contracts awarded, with an increasing shift to Engineering, Procurement and
Construction (EPC) type of contracts3.
PTC India Financial
Services (PFS) and India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) have
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly provide funding for
infrastructure projects in India, particularly in the energy sector.
France has announced a
commitment of € 2 billion (US$ 2.17 billion) to convert Chandigarh, Nagpur and
Puducherry into smart cities.
The Construction
Industry Development Board (CIDB) of Malaysia has proposed to invest US$ 30
billion in urban development and housing projects in India, such as a
mini-smart city adjacent to New Delhi Railway Station, a green city project at
Garhmukhteshwar in Uttar Pradesh and the Gangacleaning projects.
The Government of India
has unveiled plans to invest US$ 137 billion in its rail network over the next
five years, heralding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aggressive approach to
building infrastructure needed to unlock faster economic growth.
The Government of India
has announced highway projects worth US$ 93 billion, which include government
flagship National Highways Building Project (NHDP) with total investment of US$
45 billion over next three years.
International Finance
Corporation (IFC), part of The World Bank group, plans to invest at least US$
700 million in existing transport and logistics infrastructure projects in
India.
The World Bank has
approved a US$ 650 million debt funding for a part of the eastern arm of the
Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project in India.
Indostar Capital Finance
Limited and Reliance Capital Limited have invested Rs 200 crore (US$ 30
million) in Alliance group, a real estate company. The consortium of
institutions has invested in the holding company of Alliance group, Alliance
Infrastructure Projects Private Limited.-
Contributions of govt/
public capital----
The Union Cabinet has approved several reforms such as allowing
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to extend the concession period for
current incomplete projects in build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode. –
Government of India plans to launch the National Infrastructure
Investment Fund (NIFF) with an initial corpus of at least Rs 40,000 crore (US$
6 billion). –
The Ministry of Urban Development has approved an investment of
Rs 19,170 crore (US$ 2.88 billion) for improving basic urban infrastructure in
474 cities in 18 states and Union Territories (UTs) under Atal Mission for
Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT) for 2015-16
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has set up
an online monitoring system for on-going projects under the Industrial
Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS) –
The Ministry of Urban Development has decided to allow the use
of construction & demolition waste up to 20 per cent in construction of
load bearing items and up to 100 per cent for non-load bearing purposes. This
provision is expected to significantly help in reuse of such waste, in line
with ongoing efforts under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). –
The central government has approved amendments to 'The National
Waterways Bill, 2015' which will provide for enacting a central legislation to
declare 106 additional inland waterways, as the national waterways. –
The Government of India plans to award 100 highway projects
under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in 2016, with expectations that
recent amendments in regulations would revive investor sentiments in PPP
projects in the infrastructure sector.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) under automatic route in the construction development sector. The new limit came into effect in December 2014.-
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) under automatic route in the construction development sector. The new limit came into effect in December 2014.-
The Government of India has relaxed rules for FDI in the
construction sector by reducing minimum built-up area as well as capital
requirement. It has also liberalised the exit norms. In fact, the Cabinet has
also approved the proposal to amend the FDI policy. –
In the Budget 2015-16, the capital outlays for roads, and
railways have been increased by Rs 140.3 billion (US$ 2.11 billion) and Rs
100.5 billion (US$ 1.51 billion) respectively.
( Isn’t Rs 24 K
crore peanuts??)
Indian port sector is poised to mark great progress in the years
to come. It is forecasted that by the end of 2017 port traffic will amount to
943.06 MT for India’s major ports and 815.20 MT for its minor ports.Along with
that, Indian aviation market is expected to become the third largest across the
globe by 2020, according to industry estimates. The sector is projected to
handle 336 million domestic and 85 million international passengers with
projected investment to the tune of US$ 120 billion. Indian Aviation Industry,
which currently accounts for 1.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP),
has been instrumental in the overall economic development of the country. Given
the huge gap between potential and current air travel penetration in India, the
prospects and possibilities of growth of Indian aviation market are
enormous.(Source-- 'White Paper on Infrastructure Financing' released by
Assocham and Crisil Ratings, 2 – “ICE INDUSTRY VISION 2020” report by Indian
Construction Equipment Manufacturers’ Association, 3- As per a report by Emkay
Global Financial Services - & DIPP,
an IBEF initiative)
BS --Arup Roychoudhury | New Delhi June 29, 2015The push for public investment in infrastructure to boost growth was mooted by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian in his mid-year economic analysis in December last year, as balance sheets of private players were over-stretched. "It seems imperative to consider the case for reviving public investment as one of the key engines of growth going forward, not to replace private investment but to revive and complement it," he had said in the report. The idea was taken forward in the Economic Survey 2014-15 and Union Budget 2015-16.
Land acquisitions state wise show the
following states topping the
chart—
Assam 27%, Bihar 27%, K’taka 25%, Maharashtra 26%, Rajasthan
36%, UP 45%,
And how many states do have NH network
of atound 5K Km? Just 5—UP,MP,MH,
& not even K’taka, As of April 2013,
out of a total of 67K Km NH
, which is a meager 1.42% of the
total 47
lac km road network in India .
Wikipedia- India had
completed and placed in use over 24,000 kilometres of recently built 4 or
6-lane highways connecting many of its major manufacturing centres, commercial
and cultural centres. -[5][6] The rate of new highway construction across India
accelerated after 1999, but has slowed in recent years. Policy delays and
regulatory blocks reduced the rate of highway construction awards to just 500
kilometers of new road projects in 2013.[7] Major projects are being implemented under the National Highways Development Project, a government initiative. Private builders and highway
operators are also implementing major projects - for example, the Yamuna Expressway between Delhi and Agra was completed ahead of schedule and
within budget,[8] while the KMP Expressway started in 2006 is far behind schedule, over budget and
incomplete.[9]According to 2009 estimates by Goldman Sachs, India will need
to invest US$1.7 trillion on infrastructure projects before 2020 to meet
its economic needs, a part of which would be in upgrading India's road network.
"We have already awarded road contracts worth Rs 1.5 lakh
crore," he said. Rs 1 crore of investment in roads gives jobs to 800
people, he said, citing a World Bank report. "Through my ministry, I will
give jobs to 50 lakh people and will add 2% to the GDP. It will give a boost to
the steel and cement industry as well," said Mr Gadkari to ET on 31.1.16. Gadkari is optimistic that,
with the current approach, his ministry will be able to clear about 15 pending
projects worth Rs 25,000-30,000 crore in the next 15 days, thus paving the way
for all projects to move ahead after being stuck for a long time.
UPA 2 Govt was nabbed
as the worst decisionless n mastless
govt ever. Let not
NDA govt be abandoned by people
for the same reason. For this,
1.5 year passed is a pretty long period, & everyday is counted by an
impatient dalal street.
And , Mr Gadkari is
bargaining before PM & FM for
moneys , so very heavily.” Upgrading infrastructure is a major
challenge for policy makers of the Asia's third largest economy and India needs
about $1 trillion (about Rs 67,00,000 crore) for new roads, ports and airports
over the next few years, Gadkari said at the inaugural edition of Rajya Sabha
Television's new flagship programme 'Spotlight'. He said the ministry
expected additional Rs 15-20,000 crore in the Union Budget for 2016-17, over
the current year's outlay of Rs 45,000 crore. "My priority is
waterways. We have a Rs 45,000 crore budget for roads, but only have Rs 1,000
cr for waterways," he said adding his government will focus on developing
the sector.
As long as Gadkari
Saheb shall not get the money, his performance shall be
downplayed. So, where & how
& when is the big Indian dream happening???
Sumeet Chatterjee, Reuters, 29.1.16--The conglomerate, viewed as
a bellwether for Asia's third-largest economy, said on Friday its quarterly net
profit rose nearly a fifth and that it was on track to realise its forecast of
10-15 percent sales growth for the fiscal year ending on March 31.Larsen,
however, cut its new orders forecast to flat growth in the current fiscal year
from its October prediction of a 5-7 percent rise, due to sluggish capital
spending in the private sector. Larsen, which has interests in engineering,
construction and logistics, has seen slower earnings growth in recent quarters,
as its customers in India, its biggest market, keep a lid on fresh investment
in the absence of strong demand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been looking
to step up government spending on building roads, ports, bullet trains and
airports to boost economic growth, which economists say, is critical for
spurring private sector investments."It's important to note the private
sector capex is still very shy. The investment plans are not yet reaching the
boardrooms," Larsen's chief financial officer, R. Shankar Raman, told a
news conference."The growth of the company in terms of fresh orders is
largely going to be led by public sector spending, government spending or
projects ... which are financed by multi-lateral funding agencies."Larsen
said in a statement consolidated net profit in the three months ended Dec. 31,
its fiscal third quarter, rose to 10.35 billion rupees ($152.7 million) from
8.67 billion rupees a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected the
company to post a net profit of 10.80 billion rupees, according to Thomson
Reuters data. Larsen has been expanding in the Middle East, its biggest
overseas market, to compensate for the slowdown at home, with overseas markets
accounting for 27 percent of its order book in the nine months ended December,
compared with 25 percent in the same period of the previous year. Despite a
plunge in oil prices Mumbai-based Larsen sees continued investments on roads,
airports and power transmission networks in the Middle East, Deputy Managing
Director S.N. Subrahmanyan said."The basic projects are continuing to go
on and we see a healthy trend in the way it is going on right now," he
said.
So, in ET GBS, there are dialectic views & widest gaps among top Industry honchos & NDA Ministers..
Noting that the schemes launched so far for cleaning of river
Ganga have failed to bring effective results, PM called for out of box ideas to ensure greater
participation of people for the success of his pet Namami Gange project, the
sources said. The meeting also saw a discussion on rural jog flagship
scheme MNREGA. The issue of direct release of wages to workers for its better
implementation and empowerment of the states also came up for discussion.
Situation is going so stressful for so many citizens that
Nearly 61 per cent working population in India aged 45 plus want
to retire in the next five years, with the majority saying work-related
pressure is affecting their mental and physical health. On the global front,
the survey of more than 18,000 people across 17 countries worldwide found that
the desire to retire is the strongest in Argentina (78 per cent), France (77
per cent), China (75 per cent) and the UK (75 per cent).
Financial pressures are so great that 18 per cent of pre-retirees worldwide predict that they will never be able to retire fully. This is almost twice the proportion that said the same in 2015, when 10 per cent of pre-retirees expected never to be able to afford.
Financial pressures are so great that 18 per cent of pre-retirees worldwide predict that they will never be able to retire fully. This is almost twice the proportion that said the same in 2015, when 10 per cent of pre-retirees expected never to be able to afford.
.
1 article in TOI by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, | 31 Jan, 2016 illustrates beautifully what India u/ NDA / NAMO must look forward to.
1 article in TOI by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, | 31 Jan, 2016 illustrates beautifully what India u/ NDA / NAMO must look forward to.
Favouring SEZs leads to not just a big loss of tax revenue but
to cronyism (several SEZ land allocations became scams), and waste (units will
shift to SEZs despite big expense and loss of productivity, just to get the tax
break).Many companies that would be exporting from traditional bases anyway
will shift to SEZs for the tax break. SEZ exports may look big, but may not
represent additional exports or policy success. They may simply represent
policy failure through export diversion and revenue .. India has an
export problem right now but not a balance of payments problem. So there's no
need for panic or emergency measures. The current account deficit is well under
control at barely 1% of GDP, since imports have fallen along with
exports. In such dismal global conditions, tax breaks are irrelevant for
export buoyancy . We must instead raise our competitiveness through better
logistics, skills and procedures. Only then will exports boom sustainably . We
cannot have lousy facilities and yet become world-class exporters through tax
breaks. Ideally, the whole of India should have world-class facilities. Since
resources are limited, a start can be made in SEZs. Between 1965 and 2005,
India built eight tiny export processing zones, with very limited success. By
contrast, China and some other countries succeeded by creating massive SEZs.
Shenzen in China covers four small districts. Chinese SEZs have world-class
power, water, ports and airports, and have become world-class manufacturing
clusters. Instead of creating massive SEZs, this policy encouraged
hundreds of small SEZs in every state. These amounted to tax shelters and a
grab for land rather than world-class enclaves. No less than 564 proposals for
SEZs were approved, but of these only 204 are actually functioning. Mukesh
Ambani's giant SEZ in Navi Mumbai is largely vacant. Most operating SEZs are
small IT establishments that are little more than tax havens. To be
competitive, India needs both competitive facilities (in and outside SEZs) plus
competitive tax rates with very few exemptions. India has a corporate tax rate
of 30%, and with cess and surcharge this comes to 34.5%, one of the highest in
Asia. Finance minister Jaitley rightly seeks to cut this to a competitive 25 %,
while removing today's myriad exemptions so that he does not lose tax revenue.
This is a laudable, far-sighted reform. It should not have holes punched in it
by demands for tax .. Exports from Indian SEZs rose from $5 billion
in 200506 to $81 billion in 2013-14. This looks very impressive. But a lot of
it is simply trade diversion. Many top IT and jewellery companies shifted their
operations to SEZs for the tax break. Since units outside the SEZs continued
exporting at a good rate, it is unclear whether the SEZs achieved additional
exports or just diverted exports.
The above article is
really illuminating. With Golden Assam /
North East policies, successive
govts created NRGA like
robbery opportunities, & Mr Himant Biswa Sharma , whose article
is in my piece , is no exception
from that. Hand in glove with politicians & Bureaucrats in power, NE
industrialists have created inefficient
organizations, either running to dismal capacity utilizations or forging
records. They steal minerals, show running without power / machinery &
without proper audit & they snatch
from govt subsidies, & exemptions / refunds on
Income tax, VAT & Excise.
Depending on remoteness & hilly terrain,
some exemption / subsidy may be needed
for a level playing field, but such enactments are raped left n right to squeeze govt funds to d coffers of business-politician—admin nexus. That’s
why total of North East is backward today.
What has been very striking during last decade------------------
So, what do we note from
NAMO govt’s growth agenda? An extreme
subjugation of the poor in last 2
years over their
already rooftop tolerance level.
Less than 44% today hold job cards,
forget participation. > 52% farmer households have debts on average > Rs
47 K, of which barely 60% is organized, 40% is sourced from unorganized qrtrs.
Institutional credit to marginal farmers with 0.01 hectare or less holding was
just 15% , who are tolerating the wraths & tax free excess luxuries n
bounties of Jaaths , Punjabis , Thakurs, Bhumihars & the likes,--the
coterie that have decided for long the
ruling power at Delhi. These big farm capitalists got 79% of bank / instn
finance. Just 20% farmers insured crops
, as most had no capacity to insure.
