Alternative Perspective

The "Greatest Threat to India's Internal Security" !!??

2009-11-03T21:20:00.004+05:30

The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh had recently - and even earlier - described the Naxalites/Maoists as the "the greatest internal security threat to our country”.

This 95-page document says something just the opposite. Some excerpts:
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"India is today proudly proclaiming an above 9 per cent growth rate and striving to achieve double digit growth. But it is a matter of common observation that the inequalities between classes, between town and country, and between the upper castes and the underprivileged communities are increasing. That this has potential for tremendous unrest is recognized by all. But somehow policy prescriptions presume otherwise. As the responsibility of the State for providing equal social rights recedes in the sphere of policymaking, we have two worlds of education, two worlds of health, two worlds of transport and two worlds of housing, with a gaping divide in between. With globalisation of information, awareness of opportunities and possible life styles are spreading but the entitlements are receding. The Constitutional mandate (Article 39) to prevent concentration of wealth in a few hands is ignored in policy making. The directional shift in Government policies towards modernisation and mechanisation, export orientation, diversification to produce for the market, withdrawal of various subsidy regimes and exposure to global trade has been an important factor in hurting the poor in several ways....(p. 8)"

"Much of the unrest in society, especially that which has given rise to militant movements such as the Naxalite movement, is linked to lack of access to basic resources to sustain livelihood... (p. 18)"

"The development paradigm pursued since independence has aggravated the prevailing discontent among marginalised sections of society. This is because the development paradigm as conceived by the policy makers has always been imposed on these communities, and therefore it has remained insensitive to their needs and concerns, causing irreparable damage to these sections. The benefits of this paradigm of development have been disproportionately cornered by the dominant sections at the expense of the poor, who have borne most of the costs. Development which is insensitive to the needs of these communities has invariably caused displacement and reduced them to a sub-human existence. (p. 36)."

"There are also large areas of labour not governed by the Minimum Wages Act. This includes categories where there is no discernible employer, which is for this reason included in the category of self-employment. Since the Naxalites are in any case not bothered whether or not there is a law governing the right they are espousing, they have intervened and determined fair wage rates in their perception in all labour processes in their areas of influence. This includes wages for washing clothes, making pots, tending cattle, repairing implements, etc. Naxalites have secured increases in the rate of payment for the picking of tendu leaf which is used for rolling beedies, in the forest areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. This was a very major source of exploitation of adivasi labour, and while the Government knowingly ignored it, the Naxalites put an effective end to it. (p.57)."

"However, the Naxalite movement has to be recognised as a political movement with a strong base among the landless and poor peasantry and adivasis. Its emergence and growth need to be contextualised in the social conditions and experience of people who form a part of it. The huge gap between state policy and performance is a feature of these conditions. Though its professed long term ideology is capturing state power by force, in its day to day manifestation it is to be looked upon as basically a fight for social justice, equality, protection and local development. The two have to be seen together without overplaying the former. Its geographical spread is rooted in failure to remove the conditions which give rise to it (p 66-67)."

"The public policy perspective on the naxalite movement is overwhelmingly preoccupied with the incidents of violence that take place in these areas and its ideological underpinnings. Though it does concede that the area suffers from deficient development and people have unaddressed grievances, it views the movement as the greatest internal security threat to the country. Accordingly, the attention of the Government is concentrated on curbing violence and maintaining public order to achieve normalcy. While area development is also being speeded up, the security-centric view of the movement accords primacy to security operations. The contextualization of this violence is missing from this perspective. The scale, intensity and approach of security operations cause considerable collateral damage leading to greater alienation of common people. The strategy of security forces to curb violence has also encouraged formation of tribal squads to fight naxalites, with a view to reducing the security force’s own task and risk. This has promoted a fratricidal war in which tribals face the brunt of mortality and injury.(p. 83)"

"The government’s Status Paper on the Naxal problem appropriately mentions a holistic approach and lays emphasis on accelerated socio-economic development of the backward areas. However, clause 4 (v) of the Status Paper states that “there will be no peace dialogue by the affected states with the Naxal groups unless the latter agree to give up violence and arms”. This is incomprehensible and is inconsistent with the government’s stand vis-à-vis other militant groups in the country.... The government has been conducting peace talks with the Naga rebels of the NSCN (IM) faction for the last nearly ten years, even though the rebels have not only not surrendered their weapons but continue to build up their arsenal. What is worse, the NSCN (IM) have taken advantage of the peaceful conditions to consolidate their hold and establish what could be called almost a parallel government. In relation to ULFA also, the government is prepared to have a dialogue without insisting on the insurgents surrendering their weapons. In J & K, the government has more than once conveyed its willingness to hold talks with any group which is prepared to come to the negotiating table. Why a different approach to the Naxals? The doors of negotiations should be kept open. (p 67-68)"
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...and before one concludes that this must be some propaganda material, or writings of some "bleeding-heart liberal/intellectual", I must also share that these exerpts are from a Planning Commission Expert Groups Report, entitled "Development Challenges in Extremist Areas, which was submitted to GOI in 2008. The document can be downloaded from:
http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/publications/rep_dce.pdf

This document was either not read by the Home Minister, or was just shoved aside for a trade-off, since as the Prime Minister told the parliament on June 9th, '09: "...if Left Wing extremism continues to flourish in important parts of our country which have tremendous natural resources of minerals and other precious things, that will certainly affect the climate for investment.'

... In the meanwhile, from 51 maoist-naxal affected districts in 2001, India has now 231 districts in the category (out of 640 or so)...
(*_^?)\

Related Posts:

My "Encounters" with Maoists/ Naxals

A Rich Nation of Poor People

East is East, and West and West...

6 Novel Ways to Celebrate Diwali

2009-10-15T20:21:00.004+05:30

Came across this article by Vandana Rana in TOI, which makes so much sense...

6 Novel Ways to Celebrate Diwali

How do you celebrate Diwali? By lighting diyas, bursting crackers and eating sweets! But as we do this every year, how about bringing in a positive 6 novel ways to celebrate Diwali change this time, which will help people around as well?

Traditional way to save electricity
Diwali is also known as the Festival of Lights. So this time let's decorate our houses with traditional lamps and diyas rather bulbs. This was how in earlier times, people touched up their homes with cotton wicks dipped in ghee or oil. This will help you save electricity as well. This will add a traditional stroke with social responsibility in the festival.

Food wise
There are many people who cannot afford even one square meal so, how can they afford Diwali celebrations? In this season cut short your list of crackers and use that money in buying them food. Your joy will be doubled and your kitty will brim over with blessings and wishes.

Celebrate with a new expression
Our country is a blend of several religions and festivals too. Then why not celebrate this Festival of Lights with our Muslim, Christian and Sikh friends? Use this opportunity to introduce one culture to another. Such an act will encourage unity and teach new morals to your kids.

Make a new family
Diwali is family time. But what about those elders and kids who have no families. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could take out some time this Diwali to meet them. There are several old age homes and orphanages dotting the city so finding them shouldn't be a problem. This is the time to exchange your happiness with their gloominess. So go ahead and put a smile on at least one such pretty face.

Have a healthy Diwali
Post Diwali pollution is always on an all-time high despite there being a ban on crackers. Say no to crackers if you have'nt done so already and gift saplings to friends and relatives along with sweets. This effort will sweeten the celebrations of your loved ones. Plants are great for a pure and positive environment.

Decorate the neighbourhood
Every year we paint and touch up our homes. But no one pays attention to that garbage dump in the corner. It stinks to the high heaven and is a veritable house of all ills. Have it cleaned up and painted afresh. At least for sometime, flies and mosquitoes will be less. Let's join hands to clean the society as well as it will encourage positive atmosphere in neighborhood and double the joy of festivity.

Happy Diwali to you!

And he said....

2009-10-02T20:17:00.004+05:30

...and he said...

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

...and he said...

Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience.

...and he said...

My notion of democracy is that under it, the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest.

...and he said...

To me I seem to be constantly growing. I must respond to varying conditions, yet remain changeless within.

...and he said...

True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men at the center. It has to be worked by the people of every village.

...and he said...

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

...and he said...

We are constantly being astonished at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.

...and he said...

There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.

...and he said...

Today the cities dominate and drain the villages so that they are crumbling to ruins. Exploiting of villages is itself organized violence. If we want freedom to build on non-violence, we will have to give villages their proper place.

...and he said...

As soon as we lose the moral-basis, we cease to be religious.

...and he said...

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

...and he said...

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.

...and he said...

It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.

...and he said...

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

...and he said...

Whatever you do will become insignificant, but it is very important to do it.

... such was that fussy old man who changed the destiny of an Empire with a fistful of salt!!

The Economics & Physiology of "Joy of Giving"

2009-10-01T23:43:00.004+05:30

Question 1: How do you "monitize" this act of "Giving"???.... What is the economics of "Giving"?

Ramaa wrote a beautiful piece about "The Joy of Giving - What Price, Happiness?"... (which thankfully, was rescued out of Facebook and reproduced on his blog by Ninja...)

Lots of events are happening in XLRI as we celebrate the "Joy of Giving Week" & the "Jamshedpur JoyFest"... e.g.

...and Ramaa's note was about one of them - the visit to the old-age home "Nirmal Hrudayalay"... her note ended with an observation:
---
"I walked out of the gate, smiling a little, wondering about the price of happiness.

