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Open Forum
Phone-Tapping Scandal:DEMOCRACY OR POLICE STATE?, by Poonam I Kaushish,7 January 2006 |
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POLITICAL DIARY
NEW DELHI, 7 January 2006
Phone-Tapping
Scandal
DEMOCRACY OR POLICE
STATE?
By Poonam I Kaushish
As North India shivers in
the blistering cold wave, the Adam’s and Eves in the political Garden of Eden continue
to generate heat. Wherein the country is slowly but surely being pushed towards
becoming an ‘eves’dropping paradise!
Poor Amar Singh, the Badshah of ‘Reliable’ infotainment is
today deeply involved in a phone-tapping controversy. He has accused the
Congress President, Sonia Gandhi of getting his phone tapped. He has produced
Home Ministry letters to prove his charge. Interestingly, the tapping was allegedly
done by the owner of a private detective agency alongwith a Reliance man, both
of whom have been arrested.
The phone-tapping records are said to pertain to the
Samajwadi leader’s gup-shup with some
film stars. While not denying his guftagu, Amar Singh and his party Chief
Mulayam Singh Yadav have made the tapping into a major political issue. Both
have demanded a full fledged enquiry by a special task force instead of the
CBI, which they have dubbed as the Congress Bureau of Investigation.
The Congress has rubbished the charges by the SP duo and got
only described them as ‘Operation Majnu’
but pointedly asked: Why has an FIR not been filed? Moreover, the tapping
had been done by a private party against whom a proper inquiry had already been
instituted and two persons had been arrested. But the issue refuses to die
down. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha, too has joined issue with the
SP General Secretary and alleged that she, too, was the victim of
phone-tapping. The Left parties have also chipped in and demanded a thorough
enquiry.
True, in a narrow political sense, the phone-tapping incident
is yet another indicator of how low and dirty our polity plays. There are no
rules of the game. Morality and ethics no longer matter. Everything is ‘fair’
in a political war. Having crossed the limits of all maryada, why beat about the bush! Haramzadigi, if I say so, is
the new name of the game. But the issue goes far beyond this. It raises serious
and pertinent questions about the violation of an individual’s basic right to
privacy and his fundamental right to freedom of speech, enshrined in our
Constitution. Raising a moot point: Are we slowly degenerating from a democracy
into a police state?
There is no denying that phone-tapping is undertaken the
world over for reasons of national security or serious crimes. Wiretapping is
regulated under the Telegraph Act of 1885.
Officially, only the Union Home Secretary, or his counterparts in the
states can issue an order for telephone tapping, and the police are allowed to
tap telephones of a person receiving threatening calls. The government is also
required to show that the information sought cannot to be obtained through any
other means. Tapping has to be done with the assistance of the
telecommunications department.
For instance, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known
to possess computers that can catch a key word in a conversation and then
record the entire conversation. The computer is fed with the name of the wanted
person and any conversation where that person's name is used gets recorded. Recently,
two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were gunned down by the Delhi police on the basis of their cellphone
records. The cricket scandal of match fixing was also exposed thanks to the
tapping of the phones of bookies and the former South African captain, Hansie
Cronje in 2000.
However, what is distressing is that the powers-that-be are
abusing their brute authority to get the phones of their political opponents
tapped. In fact, there have been several phone tapping scandals in recent years
leading to a Supreme Court direction in 1996. The Court ruled that wiretaps are
a "serious invasion of an individual's privacy”. The Court recognized the
fact that the right to privacy is an integral part of the fundamental right to
life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Court even laid down
guidelines for wiretapping by the government.
Sadly, there is no definite indication that privacy is being
respected as per the Supreme Court's guidelines. As India's cream de la cream especially
the political class and the business community
shift to cellular phones as the preferred mode of communication, more and more
instances are coming to light of not just security agencies but even cellular
company employees selling telephone records of rival companies for a
consideration or just listening in on conversations. Recall, how phone tapping
was taken recourse to in an attempt to destabilize the BJP-BSP coalition
Government in UP in 2001. Allegedly a political fixer tapped the phones of the
BSP rebels to ensure that they did not desert the Party.