This is the shining India today , while slogans are flying high for Make in India. 1 cr farmers have become landless
laborers over last decade, while another 3 cr have joined d bandwagon owing to dearth of alternative earning avenues. Shame on the shameless govt that disguises farmer suicides with facades of
impotency , love n beyond. And, how/
what about the industrialists forming
backbones of this govt ? The ailing tea gardens are seeing periodic suicides
of labor. Lock outs, retrenchments & lay offs have been one sided / unilateral . In an
interview at ABP I was asked about my
opinion on open Exit Policy, as, as per
mgt there, like an employee can leave with a notice period served on employer,
employer must have an equal right. I strongly disagreed , since an employee is
much vulnerable & an unequal
opponent—too weaker; and this
house I had to quit by force , when , I , reckoned by them as best of the
lost , was found dangerously intelligent
& migratory. This
is the fate of most intelligent employees , who turn out to be
odd people out & not reqd. They won’t commit suicide for their MDs . They
are the worst soldiers.
In these days of eco
turmoil n doldrums, the people at all levels, working under most dangerous n
strenuous conditions, GOI is bent upon giving freedom of dictatorship to 4% of
industrial employers employing 40% of force in unorganized &
16% entities employing 72% of
labor in organized sector are
covered. Coercive VRS is being forced
upon masses.
In US, poverty doubled
from 7 Mn to 14 Mn in last 1 decade,
while the same fell from 10 Mn 1 decade back. Blacks
constitute 5 Mn & Hispanics, 4.5, out of that 14 mn. In India, 24
Mn people belong to middle class, with
annual wealth of Rs 7.4 lac . Collectively, this class holds $780 Bn or Rs 5.07 Mn crore.
Globally 664 Mn comprise
the middle class. Taking a
threshold of real annual disposable
income between Rs 2—10 lac, NCAER declared 50 Mn people as middle class in
2005, but World Bank then contested to
put 264 Mn people in middle class with
poverty line drawn in between $2 & $13 per day. While 2% of very high nett worth individuals
reside in India, Africa & Latin America, 90% of population has wealth < $ 10000. In China , middle class is at 108 mn ( 5
times India’s ) & in Brazil, it is
11Mn ( 50% of India). India has 3% of
global middle class, while China has as
high as 16% & Chineese
middle class is up by 38 mn in last 10 years, with wealth up by $ 6 Tn. India upped its mid class by 7 mn but wealth was up by
just $ 1 tn. European nations have
20—30 Mn mid class each, Australia, Canada, Korea 10-17 Mn . Against China’s Middle class holding 32% of national n 3% of global wealth. Why such a diff between 2 nations? Reason is, the
planned , balanced eco growth in China that has arrested the fall of middle class wealth only in China
as an exception; everywhere else recession has eaten up wealth n income of
middle class fast n first. After fall in 2008’s recession by 26%, it bounced
back to $ 5300 by 2010, but since depleted to $4352; it was $ 2040 in 2010
itself. Even in Brazil, middle
class still holds 31% of national wealth @ $ 754 Bn, a mere 0.3% of
global wealth. And, in India , even
for a lac of INR loan unpaid, a farmer’s
Mn Rs land is croaked by bankers, while
Rs 4.5 lac crore is gone from banks
in NPAs with 36 corporates.
India , with just 2.5% of
world’s land, sustains 18% of world’s population. 30% of our population
live on biomass only; 92 Mn live without
safe drinking water, though 80 mn use cell-phones. 30% of global poor live here
& 24% Indians live without electricity..
2 mn of our people are homeless . As
long as our GHG shall remain at 10% of developed nations , we shall not
achieve growth n progress. 2015 has delivered Nobel prize in economics to Deaton., who conducted a major part of work in India
with poverty, in fact,
much more than Dr Amartya
Sen. Contrary to Dr Sen’s HDI generalized theories, he , with Jean Dreze, inferred decrease in
calorie intake not to signify a rise in
poverty but a more diversified diet, ie a nutrition transition. As per him, not Expenditure but consumption pattern indicates poverty level;as can be construed from vast backward regions of india.. So, like Dr Sen , he has also toed the Keynsian line of
state-led employment scemes for poverty alleviation. And he has probably not based his
experiments on the impact of 2.24 lac refugees’ influx into Europe during 1st 1/2 year of 2015, on the
already strained poor economy of
Eurozone.. India boasts
of just 3% of earth’s fresh water quenching thirst of 18% of global
population. 13 crore people do not get fresh water, Per
capita water availability got reduced from
1800 cum to 1200 M^3.
Just 64% of 38 crore urbanites
live without own water.
What
cost is tolerance paying??? We are heading to
smart cities, Rs
50K--1 lac crore is investment commitment recd by Tamilnadu, but we do not have infrastructure. Let’s hope, $ 4.5 Tn digital infra investment committed in
India gets at least 50% implemented. And also let’s hope, Amaravati shall be a smart
city free of
calamities. After TCS, IBM, HCL,
Infosys, Cogzinant offices all drowned n Rs 20K crore lost by insurance cos, how much
shall these cos’ investment
commitments result in reality after devastation of offices , assets, systems & personpower ???
Arun Janardhanan
January 28, 2016
“In Tamil Nadu, right for
entertainment supersedes all other fundamental rights of people,” scribbled a
frustrated Tamilian on Facebook.
On the day when three girls of SVS Medical College of Yoga and
Naturopathy, a private college approved by the Tamil Nadu government, allegedly
committed suicide by jumping into a 50-foot farm well, no one knows what
reactions they expected to their tragic act but random Facebook scribblings
could not have been one of them.
After widespread protests over Rohit Vemula’s suicide the
previous week, they may have hoped for media criticism of the owner of the
illegal medical college to whom they had paid several lakhs of rupees,
state-wide protests and even the arrest of the college owner Vasuki Subramanian,
her son who allegedly harassed them, her driver who, they said, used to
threaten them.
In the past, students have fought a dozen cases against the
intimidating management in the Madras High Court, leading to protests for over
one year including two failed suicide pacts before the Villupuram Collectorate
(one an attempt of self-immolation by half a dozen students, another by six
students eating rat poison); they have sent dozens of petitions to
the district collector, vice chancellor and the registrar of Tamil Nadu Dr
MGR Medical College (the authority that gave a clean chit to the college), the
state health secretary and even the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Yet, nothing
has happened. This time too: after the suicide of the three girls, no political
party in the state took up the students’ cause wholeheartedly. Opposition
leaders issued their usual Facebook statements and accusations against each
other with an eye on the Assembly elections. Their suicide failed to invoke any
traction on social media; neither the vice-chancellor (VC) nor the state health
minister were ‘trolled’ on Twitter. The media response was tepid until their
college was sealed and locked. No one has been arrested: not the Registrar of
MGR Medical University or the corrupt officials who conducted periodical
inspections in their college and forged facts to help the college owner.There was
no statement from the health secretary or the health minister. And finally, all
that their families received was Rs 1 lakh compensation from Jayalalithaa who
had disbursed Rs 3 lakh to the families of each of those who had committed
suicide after her conviction in 2014. ‘Amma’ also refused a demand by their
parents for a CBI-CID probe, alleging the suicides were murder.
The reasons for such indifference are many: the private medical
education sector in Tamil Nadu runs a Rs 1,000 crore business by selling MBBS-Dental-Nursing-Ayurveda-Alternative
medicine seats -- a model evolved between the government and the Tamil Nadu Dr
MGR Medical University, the affiliating authority to majority of these
institutions. The sale of seats in these courses starts from Rs 40 lakh (MBBS)
to Rs 6 crore (PG) each (note: each college recruits 150-250 students per year,
the rates vary if the candidate is an NRI, cash should be in suitcases, no
receipts) and Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for other medical degrees. After the
government approves the establishment of a medical institution and it is
affiliated to the medical university, there are three major parameters to be
verified periodically - 1) infrastructure, 2) teacher-student ratio (and
patients to study, an essential part of medical education, and 3) transparency.
The affiliating authority was supposed to conduct periodical
checks at the institution for its facilities. Technically, documents show Dr
MGR Medical University, SVS Yoga Medical College was inspected every year, at
times twice or thrice a year. How then didn't they notice the deficiencies like
a lack of laboratories, zero faculty and hostel facilities? The
inspectors who visited the college on several occasions had also failed to
notice that the college had been offering allopathic treatment without doctors
and nurses. It had operation rooms, a dialysis unit and even radiology wings -
all without permissions and on the pretext of running a yoga naturopathy
college.
While these facts expose the nexus between private college
owners and the senior most health experts and officials who work with the state
government, they also highlight corrupt practices that have evolved over the
years .A senior official being corrupt may not be news. However, corrupt
practices of a top official who has worked with the Directorate of Medical
Education (DME), a wing that controls the entire medical education sector in
the state including deemed universities, still raises eyebrows with allegations
that she asked for iPhones, iPads and Kancheepuram sarees.The three girls who
allegedly committed suicide hailed from modest family backgrounds in rural
Tamil Nadu. All three had sold their land and taken educational loans to fund
their studies. They had hoped to find employment in the world of alternative
medicine. Their deaths once again raise questions of a corrupt system.
President recently
commented in a memoir launch function.” Rajiv made mistake n so did I”.
It was intolerant of Rajiv Gandhi to oust his mom’s right hand, her most
confidante money spinner, from MOF to oblivion. And as per him , Rajiv’s greatest blunder was the Tolerance of Shariat
post Shah Banu verdict. Are
secular countries intolerant to have
Uniform Civil Code? Secularism in india means Minority appeasement & Protection at any cost. If we need to
emulate development, like those nations we
must know, how to stand up erect
against fundamentalists. Like France
India must ban Hizab. Come whatever
Charlie Hebdo episode, no
backtracking. No Yes to any baiters of
Tasleema … India must secure
courage to protect atheists like
Tasleema n Kalaburgi. That is secularism.
I had no intention to start a column just like that. But after last month’s
subject evinced enough interest ,
many people asked me,
do you really believe, India in
intolerant? I was really fumbling n
confused. Why perplexed? Because,
Dilwale got released in between & Sharukh Khan was vocal on tolerance values of India—a180
degree move !!! It is too costly for heroes like Khans to maintain stardom , with falling box office
of Dilwale @ just Rs 22 crore on 1st day .
No surprise shall lie that
Amir shall also wave the same flag , now that
Sallu’s Being Human is up on voyage after an all crashing victory over hapless
Muslims living on Mumbai pavements
. A tolerant India’s Proletariats
have been taught , all verdicts
shall go against. And Jyoti
Singh’s main rapist
teenager is being set free
by highest court of land
tomorrow to test the
Tolerance n patience levels of the
teenage girls n young ladies of India on wrong / right side of 30. Singur
villagers are still bearing the
brunt of an utterly oppressive n justice
denying judicial system that inflicts more burns on
have nots than goodies. And ,
when Priyanka Chopra echoes
the voices of Kangana Ranawat &
Vidya Balan, nobody can blame her
that the whole of film industry
except for very few exceptions is masculine
aall over the globe, especially
in hero worshipping 3rd
world. Rani Mukherjee to Deepika Padukone
& Kajol to Anushka have suffered the
humiliation after facing such defeats in
box offices. And this, despite most
of the heroines
putting up excellent faces in
front of some meaningless heroic films
by some matcho heroes. If girls worship
matcho heroes like Bahubalis, girls should adore matcho heroines , but
sadly that is missing everywhere.
Finally, the cat is out
of bag. A govt running with Nitin Gadkari & now, Arun Jaitlee too , at helm,
claims honesty !!! Will Mr
Jaitley also say, like Sushama Swaraj,
he wanted to show humanity to miscreants
?? ha,ha,ha!!! And, Rajnath Singh shall take
sermons from both bosses made by
him--Amit Shah n NAMO, lest the duo oust him too!!!! The nation needs
to see, how best the stalwart
lawyer of Delhi defends himself
against allegations fired by his own
party MP, Mr Keerthi Azad.
And welcome to 2016 with Sallu mia, recently set free off
accidental deaths of pavement dwellers. And welcome 2016, a just ruined metro city
of Chennai witnessed an extreme of tolerance. A too posh defense colony witnessed
its residents’ hapless deaths sinking in flood water that filled up the rooms &
billionaires died like that during one dreadful night. Twice the flood struck the metro, so many Ford cars got
damaged under water. But
port did not sink. When water overflew
from 2
lakes thru a canal, somewhere ground floor , somewhere ground+ 1st floors
submerged...
And conservative, fanatic Iyer n Iyenger families offered shelters to staunch Catholics
n ritualistic Muslims and diff castes n faiths lived in
1 house for days. Some people could not come
back from offices
& could not contact homes for 2-3 days that they spent in offices. Some
people got stuck in airport for 2 days. And, young widows handed over corpses of dead hubbies to boat-army. And , billionaire Chettiars got rescued by boatmen along with corpseburners & scavengers n sweepers. And,
billionaire Muthaiah’s corpse was taken by corporation men thru tipper/ dumper to a burning ghat. For days, no sanitation, no money taken off ATMs, no water to cook
food, Matchboxes selling for 5/-, candles selling @ 20/-, milk liters
selling for 80/-, diesel for 200/-, mineral
water bottles for 80/-. Billionaire
Muttaiah who had spent Rs 90 crore on 90th birthday died a horrible n painful death. The garbage carrier tippers / dumpers became the divine vehicles for those 5 days.
In a country where 67% in
Mumbai to 44% in Trivandrum are suffering from acute Diabetes, in a world with 2748
refugee emigrants missing . dying out of 4.3 lac migrated
till mid-Sep 2015 & all of
Europe has reached pinnacle of tolerance.
Back home, people in Bihar learnt
to accept n tolerate the tallest Buddhist leader Ashok
as just a Kushawah leader.. what a capricious
politics!!! A state Till date 88% rural like Assam, barely 2%
have toilets n rest are
tolerating defecation in the
open.!!!! My dad in law ,who visited me in Kadappa , Rayalseema (
South Andhra) inferred that there
are no engg colleges in Cooch Behar
, his native town but unlike in
India’s 2nd Gold merchant town of Prodattur boasting an engg
college n YSR’s pet town of Kadappa with 2 engg colleges,
n in the towns of Yerraguntla n Kamlapur
, the hearts of cement of the region,
there are no lines of
defecations in open all over
streets n grounds by industrial
labor. While towns
on Bangla border tolerate
influx every dawn to dusk,
the Bangal migrant labor force tolerate
inhuman living conditions in all civil construction sites, where they
constitute over 60% of the no.
