Thursday, November 24, 2011
AVTAAR SINGH PAASH
"The Most Dangerous."
”The Most Dangerous
Most treacherous is not the robbery
of hard earned wages
Most horrible is not the torture by the police.
Most dangerous is not the graft for the treason and greed.
To be caught while asleep is surely bad
surely bad is to be buried in silence
But it is not most dangerous.
To remain dumb and silent in the face of trickery
Even when just, is definitely bad
Surely bad is reading in the light of a firefly
But it is not most dangerous
Most dangerous is
To be filled with dead peace
Not to feel agony and bear it all,
Leaving home for work
And from work return home
Most dangerous is the death of our dreams.
Most dangerous is that watch
Which run on your wrist
But stand still for your eyes.
Most dangerous is that eye
Which sees all but remains frostlike,
The eye that forgets to kiss the world with love,
The eye lost in the blinding mist of the material world.
That sinks the simple meaning of visible things
And is lost in the meaning return of useless games.
Most dangerous is the moon
Which rises in the numb yard
After each murder,
But does not pierce your eyes like hot chilies.
Most dangerous is the song
Which climbs the mourning wail
In order to reach your ears
And repeats the cough of an evil man
At the door of the frightened people.
Most dangerous is the night
Falling in the sky of living souls,
Extinguishing them all
In which only owls shriek and jackals growl,
And eternal darkness covers all the windows.
Most heinous is the direction
In which the sun of the soul light
Pierces the east of your body.
Most treacherous is not the
robbery of hard earned wages
Most horrible is not the torture of police
Most dangerous is not graft taken for greed and treason.”
”The Most Dangerous
Most treacherous is not the robbery
of hard earned wages
Most horrible is not the torture by the police.
Most dangerous is not the graft for the treason and greed.
To be caught while asleep is surely bad
surely bad is to be buried in silence
But it is not most dangerous.
To remain dumb and silent in the face of trickery
Even when just, is definitely bad
Surely bad is reading in the light of a firefly
But it is not most dangerous
Most dangerous is
To be filled with dead peace
Not to feel agony and bear it all,
Leaving home for work
And from work return home
Most dangerous is the death of our dreams.
Most dangerous is that watch
Which run on your wrist
But stand still for your eyes.
Most dangerous is that eye
Which sees all but remains frostlike,
The eye that forgets to kiss the world with love,
The eye lost in the blinding mist of the material world.
That sinks the simple meaning of visible things
And is lost in the meaning return of useless games.
Most dangerous is the moon
Which rises in the numb yard
After each murder,
But does not pierce your eyes like hot chilies.
Most dangerous is the song
Which climbs the mourning wail
In order to reach your ears
And repeats the cough of an evil man
At the door of the frightened people.
Most dangerous is the night
Falling in the sky of living souls,
Extinguishing them all
In which only owls shriek and jackals growl,
And eternal darkness covers all the windows.
Most heinous is the direction
In which the sun of the soul light
Pierces the east of your body.
Most treacherous is not the
robbery of hard earned wages
Most horrible is not the torture of police
Most dangerous is not graft taken for greed and treason.”
AVTAAR SINGH PAASH
We don’t want anything for form’s sake:
Like muscles pulled in the back of our arms,
Or lashes prominently visible
On the back of the oxen,
Or our future sacred and shrunk
In the affidavits of loans;
We want everything actual
Of life, equality and what not.
As the sun, the wind and the cloud
Remain close to us in houses and fields;
Likewise we want to have
Of polity, belief and joy,
A feel close to our lives,
Mighty ones, we want everything actual.
We don’t want anything hoax-like
As a tout’s evidence falsely concocted
In a case of illicit distillation;
Fairness that a patwari may profess,
Or the oath the middleman may take –
A fact on the palm of our hand we want
Like saltish tinge in sugar-cane’s jaggery
Or nicotine in the burning hookah;
Something like skein on the beloved’s lips
The lover feels on kissing, we want.
We don’t want books to read
Tucked on the lathis of the police;
We don’t want to hear
Songs to the tune of military boots declaimed,
With yearning fingertips we want to feel
Songs resonating on the tops of trees.
To taste something bitter in tear-gas,
Or one’s own blood on the tongue to taste,
Is recreation for none;
But we don’t want anything for form’s sake
We want everything actual
Life, socialism or what not...
Like muscles pulled in the back of our arms,
Or lashes prominently visible
On the back of the oxen,
Or our future sacred and shrunk
In the affidavits of loans;
We want everything actual
Of life, equality and what not.
As the sun, the wind and the cloud
Remain close to us in houses and fields;
Likewise we want to have
Of polity, belief and joy,
A feel close to our lives,
Mighty ones, we want everything actual.
We don’t want anything hoax-like
As a tout’s evidence falsely concocted
In a case of illicit distillation;
Fairness that a patwari may profess,
Or the oath the middleman may take –
A fact on the palm of our hand we want
Like saltish tinge in sugar-cane’s jaggery
Or nicotine in the burning hookah;
Something like skein on the beloved’s lips
The lover feels on kissing, we want.
We don’t want books to read
Tucked on the lathis of the police;
We don’t want to hear
Songs to the tune of military boots declaimed,
With yearning fingertips we want to feel
Songs resonating on the tops of trees.
To taste something bitter in tear-gas,
Or one’s own blood on the tongue to taste,
Is recreation for none;
But we don’t want anything for form’s sake
We want everything actual
Life, socialism or what not...
AVTAAR SINGH PAASH
ਕਈ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਣ
ਬੜਾ ਕੁਝ ਹੋਰ ਆਖਣ ਨੂੰ ਹੈ
ਬਹੁਤ ਕੁਝ ਅੱਗੇ ਤੈਅ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਾ ਹੈ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਗੱਲ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਕਹੀ ਨਹੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਵਾਟ ਕਦਮਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਨਹੀ ਮੁੱਕਦੀ
ਕਈ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਣ
ਹੁਣ ਕਹਿਣ ਲਈ ਕੁਝ ਵੀ ਬਾਕੀ ਨਹੀਂ
ਤੈਅ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਕੁਝ ਵੀ ਬਚਿਆ ਨਹੀਂ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਸਬਦ ਨਪੂਨਸਕ ਹੋ ਗਏ ਹੋਣ,
ਤੇ ਮੈਂ ਵੀ ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਹਾਂ,
ਸਫਰ ਦੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਨਾ ਕਰੋ
ਮੈਨੂੰ ਅਗਲਾ ਕਦਮ ਧਰਨ ਲਈ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ ਦੇਵੋ
ਬੜਾ ਕੁਝ ਹੋਰ ਆਖਣ ਨੂੰ ਹੈ
ਬਹੁਤ ਕੁਝ ਅੱਗੇ ਤੈਅ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਾ ਹੈ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਗੱਲ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਕਹੀ ਨਹੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਵਾਟ ਕਦਮਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਨਹੀ ਮੁੱਕਦੀ
ਕਈ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਣ
ਹੁਣ ਕਹਿਣ ਲਈ ਕੁਝ ਵੀ ਬਾਕੀ ਨਹੀਂ
ਤੈਅ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਕੁਝ ਵੀ ਬਚਿਆ ਨਹੀਂ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਸਬਦ ਨਪੂਨਸਕ ਹੋ ਗਏ ਹੋਣ,
ਤੇ ਮੈਂ ਵੀ ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਹਾਂ,
ਸਫਰ ਦੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਨਾ ਕਰੋ
ਮੈਨੂੰ ਅਗਲਾ ਕਦਮ ਧਰਨ ਲਈ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ ਦੇਵੋ
Friday, July 22, 2011
Food price transmission in South Asia..C. P. CHANDRASEKHAR/JAYATI GHOSH
The current food price surge is raising the spectre of a renewed and possible even more ferocious global food crisis, with significant increases in food insecurity in the poorest countries. But this time, there are some dissenting voices, including those who argue that possibly the earlier recent bout of food price increases (which occurred over 2006-08) did not have as bad an impact on hunger and undernutrition as was earlier believed. Indeed, it is being argued by some that the extent of hunger in the developing world may actually have come down significantly even during that period of dramatic food price increase.
Most estimates of increasing hunger are based on simulation exercises that take note of global food price increases and assume that these will lead to domestic increases in food price which will in turn affect food consumption, especially of poorer families. Against this, it is argued that such exercises do not take account of increasing money incomes and people's choices about what to consume.
A recent paper by Mr Derek Headey (“Was the global food crisis really a crisis? Simulations versus self-reporting”, IFPRI Working Paper No 1087, 2011, available at http://www.ifpri.org/publication/was-global-food-crisis-really-crisis) argues that global self-reported food insecurity fell from 2005 to 2008, with the number ranging anywhere between 60 million to 250 million. This is based on calculations using a Gallup World Poll of self-reported food insecurity. According to Mr Headey, “These results are clearly driven by rapid economic growth and very limited food price inflation in the world's most populous countries, particularly China and India.” This idea has also been taken up by others such as Mr Dani Rodrik.
Of course, there are significant problems with using self-reporting of hunger at the best of times. The Gallup Poll asks the question: “Have you or your family had any trouble affording sufficient food in the last 12 months?” The percentage of respondents who answer yes to this question is taken as a measure of national food insecurity.
Survey methodology
It is worth looking carefully at the Gallup Poll methodology before we decide to jump to hard conclusions, though. The Gallup report on its food security survey notes that it is based on telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted throughout 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, with randomly selected sample sizes (typically around 1,000 residents) in 134 countries – so a total of less than 140,000 people across the world, and only 1,000 respondents even in huge countries such as India. The distribution of the samples across urban and rural locations or by income category is not clear at all, nor is the proportion that was contacted by telephone. This is not exactly a solid basis on which to draw major conclusions on the extent of global hunger.
The Gallup Poll people themselves do not seem to think they can make inter-temporal comparisons based on these data: their own conclusion is that “even before the crisis, affording food was a challenge for many”. Basing a major conclusion on this rather weak “self-perception” data, as Mr Headey does, is really not justifiable.
Of course, Mr Headey is quite right to point out that there may be differences in the impact of global food prices upon consumers in developing countries, depending on the extent to which such prices are transmitted to domestic retail food prices, as well as the opportunities of earning incomes that allow more expensive food to be purchased. It is certainly also the case that the negative effect of food prices can be mitigated by other factors and policies such as employment schemes, subsidised food distribution and so on.
Disturbing feature
Even so, it is indisputable that the main mechanism through which higher global food prices affect people remains domestic food prices.
Here, the bad news is that the international transmission of increases in food prices has generally been rapid (and is getting faster and more complete) while the downward movements have not been transmitted so much.
What may be even more significant is that even in India, which is taken (along with China) by Mr Headey and others to be a major part of the explanation of the supposedly surprising result about reduced food insecurity, food prices have risen sharply over the past few years. The more disturbing feature is that domestic prices have increased along with international prices, but there has been little transmission of downward price trends, indicating some kind of ratchet effect in domestic prices.
These tendencies are evident from a consideration of South Asian countries. The accompanying charts are all based on data from the FAO GIEWS (Global Information and Early Warning System) online database.
Chart 1 provides information on wheat prices in global trade as well as retail prices of wheat flour in domestic markets of four South Asian countries, all in $/kg.
Chart 2 elaborates on the evidence in Chart 1 by noting the extent of trough to peak and peak to trough changes in wheat/wheat flour prices, both internationally and in these domestic markets. The dramatic price increase in global wheat prices, more than doubling, was met by sharp price increases also in South Asian countries. The increase in prices was indeed the lowest in India, which has a greater degree of self-sufficiency, but even in India wheat flour prices rose by 40 per cent ovefr the first period of price rise between March 2006 and June 2008. This is a very significant increase is a country where around 95 per cent of workers' incomes are not indexed to inflation.
Further, when global wheat prices fell, domestic retail wheat flour prices continued to increase in India and Nepal, and fell only marginally in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So the force of downward international price transmission is much weaker. if not non-existent.
The implication comes out even more sharply from Chart 3, which shows the change in price levels for wheat compared to March 2006. By June 2010, wheat prices in global trade were down to lower than the level of March 2006, despite having increased so dramatically in between. But in all the South Asian countries considered here, prices in June 2010 were still significantly higher than they had been in March 2006. And of course, they continued to rise in the subsequent period, when global prices also rose once again.
However, the recent very sharp rise in global wheat prices, since June 2010, has clearly not yet filtered into changes in retail prices in South Asia.
To some extent this may be because good rabi harvests in the region have ensured that domestic supplies are adequate. However, the impact of expectations – and the associated role of financial players – is now growing even in these markets, especially in India where wheat futures markets have been allowed to function once again. Therefore it is likely that the near future will once again see some further international price transmission even in these markets.
Patterns in ricE.
Similar patterns are evident in rice, even though this is a grain which has a relatively small and shallow global trade market (for example, India's annual rice output is more than six times total world trade in volume terms).
Chart 4 shows the monthly behaviour of rice export prices as well as domestic retail prices of rice in five South Asian countries. The transmission of rising global rice prices appears to be especially acute in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of which import rice to the extent of around one-third of domestic consumption.
But in the case of these countries, as Chart 5 shows, the downward transmission of falling prices also occurred to some extent – although once again to a lesser extent. It is worth noting that in India retail prices of rice kept rising through all phases, and indeed in the most recent phase have risen faster than global prices.
As a result, as evident from Chart 6, Indian rice prices are now nearly three times higher than they were in February 2006, even though global rice prices are now only 69 per cent higher. In fact, other than Bangladesh, the current level of rice prices is higher in all the South Asian countries than in February 2006, in comparison to world prices.
So domestic factors clearly do play a role in the international transmission of foodgrain prices, especially at the retail level. However, this analysis also shows that global prices do put upward pressure on domestic prices when they are rising, even though downward movements are less rapidly or effectively transmitted and often do not have any such impact.
This clearly calls for more detailed investigation into the factors operating at different levels in various countries, and particularly the policy mix that will enable countries with large hungry populations to withstand the current global volatility in food prices.
Most estimates of increasing hunger are based on simulation exercises that take note of global food price increases and assume that these will lead to domestic increases in food price which will in turn affect food consumption, especially of poorer families. Against this, it is argued that such exercises do not take account of increasing money incomes and people's choices about what to consume.
A recent paper by Mr Derek Headey (“Was the global food crisis really a crisis? Simulations versus self-reporting”, IFPRI Working Paper No 1087, 2011, available at http://www.ifpri.org/publication/was-global-food-crisis-really-crisis) argues that global self-reported food insecurity fell from 2005 to 2008, with the number ranging anywhere between 60 million to 250 million. This is based on calculations using a Gallup World Poll of self-reported food insecurity. According to Mr Headey, “These results are clearly driven by rapid economic growth and very limited food price inflation in the world's most populous countries, particularly China and India.” This idea has also been taken up by others such as Mr Dani Rodrik.
Of course, there are significant problems with using self-reporting of hunger at the best of times. The Gallup Poll asks the question: “Have you or your family had any trouble affording sufficient food in the last 12 months?” The percentage of respondents who answer yes to this question is taken as a measure of national food insecurity.
Survey methodology
It is worth looking carefully at the Gallup Poll methodology before we decide to jump to hard conclusions, though. The Gallup report on its food security survey notes that it is based on telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted throughout 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, with randomly selected sample sizes (typically around 1,000 residents) in 134 countries – so a total of less than 140,000 people across the world, and only 1,000 respondents even in huge countries such as India. The distribution of the samples across urban and rural locations or by income category is not clear at all, nor is the proportion that was contacted by telephone. This is not exactly a solid basis on which to draw major conclusions on the extent of global hunger.
The Gallup Poll people themselves do not seem to think they can make inter-temporal comparisons based on these data: their own conclusion is that “even before the crisis, affording food was a challenge for many”. Basing a major conclusion on this rather weak “self-perception” data, as Mr Headey does, is really not justifiable.
Of course, Mr Headey is quite right to point out that there may be differences in the impact of global food prices upon consumers in developing countries, depending on the extent to which such prices are transmitted to domestic retail food prices, as well as the opportunities of earning incomes that allow more expensive food to be purchased. It is certainly also the case that the negative effect of food prices can be mitigated by other factors and policies such as employment schemes, subsidised food distribution and so on.
Disturbing feature
Even so, it is indisputable that the main mechanism through which higher global food prices affect people remains domestic food prices.
Here, the bad news is that the international transmission of increases in food prices has generally been rapid (and is getting faster and more complete) while the downward movements have not been transmitted so much.
What may be even more significant is that even in India, which is taken (along with China) by Mr Headey and others to be a major part of the explanation of the supposedly surprising result about reduced food insecurity, food prices have risen sharply over the past few years. The more disturbing feature is that domestic prices have increased along with international prices, but there has been little transmission of downward price trends, indicating some kind of ratchet effect in domestic prices.
These tendencies are evident from a consideration of South Asian countries. The accompanying charts are all based on data from the FAO GIEWS (Global Information and Early Warning System) online database.
Chart 1 provides information on wheat prices in global trade as well as retail prices of wheat flour in domestic markets of four South Asian countries, all in $/kg.
Chart 2 elaborates on the evidence in Chart 1 by noting the extent of trough to peak and peak to trough changes in wheat/wheat flour prices, both internationally and in these domestic markets. The dramatic price increase in global wheat prices, more than doubling, was met by sharp price increases also in South Asian countries. The increase in prices was indeed the lowest in India, which has a greater degree of self-sufficiency, but even in India wheat flour prices rose by 40 per cent ovefr the first period of price rise between March 2006 and June 2008. This is a very significant increase is a country where around 95 per cent of workers' incomes are not indexed to inflation.