To Mala: her bangles and the promise of a big stool to sit on.
To the boy: strumming a guitar.
To Poorni: talking to me in Tamizh.
To the children there: playing throw ball.

To Nirmal Hriday: Two hours of our time.

I had all of these things they each wanted, and yet I had never been so happy. Giving it to them created the happiness, the priceless joy- of caring, of sharing and giving."
---

Question 2: What is the "physiology" of "Giving"?... Why do people indulge in "unselfish acts"... and self-lessly "give" - money, time, service, resources - in this age of an oxymoron - the "enlightened self-interest"?

So, I also came across an interesting study by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland - reported by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences... and converted into an article on "Altruism" by The Economist". To quote... because we "feel good" - the study reports....because "giving"/ altruism...

"...also engages the part of the brain that plays a role in the bonding behaviour between mother and child, and in romantic love. This involves oxytocin, a hormone that increases trust and co-operation"
---------

Ah! Good to know that !!... Good to know that the science/econmics has found out - what any decent human being would know in his/her heart!!

India Votes...

2009-05-07T22:01:00.005+05:30

I got two messages - on the net - today from old friends/ students/ alumni... Both from the NCR region - the penultimate "Indian Dream of becoming USA"...

One read, which was posted:

"I voted. I am sad. Not sad because I voted but sad because an old myth got shattered. The myth that education makes you responsible. The myth that education enables to make decisions and a better decsion. The myth about education has been shattered. Abysmal 16.67% of polling in an area populated by primarily educated guys. You will have shell out INR 10 million to buy an apartment in the area. It hurts!"

The second one - an e-mail:

"...had to tell you this, had a strange experience voting today.

Gurgaon is one confused city in many ways - there are high-rises stumbling over villages with their crumbling houses and still sustainable lifestyles. The voting centre was in some govt school just behind the apartment block we stay in, but somehow I had never known that it even existed. Its a government school after all, sad in many ways. I do know about the swanky school not too far away, and another interesting school that follows an alternative kind of education system but i am digressing.

Anyway the approach road was dusty, clogged with buffaloes heat flaking off their skin, and fancy SUVs, pigs lay about in the open sewer lines that ran by (and that was scary) and barber shops and grocery stores abutted right onto this road.

But the contrast hit hard when i stood in queue. A far more skimpily dressed young woman stood in front of me, and behind - because there were separate queues for either sex - were several veiled women. The ghunghat reached down to their waists, and their arms were covered with bangles up till the elbows and some could not understand the instructions of the lone police guard manning that centre.

But they understood after their men, tall, strong Jats most of them, I would think, with their turbans, proud moustaches, and lathis explained things to them. Most of them inked the form with their thumbs and the election officer was understanding and courteous. I dont know why, but the sarpanch of the village was striding around the booth - the election guys however, were courteous to him too, usually mumbling a word or two in reply to his pleasantries. I suppose he was just showing off.

Like me, the veiled women and the girl in the short sequinned skirt ahead of me pressed the beep on the EVM. In that sense, in that one moment, all differences between us melted away.

I know this must be usual, but time and again when i see a demonstration of India's strange and immense contrasts, and the understanding that still remains, I am somehow moved."

From the same - NCR region - Ritu Sharma had posted an article -Rich Residents of Gurgaon too Busy to Vote? - a couple of days back:

"They are affluent, educated, well travelled and vocal about their rights. They want the best equipped gyms and swimming pools in their high-end condominiums. But many residents of this 'millennium city' won't be voting this Thursday.

Notwithstanding awareness campaigns, voting in urban Gurgaon is likely to be low with many staying away from the polling booth - some because it is a conscious decision not to, others because they don't have voter identity cards as they have moved recently or just haven't bothered to find out how to get it.

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of urban success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. But away from the oasis of glittering malls and privately-developed housing complexes, basic infrastructure like power, water, roads and sanitation are lacking.

The affluent denizens of the gated townships of the city voice their grievances but have their own excuses for not casting their votes in the Lok Sabha elections on May 7....

....The figures tell the story. According to official records, only 6,947 voters have been added under the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency after a summary revision in the last five years. This is far less than the total number of people who move into the city each month. At present, the total number of voters registered with urbanised Gurgaon is 166,000, out of 1,230,949 voters in the constituency..."

Meanwhile, an article in Hindustan Times, informs:

"Dalits may be at the bottom of the country’s socio-economic order, but when it comes to fielding educated candidates in parliamentary elections, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party scores over the others.

The BSP has fielded more graduates and post-graduates than any other national party. Also, the share of graduates among BSP candidates has risen sharply from 38 per cent in 2004 to 50 per cent in this election, according to an analysis of data available for the first four phases of polling.

According to data compiled by National Election Watch... the BSP is slightly ahead of Congress in fielding more graduates and post-graduates... BSP has 264 graduates and post graduates in the fray, while Congress has 258.

Experts said the numbers reflect a trend wherein the first generation beneficiaries of affirmative action are now seeking a bigger say in the country's affairs.

"The rich among upper castes are turning apolitical and dalits are now seeking electoral power," said Arun Kumar, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Mayawati was a teacher before she joined politics, and her party was built on financial and intellectual support of such Dalits who made it to government jobs and bureaucracy with the help of affirmative action...."

OR...
... as a certain survey across 172 countries shows that in terms of the voter-turnout (since 1945), India - the 2nd (or 1st??) largest democracy', ranks 105th (out of 172 countries).

Perhaps this mail floating on the net says much:

10 reasons why South Mumbai didn't come out to vote on April 30:

Clashed with Salsa class

Election whites were not drycleaned

No candidate was a hottie

Tony Jethmalani contesting from suburbs. Sigh!!

There was no valet parking at booth

I spotted servant in queue ahead of us

Driver did not come

But eElections over dude! aren't they?... Obama won!

No party is tackling real issues, eg, reduce Golds Gym rates.

There was no "home delivery!"

In any case, India (or the rest of it) trudges on...

Related posts:

One Single Vote!... that's India's Democracy is all about!

Yeh Mera India!!!

India... between "Masses" and "Classes"

Align!.. Optimize!!... Fire!!! - The New HR Mantra

2009-04-28T14:01:00.003+05:30

Last month, I met an old friend. He had done himself well, and is now the HR Head – or Chief People Officer as he would insist - in a blue-chip company.

"How have you been?" I asked him.

"Oh, I am doing well," he replied.

"...and how has the current recession affected you?" This was a curiosity for me: what would the HR professionals be doing with people when there is not enough market demand to keep the employees productively employed.

"Not much, really!! We have managed it well," he said. "In fact, we just concluded an Employee Alignment and Optimization initiative last week."

"Employee Alignment and Optimization" seemed such a sexy term. It conjoured up images of a happy bunch of people being helped by my friend and his HR team to bring their interest and capabilities in-synch with their work and performance.

"That’s really nice! You mean, you assessed and re-allocated them so that they get to do what they are really capable of doing, and enjoy doing?”

He looked aghast and uncomfortable. “No! no!,” he said. “This was actually an initiative to disengage about 200 of them from the organization.”

“You mean, you fired them?!!” I was startled, not being sure how can one “optimize” and “align” people by firing them.

“No, actually, we didn’t have to fire them, at all,” he beamed, happily. “ In fact, as we had planned, it was a voluntary separation. It was really a very smooth process.”

I was thoroughly impressed. “That’s really remarkable!,” I said with awe. “ It says so much about the level of commitment you must have fostered among the people, that they could make such a sacrifice for the larger good of the organization. Imagine!... you send out a mail saying that we need 200 volunteers to leave the organization – and people actually volunteer.”

My friend looked at me as if I had lost my beans. “Of course, Not! It was not like that at all!!” he almost choked. “This was a very systematic and thorough exercise; we planned it with precision, and with full confidentiality; and we trained our HR and line executives to communicate the choice to the 200 of our employees who had be separated.”

I was befuddled, “….and what was the choice?”

“Oh!,” he said with the pride of a general who has cleverly ambushed the enemy. “We told them that they can volunteer to resign; they will have to sign a document to that effect. It was our legal department which suggested this. In return, we will give them 2 months of “sabbatical leave” – “

“Sabbatical leave! You mean, the company will finance 2 months for their re-education?” I was amazed at this generous gesture, though by now, I had nagging doubt that there must be a catch somewhere.

“No, no!, we can’t do that. Think of the costs!” he corrected me. “You know, what with this sensitivity of media about the pink-slips, we had to really think about what to call this interim period. What we actually offered them was 2 months of further employment at half salary, and they don’t have to come to office – actually, they can’t enter office, at all! We also promised to help their outplacement, and they get a decent separation package after 3 months. Depending upon their length of service, they would get 2-months to 10-months of their pay as the severance pay.”

“…and what if they didn’t accept this offer?”, I was curious – or as Alice would have said, it was getting curiouser and curiouser.

He laughed, waving his hands in the air. “Actually, there was not much of a choice for them.” he said with some satisfaction. “We had their performance ratings, and other inputs from the line managers, which we could use to retrench them. We told them that, upfront.... our Legal Dept had already put together a strong case for termination for each of them, really!.”

A stray thought suddenly occurred to me.

“But tell me,” I asked. ”why did you want to fire – er, sorry, disengage - them in the first place!?”