So, Tolerance is too subjective. Early Romans persecuted
Christians for being Atheists. Protagoras was banished from Athens for agnosticism, so were Bruno, Galileo n
Copernicus. Bradlaugh, the father of modern rationalism, too had to undergo a lot of torments &
rationalist GORA ( Goparaju Ramchandra Rao) was
accepted finally as God’s own noble man . But even today, in most employments & educational institutions,
you need to specify your call ste n faith & all swearings are in the names of almighty.
If Yelmaz Gune
had not to go thru extreme
tolerance in Turkey for being
Kurd & for voicing against a repressive regime. He was imprisoned again n again on sedition
& created best films from within walls.
Recent Russia vs NATO member Turkey’s plane bombing
only indicates resurgence of a
left force in the world horizon after all those Glastnost & Peristroika decades
. Russians tolerated oppressions under repressive Soviet regimes as also the CPSU banning & Lenin statue uprooting
regimes. When Left autocracy wiped off
religions, there was abysmal tolerance. When left autocracy snatched away
babies from moms’ laps just because
those moms bore over 1 baby each,
they wept n wept . When Chineese economy
thrived on bunker economy,
the underpaid workers all tolerated.
And, in both leftist n
rightist regimes , people
lost moneys n started begging on streets. There are so many
girls n ladies from China,
Vietnam, Mangolia are doing sandwich massage to bar dancer to Hollywood / Bollywood extra dance jobs with lots of corporal
exposures. With decays of Europe, Chineese aggression’s resulting industrial closures in Europe , the no of sex boxes
have increased in Europe n more n
more sin cities have emerged on horizon.
So many single moms &
divorced / cast away teen girls
are trying desperate but unsuccessful
lucks beyond coldest nights till dawns . So, Tolerance has gone
up after departure of communism , since liberated state failed
social security duties the way
predecessor state could take care. Today so many people are coming to
India on health tours just because in US people are suffering / tolerating aggressive
n regressive health competition there that squeeze ailing humanity in an economy , where state is more
competent in cavity searches than controlling oppressive medicine sector
of US that fixes prices of LSDs all at levels 10 times
the costs.
In BDSM it’s pain that
pleases women. Jihadi girls
love becoming sex slaves in ISIS.
But there is no such love existent among
Gaza girls in teens n twenties for
oppressive Israeli army, nor Gaza boys love such oppressions in
the hands of Israeli army women. Were Gaddafi’s ladies all
willing to be his sex slaves? Were
Bersculoni’s ladies / girls all fascinated just to be his sex slaves, or they were just tolerating …!!! In fact, Tigers taught girls to die in
suicide bombing, as Maoists teach them
how to lead loveless lives . Even in Kashmere today, there
are jihadi girls, like their Tiger / Maoist sisters loving sex
slave lives under their
leaders , for the sake
of certain causes.
*************************
Mynamar is on d epoch of a new innings by Aung San Suu Kyi and
after Podemos in Spain n Syrzia
in Greece, Poland’s Razem party, barely
5 months old, is neo liberally brainwashing the rightist mindset with
ultra left unity of apolitical radicals. In this party /
conceptual party, there is no women reservation in the social democrat format n this movement & in this new order shown by a chief-less party. So, this is 180
degree opposite to the way presidential electoral polity is gripping / grappling in India , whether in form of Mamta, or as NAMO
or as Rahul/ Sonia or Nitish / Biju
Pattanaik/ Mulayam-Akhilesh. In a
centric structure , whether with Hassina / Khaleda / Mamta/ Mayabati /
Jayamma at center, women are
subverted , dalits reel under more humiliation. Time
has come to rewrite Ramayana from Sita’s
perspective. Time has come to question
the centric structure that
upholds a vice-full Rama as the God of all things & the centric structure
that forces Sitas to suicides.
Why Assam needs ambitious people
Writer Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma ( Ex Health & Education
Minister of Assam )
My work 'Xomagata Xomoy' was released on the 20th
of December in the year of 2014 which is basically a compilation of
articles written on different occasions. The launch of my book was attended by
a galaxy of renowned personalities which included Sri Homen Borgohain, Sri Ajit
Bhuyan, Dr Ramesh Pathak, Professor Niru Hazarika and many others. Obviously in
the meeting all of them spoke few words complimenting me for the book. In fact
I really felt humbled when Sri Homen Borgohain stated that I am a 'thinking
politician' .Those were words of blessings which provide one with encouragement
to move forward even while facing daunting challenges of life. However, I am
not writing this article to talk about me or my book but to discuss the
existing mindset about those people having ambition in our society. This I
believe require a close analysis. In the function one of my teachers, Dr.
Ramesh Pathak had insisted that although having many positive attributes, I am
also highly ambitious for which I had to pay the price as far as my political
career is concerned. I can understand that as a teacher, he is concerned about
my resignation from the ministry and also about my relatively less presence in
power politics. However, I resigned from the ministry on my own will. That was
a decision I took as per my own consciousness and is not to be linked with any
ambition. A few days before my resignation, Sri Tarun Gogoi offered me the post
of Deputy Chief Minister which I politely declined. An ambitious politician
would not have refused such a tempting offer and I also do not know if any
other politician in Assam has ever declined such an opportunity which also
includes the portfolios of finance and planning along with my existing health
department. I, of course, in the book launch did not reply to the question
whether I am ambitious or not. There will be times and occasions where I will
be sharing my own feelings and events that led to my resignation from the
government .However, I kept wondering about what is wrong if someone is
ambitious in his or her life and feels that he has the quality, motivation and
determination to convert or at least to try to convert his ambition into reality.
To be honest, I always like and respect people who have ambitions in their life
and the determination to convert it into a reality. In my view one of the
important reasons why Assamese people are less seen in the national arena is
due to the fact that in our society ambitious person are looked into
negatively. In our conservative mind set, we feel that it is wrong to have
ambitions in our life.
Even In politics, we are trained in feudalistic way , we are
told not to have ambition or at least camouflage the ambition of becoming Chief
Minister because this might be taken as a challenge to the authority of the
existing Chief Minister or for that matter his son or daughter as it may
disturb the hereditary succession plan. But we do not recognize the fact that
if a politician or a minister or a MLA develops an ambition to be the Chief
Minister then there will be a healthy competition among all of them as every
ambitious minister or MLA will try to display their potential or at the least
will try to deliver and as a result the state will gain tremendously. We must
not undermine the fact that the state needs the best available talent as the
Chief Minister and therefore, the people of the state must have many choices to
select one. If we deny the aspiration or ambition, the state will be deprived
from healthy competition and a good government and in real terms the cabinet or
the assembly basically becomes the voice of one person. In my view the word
'ambition' is a positive and ambitious people should be considered as the ones
having a positive mindset. Let us now ignore politics and discuss the need of
people in our society who have ambition and determination and motivation to
convert those ambitions into a reality.The dictionary meaning of ambition is
the strong desire to do or achieve something. The word ambition means the same
as aspiration, intention, goal, aim, objective, object, purpose, intent, plan,
scheme, mission, calling, vocation, desire, wish, design, target, dream, and
hope. It is very important to notice that every word being synonyms with
ambition is positive and reflects a person with a strong personality.
For me, an ambitious person reflects a confident and determined
personality with clear aims and objective. If a student from a village says
that his aim in life is to be an astronaut, do we need to condemn him? If a boy
from a small town says that his aim in life is to be one of the members of the
Indian Cricket Team, should his fellow players and coach need to condemn him or
encourage him to accept the challenge? In my view ambition leads to the
developing of challenge and determination in one’s personality and encourages a
person to challenge the status quo. When a son of a farmer harnesses an
ambition to be an agricultural scientist, then he takes up the challenge of
going up to that level which may be a very difficult journey. He may not reach
the sun but he will touch the moon. I have noticed that in Assam we do not
train our children to have ambitions in life. From their childhood we encourage
our children to dream for a small government job, may be a teacher or at best a
doctor or an engineer. As parents or as a society we remain satisfied if our
children reach that level. If we have children within born talent of a
musician, an artist or an actor then we encourage them to be one that at best
can go to the level of our Bihu stage, local television or our regional film
but not beyond that. Due to this mind set Assam is losing out from the top
slots within our country(not to talk about the international stage). We will
hardly find any Assamese today in the top layers of the army, Supreme Court or
in any of the scientific research organizations like DRDO, ISRO etc. Very
rarely we find Assamese faculty members in IITs, IIMs, TIFRs, IISs or for that
matter in the Delhi University or the JNU. Till now we could not produce a
single cricket player to represent in Indian cricket or football team. We have
seen how the young talent from a small state like Manipur is creating a niche
from them. What about Assam and Assamese people?
Our presence in the health sector, be it in AIIMS or any other
premiere hospital is also negligible. We have so many good doctors but they do
not want to study super specialty or achieving something higher in life. They
are satisfied with whatever they have achieved in their life. As a result, we
see huge number of patients from Assam in these hospitals but not doctors. Even
in the top administrative services our presence is negligible. But at the same
time it is also true that from villages of Bihar (where feudalistic mind set is
still prevailing) hundreds of young stars join all India services be it at IAS,
IFS or IPS. But our presence in these areas is very meager. Situation today is
such that a small state like Mizoram has better presence in national
bureaucracy than Assam. The latest personnel ministry figures for 4,443 IAS
officers show that while 671 (15 per cent) of them are domiciled in Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar contributes 419 (9.4 per cent) officers to the service. In terms
of academic and physical infrastructure, we may be behind many states in India
but from my own personal experience, we are much better than Bihar but still
our achievement in academics is much lower than Bihar.
As I said earlier, rural Bihar in many ways still suffer from
feudalism, sharp caste division, poor roads and academic infrastructure but
still contributes almost 10 percent of the total IAS officers. But Assam with
its 3 crore plus people has not even directly contributed 20 IAS officers out
of almost 4443 of total officers in the country. But I do not agree that the
intellectual capacity of our people is of a lesser standard compared to the
other people of our country .In my view this is the direct result of the fact
that we have not been able to in-calculate such ambition which creates
determination and motivation among our young generation so that they can also
think of becoming someone special in life. Here is an interesting example-
Bamanwas is a tiny village in Rajasthan, is home to the backward Meena
community. But one will be astonished to know that today this village has more
IAS and IPS officers than the whole of Assam. Under constant encouragement from
elders, the young generation of this village develops the ambition of becoming
something in life and every year students from this village are joining all
India services in large numbers. My question is that if a remote village can
achieve this then why not Assam with its 3 crore plus population. Today, to
remain relevant in national scene, Assam needs rich human resources which can
take the leadership role in the given fields. But with other states achieving
and gifting talented man power to our national pool, Assam is seen as a minor
state in our national landscape. We can only achieve this by creating a new
generation who has the ambition to lead in their respective fields, not only at
national level but also at international level. We need woman like Marry Kom
who could dare to have dream in her childhood staying in a small and remote
village in Manipur and through determination and motivation to realize the
dream in extreme adverse situation. Rup knower Jyoti Prasad Agrawala realized
long time back the relative less presence of Assam in national and
international scenario and wrote it in one of his most famous poems.
I firmly believe that the lack of ambition and status quo
mentality that has existed in our state is responsible for the current state of
affairs. Creating an ambitious young generation for whom only the sky can be
the limit is the need of the hour. During my short tenure as an education
minister I have had the privilege of addressing students from over 50 colleges
of our state and in my every speech I have encouraged the students that one
must have big ambitions for himself, for his state and country. The combination
and fulfillment of all these individual commitments and ambitions in turn
create a strong state whose presence can be then felt across the board. As
indicated above, the word ambition is not at all a negative connotation, it is
one of the most positive words in the dictionary. This word has indelible link
with words like plan, mission, aims, objective, desire and above all with the
word hope. Once one develops an ambition for oneself, the immediate by product
is that he/she will also develop determination, desire and motivation to follow
that dream. Of course, an ambition without determination and motivation is of
no use and is nothing but fantasy. The people who have ambitions in life must
equally develop courage to chase those and must not rest till one achieves
his/her goal. Sometimes, we may feel difficult to reach the goal but that
difficulty will be over come through proper plan and determination. I believe
that if one nurtures a realistic ambition coupled with determination and
courage, the goal will be realized sooner or later. However ambition must be
clearly distinguished from greed. Basically greed means intense and selfish
desire for something especially for wealth, power or food. When a young student
develops an ambition to become a super specialty doctor, it is understood that
he wants to be at the top of his profession to serve more effectively for his
patient. It's his ambition. But if he wants to reach that stage only to earn
more, it would be greed. Again if someone feels that he should be the richest
person in his town and for that he is ready to adopt all unethical means then
it's nothing but greed. Ambition is linked to all positive attributes but greed
is linked to all negative attributes. So when we talk to our young generation,
we must clearly tell them not to have greed but to have ambition. As
Mahatma Gandhi has said there has to be compatibility between the means and
end. We can’t achieve a goal, does not matter, howsoever great it could be, by
faulty means. Having distinguished ambition from greed, I have no doubt in my
mind that today our state desperately needs a generation with full of dream and
ambition to take our state at top in national landscape. I want to see that
Assamese young stars have presence in administration, health care, scientific
research, media, sports etc and lead our country from front. We need to take up
this challenge. We can anyways live a life without a challenge or a mission,
but I believe we are not in this world to live such a life. We need to live our
life with a mission, with an ambition which is in complete harmony between
individual achievement and collective welfare. If someone feels that having
ambition in life is bad then here is a quotation from Mark Twain which answers
all such views-
“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can
become great.”The states of the
East are poor today n North East , poorer, because they lack the
initiative to grow, the inertia to
achieve, the ambition to grow big. In fact,
Assameese have been averse to physical labor
, having inherited with the
Ahom lineage feelings ingrained n inculcated. It is since
2005 that they have started moving out n look beyond their Mahanagari of Guwahati
,to Kolkata / Delhi/ Mumbai/ Bangalore…Ambition is crucial
& a gut feeling that
to earn money is not bad, to grow
is not bad, to bathe in different cultures is
required.