Further, when global wheat prices fell, domestic retail wheat flour prices continued to increase in India and Nepal, and fell only marginally in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So the force of downward international price transmission is much weaker. if not non-existent.
The implication comes out even more sharply from Chart 3, which shows the change in price levels for wheat compared to March 2006. By June 2010, wheat prices in global trade were down to lower than the level of March 2006, despite having increased so dramatically in between. But in all the South Asian countries considered here, prices in June 2010 were still significantly higher than they had been in March 2006. And of course, they continued to rise in the subsequent period, when global prices also rose once again.
However, the recent very sharp rise in global wheat prices, since June 2010, has clearly not yet filtered into changes in retail prices in South Asia.
To some extent this may be because good rabi harvests in the region have ensured that domestic supplies are adequate. However, the impact of expectations – and the associated role of financial players – is now growing even in these markets, especially in India where wheat futures markets have been allowed to function once again. Therefore it is likely that the near future will once again see some further international price transmission even in these markets.
Patterns in ricE.
Similar patterns are evident in rice, even though this is a grain which has a relatively small and shallow global trade market (for example, India's annual rice output is more than six times total world trade in volume terms).
Chart 4 shows the monthly behaviour of rice export prices as well as domestic retail prices of rice in five South Asian countries. The transmission of rising global rice prices appears to be especially acute in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of which import rice to the extent of around one-third of domestic consumption.
But in the case of these countries, as Chart 5 shows, the downward transmission of falling prices also occurred to some extent – although once again to a lesser extent. It is worth noting that in India retail prices of rice kept rising through all phases, and indeed in the most recent phase have risen faster than global prices.
As a result, as evident from Chart 6, Indian rice prices are now nearly three times higher than they were in February 2006, even though global rice prices are now only 69 per cent higher. In fact, other than Bangladesh, the current level of rice prices is higher in all the South Asian countries than in February 2006, in comparison to world prices.
So domestic factors clearly do play a role in the international transmission of foodgrain prices, especially at the retail level. However, this analysis also shows that global prices do put upward pressure on domestic prices when they are rising, even though downward movements are less rapidly or effectively transmitted and often do not have any such impact.
This clearly calls for more detailed investigation into the factors operating at different levels in various countries, and particularly the policy mix that will enable countries with large hungry populations to withstand the current global volatility in food prices.
Reviving Ancient Glory : Nalanda International University................by satyen mohapatra
Students and scholars from all over the world will soon be converging again at ancient capital of Magadha kings - Rajgir, Bihar to study at the new Nalanda International University.
The name “Nalanda” in Sanskrit means “giver of knowledge”: a combination of “nalam” (lotus, representing knowledge) and “da” (“to give”). Nalanda University of yore was founded according to historians in the fifth century (427 A.D.) as a place of learning for Buddhist monks and is known to have been one of the first great residential universities in recorded history. Today Nalanda is a World Heritage site. The ruins of the monastery are located about 55 miles south east of the modern Indian city of Patna.
The University taught a wide range of subjects besides Buddhism including fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, war tactics, and politics. Over ten thousand students were taught by a faculty of 2000 in the idyllic forested green surroundings. The ruins at Nalanda even today attracts a large number of tourists .
As part of an international effort the world renowned ancient Nalanda university is now being revived with the setting up of a modern university as an international centre of excellence .
The Nalanda International University is scheduled to begin academic activities from the 2013-14 session from rented premises with two subjects - Historical studies and Environment and Ecological studies - till the construction of its own campus is completed work on which is continuing.
Way back in 2006 former President APJ Abdul Kalam while addressing the Bihar Legislature on March 28,2006 stressed the need for establishing a new Nalanda University that would be a place for meeting of minds from the national and international arenas, to carry out research that would link philosophy to science, to technology, economy and spirituality and integrate both ancient and modern thinking.
As Bihar Government was also toying with the idea it unanimously passed the University of Nalanda Bill in March 2007. In the mid-March 2006 Singapore showed interest in the development of Nalanda as part of Buddhist circuit for the growth of tourism and as a site for a twenty first century learning institution linking South and East Asia.
It was in the East Asia Summit held in Thailand in Oct 2009 that a decision was finally taken by the member countries which included the ten ASEAN countries and Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand, to set up the university. Later several other countries including the US too has given its support to the move.
The Nalanda University Bill was cleared by the Indian Parliament in 2010 to set up the University with a cost of Rs.1005 crore.
The University is initially going to have schools for Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions; Historical Studies; International Relations and Peace Studies; Business Management in relation to Public Policy and Development Studies; Languages and Literature; Ecology and Environmental Studies. There are also plans to add one on Information Technology.
Initially the Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 50 crore as endowment fund in the form of a special grant for the commencement of activities and till such time the Nalanda University becomes sustainable on its own.
Both the External Affairs Ministry which is acting as the nodal Ministry for this project and Bihar government are closely monitoring the development of this prestigious international project. The government . of Bihar has already acquired about 500 acres of land in Rajgir close to the original Nalanda. An international architecture competition is to be held to finalise the design of Nalanda International University.
It is envisaged that the revival of the University will lead to the growth of Buddhist circuit giving a boost to the tourism industry.
Harking back to the time when Nalanda University was the biggest centre of learning in the Magadha empire the modern university too would like to associate and build linkages with the people living in the 200 odd villages surrounding Nalanda since ancient times. Setting up cottage industries and teaching students of the villages is being undertaken.
The University shall function as a public-private partnership and the funds shall be provided on voluntary basis by the Government of Member States of East Asia Summit.
The Nalanda International University planned to be a seat of learning, scholarship, philosophy and statecraft will be a non-state, non-profit, secular and self-governing international institution with a focus to attract the brightest and the most dedicated students from all countries of Asia. The objective of the university is “aimed at advancing the concept of an Asian community...and rediscovering old relationships.”
Several countries like Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Japan ,China, have shown interest in funding the University. Singapore has pledged US$4-5 million for building a library at Nalanda University. The huge library of ancient Nalanda University had been burned down. On December 16, 2010, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao contributed US$ 1 million dollars for the Nalanda University during his visit to India.
Eminent Sociologist Gopa Sabharwal has been appointed the first Vice Chancellor of Nalanda International University. Professor of Sociology at Lady Shri Ram College, Dr Gopa Sabharwal is an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and had set up the Department of Sociology in Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi University in 1993.
The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who is the Chairman of the Governing Board says, “Excellence and fairness in educating people in courses which are intellectually challenging and practically useful would be the guiding principles of the university.”
The University aims at contributing to the promotion of regional peace and understanding by bringing together future leaders of the region and reminding them of their shared history.
The name “Nalanda” in Sanskrit means “giver of knowledge”: a combination of “nalam” (lotus, representing knowledge) and “da” (“to give”). Nalanda University of yore was founded according to historians in the fifth century (427 A.D.) as a place of learning for Buddhist monks and is known to have been one of the first great residential universities in recorded history. Today Nalanda is a World Heritage site. The ruins of the monastery are located about 55 miles south east of the modern Indian city of Patna.
The University taught a wide range of subjects besides Buddhism including fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, war tactics, and politics. Over ten thousand students were taught by a faculty of 2000 in the idyllic forested green surroundings. The ruins at Nalanda even today attracts a large number of tourists .
As part of an international effort the world renowned ancient Nalanda university is now being revived with the setting up of a modern university as an international centre of excellence .
The Nalanda International University is scheduled to begin academic activities from the 2013-14 session from rented premises with two subjects - Historical studies and Environment and Ecological studies - till the construction of its own campus is completed work on which is continuing.
Way back in 2006 former President APJ Abdul Kalam while addressing the Bihar Legislature on March 28,2006 stressed the need for establishing a new Nalanda University that would be a place for meeting of minds from the national and international arenas, to carry out research that would link philosophy to science, to technology, economy and spirituality and integrate both ancient and modern thinking.
As Bihar Government was also toying with the idea it unanimously passed the University of Nalanda Bill in March 2007. In the mid-March 2006 Singapore showed interest in the development of Nalanda as part of Buddhist circuit for the growth of tourism and as a site for a twenty first century learning institution linking South and East Asia.
It was in the East Asia Summit held in Thailand in Oct 2009 that a decision was finally taken by the member countries which included the ten ASEAN countries and Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand, to set up the university. Later several other countries including the US too has given its support to the move.
The Nalanda University Bill was cleared by the Indian Parliament in 2010 to set up the University with a cost of Rs.1005 crore.
The University is initially going to have schools for Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions; Historical Studies; International Relations and Peace Studies; Business Management in relation to Public Policy and Development Studies; Languages and Literature; Ecology and Environmental Studies. There are also plans to add one on Information Technology.
Initially the Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 50 crore as endowment fund in the form of a special grant for the commencement of activities and till such time the Nalanda University becomes sustainable on its own.
Both the External Affairs Ministry which is acting as the nodal Ministry for this project and Bihar government are closely monitoring the development of this prestigious international project. The government . of Bihar has already acquired about 500 acres of land in Rajgir close to the original Nalanda. An international architecture competition is to be held to finalise the design of Nalanda International University.
It is envisaged that the revival of the University will lead to the growth of Buddhist circuit giving a boost to the tourism industry.
Harking back to the time when Nalanda University was the biggest centre of learning in the Magadha empire the modern university too would like to associate and build linkages with the people living in the 200 odd villages surrounding Nalanda since ancient times. Setting up cottage industries and teaching students of the villages is being undertaken.
The University shall function as a public-private partnership and the funds shall be provided on voluntary basis by the Government of Member States of East Asia Summit.
The Nalanda International University planned to be a seat of learning, scholarship, philosophy and statecraft will be a non-state, non-profit, secular and self-governing international institution with a focus to attract the brightest and the most dedicated students from all countries of Asia. The objective of the university is “aimed at advancing the concept of an Asian community...and rediscovering old relationships.”
Several countries like Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Japan ,China, have shown interest in funding the University. Singapore has pledged US$4-5 million for building a library at Nalanda University. The huge library of ancient Nalanda University had been burned down. On December 16, 2010, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao contributed US$ 1 million dollars for the Nalanda University during his visit to India.
Eminent Sociologist Gopa Sabharwal has been appointed the first Vice Chancellor of Nalanda International University. Professor of Sociology at Lady Shri Ram College, Dr Gopa Sabharwal is an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and had set up the Department of Sociology in Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi University in 1993.
The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who is the Chairman of the Governing Board says, “Excellence and fairness in educating people in courses which are intellectually challenging and practically useful would be the guiding principles of the university.”
The University aims at contributing to the promotion of regional peace and understanding by bringing together future leaders of the region and reminding them of their shared history.
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana extended to the Domestic Workers ................by Y. S. Kataria
The Union Cabinet approved extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to all the registered domestic workers in the country recently. The scheme is expected to cover approximately 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country.
The Scheme envisages smart card based cashless health insurance cover up to Rs. 30,000/- in any empanelled hospital anywhere in the country. The funds will be allocated from the National Social Security Fund for Unorganised Workers. The premium will be shared by the Central and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25. In case of States in NE Regional and J&K the ratio is 90:10. The estimated expenditure to be borne by the Government for the year 2011-12 is Rs. 29.70 crore, for 2012-13 is Rs. 74.25 crore, for 2013-14 is Rs. 148.50 crore and 2014-15 is Rs. 297 crore.Domestic work forms one of the largest sectors of female employment in the urban areas. Domestic workers are unorganized and the sector remains unregulated and unprotected by labour laws. These workers come from vulnerable communities and backward areas. Most of these are poor, vulnerable, illiterate, unskilled and do not understand the urban labour market.
The RSBY provides for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs.30,000/- per annum to BPL workers (a unit of five) in unorganised sector is presently being implemented in 25 States / UTs. The scheme has since been extended to building and other construction workers registered with Welfare Boards constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996, street vendors, beedi workers and such MNREGA workers who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding year.
Domestic work forms one of the largest sectors of female employment in the urban areas. Domestic workers are unorganized and the sector remains unregulated and unprotected by labour laws. This is largely because the domestic workers undertake work in private homes rather than in commercial establishments. They work in appalling conditions, with no coverage under the existing welfare measures and schemes for social security, old age pension, health and maternity protection etc. Domestic workers lack organizational strength and voice and comprise largely of unskilled women, who enter the labour market without any technical skills. As per National Sample Survey (NSS) 2004-05, there are about 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country. About 30 lakh of these workers are urban women, making domestic work as the largest female occupation in urban India.
The Scheme envisages smart card based cashless health insurance cover up to Rs. 30,000/- in any empanelled hospital anywhere in the country. The funds will be allocated from the National Social Security Fund for Unorganised Workers. The premium will be shared by the Central and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25. In case of States in NE Regional and J&K the ratio is 90:10. The estimated expenditure to be borne by the Government for the year 2011-12 is Rs. 29.70 crore, for 2012-13 is Rs. 74.25 crore, for 2013-14 is Rs. 148.50 crore and 2014-15 is Rs. 297 crore.Domestic work forms one of the largest sectors of female employment in the urban areas. Domestic workers are unorganized and the sector remains unregulated and unprotected by labour laws. These workers come from vulnerable communities and backward areas. Most of these are poor, vulnerable, illiterate, unskilled and do not understand the urban labour market.
The RSBY provides for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs.30,000/- per annum to BPL workers (a unit of five) in unorganised sector is presently being implemented in 25 States / UTs. The scheme has since been extended to building and other construction workers registered with Welfare Boards constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996, street vendors, beedi workers and such MNREGA workers who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding year.
Domestic Workers
Domestic work forms one of the largest sectors of female employment in the urban areas. Domestic workers are unorganized and the sector remains unregulated and unprotected by labour laws. This is largely because the domestic workers undertake work in private homes rather than in commercial establishments. They work in appalling conditions, with no coverage under the existing welfare measures and schemes for social security, old age pension, health and maternity protection etc. Domestic workers lack organizational strength and voice and comprise largely of unskilled women, who enter the labour market without any technical skills. As per National Sample Survey (NSS) 2004-05, there are about 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country. About 30 lakh of these workers are urban women, making domestic work as the largest female occupation in urban India.
Domestic workers come from vulnerable communities and backward areas. Most of these are poor, vulnerable, illiterate, unskilled and do not understand the urban labour market. Domestic work is undervalued and poorly regulated, and many domestic workers remain overworked, underpaid and unprotected. They are maltreated, exploited and suffer violence and even sexually abused. The main issues that concern domestic work are: lack of decent wages and work conditions, no defined work time, no weekly offs, loneliness, violence, abuse, and sexual harassment at workplace, victimization at the hands of traffickers/ placement agencies, forced migration, lack of welfare measures (such as health insurance, maternity protection, old age security), and lack of skills development resulting in stagnation and no career growth.
Looking at the vulnerable nature of the domestic workers, the Ministry of Labour & Employment constituted a Task Force to evolve a policy frame work on Domestic Workers in the context of regulatory mechanism and for providing social security. The Task Force in its Report has, inter-alia, recommended extension of the welfare schemes to the domestic workers including: health and maternity benefits, death and disability benefits, and old age benefits. The Task Force defined the “domestic workers” as follows:
Domestic Worker” means, a person who is employed for remuneration whether in cash or kind , in any house hold through any agency or directly, either on a temporary basis or permanent, part time or full time to do the household work but does not include - any member of the family of an employer.”
The State Governments would identify domestic workers as those having completed 18 years of age. For the purpose of identification of domestic workers, any two of the following criteria would be treated as evidence of persons working as domestic workers:
· certificate by registered Resident Welfare Association to the effect that a person is working as a domestic worker in the area;
· employer certificate
· certificate from a registered trade union that the concerned person is working as a domestic worker;
· police verification certificate which certifies that the person is working as a domestic worker.
The Task Force has recommended that the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the national health insurance scheme should be the first welfare scheme to be extended to the domestic workers. RSBY provides for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30000 per annum per family (a unit of five). The premium is shared between Centre and State Government in the ratio of 75:25 basis. 25 States/Union Territories have started enrollment and issuance of smart cards in 348 districts. Remaining States except Andhra Pradesh are in the process of implementation of the scheme. More than 2.35 crore smart cards have been issued as on June 30, 2011.
The Government has taken a decision to extend the RSBY to domestic workers. It is proposed to cover 10% of the estimated 47.50 lakh domestic workers i.e. 4.75 lakh during the current financial year i.e. 2011-12 and remaining in next three years. After 2014-15 the recurring expenditure is likely to be around Rs. 297 crores annually, though the exact amount will be determined on the basis of persons identified and registered as domestic workers under the scheme during each preceding year and the actual premium rates. The expenditure will be met from the National Social Security Fund for unorganized sector workers administered by Ministry of Finance.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) also discussed at length during the last International Labour Conference on International Convention for protecting the rights of domestic workers and for providing social security to this extremely vulnerable segment of unorganised workers and adopted a Convention and Recommendation. The Government of India supported adoption of Convention on Domestic Workers.