He looked at me incredulously, as if I was from some other planet. “Don’t you read the newspapers?” he asked. “I don’t know if this is a cyclical recession or a meltdown, but the point is that we need to cut down costs – and maintain our margins.”

“But aren’t employees the “resources” – I mean, Human Resources? I know organizations which even call them “the most precious assets” or “human capital”? How did they suddenly become “cost” to the company?”

“Ugh! You don’t seem to understand…,” he lapsed into silence for some time. “After all, “resources”, “assets” etc., are just words. The key issue is: whether, as HR professionals, we are contributing to business or not.”

“But what happens if the business picks up in a year or so, and you need more people?”

“If that happens, we will have to hire new ones”, he said in a matter-of-fact manner. “The point is that have to maintain our profit margins of 35%...”

Needless to say, we left each other, puzzled – and the rest of the conversation, somewhat, went on the same tenor…

And I recalled Jerry Harvey’s classical article: “Eichmann in the Organisation”…

“… it was not the Nazis only who were to be blamed for what happened to Jews – but also the Jewish Council in Germany. To quote:

“…the collusive role played by the Jewish councils – the most powerful, respected, and trusted members of the Jewish community – in the liquidation of their own people, including, in the end, themselves…. they compiled lists for the Nazis of persons to be deported… served as police during actual seizure of people and property… “ etc.

In the contemporary scenario, Eichmann was the quintessential Human Resources professional, and would have approved of the new HR Mantra:

Align!... Optimize!!... Fire!!!

Beyond "what ifs" and "Somedays"...

2009-03-21T21:58:00.002+05:30

It is ages - more than 2 months - since, I posted here...

One of the reasons was also the 1st National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, which we organised at XLRI on Jan 31-Feb 1, '09... and this post is about some of those "entrepreneurs with a social cause"...

Their presentations videos - and links to their websites - of course are available there at:

http://social-entrepreneurship-at-xlri.blogspot.com/

...and the photo slide-show of how the Conference unfolded is here:

Photographs of Day 1:

Photographs of Day 2:

But, listening and interacting with them, made me recall the preface to Rashmi Bansal's book Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry:

"what if...

what if I had married my college sweetheart?

what if I had the good sense not to?

what if I had been born in this joob market?

what if...

what if I'd planned a little less?

what if I'd planned a little more?

what if I'd chucked it all, and started my own company?

"What ifs" are never idle fantasy. They are hopes, dreams and desires.

Logic and reasons are the naphthalene balls we use to pack them away into a sandbook called "someday". But when that day comes, we are too old, too poor, too tired or too lazy.

.... those people who seized their moment. So they would not wake up one day with regrets. Of course, they saw markets and opportunity and need gaps. But more importantly, they stood in front of the mirror and saw their true selves.

That self told them it was meaningless to sell soap just because you are paid well to do so.

That being corporate slave was in easy option, but not the one that felt right.

That there was something bigger and better to do with their talents."

Many years back, I had read Odyssey: From Pepsi to Apple. In one of the conversations, Steve Jobs had asked John Sculley:

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world."

India Inc. vs. "Mera Bharat"

2009-01-15T12:25:00.005+05:30

Few News Items which came out during last couple of days:

Modi PM material for Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal

...As the fourth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit drew to a close at Ahmedabad on Tuesday, corporate India, shedding its usual reticence, hailed the BJP leader’s (Narendra Modi's) stewardship and went to the extent of putting the "prime ministerial class" stamp on him.

ADAG chairman Anil Ambani, while addressing the valedictory session of the meet, was effusive in his praise of Mr Modi’s leadership. "Narendrabhai has done good for Gujarat and what will happen if he leads the nation," he said. "Gujarat has seen progress in all the fields under his leadership. Now, imagine what will happen to the country if he gets the opportunity to lead it," he said and added, "Person like him should be the next leader of the country"....

Bharti Group CMD Sunil Mittal also showered encomiums. "Chief minister Modi is known as a CEO, but he is actually not a CEO, because he is not running a company or a sector. He is running a state and can also run the nation," he said.

....Both Mr Mittal and Mr Anil Ambani described Mr Modi as the "future leader of the country," given his "capacity to dream with open eyes" and "drive to achieve the results." The younger Ambani asserted that Mr Modi’s achievements in leading Gujarat to an industrialised state had made him "a proud Indian and a proud Gujarati." He said the way he had transformed Gujarat, he could change the complexion of the country as and when he takes over its reins.

Tata Group boss Ratan Tata led the corporates in lauding Mr Modi’s track record. "I have to say that today there is no state like Gujarat. Under Mr Modi’s leadership, Gujarat is head and shoulders above any state," Mr Tata...

Modi’s ‘Taj Mahal’ to displace 35,000 families, says IIM-A study

They say its Modi’s ‘Taj Mahal’, but the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, which is expected to attract maximum attention during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit 2009, will displace around 35,000 odd families from the riverbed and the surrounding areas, according to a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Navdeep Mathur, a professor at IIM-A, said: "We conducted this study as part of the PGP-PMP course on displacement and rehabilitation issues in the governance. According to the interaction with community leaders and activists, we came to know that nearly 35,000 families will be affected".

Mathur’s team visited the riverbed area in October, followed by a field visit two weeks ago in January. He added: “There is no clarity on the counting of project affected families. We found out that the there was little or no communication with the communities”.

The survey of NGOs - Action Aid and Sabarmati Nagarik Adhikar Manch - and social activists stated that about 35,000 families will be affected, which is in stark contrast to the 4,400 figure given by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) initially. The locals of the riverbed, with the help of activists, had filed a petition against the AMC in the Gujarat High Court.

Elsewhere, a news item - Half of Vibrant Gujarat Goes to Sleep Empty Stomach mentions some statistics:

According to International Food Policy Research Institute’s 2008 Global Hunger Index, Gujarat is ranked 69th along with Haiti, the nation infamous for food riots. The state is placed in the ‘alarming’ category.

The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation has identified urban Gujarat as ‘moderately food secure’ while rural Gujarat remains ‘severely insecure.’

The National Family Health Survey III (NFHS-III) conveys that 42.4 per cent of children in Gujarat are suffering from stunted growth due to malnutrition. Also, about 47.4 per cent of children are underweight in the state.

NFHS-III also points out that more than half of Gujarat’s population is Anaemic, with a percentage as high as 80.1 for children aged 6-35 months.

NFHS-III further states that nearly one-third of adults in Gujarat have their Body Mass Index (BMI) below the normal, 32.3 per cent for women and 28.2 per cent for men.

etc.

Postcript: A couple of friends wrote back on the above post that it would be fairer comparison if Gujarat's hunger record is placed along side the national average.

That is a legitimate query, and will certainly help in forming a more balanced view about its growth or otherwise. The India State Hunger Index from IFPRI report is as below. Among 17 states, Gujarat ranks 13 - above Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh

What Can You Do with Rs500 (US$10)?

2008-11-22T19:22:00.002+05:30

What can you do if you get Rs 500/- (approx US$10)?

Maybe nothing!... it is so little
Maybe everything!... it is so much!!

One of my students sent me this amazingly simple - yet unsettling - 2min clip by Nitin Das of Filmkaar (Our mission is to make 'Extraordinary films with Ordinary people'):

500:

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=M0XTPSYdP08

After all, we do live in "two Indias", where:

where crossing the distance between a slum and a mall can be a stroll - or an arduous, but diginified, struggle

where numbers of one India defy/deny the numbers of the other India

where Rs 500/- can make a life-change for 80-90% of population

...putting the Humpty-Dumpty/ Global Economy together again!

2008-11-20T14:02:00.004+05:30

The Global Economy, as we know/ believe/ are told, is in recession/ downturn/ meltdown....and the corporate and global leaders are trying their best to repair/contain the damage. Ordinary people around the world are told that everything will work-out fine with the new initatives where the government and industry leaders are working hand-in-hand... They will, so to speak, put the humpty-together again!

Of course, these are complex decisions, having wide-ranging impact on the national and global economy; most people don't know/understand how these decisions are taken.

Here are some examples!!

Fed Hires Failed Bank Executive
The Federal Reserve Bank is drawing jeers for hiring a former top executive from the now-defunct investment bank Bear Stearns to help it gauge the health of other banks.

The Federal Reserve Bank has hired the former head of risk management for Bear Stearns, which imploded this spring.

Michael Alix was head of risk management for Bear Stearns for two years until the institution imploded this spring, a victim of its (risky) subprime-mortgage related investments.

Last Friday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York quietly announced it had hired Alix to advise it on bank supervision... [Read on...]

...On Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds
The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.

Even as their companies fail, Ford and GM CEOs continue lavish lifestyles.

The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.

All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.... [Read on...]

AIG Execs At Posh Resort After $85 Billion Bailout
News cameras watched as American International Group, or AIG, executives were once again living it up at a fancy resort in Phoenix.

Cocktail parties, limousines and dinner at a top Phoenix restaurant were part of their latest retreat.

AIG instructed the hotel to keep everything secret, no signs with its name were allowed.... AIG made significant efforts to disguise the conference, making sure there were no AIG logos or signs anywhere on the property.

An AIG spokesperson said there were no AIG markers in order to minimize signage costs and to lower the company's profile.