No state
of India has achieved over 75%
in Ease of Doing Business &
just 7 states achieved between 50
& 75 %. Surprisingly, newer states like Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh have overtaken Maharashtra, Tamilnadu &
Maharashtra. However, Gujarat, MP
& Rajasthan are still in the lead. And interestingly, all the leading states are governed by BJP. If it
is not a manipulation, it indicates BJP’s
philosophy to accord prime importance
to economic growth , while
other parties are still sticking to basic Senonomics
formulae of HDI. One
example shall suffice, ; while 2 hours a day in Bangalore & more in other cities n towns of Karnataka
have become a rule, & power plants
are closed partially in want of funds to
buy coal, severe draught has left hydel power sources dry &
19% of power is stolen in this developed state. Owing to drought, marriages are down in north Karnataka-South Maharashtra
belt, due to uncertainties
attached to sugarcane & people
are worried about daughters’ future
post marriage. In the state
that boasts country’s financial
capital, it is unfortunate to see growth of unmarried youth
graduates & it should be arrested , as
agricultural & unemployed
youth can lead to another
Nalbari. But Coal purchase money
is not a constraint with pvt power generators like JSW Energy. But govt
is not buying in want of funds. I repeat, serious rethink to locate
industries in Karnataka /
Tamilnadu / Telengana / Seemandhra
should be made , unless
other incentives are too
lucrative. Mr Amit Shah commits
11 crore BJP members, around 9%
of our population , to Nation
building rather than power capture
machinery. Is BJP growing as a parallel extension of RSS, or is the no
inflated including RSS machinery??
Just have a look at the
following 1 recent news article n 1
recent interview by Dr Pranab Bardhan. Yes, gradually, Dr Pangharia
n Dr Subramanian are going down in acceptability like the balloon of their
economy & the
downturn of the crude n world economy, and also enjoy the intolerant
reaction of Ratan Tata on our PM, with him he shares friend philosopher guide relation till recent past---
More on Intolerance
****Noting that people are yet to have access to basic health
care facilities and there was social stigma on disability, Tata said, less
attention has been given to disability- oriented vehicles.
In the midst of the growing debate on 'intolerance',
industrialist Ratan Tata on Monday said freedom to decide what one has to do is
the one thing that can make the nation shine and governments should have no
role in telling people what to do."If India is to shine now and in future,
people must have the freedom to decide. While governments can be in the
business of monitoring, they should have no role in telling people what to
do," the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons said while interacting with
students of SRM University at nearby Kattankulathur."If India should shine
let people have the freedom to decide," a release quoted him as saying.
Urging students to be honest in whatever profession they choose in future, he
said that as they go through life, they would find many things in their
profession down the line which they could not find in college."Be honest
in what you think and do and this goes for any profession," he said.Noting
that people are yet to have access to basic health care facilities and there
was social stigma on disability, Tata said, less attention has been given to
disability- oriented vehicles."We don't even have a ramp in many pavements
to address the needs of people on wheel-chairs," he said. On students
taking up education overseas, he said it would not be the case if educational
institutions offered proper "facilities" and "faculties".
To a query on support given by him to various start-ups, he said, "I like
investing in young companies, but money-alone and greed is not what I am
for," he said.
Just take example of Swachchhata. SB Cess
has been imposed / compelled on
all services & monthly Rs 300 crore+
is being collected. Where is all the money going? At least NERGA funds are yet to start flows. But when shall India have all
those toilets in all its villages??
Public mindset yes, 80 lac
toilets have been built. If total requirement
is Rs 1.8 lac crore, @ 300 crore pm, it shall need 50
years to reach the goal with public funds. Else, NDA has to
shed Panghariaism & Subramanyanism
and repose faith in Senonomics ,
allocating much more fund for public
health n enhancing instead of squeezing NERGA spending. Kly go thru the 4 news
articles on this subject
Mysore has topped the Swachh Bharat rankings among 476 cities in
the country with three more places from Karnataka figuring in the top
10. Among urban local bodies in the national Capital, Delhi Cantonment
ranked 15th in the list and New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) 16th, while
Municipal Corporation of Delhi was at 398th position. West Bengal has done
well in the rankings with 25 cities/towns finding a place in the top 100.
These rankings are based on the extent of open defecation and
solid waste management practices, according to a Government
release. Mysore leads with minimal open defecation and extensive adoption
of solid waste management practices The city of Mysore leads the cities with
minimal open defecation and extensive adoption of solid waste management
practices. Thirty-nine cities from the southern states were among the top
100, followed by 27 from East, 15 from West, 12 from North and seven from the
North-Eastern states. Fifteen of the 27 capital cities surveyed figured
among the top 100 performers while five were ranked beyond 300.
Bengaluru leads the list of capitals at 7th rank while Patna
came at the bottom at 429th. Among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from the
North, 21 from the East, three from the West and two from the South. The
top 10 ranked cities are Mysore, Thiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), Navi Mumbai,
Kochi (Kerala), Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru from Karnataka,
Thiruvananthapuram, Halisahar (West Bengal), and Gangtok (Sikkim).
Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) came at the bottom at 476th, preceded by
Bhind (MP), Palwal and Bhiwani — both in Haryana, Chittaurgarh (Rajasthan),
Bulandshahr (UP), Neemuch (MP), Rewari (Haryana), Hindaun (Rajasthan) and
Sambalpur in Odisha at 467th rank. All the 476 Class-1 cities in 31 states
and Union Territories, each with a population of above one lakh were surveyed
for assessing total sanitation practices covering a set of parameters including
the extent of open defecation, solid waste management, septage management,
waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water
bodies and mortality due to water born diseases.
The survey, conducted during 2014-15, was commissioned by the
Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy
of 2008. Since the Swachh Bharat Mission is being implemented in urban
areas with focus on construction of individual household, community and public
toilets to eradicate open defecation and ensure door-todoor collection and
disposal of municipal solid waste, all the 476 Class-1 cities have been ranked
based on the data pertaining to these elements.
This helps in assessing the present situation in these cities so
that they can undertake necessary interventions to meet Swachh Bharat Mission
targets in urban areas. Overall sanitation rankings of these cities based
on a total of 100 marks assigned to different parameters covering all aspects
would be announced later.
প্লাস্টিকের যে কোনো সামগ্রী এখানে নিষিদ্ধ। রাস্তাঘাট ঝকঝকে তকতকে, ময়লা-আবর্জনার দেখা পাওয়া মুশকিল। চারপাশে ফুলের বাগান। গ্রামটিকে বলা হয় এশিয়ার সবচেয়ে পরিচ্ছন্ন গ্রাম। ভারতের একেবারে উত্তর-পূর্বাঞ্চলের ছোট্ট এই গ্রামটির নাম মাওলিনং।
ভারতের মেঘালয় রাজ্যের প্রত্যন্ত গ্রামটিতে ২০০৩ সালের আগে পর্যটকদের পদচ্ছাপ পড়তো না। মেঘালয়ে ছিল না কোনো সড়ক। যেতে হতো শুধুমাত্র পায়ে হেঁটে। মাওলিনং-এ খাসি উপজাতিদের বসবাস। বিরল মাতৃতান্ত্রিক সমাজের জন্য খ্যাত এ গ্রাম। এই খাসি সমাজে ধন-সম্পদের মালিক হন মেয়েরা। মায়ের সম্পদের একমাত্র উত্তরাধিকারী হন সবচেয়ে ছোট মেয়েটি। মায়ের নামের পদবি গ্রহণ করে সন্তানরা।তবে সাম্প্রতিক বছরগুলোতে ভিন্ন কারণে এ গ্রামটি বিখ্যাত হয়ে উঠেছে। সেটি হলো, গ্রামের ব্যতিক্রমধর্মী পরিচ্ছন্নতা। ভারতের বড় বড় শহরের ধুলাবালি আর কোলাহল থেকে অনেক আলাদা এ গ্রাম। গ্রামের কোনায় কোনায় দেখা মিলবে বাঁশের তৈরি ডাস্টবিন। স্বেচ্ছাসেবীরা নিয়মিত বিরতির পরপর সড়ক ঝাড়ু দেয়।প্লাস্টিকের ব্যাগ ফেলে দিতে দর্শণার্থীদের প্রতি কড়া নির্দেশমূলক সংকেত চোখে পড়বে প্রায়ই। আবর্জনা ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে রাখা একেবারেই নিষিদ্ধ। নিজের ছোট কিন্তু উজ্জ্বল পারিবারিক বাড়িটির সামনে বসে আছে বনিয়ার মাওরোহ। মাওরোহর ভাষ্য, আমরা প্রতিদিন পরিষ্কার করি। কারণ, আমাদের দাদা-দাদি ও পূর্ব-পুরুষরা আমদের শিখিয়েছে কীভাবে গ্রাম ও আশপাশের এলাকা পরিষ্কার রাখতে হয়। কারণ, পরিচ্ছন্ন থাকা স্বাস্থ্যের জন্য ভালো।১২ বছর আগে এ গ্রামে প্রথম সড়ক নির্মিত হয়। তারপর ডিসকোভার ইন্ডিয়া নামে একটি ট্রাভেল ম্যাগাজিনের এক সাংবাদিক ঘুরে যান গ্রামটি। তারপরই তার লেখা একটি নিবন্ধে গ্রামটিকে এশিয়ার সবচেয়ে পরিচ্ছন্ন গ্রাম হিসেবে আখ্যা দেয়া হয়। এরপরই যেন দর্শণার্থীদের ভিড় বাড়তে থাকে গ্রামটিকে ঘিরে। ভরা মৌসুমে প্রতিদিন ২৫০ পর্যটক এ গ্রামে বেড়াতে যান। গ্রামের জনসংখ্যা বেড়ে গেছে প্রায় ৫০ শতাংশ। ক্রমেই, খ্যাতির বিড়ম্বনার মুখোমুখি হয় মাওলিনং। গ্রামের একটি অতিথিশালার মালিক ৫১ বছর বয়সী রিশোত খোংথোহরেম।
তিনি বলেন, এখানে এখন শব্দ দূষণ চলে। আমি গ্রাম পরিষদের সঙ্গে কথা বলেছি। পরিষদ কর্তৃপক্ষ গ্রাম থেকে আরও দূরে নতুন একটি গাড়ি পার্ক করার স্থান নির্মাণে সরকারের কাছে চিঠি লিখেছে। মেঘালয় ট্যুরিজম ডেভেলপমেন্ট ফোরামের সাবেক কর্মকর্তা দীপক লালু এ গ্রামের পর্যটন সম্ভাবনা নিয়ে একেবারে প্রথম দিকে গ্রাম পরিষদকে পরামর্শ দিয়েছেন। তিনিও এখন অতিরিক্ত পর্যটকের চাপ নিয়ে চিন্তিত।তিনি বলেন, এখন কোথাও কোনো ব্যক্তিগত গোপনীয়তা নেই। এক নারী হয়তো গোসল করছে। তার ছবি তুলে ফেলা হচ্ছে। যে সামাজিক বন্ধন গ্রামটিকে এক করে রেখেছে, তা নষ্ট হচ্ছে। পরিষ্কার পরিচ্ছন্নতার বিষয়ে মাওলিনং গ্রামে এতটা উদ্বেগ সৃষ্টি হয় ১৩০ বছর আগের একটি কলেরা মহামারি থেকে। তখন গ্রামে ছিল না কোনো স্বাস্থ্য সুবিধা। এ কারণেই পরিষ্কার-পরিচ্ছন্নতাকেই কলেরা প্রতিরোধের সবচেয়ে কার্যকরী উপায় হিসেবে বিবেচনা করা হতে থাকে।
খোংথোহরেম বলেন, খ্রিষ্টান মিশনারিজ আমাদের পূর্বসূরিদের বলেছিল, তোমরা কলেরা থেকে সুরক্ষিত থাকতে পারবে, যদি ভালোভাবে পরিচ্ছন্নতা বজায় রাখতে পারো। ঘরে-বাইরে, জমিতে, গ্রামে, নিজের দেহে কিংবা খাবার গ্রহণের বেলায় – সবসময়ই পরিচ্ছন্নতা মেনে চলতে হবে। এরপর থেকে মাওলিনং গ্রামে এ খুঁতখুঁতে অভ্যেস প্রতিষ্ঠা পায়। ফলে গ্রামটির ভিন্ন অর্জনও বেড়েছে।
প্রকাশ্যে মলমূত্র ত্যাগ যেখানে প্রত্যন্ত ভারতে স্বাভাবিক বিষয়, সেখানে এ গ্রামের ৯৫টি বাড়ির সব কটিতে টয়লেট রয়েছে। এ গ্রামের প্রশংসা করেছেন খোদ ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী নরেন্দ্র মোদি। মহাসড়কে ও স্মৃতিস্তম্ভের আশেপাশে ময়লা-আবর্জনা ফেলার জন্য কুখ্যাতি আছে প্রত্যন্ত অঞ্চলের দরিদ্র মানুষদের। এ দুর্নাম দূর করতে মোদি শুরু করেন ক্লিন ইন্ডিয়া প্রচারাভিযান। আর এর অংশ হিসেবে এক রেডিও ভাষণে মোদি এ গ্রামের প্রশংসা করেন।
মোদি বলেছিলেন, আমি জেনে চমৎকৃত হয়েছি, উত্তর-পূর্ব ভারতের মেঘালয়ে এমন একটি প্রত্যন্ত গ্রাম আছে, যেটি বছরের পর বছর ধরে পরিচ্ছন্নতা বজায় রেখে আসছে। এমন অর্জন নিয়ে মাওলিনং গ্রাম নিশ্চয়ই গর্বিত। অনেকে তবে মনে করেন, বাসিন্দাদের মঙ্গলের জন্য এ গ্রামে পর্যটকদের সংখ্যা সীমিত করতে হবে। পর্যটক বিশেষজ্ঞ লালু বলেন, তাদের অবশ্যই পর্যটক সংখ্যা নিয়ন্ত্রণে রাখতে জানতে হবে। একটা পর্যায়ের পর ‘না’ বলতে পারতে হবে। -মানবজমিন
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday
lauded Indore as it got country's second (Open Defecation Free) ODF district
tag. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was also present on the occasion. The
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister shared that the district administration has
already provided confirmation certificates to 310 panchayats of the district
which claims of latrines in each house of 610 villages in the district. He
lauded the efforts made by the Indore government and said that soon Indore will
be reaching to a next level.
Building toilets in rural India was one of the major promises
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during his speech from the Red Fort ramparts
in his first Independence Day address last year. The government has since
moved with alacrity, claiming to have constructed around 80 lakh countryside
toilets across India under Modi’s ambitious Swachh Bharat mission. But a
random assessment of the campaign by Mail Today shows that the ambitious move
is plagued by crippling problems that threaten to offset the hopes among large
swathes of population that seek hygienic living.