Not many are aware that it is quite easy for anyone to tap
the telephone as it does not require much skill. All it takes is the right
equipment and the bank account to support the investment. According to detectives,
if one pays a little money to the linesman, who is sitting near the telephone
exchange, a parallel connection can be arranged and the conversation easily
tapped. Another way to eavesdrop upon a telephone conversation is to place a
transmitter, one-fourth the size of a matchbox, between the telephone exchange
and the phones.
Not only that. With computer-based portable interception
devices that not only record conversation and SMS remotely but organise it
neatly in a database for future reference, tapping into cellphone is becoming
child's play. Easy to operate with the push of a few buttons, these devices
come in user-friendly packaging and can be operated on car cigarette lighters. Cellular
phone company computers can record millions of movements going back to more
than a year and therefore the location of a user at any given time or date can
be traced to within a few hundred meters of the exact spot.
Security agencies are now understood to be actively making
what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The cellphone
of a person visiting the national capital can be locked in their beams by
sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the signals can
track his movements. Though there are methods to prevent tapping, not many make
use of them. This involves the use of debugging instrument and scramblers. While
abroad people use scrambles which are superior to debugging, but its price
keeps people away.
Despite assertions by successive Governments regarding
introduction of a new age legislation and the setting up of an organisation to
oversee telecom companies, we do not appear to have travelled very far towards
ensuring privacy and a fair deal for telecom
subscribers. But as the Amar Singh issue has highlighted, the
time has come for a debate on the invasion of privacy. It is not merely an
issue of washing of dirty political linen to score petty points. But as more
and more people turn to higher technology-based phones of all varieties due to
falling rates, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more
contentious as it involves the basic issue of human rights. Questions rarely
addressed by political parties.
Fortunately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done well to
have honestly acknowledged that “phone-tapping is a very serious matter”. Asked
to comment on the SP’s charge, he also asserted: “Phone-tapping should not be
there”. There are no two views on it”. Clearly,
there is an urgent need to shore up public confidence by prescribing a fresh set of guidelines barring the
Government from tapping phones of its rivals. Or else it could turn into a
scandalous “political tool and trade practice’. The guidelines must also ensure
that owners and employees of cellular companies are denied the pleasure of
delving in their backyards for details of persons called by a particular
subscriber. If we do not cry a halt now, the country may well end up as a
police state. ----INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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Rahul Debut’s At Congress Session:CHALNA HAI, CHALNA HAI, PAR KAHAN?, by PI Kaushish,28 Jan 06 |
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POLITICAL DIARY
New Delhi, 28 January 2006
Rahul Debut’s At
Congress Session
CHALNA HAI, CHALNA HAI, PAR KAHAN?
By Poonam I Kaushish
It was billed as the greatest political extravaganza of the
new year. A feel good show intended to instill a new vigour and vitality in the
Grand Old Party. A lesson in political ABC --- aggression, bounce and
confidence --- to achieve greater heights. Alas, all plans went phut. Pricked by scams galore. Which
popped up like the proverbial bad penny, leaving the party more deflated than
ever.
How else should one describe the 82nd three-day
Congress plenary held at the Gachibowli stadium (renamed Rajiv Nagar) in Hyderabad on 2l-23
January last? Its title –Ateet Ki Neev,
Bhavishya Ka Nirman, Nayi Zimadari (Building a future on the foundations of
the past is the new responsibility) – could not have been more misleading.
Held as it was under the shadow of the Volcker and
Quottrochi scandals, the looming crisis in neighbouring Karnataka where its
Government was tottering on its last legs, and skirmishes with the Left on
crucial policy matters. But our Congress netagan
typically
chose to brush everything under the carpet. Refusing to see the writing on the
wall, they continued yet another charade in wishful thinking --- without a new disha and without a fresh sandesh.
Before you read me wrong, this is not to detract from the
positive aspects of the session. One, it injected the aphrodisiac called power among
the 15,000 delegates who assembled at the Rajiv Nagar, aimed at steering a new
direction, sense of consolidation and organizational renewal. Two, boasting of
flawless arrangements by the hosts, headed by Congress Chief Minister Rajashekhar
Reddy, it proved that when it sets it’s heart on delivering, none can do it
better than the Congress. Proved by the 150 computers in the media centre. Three,
it lined up a Gen Next leaders, headed by Rahul, who are willing to assert and call
a spade a spade.
