LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

BUSINESS LINE

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

INDIAN EXPRESS

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

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CONTENTS

AGRICULTURE 3-4

BLACK MONEY 5-13

CIVIL SERVICE 14

CORUPTION 15-17

DEFENCE 18-20

EDUCATION 21-23

ELECTIONS 24-26

EMINENT PERSONALITIES 27-32

HOUSING 33-35

JUDICIARY 36-38

LIBRARIES 39-40

NUCLEAR WEAPONS 41-42

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 43-45

POVERTY 46-47

RAILWAYS 48-50

SANITATION 51-52

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AGRICULTURE

BUSINESS LINE, NOV 23, 2016Agriculture ravaged by liquidity crunchEA Ramaswamy

Whether it is dairy farmers or coconut growers, the cash flow cycle has been wiped out by the demonetisation tsunami

Demonetisation has hit agriculture like a guided missile. There is an unprecedented cash crunch. High value notes that were the mainstay of agriculture have become worthless. Low denomination currency is impossible to find. In any case one would need a sackful of them to get by.

The banks are the only recourse for the harried farmer. There are three ways of getting cash out of them, and all three have become dysfunctional. The ATMs, the most convenient of the three, have remained shut since day one, and no one knows when they will come to life. The second is exchanging high denomination notes for legal tender. This involves spending hours in a queue and what one gets at the end is a couple of illiquid two thousand rupee notes.

Money can also be withdrawn from a savings account. Banks will give 24,000 per customer,₹ but they run out of cash in no time. And the only currency they have is the illiquid 2000. The₹ manager of my bank was especially considerate. He brought out an enormous bundle of soiled low denomination notes and worked his way through them to give me change for 2000.₹ Obviously, he has neither the time nor the currency to do this for every customer.

Of cattle and coconuts

The banks, much like the farmer, have been hit by a tsunami. Customers who wait in the sun all day become edgy, but bankers are helpless. Their ATMs won’t be calibrated for days or weeks.

Limited cash in two thousand rupees is all they get. It is impossible to meet the expectations of the milling crowds with such meagre resources. In the face of such pressures my bank simply stopped across the counter exchange of demonetised currency notes. Sensing that the same guys were turning up every day to exchange demonetised notes, obviously for a commission, the manager decided to use his scarce resources to service genuine customers. That is the most an earnest bank manager can do in the given circumstance.

Already reeling under all kinds of pressures, the farmer is flummoxed. The market for his produce has collapsed. There are no buyers. The trader who buys green coconut from me with utter regularity has not shown up after demonetisation. Green coconuts will not remain green forever.

When the coconut ripens and the water turns into nut, the price drops by as much as 40 per cent. That is a loss I must bear till the trader shows up. I have to milk my cows come rain or shine, or

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else they will develop mastitis. I must also find the cash to buy cattle feed, or else they will starve. I hand over my milk to the cooperative but there is not a word from them about payment.

The cattle markets have closed down because there are no buyers. A cow fetches the best price just before she calves. Small farmers who raise cattle wait for this tiny window, usually no more than a week, to earn a living. With the markets closed they are stuck. Their cows can now be sold only to the butcher, which no farmer in good conscience can accept.

Even as my inflows have stopped, I must find the small notes to fund my outflow. It is time to pluck ripe coconuts. We have assembled the climbers who shin up the trees and the women who pick up the nuts and load them on to the tractor. Tree climbers are a rare breed with a specialised skill that few possess.

As a result they are both pricey and finicky. To keep them in good humour I must pay them by noon every single day. With money in hand, they head straight for TASMAC, the state controlled liquor vend, for their quarter of brandy. The women will wait until weekend but I must still find the cash. In the next few days I would have harvested some 5,000 coconuts of the best quality. Where are the buyers? They have no cash. The wholesale markets where they sell my produce are in disarray. The trucks that must carry my produce to the market are stranded on the highway. And what price will I get? Coconut prices have already dropped by 50 per cent in one year, and what awaits me now is a distress sale.

Going cashless?

In the meanwhile, I am being advised by all kinds of busy bees ranging from politicians and financial experts to bureaucrats and market gurus on how to live in a cashless world. They are asking me to pay my climbers with plastic.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. And from the coconut trader whom I might never see again, they are asking me to accept a cheque. I need advice on how to ensure that a cheque from an untraceable trader is honoured.

Most farmers I know are not against demonetisation, but there will be an existential crisis if these blips are not ironed out soon.

The writer is a HR consultant and a farmer

(This article was published on November 22, 2016)

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BLACK MONEY

TELEGRAPH, NOV 18, 2016The winds of change- Narendra Modi's demonetization drive will alter perceptions

Swapan Dasgupta

"When the ship returns to harbour with the hull battered and the rigging torn, before we assess the blame of the pilot, before we award the verdict of posterity, let us pause to enquire whether the voyage has been twice round the world or to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs." - Thomas Carlyle

Since he dropped the demonetization bombshell on a Tuesday evening, sending India into a state of shock and awe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again become the focus of sustained attention. As Indians, both very rich and those barely above the poverty line, have grappled with the realities of a draconian demonetization that has put nearly 86 per cent of the cash supply of India out of circulation, there have been sharply polarized reactions to his audacity.

This was inevitable. Demonetization on this scale in a functioning, political, stable economy is unique. Previous demonetization of high-value currency notes had affected only the creamy layer of society and, in any case, had left India's vast informal sector relatively unaffected. The present exercise affected nearly every class of Indians in varying degrees, except those living on the margins of the market economy. The only other examples in recent times - the demonetization of the reichsmark in Germany after World War II and the demonetization of the rouble after the collapse of the Soviet Union - took place under exceptional circumstances and following huge political turbulence. Certainly, pundits I have spoken to could find no other parallel in the world, and certainly not for a vibrant economy.

The long queues outside banks, the ATMs that were emptied of cash and the spate of colourful rumours have certainly affected public perception. In the debate in the Rajya Sabha last Wednesday and Thursday, Opposition MPs competed with each other in describing the woes of the "common man". There were speeches offering a robust defence of the cash economy and the traditional, non-banking ways of doing business. Horror stories were narrated of families despairing of how to go about a scheduled wedding. Others complained about stranded travellers and the British government - influenced no doubt by the English-language TV channels - issued a travel advisory to incoming tourists. On the social media, journalists and liberal academics shed copious tears over the difficulties faced by their maids, malis and drivers.