A random assessment by Mail Today shows that the ambitious
campaign to build toilets in rural India is plagued by crippling problems
To gauge the programme’s success rate, Union Ministry of
Drinking Water and Sanitation — the nodal agency for rural mission for the
cleanliness campaign — engaged the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)
for an impact assessment study.
Sources in the ministry said that one of the most common
complaints coming from states like Uttar Pradesh (UP) was the lack of
acceptability and proper usage of the toilets built in remote rural
areas.
“Though several toilets
have been built in this area, villagers still prefer going out into fields to
attend nature’s call. At a few places, villagers have dumped the toilets
under piles of husk. In some villages where they have constructed toilets, there
is no proper waste management…so they are frustrated with the idea,” said an
official in UP government, based in Badaun district, on the condition of
anonymity.
A villager in Bareilly district of UP admitted that he felt
“suffocated inside an enclosed toilet” and couldn’t bring himself to excrete
until he went to an open field.
“At least 55 per cent of the Indian population doesn’t have
access to toilets. If we go to villages randomly, we will find one or the other
problem. The idea of the survey is to get the actual picture of the program.
This is a third-party survey targeted at genuine results.
"The survey will be completed in a month. We have tried to
cover almost all aspects of the idea of sanitation. Surveyors are looking at
everything: solid and liquid waste management, awareness regarding toilet
usage, water storage, hand washing practices and acceptability of the total
idea of sanitation,” said Saraswati Prasad, joint secretary, ministry of
drinking water and sanitation, Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G)
division.
Focusing on the end result qualities, certain features were
introduced to expedite rural sanitation.
One of the changes introduced was increasing the incentive
amount for an individual’s toilet from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.This hike was
made keeping in mind that hygiene is an important factor and promotion of
washing hands at critical times, such as after defecation, was essential
to prevent faeco-oral transmission. Therefore, it was advised that
facilities for water storage, hand washing and cleaning of toilets may be
created or strengthened alongside the construction of a toilet. “We have
constructed around 80 lakh toilets under the combined Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan,
MNREGA and SBM-G programmes. One of the challenges we have been facing is
requests from some states for enhancement of unit cost of Individual
Household Latrines (IHHLs) and community toilets for various reasons, such as
adopting different technological options for different geographical locations,”
Prasad added. “The SBM-G guidelines stipulate only an inceptive amount to
be provided to an eligible person. It doesn’t aim to provide the full cost of a
toilet, which may be higher or lower than the incentive amount. "The
reason is that sanitation is primarily a behavioral issue, to be undertaken by
people themselves for their own good. The role of government is only to
facilitate this positive change by providing incentives and assisting people.
The SBM-G has a clear focus on behavioral change,” Prasad added. Officials
said the realization by a person or community of the need to stop open
defecation, and therefore take steps to construct and use toilets, is more
important than a supply-driven approach. The Centre has also said that
state governments have the flexibility to provide higher incentive for
household toilets constructed by sources other than SBM-G. The
construction of toilets is a major focal area for the Swachh Bharat programme,
which aims to make India “open defecation-free” by 2019. It aims at
constructing 12 crore toilets in rural India by October 2019 at a projected
cost of Rs 1.96 lakh crore.
4
Around 5,000 toilets have been constructed in Ludhiana
PUNJAB: Non-starter in Punjab
By Manjeet Sehgal
The Swachh Bharat Mission has failed to take off in most
villages of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The scheme has also
failed to attract people as they feel that a sum of Rs 12,000 provided under
the scheme is insufficient.“Constructing a basic toilet requires additional Rs
30,000 to buy bricks, cement, door and other things. The scheme will meet the
same fate as the Indira Awas Yojna under which the houses were constructed only
on papers,” Maya Ram a resident of Salogra village in Himachal Pradesh
said. Interestingly, the Punjab government claims to have constructed
around 33 lakh toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan for 7.92 lakh families
at a cost of Rs 937 crore. However, a reality check done by Mail Today
revealed that most of the toilets were constructed on papers as no money has
been provided to the households. Confirming the status ,Punjab Congress
chief Pratap Singh Bajwa said that the figures shown were not true and that the
toilets were only constructed only on papers.
KOLKATA: Flushing out open defecation
By Soudhriti Bhabani
West Bengal’s Nadia district has been declared a complete Open
Defecation Free Belt. Other than Nadia, other districts have also adopted West
Bengal government’s Sabar Janno Souchaggar (toilet for all) initiative in
October 2013. The Trinamool Congress had adopted the model of converting
various districts into open defecation free zones across the state — a year
before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
much touted ‘Swachh Bharat’ or ‘Clean India’ campaign was
launched. Altogether 7-8 districts including Nadia, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas,
North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad and Birbhum took up the initiative.
Sources said a number of NGOs, other social organizations,
lawmakers and school children have also been involved in this ‘people’s
movement’. The fund for constructing the toilets , which is said to be
around Rs 10,000, came from various central government schemes and the civil
construction developed by women workers thorough various self-help groups.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also said that Bengal’s “Toilet for All”
project was selected by Loughborough University, UK as “An Inspiring District
Level Model for eliminating open defecation in India”.
LUCKNOW: Construction in full swing
By Rajat Rai
Construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiya is in
full swing in Lucknow’s Benti village, which was adopted by Home Minister
Rajnath Singh in June last year. Currently, around 90 toilets are under
construction across the seven villages of the Benti Gram Sabha. According
to the village head Shanti Tiwari around 20 toilets is expected to be
functional in next 7 to 10 days.“A sum of Rs 1.92 lakh were issued in June and
we hope that 18 to 20 toilets will be functional in the next 10 days. The
population of the gram sabha is nearly 7,000 and at present 90 toilets are
under construction out of 1,100 toilets which had been sanctioned”, Tiwari
informed.
+4
Construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiya is in
full swing in Lucknow’s Benti village, which was adopted by Home Minister
Rajnath Singh in June last year
Some existing toilets were also renovated under the
scheme.
“About a dozen toilets that were built in the houses of some
villagers have been renovated. They were selected via lottery, which also
includes some in the Maleen Basti (houses of the scheduled caste in the
outskirts)”, Tiwari added. The villagers, however, allege that contractors
demand a bribe of Rs 2,000 for constructing or renovating a toilet.“Most
toilets are being constructed on the land of the Gram Sabha. As far as the
renovation of existing toilets are concerned, it is being done only in the
houses of those close to the pradhan. If anyone else want this favour, the
contractor asks for a bribe of Rs 2000”, Dinesh Shukla a villager
alleged. “My family still goes to the fields and despite meeting the pradhan
several times, she did not give heed to our requests”, a 90-year-old Mangal
said. Rubbishing the claims made by villagers, Tiwari said, “We are
maintaining complete transparency and I can show you my records. Rajnath Singh
visited the village in December last and had expressed satisfaction”.
BENGALURU: Karnataka honours promise
By Aravind Gowda
Ironically, Congress-ruled Karnataka has performed better than
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states in implementing the Swachh Bharat
Mission by constructing a record number of toilets in 2014-15.
The state continues to maintain the pace of implementation of
the program both in urban and rural areas.
In Bengaluru, toilets have been constructed in shanty towns and
lower middle class areas, where people are satisfied using it under the
Community & Public Toilets category. In a few localities where
construction of permanent toilets is not practical, the local municipality has
installed etoilets, which are eco-friendly and user-friendly. The
municipalities are paying towards the maintenance and operation of these
toilets.
So far, 3,57,000 toilets have been built across the
state. This year, the Karnataka government has an ambitious target of 1
million toilets, both under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and the state government’s
own schemes.
4
Civic agencies had failed to construct any public toilet in
South Delhi since the Swachh Bharat Mission was announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
South Delhi to get Capital’s first bio toilet soon
By Sneha Agrawal
The Swachh Mission in the Capital has found new
torchbearers. With the noble initiative of residents, south Delhi will
soon have its first public bio-toilet installed at Greater Kailash-II. The
bio-digester toilet will be installed at Block W park that receives the highest
footfall in the area. The move comes after the civic agencies failed to
construct any public toilet since the Swachh Bharat Mission was announced by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The residents’ welfare association of
Greater Kailash-II in collaboration with Suvidha Bio Foundation had decided to
start the pilot project on green toilets in April.The toilet will be ready for
public use by month-end.
The cost of installing a bio toilet has been estimated at Rs
1.07 lakh. Abhay Khanna of Suvidha Bio Foundation said, “We will build an
executive toilet block. The aerobic technology will help to convert the
fecal matter into water and gas. The water will be used as manure for horticulture
purpose. The lifeline of these toilets is beyond 25 years with negligible
maintenance. ”
“It is a nice initiative by residents. The corporation and the
residents should join hands and take more of such projects to maintain
cleanliness and sanitation,” said Sunita Gulia, councillor, Greater
Kailash-II.
The bio toilets are stand alone toilets that do not require any
sewer connection and are odour-free. Residents of Greater Kailash-II are
hopeful to receive a positive response from users.
“The park in Block W is visited by 400-500 residents from GK-II
and the nearby areas. This was the best spot to pioneer the project. If
the people like the facility, we would cover other parts of the area,” said
Ashok Bagga, former RWA president, Greater Kailash-II, who initiated the
project.
The law was extended in 2003 to cover people working in septic tanks and sewer lines. But surprisingly not even a single employer has been booked to date for engaging a septic tank worker even as new public toilets being built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have spawned more septic tanks and sewers. Paradoxically, increasing the need for more manual scavengers and septic tank cleaners.
The life stories of these workers betray an entrenched
caste-based discrimination that shamefully persists in the Capital even now,
preventing them from applying for any other job.
“At first, I couldn’t get
myself to do it (cleaning a septic tank). But then I realised that no one will
give me any other job because I belong to the Valmiki caste. So I had no other
option,” says Ranjit, who has been doing the job for three years now. “My
father, who used to clean septic tanks for the past 30 years, is ill and
bed-ridden now,” he says. According to him, it can take several hours to
clean a septic tank, especially if it has not been cleaned for long. The
working hours are mostly during the night and depend on the demand. “It
takes three people up to six hours to clean a septic tank,” Ranjit
adds. The remuneration of Rs 1,200 is then divided among the three workers,
with each earning a meagre Rs 400 for cleaning an entire tank.
Stinking poverty
“I smell of poop for days after work, making it impossible to
eat,” says Ranjit, who is also worried about diseases such as TB and jaundice,
which his job makes him prone to. “The odour is extremely bad. My father
used to drink alcohol before entering a tank. That was the only way for him to
be able to stand the stink. Some people say alcohol buffers you against the
noxious methane emanating from the tank,” he explains. Before entering a
tank, Ranjit uses a bamboo stick to measure its depth and also to find out if
there are any poisonous insects or reptiles in there. Ranjit says he works
mostly for private homes. Working on sewer lines owned by the government, he claims,
doesn’t pay much or offer him a regular job. The PRO of Delhi Jal Board,
however, denied the claim, saying that manual cleaning of sewer lines has been
banned and hence the agency doesn’t hire workers to clean sewer
+6
Ranjit (pictured with his wife, right) says he works mostly for
private homes. Working on sewer lines owned by the government, he claims,
doesn’t pay much or offer him a regular job
Bezwada Wilson, founder of Safai Karmachari Andolan, a national
movement committed to the eradication of manual scavenging and rehabilitation
of scavengers, blames lack of initiative on the part of authorities in emptying
the tanks mechanically. “There has been no mechanisation of sewer lines or
septic tanks since 1947,” says Wilson. “You cannot build two lakh toilets and
have no ready mechanism to empty the pits. "Also, after the
Government wielded the broom for a day, the scavenging community feels its
profession is not that bad,” he adds. “Unfortunately, even among
Government officials there is no awareness about the safety and employment of
manual scavengers. Then how do we expect private parties to know about it?”
Wilson asks. “It is a tedious process — the implementation of the Act,” he
adds. An unofficial estimate by Hazards Centre, a Delhi-based NGO, puts the
number of manual scavengers in Delhi at around 60,000. “The real figure, I
suspect, is much higher,” says Dunu Roy, director of Hazards Centre.
Roy blames innate structural problems that continue to act as a
challenge in solving the issue. He says; “Most of these sewer lines and
septic tanks were designed in the early 1960s, taking into account the
population size of those days. You cannot pass a judgement banning manual
scavengers when there are innate structural problems. "Septic tank
cleaners will be employed as long as there is human excreta,” says Roy. A
2003 Supreme Court order recommends the practice of entering sewer lines without
safety gear a crime even in emergency situations. The death of a worker
resulting from such situations requires the employer to pay compensation to the
tune of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased, the order stipulates.
High casualty
All those families who have lost a member while doing sewerage
work since 1993 are also eligible for the same amount. The verdict was
aimed at dissuading future generations from taking up manual scavenging as a
job.
“These are just written words,” says Wilson, the Safai Karmachari
Andolan founder, about the Supreme Court verdict. “Most of the deaths are
not even accounted for. Then there is the larger question of whether a worker
actually died while on the job. "In the end, the compensations are
never delivered,” Wilson rues. “The official death figure in Delhi due to
manual scavenging is just 18. The unofficial numbers are way too high and
growing by the day,” he says with a note of caution. 'Husband paid
Rs 1 lakh to get permanent MCD job'
By Adila Matra
Meena's day begins at 4am. After dropping her kids at school and
sending her husband, Mukesh, off to work (he cleans public toilets), Meena
drives her wheel barrow from house to house picking up waste and segregating
plastic from organic. She says it is difficult to get a job with Municipal
Corporation of Delhi (MCD), so she does her work on an individual basis,
earning Rs 40-50 per house. “At first, I used to carry the waste in a
basket on my head and got skin inflammation. That’s when I started saving up
for a wheel barrow,” she says.
+6
For Rs 4,000, Meena bought a wheel barrow and now hopes to work
for the MCD. “Government jobs have its perks like pension. But it is very
difficult to get one,” she says. Meena’s husband who used to clean
toilets, first as a daily wage worker and then on contract basis, is now a
permanent worker of the MCD. Meena remembers how he had to wait for 15
years to get this done. “It is a convoluted process. We had to pay Rs 1
lakh to a middleman just to get his file checked. And we are working harder to
pay back that money which we borrowed on a very high interest rate,” Meena
says. Deepak Hastir, Additional Commissioner of MCD, while accepting some
irregularities, explains the other side of the story. “For instance, if
there are 100 people working under a contractor, he will also have 10 others as
substitutes in case anyone falls sick or is on leave. In such a situation it is
difficult to offer permanent jobs to everyone even if a worker has completed
the required eligibility period (about five to eight years) to make him
permanent,” he says. “Also, we do not know how many are employed by NGOs
or contractors,” he states, adding: “MCD has stores from where every municipal
ragpicker is given a broom, wheel barrow, gloves and boots.” “Under the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, we are pushing forward a proposal that will stop
employing children below 14 years of age in collecting trash. Under this
proposal, every ragpicker, even the one employed by the NGOs, should be
provided a protective gear,” says Hastir.