Promises were a plenty. So also the pledges. There was a khichri of Nehruvian socialism (reform
with a human face) and Manmohanic liberalization. There was lots and lots of
secularism without any clue about how it could be translated it into votes. A huge
typical Congress tamasha which failed
to find answers to the dilemmas facing the party. It refused to address the
ticklish issues of striking a balance between its stand on alliances and
coalitions and the need to expand its organization and social base in the
states ruled by its allies or other opposition parties. What is more, how to
fulfil its “coalition dharma”, check corruption, maintain austerity and build
bridges between the party and the government.
The political resolution which recognized the inevitability
of coalition governments, terming them as ‘a political reality’ at least for
the next few years, put the onus for the successful run of such arrangements on
its partners. It talked of “collective responsibility.” Asserted Defence
Minister Pranab Mukherjee at a media briefing, “ Coalitions are a give and
take. Our partners should be ready to
give so that all Indians are able to take.
The alternative is too dangerous to even countenance”
The dichotomy was so obvious in the document. “The
discipline of coalition politics was honestly and strenuously followed by the
Congress from that day (the day it accepted the reality), making the UPA
possible and successful.” Implicit was
the message that while the party had followed the dharma, the partners had not. The resolution is almost certain to
be contested by the alliance partners as the party shares power with other
outfits in many states. Coalitions in
these states have had had their own share of troubles, thanks in no small
measure to the attitude displayed by the Congress.
As the crisis in Karnataka has shown, the Congress has none
to blame but itself. On the sidelines of the session, senior Congress leaders
confided that Dharam Singh was basically to blame. Emboldened by the outcome of
the panchayat elections, the state
unit ill-advisedly needled the JD(S) and its President HD Deve Gowda. And when
the former Prime Minister rushed to Delhi
to hold talks with Sonia Gandhi, the latter refused him an audience.
In Andhra Pradesh, the TRS is up in arms against the Grand
Dame for its refusal to take any steps towards the fulfillment of its
long-standing demands for the creation of a separate state of Telangana. And in
Maharashtra, the Congress is engaged in a
behind-the scenes feud with the NCP after it overtook the latter in terms of
numerical strength in the state assembly.
Similarly, even while the Party exhorts its workers to
strive hard to revive the party’s fortunes in the states where its base has
been eroded or has a negligible presence, it is tempered with the realization
that it cannot declare open war on partners who have grown at its expense. Like
the RLD and Jan Shakti in Bihar and the
Samajwadi and BSP in UP. Also, with the Left parties being the UPA Government’s
‘life-line’, it cannot afford to get on its wrong side. Notwithstanding the
fact that it has gone to considerable pains to dispel speculations about
friendly fights in the forthcoming elections in Kerala and West
Bengal – States where the Left is directly pitted against the
Congress.
Significantly, the Congress maa-beta duo Sonia and Rahul both made a forceful pitch for waging
a “long and forceful war to recover ground in the Hindu heartland”. Realizing
that they would be trapped in the quagmire of playing second fiddle to regional
players in unless they got their act together in the vital states of UP, Bihar
and Madhya Pradesh which account for nearly 200 Lok Sabha seats, Sonia made no
bones about the fact that she was no longer satisfied with the Party’s space in
coalition politics and extolled her partymen to take “the commanding heights of
politics again”.
Undoubtedly both she and Rahul succinctly diagnosed the
problem but could not come up with convincing answers to galvanize the comatose
units. Specially, against the backdrop of the Party’s shrinking vote
nation-wide. Crippled as it with rank indiscipline within. Big, small and petty
leaders are all pulling in different directions. In the last three years alone
the Party has changed its PCC chief thrice in UP. Not only that. Three top guns
“refused” to attend the session. Uttarkhand Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari (dropped
from the CWC) and his counter part in Himachal, Vir Bhadra Singh. Bengal leader Ghani Khan Chowdhary who is reportedly keen
to join Trinamool’s Mamata. There were loud whispers of discontent about the
recent AICC reshuffle specially the reconstitution of the CWC which now has
been packed with “non-entities”. How then one wonders will the party recapture
its lost glory?