A hotel employee told ABC15, "We can't even say the word [AIG]."... [Read on...]

$500 wine at White House Financial Crisis Meeting?
The global economy may be undergoing a significant downturn, but the White House's dinner budget still appears flush with cash.

After all, world leaders who are in town to discuss the economic crisis are set to dine in style Friday night while sipping wine listed at nearly $500 a bottle.

According to the White House, tonight's dinner to kick off the G-20 summit includes such dishes as "Fruitwood-smoked Quail," "Thyme-roasted Rack of Lamb," and "Tomato, Fennel and Eggplant Fondue Chanterelle Jus."

To wash it all down, world leaders will be served Shafer Cabernet “Hillside Select” 2003, a wine that sells at $499 on Wine.com.... [Read on...]

The "Free-Market Oracles" say it was all wrong!! - part-2

2008-10-26T14:59:00.002+05:30

Continuing from the previous posting:

Almost two decades back, in a 1989 essay, Francis Fukuyama had declared The End of History (a thesis which he later elaborated in a book titled The End of History and the Last Man). His basic constention was that with the dawn of Liberal Democracy and Free Market Capitalism, mankind had achieved the fundamentally most effective and the final stage of human government and method of organising the economy.

With this achivement, he stated, all competing ideologies have fallen, or will fall. He wrote:

"...What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such... That is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

Such a momentus claim about the triumph of western (American) politico-economic system made Fukuyama something of a celebrity, and a poster-boy for the neo-liberals...

Recently, however, like Alan Greenspan's self-enlightenment that free-market capitalism is not flawless, Fukuyama too accepted that along with the Wall Street, the utopian vision of capitalism has also collapsed.

Excerpts from his article The Fall of America, Inc. (Newsweek, October 13th,'08)

"The implosion of America's most storied investment banks. The vanishing of more than a trillion dollars in stock-market wealth in a day. A $700 billion tab for U.S. taxpayers. The scale of the Wall Street crackup could scarcely be more gargantuan. Yet even as Americans ask why they're having to pay such mind-bending sums to prevent the economy from imploding, few are discussing a more intangible, yet potentially much greater cost to the United States — the damage that the financial meltdown is doing to America's "brand."

Ideas are one of our most important exports, and two fundamentally American ideas have dominated global thinking since the early 1980s... The first was a certain vision of capitalism—one that argued low taxes, light regulation and a pared-back government would be the engine for economic growth.... The second big idea was America as a promoter of liberal democracy around the world, which was seen as the best path to a more prosperous and open international order....

...But now the engine of that growth, the American economy, has gone off the rails and threatens to drag the rest of the world down with it. Worse, the culprit is the American model itself: under the mantra of less government, Washington failed to adequately regulate the financial sector and allowed it to do tremendous harm to the rest of the society."

Fukuyama goes on to justify that the Reagan-Thatcher revolution of unleashing the "free" market forces was appropriate in that historical context, but does accept that:

"...Like all transformative movements, the Reagan revolution lost its way because for many followers it became an unimpeachable ideology, not a pragmatic response to the excesses of the welfare state. Two concepts were sacrosanct: first, that tax cuts would be self-financing, and second, that financial markets could be self-regulating.

...Reaganomics introduced the idea that virtually any tax cut would so stimulate growth that the government would end up taking in more revenue in the end (the so-called Laffer curve). In fact, the traditional view was correct: if you cut taxes without cutting spending, you end up with a damaging deficit.... globalization masked the flaws in this reasoning for several decades. Foreigners seemed endlessly willing to hold American dollars, which allowed the U.S. government to run deficits while still enjoying high growth, something that no developing country could get away with.

...The second Reagan-era article of faith — financial deregulation — was pushed by an unholy alliance of true believers and Wall Street firms, and by the 1990s had been accepted as gospel by the Democrats as well. They argued that long-standing regulations... were stifling innovation and undermining the competitiveness of U.S. financial institutions. They were right — only, deregulation produced a flood of innovative new products like collateralized debt obligations, which are at the core of the current crisis.

....the downside of deregulation were clear well before the Wall Street collapse. In California, electricity prices spiraled out of control in 2000-2001 as a result of deregulation in the state energy market, which unscrupulous companies like Enron gamed to their advantage. Enron itself, along with a host of other firms, collapsed in 2004 because accounting standards had not been enforced adequately. Inequality in the United States rose throughout the past decade, because the gains from economic growth went disproportionately to wealthier and better-educated Americans, while the incomes of working-class people stagnated..."

Full article is available here

The "Free-Market Oracles" say it was all wrong!! - part-1

2008-10-23T22:35:00.004+05:30

Two "free-market" evangilists retracted their beliefs this past week...though slightly too late!

Here is the first one:

WASHINGTON (AP): Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the current financial crisis has uncovered a flaw in how the free market system works and that has shocked him.

Greenspan told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had proven in the latest crisis to be wrong.

Greenspan said he had made a "mistake" in believing that banks in operating in their self-interest would be sufficient to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

Greenspan said that he had found "a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works."

Alternatives to Singur

2008-10-09T22:20:00.002+05:30

This week, Tatas drew curtains to their Singur Nano project...

...This being a highly govt-subsidised project (ref: Nano-economics), this withdrwal perhaps also perhaps saved the exchequer (and therefore the taxpayers) around Rs.3000cr

The "public" discourse on this project (which ,unfortunately, has now got reduced to the MSM's rant, and the corporate press-releases) has typically been tinted with a with-us-or-against-us kind of argument, i.e., the terms of debate are: if you don't support this project, then you are against "industrialisation"/development.

As an old adage of public deception says:
"if you get them to ask wrong questions, you will never have to give the right answers."

So since no one has asked this:
"are/were there alternatives to the Singur model of land-acquisition/industrialisation?"

Actually there are a few which I could find:

Salboni Model:
To quote:
"For the steel plant at Salboni in Bengal, JSW has offered free shares worth the value of the land over and above full upfront cash compensation.

....Over 700 land owners has received cash as well as free shares of the new company, promoted by JSW Steel, which will build a 10-million-tonne plant over the next 10 years involving an investment of Rs 35,000 crore.

It has often been said that JSW could offer shares because there was only a small parcel of private land at Salboni. But Jindal said a larger number would not deter him in future."
[Read more...]

Barmer Farmers to Rent Land
To quote:
"Rajasthan's Barmer has paved the way for a new formula for land acquisition with the Jindals agreeing to rent the land from farmers for lignite mining rather than getting the government to acquire it.

The power plant at Bhadres will mine 17000 hectares of land for lignite which will fuel the plant according to the new deal once the mining is over.

The Jindals will hand the land back to the farmers... According to a survey the lignite will last for only 43 years and according to the deal once the lignite runs out the mining will stop and the land will be given back to its owners, the farmers."
[Read more...]

Prem Shankar Jha's HT article this week
To quote:
"Are the blood and tears of the poor a necessary price of ‘development’? Was there no way of making the landholders and sharecroppers in Singur beneficiaries of ‘development’ instead of its victims? There was, but the Tatas never even considered it and took refuge in the legal plea that they were not involved in the acquisition of the land.

To see how easy it would have been to co-opt the landowners and sharecroppers, one needs to ask just one counterfactual question: what would have happened if the Tatas had decided to set aside just one quarter of 1 per cent of their annual sales revenue and distributed it as an annual royalty to the owners and sharecroppers, for the use of their land? With an annual turnover of Rs 5,000 crore (from 500,000 cars), the royalty would have amounted to Rs 125,000 per acre per year to be split between landowners and sharecroppers. To recover this added outlay, the Tatas would have had to increase the price of their car by only Rs 250."
[Read more...]

I am still searching for solutions between the "number-driven economic growth" vis-a-vis "models of sustainable development"...

If you have any clues, please help out...

Bailing-Out the Wall-Street Bail-Out Plan...

2008-10-03T12:00:00.002+05:30

This is bizzaire and hilarious...

The $700bn Wall Street bail-out proposal was defeated in the US House of Representatives last week. One of the criticisms - among many - of the proposal was that it hardly had anything for the Main Street taxpayer.

To be fair, the new version, which was approved by the US Senate later, has several provisions (e.g., disaster relief breaks, better deductions for costs of higher education, relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, etc.) which will help many ordinary americans...

These new provisions - which also add another $112bn to the bailout plans! - contain some other measures of tax relief, which... err.... well, here are some examples:

$2mn tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children

$100mn tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners

$192mn in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry

$148mn in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers

$49mn tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued Exxon over the 1989 tanker Valdez spill

$322mn tax credit to manufacturers of energy efficient appliances (e.g., dishwashers, clothes washers and refrigerators, etc.)

$500mn tax break for film companies that produce movies in the USA

$10mn tax credit to help employers defray the costs of storing the bicycles of their employees who commute to work!

etc...

As one of the commentator said: "You can't make this stuff up."

Sources:

Bailout dish has heaping side of pork

House bailout legislation larded with - yup, you guessed it - earmarks

Notes from the B-School Factory...

2008-09-25T23:15:00.003+05:30

The recent Outlook Magazine - which carries the survey of India's Best B-Schools - has two very refreshing and insightful articles.

Excerpts:

1. The Matchstick Managers

"The B-schools have gone too far towards the objective-type examinations and there is a general decline in language and communications skills. These are important for management. There is also not enough stress on the general skills and knowledge required in this kind of work."