Politically, the reactions were confusing. While the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, flew completely off the handle and organized a march of like-minded parties (which, ironically, included the very non-kosher Shiv Sena) to Rashtrapati Bhavan, her long time CPI(M) opponent organized a petition signed by some 150 'intellectuals' debunking the move. In Parliament, the general-secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram

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Yechury, compared Modi to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the eccentric medieval ruler who had tried his hand at currency reform - unsuccessfully. Yet, fierce criticism was coupled with wariness. The Congress veered between trying to claim credit for initiating anti-corruption measures during Manmohan Singh's 10-year rule and suggesting that the whole exercise was a scam. Indeed, apart from Banerjee and Delhi's equally mercurial chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, others kept their criticism to the management of the transition rather than the objective of the demonetization.

Whether the boldest step taken in the anti-black money crusade initiated by the prime minister earlier this year will fetch political dividends is something that no one is entirely sure about. That the announcement of the demonetization was also accompanied by a large measure of lower middle class glee at the likely sleepless nights to be suffered by the fat cats isn't in any doubt. However, the full-throated expression of support is likely to be delayed until the new notes are in circulation and the queues in banks and ATMs have lessened. Indeed, it may well be a few months before India starts arriving at a considered judgment of Modi's demonetization.

There are, however, certain initial conclusions that can be drawn. The first and most obvious is the fact that the prime minister's authority in the party and his government is total and unchallenged. The demonetization exercise inconvenienced the vast majority of Indians and added to their daily hassles, at least for a short period. But the exercise completely unsettled those engaged in trade, both in urban and rural areas, because they were at the heart of the cash economy that accounts for nearly 25 per cent of economic activity. Ironically - and this is a point that hasn't received any worthwhile attention - the traders make up the Bharatiya Janata Party's core constituency, one that has stood by the party through times good and bad. By hitting that section the hardest and more or less coercing them into joining a modern sector, Modi has taken a monumental political gamble. He has, in effect, triggered a social upheaval in the BJP and reached out to sections that were hitherto not a part of the party's support base. Whether the BJP is able to enlarge and redefine its social base as a consequence will be worth watching. So far, the party has extended unequivocal support to the prime minister but how the tremors affect the social base is unknown. In any case, as in Gujarat, Modi has always conducted a very presidential form of politics by reaching out to voters over the heads of intermediaries.

Secondly, the demonetization exercise has reshaped the image of Modi as an administrator. In 2014, Modi was regarded outside Gujarat as a charismatic leader who meant different things to different people. While his decisiveness and no-nonsense style were appreciated, there was always a big question mark over his ability to effect a fundamental transformation of the country. Indeed, one of the criticisms levelled against him was that he was essentially an incrementalist, not a radical.

The prime minister's anti-black money drive will go a long way in changing perceptions. It is now clear that unlike, say, Indira Gandhi's nationalization of banks in 1969 and V.P. Singh's endorsement of the Mandal Commission report in 1990, Modi's demonetization was more considered and part of a larger calculation. In hindsight, it now appears that the Aadhar card drive, the Jan Dhan Yojana, the drive against foreign accounts and the scheme for the

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declaration of concealed wealth and income were steps in a larger scheme of things. When Modi argued that he wouldn't take any more excuses after September 30, he wasn't bluffing. It would seem that there is a passion in the prime minister for driving change, regardless of the magnitude of the project. He seems to plan his moves quite meticulously and is thirsty for challenges. It is extremely unlikely that any other prime minister would have undertaken such a monumental challenge as demonetization, not least because he was completely dependant on a sluggish banking sector for its rapid and relatively painless implementation.

It is this single-mindedness that is sharply at odds with political calculations that appear to have totally unnerved both the status quoists (who imagined after two years that they had co-opted him into the Lutyens' zone) and the remnants of the ancien régime, yearning for the predictability of past Congress regimes. Modi has not only emerged as a leader towering above the pack, he has set in motion a political churning. It is likely that the 2019 general election will end up as a referendum on the man.

STATESMAN, NOV 17, 2016Demonetisation debate gets derailed

The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes by the Narendra Modi government has revealed that real estate dealers have transacted business only to the extent of five per cent in cash and the remaining on pledges, a huge gap that reflects the understanding between both sides.

The Modi government fails, however, to convey the impression of integrity. Its motives are being questioned and purpose doubted. The debate, unfortunately, has got derailed because of too much emphasis on the inconvenience caused to people, and not on the step itself. There is no doubt that the money stashed abroad or lying with anti-national elements will go out of  currency but is it also a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water? Many honest businessmen abroad will be hard put to convert the currency lying with them; some may go out of business.

Why the opposition parties have got together is understandable. The unaccounted money with which they operate will simply not be there. The BJP is also being accused of having told its own people about the demonetisation before hand to enable them to put their money in banks. Karnataka is an example where some currency was deposited on the eve of demonetisation. Good or bad, the step has been taken and it is in the national interest to get together to make it a success.

There are very few top civil servants or leading politicians who do not have foreign bank accounts. The pressure from the Indian public to bring back black money stashed abroad has been relentless and this demand has become part of a movement to eliminate corruption.

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Instead of taking any concrete steps, the government seems to be trying its best not to let the extent of black money come to light. Why is New Delhi seeking clarifications on the Supreme Court’s indictment: “The issue of unaccounted monies held by nationals and other legal entities in foreign banks is of primordial importance to the welfare of the citizens.”

This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has taken the government to task for dragging its feet on corruption. Earlier, the apex court expressed unhappiness over the way in which the government was investigating cases connected with black money. The court had warned the government not to presume that the money hidden in Switzerland was from tax evasion. It could be laundering of money earned through drugs, terrorism or some other criminal act, it pointed out. The government is yet to justify its preference for entering into double taxation pacts with foreign countries for having access to the names of evaders.

Indian black money in Swiss banks, according to the Swiss Banking Association report in 2006, was the highest ~ as much as $1,456 billion. The amount is reportedly more than the deposits by all other countries put together. The figure is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debts. With this amount, it is estimated, some 45 crore people in India can get Rs 1 lakh each. After clearing the entire foreign debt, it is calculated that we would be left with a surplus, almost 12 times larger than the total foreign debt. If this surplus is invested, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the central government. So even if all taxes are abolished, the central government will still have a cushion.

Expressing lack of faith in the government's probe, the Supreme Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by two retired Supreme Court judges to investigate all black money-related cases. The court itself is supervising the pace of investigation. While pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court observed: “politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen are known to park their funds abroad and then try to get them into the country through foreign institutional investors’ route.”

Harsh remarks but every word is true. I wonder if there would be any effect on the government which has shown little agility to pursue the cases of black money abroad. It was obvious that the Congress-led government did not want certain names to come into the public domain because the disclosures would embarrass it.

The government was caught on the wrong foot. It received as many as 26 names from Germany under the double taxation treaty. Berlin had got hold of names of hundreds of beneficiaries and had offered them to all the countries for their asking. New Delhi could not afford to say no. But why did the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee say that the names of beneficiaries could not be disclosed? The Supreme Court overruled the contention and asked the government to make the names public. Still the government is not agreeable to do so.