बायो-डीज़ल - पर्यावरण अनुकूल ईंधन by तरित मुखर्जी
दिन प्रति दिन हमारी जीवन शैली जितनी विकसित होती जाती है उतना ही हम पर्यावरण को नुकसान पहुंचाने लगते हैं। टेलीविज़न देखने से लेकर कम्प्यूटर पर काम करने तक, हवाई जहाज में सफर करने से लेकर अपने पसंदीदा पर्यटन स्थल पर जाने तक हमारा हर कदम किसी न किसी तरह से पर्यावरण को नुकसान पहुंचाता है । दुनिया भर में दिन प्रति दिन वायु एवं जल प्रदूषण स्तर बढ़ता जा रहा है। हवा, सौर एवं परमाणु ऊर्जा जैसे वैकल्पिक संसाधनों के उपयोग की आवश्यकता इससे पहले इतनी अधिक कभी नहीं रही ।
भारत पेट्रोलियम के सबसे बड़े उपभोक्ता एवं आयातक देशों में से एक है। भारत अपनी पेट्रोलियम मांग का करीब 70 प्रतिशत आयात करता है। भारत में डीज़ल की वर्तमान वार्षिक खपत लगभग 4 करोड़ टन है जो पेट्रो उत्पादों की कुल खपत का करीब 40 प्रतिशत है। भारत द्वारा पेट्रो-उत्पाद की खपत के मामले में बायो डीज़ल प्रमुख प्रतिस्थापक हो सकता है जो पर्यावरण अनुकूल भी है।
बायो-डीज़ल स्वच्छ पर्यावरण अनुकूल और प्राकृतिक तेल है जो रासायनिक रूपांतरण प्रक्रिया के जरिए तेल युक्त पेड़ से निकाला जाता है। यह प्रक्रिया ट्रांसएस्टेरीफिकेशन कहलाती है और यह रासायनिक प्रसंस्करण संयंत्र में सम्पन्न होती है। ट्रांसएस्टेरीफिकेशन बहुत पुरानी रासायनिक प्रक्रिया है तथा यह वनस्पति तेल या वसा को बायो डीज़ल में बदलने की जांची-परखी विधि है।
बायो-डीज़ल वनस्पति तेलों (जैसे तिलहन, सरसों और सोयाबीन ), पशु वसा या शैवाल से बनाया गया बायो-डीज़ल होता है। बायो-डीज़ल को डीजल इंजनों के वाहनों में इस्तेमाल के लिए डीजल में मिलाया जा सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल ऐसा शब्द है जो जैविक (कभी जीवित ) पदार्थ से निर्मित किसी भी ठोस, तरल या गैसीय ईंधन के लिए प्रयुक्त होता है। इस शब्द में बहुत से उत्पाद शामिल होते हैं जिनमें से आज कुछ व्यावसायिक रूप से उपलब्ध हैं और कुछ पर अब भी शोध और विकास कार्य जारी है। बायो-डीज़ल ऐसा ईंधन है जो पौधों के तेल से बनता है जो पारंपरिक डीजल इंजनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है।
बायो-डीज़ल सूरजमुखी, सरसों, राई या जट्रोफा (भागवेरांडा ) के तेल या वसा से निकाला जाता है और इसे डीजल के विकल्प या उसमें मिलाकर इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। वैकल्पिक ईंधन के रूप में बायो-डीज़ल पारंपरिक डीजल ईंधन जितनी पॉवर उपलब्ध करा सकता है और इस प्रकार इसे डीजल इंजनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है । बायो-डीज़ल नवीकरणीय तरल ईंधन है जो स्थानीय रूप से उत्पन्न किया जा सकता है, इस तरह इससे आयातित कच्चे पेट्रोलियम डीजल पर देश की निर्भरता कम करने में मदद मिलती है।
बायो-डीज़ल सुरक्षित वैकल्पिक ईंधन है जो पारंपरिक पेट्रोलियम डीजल का स्थान ले सकता है। इसमें उच्च स्तर की चिकनाहट होती है और यह स्वच्छ जलने वाला ईंधन है तथा मौजूदा डीजल इंजनों में बिना किसी संशोधन के इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। इसका मतलब है कि किसी भी डीजल चालित दहन इंजन में बायो-डीज़ल ईंधन इस्तेमाल करते समय कुछ भी नया जोड़ने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। यह एकमात्र वैकल्पिक ईंधन है जो ऐसी सुविधा देता है। बायो-डीज़ल पेट्रोलियम डीजल की तरह कार्य करता है लेकिन इससे वायु प्रदूषण कम होता है और यह नवीकरणीय स्रोतों से बनता है। यह जैवअवक्रम्य है और पर्यावरण के लिए ज्यादा सुरक्षित है। बायो-डीज़ल उत्पन्न करने से स्थानीय आर्थिक पुनरुद्धार में मदद मिल सकती है तथा स्थानीय पर्यावरण को लाभ हो सकता है। स्थानीय, राज्य और राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर बायो-डीज़ल के इस्तेमाल को बढ़ावा देने के लिए कई समूह पहले ही इच्छुक हैं।
बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल करने में आसान है इसलिए इसे मौजूदा इंजनों, वाहनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है और बुनियादी ढांचे में व्यावहारिक रूप से कोई परिवर्तन की जरूरत नहीं होती है। बायो-डीज़ल को ठीक पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन की तरह पम्प, भंडारित और जलाया जा सकता है। इसे शुद्ध रूप से या किसी भी अनुपात में पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन में मिलाकर इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल करने से पॉवर और ईंधन की बचत व्यावहारिक रूप से पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन के लिए पहचानी गई है तथा वर्ष भर के ऑप्रेशन से डीजल ईंधन में मिलाकर इसे हासिल किया जा सकता है।
बायो-डीज़ल पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन की तुलना में कार्बन मोनो ऑक्साइड, पर्टिकुलेट मैटर, बिना जले हाइड्रोकार्बन और सल्फेट के उत्सर्जन में महत्वपूर्ण कमी करता है। इसके अतिरिक्त, पेट्रोलियम डीजल की तुलना में बायो-डीज़ल कैंसरकारी यौगिकों के उत्सर्जन में 85 प्रतिशत तक कमी करता है। जब इसे पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन में मिलाया जाता है तब इनके उत्सर्जन में कमी मिश्रण में बायो-डीज़ल के अनुपात से आमतौर पर प्रत्यक्ष रूप से संबंधित होती है।
बायो-डीज़ल की कम घटबढ़ वाली प्रकृति के कारण इसे संभालना पेट्रोलियम की तुलना में आसान और सुरक्षित बनाती है। जब ईंधन का भंडारण, परिवहन या हस्तांतरण किया जाता है तो सभी तरल ईंधनों में ऊर्जा की मात्रा अधिक होने के कारण दुर्घटनावश दहन का खतरा बढ़ जाता है। दुर्घटनावश दहन की आशंका तापमान से संबंधित होती है जिस पर ईंधन सुलगने के लिए पर्याप्त विषाद पैदा करेगा। इस तापमान को फ्लैश पाइंट तापमान के नाम से जाना जाता है। ईंधन का फ्लैश पाइंट जितना नीचे होता है उसका वह तापमान भी उतना ही कम होता है जिस पर ईंधन दहनशील पदार्थ का मिश्रण बना सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल का फ्लैश पाइंट 2660 डिग्री फारेनहाइट से अधिक होता है जिसका मतलब है कि जब तक इसे पानी के क्वथन बिंदु से ऊपर गरम न किया जाए, तब तक यह दहनशील पदार्थ का मिश्रण नहीं बना सकता।
बायो-डीज़ल बनाने के लिए इस्तेमाल होने वाले संसाधन स्थानीय रूप से उपलब्ध होते हैं। बायो-डीज़ल का देश में ही उत्पादन होने से स्थानीय समुदायों के लिए बहुत आर्थिक लाभ उपलब्ध होते हैं। इसलिए पारंपरिक पेट्रोलियम डीजल के स्थान पर इस्तेमाल करने के लिए बायो-डीज़ल सुरक्षित ईंधन विकल्प है।
भारत पेट्रोलियम के सबसे बड़े उपभोक्ता एवं आयातक देशों में से एक है। भारत अपनी पेट्रोलियम मांग का करीब 70 प्रतिशत आयात करता है। भारत में डीज़ल की वर्तमान वार्षिक खपत लगभग 4 करोड़ टन है जो पेट्रो उत्पादों की कुल खपत का करीब 40 प्रतिशत है। भारत द्वारा पेट्रो-उत्पाद की खपत के मामले में बायो डीज़ल प्रमुख प्रतिस्थापक हो सकता है जो पर्यावरण अनुकूल भी है।
बायो-डीज़ल स्वच्छ पर्यावरण अनुकूल और प्राकृतिक तेल है जो रासायनिक रूपांतरण प्रक्रिया के जरिए तेल युक्त पेड़ से निकाला जाता है। यह प्रक्रिया ट्रांसएस्टेरीफिकेशन कहलाती है और यह रासायनिक प्रसंस्करण संयंत्र में सम्पन्न होती है। ट्रांसएस्टेरीफिकेशन बहुत पुरानी रासायनिक प्रक्रिया है तथा यह वनस्पति तेल या वसा को बायो डीज़ल में बदलने की जांची-परखी विधि है।
बायो-डीज़ल वनस्पति तेलों (जैसे तिलहन, सरसों और सोयाबीन ), पशु वसा या शैवाल से बनाया गया बायो-डीज़ल होता है। बायो-डीज़ल को डीजल इंजनों के वाहनों में इस्तेमाल के लिए डीजल में मिलाया जा सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल ऐसा शब्द है जो जैविक (कभी जीवित ) पदार्थ से निर्मित किसी भी ठोस, तरल या गैसीय ईंधन के लिए प्रयुक्त होता है। इस शब्द में बहुत से उत्पाद शामिल होते हैं जिनमें से आज कुछ व्यावसायिक रूप से उपलब्ध हैं और कुछ पर अब भी शोध और विकास कार्य जारी है। बायो-डीज़ल ऐसा ईंधन है जो पौधों के तेल से बनता है जो पारंपरिक डीजल इंजनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है।
बायो-डीज़ल सूरजमुखी, सरसों, राई या जट्रोफा (भागवेरांडा ) के तेल या वसा से निकाला जाता है और इसे डीजल के विकल्प या उसमें मिलाकर इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। वैकल्पिक ईंधन के रूप में बायो-डीज़ल पारंपरिक डीजल ईंधन जितनी पॉवर उपलब्ध करा सकता है और इस प्रकार इसे डीजल इंजनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है । बायो-डीज़ल नवीकरणीय तरल ईंधन है जो स्थानीय रूप से उत्पन्न किया जा सकता है, इस तरह इससे आयातित कच्चे पेट्रोलियम डीजल पर देश की निर्भरता कम करने में मदद मिलती है।
बायो-डीज़ल सुरक्षित वैकल्पिक ईंधन है जो पारंपरिक पेट्रोलियम डीजल का स्थान ले सकता है। इसमें उच्च स्तर की चिकनाहट होती है और यह स्वच्छ जलने वाला ईंधन है तथा मौजूदा डीजल इंजनों में बिना किसी संशोधन के इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। इसका मतलब है कि किसी भी डीजल चालित दहन इंजन में बायो-डीज़ल ईंधन इस्तेमाल करते समय कुछ भी नया जोड़ने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। यह एकमात्र वैकल्पिक ईंधन है जो ऐसी सुविधा देता है। बायो-डीज़ल पेट्रोलियम डीजल की तरह कार्य करता है लेकिन इससे वायु प्रदूषण कम होता है और यह नवीकरणीय स्रोतों से बनता है। यह जैवअवक्रम्य है और पर्यावरण के लिए ज्यादा सुरक्षित है। बायो-डीज़ल उत्पन्न करने से स्थानीय आर्थिक पुनरुद्धार में मदद मिल सकती है तथा स्थानीय पर्यावरण को लाभ हो सकता है। स्थानीय, राज्य और राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर बायो-डीज़ल के इस्तेमाल को बढ़ावा देने के लिए कई समूह पहले ही इच्छुक हैं।
बायो-डीज़ल पर्यावरण के लिए नुकसानदायक नहीं है। किसी भी वाहन में पर्यावरण को प्रदूषित करने की प्रवृत्ति होती है तथा यदि इंजन एचएसडी से इंजेक्ट होता है तो वह हानिकारक गैसे उत्सर्जित करता है जबकि यदि इंजन में बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल किया जा रहा है तो उससे कोई हानिकारक गैस नहीं निकलती और पर्यावरण भी प्रदूषण मुक्त रहता है। बायो-डीज़ल के लिए इंजन में किसी संशोधन की ज़रूरत भी नहीं होती। बिना किसी बाधा के इंजन की दक्षता बढ़ाने के लिए इसे डीजल के साथ मिलाकर भी इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल सस्ता भी है। बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल करने वाले वाहन को चालू करते समय बहुत कम शोर होता है। यह ध्यान देने योग्य बात है कि बायो-डीज़ल में 100 से अधिक सीटेन नंबर होते हैं। सीटेन नंबर ईंधन के ज्वलन की गुणवत्ता मापने के लिए प्रयुक्त किया जाता है। बायो-डीज़ल किफायती है क्योंकि इसका उत्पादन स्थानीय स्तर पर किया जा सकता है।
बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल करने में आसान है इसलिए इसे मौजूदा इंजनों, वाहनों में इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है और बुनियादी ढांचे में व्यावहारिक रूप से कोई परिवर्तन की जरूरत नहीं होती है। बायो-डीज़ल को ठीक पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन की तरह पम्प, भंडारित और जलाया जा सकता है। इसे शुद्ध रूप से या किसी भी अनुपात में पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन में मिलाकर इस्तेमाल किया जा सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल इस्तेमाल करने से पॉवर और ईंधन की बचत व्यावहारिक रूप से पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन के लिए पहचानी गई है तथा वर्ष भर के ऑप्रेशन से डीजल ईंधन में मिलाकर इसे हासिल किया जा सकता है।
बायो-डीज़ल पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन की तुलना में कार्बन मोनो ऑक्साइड, पर्टिकुलेट मैटर, बिना जले हाइड्रोकार्बन और सल्फेट के उत्सर्जन में महत्वपूर्ण कमी करता है। इसके अतिरिक्त, पेट्रोलियम डीजल की तुलना में बायो-डीज़ल कैंसरकारी यौगिकों के उत्सर्जन में 85 प्रतिशत तक कमी करता है। जब इसे पेट्रोलियम डीजल ईंधन में मिलाया जाता है तब इनके उत्सर्जन में कमी मिश्रण में बायो-डीज़ल के अनुपात से आमतौर पर प्रत्यक्ष रूप से संबंधित होती है।
बायो-डीज़ल की कम घटबढ़ वाली प्रकृति के कारण इसे संभालना पेट्रोलियम की तुलना में आसान और सुरक्षित बनाती है। जब ईंधन का भंडारण, परिवहन या हस्तांतरण किया जाता है तो सभी तरल ईंधनों में ऊर्जा की मात्रा अधिक होने के कारण दुर्घटनावश दहन का खतरा बढ़ जाता है। दुर्घटनावश दहन की आशंका तापमान से संबंधित होती है जिस पर ईंधन सुलगने के लिए पर्याप्त विषाद पैदा करेगा। इस तापमान को फ्लैश पाइंट तापमान के नाम से जाना जाता है। ईंधन का फ्लैश पाइंट जितना नीचे होता है उसका वह तापमान भी उतना ही कम होता है जिस पर ईंधन दहनशील पदार्थ का मिश्रण बना सकता है। बायो-डीज़ल का फ्लैश पाइंट 2660 डिग्री फारेनहाइट से अधिक होता है जिसका मतलब है कि जब तक इसे पानी के क्वथन बिंदु से ऊपर गरम न किया जाए, तब तक यह दहनशील पदार्थ का मिश्रण नहीं बना सकता।
बायो-डीज़ल बनाने के लिए इस्तेमाल होने वाले संसाधन स्थानीय रूप से उपलब्ध होते हैं। बायो-डीज़ल का देश में ही उत्पादन होने से स्थानीय समुदायों के लिए बहुत आर्थिक लाभ उपलब्ध होते हैं। इसलिए पारंपरिक पेट्रोलियम डीजल के स्थान पर इस्तेमाल करने के लिए बायो-डीज़ल सुरक्षित ईंधन विकल्प है।
blow to constitutionalism
he Supreme Court’s recent decision in Nandini Sundar and Ors
vs State of Chhattisgarh should be lauded for rendering as
unconstitutional the Government of Chhattisgarh using
vigilante groups to combat the Maoists in the state. This is a
historic judgment which should draw the line under state use of
vigilante groups in the country.
The petition focused on the Salwa Judum which from the early
2000s received state support; subsequently the Chhattisgarh state
officially attached its members as special police officers (SPOs) to
its police and paramilitary forces. Recruited from local villages,
it was believed that the SPOs’ knowledge of the terrain and the
people of the area would improve intelligence and strengthen
counter-insurgency efforts against the Maoists.
The Supreme Court found that the SPOs – most of whom were
illiterate villagers – were being armed and placed in combat situations
for which they were inadequately trained. The Court noted
that the dramatically higher fatality rates of SPO units compared
to those of regular police and paramilitary forces was proof that
the use of the SPOs in Chhattisgarh constituted a violation of Articles
14 and 21 of the Constitution (equality before law and the
protection of personal liberty).
The Court rightly found that the mere fact that the SPOs have
been helpful to police did not justify their continued use in the
face of such serious threats to human rights. Counter-insurgency
activities must fall within the boundaries of the Constitution.
This is an important distinction that is often lost on Parliament
and the lower courts. Effectiveness in counter-insurgency is often
inversely proportional to the number of constitutional constraints
placed upon those conducting the counter-insurgency campaign.
Due process requirements make counter-insurgency more difficult
in the short term; such is the price we pay for our democratic
society and equal protection under our laws. To lose sight of this
trade-off, as many criticising the judgment have, is to invite an
“ends justify the means” mentality, risking further human rights
violations. The Nandini Sundar decision acknowledges that counterinsurgency
efforts are not simply a matter of military strength,
but are also of capturing the “hearts and minds” of those involved.
The Court must be commended for understanding the nature of
domestic counter-insurgency operations and the way that such
operations differ from conventional warfare.
The demobilisation of the SPOs in Chhattisgarh will be a delicate
operation. The SPOs have tasted power and are unlikely to
voluntarily relinquish it. Care must be taken to ensure that a new
vigilante force does not arise out of the ashes of the SPO units, and
that the police and paramilitary forces do not continue using SPOs
on the sly. Additionally, former SPOs need state protection from
possible Maoist reprisals, without which they may return to violence.