"It is not enough to produce technicians and engineers. We need holistic people," says Athreya."

Read on...

2. Aloof From the Light

‘Indian Social and Political Environment’

..."Most students who come to business schools do so with a one-point goal of getting a good salary. They seem to be increasingly less informed about the problems our country faces and less concerned about the larger humane role that businesses can play,"

"It seems educational institutions are creating intellectual marginals at the core of our metropolises,"

Read on...

So what happened to "Capitalism", "Free" Market economy, etc..

2008-09-19T21:52:00.004+05:30

The "Market" is supposed to "correct" itself - so we have been told... And a good government is one which governs/intervenes the least in the "free" market dynamics!

But then, last week - actually last few months - at least one government, which has championed/ branded/ enforced the cause of the "free" market, has been interfering with the "free market" - actually bailing out companies (Countrywide Financial, Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, etc. - many more to come)...

Here are some reflections/links - sent by some friends - on this changing paradigm...

Masters of The Universe Humbled

"Not surprisingly, the atmosphere at this year's World Economic Forum was grim. Those who think that globalization, technology and the market economy will solve the world's problems seemed subdued.

Most chastened of all were the bankers. Against the backdrop of the U.S. subprime crisis, the disasters at many financial institutions and the weakening of the stock market, these "masters of the universe" seemed less omniscient than they did a short while ago. And central bankers, too, were in the Davos doghouse this year.

Anyone who goes to international conferences is used to hearing Americans lecture everyone else about transparency. There was still some of that at Davos. I heard the usual suspects – including a former treasury secretary who had been particularly vociferous in such admonishments during the East Asia crisis – bang on about the need for transparency at sovereign wealth funds (though not at American or European hedge funds).

But this time, developing countries could not resist commenting on the hypocrisy of it all." ...Read on

Private Enterprise Worship Exposed

"The high priests of capitalism are in sackcloth and ashes, their belief in markets shattered, their catechism of risk-taking renounced. From Wall Street to Detroit, once-devout believers in unfettered private enterprise are running from their religion. Now that their greed has brought the economy to the brink of depression, they want government help.

What happened to those masters of the universe? What happened to their handmaidens, the Republican politicians who denounced government regulation and read from the holy scriptures as recorded by Ayn Rand?

When ordinary Americans began to lose their homes several months ago, conservatives were quick to denounce them for being too stupid to understand a simple mortgage or too undisciplined to know how to live within their means. The right-wing talking heads had a field day denouncing plumbers and painters, teachers and personal trainers threatened with foreclosure: They’re idiots! They’re losers! They’re suckers!

Well, it now seems there were quite a few idiots among the brokers and bankers who bundled loans in complicated investment vehicles they didn’t fully understand. They actually believed they could vastly increase the financial rewards they received while virtually eliminating the risk of losses. That’s the very definition of “sucker.”"...Read on

Banking on Neo-Confucian Capitalism

"It's university graduation season again and invariably, many graduates I encounter want to become investment bankers.

In less than a year, financial stocks have plummeted by over 70 per cent in value. Millions of Americans and Britons have lost their homes. Countless millions more around the world have seen their net wealth drop precipitously, possibly never to recover within their working lives. Who to blame?

Investment bankers, of course, who devised all those sub-prime mortgages and other cute "products" with long, exotic names.

As someone noted, never in history have so many people lost so much money due to the actions of so few.

Why then would young graduates want to be investment bankers? Well, to begin with, because investment bankers reward themselves pretty well, regardless of how others are doing. Bonuses paid in London's financial district totalled f6 billion 6815.7 billion) this year, though the total losses of financial services companies were 10 times greater.

And in case you think that pay should correlate with performance, don't be naive. Last year, the CEO of a large private equity fund walked away with a US8350 million (SS499 million) bonus, though his just-listed company's share price had tanked by 37 per cent.

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently noted that the Wall Street financial system "paid bankers to gamble. When things turned out well, they walked away with huge bonuses. When things go badly, as now, they do not share in the losses. Even if they lose their jobs, they walk away with huge sums".

To be fair to the maligned financial engineers, others also got rich during the good years. In 1994, the average American CEO was paid about 90 times more than the average blue-collar worker. Today, it is 180 times.

But it is still mainly bankers who buy the thousand-dollar wines and Bentley convertibles. In America's Fortune 1,000 industrial companies, CEOs make around two to five times more than their immediate subordinates. In Wall Street, the top dog earns around 20 to 40 times more than his immediate subordinates.

It's not surprising then that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high. The share of the national wealth owned by the top 1 per cent of Americans has more than doubled – from 20 per cent in 1976 to more than 50 per cent today. Through changes to the tax system, an American private equity partner can today pay less taxes than the cleaning lady in his office, according to economist Paul Krugrnan.

How did all this happen with no one complaining?" ...Read on

Make a Difference.. Bihar "Floods" - an appeal

2008-09-07T21:41:00.010+05:30

It is still called a "flood" - which it is not!

It is a river - Kosi- which has changed its course by almost 30-degrees, inundating a huge chunk of land with water...

This may also be one of the largest mass-migration and rehabilitation challenge in the history of Independent India - we still do not know the numbers... 1 million... 3 millions... Who knows?!

Words/number/language, however, are linear; they do not convey the multi-dimensional reality and often fail to evoke the typically natural human empathic response... And therefore, these pictures to make this appeal:

..etc.

...maybe our/your chance to get out of The Logic of Inaction...and support those who are doing something to tackle the situation...
... And so:

1. How you can help

2. Who you can contact

=================
1. How You Can Help
=================
Material support:

Dry ration - Rice, Chiwra, Biscuits, Packed Eatables

Medicines,

candles & matchbox,

torch & batteries,

utensils,

tarpaulin & thick polythese

feeding bottles,

buckets,

ropes,

bedsheets,

all kind of usable clothing & footwear.

Logistical support:

Transport support to reach the material to effected areas

Space for collection centers

Facilities for local pickups,

Transportation of material from different cities to GOONJ processing centers in Delhi, Chennai & Mumbai

Volunteer support:
Please contact the organisations mentioned below.

Financial support:
See below.

=========================
Who You Can Contact/Help
=========================

I know about these two, and can vouch for them:

-----
1. Goonj
-----
Donations in India- Please send cash/cheque/draft in the name of GOONJ and send it to

GOONJ
J-93, Sarita Vihar,
New Delhi- 76
(Kindly send your full name & address with the contribution for receipt/accounting purpose.
(All donations to GOONJ in India are tax exempted u/s 80 G of IT act.)

Overseas donation can be sent through Cheque (in the name of GOONJ with your full particulars)
or by wire transfer with an information on

Yasmeengoonj[at]gmail.com

Rotate it (valid only for overseas donations) through

Wacovia Bank,
New York
swift code- 2000193008933,
GOONJ, A/C No- 2591101004644

Bank- Canara Bank,
H block,
market Sarita Vihar,
New Delhi- 76
Swift Code- CNRBINBBDFS

Contact- GOONJ
H.O Delhi-J-93,
Sarita Vihar, New Delhi- 76
Tel.- 011-26972351,
41401216
E-mail- goonjinfo[at]gmail.com, anshugoonj24[at]gmail.com

GOONJ Mumbai- Mr. Rohit Singh
Tel.- 9322381600,
Email- rohitgoonj1@gmail.com

GOONJ Chennai- Ms. Padma
Tel.- 9842665320,
Email- padmagoonj@gmail.com

-------------------
2. AID India & Pratham
-------------------

Funds:
Donate online @:
http://www.eurekachild.org/biharflood

or you can send a check payable to AID INDIA (mention Bihar Flood Relief) to:

AID INDIA
Post Box No: 4903, Gopalapuram, Chennai - 600086, India.
Phone: +91-44-42106493 / 28350403

For more information please contact: eurekachild@gmail.com or

Prabha: +91-98403-51132 (prabha.balaraman[at]gmail.com)
Gomathi: +91-94453-91090 (gomathiaid[at]gmail.com)

...thanks to my teachers

2008-09-05T20:38:00.004+05:30

Today is the "Teacher's Day... and an occasion to remember and thank those who continue to teach me...

Sometime back, somewhere else, I had written about On Being a Teacher...
...which were essentialy my musings on the dilemma about what "teaching/learning" is all about (still trying to figure that out!)

A few days later, an old student sent an invite on Orkut:
"...have attended some of ur utterly confusing n thot provokin lect."

Curious about what this meant, I wrote back:
"How can something be simultaneously utterly confusing and thought-provoking?"

...and got the response:
"there were times... when we were faced with ideas/beliefs completely opposite to what we had carried all along... so confusing because we kinda never expected that the opposite side ever existed or was appreciated.... Thought provoking because then later we end up appreciating (or at least start looking at the logic) for all sides of the argument."

That made sense to me - and I learned something about teaching/learning from her mail...

Today, among the many heart-warming mails/messages which one gets on the Teacher's Day, one which captured this teching/learning matrix, had this quote about learning/teaching in these verses from Rainer Maria Rilke:

Live the questions now
Perhaps you will then, gradually,
Without noticing it,
Live along some distant day
Into the answer.

Like him, I also "gradually, without noticing it, live... into the answer" through these myriad messages and interactions.