The law was extended in 2003 to cover people working in septic tanks and sewer lines. But surprisingly not even a single employer has been booked to date for engaging a septic tank worker even as new public toilets being built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have spawned more septic tanks and sewers. Paradoxically, increasing the need for more manual scavengers and septic tank cleaners. The life stories of these workers betray an entrenched caste-based discrimination that shamefully persists in the Capital even now, preventing them from applying for any other job.
**** “At first, I couldn’t get myself to do it (cleaning a
septic tank). But then I realised that no one will give me any other job
because I belong to the Valmiki caste. So I had no other option,” says Ranjit,
who has been doing the job for three years now. “My father, who used to
clean septic tanks for the past 30 years, is ill and bed-ridden now,” he
says. According to him, it can take several hours to clean a septic tank,
especially if it has not been cleaned for long. The working hours are mostly
during the night and depend on the demand. “It takes three people up to
six hours to clean a septic tank,” Ranjit adds. The remuneration of Rs
1,200 is then divided among the three workers, with each earning a meagre Rs
400 for cleaning an entire tank.
Stinking poverty
“I smell of poop for days after work, making it impossible to
eat,” says Ranjit, who is also worried about diseases such as TB and jaundice,
which his job makes him prone to. “The odour is extremely bad. My father
used to drink alcohol before entering a tank. That was the only way for him to
be able to stand the stink. Some people say alcohol buffers you against the
noxious methane emanating from the tank,” he explains. Before entering a
tank, Ranjit uses a bamboo stick to measure its depth and also to find out if
there are any poisonous insects or reptiles in there. Ranjit says he works
mostly for private homes. Working on sewer lines owned by the government, he
claims, doesn’t pay much or offer him a regular job. The PRO of Delhi Jal
Board, however, denied the claim, saying that manual cleaning of sewer lines
has been banned and hence the agency doesn’t hire workers to clean sewer
lines.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
দুর্নীতিদমনে
রাজনীতিবিদদের প্রতিশ্রুতিই সার, মত
আন্তর্জাতিক সংস্থার
By: ABP Ananda Web Desk | Last
Updated: Wednesday, 27 January 2016 9:29 PM
বার্লিন: প্রতিশ্রুতি পূরণে ব্যর্থ ভারতীয়
রাজনীতিবিদেরা। যার জেরে এদেশে এখনও প্রভূত পরিমাণে রয়েছে দুর্নীতির জাল। এমনটাই
জানিয়েছে আন্তর্জাতিক দুর্নীতি নজরদারি সংস্থা ট্রান্সপারেন্সি ইন্টারন্যাশনাল (টিআই)। যদিও, আশার বাণীও শুনিয়েছে তারা। জানিয়েছে, আগের
তুলনায় দুর্নীতি কমেছে ভারতে।
সম্প্রতি প্রকাশিত হয়েছে বার্লিন-স্থিত
এই সংস্থার ২০১৫ সালের বার্ষিক রিপোর্ট। সেখানে স্বচ্ছতার নিরিখে ভারতের স্কোর
একশোর মধ্যে ৩৮। প্রসঙ্গক্রমে,
একশো হল সবচেয়ে স্বচ্ছ বা কম দুর্নীতিযুক্ত
দেশ। অন্যদিকে, শূন্য হল সবচেয়ে দুর্নীতিগ্রস্ত দেশ। মূলত, সরকারি জায়গায় দুর্নীতির খতিয়ানের ওপর ভিত্তি
করেই তৈরি করা হয় এই তালিকা।
কেন ভারতের এই হাল? টিআই
জানিয়েছে, ভারত-শ্রীলঙ্কার
মত দেশে পরিবর্তনের জন্য মানুষের তীব্র আশা রয়েছে। দুর্নীতিদমন করার প্রতিশ্রুতি
দিয়েই রাজনৈতিক দলগুলি এই দুই দেশে ক্ষমতায় এসেছে। কিন্তু সর্বত্রই দেখা গিয়েছে, রাজনৈতিক
নেতারা নিজেদের প্রতিশ্রুতি পালন করছেন না। তারা সেখানে ব্যর্থ। যা সেই দেশের
দুর্নীতি রোধের পথে বাধা হয়ে দাড়াচ্ছে।
এবারের রিপোর্টে মোট ১৬৮টি দেশের ওপর সমীক্ষা
চলেছে। সেখানে ভারতের স্থান ৭৬ তম। ২০১৪ সালে ভারত ৮৫ তম জায়গায় ছিল। সেইদিক থেকে
ভারতের উন্নতি হয়েছে বা বলা যেতে পারে, গত এক বছরে ভারতের দুর্নীতির পরিমাণ কিছুটা
কমেছে। ভারতের সঙ্গে একাসনে রয়েছে তাইল্যান্ড, ব্রাজিল, তিউনিসিয়া,
জাম্বিয়া এবং বুরকিনা ফাসো।
তালিকায় সবচেয়ে ওপরে রয়েছে ডেনমার্ক। তার
প্রাপ্ত স্কোর হল ৯১। এই নিয়ে তারা টানা দুবছর শীর্ষস্থান দখল
করেছে। তালিকায় সবচেয়ে নীচে উত্তর কোরিয়া ও সোমালিয়া। দুজনের স্কোরই ৮ পয়েন্ট।
উল্লেখযোগ্য হল ভারতের চেয়ে তালিকায় অনেক এগিয়ে রয়েছে প্রতিবেশি ভূটান। ৬৫ পয়েন্ট
নিয়ে তারা তালিকায় ২৭ তম স্থান দখল করেছে। তবে, ৩৭ পয়েন্ট নিয়ে ভারতের নীচে রয়েছে চিন (৮৩), ৩০ পয়েন্ট নিয়ে ১১৭ তম স্থানে রয়েছে পাকিস্তান। এবং ২৫ পয়েন্ট নিয়ে ১৩৯তম
স্থানে রয়েছে বাংলাদেশ।
A latest update on the
Intolerance debate. Beyond the suicide
of the Hyderabad Dalit/ OBC student, for which even JNU
is boiling. And also in addition to the
growing protests by women to
enter Shani Temple @ Ahmednagar.
A women's organisation was on Thursday ordered by authorities
not to go ahead with its demonstration at the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in
Ahmednagar district on January 26 to demand that women be given equal rights
for prayers at its sacred platform.
The Ranragini Bhumata Brigade on its part headed for a showdown
with the authorities by deciding to book a helicopter from which its chief
Trupti Desai was planning to alight by a rope and take darshan just to break an
ancient "custom" that bars women from climbing up to the holy
'chauthara' (sacred platform).
Joint Charity Commissioner of Pune region Shivkumar Dige in his
order preventing members of Ranragini Bhumata Brigade from going ahead with its
protests said there was apprehension of damage to property if the outfit goes
ahead with its demonstration at the 'chauthara'. The temple trustees should
hold a meeting with Brigade members and hear what the latter have to say, the
order said.
Fearing restrictions on the protests, Desai said she was booking
a helicopter and seeking permission for the flight from the district collector
and planned to alight (in the temple premises) by a rope from the helicopter.
"Women want equality, which was given in the Constitution
of India on January 26. Hence we want to protest on this day," Desai said,
as the agitation over certain restrictions on women at popular shrines such as
Haji Ali in Mumbai and Sabrimala temple in Kerala reached Shani Shingnapur,
about 300 km from Mumbai.
The temple trust and most villagers have strongly opposed the
plan, fearing the move might "anger" the Shani Dev. To foil the
attempt, villagers have announced that they would form a human chain around the
temple to "protect" the God from "being impure".
"One woman mistakenly went to the chauthara (platform) and
took darshan. After this, the management washed the area as it had become
'impure' and insulted motherhood. In December, four of us (women) tried to
storm through the barricades, but were pushed back," Desai said.
Popular
In November, a woman offered prayers at the popular shrine in
'breach' of the age-old practice of prohibiting entry of women, prompting the
temple committee to suspend seven security men and the villagers to perform
purification rituals.
Former member of National Commission for Women (NCW) Shamina
Shafiq on Tuesday voiced her concerns regarding the age-old practice of
discriminating women and barring them from entering the Shani Shignapur temple.
She said it was a blot on the democracy. She added that patriarchy was another
main reason because of which such practices still existed. Echoing similar
sentiments, Delhi Commission for Women's former chief Barkha Shukla said there
was absolutely no reason for barring women from the temple. Such practices are
man-made and it should be changed over the period of time.
Muslim women on Thursday staged a protest demanding entry into a
restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai, a stir that came amid a
campaign by a group seeking right for female devotees to offer prayers at inner
sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra.
Several activists belonging to Muslim women groups held placards
demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of the historic dargah,
which receives hundreds of devotees everyday. A participant said it was “male
patriarchy”, and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women.
“This is against tenets of Islam. The Constitution has given you
equal rights, Islam supports the Constitution,” she added. A Muslim women’s
rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah,
which has barred women’s entry into
The Bombay High Court is hearing a petition challenging the Haji
Ali Trust’s decision to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the
dargah (grave of a male Muslim saint). On January 18, the HC said it would wait
for Supreme Courts ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala
before deciding on the plea related to the dargah.
A bench of Justices V M Kanade and Reveti Mohite-Dere had said
both matters involved entry of women in the religious shrines, and hence they
would like to see what view the apex court would take on the issue before
deciding on the PIL pending before them. The next HC hearing will take place on
February 3.
The protest in Mumbai broke out two days after members of a
group, Bhumata Brigade, were prevented by police from entering into Shani
Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district to break a 400-year-old tradition
banning women from entering its sacred sanctum.
After the high-voltage march to the temple by the Bhumata
Brigade volunteers, which was foiled mid-way, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
called for a dialogue between temple authorities and activists to find a way
out of the row.
The popular shrine is dedicated to Lord Shani, who personifies
the planet Saturn in Hindu belief. Women devotees are not permitted on the
‘chauthara’ (sacred platform) of the temple as per the centuries-led tradition
followed at the shrine.
A participant said it was “male patriarchy”, and not religion,
which was imposing restrictions on women. (Source: PTI photo)
Muslim women on Thursday staged a protest demanding entry into a
restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai, a stir that came amid a
campaign by a group seeking right for female devotees to offer prayers at inner
sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra.
Several activists belonging to Muslim women groups held placards
demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of the historic dargah,
which receives hundreds of devotees everyday. A participant said it was “male
patriarchy”, and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women.
“This is against tenets of Islam. The Constitution has given you
equal rights, Islam supports the Constitution,” she added. A Muslim women’s
rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah,
which has barred women’s entry into mosque’s mausoleum.
The Bombay High Court is hearing a petition challenging the Haji
Ali Trust’s decision to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the
dargah (grave of a male Muslim saint). On January 18, the HC said it would wait
for Supreme Courts ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala
before deciding on the plea related to the dargah.
A bench of Justices V M Kanade and Reveti Mohite-Dere had said
both matters involved entry of women in the religious shrines, and hence they
would like to see what view the apex court would take on the issue before
deciding on the PIL pending before them. The next HC hearing will take place on
February 3.
The protest in Mumbai broke out two days after members of a
group, Bhumata Brigade, were prevented by police from entering into Shani
Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district to break a 400-year-old tradition
banning women from entering its sacred sanctum.
After the high-voltage march to the temple by the Bhumata
Brigade volunteers, which was foiled mid-way, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
called for a dialogue between temple authorities and activists to find a way
out of the row.
The popular shrine is dedicated to Lord Shani, who personifies
the planet Saturn in Hindu belief. Women devotees are not permitted on the
‘chauthara’ (sacred platform) of the temple as per the centuries-led tradition
followed at the shrine.
2 great news for Jan 2016 are—a) a
Kohli supporter in Pak is getting 10 years in Jail for wagging an
Indian flag, & b) VHP has
officially demanded Death sentence for all
Muslim infiltrators from
Bangladesh. Who shall persuade Madam Uma
Bharati to reduce Ganga pollution first before
sending SRK & Amir to Pakistan??? Long live, Intolerance."A letter signed
by 170 economists including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, University of
Texas Professor James K. Galbraith, Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for
Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC., Brad Miller, former U.S.
Congressman from North Carolina, and William K. Black, University of
Missouri-Kansas City endorsed the Sanders plan to reform Wall Street.
The economists wrote:
In our view, Sanders’ plan for comprehensive financial reform is
critical for avoiding another ‘too-big-to-fail’ financial crisis. The Senator
is correct that the biggest banks must be broken up and that a new 21st Century
Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking, must be enacted.
Wall Street’s largest banks are now far bigger than they were before the
crisis, and they still have every incentive to take excessive risks. No major
Wall Street executive has been indicted for the fraudulent behavior that led up
to the 2008 crash, and fines imposed on the banks have been only a fraction of
the banks’ potential gains. In addition, the banks and their lobbyists have
succeeded in watering down the Dodd-Frank reform legislation, and the financial
institutions that pose the greatest risk to our economy have still not devised
sufficient “living wills” for winding down their operations in the event of
another crisis.
Secretary Hillary Clinton’s more modest proposals do not go far
enough. They call for a bit more oversight and a few new charges on shadow
banking activity, but they leave intact the titanic financial conglomerates
that practice most shadow banking. As a result, her plan does not adequately
reduce the serious risks our financial system poses to the American economy and
to individual Americans. Given the size and political power of Wall Street, her
proposals would only invite more dilution and finagle.
The only way to contain Wall Street’s excesses is with reforms
sufficiently bold and public they can’t be watered down. That’s why we support
Senator Sanders’s plans for busting up the biggest banks and resurrecting a
modernized version of Glass-Steagall. Both campaigns are rolling out
endorsements on a daily basis, but the anger over Wall Street crashing the US
economy and walking away with a slap on the wrist is one of the main drivers
behind the popularity of Sen. Sanders.Bernie Sanders has been on a crusade for
years to reform Wall Street, and the success of his campaign is the worst
nightmare of the country’s greedy big banks. The reality is that little has
changed since the Great Recession. The big banks got bailed out and learned the
wrong lesson from the recession. Wall Street feels bulletproof. If the American
people want to protect themselves from another economic collapse, it will take
real reforms like those that are being proposed by Sen. Sanders.