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I have never seen India so deeply immersed in corruption as it is today. At the same time, I have not heard so much criticism of the government before. What I miss is the resistance and someone getting up and calling a spade a spade. Scrutiny by due process is understandable, but the process is so slow and so manipulated through corruption itself that it is not possible to catch or punish the guilty for years. The government must devise a machinery whereby allegations of corruption are examined for a prima facie case within days.

Kuldip NayarThe writer is a noted journalist, columnist and commentator.

HINDU, NOV 17, 2016White is the new black

Even as the common man gets in line for fifty days of pain, the affluent have found innovative ways to launder their hoard of cash

A week into the demonetisation drive, we are in the midst of a painful transition. In a televised speech on November 13 delivered in Goa, the Prime Minister sought 50 days’ reprieve, though he did not tell us what exactly we should expect. Perhaps we are en route to a better state but in the interim we are left to ponder an unedifying transition. Much of the evidence of what is taking place in the economy since the fateful night of November 8-9 is anecdotal, but no less valuable for that is all we have.

News from different parts of the country indicate two developments. On November 8 itself, there had been frenzied late-night shopping till midnight especially in the upmarket malls. This indicates that some sections of the populace had money hoarded from unaccounted activity and wanted to get rid of it while it was still legal tender. From the next day on, there has been a rush to the banks to exchange currency notes and to deposit money into savings accounts. The experience of those attempting the former has not been a happy one. Reports speak of long waits, scuffles, bank employees favouring relatives over fellow citizens and banks running out of cash. The mind is drawn to accounts of the life of the people of Delhi in the reign of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq.

Accounting for oneself

The other development is the reported spurt in deposits in Jan Dhan accounts. As these accounts mostly belong to persons with low incomes, and often showed a near-zero balance, it suggests that these deposits may be black income being distributed among many agents. We have heard of benami titles to property, could we have just witnessed the emergence of benami deposits? Could the facility of allowing deposits of up to Rs.2.5 lakh without attracting income tax have unwittingly acted as a conduit to the laundering of black money?

Accounts have also come of gold sales rising. How can this be possible when high-denomination notes, which as we shall see constitute the overwhelming part of total currency in circulation, are no longer legal tender? We are told that this is made possible by pre-dating sales. Of course,

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where stock movement is verifiable this would be difficult. But it does speak of many loopholes that have been suggested as means of sabotaging the intent of the demonetisation. Yet more exist. We have actual statements made by party bosses in Tamil Nadu that they have distributed old notes to their workers before a by-election to come. So, in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due only in 2017, there is no reason why money cannot be distributed right away, a form of advance payment. One would expect that the Rs.4,500 limit on the exchange of notes is just the right magnitude in the context.

A slowing of commerce

Demonetisation had targeted the stock of illegally accrued wealth held in the form of money. Where disgorging of it in the forms suggested above is not possible, demonetisation would be successful in punishing the guilty. This view of the role of money as a store of wealth is appropriate. But the demonetisation can also affect the flow of income in the future even when it is to be earned legally. If this happens, it also punishes the innocent. This it can do as money is also the medium of exchange without which the overwhelming majority of transactions cannot occur. It is not hard to imagine the impact on transactions when over 85 per cent of the country’s money stock — that is, the share of high-denomination notes in the total — is sucked out of circulation. The economy has responded predictably. The pre-midnight shopping spree of the day on which demonetisation was announced was followed by a slowing of commerce not only in the bazaars but also in the upmarket shopping malls themselves. Where transactions involving employment of persons cannot be undertaken, there is an irretrievable loss of output. It cannot be made up after the currency shortage has been ended. The national political leadership and the technocrats of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appear to have missed this possibility.

The Prime Minister has expressed his confidence that the people of India will bear the inconvenience of the transition for the sake of purifying the country. But engineering a loss of employment is not inconvenience, and this could hardly have gone unnoticed by those affected. The RBI’s stance is worthy of Marie Antoinette. It is quoted as exhorting Indians to turn to Internet banking as it would “also enhance the experience of living in the digital world”. This is somewhat brazen as the RBI has been granted the monopoly of note issue precisely so that it facilitates economic exchange. There are unlikely to be many takers for the government’s propaganda on public radio which has a kirana store owner say that he is not worried as his money is clean and he has till the end of the year to change it. This misses a trick as it ignores the many who cannot earn an income as the system does not have enough money to enable transactions to take place.

Thus views on the transition are likely to be influenced by how one is placed in relation to the income generation process. So, for instance in Kerala, where many live directly or indirectly on monthly remittances from West Asia and where undeclared income is rife, a relatively aware local population is likely to see the demonetisation as justified and hurting the rich. They may well see it as a ‘surgical strike’. However, in small-town northern India where households are dependent upon daily earnings from the local economy, the populace is likely to be energised less by schadenfreude at the discomfiture of the rich as much as the loss of their own livelihood, about which we presently read in the press. They are likely to see the demonetisation as a form of bloodletting.

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What could have been done

Could this have been foreseen? Yes, absolutely, were the policy intelligently designed. The central bank could have started replacing the larger denomination notes with smaller denomination ones much earlier. This would have isolated those holding unaccounted income in the form of high denomination notes, the unspoken premise of the demonetisation. There is of course a case for secrecy, but the RBI has long shown itself to be unmindful of the need to facilitate transactions in any case. This is the only conclusion that one can draw from the fact that so large a part of the money stock was constituted by high denomination currency. It reflects a complete disregard for the low-value transactions that dominate the economy. It is not hard to see that a very large number of Indians must earn less than Rs.500 a day. Given this, it reveals a monumental lack of sensitivity to withdraw the Rs.1,000 note and bring in one of Rs.2,000. Given the average daily income of an Indian, and the average value of transactions, a move to a money stock far more balanced between the denominations is absolutely essential now. The issue of a shortage of small denomination notes in the economy was brought to the attention of the RBI some years ago.

Stemming the rot within

The Prime Minister has brought the issue of corruption centre stage. But it is important to recognise that there is more than one narrative on the issue. One is that a few rich entrepreneurs have evaded the rules laid down by the state and got ahead of the rest of the people. At one level, this cannot be denied and this line of argument can be whipped up to some political advantage. But there is a counter-narrative, and it is that the entrepreneur in India is forced to generate ‘black money’ to gratify the political class and the civil service who are the gatekeepers of all activity. This is hardly a novel argument. It is what underlay C. Rajagopalachari’s imagery of India being governed by the ‘licence-permit raj’. His only mistake was to see this as entirely due to Jawaharlal Nehru’s economic policy. Actually this is India’s inheritance from colonialism, zealously guarded by its beneficiaries, again ranging between the political class and the civil service.