Mercifully, the Maoists have reportedly stated that there will be
no reprisals and demobilised SPOs will be allowed to reintegrate
into their villages. This will need independent monitoring.
The world over, the State is happy to use vigilante groups to get
around the constraints imposed by the law and the constitution. In
India, the early 1990s saw the rise of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen,
an organisation whose alleged purpose was to combat insurgency in
Kashmir. While reportedly receiving funding from numerous Indian
government agencies, Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen went on a rampage
of rape, murder, and extortion. Likewise, in Assam, surrendered
cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were organised
in an auxiliary force called SULFA who, while ostensibly fighting
the ULFA, were little more than marauding brigands. In Punjab,during the 1980s every police officer above the rank of station house
officer had his own posse of surrendered militants and assorted
thugs to reportedly help the regular police combat militants.
The Court’s decision emphasises the dangers that the SPOs face
– lack of training and education and risk of Maoist reprisal,
which, while significant, are only a part of the problem. Indeed,
the Court could have improved its decision by placing more
emphasis
on the dangers posed by the use and abuse of statesponsored
vigilante groups to democracy and human rights. That
said, the Supreme Court did insist that Chhattisgarh take a proactive
role in investigating the human rights violations of the
Salwa Judum. This decision is in line with those of other courts
in other regions of the world that have struggled with state-sponsored
vigilante groups. The Inter-American Court, for example,
has held that under international law a state can be liable for the
actions of these groups when it fails to exercise due diligence in
preventing human rights violations or to aggressively prosecute
those violations. The Supreme Court of India did well to follow
this example when it refused to allow the state government to
shirk its responsibility for violence at the hands of semi-official
auxiliaries. It must also create mechanisms for independent
monitoring
of the implementation of its orders.
It appears that both the Chhattisgarh government and the
Ministry of Home Affairs are contemplating a review petition.
The Supreme Court would do well to reiterate its earlier stand
while supporting it with reference to Common Article 3 of the
Geneva
Conventions, which is applicable in the main conflict
areas
of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, andprescribes rules of behaviour for all combatants, state and nonstate
in non-international and internal conflicts. The Indian state
should heed the message of the apex court and develop a constitutional
vision like other modern democratic states.
vs State of Chhattisgarh should be lauded for rendering as
unconstitutional the Government of Chhattisgarh using
vigilante groups to combat the Maoists in the state. This is a
historic judgment which should draw the line under state use of
vigilante groups in the country.
The petition focused on the Salwa Judum which from the early
2000s received state support; subsequently the Chhattisgarh state
officially attached its members as special police officers (SPOs) to
its police and paramilitary forces. Recruited from local villages,
it was believed that the SPOs’ knowledge of the terrain and the
people of the area would improve intelligence and strengthen
counter-insurgency efforts against the Maoists.
The Supreme Court found that the SPOs – most of whom were
illiterate villagers – were being armed and placed in combat situations
for which they were inadequately trained. The Court noted
that the dramatically higher fatality rates of SPO units compared
to those of regular police and paramilitary forces was proof that
the use of the SPOs in Chhattisgarh constituted a violation of Articles
14 and 21 of the Constitution (equality before law and the
protection of personal liberty).
The Court rightly found that the mere fact that the SPOs have
been helpful to police did not justify their continued use in the
face of such serious threats to human rights. Counter-insurgency
activities must fall within the boundaries of the Constitution.
This is an important distinction that is often lost on Parliament
and the lower courts. Effectiveness in counter-insurgency is often
inversely proportional to the number of constitutional constraints
placed upon those conducting the counter-insurgency campaign.
Due process requirements make counter-insurgency more difficult
in the short term; such is the price we pay for our democratic
society and equal protection under our laws. To lose sight of this
trade-off, as many criticising the judgment have, is to invite an
“ends justify the means” mentality, risking further human rights
violations. The Nandini Sundar decision acknowledges that counterinsurgency
efforts are not simply a matter of military strength,
but are also of capturing the “hearts and minds” of those involved.
The Court must be commended for understanding the nature of
domestic counter-insurgency operations and the way that such
operations differ from conventional warfare.
The demobilisation of the SPOs in Chhattisgarh will be a delicate
operation. The SPOs have tasted power and are unlikely to
voluntarily relinquish it. Care must be taken to ensure that a new
vigilante force does not arise out of the ashes of the SPO units, and
that the police and paramilitary forces do not continue using SPOs
on the sly. Additionally, former SPOs need state protection from
possible Maoist reprisals, without which they may return to violence.
Mercifully, the Maoists have reportedly stated that there will be
no reprisals and demobilised SPOs will be allowed to reintegrate
into their villages. This will need independent monitoring.
The world over, the State is happy to use vigilante groups to get
around the constraints imposed by the law and the constitution. In
India, the early 1990s saw the rise of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen,
an organisation whose alleged purpose was to combat insurgency in
Kashmir. While reportedly receiving funding from numerous Indian
government agencies, Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen went on a rampage
of rape, murder, and extortion. Likewise, in Assam, surrendered
cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were organised
in an auxiliary force called SULFA who, while ostensibly fighting
the ULFA, were little more than marauding brigands. In Punjab,during the 1980s every police officer above the rank of station house
officer had his own posse of surrendered militants and assorted
thugs to reportedly help the regular police combat militants.
The Court’s decision emphasises the dangers that the SPOs face
– lack of training and education and risk of Maoist reprisal,
which, while significant, are only a part of the problem. Indeed,
the Court could have improved its decision by placing more
emphasis
on the dangers posed by the use and abuse of statesponsored
vigilante groups to democracy and human rights. That
said, the Supreme Court did insist that Chhattisgarh take a proactive
role in investigating the human rights violations of the
Salwa Judum. This decision is in line with those of other courts
in other regions of the world that have struggled with state-sponsored
vigilante groups. The Inter-American Court, for example,
has held that under international law a state can be liable for the
actions of these groups when it fails to exercise due diligence in
preventing human rights violations or to aggressively prosecute
those violations. The Supreme Court of India did well to follow
this example when it refused to allow the state government to
shirk its responsibility for violence at the hands of semi-official
auxiliaries. It must also create mechanisms for independent
monitoring
of the implementation of its orders.
It appears that both the Chhattisgarh government and the
Ministry of Home Affairs are contemplating a review petition.
The Supreme Court would do well to reiterate its earlier stand
while supporting it with reference to Common Article 3 of the
Geneva
Conventions, which is applicable in the main conflict
areas
of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, andprescribes rules of behaviour for all combatants, state and nonstate
in non-international and internal conflicts. The Indian state
should heed the message of the apex court and develop a constitutional
vision like other modern democratic states.
(this is one of the wonderful article published in epw)
Indo-Pak detente? (THIS ARTICLE IS 3 MONTH OLD) BY AMIT RANJAN
After months of silence, India and Pakistan have once again agreed to hold bilateral dialogue. The Pakistani foreign minister is scheduled to visit New Delhi to re-start talks with his Indian counterpart.
This engagement, like those in the past, has sparked speculation among political commentators. But the resolution of conflicts through dialogue takes time, and the amount of time it takes depends on the nature of political relationship and the level of trust between the negotiating countries.
An abrupt stop in the engagement can make things go back to square one, and any new initiative would require more time, energy and focus. The best example of successful India-Pakistan negotiations is the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960, after eight years of intense but rational negotiations.
Major areas of conflict and disagreement between India and Pakistan include the sharing of water from Indus river system (the Tulbul/Wullar Barrage and the Kishenganga Project), the status of Siachin glacier, the Sir Creek estuary, and the issue of terrorism.
Water from the IRS is shared on the basis of the IWT, but due to an increase in population, more water is required for direct and indirect consumption in both the countries. Also, the source of the river is being continuously affected by climate change. In this situation, instead of looking for a rational solution to the problem, the two countries are preparing for a ‘water war’.
The Tulbul/Wullar and Kishenganga problems are related to the Indus water issue. The two countries are still in negotiations over the Tulbul/Wullar Barrage, but Pakistan has invoked the arbitration clause of the IWT on Kishenganga. Although this step was criticised by many in India, Pakistan’s move is legal and in line with the provisions of the treaty.
The fight over Siachin glacier kills and injures many soldiers every year. Both India and Pakistan understand the uselessness of manning this area throughout the year, but they do not want to demilitarise it because of strategic concerns.
Sir Creek is a marshy area that is economically important because of the presence of hydrocarbon gases. Pakistan and India were given a 2009 deadline to demarcate the area lest it is made international waters in line with the UN laws on un-demarcated areas. But the process is yet to start.
Terrorism is at once a local, regional and global problem. Even Pakistan is battling to free itself from the deep-rooted tentacles of terrorism.
Finally, the mother of all conflicts between the two countries is their claims and counter claims on the status of Jammu and Kashmir. Many political leaders and commentators have made suggestions on how to resolve the issue but the two countries have never engaged seriously over the lingering problem. It is believed that the two countries came close to resolving the issue in 1964, 1972 and 2005, but stepped back following unfortunate incidents or bad advice.
One misperception that many Indians have is that Pakistan is a failed state and its nuclear arsenal will fall into the hands of terrorists who will use it against India. Pakistan Army is very professional and they would never like to back a bunch of terrorists to take over the state which is virtually in their own control. Also, a nuclear weapon is not a toy that someone can pick up and play with. One should remember that modern states are rational actors.
To conclude, for any amicable solutions on the myriad problems and to end the prolonged mistrust between the two nuclear neighbours, bilateral dialogue is essential. It might be useful to set up sub-committees like China and India have to discuss multiple disputes. These committees must be kept away from all sorts of political pressure and members must be given physical and political protection. These committees must remain engaged even if an unpleasant incident takes place. Continuity must not be broken no matter what happens and no matter what the situation.
Amit Ranjan is a Phd student at JNU, New Dehli
This engagement, like those in the past, has sparked speculation among political commentators. But the resolution of conflicts through dialogue takes time, and the amount of time it takes depends on the nature of political relationship and the level of trust between the negotiating countries.
An abrupt stop in the engagement can make things go back to square one, and any new initiative would require more time, energy and focus. The best example of successful India-Pakistan negotiations is the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960, after eight years of intense but rational negotiations.
Major areas of conflict and disagreement between India and Pakistan include the sharing of water from Indus river system (the Tulbul/Wullar Barrage and the Kishenganga Project), the status of Siachin glacier, the Sir Creek estuary, and the issue of terrorism.
Water from the IRS is shared on the basis of the IWT, but due to an increase in population, more water is required for direct and indirect consumption in both the countries. Also, the source of the river is being continuously affected by climate change. In this situation, instead of looking for a rational solution to the problem, the two countries are preparing for a ‘water war’.
The Tulbul/Wullar and Kishenganga problems are related to the Indus water issue. The two countries are still in negotiations over the Tulbul/Wullar Barrage, but Pakistan has invoked the arbitration clause of the IWT on Kishenganga. Although this step was criticised by many in India, Pakistan’s move is legal and in line with the provisions of the treaty.
The fight over Siachin glacier kills and injures many soldiers every year. Both India and Pakistan understand the uselessness of manning this area throughout the year, but they do not want to demilitarise it because of strategic concerns.
Sir Creek is a marshy area that is economically important because of the presence of hydrocarbon gases. Pakistan and India were given a 2009 deadline to demarcate the area lest it is made international waters in line with the UN laws on un-demarcated areas. But the process is yet to start.
Terrorism is at once a local, regional and global problem. Even Pakistan is battling to free itself from the deep-rooted tentacles of terrorism.
Finally, the mother of all conflicts between the two countries is their claims and counter claims on the status of Jammu and Kashmir. Many political leaders and commentators have made suggestions on how to resolve the issue but the two countries have never engaged seriously over the lingering problem. It is believed that the two countries came close to resolving the issue in 1964, 1972 and 2005, but stepped back following unfortunate incidents or bad advice.
One misperception that many Indians have is that Pakistan is a failed state and its nuclear arsenal will fall into the hands of terrorists who will use it against India. Pakistan Army is very professional and they would never like to back a bunch of terrorists to take over the state which is virtually in their own control. Also, a nuclear weapon is not a toy that someone can pick up and play with. One should remember that modern states are rational actors.
To conclude, for any amicable solutions on the myriad problems and to end the prolonged mistrust between the two nuclear neighbours, bilateral dialogue is essential. It might be useful to set up sub-committees like China and India have to discuss multiple disputes. These committees must be kept away from all sorts of political pressure and members must be given physical and political protection. These committees must remain engaged even if an unpleasant incident takes place. Continuity must not be broken no matter what happens and no matter what the situation.
Amit Ranjan is a Phd student at JNU, New Dehli
poem from my dear FRIEND MANAS MUKUL
हिन्दुस्तान
हाथों में गीता रखेंगे, सीनों में कुरआन रखेंगे,
मेल बढ़ाए जो आपस में, वही धर्म ईमान रखेंगे
शंख बजे भाईचारे का, अमन की एक अज़ान रखेंगे,
काबा और काशी भी होगा, पहले हिन्दुस्तान रखेंगे...
हाथों में गीता रखेंगे, सीनों में कुरआन रखेंगे,
मेल बढ़ाए जो आपस में, वही धर्म ईमान रखेंगे
शंख बजे भाईचारे का, अमन की एक अज़ान रखेंगे,
काबा और काशी भी होगा, पहले हिन्दुस्तान रखेंगे...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Desertification, land Degradation and Drought in India
Poverty and environmental degradation are major problems in dry lands, where forests and trees contribute significantly to rural livelihoods. In order to eradicate poverty in the dry lands, it is important to protect the land from deforestation, fragmentation, degradation and drought. About 228 mha (69%) of India's total geographical area (about 328 mha) is under dry lands (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid). These areas incidentally are highly populated which makes the people vulnerable to environmental stress and impacts livelihoods directly.
In order to tackle the issues of desertification, land degradation and droughts, 22 major programmes are being implemented in the country, including, the “Mission for Green India”, one of the Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, which will address dry land forests, in addition to other ecosystems.
4th national report submitted to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat not only encompasses the Government of India's initiatives but also Civil Society's contribution in addressing the issues of desertification, land degradation and drought.
Highlights of the Report:
About 69 percent of India is dry land – arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
o These areas are heavily populated
o Degradation has severe implications for livelihood and food security for millions of people living in these areas
_ An estimated 32 percent of India’s total land area is affected by land degradation (of which desertification is a major component)
_ 81.45 million hectares, or 24.8 percent of the country’s geographic area is undergoing desertification
_ Water and soil erosion are major causes of land degradation; water erosion is most prominent in agricultural regions
_ The key anthropogenic factors resulting in degradation are unsustainable agricultural practices; diversion of land to development programmes; industrial effluents; mining and deforestation
_ Unsustainable resource management practices drive desertification, and accentuate the poverty of people affected by desertification
_ Land rehabilitation has been a major priority since Independence, and several policies and government agencies address desertification and degradation. These include various programmes namely Desert Development Programme; Integrated Wasteland Development; National Watershed, Development Project for Rainfed Areas; Soil Conservation in the Catchment of River Valley Projects; National Afforestation Programme; Arid Zone Research; Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.
In order to tackle the issues of desertification, land degradation and droughts, 22 major programmes are being implemented in the country, including, the “Mission for Green India”, one of the Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, which will address dry land forests, in addition to other ecosystems.
4th national report submitted to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat not only encompasses the Government of India's initiatives but also Civil Society's contribution in addressing the issues of desertification, land degradation and drought.
Highlights of the Report:
About 69 percent of India is dry land – arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
o These areas are heavily populated
o Degradation has severe implications for livelihood and food security for millions of people living in these areas
_ An estimated 32 percent of India’s total land area is affected by land degradation (of which desertification is a major component)
_ 81.45 million hectares, or 24.8 percent of the country’s geographic area is undergoing desertification
_ Water and soil erosion are major causes of land degradation; water erosion is most prominent in agricultural regions
_ The key anthropogenic factors resulting in degradation are unsustainable agricultural practices; diversion of land to development programmes; industrial effluents; mining and deforestation
_ Unsustainable resource management practices drive desertification, and accentuate the poverty of people affected by desertification
_ Land rehabilitation has been a major priority since Independence, and several policies and government agencies address desertification and degradation. These include various programmes namely Desert Development Programme; Integrated Wasteland Development; National Watershed, Development Project for Rainfed Areas; Soil Conservation in the Catchment of River Valley Projects; National Afforestation Programme; Arid Zone Research; Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.
National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) an Intensive Strategy under National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM)
One of the most innovative initiatives of the poverty reduction, the National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM) is all set to get a boost with the investment support by the World Bank under National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) to Ministry Of Rural Development. The Bank will provide soft loan worth US$1 billion (approximately Rs. 4,600 crores) with a maturity period of 25 years to provide quality technical assistance and results-based financing. NRLP is aimed at professionalizing the overall program management of NRLM and the distribution of project funds among the states would be based on the relative share of rural BPL population in the total states. It will also make investments in developing a wider base of implementing partnerships with private sector, civil society, and other development institutions for bringing in new ideas, innovations, services, and delivery mechanisms.
NRLP will invest intensively support implementation of NRLM in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 high poverty states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu), accounting for 85 percent of the rural poor in the country. The aim is to create best practice sites and to develop them as local immersion locations and generate critical pool of social capital for catalyzing social mobilization of the poor and building quality institutions of the poor. While the tactics will vary with the location and the community needs, the intensive blocks will follow a certain sequence in which the project activities will be rolled out. The sequence will include the following:
a) social inclusion through participatory identification of the poor and universal social mobilization;
b) building institutional platforms of the poor in the form of SHG federations, producer collectives, etc.;
c) developing social capital in the form of trained community leaders, community resources persons and para-professionals providing livelihood services to the poor;
d) micro-planning and investments for livelihoods enhancement; (v) access to credit from formal financial institutions available in desired amounts and convenient repayment terms;
e) convergence with other entitlements and programs such as MGNREGS, pensions, etc.; and
f) building sustainable livelihoods options for the poor by developing activity/trade clusters supporting farm and non-farm enterprises focused on productivity improvement and market access.