That sycophancy reigns supreme was so evident when
speaker-after-speaker eulogized, in glowing terms, the sacrifices made by the
Nehru-Gandhi family and, in particular, Sonia Gandhi. Never mind Sonia making
amply clear at the outset itself that she did not want the speakers to waste
time eulogizing her or Rahul. Even before Rahul had stepped into the city,
banners converting his name into an acronym (R-reformist, A-accomplished,
H-honest, U-upcoming, L-leadership) had sprung up all over.
Speakers continued to unabashedly croon, “The entire country
is looking towards Rahul… Rahul aana, is
desh ko aage le jana, (please take the country forward), Rahul lao, Desh bachao.” Slogans were
vociferously raised for him to join the CWC. In his maiden address at the
session, the Gandhi scion was a picture of calm and composure as he read out
from a prepared text, yet never failing to connect. His speech, which came in the form of an
intervention during the discussion on the political resolution, was heard with
rapt attention by the delegates.
He posed some soul-searching, posing some uncomfortable, yet
real, questions – Why is that the Congress, which, at one point of time, was so
strong in the Hindi heartland, has become so weak? What should be the mantra to re-charge the
party apparatus in north India?
But there were no answers. True he did not set the Krishna
on fire. But the young man minced no words that he meant business. Whether he
really means business and can deliver time alone will tell.
In sum, even as Sonia offered the moon and the stars to
project a Congress rainbow on India’s
future political horizon and every Congressmen present lapped it up, the
reality was different. In fact, harsh. Barely had the session ended in a grand
finale of a new sankalp the party had
mud all over its face. What with the Supreme Court severely indicting Bihar
Governor Buta Singh as well as the Central Government and appropriately casting
doubts, how so ever politely, about the President’s conduct. Raising a moot point: How will the Congress fare
in its new tryst with destiny. Chalna
hai, chalna hai aur chalna hai. But where? ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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National Policy Needed:Making Best Use of Available Water, by Dr. Vinod Mehta,25 May 2006 |
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ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi, 25 May 2006
National Policy Needed
Making Best Use of Available Water
By Dr. Vinod Mehta
The weather department has predicted
upto 5% shortfall in rain this year, which is going to be reflected in the
agricultural output. The vagary of
monsoon has once again focussed over
dependence on monsoon. It implies that
we must do something to reduce our dependence on rains. This also calls for a national water policy
to make best or optimum use of available water.
Budgetary proposals for the year
2004-05 had paid special attention to water management and allocated a
substantial amount of money for this sector. This step was taken considering
the fact that the availability of water is decreasing with every passing day and unless
something is done to conserve water we may be courting trouble, vis-à-vis,
population, agriculture and industry.
Let us first have a look at some
facts. Fresh water represents less
than 0.5% of the total water on the earth surface. Rest of the water is either
in the form of sea water or locked up in icecaps or soil. The worldwide
consumption of water is doubling every 20 years more than twice the rate of
increase in population.
In spite of the fact that water is scarce, it is being used
recklessly. A large amount of water
is being wasted in agriculture, industry and urban areas. It has been estimated
that available technologies and better upgradational practices, agricultural
water demand could be cut by about 50% and that in urban areas by about 33%
without affecting the quality of life. But most of the governments do not have
adequate laws or regulations to protect their water systems.
In most developing countries the
fresh water supply comes in the form of seasonal rains. Such rains do not
provide enough time for efficient use
during the monsoon. India,
for instance, gets 90% of its rainfall during the summer monsoon season which
lasts from June to September. For the rest of the months there is hardly any
rain. As a result of the seasonal nature of rain India can make use of no more than
20% of its potentially available fresh water resources.
The per capita availability of
renewable fresh water in the country has fallen drastically over the last 50
years. The water table is rapidly falling with unregulated over exploitation of
groundwater. By 2025 water scarcity in India is expected to be acute and
big dams-mega river linking projects or privatized water distribution may not
help. Apart from rain the other two important sources of water in India are rivers
and ground water. India
has 14 major, 44 medium and 55 minor river basins. India’s ground water resources are
almost ten times its annual rain fall. Like surface water nearly 85% of the
ground water is used mainly for irrigation.