So if Prime Minister Narendra Modi does go on to check all records going back to 1947, as he has said he is willing to do to root out corruption, he may also want to investigate the role of the government machinery in the process of generating unaccounted income. One should not be surprised if this role is quite substantial. Of course, one hopes he does not do this as it not only carries more than just a whiff of ‘retrospective taxation’, it can leave us mired in a transition longer than the one we are in now. We are told that our Prime Minister admires Lee Kuan Yew. We know that in building his country the late Singaporean statesman started with the civil service. He is known to have treated its members well, but is unlikely to have countenanced their being corrupt themselves.

Pulapre Balakrishnan teaches economics at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana. The views expressed are personal.

If the PM does check all records going back to 1947, he may also want to investigate the role of the government machinery in generating unaccounted income

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DECCAN HERALD, NOV 16, 2016Demonetisation: ill-conceived, bad

People have gone through the most painful and distressful one week in their lives after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The whole nation, except those who hold black money, is lined up in queues before the banks and ATMs day after day. A decision, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Nov 8 and called a surgical strike on black money, has turned out to be a surgical strike on the life and livelihood of the common man. People are unable to withdraw cash, deposit it or to exchange invalidated notes. There are reports of deaths of patients, postponement of weddings and looting of shops. There are threats of closure of shops. Businesses have been hit. Since the bigger part of the economy is unorganised and cash-dependent, the impact of demonetisation has been most severe on it. Not just this, almost all sectors of the economy have been badly hit and will take considerable time to recover.

The huge disruption of lives and the inconvenience have raised questions about the decision itself. The common man is right to feel that he is being made the victim for no fault of his. Why is he being penalised for the crimes of people who created black money and the failure of governments which failed to check it? His life has nothing to do with black money. It was weak laws with loopholes, their poor implementation, collusion between politicians and businessmen and above all corruption which made the black economy emerge and flourish. None of this will go away with the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. That makes the government’s action ill-conceived and badly thought out. The question why the common man should suffer when it is the government’s job to unearth and fight black money is on the minds of those who queue up to get cash and go without it. There are also questions about its real impact, with cash forming only a small part of black economy and with the various methods now being employed to beat the exercise. There are yet other questions about some others getting away even before the strike began.

If the idea was dubious, it was worse planned and still worse executed. There was failure to anticipate the consequences of the measure in a complex system, deficiency in making preparations and slackness in facing the situation as it unravelled. The new Rs 2,000 notes do not help most people. The supply of lower denomination notes should have been increased before and after the decision.  The ATMs are dry and won’t help people in the unbanked rural areas who are the hardest hit. The signs are that the situation will get worse and the inconvenience, difficulties and hardships will mount.

NOV 16, 2016From April 2017, Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes to be illegal

NEW DELHI: The Centre informed the SC on Tuesday that it would bring a law to make possession of demonetised `500 and `1,000 currency notes after March 31, 2017 a punishable offence. "People can deposit their cash in scrapped currency notes till December 30 and with explanation by March 31, 2017. After March 31, the law will make it a punishable offence to possess or transfer scrapped currency notes," attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud.

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The AG said the Centre at the highest level was monitoring the situation on a daily basis. "We found that some people started booking first class flight tickets for abroad with demonetised currency notes immediately after the January 8 announcement. We are examining each and every new modus operandi employed by some people to surreptitiously route their black money into the mainstream," he said.

The bench asked whether printing of new currency notes could be speeded up to ease the pressure on ATMs and bank branches. The AG refused to give the information and said it was a security issue and the figure could not be made public.

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CIVIL SERVICE

ECONOMIC TIMES, NOV 18, 2016Panel report on age limit in civil service exam under consideration: UPSC

The recommendations made by the committee including on pattern of civil service examination and age limit are presently under consideration of the UPSC.

NEW DELHI: The report of Baswan committee that has suggested changes in civil service exam pattern and age limit is under consideration of the Union Public Service Commission, the government said today.

The Baswan committee submitted its report to the UPSC on August 9, 2016.

"The recommendations made by the committee including on pattern of civil service examination and age limit are presently under consideration of the UPSC. The recommendations of the UPSC on Baswan committee report are yet to be received," Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The UPSC had constituted the expert committee under the chairmanship of former Human Resource Development Secretary and retired IAS officer B S Baswan, to review the scheme of civil service examination, in August last year.

The committee is understood to have recommended reduction in upper age limit of 32 years to appear in the civil service exam, official sources said.

Lakhs of aspirants appear in the civil service exam conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages--preliminary, main and interview--to select officers for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

ECONOMIC TIMES, NOV 18, 2016Rajasthan hikes dearness allowance of state government employees by seven per cent

The DA of the state employees has been raised from 125 per cent to 132 per cent which will benefit nearly 8 lakh employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, a release said.

JAIPUR: Rajasthan government has hiked the dearness allowance of the state government employees by 7 per cent with effect from July 1, 2016. The DA of the state employees has been

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raised from 125 per cent to 132 per cent which will benefit nearly 8 lakh employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, a release said.

The decision will cost additional Rs 750 crore on the exchequer.

CORRUPTION

BUSINESS LINE, NOV 23, 2016Anti-graft agitations and the sarkarBILAL BALOCH

From early 2011 to the end of 2012, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced its biggest civic challenge in the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement.

This agitation came to a crescendo off the back of a sequence of high-profile corruption scandals involving senior government officials. The UPA, after a successful re-election in 2009, found itself in the midst of a credibility and corruption crisis. Fast forward to the smouldering summer of 2013 and citizens’ cry across developing world democracies raised the global volume for nationwide agitations using the language of anti-corruption. Ensuing reactions saw some democracies, such as Turkey, crush the groundswell while others, such as Brazil, were more conciliatory.

All pervasive

Corruption has, once again, struck the imagination of citizens and scholars alike. The phenomenon subverts elections, state mechanisms of representation and accountability, and it undermines the public’s trust in institutions, thus leading to public unrest. My recent research tackles a key part of this state-society relation that has received little, explicit attention: Why do some governments respond more tolerantly than others to anti-corruption agitation?

To answer this puzzle, I examine the cases of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government’s brutal suppression of the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement; and the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government’s tolerant response toward the IAC agitation. I will mainly discuss the UPA response. The short answer is that the presence or absence of ideological checks and balances among decision-making elites in government determines tolerant or intolerant behaviour.