Project Components of NRLP.
The activities detailed in the component description below, will provide the enabling environment for the effective utilization of all the resources allocated by the Government Of India to the NRLM. With the exception of Component Two that will be implemented in the 12 targeted states, the remaining components will provide support at the national level to enable the smooth rollout of the NRLM throughout the country.
1. Institutional and Human Capacity Development:
The objective of this component is to transform the role of Ministry Of Rural Development into a provider of high quality technical assistance in the field of rural livelihoods promotion. This component will finance primarily staff, technical assistance consultancies, and training and related course material. Support under this component will be for all states. To achieve the objective of this component, the proposed project intends to support the following activities:
· Technical Assistance - establish teams of high quality professionals under National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) to provide technical assistance to the states in various thematic areas such as community mobilization, livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, human resource management, monitoring and evaluation, environment management, and fiduciary management, among others. This team will provide continuous support to state governments in the implementation of the NRLM and related activities in the rural development sector.
* Human Resource Development - To support development of partnerships with well-established training and research institutions in the field of rural development throughout India that can deliver focused training programs for successful implementation of the NRLM and related activities in the rural development sector. The activities supported will include curriculum development, design and conduct of training programs including e-learning and distance learning. Under this feasibility of establishment of a National Center for Rural Livelihoods will also be explored.
2. State Livelihood Support:
The objective of this component is to support state governments in the establishment of the necessary institutional structures and mechanisms for the implementation of NRLM activities from the state to the block level, including support to the formation of institutions of the rural poor. This component will finance livelihood grants to the poor rural households (i.e. SHGs/federations) to undertake productive livelihood activities as detailed in their livelihood plans, support for higher level producer institutions, producer groups, farmers’ collectives, and/or producer companies (PCs), technical assistance consultancies, training and related material, office equipment, and operational costs at the state level and below. To achieve the objective of this component, following activities have been envisaged :
*State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLM) – To support the formation of an autonomous and professionally managed mission at the state-level for the implementation of the NRLM comprising of a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in themes like social mobilization, institution building, capacity building, microfinance, farm and non-farm livelihoods, and job employment, among others.
*Institution Building and Capacity Building - support the identification, selection, and mobilization of poor rural households into self-managed institutions, such as Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations. This would also include providing capacity building and training activities for SHG members and federations in livelihood activities, bookkeeping, financial literacy, and business education, among others. Teams of livelihood professionals trained in participatory methodologies and community facilitation will be set up at the block/sub-block level.
*Community Investment Support - provide livelihood grants to the institutions of the poor to enable them to undertake productive livelihood enhancing initiatives. In addition, the NRLP would facilitate the establishment of higher level producer institutions, producer groups, collectives, and/or companies.
*Special Programs - support for pilot activities that have potential for scaling-up and replication such as last mile delivery of public services including health and nutrition, implementing activities in high-conflict areas in partnership with civil society organizations, green opportunities, climate change-related activities, value-chain development, using new technologies for financial inclusion, among others. Activities under special programs will be jointly decided by MoRD and respective states and will cover all States, including those States that are not directly participating in the NRLP.
3. Innovation and Partnership Support:
The objective of this component is to create an institutional mechanism to identify, nurture and support innovative ideas from across the country to address the livelihood needs of the rural poor. Support under this component will be for all states. This component will finance pilot initiatives and technical assistance consultancies that support innovative livelihoods activities in agriculture, livestock, youth employment, among others, for rural poor households. Support under this component will be for all states. To achieve the objective of this component, the proposed project intends to support the following activities:
*Innovation Forums and Action Pilots - support selected innovations identified through development marketplace-type forums that have the potential to be scaled-up in a viable manner in partnership with development foundations.
*Social Entrepreneurship Development - support the development of a network of grassroots innovators and social entrepreneurs, identified through a competitive process, at state and national level.
*Public-Private-Community-Partnership – To develop and support effective partnerships with the private sector, foundations public corporations, and civil society organizations on livelihoods development for the rural poor throughout the country.These could include ICT, agribusiness, commercial banks/MFIs and other financial service providers, and youth employment, among others.
4. Project Implementation Support:
The objective is to strengthen the National Mission Management Unit for effective project management at the national level that develops key systems and processes for coordination and management of the proposed project and the NRLM. A dedicated National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) under the MoRD will finance technical assistance consultancies, training and related material, office equipment, MIS development, and operational costs for all states. Following activities are envisaged for this purpose :
* National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) - To manage, deliver and support all aspects of not only the NRLP, but also the NRLM.
*Monitoring and Evaluation - A comprehensive and robust monitoring and evaluation system will be established to track implementation progress and provide meaningful reports on household level impacts and implementation experiences to take corrective actions, if necessary.
*Electronic National Rural Livelihoods Management System (e-NRLMS) and ICT: To design, develop and roll out electronic National Rural Livelihoods Management System (e-NRLMS) for hosting and delivering variety of project services which will be Aadhar (UID) compliant and leveraged to deliver ICT based services to rural poor households in the last mile.
*Governance and Accountability Framework - NRLP would support the development and roll-out of a user friendly and highly responsive governance and accountability mechanism.
*Knowledge Management and Communication –The project will invest in a variety of products and services to enhance the generation and use of knowledge and communications as a key tool for enhancing the quality of the program.
The investment in one of the world’s largest poverty reduction initiatives would help in setting up of an institutional platform by mobilizing rural poor, particularly women, into robust grassroots institutions of their own where, with the strength of the group behind them, they will be able to exert voice and accountability over providers of educational, health, nutritional and financial services.
NRLP will invest intensively support implementation of NRLM in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 high poverty states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu), accounting for 85 percent of the rural poor in the country. The aim is to create best practice sites and to develop them as local immersion locations and generate critical pool of social capital for catalyzing social mobilization of the poor and building quality institutions of the poor. While the tactics will vary with the location and the community needs, the intensive blocks will follow a certain sequence in which the project activities will be rolled out. The sequence will include the following:
a) social inclusion through participatory identification of the poor and universal social mobilization;
b) building institutional platforms of the poor in the form of SHG federations, producer collectives, etc.;
c) developing social capital in the form of trained community leaders, community resources persons and para-professionals providing livelihood services to the poor;
d) micro-planning and investments for livelihoods enhancement; (v) access to credit from formal financial institutions available in desired amounts and convenient repayment terms;
e) convergence with other entitlements and programs such as MGNREGS, pensions, etc.; and
f) building sustainable livelihoods options for the poor by developing activity/trade clusters supporting farm and non-farm enterprises focused on productivity improvement and market access.
Project Components of NRLP.
The activities detailed in the component description below, will provide the enabling environment for the effective utilization of all the resources allocated by the Government Of India to the NRLM. With the exception of Component Two that will be implemented in the 12 targeted states, the remaining components will provide support at the national level to enable the smooth rollout of the NRLM throughout the country.
1. Institutional and Human Capacity Development:
The objective of this component is to transform the role of Ministry Of Rural Development into a provider of high quality technical assistance in the field of rural livelihoods promotion. This component will finance primarily staff, technical assistance consultancies, and training and related course material. Support under this component will be for all states. To achieve the objective of this component, the proposed project intends to support the following activities:
· Technical Assistance - establish teams of high quality professionals under National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) to provide technical assistance to the states in various thematic areas such as community mobilization, livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, human resource management, monitoring and evaluation, environment management, and fiduciary management, among others. This team will provide continuous support to state governments in the implementation of the NRLM and related activities in the rural development sector.
* Human Resource Development - To support development of partnerships with well-established training and research institutions in the field of rural development throughout India that can deliver focused training programs for successful implementation of the NRLM and related activities in the rural development sector. The activities supported will include curriculum development, design and conduct of training programs including e-learning and distance learning. Under this feasibility of establishment of a National Center for Rural Livelihoods will also be explored.
2. State Livelihood Support:
The objective of this component is to support state governments in the establishment of the necessary institutional structures and mechanisms for the implementation of NRLM activities from the state to the block level, including support to the formation of institutions of the rural poor. This component will finance livelihood grants to the poor rural households (i.e. SHGs/federations) to undertake productive livelihood activities as detailed in their livelihood plans, support for higher level producer institutions, producer groups, farmers’ collectives, and/or producer companies (PCs), technical assistance consultancies, training and related material, office equipment, and operational costs at the state level and below. To achieve the objective of this component, following activities have been envisaged :
*State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLM) – To support the formation of an autonomous and professionally managed mission at the state-level for the implementation of the NRLM comprising of a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in themes like social mobilization, institution building, capacity building, microfinance, farm and non-farm livelihoods, and job employment, among others.
*Institution Building and Capacity Building - support the identification, selection, and mobilization of poor rural households into self-managed institutions, such as Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations. This would also include providing capacity building and training activities for SHG members and federations in livelihood activities, bookkeeping, financial literacy, and business education, among others. Teams of livelihood professionals trained in participatory methodologies and community facilitation will be set up at the block/sub-block level.
*Community Investment Support - provide livelihood grants to the institutions of the poor to enable them to undertake productive livelihood enhancing initiatives. In addition, the NRLP would facilitate the establishment of higher level producer institutions, producer groups, collectives, and/or companies.
*Special Programs - support for pilot activities that have potential for scaling-up and replication such as last mile delivery of public services including health and nutrition, implementing activities in high-conflict areas in partnership with civil society organizations, green opportunities, climate change-related activities, value-chain development, using new technologies for financial inclusion, among others. Activities under special programs will be jointly decided by MoRD and respective states and will cover all States, including those States that are not directly participating in the NRLP.
3. Innovation and Partnership Support:
The objective of this component is to create an institutional mechanism to identify, nurture and support innovative ideas from across the country to address the livelihood needs of the rural poor. Support under this component will be for all states. This component will finance pilot initiatives and technical assistance consultancies that support innovative livelihoods activities in agriculture, livestock, youth employment, among others, for rural poor households. Support under this component will be for all states. To achieve the objective of this component, the proposed project intends to support the following activities:
*Innovation Forums and Action Pilots - support selected innovations identified through development marketplace-type forums that have the potential to be scaled-up in a viable manner in partnership with development foundations.
*Social Entrepreneurship Development - support the development of a network of grassroots innovators and social entrepreneurs, identified through a competitive process, at state and national level.
*Public-Private-Community-Partnership – To develop and support effective partnerships with the private sector, foundations public corporations, and civil society organizations on livelihoods development for the rural poor throughout the country.These could include ICT, agribusiness, commercial banks/MFIs and other financial service providers, and youth employment, among others.
4. Project Implementation Support:
The objective is to strengthen the National Mission Management Unit for effective project management at the national level that develops key systems and processes for coordination and management of the proposed project and the NRLM. A dedicated National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) under the MoRD will finance technical assistance consultancies, training and related material, office equipment, MIS development, and operational costs for all states. Following activities are envisaged for this purpose :
* National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) - To manage, deliver and support all aspects of not only the NRLP, but also the NRLM.
*Monitoring and Evaluation - A comprehensive and robust monitoring and evaluation system will be established to track implementation progress and provide meaningful reports on household level impacts and implementation experiences to take corrective actions, if necessary.
*Electronic National Rural Livelihoods Management System (e-NRLMS) and ICT: To design, develop and roll out electronic National Rural Livelihoods Management System (e-NRLMS) for hosting and delivering variety of project services which will be Aadhar (UID) compliant and leveraged to deliver ICT based services to rural poor households in the last mile.
*Governance and Accountability Framework - NRLP would support the development and roll-out of a user friendly and highly responsive governance and accountability mechanism.
*Knowledge Management and Communication –The project will invest in a variety of products and services to enhance the generation and use of knowledge and communications as a key tool for enhancing the quality of the program.
The investment in one of the world’s largest poverty reduction initiatives would help in setting up of an institutional platform by mobilizing rural poor, particularly women, into robust grassroots institutions of their own where, with the strength of the group behind them, they will be able to exert voice and accountability over providers of educational, health, nutritional and financial services.
GST, a major tax reform, gets boost
There is now a good chance that arguably the most significant tax reform of our times — which had eluded the government for want of cooperation, chiefly from the BJP, the main Opposition party which runs a number of state governments — could soon be a reality. The idea of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) for India had been conceived by the NDA government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee, but the party began to obstruct implementation of its own original plan when the UPA government wished to take the matter forward. Some said the BJP’s opposition stemmed from pique. The party never did outline its concerns in any coherent fashion, but took shelter behind the argument advanced by some that states would lose their share of tax revenues if the GST was brought into being. Fortunately, the BJP’s adversarial stance has given way to one of cooperation. The party has permitted the Centre’s request to let Sushil Kumar Modi, its finance minister in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, chair the Union finance ministry’s empowered group that would process the case of the GST. On Monday, Mr Modi was duly elected chairman of the group whose members are the state finance ministers, succeeding former West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta of the erstwhile Left Front government, who bowed out after the Left’s defeat in the recent Assembly election. Does the change in the BJP position amount to the possibility of greater cooperation between the ruling coalition and the Opposition in Parliament? Probably not. India is a complex country politically, and there are too many areas of possible dissonance — at the national as well as local levels — that divide parties. But acquiescing by the BJP is likely to make the passage of the Constitution amendment bill on the GST in Parliament easier. If the UPA and NDA-run states cooperate, probably we should have the tax reform measure out of the way sooner rather than later.
The GST is a more comprehensive version of the value added tax (VAT). It subsumes all taxes levied by the Centre and the states. Its introduction will be a major tax reform that is expected to confer advantages all around. It is expected to eliminate the cascading effect of some taxes where products are often taxed twice. It should also bring down the quantum of tax, make items of daily consumption cheaper and impart a competitive edge to many of our exports by making them cheaper. GST has already been introduced in many countries. Its introduction in this country was held up primarily because several states offered the argument that state revenues would diminish if the GST came into being. State governments levy some of their own tax, and get a share of tax collections made by the Centre under a specified formula. The argument of the GST causing losses to states will now be undercut with the BJP coming on board. State governments today impose multiple taxes such as VAT/sales tax, entry tax/octroi, entertainment tax, lottery tax, luxury tax, tax on gambling, and certain other forms of cess and surcharge. The Centre imposes excise duty, additional excise duty, service tax, additional customs duty or countervailing duty, special additional duty, and surcharge and cess under some other heads. All these are intended to be brought under a comprehensive GST.
It has been sometimes said that ruling and Opposition parties — for all their many differences which are natural to expect in a diverse democracy such as ours — should come together at least to promote policy that is for the wider economic good of the country. The GST issue meets that definition.
The GST is a more comprehensive version of the value added tax (VAT). It subsumes all taxes levied by the Centre and the states. Its introduction will be a major tax reform that is expected to confer advantages all around. It is expected to eliminate the cascading effect of some taxes where products are often taxed twice. It should also bring down the quantum of tax, make items of daily consumption cheaper and impart a competitive edge to many of our exports by making them cheaper. GST has already been introduced in many countries. Its introduction in this country was held up primarily because several states offered the argument that state revenues would diminish if the GST came into being. State governments levy some of their own tax, and get a share of tax collections made by the Centre under a specified formula. The argument of the GST causing losses to states will now be undercut with the BJP coming on board. State governments today impose multiple taxes such as VAT/sales tax, entry tax/octroi, entertainment tax, lottery tax, luxury tax, tax on gambling, and certain other forms of cess and surcharge. The Centre imposes excise duty, additional excise duty, service tax, additional customs duty or countervailing duty, special additional duty, and surcharge and cess under some other heads. All these are intended to be brought under a comprehensive GST.
It has been sometimes said that ruling and Opposition parties — for all their many differences which are natural to expect in a diverse democracy such as ours — should come together at least to promote policy that is for the wider economic good of the country. The GST issue meets that definition.
New accord on Darjeeling signed
A tripartite agreement between the Centre, the West Bengal government and the Gorkha Janmukti Mocha (GJM) for the formation of a Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), an independent and autonomous body to replace the existing Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), was signed here at 3.43 pm on Monday.
A bill will now be introduced in the West Bengal Assembly and the GTA will be formed once this becomes an act. West Bengal home secretary G.D. Gautama, a joint secretary in the Union home ministry, Mr K.K. Pathak, and GJM general secretary Roshan Giri signed this historic tripartite agreement, the second such on Darjeeling. The Centre and the state government had signed a similar agreement with the Subhas Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in August 1988 — 23 years ago — which led to the DGHC’s formation.
“The new authority will be formed in six months. It is a historic day for the people of Darjeeling. Make Darjeeling more beautiful. The Government of India and the West Bengal government will give you full support,” a beaming chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced in the presence of Union home minister P. Chidambaram, GJM president Bimal Gurung and some 5,000-odd people at Pintail village, around 6 km from Siliguri. The Left Front boycotted the ceremony while Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh was a surprise guest.
The signing of this pact brought to an end the GJM’s four-year-long movement for the creation of a separate state. Congratulating Ms Banerjee and Mr Gurung, Mr Chidambaram said: “Today I stand witness to a historic event, when years of strife have come to an end due to the wisdom and sagacity of two people: Mamata Banerjee and Bimal Gurung. Today is the day when we put all the suffering behind us. Today marks the beginning of the GTA. Today marks pariborton — change for a better tomorrow.”
Mr Chidambaram cautioned Mr Gurung that the task before him was stupendous. “You have to rebuild brick by brick, and the Centre and the state government will be by your side. Here is an opportunity to show that you can govern and deliver,” he added.