So this post is just to say thanks to my many teachers - many of who sat through my classes...

Nano-Economics

2008-08-27T21:47:00.001+05:30

[NOTE: This post is NOT about a certain discipline which is actually known as "Nano-Economics", i.e., "a branch of economics that studies the creation and distribution of wealth related to the technological changes brought by nano-technology"]

it is about the economics of the supposedly world's cheapest car called "Nano"

however, this post is also NOT about:

the land which has been taken away from the 12,000+ "land-losers" in Singur by the state/govt acting as the land-broker under the garb of "public purpose" as losely defined (/interpreted?) in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

or about the 411 acres of land which the state/govt acknowledged that it acquired without the consent of its owners.

or about the acquisition of a "fertile, multi-crop land" which was questioned by the Supreme Court, since it goes against the provisions of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which the state/govt invoked to acquire the land in the first place.

the claim by the company [Tata Motors Ltd (TML)] - proven false - that the acquired land was not usable for farming because of waterlogging

..and many such other media-generated myths (somehow, the mainstream media always puts the other viewpoint as "alleged" (^_*)

And this is definitely not about the current siege and politics which surrounds the project site... And NOT about whether the 400acre land should be returned to the owners or not...

Coming back to The Economics of Manufacturing the Cheapest (Rs.1 lac = $2,500) Car in the World...

...what are the facts behind producing the world's cheapest car?

Fact 1:

West Bengal Govt (WBSIDC) acquires about 1000 acres of land at a cost of about Rs.150-200cr., and

TML would pay back Rs.855cr. for the land to the WBSIDC.

This sounds good for WBSIDC!!... till one looks at the small-print in the payment schedule, as below:

... Essentially meaning that the TML has no requirement for up-front payment for 650acres of land ... in the first 30 years, the TML will pay merely Rs.56cr for the land for the plant (adjusted to around 5% inflation, this is a remarkable bargain/largesse/dole-out)... It will, however, pay a rent of Rs.8000/annum/acre for the rest of the approx 300 acre land

Fact 2:
This transaction/ agreement between WBSIDC and TML is apparently not legal either. Earlier this year, The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) indicted WBSIDC pointing out that:

"As per the government directive (February 2006) for long-term leases for 99 years, the lessee should pay 95 per cent of the market value of the land at one-time premium on commencement of the lease and pay annual rent at the rate of 0.3 per cent of the market value of the land."

Needless to say, if this directive was followed, it would have increased the cost of the "cheapest" car.

Fact 3:
In addition, as this report points out:

The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) will give a "soft term loan" of Rs 200 crore to TML on 1 per cent annual interest.

The VAT will be refunded to TML for the first 10-years as loan at 0.1% interest.

Fact 4:
Costs can be reduced through subsidies (in the current lingo, these are, of course, not "subsidies" but "incentives" :)... And so, this article reports about the "Rs 160-crores bonanza" as "up-front infrastructural assistance" to TML:

"...A virtual gift of 650 acres of prime land to Tata Housing Development Company (THDC) in Rajarhat New Town and in the adjoining Bhangar Rajarhat Area Development Authority for building an IT and residential township along with WBIDC as a partner is also part of Mr Bhattacharjee’s "commitment" to provide "upfront infrastructural assistance" for the TML-Singur project. The "gift" has been made with the idea that the profit that THDC and WBIDC would make here will be used for subsidising the manufacturing cost of the first series of the Rs one lakh cars to be made by TML at Singur. The Tatas had sought this "gift" so as to enable themselves to provide a cross-subsidy for keeping the cost of their first series of 100,000 cars within the Rs 1 lakh price target."

I guess, there may be other incentives/subsidies/dole-outs to make the "cheapest" car of the world - but I am not aware of those...

In any case... Well,... here goes my 300th post on this blog :0)

Left Behind...

2008-08-12T19:00:00.008+05:30

In one of his speeches, Bill Clinton said: ""The opposition to globalization in the world is rooted in the feeling of some people that they are left out, left behind..."

Since he mentioned this as a "feeling" of "some" people, I began making a list:

aboriginal tribe...

casual labours...

children of sex workers...

children in war-zones...

citizens of countless "Harsuds"...

communities living on mineral-rich land…

cocoa farmers of Ghana…

construction labours of shopping malls and international airports...

dalits...

development-induced-displaced (DIDs)...

disabled and differently challenged...

distress migrants...

ethnic Tibetans in Tibet...

female foetuses, the girl child, women...

fishermen and fishing villages of Mumbai... (I guess, of elsewhere too)

habitats near the oil resources...

household domestic help living in slums outside Gurgaon's gated cities

"illigal" Bangladeshi labour in India...

indigenous communities...

Indonesia’s migrant “unskilled” domestic help women...

immigrant manual labour in Dubai...

landless bargadars of Singur...

manual scavangers...

marginal fishermen...

mentally challenged...

mill workers of Mumbai...

old abandoned parents...

out-sourced “slave” labour at the end of global supply chains...

nomadic tribes...

Palestine...

pavement dwellers...

people of Kashmir...

people of Manipur...

platform kids...

project-affected-people of the large dams...

rag-pickers...

rickshaw pullers...

right-sized workers...

sexual minorities...

sharecroppers...

single mothers... .

slum children...

small islanders...

subsistence farmers in India...

those on the other side of digital divide...

tribals of Chhatisgarh... and of Jharkhand, Orissa...

urban poor...

vanishing tribes of Burma/Myanmar...

Zapatisatas...

No, it is not complete, so help me to complete it...

Post-script: Thanks for adding to the list. I have included them in italics

On Facing Death...

2008-07-26T22:25:00.003+05:30

Randy Pausch, the IT Prof in Carnegie Mellon (with specialisation in Virtual Reality), died today... He succombed to pancreatic cancer, which he had harboured, looked in the eyes since long....

Since the time, when in September last year, he had given his "Last Lecture", he had become a phenomeon ("The Last Lecture" is a series at CMU, where Profs are invited to give the lecture/talk, which they would, if it was there last one... IN case of Randy Pausch, it was a real talk, since his doctors had given him just a few months to live)...

Since then, he had appeared on Oprah Winfrey show, had written a book "The Last Lecture"...etc., etc.

[To access any of those just Google "Randy Pausch"]

What struck me about his "Last Lecture" was:

1. his humaneness in the face of death, and

2. that he had prepared his lecture, not for the audience, but for his 3 kids - he was making a point about a life - lived and understood in its own context...

...which reminded me about someone, I used to know intimately - in similar circumstances, who had written:

...It is like this - it has to be different for everyone. If twenty years back someone had told me all that I would feel, or that there was a point - I would have thrown it all out without a second thought - because nothing mattered when I was 18... Life for me began when... Then other things happened, and from time to time I lost track of the meaning behind it... I still have to put it all together. And no one else can make this story work out for me. This is a crisis even now, in fact, now larger than life.

And still, when I am not there any, I want you to tell X__, it mattered...

... I think the image I have resisted putting on paper is the Confluence. Two rivers coming closer and joining for a while - but each has to take a different direction. Each absorbs the other for a while, and nothing remains the same. Yet, the point of the river is to flow. The point of the human being is to remain humane and vulnerable...

And still I want you to tell X__, that it mattered. There was a point to the music, the chocolates, the fancy dresses, the loneliness and the hopelessness, the talks, the walks, the dreams and the mourning, the helplessness in the face of hurt...

...That is the point for me... don’t call it a quest for immortality or any such thing. It is not for my sake that I wrote this down. It is for her and you - but because of all that, it is for me also."

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was his way of saying: "It mattered."!!

In any case, the Life goes on!...

[Cross-posted @ Madhukar's Musings]

India's Rural Energy Security - Factsheet

2008-07-20T14:55:00.009+05:30

Indian economy is growing and needs more and more energy to maintain its growth (at least growth of that part of India, which is growing). Therefore, there is much discussions about the Energy Security needs of India. In fact, this coming week the current UPA government may fall (or survive) for the option it has chosen.

However, there is also a need to differentiate between the urban and rural energy security, to have a meaningful public debate/discourse on the issue.

Here are some facts, which I could collect:

There are around 640,000 villages in India, accounting for about 70% of the population. Of these, according to GOI, in 2004, 475,000 (i.e., around 74%) villages were "electrified".

Since independence, India had made strides in Rural Electrification, increasing the number of electrified villages from 1,500 in 1947 to 481,124 villages by 1991. After that, however, as a part of the "liberalisation" and "reforms" process, a number of villages were "de-electrified", decreasing the number to 474,928 by 2004.

GOI's definition of electrification, however, is any village which is connected to the grid (to quote: "A village will be deemed to be electrified if electricity is used in the inhabited locality within the revenue boundary of the village for any purpose what-so-ever"). The definition has no mention about the number of households using electricity... Thus, a single pole and a 40W bulb in the local police station suffices for village "electrification".

Therefore, the actual number of rural population with access to electricity is much lower than the 74%. Of the approximately 138mn rural households, only around 60mn (i.e., 43%) have access to electricity (compared to 87.6% in urban India)...

...which would roughly mean (taking an average of 5 persons/family), around 285mn rural people (or around 26% of total Indian population) do not have access to electricity.