The claim that ideologically plural governments are more tolerant is not new. Movements that are explicitly or implicitly anti-corruption take shape in an environment where government corruption has been exposed — through scandals or judicial investigations. This heightens the sense of insecurity within government and lowers their credibility in the eyes of the electorate. Consequently, re-establishing government credibility becomes a key goal for the decision-makers in their response to the movement.

What matters

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My research shows that different decision-making elites accepted, appropriated, deployed, and contested different combinations of ideas around the political economy of India as well as competing nationalisms to explain and resolve the crisis of corruption and the nationwide IAC. These divergent prescriptions and strategies are intimately tied to the decision-makers’ professional backgrounds.

Ideological diversity in a coalition government is tied to political parties, as in the case of the UPA, but it is also anchored to the proponents of new policy frameworks in government, chiefly technocrats. One group of technocrats in the UPA entered the Indian government in the late 1980s and 1990s when coalitions first emerged, and when the nation’s main economic architecture was being reformed through liberalisation reforms.

These decision-makers then took up positions of power in Manmohan Singh’s government as members of the Cabinet, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and senior bureaucracy, not least the Prime Minister himself.

Another set of technocrats and activists who, as part of the right to information movements (RTI) of the 1990s and early 2000s became the vanguard for renewed nationwide civic activism, went on to take up positions of power in the UPA government as members of the Congress Party President’s parallel cabinet, the National Advisory Council (NAC) as well as senior officials within the bureaucracy. These technocrats act as idea “carriers” – individuals reliably known to hold a given set of ideas who move into decision-making institutions and positions of authority over government action.

Three dominant perspectives permeated decision-making institutions in the UPA vis-à-vis the IAC: pro-Capitalist, pro-Statist, and Secular-Nationalist.

Pro-capitalists are mainly technocrats and senior bureaucrats who pursued limited engagement with the IAC, believing that the movement sought to discredit the government by conflating economic growth mechanisms with corruption.

Pro-Statists are mainly technocrats and activists with a position in government who viewed the IAC in sympathetic terms and sought full engagement with the movement. The IAC, for these elites, represented a set of citizens acting against widespread corruption that stemmed from the very mechanisms of economic liberalisation.

Secular-Nationalists are mainly Congress party career politicians who viewed the IAC in hostile terms as a movement that represented the groundswell of religious nationalism backed by the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These ideas shaped government institutions’ separate strategies pertaining to the IAC that, on aggregate, made an arbitrary response to the agitation less likely and increased the likelihood of government tolerance. Elite ideas, thus, acted as a checks and balance on government action.

Many ideologies

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Government response to a nationwide anti-corruption movement is determined by the absence or presence of an ideologically-plural central government. If the ruling government has an electoral majority and decision-makers therein possess a singular, dominant ideology then the government is more likely to behave intolerantly toward agitations.

For example, during the anti-corruption JP movement 1974-75, Indira Gandhi and other decision-making elites in authoritative positions of power viewed the agitation in hostile terms. My research, built on unexamined letters and documents from the period, illustrates that this perspective was rooted in Congress party ideology surrounding the “unity in diversity” conception of the nation, which clashed with government elites’ perception of the agitation as a front for religious-nationalism. The centralisation of this party ideology in the hands of a few, disparate elites, led by Mrs Gandhi, and further weakened by the absence of technocrats within decision-making, made a brutal and suppressive response toward the JP movement more likely.

In contrast, the separation of powers between different parties and institutions within the UPA coalition government created institutional constraints that made intolerant government action less likely. The causal foundations of this set-up, I argue, were divergent ideas. Ultimately, therefore, why decision-makers pick one course of action over another may well be shaped by external factors such as rent-seeking, bribe-taking, electoral determinants, and international pressure. My research highlights the role of endogenous factors — how decision-makers function where political power is fluid and fought over through a constellation of ideas.

Bilal Baloch is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Oxford.This article is by special arrangement with the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania

(This article was published on November 22, 2016)

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DEFENCE

ECONOMIC TIMES, NOV 19, 2016Defending the IndefensibleManoj Joshi

GoI has succumbed to bureaucratic politics to deny `real' OROP to ex-servicemen

In September 2013, in the heat of electioneering, Narendra Modi promised to give retired

military personnel the grail they had been seeking for so long: one rank, one pension

(Orop).Initially, he insisted that he would follow up his promise. But two years later, when its

implications began to sink in, he began to backpedal and say that, maybe, the term Orop needed

to be defined and that the ex-servicemen needed to be a bit more patient.

Finally , in September 2015, the government announced that they were implementing the Orop

scheme. The problem was that it was Orop only by the government's own definition.

A common-sense definition of Orop means that all people retiring in the same rank for the same

length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, should get the same pension. So, not

only does it need to meet the gap between the rates of old pensioners with the new, but also

ensure their equalisation whenever there are future enhancements.

There is something clearly wrong with the idea of an officer who retired 20 years ago getting the

same pension as the one retiring today . Pension is supposed to be related to the salary you get at

the time of retirement.Equalising it for a lifetime would be ruinous for the economy , especially

if equity demanded that all government servants ought to be pensioned off in the same way . In

that sense, the Centre's September 2015 scheme of revising the pensions of the armed forces

personnel every five years appears reasonable.

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The real problem lies elsewhere. It is in the fact that GoI has awarded the Indian Administrative

Service (IAS) the full and real Orop, which it is denying to most of the military . The

government decided that all those at the topmost scale, the Apex scale, would get the real Orop -

i.e., their pensions would always match those at the Apex scales even in future revisions.

And, surprise, surprise, it turns out that all IAS and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers retire at

this scale. To aid this skulduggery , the IAS bureaucracy extended the scheme to the senior-most

officers of the armed force: the three chiefs, the vice-chiefs, army commanders and their

equivalent and some senior lieutenant general-level officers.

One Rate, One Tension

So, now, when the broad cross-section of retirees demand Orop, the Modi government is

backtracking. It is not too difficult to see why .

Defence pensions, which are roughly twice the civilian pensions, are a huge portion of the

Budget. This year, the government has budgeted . 82,332 crore for defence pensions ` alone.

Only five years ago, in 2010-11, this amount was ` . 37,336 crore.

The bureaucrats have argued that if the military is given Orop, others will demand it. Yes, there

are other equally demanding professions: the paramilitary , the police, firemen, railwaymen and

schoolteachers in remote areas who can also claim hardship and demand Orop, though most of

them retire at 60.

The military is cut up because till 1973, they got Orop, as well as higher pensions to compensate

for their early retirement. But since then, the IAS has systematically `civilianised' the

compensation packages to their own advantage and the disadvantage of uniformed personnel.

Actually , the first item in the agen da is for the government to remove Orop that has been given

to the IAS, IFS and top army officers. This mak es mockery of any system of pension and is also

unjust to the other military officers and civil servants who toil a lifetime working for the

government.