The GJM president noted that had the state’s former Left Front government wanted it, the accord could have been signed much earlier. “I want to request the state government to seriously consider the report of the committee which would be immediately formed to review the demand for inclusion of some areas of Terai and Dooars into the territorial jurisdiction of GTA,” Mr Gurung said.
The chief minister announced that a comprehensive economic package has already been prepared for the development of the Hills. “There was no elected body here for the last seven years. Darjeeling will be turned into Switzerland. A lot of projects — including multi-speciality hospitals, an IIT, polytechnics, a veterinary college, a nursing college, schools, colleges, an institute for the preservation of the Nepali language and culture, a circular road in Darjeeling — will come up in the Hills soon,” she said.
A senior GJM central committee member and party MLA, Mr Harkabahadur Chhetri, said later that the Centre had already pledged a `600-crore corpus for the development of the Hills. “We had sought `1,500 crores, but they assured us `600 crores as of now. However, considering the number of projects we have submitted, the total package will be around `1,000 crores from the state and the Centre in the next three years,” he said.
Asked about the state government’s commitment to this financial package, state commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee said: “The state’s share will have to be decided. But we will act as a facilitator.”
The GTA will be able to frame rules independently and it can recruit Group B, C and D employees on its own. The proposed 50-member body will have 59 major departments, excluding finance, law and judiciary and home. Of the 50 members, 45 will be elected, while five will be nominated by the governor on behalf of the state government. “The powers and functions of the GTA are almost similar to the existing DGHC, besides the recruitment and rule-framing powers. It cannot, however, recruit Group A employees. The GTA will have no legislative and taxation powers,” a senior state official noted.
The GJM hopes to get powers to regulate reserved forests. “We will be getting more departments and more autonomy, but one thing is clear: the demand for Gorkhaland will always be there. This tripartite agreement for the formation of the GTA is the first step towards Gorkhaland,” said GJM central committee member S.P. Warner, who is also general secretary of the All India Ex-military/Paramilitary Morcha.
A bill will now be introduced in the West Bengal Assembly and the GTA will be formed once this becomes an act. West Bengal home secretary G.D. Gautama, a joint secretary in the Union home ministry, Mr K.K. Pathak, and GJM general secretary Roshan Giri signed this historic tripartite agreement, the second such on Darjeeling. The Centre and the state government had signed a similar agreement with the Subhas Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in August 1988 — 23 years ago — which led to the DGHC’s formation.
“The new authority will be formed in six months. It is a historic day for the people of Darjeeling. Make Darjeeling more beautiful. The Government of India and the West Bengal government will give you full support,” a beaming chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced in the presence of Union home minister P. Chidambaram, GJM president Bimal Gurung and some 5,000-odd people at Pintail village, around 6 km from Siliguri. The Left Front boycotted the ceremony while Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh was a surprise guest.
The signing of this pact brought to an end the GJM’s four-year-long movement for the creation of a separate state. Congratulating Ms Banerjee and Mr Gurung, Mr Chidambaram said: “Today I stand witness to a historic event, when years of strife have come to an end due to the wisdom and sagacity of two people: Mamata Banerjee and Bimal Gurung. Today is the day when we put all the suffering behind us. Today marks the beginning of the GTA. Today marks pariborton — change for a better tomorrow.”
Mr Chidambaram cautioned Mr Gurung that the task before him was stupendous. “You have to rebuild brick by brick, and the Centre and the state government will be by your side. Here is an opportunity to show that you can govern and deliver,” he added.
The GJM president noted that had the state’s former Left Front government wanted it, the accord could have been signed much earlier. “I want to request the state government to seriously consider the report of the committee which would be immediately formed to review the demand for inclusion of some areas of Terai and Dooars into the territorial jurisdiction of GTA,” Mr Gurung said.
The chief minister announced that a comprehensive economic package has already been prepared for the development of the Hills. “There was no elected body here for the last seven years. Darjeeling will be turned into Switzerland. A lot of projects — including multi-speciality hospitals, an IIT, polytechnics, a veterinary college, a nursing college, schools, colleges, an institute for the preservation of the Nepali language and culture, a circular road in Darjeeling — will come up in the Hills soon,” she said.
A senior GJM central committee member and party MLA, Mr Harkabahadur Chhetri, said later that the Centre had already pledged a `600-crore corpus for the development of the Hills. “We had sought `1,500 crores, but they assured us `600 crores as of now. However, considering the number of projects we have submitted, the total package will be around `1,000 crores from the state and the Centre in the next three years,” he said.
Asked about the state government’s commitment to this financial package, state commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee said: “The state’s share will have to be decided. But we will act as a facilitator.”
The GTA will be able to frame rules independently and it can recruit Group B, C and D employees on its own. The proposed 50-member body will have 59 major departments, excluding finance, law and judiciary and home. Of the 50 members, 45 will be elected, while five will be nominated by the governor on behalf of the state government. “The powers and functions of the GTA are almost similar to the existing DGHC, besides the recruitment and rule-framing powers. It cannot, however, recruit Group A employees. The GTA will have no legislative and taxation powers,” a senior state official noted.
The GJM hopes to get powers to regulate reserved forests. “We will be getting more departments and more autonomy, but one thing is clear: the demand for Gorkhaland will always be there. This tripartite agreement for the formation of the GTA is the first step towards Gorkhaland,” said GJM central committee member S.P. Warner, who is also general secretary of the All India Ex-military/Paramilitary Morcha.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Sweet deals & promised lands ....VIEWPOINTS
We need to be fair to farmers
Land acquisition is done from farmers for a variety of purposes. Besides the usual development needs, such as building roads, railway tracks, institutional buildings that will serve the community, industry, or water channels, in recent times land has also been acquired for housing to be sold to townspeople.
Farmers are usually not against selling their land for development, for they also get served by that development. Their children get employment and the value of their land improves. The problem lies in the latter case.
Governments sell the land purchased at cheap rates from farmers (sometimes in the name of industrial development, as we saw in Greater Noida, but in reality not so) to builders at many times the price they originally paid to farmers. This is the first stage of profit-making. Then builders charge house buyers hundreds of times the original land value, making a huge killing.
When the farmer sees this, he is left wondering. He has been divested of his property that sustained him, while others skim off the milk. This is the root cause of current problems. Unlike in the case of community or industrial development projects, in the case of builders being the eventual buyer, farmers derive no benefits, in terms of employment or otherwise. If hard market conditions hold sway today, the farmer cannot be left out of the gains that accrue from it. That is the base point. This is at the heart of the thinking that land bought from farmers for different purposes — development versus profit-making by builders and contractors — should fetch him different prices or compensation package.
The government of India is thinking of changing the land acquisition law framed as long ago as 1894. It should factor in the conditions of today. Either have two separate laws for the two kinds of cases outlined above, or in the same legislation, make two clear-cut provisions to cater to the different situations. This will be in the interest of fair play. Our farming community should not be taken for granted.
Land acquisition is a complex issue which has to be legislated on keeping in view the larger impact on the livelihood of our farmers since it often paves the path for unemployment.
To prevent the exploitation of farmers by the builders or state governments, two separate provisions will offer better safeguards. In Bhatta-Parsaul, there has been a clear exploitation of farmers. In appropriate instances, the land acquisition laws should also be linked to rehabilitation of farmers.
ANOTHER:
It is a policy of divide and rule
The issue of land acquisition has become an issue of land-grabbing — whether this is for urban housing (through which the builder lobby gains), or for mining, highways and factories.
In both cases big businessmen and corporate houses gain and poor farmers lose. So, because it is a case of one issue of exploitation, the paradigm should be treated as one issue of land justice.
To split one issue of land grab into two separate issues will be to enforce a divide and rule policy while the point is that farmers are being killed because they are defending their land. Therefore, the question of land acquisition has become a life and death issue for farmers. It is the farmers who feed the country. So, what they are defending is not just right to their land but their right to feed the country. This cannot be lost sight of.
The issue is not just of land sovereignty, but also food sovereignty and food security. At a time when 215 million people are starving, the government is promising a food security act; it is promising 61 million tonnes for feeding the poor. At the same time, through the land acquisition policies, the government is making sure that there will be no food for the poor. If the government is serious about the right to food, it must be serious about farmers’ right to land without which there can be no food.
As far as food production is concerned, it is the fertile land around the city that is being grabbed for land acquisition for urban expansion. When you realise this, it becomes clear that you are hitting the food security base of the country and the livelihood base of the farmers. Therefore, there is no reason to treat the question of land acquisition for urban housing as a separate category. The recent case of Bhatta-Parsaul shows that the builder lobbies are no different from the mining lobby.
Both are willing to have people killed to get land. In a democracy, there is no place for such injustice and violence. The government is promising to bring an amended land acquisition act in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. This is recognition that the old law has become the source of injustice and conflict. Whether the amended act will ensure justice to farmers depends on whether they, their occupation (agriculture) and the food question get priority. Remember, land is the basis of our society and civilisation. It is not a commodity.
Land acquisition is done from farmers for a variety of purposes. Besides the usual development needs, such as building roads, railway tracks, institutional buildings that will serve the community, industry, or water channels, in recent times land has also been acquired for housing to be sold to townspeople.
Farmers are usually not against selling their land for development, for they also get served by that development. Their children get employment and the value of their land improves. The problem lies in the latter case.
Governments sell the land purchased at cheap rates from farmers (sometimes in the name of industrial development, as we saw in Greater Noida, but in reality not so) to builders at many times the price they originally paid to farmers. This is the first stage of profit-making. Then builders charge house buyers hundreds of times the original land value, making a huge killing.
When the farmer sees this, he is left wondering. He has been divested of his property that sustained him, while others skim off the milk. This is the root cause of current problems. Unlike in the case of community or industrial development projects, in the case of builders being the eventual buyer, farmers derive no benefits, in terms of employment or otherwise. If hard market conditions hold sway today, the farmer cannot be left out of the gains that accrue from it. That is the base point. This is at the heart of the thinking that land bought from farmers for different purposes — development versus profit-making by builders and contractors — should fetch him different prices or compensation package.
The government of India is thinking of changing the land acquisition law framed as long ago as 1894. It should factor in the conditions of today. Either have two separate laws for the two kinds of cases outlined above, or in the same legislation, make two clear-cut provisions to cater to the different situations. This will be in the interest of fair play. Our farming community should not be taken for granted.
Land acquisition is a complex issue which has to be legislated on keeping in view the larger impact on the livelihood of our farmers since it often paves the path for unemployment.
To prevent the exploitation of farmers by the builders or state governments, two separate provisions will offer better safeguards. In Bhatta-Parsaul, there has been a clear exploitation of farmers. In appropriate instances, the land acquisition laws should also be linked to rehabilitation of farmers.
ANOTHER:
It is a policy of divide and rule
The issue of land acquisition has become an issue of land-grabbing — whether this is for urban housing (through which the builder lobby gains), or for mining, highways and factories.
In both cases big businessmen and corporate houses gain and poor farmers lose. So, because it is a case of one issue of exploitation, the paradigm should be treated as one issue of land justice.
To split one issue of land grab into two separate issues will be to enforce a divide and rule policy while the point is that farmers are being killed because they are defending their land. Therefore, the question of land acquisition has become a life and death issue for farmers. It is the farmers who feed the country. So, what they are defending is not just right to their land but their right to feed the country. This cannot be lost sight of.
The issue is not just of land sovereignty, but also food sovereignty and food security. At a time when 215 million people are starving, the government is promising a food security act; it is promising 61 million tonnes for feeding the poor. At the same time, through the land acquisition policies, the government is making sure that there will be no food for the poor. If the government is serious about the right to food, it must be serious about farmers’ right to land without which there can be no food.
As far as food production is concerned, it is the fertile land around the city that is being grabbed for land acquisition for urban expansion. When you realise this, it becomes clear that you are hitting the food security base of the country and the livelihood base of the farmers. Therefore, there is no reason to treat the question of land acquisition for urban housing as a separate category. The recent case of Bhatta-Parsaul shows that the builder lobbies are no different from the mining lobby.
Both are willing to have people killed to get land. In a democracy, there is no place for such injustice and violence. The government is promising to bring an amended land acquisition act in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. This is recognition that the old law has become the source of injustice and conflict. Whether the amended act will ensure justice to farmers depends on whether they, their occupation (agriculture) and the food question get priority. Remember, land is the basis of our society and civilisation. It is not a commodity.
No trains to safety .....by sh. SUNANDA K DATTARAY
The Kalka Mail’s tragedy holds sharp personal anguish for someone who was brought up on the railways in another age of travelling in comfort and security. Sunday afternoon’s derailment in Uttar Pradesh might possibly be due to sabotage (like that of the Guwahati-Puri Express the same day) but my instincts say this is yet another consequence of the mismanagement that marks an India that is trundling to the moon in a creaking bullock cart packed with diseased and undernourished people.
Great things are being done for India but not for Indians. The impermanence to which the permanent way — nearly 65,000 km of track — is being reduced matters more than 2G and Commonwealth Games scams or the fuss over a Lokpal.
It was with a stab of pain that I read amidst harrowing tales of death and suffering that the derailed train has fallen to fourth place in the pecking order. Time was when no train in Kolkata was grander than the Delhi Mail which went on to Kalka. As a child, I looked on it with awe for a very personal reason — my father’s saloon couldn’t be attached to it; he wasn’t an important enough railway official to add to the length and weight of a train that had sped the viceroy to Shimla. The main platform at Howrah used to be ablaze with the movers and shakers of the world when the Kalka Mail with its smart dining car run by Kellner (Spencer handled catering on southern routes) set out for Delhi each evening.
That august train now follows humbly in the wake of upstarts of the railroad like the Rajdhani and Duronto and Poorva Expresses. The Rajdhani certainly isn’t half as splendid as the Kalka Mail used to be. Its downfall probably began unnoticed when the original sitting room was lopped off. Recently, I had to take it from Patna, and noticed how my first class airconditioned coupe was only a stark box of splintering plywood without many of the fittings (wash basin, wardrobe, etc.) that had been there only a few years ago. One might argue that a stark wooden box can move just as smoothly and safely on the rails as the viceregal saloon used to, but if trains have been so downgraded, it’s likely that so have the rails and supporting infrastructure.
Each new political adventurer who bags the railway portfolio only seeks personal fame and a place in posterity by adding a new train. That is all that public life in India is about nowadays. It’s the same in the professions, even in my own trade of stringing words together. Everyone is selling something and that something is himself (or herself). Only, railway ministers do it at the cost of public life and safety. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the only incumbent to have had the decency to acknowledge that. The others are out for what they can get.
“I am the minister of state, not the railway minister,” Mukul Roy is quoted as saying after Sunday’s calamity. “I will go to the spot if the PM tells me.” The remark betrayed his discontent at not being given Cabinet rank and his anxiety for an opportunity to push himself to the notice of Manmohan Singh and, even better, Sonia Gandhi. Why else should he bother with loss of life and property? It’s not his life or his property! Perhaps Mr Roy had already got wind of the rumour — now reported as fact — that like a medieval empress rewarding subservient courtiers, Mamata Banerjee has decided to bestow the portfolio not on him but on Dinesh Trivedi.
Trains were always on time in a childhood spent in railway colonies when we were not romping in a saloon shunted in the sidings in some distant station or in retiring rooms with the knowledge that a good restaurant with khansamas in crisply beplumed turbans and gleaming brass medallions was available just down the stairs. The last time I had to spend a night in a retiring room was in Arrah because I was visiting the Sonepur fair in the 1970s. The bed linen was so filthy that I reclined all night in a long cane planter’s chair. I should imagine that handsome piece of teak has either been chopped up for firewood or graces some official’s residence.
Trains were on time because engines were well maintained, the tracks perfectly in order with sleepers and fish plates so spaced as to cause the minimum bumps, and no signalman was ever caught napping on his watch. It would offend his izzat and there was no greater insult than that. It was fascinating to watch the signalman at the end of the platform deftly fling the wire ring to the engine driver who caught and flung it back with equal adroitness. The exchange signalled the all-clear.
The inspector in his sola topee on a trolley wheeling along the track under blazing skies or in torrential rain was another indicator of the importance attached to safety. Four bearers pushed and pulled the platform for a while and then jumped on it to remain seated while the momentum lasted. The trolley’s smooth passage ensured that the train following had nothing to fear from missing segments of track, worn-out sleepers, loose fishplate screws or other dangers. The sola-hatted inspector and his bearers literally put their lives on the line for passengers.
Maoism has come as a tremendous boon. The consequences of substandard material (everyone takes a cut on every purchase), shoddy workmanship, poor maintenance and negligent inspection can be blamed on saboteurs. What would all our public services do without those armed rebels? It recalls the principality of Monaco cabling Paris after the end of the Second World War asking for some Communists. Monaco didn’t qualify for Marshall Aid otherwise.
It’s a hell of a way to run a railroad, as the old American saying goes. It’s also a hell of a way to run a country.
Great things are being done for India but not for Indians. The impermanence to which the permanent way — nearly 65,000 km of track — is being reduced matters more than 2G and Commonwealth Games scams or the fuss over a Lokpal.
It was with a stab of pain that I read amidst harrowing tales of death and suffering that the derailed train has fallen to fourth place in the pecking order. Time was when no train in Kolkata was grander than the Delhi Mail which went on to Kalka. As a child, I looked on it with awe for a very personal reason — my father’s saloon couldn’t be attached to it; he wasn’t an important enough railway official to add to the length and weight of a train that had sped the viceroy to Shimla. The main platform at Howrah used to be ablaze with the movers and shakers of the world when the Kalka Mail with its smart dining car run by Kellner (Spencer handled catering on southern routes) set out for Delhi each evening.