The rate of Rural Electrification is slow, and lags on targets. Under India's Rural Electrification initiative (Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana - RGGVY - launched in April'05), the target is to provide grid connection to 125,000 villages and 23.4mn rural households by March'09. However, as on July'08 - with just 9 months to go - only 51,122 village have got electrified, giving access to electricity to mere 3.3mn rural households.

The power generation capacity of a state seems to be delinked to availability of power to rural households. In fact, in most cases it is inversely proportional.

For instance, Jharkhand, is a "power-surplus" state, where 90% rural households have no electricity; similarly, Orissa and West Bengal - both with surplus electricity - have 80% un-electrified rural households. Chattisgarh, too - another power-surplus state - can boast only of providing power to 46% of its rural households.

On the other hand, states which provide electricity to their rural households - Himachal Pradesh (95%), Punjab (90%), Haryana (78%), Karnataka (72%), Gujarat (72%), Maharashtra (65%), etc. - are all power-deficit states.

In practice, however, even in these states where large proportion of rural households are connected to grid, the actual availability of power is scant. Since, these are power-deficit states, load-shedding is inevitable. However, bulk of load-shedding is done in the rural areas (whose requirement for electricity is seen as less or limited). Some examples:

A news item about load-shedding in Karnataka

"The State Government will not enforce load-shedding in urban areas in March and April as students will be preparing for their examinations, Minister for Energy H.D. Revanna has said."

a recent news item from Maharashtra

"In highly industrialised urban areas, the load shedding will be from four to seven hours. In other urban areas, it will be from seven to 8.5 hours, while in the rural areas it will be for 11 hours, according to an official release said here today."

There are also legitimate technical and economic reasons for lesser priority to rural area. The cost of connecting to grid far-flung villages, payment default and electricity theft, high costs of supply and maintenance, etc., make rural electrification through the grid financially unviable. To quote from the report on "Rural Electrification in India: Economic and Institutional aspects of Renewables (the references have been deleted for easy reading):

"Grid connection remains the most favoured approach to rural electrification for the majority of rural households. Indeed the latest government programme for rural electrification, the RGGVY, focuses in particular on a vast expansion of the existing grid to reach all villages by 2012. Whilst state utilities typically report an average cost of supply at around Rs.3/kWh most studies... suggest that cost of delivery to rural areas can be around three times generation costs. A recent estimate for a Gujarat case study, based on Gujarat Electricity Board data, put the true cost of delivery to rural areas at over Rs.9/kWh.

As the distance from the grid increases, the cost of grid connection rises considerably. It increases costs by roughly Rs1/kWh per kilometre of expansion to individual villages. Typically grid tariffs for poor rural households range from Rs.0-10/month for the poorest households and Rs.0-130/month for remaining domestic customers. These charges typically lie well below the cost of supply and are sustained through redistributive policies, tariff cross-subsidies and financial relief to loss-making State electricity boards (SEB).

Often a faulty understanding of rural energy needs is also a reason. It is generally believed that the major economic benefit of electricity would be to feed India's 11mn irrigation pumps for farming. Since one would not be using pumps all 24hrs, or can use it off-peak hours, if load-shedding has to be done due to scarcity, then villages need it less as compared to urban areas. For instance, Maharashtra State Electricity Board's note on the "Principles and Protocol of Load Shedding by MSEB" to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority, says:

The dependability of rural areas on electricity is less as compared to the dependability of urban areas. The agricultural sector normally does not require power for 24 hours. This concept has also been accepted by the Hon. Commission during the discussions on the tariff proposals wherein a maximum of 13 hours use per day is considered for agricultural pumps.

This equation of "rural" with "agricultural sector" leads to an argument, which misses out the energy requirements of rural schools (and its students), households and enterprises.

For instance, according to DISE's School Based indicators report:

Similarly, according to the Economic Census 2005:

...there are 42.12 million enterprises in the country engaged in different economic activities other than crop production and plantation. Out of which, 25.81 million enterprises (61.3%) are in the rural areas and 16.31 million enterprises (38.7%) in the urban areas.

As a result of all these, India's 70% population living in villages have access to just 33% of India's total generated electricity - that too of poor quality, much below the rated frequency and voltage....

...and they will continue to remain dis-enfranchised from the access to electricity, as long as the guiding blueprint to India's Energy Security

is defined through urban lenses, and

is defined by centralised mega-thermal/hydro/nuclear plants, and feeder grids...

So, are there any options?

...of course, there are!!! - but that will need another post!...

Indian History Trivia (9): The Era of Indian Coffee House

2008-07-08T10:48:00.012+05:30

Long time since, I added to the trivia... so here goes!

...Long before Semco became a corporate benchmark for "Managing Without Managers - a participatory industrial democracy... and Ricardo Semler's book Maverick became a runaway bestseller...

....And long before the Argentinian Workers' Cooperatives started taking over the abondoned workplaces - (this phenomenon requires a separate post.. will do that in time to come...) - something similar happened in India in 1957.

But some more trivia before that...

Long long time back, in the 17th century, Baba Budan smuggled the seven coffee bean seeds ("strapped to his chest" the legend tells us) from Yemen in the 16th century, and planted them on the Chandragiri hills of Mysore State. Over the next couple of centuries, coffee had gradually become the drink of the elites (Mughals and later, British) as well as of the ordinary families in southern India. The first coffee house opened in Kolkata after the battle of Plassy in 1780, soon to be followed by the Madras Coffee House. Soon coffee drinking became a "tradition" in India, and even became a staple drink for many families in southern India.

The Indian Coffee House(s) were promoted by the Indian Coffee Board during the British Rule during the 40s. Soon these became the meeting place for the poets, artistes, literati and people from the world of art and culture. ICHs Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) was frequented by figures ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to Subhash Chandra Bose... and later, from Manna Dey to Amartya Sen.

In the 1950s, however, the business was not doing well, and the Indian Coffee Board decided to close down the Coffee Houses. And that marked the beginning of a unique cooperative venture.... The Indian Coffee House. Under the leadership of the communist leader AK Gopalan, the dismissed workers took over the place to run without any management. The first Indian Coffee Workers Co-Operative Society was founded in Bangalore on August 19, 1957. The first Indian Coffee House was opened in New Delhi on October 27, 1957...

The self-managed India Coffee Houses proliferated. Today, there are around 50 of them across India, managed by 13 cooperative societies. These societies are governed by managing committees elected from the employees. There is also a federation of the co-operative societies as the national umbrella organisation to lead these socities.

But times have changed, and so have the Indian Coffee Houses. Some have got replaced by Caffe Coffee Days and Baristas, some have just gone plain bankrupt, and some have lost their old clientele and aura...

Some tributes to this vanishing institution:

A Mutiner reflects on the old nostalgia:

"It would be a lie to say that I don’t miss that coffee house. An old dingy place with ceiling like a dome. The cheap wooden tables that were colored to give an impression of mahogany. Those two big glass jars at the managers desk. The waiters with the long pagdis. The manager who would return even fifty paise of your change but would never smile. The orders that would take exactly three hundred seconds to appear on your tables. The always present group of oldies, all of whom looked like communist poets or war veterans or editors of some old and forgotten local newspapers and their tables filled with three tea-cups (rather glasses) per person with the occasional one or two plates of egg pakodas. The fact that they were always there made me think that they owned the place, but now I realize that they were there because that was the only place that had not grown younger as they grew older. The Indian coffee house had grown older with them, with time it had become a little outdated, lost a little of its old shine and was stripped of most or all of its utility, just like them. Its all changed now with the Coffee Day standing in its place. Not that this change isn’t good or anything, its just that I want to know what happened to that group of oldies, those waiters, that manager and those tables."

In another article - Flavour of Another Era - in The Hindu, Kasturi Basu ruminated about the changing hues of the place, where one would discuss and converse:

"....for hours over a cup of coffee, smoke from the endless number of cigarettes spiralling up to the ceiling high enough to contain at least three stories of present multi-storied buildings and a floor area to match its majestic columns, waiters in traditional uniform of spotless white and red and high, stiff hats, mixed aroma of coffee, fish fry and mutton Afghani and animated conversation between people whose ages are removed from each other by a decade... Except if you went close, the snatches of conversation revealed that over the years, politics, literature and music had acquired a subtle flavour of the next management entrance examination and IT units in the city. Old sweepers, who once preserved bills scattered on the floors because they contained complex mathematical calculations or poems on the reverse, hardly find anything of note. Waiters say they do not have to stop working now to listen to an interesting discussion."

Travel writer, Colin Todhunter wrote this touching tribute to the vanishing magic of Indian Coffee House in 2005:

"After having sampled the delights of coffee around the globe, I have come to conclude that there is only one place to drink it: India. And there is only one establishment to drink it in – the Indian Coffee House. There are around 160 branches throughout the country. I’ve visited branches in Shimla, Allahabad, Pondicherry, Calcutta, Trivandrum and many places beside and have never been disappointed. Whenever I visit a new place, one of the first things I do is find out whether there is an ICH in town.

Black and white framed photographs of Nehru, Gandhi, and Indira Gandhi usually adorn the walls of each ICH and the waiters are dressed in shabby, white (well, whitish) uniforms. They are pretty basic places where the decor generally takes a back seat to the low prices and delicious dosas and masala dishes on offer. Things are cheap and simple in the ICH. Unlike the new, trendy coffee bars now in India, there is no long and winding menu of coffee types to choose from. There is no need to confuse your latte with your cappuccinos or your macchiato with your mocha. Coffee comes as coffee, no frills, no fancy names. And it’s absolutely delicious. For four or five rupees per cup, you can't complain.