It is quite obvious that the country will have to do
something so that the water problem does not assume
any alarming proportions. Since we do not have any control either over monsoon
or rivers the only way to conserve water is through efficient management of
rain and river water. It calls for various measures in the next two to three
years.
It is amazing that despite the fact
that we are faced with the problem of growing scarcity of water, we do not have
any national water policy. During drought we dig up many areas under ‘food-for-work
programme’ for storing rain water during the next monsoon. Then we come up with
ideas like linking of rivers and occasionally we beat our chest for the falling
underground water table. One has been hearing about water harvesting for
several years but not much is known as to how much work has been done in this
area.
It is, therefore, essential that the country must have a clear cut
water management policy for the next fifty years. How the river water is to be
used and how it is to be diverted from surplus to water deficient areas must be
clearly spelt out. Linking of rivers is a good idea but before attempting such
a course an exercise must be carried out very carefully to weigh all the pros
and cons of it because once the rivers have been inter linked it may not be possible to reverse the whole thing if we find one day
that it is not working well or has created numerous other problems.
For each district and for each village we should have a data
base on the average annual availability of water, number of wells, ponds,
pools, streams etc. This will help manage water in a better way.
Beyond this there is an urgent need to change the attitude
of the people towards the use of water. As of today people are wasting and
polluting a large amount of water in many ways. The most polluting of them are
the city sewage and industrial water discharged into the rivers. Currently only
about 10% of the waste water generated is treated. The rest is discharged as it
is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter ground water and other
water bodies. This water which ultimately ends up in our household is often
highly contaminated carrying disease causing microbes.
Water from the agricultural fields that drains into rivers
is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides. The
effects of water pollution are not only devastating to people but also to
animals, fish and birds. Polluted water is unsuitable for drinking, recreation,
agriculture and industry. It diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and
rivers. More seriously contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its
re-product ability. Eventually it is a hazard to human health. Nobody can
escape the affects of water pollution.
Therefore, apart from having a national water policy,
the government along with NGOs should start a long term campaign to educate and
sensitize the general public about the need to save water and stop its
pollution. It should be made a part of the school curriculum. The time is not
on our side. We must manage our
available water resources to the best extent possible.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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Exploiting World Market:Processed Food Industry NEEDS A Push, by Dr. Vinod Mehta, 18 May 2006 |
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ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi, 18 May 2006
Exploiting
World Market
Processed Food Industry NEEDS
A Push
By Dr. Vinod
Mehta
India is the world’s largest
producer of milk, the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, a major
producer of spices, tea and coffee and large livestock population and vast
marine wealth. In fact, India, one can
say, is almost sitting on a goldmine of processed
food. There is not only a potential vast
domestic market for it but also huge foreign market.
The industry can become a top foreign exchange earner
provided we follow appropriate policies and capture foreign market. The effort is totally indigenous, does not
involve any import of any inputs to any significant extent and with little
investment one can earn lot of hard currency.
The world processed food
business runs into billions of US
dollars and India's
share in it is not even one per cent as of today.
India as a signatory to the WTO
has to open up its economy to imports of agricultural products from all over the
world within a few years time. When the WTO Agreement was signed it was said
that India
stands to gain by the opening of the agricultural sector as the Indian products
will be relatively cheaper than the similar products produced elsewhere. The reasoning was that other countries
especially the developed ones will be forced to eliminate or lower down their
subsidies on agricultural products while the subsidies on products in India are
already much lower than allowed by the WTO.
This is true to a very large extent. The WTO has only opened up the opportunities
to be exploited by us. However, whether India will be
able to exploit this advantage will depend upon a large number of factors. The relatively lower prices, on their own,
will not be of any help unless we
make a sustained effort in the international market and produce goods which are
in demand in those countries. This
implies increase in the productivities of various agricultural products,
improving their quality, tastes, etc., application of highly efficient processing technologies and improving the packaging of
those agricultural products.
Both the developed and developing countries have now
increased their pressure on India to open up its economy to their
agricultural products sooner, as India has comfortable foreign
exchange position. For instance, Malaysia
is keen to increase its export of palm oil while Mexico
is keen to increase its export of soybean oil to India. Australia
and New Zealand are looking
for opportunities to export milk and milk products as well as kiwi fruit to India. The USA is looking for exporting its almonds and
orange juice to India,
which has allowed import of agricultural products but these countries expect
much more.