170 economists agree that Bernie Sanders is the candidate who
will hold Wall Street accountable."
#WEAREBERNIE
#BERNIESANDERS2016
#THEPEOPLEFORBERNIESANDERS
#WEAREBERNIE
#BERNIESANDERS2016
#THEPEOPLEFORBERNIESANDERS
Bottom of Form
****TOI, CHENNAI: Investment of over Rs one lakh crore was
committed for Tamil Nadu at a maiden Global Investors Meet that began here today, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said as she made a strong pitch for pushing the
infrastructure sector."The Global Investors Meet (GIM) had targeted
investment commitments of Rs 1 lakh crore, which has already been exceeded. I
am very confident that further commitments would be made over these two
days," she said while lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for creating
"a more investor-friendly climate"Inaugurating the two-day meet which is being attended by 5,000
delegates, including 1,000 from abroad, Jayalalithaa showcased the state as a
top investment destination and assured businesses that their foray into Tamil
Nadu was "sound investment" Batting for more investment in her state,
Jayalalithaa referred to her various pro-industry initiatives and said that
"a total investment in infrastructure of $250 billion is
planned"."These are not idle promises or mere ideas. Implementation
of 84 of the 217 projects and programmes identified under the 'Vision Tamil
Nadu-2023' has already commenced," she said.
Inaugurating the two-day meet which is being attended by 5,000
delegates, including 1,000 from abroad, Jayalalithaa showcased the state as a
top investment destination and assured businesses that their foray into Tamil
Nadu was "sound investment" Batting for more investment in her state,
Jayalalithaa referred to her various pro-industry initiatives and said that
"a total investment in infrastructure of $250 billion is
planned"."These are not idle promises or mere ideas. Implementation
of 84 of the 217 projects and programmes identified under the 'Vision Tamil
Nadu-2023' has already commenced," she said.
Talking about her various pro-industry initiatives, including
the new industrial policy unveiled in 1992 during her first tenure as chief
minister, Jayalalithaa said global automakers like Ford (US) and Hyundai
(Korea) had set up manufacturing units here during that period .On the power
scenario, Jayalalithaa said Tamil Nadu has overcome the acute power crisis that
was facing the state when she had assumed office in 2011 due largely to a
series of projects and arrangements. She said that her government's Solar Power
Policy-2012 had resulted in Tamil Nadu now having the largest domestic roof-
top solar energy generation capacity in the country."A strong pipeline of
conventional and renewable power projects has been built up and long-term power
supply agreements have been entered into to ensure that the state is not power
scarce at all in the foreseeable future," she said, adding that Tamil Nadu
was, in fact, on the 'verge' of becoming "power surplus". She said
that the state was leading in the areas of textiles, leather, IT, healthcare,
automobiles and auto components, among others."The share of our services
sector in the economy is one of the highest in India. Tamil Nadu attracts the
third-highest Foreign Direct Investment in the country," she said.
IT major HCL Ltd and ITC
pledged investments of $1 billion and Rs 2,500 crore respectively, at the GIM.
"We will be allocating a billion dollar in investments in
the next five years in addition to the investments we have already made here in
Tamil Nadu," said HCL Chairman Shiv Nadar.ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar said
his company was keen on making investments of about Rs 2,500 crore in the state
as part of tapping the food processing and hotel businesses. Ambassadors, high
commissioners and delegations from countries like Australia, Canada, Japan,
Korea, France, Italy, the UK, Singapore and Russia, too, are taking part in the
two- day event.
*****Business
Standard-24.9.15---------With deals worth Rs 240,000 crore signed during
the two-day Global
Investor Meet early this month, Tamil Nadu's
image as an investment destination, which had taken a beating over the past few years,
seems to have got a new lease of life.Among the companies that have decided to
invest in the state are HCL Technologies (Rs 6,000 crore), Mahindra &
Mahindra (Rs 4,000 crore), and Delta India Electronics (Rs 4,000 crore). In
all, 98 memoranda of understanding were signed during the meet.For Chief
Minister J Jayalalithaa, these agreements hold particular appeal as they have
come amid growing concerns about the state's declining investment environment.
Despite the odds, "the investments were twice the target for the Global
Investor Meet," says Tamil
Nadu Additional Secretary CV Shankar.Encouraged by
this, the state has set its sights higher now: it wants to become not just the
top investment destination in the country but also gain a place among the top
three in Asia. To that end, it has announced it will hold a global investor
meet every two years.She has promised single-window clearance within 30 days of
the date of application for all projects signed during the investment meet. In
addition, Tamil Nadu is working in partnership with the Japan International
Co-operation Agency to look into ways to improve the investment climate in the
state. Plans are also afoot to make available the entire gamut of statutory and
pre-project clearances online for the ease of investors.To ensure the benefits
of growth are spread across the state, close to half the investments
committed will go to southern districts - Madurai, Tirunvelveli, Tuticorn,
Thanjavur and Kanyakumari. The state government has announced a new package of
incentives to encourage investors to set up plants in that region. A land bank
with 42,000 acres has been set aside for the purpose.
Fending off competition. However, Tamil Nadu's problems run deep. For the state with the second largest gross domestic product in the country, the events of the past few years have been anything but welcoming for investors, leading many to be sceptical about the state's future.Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia's tax dispute with the Central government that kept its Chennai factory out of the sale of its mobile unit to Microsoft last year, and Taiwanese phone component maker Foxconn's decision to pull out of the state further dented its imageIt is also not hard to see investors getting overwhelmed by the complexity of doing business in the state. Japanese automobile maker Nissan has been rethinking about its expansion plans as fiscal incentives worth Rs 2,700 crore promised to the company have been delayed. While sources in the government say it is looking at clearing Nissan's dues soon, the company is awaiting clarity before going ahead with its investment plans.
There are others concerns too. The state has been caught in a tug of war for investments with neighboring Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, which are aggressively wooing companies with better infrastructure facilities and faster clearances. Over the past year, a number of big-ticket projects bound for Tamil Nadu have gone to Andhra Pradesh's swanky new business district called Sri City, about 50 Kms from Chennai. Andhra Pradesh now boasts of several big names like Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Japanese automobile manufacturer Isuzu Motors as its investors. This week, Chinese solar cells manufacturer Longi announced it was investing Rs 8,000 crore in the state. A host of IT companies have opted for Sri City too, driven by the ease of doing business there and the promise of high-speed internet connectivity.In his quest to attract $2 billion in IT investments over the next five years and create 5 million technical jobs, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has rolled out an ambitious plan to provide every village in the state with broadband connectivity of 1,000 mbps, and have one e-literate person in every household. It is thus quickly closing the skills gap with Tamil Nadu, which because of its large pool of engineers has the second largest concentration of IT companies after Karnataka in south India.
Fending off competition. However, Tamil Nadu's problems run deep. For the state with the second largest gross domestic product in the country, the events of the past few years have been anything but welcoming for investors, leading many to be sceptical about the state's future.Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia's tax dispute with the Central government that kept its Chennai factory out of the sale of its mobile unit to Microsoft last year, and Taiwanese phone component maker Foxconn's decision to pull out of the state further dented its imageIt is also not hard to see investors getting overwhelmed by the complexity of doing business in the state. Japanese automobile maker Nissan has been rethinking about its expansion plans as fiscal incentives worth Rs 2,700 crore promised to the company have been delayed. While sources in the government say it is looking at clearing Nissan's dues soon, the company is awaiting clarity before going ahead with its investment plans.
There are others concerns too. The state has been caught in a tug of war for investments with neighboring Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, which are aggressively wooing companies with better infrastructure facilities and faster clearances. Over the past year, a number of big-ticket projects bound for Tamil Nadu have gone to Andhra Pradesh's swanky new business district called Sri City, about 50 Kms from Chennai. Andhra Pradesh now boasts of several big names like Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Japanese automobile manufacturer Isuzu Motors as its investors. This week, Chinese solar cells manufacturer Longi announced it was investing Rs 8,000 crore in the state. A host of IT companies have opted for Sri City too, driven by the ease of doing business there and the promise of high-speed internet connectivity.In his quest to attract $2 billion in IT investments over the next five years and create 5 million technical jobs, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has rolled out an ambitious plan to provide every village in the state with broadband connectivity of 1,000 mbps, and have one e-literate person in every household. It is thus quickly closing the skills gap with Tamil Nadu, which because of its large pool of engineers has the second largest concentration of IT companies after Karnataka in south India.
The cost of setting up business is also cheaper in Andhra
Pradesh, as the state government is doling out tax incentives and land at
throwaway prices to woo investors. Hero MotoCorp, for example, has been
provided 100 per cent exemption on value-added tax, or VAT, on bikes produced
in the state, say industry sources.Sri City is also leveraging its proximity to
Chennai, a huge market, and connectivity to ports both in the north and south
to boost its prospects.Tamil Nadu has a lot to do to catch up on the power
front with Andhra Pradesh which offers electricity at a highly subsidised rate
of 75 paisa a unit. Experts say Tamil Nadu, even though it is surplus in power
now, cannot afford to slash prices because of the poor state of its discoms.
Given Andhra Pradesh's competitive advantage, it has already attracted
investments worth Rs 20,000 crore in less than two years. Many say Andhra
Pradesh is doing to Tamil Nadu what the latter did to Karnataka in the 1980s.
By aggressively marketing its new business district of Hosur just across the
border from Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu managed to stop investments meant for
Karnataka just short of its borders.TVS Motor, Ashok Leyland and several other
companies pumped in hundreds of crores into Hosur during the decade, turning
the area into a manufacturing hub .However, Tamil Nadu's decline does not boil
down to aggressive marketing by Andhra Pradesh alone. It ranked 12th in World
Bank's recent report titled Assessment of State Implement of Business
Reforms, with Gujarat at the number one spot and Andhra Pradesh at number
two.With its glory days behind it, investors are moving cautiously.
"If we get the right incentives as mentioned in the industrial policy, we
will continue to invest," says ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar, who has
committed Rs 2,500 crore for setting up a food processing unit in the state.
*** Business Insider 25.11.15 In the past week, IBM, Cognizant, Infosys and other technology companies with
significant presence in Chennai have been forced to relocate key personnel and functions
to neighboring Bengaluru and other cities to avoid disruption to business — all
part of routine contingency plans. Several others have employees staying in the
office for uninterrupted service to their clients and the companies have
ensured proper facilities for their stay. More unusually, especially in an
otherwise parched Chennai, companies had to set up makeshift camps in their
offices with mattresses and temporary shower stalls and deploy boats for rescue
and in-campus transportation.
About 15 per cent of India's 3 million-strong technology workforce is in Chennai, handling projects for clients such as Walmart, Citigroup, AstraZeneca and JPMorgan Chase. Chennai is also one of the country's largest automotive hubs, with Hyundai, Ford and Renault-Nissan based in and around the city. Chennai is being pounded by rains for the past few weeks, which has severely damaged the city's infrastructure, including roads and electricity lines. The Tamil Nadu government has estimated losses at nearly Rs 8,481 crore. Several have died.
Technology companies invoke business continuity plans during natural calamities and disasters, which involves moving critical employees and business functions to safer locations so they can continue to support clients. India's top IT firms — Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL Technologies — said they swiftly engaged their contingency measures as the weather in Chennai deteriorated.
New York-headquartered IBM, which has at least 100,000 employees in India, one-fifth of them in Chennai according to analysts, moved key personnel from the city to Bengaluru, company employees aware of the developments said, requesting anonymity. "Our clients remain a priority," an IBM spokeswoman said, "and we are continuing to provide 24x7 services to ensure business continuity and, where necessary, recovery solutions for impacted businesses."
US-based Cognizant, which has a significant number of its 219,000 employees in Chennai, said it moved several employees to other centres within the city as well as to other cities and asked some to work from home to provide support to clients.
Also, "many of our employees working on critical projects volunteered to stay in offices to ensure uninterrupted 24x7 operations for our clients", a Cognizant spokesman said. The company stocked its offices with food and mattresses and built a small shower area for employees staying over. It accommodated employees' families as well after staff insisted they were worried about their folks at home. On Monday night (November 23), after traffic came to a standstill following another downpour, Cognizant arranged to accommodate a few employees at nearby hotels and lodgings inside campuses. "Employee safety and security is our top priority," the Cognizant spokesman said.
SIMILAR PROCEDURES IN INFOSYS Infosys followed similar business continuity procedures, moving several of its 25,000 employees to offices in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and asking others to work from home, according to the company's employees. "Infosys has taken several measures to ensure safety of employees and continuity of business at its centres in Chennai," a company spokesperson told ET.
The offices of India's fourth largest software exporter, HCL Tech, on the IT corridor of Chennai along Old Mahabalipuram Road, were flooded last week, forcing the company to temporarily shut operations and seek the help of boatmen to rescue staff, according to company employees. HCL Tech flew some key employees to its offices in Noida and asked several others to log in from home. HCL and its subsidiaries employ 24,000 employees in Chennai. TCS, the country's largest software exporter that has more than 65,000 employees in Chennai, managed operations and client interactions without having to move people but gave employees the option to work from home or from offices near them, a company spokeswoman said.India's third-largest IT firm, Wipro, gave its 18,000 employees in Chennai the option of working from home for most of last week. "We had moved out our employees to safer locations only after assessing the on-ground situation," a company spokeswoman said. "Electrical systems were strategically monitored to avoid any untoward incidents. Adequate fuel and food items were stocked... (And) Boats and large vehicles were arranged to allow in-campus commute."
At last , a glimpse of some
rosy light n delight from the east-- from Didi,so more skeptical we are—is the picture drawn by Dr Amit Mitra more
volatile than one by NAMO???
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENTS, BUSINESS DOCUMENT
EXCHANGES, EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST & INVESTMENT PROPOSALS AT THE BENGAL
GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT, 2015 HELD ON JANUARY 8 - 9, 2015 AT KOLKATA.
AMOUNT (Rs. In Cr.)