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The second item is to set up an enti rely different pay commission for the armed forces. Trying to

fit the needs of the military with the civil service is like trying to wear a coat with two different

sleeve sizes.

This pay commission's mandate must be to find some way to justly compensate the military and,

at the same time, keep it young. Today , offi cers, especially those of the infantry , have often

been encouraged to leave after 20 years of service, when they are likely to be 38-40. An ordinary

ja wan retires even earlier, at 34-36.

The third is to mandate the police recruitment boards to hire retiring jawans. A jawan at 34 -and

he can even be made available at 30 -would be an ideal paramilitary or policeman.Likewise, a

young lieutenant colonel or colonel could do well as a superintendent or senior superintendent of

police after some training. Government and semi-government organisations must give first

priority of professions like pilots, managers and security officers to retiring officers.

Never the Twain Shall Meet

But the various ministries have baulkedat this. Politicians rather coyly say that the military

personnel would not be `suitable' for police and other civilian jobs. What they really mean is that

they may not be easily amenable to serve their political masters.

Most ex-servicemen were strong supporters of the Modi government.Today , they are a

bewildered lot. The diluted Orop is just one slight. It has been rapidly accompanied by others:

reduction in disability pensions, downgrading of military officers relative to their civilian

counterparts, and the appointment of civilian officers to engineering posts traditionally held by

the military in operational areas.

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EDUCATION

ECONOMIC TIMES, NOV 18, 2016Over 900 permanent teaching posts lying vacant in Delhi University

The University Grant Commission is continuously monitoring it with the University.NEW DELHI: Over 900 permanent teaching posts are lying vacant in University of Delhi, one of the most sought after varsities in the country, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

However, the University has hired ad-hoc and guest faculties in order to ensure that studies of the students are not affected, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Mahendra Nath Pandey said in written reply.

"It has been reported that 911 permanent teaching posts were vacant in the University of Delhi as on October 1, 2016," he said.

Stating that occurring of vacancies and filling up is a continuous process, he noted that the onus of filling up of the posts lies on the University, being an autonomous body created under an Act of Parliament.

However, the University Grant Commission is continuously monitoring it with the University, he added.

"The issue has been discussed in a meeting with Minister of Human Resource Development with the Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities on October 6, 2016 at Varanasi and they have been requested to fill up the vacant posts at the earliest," Pandey said.

HINDU, NOV 22, 2016DUTA intervenes to get ad hoc staff their jobs back

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) on Monday ensured that 18 ad hoc

assistant professors at Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), whose services had been

terminated, were assured by the college that their services would continue.

“Illegal”

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DUTA has called for a protest at the college after 18 ad hoc assistant professors had

reached out for help against what they termed was “blatant, arbitrary and illegal termination

of service” by the acting Principal (Evening).

The association added that acting Principal (Evening) Kusum Lata had “surpassed all legal

limit and reduced the prestigious DU to a killing field, an extension of her personal

fiefdom”.

They added that since July 20, 2016, when the university re-opened after a summer break,

they had been re-inducted into faculty minus their “appointment letters”.

“Kept in the dark”

They claimed they were also kept in the dark about their employment till November 17.

The ad hoc staff alleged that they learnt about the termination of their services when some

permanent faculty members informed them about it verbally.

DUTA vice-president C. S. Rawat said the acting Principal had assured the ad hoc staff that

their services would not be terminated but that the governing body of the college would

have to approve it.

Mr. Rawat added that the problem was created due to the void left by the absence of a

governing body at the college.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, NOV 16, 2016Subsidised education a major draw for Indian students in France, GermanyGauri Kohlii

 |  When studying abroad, an important thing that comes to mind is the high cost of study and living. In French public institutions of higher education, the government bears the bulk of the cost of education, which is an average of euros 10,000 (Rs 7.27 lakh) to euros 13,000 (Rs 9.45 lakh) per student per year. Annual tuition fees at public institutions are set by law. The fee for the 2015–16 academic year is euro 184 (Rs 13,376 approx) for bachelor’s programmes, euro 256 (Rs 18,611 approx) for master’s programmes, and euro 391 (Rs 28,425 approx) for doctoral programmes. Additional fees may be applicable for specific services. Tuition rates at private

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institutions – particularly schools of business and management – are generally higher from euro 3,000 (Rs 2.18 lakh approx) to euro 15,000 (Rs 10.9 lakh approx) annually.

The average cost of living is euro 700 (Rs 51,100 approx) per month. Students can get up to 30% of their accommodation rent reimbursed by the French government. In Germany, education is subsidised by the state and, therefore, state-funded institutions of higher education charge no tuition fee. Thus, virtually every student in that country gets a scholarship. Certain specialised courses and courses offered by private universities attract a fee.

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ELECTIONS

HINDUSTAN TIMES, NOV 16, 2016The tokenism devil in Indian politics

After a significant legal debate recently on curbing use of religion to seek votes, a seven-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said elections were a secular exercise and religion should be separated from the political process. The court also said it would offer a proper interpretation of the law that holds seeking votes on the grounds of religion and caste a corrupt practice. 

The purpose of the petition filed, however, was to prevent the use of religious appeals for votes under the garb of ‘Hindutva’, which is defined not as a religion but a ‘way of life’. The timing seems important given the elections to five state legislative assemblies (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa) to be held in 2017. The result of the UP and Punjab assembly elections in particular, as also the political ramifications that would follow the SC decision, will have a bearing on the 2019 general election. Looked at from this perspective, the Supreme Court’s observation is profound and pertinent.

Regardless of the SC ruling on this contentious matter, such debates are significant to highlight democratic deficit, if any, as also to plug the lacunae in the system, thereby bolstering the finer nuances of democratic processes. But I want this debate to broaden its scope to evaluate the critical role of political gestures and actions perceived as political tangibles and intangibles under the guise of democracy. Also, how do they feature in electoral politics? Put another way, let us explore the politics of tokenism that tends to influence minority communities and Muslims in particular. The ideation of the “Muslim vote bank” leading to politics of tokenism operates across the board, ostensibly with the tacit support of a section of the Muslim leadership. The issue assumes greater importance because out of 543 Lok Sabha seats, the Muslim vote can actually influence around 196 seats spread across UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, as also Rajasthan.

The tangible elements of this concept are Islamic attire or ‘skull cap’, worn by non-Muslim political leaders, ‘Orhna’ (shawl) sported by non-Muslim  women leaders covering the head with ends tucked behind ears, speeches laced with political rhetoric, inflammatory advocacy of certain issues, publicity material, meals in Dalit homes, etc. Among the intangible elements, one can record things like the art of wooing minority voters, dissecting the inner working of divisive politics, etc., which exert an impact on the election outcome.

From Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to BJP’s Rajnath Singh to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, all wear Islamic attire and are therefore guilty of tokenism. These leaders look up to Mahatma Gandhi for inspiration who never wore a skull cap and yet fasted for Muslims’ safety during the riots in

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Delhi and Bengal at the time of Partition. Freed of the constraints of condemnation and critical opprobrium, political tokenism in our country is not just tolerated but celebrated.

This leads me to my second question on why political parties and leaders who truly believe in entitlement and empowerment should resort to politics of tokenism. There is hardly any election manifesto talking about abolition of tokenism culture.  Instead, there is a conscious effort to institutionalise tokenism.

Victor Wallis, who teaches history and politics at Boston’s Berkeley College, writes in an article: “We all recognize tokenism as an excuse for inaction. It’s a way of declaring a problem settled while hardly even beginning to address it. What has not been so much noted, however, is the extent to which it pervades every dimension of politics in the United States. An important attribute of tokenism is that many who acquiesce to it have a sincere wish that the issue in question could be addressed at a deeper level. They recognize the token for what it is, but they reassure themselves with the thought that at least it’s a first step in the right direction - that it’s better than nothing.”

In our country, however, politics of tokenism continues to thrive on the thickening stench of false promises, illiteracy and poverty. The phenomenon of tokenism aimed towards building up a political base is not restricted to religion but also racial / caste tokenism and gender tokenism. Therefore, tokenism in its diverse design or the larger context in which it is put forward must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn lawlessness.

Wallis further writes: “Here is where we see the crowning expression of tokenism: the assumption that the current mode of selecting national political leadership can bring the changes needed in order to secure our collective long-term survival. Within this tokenistic scenario, a constant show is played out to absorb our attention, tap our political energies, and deplete the treasuries of our trade unions and community organizations.”

Developed nations that take pride in informed, effective, and responsible citizenry also turn to tokenism but to a limited extent. Iftar dinners initiated by former US president Bill Clinton, continued by George W Bush and Barack Obama and Obama hosting a Diwali celebration certainly smack of tokenism.

It seems the only element that can counter tokenism effectively is civic knowledge or strengthening education for all. The faster, deeper and wider the spread of education, the better is the outcome. The 2011 census paints a gloomy picture. At 42.7 per cent, Muslims have the highest percentage of illiterates, followed by 36.4 per cent for Hindus, 32.5 per cent for Sikhs, 28.2 per cent for Buddhists and 25.6 per cent for Christians. The overall percentage of illiterates is 36.9 for all communities.

There could well be many educated people, but it is this 36.9 per cent illiterate people that primarily fall prey to politics of tokenism. Political leaders and poll strategists target them to win the election by speaking in accents familiar to them, wearing their face and their arguments. The problem is not merely these leaders who fake or lie but the people for whom truth and fiction are

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meaningless abstractions. It raises a serious question: how long can democracy survive civic ignorance?

Many believe if democracy has survived in India, it is because of the judiciary - the Supreme Court. Now it’s again up to the apex court to rein in the deplorable practices of our political representatives indulging in tokenism that has sucked so much oxygen out of the political environment forcing real issues to get overlooked. The time is ripe to recognize that there is room for principled disagreement about just where the line should be drawn.

By Debasish Bhattacharyya

The writer is former General Manager, International Centre Goa and Deputy General Manager, India International Centre, New Delhi

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EMINENT PERSONALITIES

STATESMAN, NOV 21, 2016Nehruvian legacy -- ISubrata Mukherjee |

Representational Image (Photo: Getty Images)Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was the Prime Minister from the day of Independence, 15 August 1947 to his death on 27 May 1964. He was chosen as the ‘natural successor’ by Mahatma Gandhi. However, Nehru, unlike Gandhi, never attempted to build a team, the very essence of parliamentary democracy. Nor for that matter did he name his successor.

“Panditji knows best” was his guiding principle. He shouldered a forbidding workload as he headed the two ministries of Foreign Affairs and Atomic Energy, apart from being the Prime Minister. As Aakar Patel once wrote about Nehru: “He made too many speeches (often three a day) and spent too much time lecturing the West. He was careless with his time, once giving three hours to a high school delegation from Australia, while his ministers waited outside”. 

This reflects the fact that Nehru never prioritised his work and never distinguished the frivolous from the serious. He never treated his ministerial colleagues or even the popular chief ministers with respect. Often, he would lecture them through his letters, which were crafted in general terms. There were no specific instructions to deal with the major problems. 

He did not have a system of feedback. Gandhi’s Congress, being an umbrella party, had people of all shades of opinion and even before Independence, the views of both Nehru and Patel were radically different. However, after Independence, as Austin observed, the oligarchy of four -- Rajendra Prasad, Azad, Nehru and Patel -- provided a unified leadership leading to the smooth functioning of the Constituent Assembly and framing of the Constitution. 

The 1950 presidential election of the party was a keenly contested affair. Patel supported Tandon, while Nehru supported Kripalani. Tandon won by securing 1306 votes while Kripalani received 1072. Nehru took it as a personal defeat in the manner of Gandhi’s response to Sitaramayya’s defeat by Subhas. Nehru resigned from the Congress Working Committee and other members followed him. Like Subhas earlier, an isolated Tandon resigned and Nehru took over the party presidency. 

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As the election revealed, Nehru did not accept the majority view and without trying to convince the majority by reason over a period of time, his action demonstrated his unilateralism and arrogance. He never tried to dissect Patel’s criticism of socialism that it failed to create wealth. Instead of practising a state-sponsored distributionist policy to which Nehru was committed, Patel preferred the Gandhian precept of non-possession and service to the poor. 

Patel used to say that like the existence of 84 castes, there are 85 varieties of socialism and he was against class war and did not want liquidation of landlords or capitalists. He rejected nationalisation as it was inefficient. For Patel, the major concern was India’s industrial backwardness which he wanted to overcome by emphasising the need to increase production. 

Disregarding Patel, Nehru followed the Leninist policy of “commanding heights” and a socialistic pattern of society leading to what Raj Krishna called “dharmshala capitalism” with a pathetic 3 per cent annual growth rate, which he described as the Hindu rate of growth. Hem Baruah, the PSP member from Assam in the Second Lok Sabha (1957-62) in a reply to Nehru’s observation that cars are manufactured in India, retorted that it was a unique car in the world... as all its parts except the horn are noisy. Another claim by Nehru, that an average Indian made 19 paise a day, was debunked by Ram Manohar Lohia, the indomitable socialist leader. He retorted that with that sum one could not buy even a bottle of Coca Cola and even that figure was a lie, as the actual earning was 16 paise a day. 