It must be understood that India will have to open up
its economy to import agricultural produce from these countries sooner or later,
for India cannot afford to ban their entry for as long as India itself is an
exporter of agricultural products (though not up to their level) like basmati
rice, fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, tea, coffee, spices and so
on. But India is not yet a major player in
these products in the international market even though it has the
potential. Its record of consistency in
quality, adherence to supply schedules is very bad which puts off the foreign
importer.
This is a minus point with our exporters which comes
in our way of tapping export market. Thailand and the Philippines
are exporting Pineapple juice on a large scale for the past several years while
India
is unable to do so in any good measure because of the non-professional attitude of our business
community. How can we enter the
international markets with this kind of attitude?
The Government has already initiated policy measures
to provide boost to the processed
food industry. In the latest budget,
food processing industry has been
declared priority sector; 100 per cent FDI has been permitted through automatic
route, zero excise duty and so on.
Though incentives have been provided in the past to
encourage the growth of food processing
industry yet it is still lagging behind by international standards. With the
new incentives as provided in the budget, the processed
food industry can hope for a big boost.
But there are other minus points. The food preservation technology in
most of the cases is more than two decades old.
Similarly, packaging of the products is much below the international
standards. On the top of it no attempt
has ever been made to develop brand names in foreign countries.
It is only for the past few years that some of the
companies have started marketing their products in the international market
under their brand names. For instance,
till recently the Indian tea was being auctioned in bulk to foreign buyers
rather than selling them in a packaged form.
The Tatas have now started selling packaged Tea in the international
market under its own brand names.
Similarly, the cooperative sector producer of milk and milk products
Amul has also started marketing its product in the international market under
its own brand name. But these are only
few exercises in brand building and
cannot be said to establish markets for Indian agricultural products in a very
big way.
Therefore what the country needs to do immediately is
to chalk out a concrete programme for the development of processed food products industry, so that India can
become a major player in the international market in the next three to four
years.
As a first step India should concentrate on
increasing the productivity of those agricultural products in which it has a
comparative advantage. It could be Basmati
rice or tea or coffee or it could be mangoes or bananas. Some of the energies of our agriculture
research centres should be concentrated on developing high yielding varieties
of these products. In fact Indian
agricultural scientists have successfully
developed a new strain of basmati rice which provides 25 to 30% more yield per
hectare without any compromise on quality or aroma.
The second step should be the development of new
preservative technologies which are of international standards and can prolong
the shelf life of those products without any much refrigeration. For instance, we are producing large number
of oranges including Kino yet 30% of this fruit goes waste as we have not been
able to develop any technology to preserve its juice. Therefore, before bottled orange juice from
Florida (USA) enters the Indian market we must perfect the technology to
preserve the citrus fruit juice in India
so that we can compete effectively the US producers not only in our own
domestic market but also in the international market.
Third step needs to be to improve the food processing technology and bring it up to international
standards. One public sector
organization is engaged in the development of such technologies but it has had
very little impact till date.
Finally, the food processing
industry will have to pay attention to packaging of the
processed food products. At the moment the packaging of most of the
processed food products is so
repulsive such that even if we have very good product to offer it will not sell
in the international market because of its poor packaging.
India has a comparative
advantage in selling its agricultural products at competitive prices in the
international market but it will not be able to capture by itself the vast
international market for various agriculture products without first improving
the quality of its products and its packaging in every aspect. We have a lot to learn in this respect from
countries like Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia which have well
established food processing
industry. We must now move fast enough
to take advantage of our comparative advantage in the agricultural sector.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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A Challenging Task:Creating Even Job Opportunities,by Dr. Vinod Mehta, 11 May 2006 |
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ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi, 11 May 2006
A Challenging Task
Creating
Even Job Opportunities
By Dr. Vinod Mehta
The UPA Government at the Centre had promised to
create more jobs under its Common Minimum Programme (CMP). It is a formidable
task and the Government seems to be quite serious about the whole thing.
However, till date no serious effort has been made to do it except that the Bharat
Nirman Programme has become operational.
Generally speaking, increase in the level of
investment generates more jobs in the country. But it does not guarantee
generation of more jobs on its own.