Each ICH seems to have its own clientele. Depending on which branch you happen to be in you may be rubbing shoulders with vacationing families, lawyers, students or men who sit at wobbly tables on wobbly chairs, hiding behind newspapers and discussing the issues of the day. And each ICH has its own distinct character. For example, the one in Trivandrum, near the train station has good food served in a strange leaning-tower-of-Pisa-like spiral building. Others however can be a bit dingy and don’t have most of the items on the menu. The elaborate head-dress on the waiters is a usually a metaphor for the type of service on offer: clean, starched and upright or limp and ill-fitting. But one thing is always guaranteed: the fare will be excellent.

... Unlike the trendy Starbucks, Café Nero or Costa coffee bars in the West, traditional coffee houses possess a certain authenticity. That's what I like about the ICH. It operates as a worker’s co-operative and is unmolested by the cynicism of the corporate world. And for better or worse, it shows. Maybe it’s a place trapped in time. But it’s a place in time that I prefer."

Amen!

Photo Credits: various sources - thanks!

=============
Earlier Posts in the Series:
1. The Story of Junagadh
2. The Foundations of "Nehruvian Socialism"
3. A "Nation-in-Making"
4. Legacy of "The Raj"
5. When Did India Become a Socialist Country?
6. India's 1st 5-Star Hotel
7. The Non-Legend of Cyrill Radcliffe
8. The "Myth" of "Macaulay's Children"

"...suffer in the interest of the nation!"

2008-07-06T13:17:00.003+05:30

In 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru, in a public speech to those, who were to be displced by the Hirakud Dam, is supposed to have said:

"If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the nation."

He may have never envisaged that his words will get operationalised by India not having a comprehensive National Rehabilitation Policy for the DIDs (development-induced-displaced) for many decades, and then developing one, which would bypass those who get affected by "development"...

Much later, in 1974, the then Prime-Minister Indira Gandhi wrote to Baba Amte in a letter:

"I am most unhappy that development projects displace tribal people from their habitat, especially as project authorities do not always take care to properly rehabilitate the affected population. But sometimes there is no alternative and we have to go ahead in the larger interest…."

...and so, for another couple of decades, India - and its sufferers "in the interest of the nation" - continued to live with "no alternative"...

Meanwhile, India built 3,300 large dams, and a study by Indian Institute of Public Administration, suggested that on average a large dam displaces around 44,000 people... which adds upto a whopping 145mn displaced people!!!... and by large dams alone (we - I - don’t have data about the number of victims of development due to highways, large manufacturing plants, infrastructure projects, city beautification projects, etc.)

The experts, ranging from Arundhati Roy to NC Saxena (Secretary, Planning Commission), however, estimate that the number would be around 50mn.... Maybe 80mn... Anyway...

Over period of time, however, India did developed a National Policy for Rehabilitation and Resettlement... Starting from a draft in 1993-94 to a comprehensive policy in 2007. The opening statement of the 1994 draft of the National Rehabilitation Policy also acknowledged that the inhabitants of remote and backward areas and the tribal regions are the ones who are most affected by the "developmental projects":

"It is expected that there will be large-scale investments, both on account of internal generation of capital and increased inflow of foreign investments, thereby creating an enhanced demand for land to be provided within a shorter time-span in an increasingly competitive market-ruled economic structure. Majority of our mineral resources… are located in the remote and backward areas mostly inhabited by tribals".

Though the overlap of tribal land and mineral-rich area was never mentioned again in the R&R policies of 2004 and 2007, but the National Rehabilitation & Resttlement Policy 2007 did stipulate that to those affected by the projects should be consulted in drafting plans to rehabilitate them. To quote:

"...the Administrator for Rehabilitation and Resettlement shall prepare a draft scheme or plan for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families after consultation with the representatives of the affected families including women and the representative of the requiring body."

The 2007 R&R Policy also stipulates that:

"6.14.3 The draft scheme or plan may be made known locally by wide publicity in the affected area and the resettlement area (or areas) in such manner as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government.

6.15.1 The draft rehabilitation and resettlement scheme or plan shall also be discussed in gram sabhas in rural areas and in public hearings in urban and rural areas where gram sabhas don't exist."

...and incase of Scheduled Areas (i.e., the tribal and NE regions):

"7.21.2 The concerned gram sabha or the panchayats at the appropriate level in the Scheduled Areas under Schedule V of the Constitution or as the case may be, Councils in the Schedule VI Areas shall be consulted in all Cases of land acquisition in such areas including land acquisition in cases of urgency, before issue of a notification under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 or any other Act of the Union or a State for the time being in force under which land acquisition is undertaken..."

All this sounds very hopeful - that the interests of those affected are safe-guarded, that they can have a say in their lives... Till one reads stories like this (from page 48-49 of Caterpillar and the Mahua Flower):

"That companies are coming by the dozen to Chhattisgarh to mine its mineral wealth is hardly surprising. The state is rich in natural resources, with abundant deposits of iron, gold, tin, diamonds, coal, uranium, bauxite, corundum, dolomite, copper, limestone and other minerals. It’s estimated that the state has 35,000 million tonnes of coal, 2,336 million tonnes of iron ore, 3,580 million tonnes of limestone, 606 million tonnes of dolomite, 96 million tonnes of bauxite, and 29 million tonnes of cassiterite. With such bounty, Chhattisgarh accounts for over 13 percent of India’s total mineral production, worth around Rs 4,000 crores a year. Most importantly, 23 percent of the country’s iron-ore deposits are located here...

....While the government cheered about the MoUs with Tata and Essar, the locals were curious about the agreements’ terms. How much land had been given to these two steel giants? Whose land was it? Would tribal land be confiscated? Would there be compensation, rehabilitation, or employment for the locals at these units? But no replies were forthcoming from the government on these issues.

MoUs have always been considered as public documents but a veil of secrecy hung over the government’s agreements with Tata and Essar. When the people demanded a copy of the MoUs under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the answer they obtained was both shocking and surprising: it was stated that a condition in the MoU prevented the government from revealing it to a third party!"

..."a third party"!!!??

On second thoughts, the "you" who was asked to suffer for the interest of the nation, was obviously not seen as a part of "the nation"...

Sources:

Dams, Displacement, Policy and Law In India by NC Saxena, Secretary - Planning Commission

National Rehabilitation & Resttlement Policy 2007

Land as livelihood vs land as commodity - InfoChange India

Caterpillar and the Mahua Flower

A Rich Nation of Poor People

2008-06-27T11:25:00.003+05:30

In the first couple of years of the 21st century, something changed drastically and radically in India - and her relations with her populace and environment... India redefined its "tryst with destiny"

On January 26th, the Republic Day of 2001, the then President KR Narayanan refered to the "dilemmas of development" which India must carefully think through. He said:

"Let it not be said by future generations that the Indian Republic has been built on the destruction of green earth and innocent tribals who have been living there for centuries. Let it not be said of India, that this great Republic, in it surry to develop itself, is devastating the mother earth, and uprooting our tribal population.... The developmental path we have adapted is hurting them and threatening their very existence.... While the nation must benefit from the exploitation of these minerals resources, we will have to take into consideration the questions of environmental protection and rights of the tribals..."

Less than 3 years later, on November 1 2003, in a speech to the 19th World Mining Congress, the then President APJ Kalam contradicted the concerns of his predecessor:

""We should work for increasing the productivity from 0.5 tonnes per man year to 5 tonnes per man-year in underground coal mines using long wall mining and from 15 tonnes per man-year to 30 tonnes per man-year in open cast mines.... The fecilitation of project through provision of land, infrastructural development, community development, etc., can be done by the government agencies while the investments in the mines and associated technological inputs can come from the private sector... In addition, the private sector must have freedon to run the mine in a cost-effective manner..."

The implications of this U-turn can be viewed in perspective, if one recalls these statistics from an earlier posting:

If India's forest, mineral bearing areas, regions of tribal habitation and watershed are all mapped together, they will overlay each other on almost the same areas....

The three tribal-dominated states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, and Jharkhand... account for 70% of India's coal reserves, 80% of its high-grade iron ores, 60% of its bauxite and almost all its chromite reserves...

Of the top 50 mineral producing districts in the country, almost half are tribal. The average forest cover in these districts is 28%, much more than the national average of 20.9%... etc.

...and just to add to these, some more facts:

For every 1 per cent that mining contributes to India’s GDP, it displaces 3-4 times more people than all the development projects put together.

Forest land diversion for mining has been going up. So has water use and air pollution in the mining hotspots. An estimated 1.64 lakh hectare of forest land has already been diverted for mining in the country. For instance, the forests in Bardhaman have been decimated by mining. Iron ore mining in India used up 77 million tonne of water in 2005-06, enough to meet the daily water needs of more than 3 million people.

Mining of major minerals generated about 1.84 billion tonne of waste in 2006 - most of which has not been disposed off properly.... every tonne of coal extracted generates 3-4 tonne of wastes. ... Etc.

So how has India redefined its "tryst with destiny"?

We have become a Rich Nation...
...with Poor People, and an increasingly Depleted Environment!!