1 HEAVY ENGINEERING :
SAIL'S EXPANSION PLANS 40,000 2 MANUFACTURING : PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENTS
10,626 3 TOWNSHIP : PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENTS IN ECONOMIC GROWTH CENTRES ( 22
TOWNSHIPS BY 20 BUSINESS HOUSES ) 67,703 PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENTS IN SMART
CITY (ESSEL GROUP) 5,000 4 PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENTS IN URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
& UTILITIES: ESSEL GROUP 10,000 5 BHOR SAGAR DEEP SEA PORT & HALDIA
EXPANSION 16,400 6 HIGHWAYS 25,200 7 POWER : NTPC 20,000 SOLID WASTE TO POWER
(GERMAN CONSORTIUM) 2,900 8 ENERGY : COAL, COAL BED METHANE (CBM) &
FLOATING REGASSIFICATION : DEVELOPMENT OF DEOCHAPACHAMI COAL MINES (6 STATES
& SJVN) 12,000 PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENTS BY GREAT EASTERN ENERGY TO
DEVELOP MORE WELLS 1,500 H-ENERGY: FLOATING STORAGE & REGASSIFICATION UNIT
(FSRU) - OFFSHORE DIGHA 5,100 9 HEALTH CARE 2,710 10 FOOD PROCESSING, ARD &
FISHERIES SECTOR 1,605 11 HIGHER EDUCATION / SCHOOL EDUCATION & SKILLS
1,438 12 MSME SECTOR 17,657 13 TOURISM & HOSPITALITY 1,950 14 FINANCIAL
SERVICES 1,088 15 IT 223 TOTAL 2,43,100
A total of Rs 2,43,100 crore of business announcements, business
document exchanges, expressions of interest and investment proposals were
received at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2015, as follows: Sl. Particulars
Amt. (Rs. Cr.) 1 Private Sector Investment in Township by Essel Group 15,000 2
Private Sector Investment in 22 other Townships and Smart Cities by Forum Group
, Hiland , Ambuja Neotia Group, Salarpuria, Mayfair Group, Mani Group, PS
Group, Swarna Ganga Realty, Sherwood Realty, Amtek Dealer P Ltd, Merlin
Projects, Dhoot Group, Greentec City, Infinity Group, Unimark, Panchvati,
Ideal, South City, Siddha, Primark. 67,703 3 NTPC investments (Katwa, Adra and
Rammam Power Plants) 20,000 4 Private Sector Investments in Nine sectors (reported
by sector committees) (see Annexure 1 for names of companies and other details)
40,197 5 SAIL's expansion plans 40,000 6 Private Sector Investment in Solid
Waste Management in Howrah (in collaboration with a consortium of German
companies) 2,900 7 Private Sector Investment by Super Smelter 2,200 8 Private
Sector Investments by Great Eastern Energy to develop more wells 1,500 9 Sagar
Port entitled Bhorsagar and Highways (announced by Union Minister on 7th
January, 2015) 41,600 10 Development of Deochapachami Coal mines (JV signed
between 6 states and SJVN) 12,000 Total 2,43,100
Annexure 1 Sector Project Proposed Invst (Rs in crore)
Manufacturing BAPL - MOU Scomi Group, Including Township Authority,
manufacturing of public transport & new airline connection - Pinnacle Air,
Go Air 1000.00 MCC PTA Coal based hot oil heater project & Grid pwer
Project 329.40 H-Energy: Floating Storage Regassification Unit (FSRU) -
Offshore Digha 5100.00 Amul Dairy: Fully automated dairy unit 190.00 Gems &
Jewllery Park at Ankurhati (Domjur) Allotment of 12 units for 53500 sq.ft.
39.90 Paridhan - Garment Park at Belighata 17.23 Globus Spirit Ltd. 100.00 ETC
Agro Processing (india) Pvt. Ltd. 250.00 Shriram Infrastructure 6500.00 Sector
Total 13526.53 Health Care Apollo Hospitals 400.00 AMRI Hospitals 800.00 Ambuja
Neotia Group – Hospital 300.00 M P Birla Group Hospital 610.00 Techno India-
Hospitals - PPP Sector 300.00 Camellia - Hospitals - PPP Sector 300.00
SingHealth, arm of Temasek Holding, Singapore Sector Total 2710.00 Food
Processing, ARD and Fisheries Sector Ananda Group of Companies, Purba Medinipur
230.00 Chareon Pokphand India Pvt Ltd, Kharagpur (WBIDC) 500.00 Amrit Feeds,
Panagarh 88.00 Anmol Feeds, Panchla 25.00 M K Feeds, Digha 20.00 Mohan Acqua,
Digha 15.00 Kajal Aqua Tech, Digha 10.00 Madhav Agro Tech,Digha 20.00 DAT
Laboratories, Falta 10.00 Varma Ocean, Canning, Kalyani 51.00 Raj Hatcheries,
Tajpur/ Digha 3.00 D M Sea Food Exporter, Hooghly 25.00 Thacker Dairy, Kalyani
90.00 Venkateswara hatcheries 263.00 Thacker Group, Kalyani 60.00 JVL Agro
Industries ltd. 195.00 Sector Total 1605.00 Higher Education/ School Education
JIS University, Kolkata 300.00 Neotia University, South 24 Parganas 300.00
University of Engg & Management, Newtown Rajarhat 150.00 Amity University,
Newtown 478.00 South Point New Campus, Near Peerless Hospital EM Bypass 185.00
M P Birla Group-Hybrid Projection System 25.00 Sector Total 1438.00 Skills NSDC
& Technical Education Department & Javed Habib Foundation - Skill Dev.
Programme 0.00 Sector Total 0.00 MSME Sector A T CAPITAL, (Singapore) 2500.00
PFP Industries(Chemical- Ashok De Sarkar,USA) 30.00 Kang Na Hsiung Enterprise
KNH, Taiwan 180.00 Altius Resources (Joydeep Mukherjee) Singapore 200.00 EIGMEF
Apparel Park, Salt Lake 500.00 WB Hosiery Park, Howrah 1200.00 SFA PL Logistic
Park 130.00 Regent Garment & Apparel Park, Barasat 1000.00 Jalan Industrial
Park - Expansion 2500.00 Patton Industrial Park 946.00 Regional
Synergy-Proposals received - 5127.00 ILPA Leather Goods Park 1200.00 Shivamani
Exports, Calcutta leather Complex, Bantala 33.00 FASII(Federation of
Association of Small Industries of India) 71.00 FACSI(Federation of Association
of Cottage & Industries) 40.00 Private Industrial Parks by various
companies 2000.00 Sector Total 17657.00 Tourism & Hospitality Major
proposalsreceived for setting up Hotels and Resorts 1. The Park, Kolkata (Rs500
Cr), 2. Airport Hotel, Kolkata (Rs 300 Cr), 3. Crowne Plaza (Rs450 Cr) 4.
Ambuja (5 resort hotel at Newtown, Makaibari Tea Estate, Kurseong, Sonargaon,
Sundarbans, Digha, Ghoom, Darjeeling, Lataguri, Gorumara Forest) (Rs 500 Cr)
are investing in the State 1750.00 PPP projects under Tourism Department,
Government of West Bengal under implementation 200.00 Sector Total 1950.00
Finanical Services State Bank of India 427.00 Bandhan Bank Ltd. 232.12 Andhra
Bank 113.00 Syndicate Bak 113.00 Canara Bank 203.04 Sector Total 1088.16 IT
Trinity Infra Park 220.00 Startups Warehouse of NASCOM with assistance of West
Bengal Government 1.95 Centre for Wxcellence of Microsoft with assistance of
West Bengal Government 0.61 Sector Total 222.56 GRAND TOTAL (All Sectors)
40197.25
If above figures are to
be somewhat believed, West Bengal should
not lag behind so many other states. The govt wants to be transparent, but are the figures
correct? If yes, when shall the smart
cities come? From the following article
, you can see , not a city of WB has qualified
as a smart city. But then,
is it really done
ethically or is it rigged as claimed by
Mr Nitish Kumar??? Plain
speaking, New Kolkata & Salt lake City look far
better than Bhubaneswar. But , that way, Chandigarh has fallen
behind despite being the 1st planned
city of India.
Every Bengalee asks
Mamata Banerjee, Didi, when shall these
investments happen & what do these
mean for us??? She can speak a lot about Presidency & others. But fact remains, Presidency is
sinking / has sunk. Fact is, not a single
pvt sector engg college is well ranked/ good engineer spinner. Hosiery
industry has left Bengal during Left Front regime but has not retreated
back during TMC’s 5 years. She is a drum
beater drammabaaz like the ones at
Delhi. 3 lac Bengalees live in Bangalore & 5 lac, in Mumbai. Why are
they all out of Bengal in Gen1?
Because they do not get jobs in Kolkata, & in Bangalore, Mumbai,
Chennai & Delhi, they suffer n suffer n suffer a
lot from Load sheddings / power cuts, water cuts, hour
long jams, & floods . Kolkata is
bereft of all these but
where are jobs in Kolkata??
The whole purpose of
bringing the topic of state wise comparison of Investment commitments in GBSes
is to stress upon the point that the way
NDA govt has made
Competition as the only mode for
states to get investment, may not be appropriate. Jharkhand’s ascent just post- BJP Govt induction in a
short period raises eyebrows.
The geographical location of North
East states shall not attract investments
therein. And NDA govt talks of
redn in all subsidies , & we all
believe that subsidies are roots of corruption
in governance. { A tax officer taking Rs 10K
bribe in Bihar starts demanding
Rs 1 lac on trf to NE} . So, no investments have flown to NE . We need to ask Panghariaji & Arvindji,
what ‘s their plan, how shall NE
grow?? Else, the flow of 3rd & 4th grade employees
from NE to other parts of India
shall not stop, nor shall stop class 1 or 2 officers’ / brilliant students’
flows to mainland. How many engg colleges are you going to establish there? And what shall the pas out engineers do
? How many medical colleges ? How to
educate 92% class X educated Mizos , unless proper colleges are not estd???
So, competitions should
stop ideally that may lead to an
unhealthy atmosphere n hatred; or at some point, should the GOI chip in to
foster a balanced growth region wise. After all, Govt
has to be in business over n above in governance. If pvt
investors are allergic to any state, just for political vendetta, GOI
must not keep quiet. PSU
investments need to be routed therein.
In 50s & 60s , most of such PSU investments went to WB. Now, SAIL is charting a large plan , but that shall mean redeployment of surplus manpower. Fresh pvt investment of JSW
@ Salboni got stopped in want of Iron ore.
GOI needs to make a rule in that case, promulgating free
flow of minerals to any state irrespective of the mines’
physical location. Eg, if mines are auctioned in Ballari
district of Karnataka , why should not
a plant set up at , say,
Ananthpur district of AP , not too far,
get ore?
28 January 2016
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday announced the list of
first 20 smart cities. "Today marks a historic landmark in annals of urban
development as we get to know the first batch of 'Smart Cities," said
Naidu.
The cities are:
1. Bhubaneshwar
2. Pune
3. Jaipur
4. Surat
5. Kochi
6. NDMC (New Delhi)
7. Ahmedabad
8. Jabalpur
9. Vizag
10. Solapur
11. Devangere
12. Indore
13. Coimbatore
14. Kakinada
15. Belgaum
16. Udaipur
17. Guwahati
18. Chennai
19. Ludhiana
20. Bhopal
Some of the parameters on the basis of which the decision was
taken are feasibility, result orientation, citizen participation, smartness of
proposals etc.
These 20 smart cities will get the funds first to kickstart
their development process. With a per city allocation of Rs 100 crore for each
of the five years of the mission period, the central assistance to the mission
is around Rs 50,000 crore.
These cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure such
as assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management,
efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance
and citizen participation. A total number of 100 smart cities have been distributed
among the states and the Union territories (UT).
1. Promoting mixed land use in area based developments–planning
for ‘unplanned areas’ containing a range of compatible activities and land uses
close to one another in order to make land use more efficient. The States will
enable some flexibility in land use and building bye-laws to adapt to change;
2. Housing and inclusiveness - expand housing
opportunities for all;
3. Creating walkable localities –reduce congestion,
air pollution and resource depletion, boost local economy, promote interactions
and ensure security. The road network is created or refurbished not only for
vehicles and public transport, but also for pedestrians and cyclists, and
necessary administrative services are offered within walking or cycling
distance;
4. Preserving and developing open spaces - parks,
playgrounds, and recreational spaces in order to enhance the quality of life of
citizens, reduce the urban heat effects in Areas and generally promote
eco-balance;
5. Promoting a variety of transport options - Transit
Oriented Development (TOD), public transport and last mile para-transport
connectivity;
6. Making governance citizen-friendly and cost
effective - increasingly rely on online services to bring about
accountability and transparency, especially using mobiles to reduce cost of
services and providing services without having to go to municipal offices.
Forming e-groups to listen to people and obtain feedback and use online
monitoring of programs and activities with the aid of cyber tour of worksites;
7. Giving an identity to the city - based on its main
economic activity, such as local cuisine, health, education, arts and craft,
culture, sports goods, furniture, hosiery, textile, dairy, etc;
8. Applying Smart Solutions to infrastructure and services
in area-based development in order to make them better. For example,
making Areas less vulnerable to disasters, using fewer resources, and providing
cheaper services.
To conclude, an
interesting article on Chineese
recession
January 27, 2016
The annual bonus is a good time for workers who can finally
splash a bit of cash guilt free after a year of hard work.But one set of
employees at a company that created a dating app couldn’t fit their bonus in
their wallets because it was a life-sized inflatable sex doll.
Young single men at Lianlian, based in Guangzhou, China, were
given the sex dolls as an apt reward for helping others boost their sex lives.
View photos
Humiliation: Workers were forced to show how sex dolls worked
(CEN)
View photos
Cash replacement: Staff are usually given money as an annual
bonus (CEN)
Just in case they weren’t clued up in the ways of women, the
men, all said to be in their 20s, were taught how to use the dolls and were
even invited on stage to demonstrate their uses in front of hundreds of colleagues
- just to add to their embarrassment.
Other year-end bonuses included slightly less controversial
dehumidifiers, T-shirts, flip-flops, and bottles of Chinese hot sauce.
Bosses of other firms in China also reportedly shunned handing
out cash bonuses this year, instead choosing to reward staff with train
tickets, pork, and coupons.ew photos
Where can I spend it? Workers were also given hot sauce to take
home (CEN)
View photos
Flip flops: The non-traditional bonuses included footwear (CEN)
However, the new policy has not gone down too well with workers,
who looked forward to spending their money on exactly what they wanted.
Chinese New Year galas are a long-standing tradition in Chinese
business practices, usually taking the form of a large feast.
Now with added sex doll demonstrations.
Good Bye to all with some pictorial representations of concurrent times.
ANINDA GHOSH
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