That august train now follows humbly in the wake of upstarts of the railroad like the Rajdhani and Duronto and Poorva Expresses. The Rajdhani certainly isn’t half as splendid as the Kalka Mail used to be. Its downfall probably began unnoticed when the original sitting room was lopped off. Recently, I had to take it from Patna, and noticed how my first class airconditioned coupe was only a stark box of splintering plywood without many of the fittings (wash basin, wardrobe, etc.) that had been there only a few years ago. One might argue that a stark wooden box can move just as smoothly and safely on the rails as the viceregal saloon used to, but if trains have been so downgraded, it’s likely that so have the rails and supporting infrastructure.
Each new political adventurer who bags the railway portfolio only seeks personal fame and a place in posterity by adding a new train. That is all that public life in India is about nowadays. It’s the same in the professions, even in my own trade of stringing words together. Everyone is selling something and that something is himself (or herself). Only, railway ministers do it at the cost of public life and safety. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the only incumbent to have had the decency to acknowledge that. The others are out for what they can get.
“I am the minister of state, not the railway minister,” Mukul Roy is quoted as saying after Sunday’s calamity. “I will go to the spot if the PM tells me.” The remark betrayed his discontent at not being given Cabinet rank and his anxiety for an opportunity to push himself to the notice of Manmohan Singh and, even better, Sonia Gandhi. Why else should he bother with loss of life and property? It’s not his life or his property! Perhaps Mr Roy had already got wind of the rumour — now reported as fact — that like a medieval empress rewarding subservient courtiers, Mamata Banerjee has decided to bestow the portfolio not on him but on Dinesh Trivedi.
Trains were always on time in a childhood spent in railway colonies when we were not romping in a saloon shunted in the sidings in some distant station or in retiring rooms with the knowledge that a good restaurant with khansamas in crisply beplumed turbans and gleaming brass medallions was available just down the stairs. The last time I had to spend a night in a retiring room was in Arrah because I was visiting the Sonepur fair in the 1970s. The bed linen was so filthy that I reclined all night in a long cane planter’s chair. I should imagine that handsome piece of teak has either been chopped up for firewood or graces some official’s residence.
Trains were on time because engines were well maintained, the tracks perfectly in order with sleepers and fish plates so spaced as to cause the minimum bumps, and no signalman was ever caught napping on his watch. It would offend his izzat and there was no greater insult than that. It was fascinating to watch the signalman at the end of the platform deftly fling the wire ring to the engine driver who caught and flung it back with equal adroitness. The exchange signalled the all-clear.
The inspector in his sola topee on a trolley wheeling along the track under blazing skies or in torrential rain was another indicator of the importance attached to safety. Four bearers pushed and pulled the platform for a while and then jumped on it to remain seated while the momentum lasted. The trolley’s smooth passage ensured that the train following had nothing to fear from missing segments of track, worn-out sleepers, loose fishplate screws or other dangers. The sola-hatted inspector and his bearers literally put their lives on the line for passengers.
Maoism has come as a tremendous boon. The consequences of substandard material (everyone takes a cut on every purchase), shoddy workmanship, poor maintenance and negligent inspection can be blamed on saboteurs. What would all our public services do without those armed rebels? It recalls the principality of Monaco cabling Paris after the end of the Second World War asking for some Communists. Monaco didn’t qualify for Marshall Aid otherwise.
It’s a hell of a way to run a railroad, as the old American saying goes. It’s also a hell of a way to run a country.
Look beyond LoC....by SH.JAGMOHAN
While we routinely claim that the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India on October 26, 1947, and is now an integral part of the Indian Union, both in terms of national and international laws, we take little interest in what is happening in the vast area which has been in illegal occupation of Pakistan. The elections on June 26, held in a part of that area for its Legislative Assembly, for example, went practically unnoticed in our media. The strategic importance of this area is immense and China, with the collaboration of Pakistan, has been making extensive inroads into it.
We call the area in question Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). On the other side of the Line of Control, it is known as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”, with the fiction of sovereignty woven around it: Its name is not even mentioned in the Constitution of Pakistan, nor does it have any representation in the Pakistan National Assembly or senate.
The area of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is about 78,114 sq. km., which is roughly one-third of the total area (222,236 sq. km.) of the erstwhile princely state. Of this, about 85 per cent constitutes the two main regions of Gilgit and Baltistan and three smaller territories of Hunza, Nagar and Punial. These regions/territories, grouped together and separated from “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”, have been designated as the Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana). The area that remains as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is only 15 per cent of the total area occupied by Pakistan and it is in this area that elections to the 49-member Legislative Assembly were held in June. The attempt of Pakistan has all along been to present this area to the world as a “quasi-sovereign” entity with a democratic set-up. But stark facts stand in the way of this attempt.
“Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is governed by its interim Constitution of 1974 which has quite a few trappings of sovereignty. Apart from its law-making Legislative Assembly, it has a Supreme Court and an Election Commission. Its head of government and constitutional head are called Prime Minister and President respectively. But all these trappings have little meaning — in reality, the area is run as a fiefdom of the federal government of Pakistan.
According to the provisions of the aforesaid Constitution itself, there is an “Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council” of which the Prime Minister of Pakistan is the chairman and the federal minister for Kashmir affairs its secretary. The Prime Minister of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is merely its vice-chairman. The council has 11 other members of whom five are members of federal Parliament. This is an all-powerful body with as many as 52 legislative items under its jurisdiction. The council has the sole power to declare emergency and dissolve the Legislative Assembly and its decisions cannot be challenged in the Supreme Court of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”.
Its vast jurisdiction and extensive powers leave hardly anything to the government of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”. Even appointments to all key posts — chief secretary, finance secretary and inspector-general of police among others — are made by the federal government. No wonder the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees has reckoned the area as “not free”.
The northern areas are in a much worse position. Till 2009, they did not even have a semblance of a representative body and were directly administered by the federal government through a joint-secretary of the ministry of defence. A sizeable demographic change was also brought about by settling a large number of Pathans and Punjabi Sunni Muslims in these areas which earlier had an overwhelming majority of Shia and Ismaili population.
All this caused acute resentment amongst the people. A number of public agitations, including violent ones, followed. The Pakistan government relented. To assuage the anger, it issued an ordinance, notified as the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009. Under this order, to preserve the local identity, the northern areas were renamed Gilgit-Baltistan. The order also provides for an elected Legislative Assembly and a governor and chief minister.
What is significant is that the entire area, which legally belongs to India, has been formally incorporated in Pakistan. The feeble protests made by the Government of India and political parties of Jammu and Kashmir and of Azad Jammu and Kashmir were ignored by Pakistan. Earlier in 1963, Pakistan had virtually ceded 5,180 sq. km. area to China, in addition to about 37,555 sq. km. which was already in its possession.
India has paid dearly for not paying serious attention to the developments on the other side of Line of Control. During the last 20 years, both the “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” area and Gilgit-Baltistan region have caused grave problems. The former became an active centre for cross-border terrorism, and the latter served as an avenue of intrusion into Kargil, which resulted in the Kargil War of 1999.
What should be a matter of special concern to India right now is that the Pakistan-China axis is sowing seeds for future trouble in the region. Of late, Pakistan has been giving de facto control of a vast chunk of Gilgit-Baltistan area to China for building rail and road links between Eastern China and Pakistani port cum naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara. With the completion of these projects, China would be able to transport its goods for exports to and imports from the Gulf countries in two days instead of the present period of 22 days. The Karakoram Highway is also being extended and strengthened to provide an effective link between Sinkiang province of China and Pakistan.
All this is bound to establish stronger strategic and economic bonds between Pakistan and China. Both may join hands to cause more difficulties for India with regard to the Kashmir issue and also for the United States vis-à-vis its interests in Afghanistan. Already, about 10,000 soldiers of the Peoples’ Liberation Army are working in Gilgit-Baltistan on road, rail, irrigation and other development projects.
It is time India started taking a closer look at the events on the other side of Line of Control and evolved an effective strategy to counter their adverse fall-outs.
The author is a former governor of J&K and a former Union minister
We call the area in question Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). On the other side of the Line of Control, it is known as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”, with the fiction of sovereignty woven around it: Its name is not even mentioned in the Constitution of Pakistan, nor does it have any representation in the Pakistan National Assembly or senate.
The area of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is about 78,114 sq. km., which is roughly one-third of the total area (222,236 sq. km.) of the erstwhile princely state. Of this, about 85 per cent constitutes the two main regions of Gilgit and Baltistan and three smaller territories of Hunza, Nagar and Punial. These regions/territories, grouped together and separated from “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”, have been designated as the Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana). The area that remains as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is only 15 per cent of the total area occupied by Pakistan and it is in this area that elections to the 49-member Legislative Assembly were held in June. The attempt of Pakistan has all along been to present this area to the world as a “quasi-sovereign” entity with a democratic set-up. But stark facts stand in the way of this attempt.
“Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is governed by its interim Constitution of 1974 which has quite a few trappings of sovereignty. Apart from its law-making Legislative Assembly, it has a Supreme Court and an Election Commission. Its head of government and constitutional head are called Prime Minister and President respectively. But all these trappings have little meaning — in reality, the area is run as a fiefdom of the federal government of Pakistan.
According to the provisions of the aforesaid Constitution itself, there is an “Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council” of which the Prime Minister of Pakistan is the chairman and the federal minister for Kashmir affairs its secretary. The Prime Minister of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” is merely its vice-chairman. The council has 11 other members of whom five are members of federal Parliament. This is an all-powerful body with as many as 52 legislative items under its jurisdiction. The council has the sole power to declare emergency and dissolve the Legislative Assembly and its decisions cannot be challenged in the Supreme Court of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”.
Its vast jurisdiction and extensive powers leave hardly anything to the government of “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”. Even appointments to all key posts — chief secretary, finance secretary and inspector-general of police among others — are made by the federal government. No wonder the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees has reckoned the area as “not free”.
The northern areas are in a much worse position. Till 2009, they did not even have a semblance of a representative body and were directly administered by the federal government through a joint-secretary of the ministry of defence. A sizeable demographic change was also brought about by settling a large number of Pathans and Punjabi Sunni Muslims in these areas which earlier had an overwhelming majority of Shia and Ismaili population.
All this caused acute resentment amongst the people. A number of public agitations, including violent ones, followed. The Pakistan government relented. To assuage the anger, it issued an ordinance, notified as the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009. Under this order, to preserve the local identity, the northern areas were renamed Gilgit-Baltistan. The order also provides for an elected Legislative Assembly and a governor and chief minister.
What is significant is that the entire area, which legally belongs to India, has been formally incorporated in Pakistan. The feeble protests made by the Government of India and political parties of Jammu and Kashmir and of Azad Jammu and Kashmir were ignored by Pakistan. Earlier in 1963, Pakistan had virtually ceded 5,180 sq. km. area to China, in addition to about 37,555 sq. km. which was already in its possession.
India has paid dearly for not paying serious attention to the developments on the other side of Line of Control. During the last 20 years, both the “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” area and Gilgit-Baltistan region have caused grave problems. The former became an active centre for cross-border terrorism, and the latter served as an avenue of intrusion into Kargil, which resulted in the Kargil War of 1999.
What should be a matter of special concern to India right now is that the Pakistan-China axis is sowing seeds for future trouble in the region. Of late, Pakistan has been giving de facto control of a vast chunk of Gilgit-Baltistan area to China for building rail and road links between Eastern China and Pakistani port cum naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara. With the completion of these projects, China would be able to transport its goods for exports to and imports from the Gulf countries in two days instead of the present period of 22 days. The Karakoram Highway is also being extended and strengthened to provide an effective link between Sinkiang province of China and Pakistan.
All this is bound to establish stronger strategic and economic bonds between Pakistan and China. Both may join hands to cause more difficulties for India with regard to the Kashmir issue and also for the United States vis-à-vis its interests in Afghanistan. Already, about 10,000 soldiers of the Peoples’ Liberation Army are working in Gilgit-Baltistan on road, rail, irrigation and other development projects.
It is time India started taking a closer look at the events on the other side of Line of Control and evolved an effective strategy to counter their adverse fall-outs.
The author is a former governor of J&K and a former Union minister
Why terrorists bleed Mumbai..........by sgobhaa de
Horror of horrors! Mumbaikars actually stayed away from work the morning after the latest bomb blasts. Yup, those devastating ones on Wednesday that ripped out the city’s gut. In case you are saying, “Oh really? How come? We always thought nothing stopped the people of Mumbai from going to work… not even bomb blasts,” you’d be spot on. Nothing does!
The only reason for mass absenteeism on Thursday morning was water logging on train tracks! Imagine the irony of it all. Hundreds of commuters remained absent from work, not out of a sense of fear that there could be more blasts, but because they were stranded at suburban stations. Had it been a clear day, you bet downtown offices would have been as crammed as always. That’s Mumbai. Never say die! Even when death stares you in the face. As death did on the July 13 when three blasts exploded in crowded areas during peak hours. Eighteen people were killed in approximately 12 minutes. The death toll is bound to go up. But at the time of writing, 18 was the official figure. But does the number really matter? We in Mumbai are supposed to smile philosophically and “move on”. Why? Because we are “so resilient”. Because we “must work”. Because the “spirit of Mumbai” is so amazing.
All of this is accurate. But it is of zero comfort. We have reached a stage where the old anger has been replaced by revulsion. We watch the faces of politicians preaching across channels, advising us to “stay calm”. And we want to puke. Contempt for authority is a dangerous tool, especially in democracies. The time has come for citizens to demonstrate their own asli people-power and demand answers from those in authority. This has happened across the Arab world, and it can (should!) happen here. The writing is on the wall. Ignore the hitherto suppressed wrath and ire of the people of this metropolis and invite terrible retribution. An Arab Spring could rapidly turn into a Mumbai Monsoon, with a raging flood of protests that could flatten those who continue to mete out shabby treatment to the citizens of the City of Gold.
AS ALWAYS, it was the man and woman on the street who rose to the challenge and mobilised help within minutes of the blasts. Social networking sites were overloaded with posts and tweets offering any and every kind of assistance. The generosity, the spontaneity of several online communities was not just commendable, but stupendous. People set up help lines, info lines, hot lines and reached out to complete strangers without the slightest hesitation. Whether it was medical help or car rides, places to crash out for the night or hot meals for the hungry, people were going the extra mile to comfort fellow citizens.
Contrast this outpouring of genuine care to the total indifference of netas like R.R. Patil, Maharashtra’s home minister, who was largely untraceable and invisible post-blasts. Fortunately, the new bloke, Prithviraj Chavan, did show up at the affected sites to speak briefly to the media. But what did the chief minister say? Oh… he trotted out predictable platitudes about terrorists striking at the heart of India etc. Having said his piece, he was bundled into a waiting car and that was it. But at least he had the brains to turn up. Contrast his gesture with Vilasrao Deshmukh’s (who can forget his casual stroll through the corridors of the bombed out Taj Mahal Palace after 26/11, accompanied by his movie star son and a dodgy filmmaker?). And let me not forget our cops. This time they arrived swiftly enough, swinging their lathis and swaggering around the carnage, looking suitably grim. The top cop assumed an air of “I mean business” but failed to convince anybody that he indeed did. After an unimpressive walkabout, the Internet was flooded with sardonic comments about these keepers of the city’s law and order, notably by a blogger called Pranav Gandhi who described Mr Patil’s job as “the best job in the world” (no responsibility, no work… but a secure berth in the Cabinet, that too with the same portfolio!).
I am convinced there is something seriously wrong with us, the people of Mumbai. We are the “most attacked” city on earth… and we accept this dubious “honour” passively, like it is a part of our collective destiny to be frequently bombed. This is not stoicism, it is not resignation, and it most certainly isn’t resilience (how I hate that word). So what is it? I’d call it stupidity. Plain stupidity. We think we are being heroic when we react like this when, in fact, we are being foolish. Utterly foolish. We do nothing about this sorry state of affairs and carry on like blasts are “normal”. Like blasts “happen”. Like we are supposed to sit back and accept attacks, chanting, “Hey, this is Mumbai!” It is because of this very idiotic attitude that terrorists love us! They can’t get enough of the city. And they are going to keep bombing us. You know why? Because they can.
While we brag, “Mumbai rocks! People are so jealous of us. Look at our glittering city. Look at our billionaires. Look at the gold and diamonds in our stores! Come on, who wouldn’t want a piece of this action? Who wouldn’t want to destroy Mumbai?”, they attack! Yes, we really are that dumb. We refuse to hold anybody responsible. We refuse to make anybody answerable. We refuse to protest. What do we do instead? We show off! We get back to business as usual within hours of an attack and boast about it to the world. As if it’s something to be deliriously proud of. But hello! The facts are slightly different. Mumbai is attacked over and over again for the simple reason that it is possible! That it is ridiculously easy. Anybody can walk in with a couple of bombs and trigger them off — no problem. It can happen tomorrow morning… even tonight. That’s how exposed and vulnerable Mumbai remains. Frankly, we are asking for it. We deserve it. If that sounds harsh — sorry! It’s the truth. The terrorists know this, too. They take advantage of Mumbai’s nakedness. They laugh. They mock. Nobody is in charge here — not even the cops… so long as the city’s VVIPs are well protected, the aam aadmi doesn’t matter. The bad guys are well aware of Mumbai’s weaknesses… of Mumbai’s impotence… its powerlessness to deal with calamities… emergencies… crises. Even after this Black Wednesday, we continue to grin, shrug and say, “Zindagi na milegi dobara”.
Party on, guys! Tomorrow is another day… if it comes!