Moreover, in a vast country like India
job opportunities need to be created evenly all over India, especially in the rural
areas with a view to checking undesirable migration to cities.
It is common knowledge that 74% of the population
lives in rural areas. In urban areas the problem of unemployment is not acute;
it is serious mainly in rural areas. The
sheer size of the urban population in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai provides many job opportunities, more so in
the unorganized sector. There is so much demand for various kinds of labour and
services that anyone looking for a job can find some work even if it may not be
to one’s liking. The labour that migrates to these areas is bound to find some
work. It is a different matter that unregulated migrations lead to many
problems in urban areas like emergence of slums, increase in crime rate and so
on.
Therefore, the real challenge of generating
employment is in smaller towns and villages where the size of the population is
so small that there are hardly any opportunities for generating remunerative
employment. Setting up of factories or small businesses
does not make any economic sense. Since there are no factories or workshops in
these areas, the demand for labour is almost nil. Again the total population of
the area is so small that it does also not make any economic sense to provide
services or generate some kind of a work in these areas.
According to the Census figures, out of a total of
5,88,781 villages, 2,90,093 i.e. about 50% have population less than 1,000. The number of villages having
population between 1,000-2,000 is 1,14,395; the number of villages with
population between 2,000-5,000 is 62,915; for villages with population between
5,000-10,000, it is 10,597 and the number with over 10,000 population is 2,779.
It means that for 70% of the villages the size of the population is less than 2,000.
What impact can it have on employment generation? For one you cannot make massive investments as it would not be able to reap
any economies of scale. It will not be able to supply the required skilled or
semi-skilled labour. The demand for services from the villagers will not be
enough to provide job opportunities. This means that the demand factor will
also not work. Thus there will be almost nil opportunities for young people of
these villages to find jobs even in the unorganized sector. This problem is
acute in the North-East.
In other countries, the rural population is small,
while it is very large in urban areas; less
than 25% of the population is in rural areas. A large number of jobs are being
created in the service sector, followed by the manufacturing sector. (Even
though some of the services are being outsourced by these countries, it has
also been noticed that some of the affected employees are also migrating to the
developing countries.) Thus, the employment opportunities are relatively more
in these countries than in a country like India where the population is
overwhelmingly rural. It is a sheer challenge how to generate employment in
areas where the population is less
than 2000.
Therefore, the Government will have to have some kind
of a strategy to generate employment in these villages in the coming years. One
way to overcome this situation would be to club these villages into viable
economic zones on the basis of some economic criteria before making investment
in these areas. Most of the activities may be centred around food processing of various agricultural products including
milk and milk products and smaller workshops, production units etc. For
instance, the Government can help these villages to start food processing and marketing cooperatives, start small repair
and maintenance workshops to attend to repair of mechanical equipments, to set
up cold storages etc., which in turn will raise employment opportunities for
the local people both in the organized as well as the unorganized sector.
The second equally important point is to link all
these villages with towns and metropolitan cities with all-weather good quality
roads. This will help the rural people from these villages to take their
products to nearby towns and metropolitan cities where there is a market for
their products. Good roads can
facilitate the to and fro movement of
labour on daily basis to nearby towns where they are bound to find some
work. Once these villages are linked by
good roads many of the companies in the private sector may find it economical
to procure their raw materials or outsource their work from these places. They
may even come forward to set up small units.
Large-scale investment does not mean that one puts
big money and sets up bigger projects. It also means that one spreads out
investment all over and help people to engage in meaningful economic activity.
Food for work programme is not just enough. What is needed is gainful
employment on a sustained basis. This requires the Government to ensure easy
movement of agricultural and other products from one place to another and easy
to and fro movement of labour from village to nearby towns.
In the long run, however, the emphasis will have to
shift from creation of jobs in the agricultural sector to creation of jobs in
manufacturing and service sector. The experience of developed countries shows
that more jobs are created in the non-agricultural sector. It has been noticed by economists that the
Indian service sector is expanding very fast which defies the experience of
other developed countries. But that is
the truth. Any way, the creation of jobs
in the rural sector can at best be a medium term solution to unemployment
problem; the emphasis will have to be creation of jobs in the manufacturing
sector in the long run.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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