— Readers can send feedback at www.shobhaade.blogspot.com
The only reason for mass absenteeism on Thursday morning was water logging on train tracks! Imagine the irony of it all. Hundreds of commuters remained absent from work, not out of a sense of fear that there could be more blasts, but because they were stranded at suburban stations. Had it been a clear day, you bet downtown offices would have been as crammed as always. That’s Mumbai. Never say die! Even when death stares you in the face. As death did on the July 13 when three blasts exploded in crowded areas during peak hours. Eighteen people were killed in approximately 12 minutes. The death toll is bound to go up. But at the time of writing, 18 was the official figure. But does the number really matter? We in Mumbai are supposed to smile philosophically and “move on”. Why? Because we are “so resilient”. Because we “must work”. Because the “spirit of Mumbai” is so amazing.
All of this is accurate. But it is of zero comfort. We have reached a stage where the old anger has been replaced by revulsion. We watch the faces of politicians preaching across channels, advising us to “stay calm”. And we want to puke. Contempt for authority is a dangerous tool, especially in democracies. The time has come for citizens to demonstrate their own asli people-power and demand answers from those in authority. This has happened across the Arab world, and it can (should!) happen here. The writing is on the wall. Ignore the hitherto suppressed wrath and ire of the people of this metropolis and invite terrible retribution. An Arab Spring could rapidly turn into a Mumbai Monsoon, with a raging flood of protests that could flatten those who continue to mete out shabby treatment to the citizens of the City of Gold.
AS ALWAYS, it was the man and woman on the street who rose to the challenge and mobilised help within minutes of the blasts. Social networking sites were overloaded with posts and tweets offering any and every kind of assistance. The generosity, the spontaneity of several online communities was not just commendable, but stupendous. People set up help lines, info lines, hot lines and reached out to complete strangers without the slightest hesitation. Whether it was medical help or car rides, places to crash out for the night or hot meals for the hungry, people were going the extra mile to comfort fellow citizens.
Contrast this outpouring of genuine care to the total indifference of netas like R.R. Patil, Maharashtra’s home minister, who was largely untraceable and invisible post-blasts. Fortunately, the new bloke, Prithviraj Chavan, did show up at the affected sites to speak briefly to the media. But what did the chief minister say? Oh… he trotted out predictable platitudes about terrorists striking at the heart of India etc. Having said his piece, he was bundled into a waiting car and that was it. But at least he had the brains to turn up. Contrast his gesture with Vilasrao Deshmukh’s (who can forget his casual stroll through the corridors of the bombed out Taj Mahal Palace after 26/11, accompanied by his movie star son and a dodgy filmmaker?). And let me not forget our cops. This time they arrived swiftly enough, swinging their lathis and swaggering around the carnage, looking suitably grim. The top cop assumed an air of “I mean business” but failed to convince anybody that he indeed did. After an unimpressive walkabout, the Internet was flooded with sardonic comments about these keepers of the city’s law and order, notably by a blogger called Pranav Gandhi who described Mr Patil’s job as “the best job in the world” (no responsibility, no work… but a secure berth in the Cabinet, that too with the same portfolio!).
I am convinced there is something seriously wrong with us, the people of Mumbai. We are the “most attacked” city on earth… and we accept this dubious “honour” passively, like it is a part of our collective destiny to be frequently bombed. This is not stoicism, it is not resignation, and it most certainly isn’t resilience (how I hate that word). So what is it? I’d call it stupidity. Plain stupidity. We think we are being heroic when we react like this when, in fact, we are being foolish. Utterly foolish. We do nothing about this sorry state of affairs and carry on like blasts are “normal”. Like blasts “happen”. Like we are supposed to sit back and accept attacks, chanting, “Hey, this is Mumbai!” It is because of this very idiotic attitude that terrorists love us! They can’t get enough of the city. And they are going to keep bombing us. You know why? Because they can.
While we brag, “Mumbai rocks! People are so jealous of us. Look at our glittering city. Look at our billionaires. Look at the gold and diamonds in our stores! Come on, who wouldn’t want a piece of this action? Who wouldn’t want to destroy Mumbai?”, they attack! Yes, we really are that dumb. We refuse to hold anybody responsible. We refuse to make anybody answerable. We refuse to protest. What do we do instead? We show off! We get back to business as usual within hours of an attack and boast about it to the world. As if it’s something to be deliriously proud of. But hello! The facts are slightly different. Mumbai is attacked over and over again for the simple reason that it is possible! That it is ridiculously easy. Anybody can walk in with a couple of bombs and trigger them off — no problem. It can happen tomorrow morning… even tonight. That’s how exposed and vulnerable Mumbai remains. Frankly, we are asking for it. We deserve it. If that sounds harsh — sorry! It’s the truth. The terrorists know this, too. They take advantage of Mumbai’s nakedness. They laugh. They mock. Nobody is in charge here — not even the cops… so long as the city’s VVIPs are well protected, the aam aadmi doesn’t matter. The bad guys are well aware of Mumbai’s weaknesses… of Mumbai’s impotence… its powerlessness to deal with calamities… emergencies… crises. Even after this Black Wednesday, we continue to grin, shrug and say, “Zindagi na milegi dobara”.
Party on, guys! Tomorrow is another day… if it comes!
— Readers can send feedback at www.shobhaade.blogspot.com
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
BADALTI ZINDGI (CHANGING LIFE)
Initially during childhood i had interest in multiple things /professions like any child.
Then i got a chance and was invited by INSTITUTE OF MICROBIAL TECHNOLOGY after i topped matric exam.
Then i wanted to be a scientist.
BUT
Then as time passed i wanted to be a doctor and then surgeon(specialist)
But then i joined BDS (DENTISTRY) because the college was local(in my city) so i thought i will do MASTERS IN ORAL SURGERY..
BUT then when everyting was going fine and i was damn determined to go for MDS..something really shocking happened to me that had the wide and really heavy impact on not just me but my whole family..and then i realised that in india you are something only when you have administrative power/influence or anything like that..Facing partiality,discrimination throughout the life it really got concentrated in 2006 and june 28,2006 was the day that really made me feel worst person on this earth and that just turned the tide.I just stopped thinking about any future in dentistry coz it betrayed me badly despite of all the sincere efforts.
anyhow 6 months passed..such worst conditions happened to those who are most beloved and respected for me.And then started the time of dilemma..
2007 i did internship..again being very innocent kindd of person put up in bunch of all the nonsense it was a pathetic year..
2008 all in dilemma..confused about what i want to di coz i was nomore interested in dentistry as it could offer me not what i wanted NOW.
december 2009 was the month i really wanted to get into civil services through upsc that provide you highest entry level posts in the administration.I had no idea what is way for me and how its travelled.
anyhow in chandigarh time passed in leisure.though the goal stayed in mind but physically i was diverted to playing enjoying and so.
MARCH 2009 again the real force in my life,MY FATHER brought me back on track and then it was all as success..
IT WAS VERY VERY TOUGH GETTING BACK ON THE TRACK AFTER JUNE 28,2006 INCIDENT.(INCIDENTLY THATS THE BIRTH DATE OF ONE OF MY VERY CLOSE FRIEND NOW WHOM I MET 0N DECEMBER 14 2009 :)
NOW as i have entered into department at a well respected and dignified post where i am my own approach and not anyone can make me meet injustice i met 5 years before..
AND CAN NEVER FORGET THAT TIME though all who have been my known say that it happened for good but still "KUCH ZAKHM BHARTE NAHI NASOOR BAN JATE HAIN"
LIFE IS SO UNCERTAIN..ITS SUCH A GAMBLE.U MAY LOOSE TO WIN AND UR VICTORY MAY HOLD THE LOSS FOR YOU UNDERNEATH..
EXPLORE IT TILL YOU WIN TILL YOU ARE SATISFIED..
CARE FOR ALL BUT DONT GIVE A DAMN TO IGNORANT..
GET UP AND RISE LIKE SUN DO EVERYDAY..
Then i got a chance and was invited by INSTITUTE OF MICROBIAL TECHNOLOGY after i topped matric exam.
Then i wanted to be a scientist.
BUT
Then as time passed i wanted to be a doctor and then surgeon(specialist)
But then i joined BDS (DENTISTRY) because the college was local(in my city) so i thought i will do MASTERS IN ORAL SURGERY..
BUT then when everyting was going fine and i was damn determined to go for MDS..something really shocking happened to me that had the wide and really heavy impact on not just me but my whole family..and then i realised that in india you are something only when you have administrative power/influence or anything like that..Facing partiality,discrimination throughout the life it really got concentrated in 2006 and june 28,2006 was the day that really made me feel worst person on this earth and that just turned the tide.I just stopped thinking about any future in dentistry coz it betrayed me badly despite of all the sincere efforts.
anyhow 6 months passed..such worst conditions happened to those who are most beloved and respected for me.And then started the time of dilemma..
2007 i did internship..again being very innocent kindd of person put up in bunch of all the nonsense it was a pathetic year..
2008 all in dilemma..confused about what i want to di coz i was nomore interested in dentistry as it could offer me not what i wanted NOW.
december 2009 was the month i really wanted to get into civil services through upsc that provide you highest entry level posts in the administration.I had no idea what is way for me and how its travelled.
anyhow in chandigarh time passed in leisure.though the goal stayed in mind but physically i was diverted to playing enjoying and so.
MARCH 2009 again the real force in my life,MY FATHER brought me back on track and then it was all as success..
IT WAS VERY VERY TOUGH GETTING BACK ON THE TRACK AFTER JUNE 28,2006 INCIDENT.(INCIDENTLY THATS THE BIRTH DATE OF ONE OF MY VERY CLOSE FRIEND NOW WHOM I MET 0N DECEMBER 14 2009 :)
NOW as i have entered into department at a well respected and dignified post where i am my own approach and not anyone can make me meet injustice i met 5 years before..
AND CAN NEVER FORGET THAT TIME though all who have been my known say that it happened for good but still "KUCH ZAKHM BHARTE NAHI NASOOR BAN JATE HAIN"
LIFE IS SO UNCERTAIN..ITS SUCH A GAMBLE.U MAY LOOSE TO WIN AND UR VICTORY MAY HOLD THE LOSS FOR YOU UNDERNEATH..
EXPLORE IT TILL YOU WIN TILL YOU ARE SATISFIED..
CARE FOR ALL BUT DONT GIVE A DAMN TO IGNORANT..
GET UP AND RISE LIKE SUN DO EVERYDAY..
Thursday, June 30, 2011
SYLLABUS OF PUNJABI LITERATURE FOR CIVIL SERVICES EXAM CONDUCTED BY UPSC
PUNJABI
PAPER-I
(Answers must be written in Punjabi in
Gurumukhi Script)
Section-A
(a) Origin of Punjabi language : different
stages of development and recent development
in Punjabi language : characteristics of
Punjabi phonology and the study of its tones:
classification of vowels and consonants.
(b) Punjabi morphology : the number-gender
system (animate and inanimate), prefixes,
affixes and different categories of Post
positions: Punjabi word formation: Tatsam.
Tad Bhav, forms: Sentence structure, the
notion of subject and object in Punjabi:
Noun and verb phrases.
(c) Language and dialect; the notions of
dialect and idiolect; major dialects of
Punjabi; Pothohari, Majhi, Doabi, Malwai,
Puadhi; the validity of speech variation on
the basis of social stratification, the distinctive
features of various dialects with special
reference to tones. Language and script;
origin and development of Gurmukhi; suitability
of Gurmukhi for Punjabi.
(d) Classical background; Nath Jogi Sahit
Medieval literature : Gurmat, Sufti, Kissa
and Var Janamsakhis.
Section-B
(a) Modern Mystic, romantic, progressive
Trends and neomystic (Vir Singh,
Puran Singh, Mohan Singh,
Amrita Pritam, Bawa Balwant,
Pritam Singh Safeer, J.S.
Neki).
Experimentalist (Jasbir SinghAhluwalia, Ravinder Ravi,
Ajaib Kamal)
Aesthetes (Harbhajan Singh,
Tara Singh)
Neo-progressive (Pash.
Jagtar, Patar)
Origin and Development of Genres :
(b) Folk Folk songs, Folk tales. Riddles,
literature Proverbs.
Epic (Vir Singh, Avtar Singh, Azad
Mohan Singh)
Lyric (Gurus, Sufis and Modern Lyricists-
Mohan Singh Amrita
Pritam, Shiv Kumar,
Harbhajan Singh)
(c) Drama (I.C. Nanda, Harcharan Singh,
Balwant Gargi, S.S.Sekhon,
Charan Das Sidhu)
Novel (Vir Singh, Nanak Singh,
Jaswant Singh Kanwal, K.S.
Duggal, Sukhbir, Gurdial
Singh, Dalip Kaur Tiwana,
Swaran Chandan)
Short Story (Sujan Singh, K.S. Virk. Prem
Parkash, Waryam Sandhu).
(d) Socio- Sanskrit, Persian and Western.
cultural
Literary influences
Essay (Puran Singh, Teja Singh,
Gurbaksh Singh)
Literary (S.S. Sekhon, Attar Singh,
Criticism Kishan Singh, Harbhajan
Singh, Najam Hussain
Sayyad).
PAPER-II
(Answers must be written in Punjabi
in Gurumukhi Script)
This paper will require first-hand reading
of the texts prescribed and will be designed
to test the candidate’s critical ability.
Section-A
a) Sheikh Farid The complete Bani as included
in the Adi Granth.
b) Guru Nanak Japu Ji Baramah, Asa di
Var
c) Bulleh Shah Kafian
d) Waris Shah Heer
Section-B
a) Shah Jangnama (Jang
Mohammad Singhan te Firangian)
Dhani Ram Chandan Vari
Chatrik (Poet) Sufi Khana
Nawan Jahan
b) Nanak Singh Chitta Lahu
(Novelist) Pavittar Papi
Ek Mian Do Talwaran
c) Gurbaksh Zindagi di Ras
Singh (Essayist) Nawan Shivala
Merian Abhul Yadaan.
Balraj Sahni Mera Roosi Safarnama
(Travelogue) Mera Pakistani
Safarnama
d) Balwant Gargi Loha Kutt
(Dramatist) Dhuni-di-Agg
Sultan Razia
Sant Singh Sahityarth
Sekhon (Critic) Parsidh Punjabi Kavi
Punjabi Kav Shiromani
PAPER-I
(Answers must be written in Punjabi in
Gurumukhi Script)
Section-A
(a) Origin of Punjabi language : different
stages of development and recent development
in Punjabi language : characteristics of
Punjabi phonology and the study of its tones:
classification of vowels and consonants.
(b) Punjabi morphology : the number-gender
system (animate and inanimate), prefixes,
affixes and different categories of Post
positions: Punjabi word formation: Tatsam.
Tad Bhav, forms: Sentence structure, the
notion of subject and object in Punjabi:
Noun and verb phrases.
(c) Language and dialect; the notions of
dialect and idiolect; major dialects of
Punjabi; Pothohari, Majhi, Doabi, Malwai,
Puadhi; the validity of speech variation on
the basis of social stratification, the distinctive
features of various dialects with special
reference to tones. Language and script;
origin and development of Gurmukhi; suitability
of Gurmukhi for Punjabi.
(d) Classical background; Nath Jogi Sahit
Medieval literature : Gurmat, Sufti, Kissa
and Var Janamsakhis.
Section-B
(a) Modern Mystic, romantic, progressive
Trends and neomystic (Vir Singh,
Puran Singh, Mohan Singh,
Amrita Pritam, Bawa Balwant,
Pritam Singh Safeer, J.S.
Neki).
Experimentalist (Jasbir SinghAhluwalia, Ravinder Ravi,
Ajaib Kamal)
Aesthetes (Harbhajan Singh,
Tara Singh)
Neo-progressive (Pash.
Jagtar, Patar)
Origin and Development of Genres :
(b) Folk Folk songs, Folk tales. Riddles,
literature Proverbs.
Epic (Vir Singh, Avtar Singh, Azad
Mohan Singh)
Lyric (Gurus, Sufis and Modern Lyricists-
Mohan Singh Amrita
Pritam, Shiv Kumar,
Harbhajan Singh)
(c) Drama (I.C. Nanda, Harcharan Singh,
Balwant Gargi, S.S.Sekhon,
Charan Das Sidhu)
Novel (Vir Singh, Nanak Singh,
Jaswant Singh Kanwal, K.S.
Duggal, Sukhbir, Gurdial
Singh, Dalip Kaur Tiwana,
Swaran Chandan)
Short Story (Sujan Singh, K.S. Virk. Prem
Parkash, Waryam Sandhu).
(d) Socio- Sanskrit, Persian and Western.
cultural
Literary influences
Essay (Puran Singh, Teja Singh,
Gurbaksh Singh)
Literary (S.S. Sekhon, Attar Singh,
Criticism Kishan Singh, Harbhajan
Singh, Najam Hussain
Sayyad).
PAPER-II
(Answers must be written in Punjabi
in Gurumukhi Script)
This paper will require first-hand reading
of the texts prescribed and will be designed
to test the candidate’s critical ability.
Section-A
a) Sheikh Farid The complete Bani as included
in the Adi Granth.
b) Guru Nanak Japu Ji Baramah, Asa di
Var
c) Bulleh Shah Kafian
d) Waris Shah Heer
Section-B
a) Shah Jangnama (Jang
Mohammad Singhan te Firangian)
Dhani Ram Chandan Vari
Chatrik (Poet) Sufi Khana
Nawan Jahan
b) Nanak Singh Chitta Lahu
(Novelist) Pavittar Papi
Ek Mian Do Talwaran
c) Gurbaksh Zindagi di Ras
Singh (Essayist) Nawan Shivala
Merian Abhul Yadaan.
Balraj Sahni Mera Roosi Safarnama
(Travelogue) Mera Pakistani
Safarnama
d) Balwant Gargi Loha Kutt
(Dramatist) Dhuni-di-Agg
Sultan Razia
Sant Singh Sahityarth
Sekhon (Critic) Parsidh Punjabi Kavi
Punjabi Kav Shiromani
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