Aakar Patel exploded the myth that Chacha Nehru loved children, as “Nehru did not really have time for or enjoyed their company” He quoted Crocker to prove his point. “Nehru certainly did some acting on public occasions and before TV cameras… The acting was never worse than the pose of Chacha Nehru with the children. This was at its worst on his birthday for a few years when sycophants organised groups of children with flowers and copious photographing to parade with him. It was out of character, his interest in children was slender”. 

This keenness to be a man for all seasons and really believing that the world is a stage in which we are all actors, kept him preoccupied with several unnecessary ceremonies and actions which he could easily avoid. Many of his activities should have been reserved for the Head of State and not the Head of Government. Rakesh Batabyal portrayed Nehru’s grand project, the community development programme ‘as a means to entrench democracy in villages’. 

An eminent social scientist SC Dube commented that the future of Asia in the larger context would depend on its success. As part of the project, the Balvantray Mehta committee was formed and its report was accepted and put into practice in Rajasthan. Batabyal remarked that ‘the entire political text of the community development programme, as Nehru saw it, was clearly apparent in this beginning. It was a remarkable roadmap for a decentralised democracy -- one where

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everyone, down to the village level, through the Panchayats, would have ownership of the ‘idea of India’ and India would be a large, open home to all its citizens”. 

But as Batabyal himself remarked by 1960, it became a ministry and under bureaucratic control a travesty”. Batabyal added: ‘Nehru’s home-making efforts ended up promoting urban growth, something that he himself, having spent almost his entire political life for and among village folk never wanted’. This failure of Nehru’s grand project for genuine decentralised democracy left numerous villages in filth and squalor, thereby pulling all of India’s many success stories back to the narrative of poverty and cultural degradation. 

In a severe indictment of the community development programme, Barrington Moore described it as a grand failure in the context of the First Five-Year Plan. The subsequent import of grain under the PL 480 programme from the USA, of which Nehru was a severe critic, was a humiliating result of his failed agricultural policy. He ignored the basic requirement of building a modern state with meaningful land reforms, universal elementary education, population control, and affordable health care. This wide gap between policy and implementation is a legacy of the Nehruvian era that followed the Fabian collectivist model. 

Nehru neither had the patience with details nor a team to really lead the nation that was in its infancy. He continued with a top heavy urbanised colonial set up without any reform proposal. Neither did he empower the poor. In contrast, the East Asians did not set up IITs, but they put in place a network of institutions for proper basic education and skills, a point that was underlined by Galbraith in the 1990s when he remarked that it is impossible to defeat the East Asians as they have no paucity of technically qualified manpower. 

The great advantage that India had at the dawn of independence -- an organised political party and an efficient merit based bureaucracy -- was squandered by Nehru with his superficial modernism and over centralisation of power and authority. 

In the context of the promise of a “new India”, Ernest Barker included the Preamble of the Constitution in his famous work as the noble intent of a nation. But the Nehruvian years witnessed an unreformed colonial state apparatus with an inbuilt incapacity to take hard decisions. (To be concluded)

The writer is a former professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.

STATESMAN, NOV 22, 2016Nehruvian legacy~IISubrata Mukherjee

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Referring to Indira Gandhi, Ernest Barker wrote: “Nehru trusted his daughter’s instincts and her intelligence. We may never fully know in how many or which matters he, as Prime Minister, was influenced by Indira Gandhi's advice. We do know that she gave him the wrong advice to dismiss the first Communist government of Kerala in 1959. His going against his own principles and precepts and his trusting her wisdom in that matter constitutes a stain on his prime ministership”.

This is a strange logic of supporting a totally indefensible action. Why should the Prime Minister trust this daughter rather than his cabinet colleagues especially the Home Minister on a matter involving the controversial Article 356 of the Constitution remains unexplained. There is also another feeble attempt to justify this unconstitutional and immoral dismissal by an argument that “Nehru’s trust in persons was most well-placed but when ill-placed, it brought dire consequences”. It is again a strange logic of trusting persons rather than institutions or merit specially when he promoted VK Krishna Menon, whose name was associated with huge corruption in the 1948 jeep scandal and later mismanaged the Defence Ministry. He was dismissed from the cabinet in 1963 following the debacle in the India-China war.

The point that Mahatma Gandhi ignored is that Nehru was power conscious and that he concentrated too much power with himself and did not attempt to build the next generation of leaders, never elevated any other person to be the deputy Prime Minister, after Patel’s death, and wanted to get rid of all the important leaders by the Kamaraj Plan in 1963. The best possible solution to the border issue was Chou En Lai’s proposal in 1960 which Nehru rejected out of fear that he could be asked to resign for providing misleading information to Parliament. He never contemplated resignation even after the 1962 debacle.

Another important question that Gandhi avoided relates to Feroze Gandhi, a member of the Lok Sabha and a successful parliamentarian, who never earned the confidence of the Prime Minister. This was like sacrificing merit and excellence in order to restrict politics within his own family and promote his daughter while ignoring his more competent son-in-law. Gandhi also raised the question about his reading of world history, but was totally oblivious to the ‘distortions’ in Stalinist Soviet Union and in Mao’s China. His theory of non-alignment never addressed the security concerns of small nations like Greece or Turkey, making them suspicious of India's intent. To call the actions of these two tyrants merely distortions is a gross understatement as both of them committed heinous crimes, unacceptable in any civilised society. However, Gandhi left one fundamental question unanswered ~ Why didn’t Nehru change his views after the disclosure of Stalin’s crimes in 1956. Why didn't he question the fact that the USSR did not produce enough foodgrain to feed itself, especially after Toffler had pointed out that agriculture was mankind’s first revolution. As Nagarkar pointed out that during the Soviet invasion of Hungary, “Nehru’s response was muted. Politics had trumped moral stance”.

This mistake was more pronounced by Nehru's totally contradictory policies in the Suez crisis and then in Hungary. The reason for this failure to develop a sense of realism and incapacity to ask hard questions flows from what Gorwala wrote in the Current on 1 June 1955 ~ “He was accustomed in the late twenties and early thirties to regard the Soviet Union as truly progressive. The Prime Minister seems never to have quite gotten over the vision of those days. Despite all

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that has happened since then, the Soviet Union still retains for him a source of that enchantment. To its virtues, he continues to be very kind, its vices and cruelties, he is almost blind”.

Aakar Patel described Nehru’s annexation of Goa as illegal, though only C Rajagopalachari and Jayaprakash Narayan had opposed it. In Patel's reckoning, “if Portugal had insisted on a plebiscite, Goans would have preferred Portuguese rule to the Indian”. But what Patel ignored was the fact that the Third Lok Sabha elections were approaching and in the face of increased consolidation of opposition space, there was a fear that Nehru might not get a clear majority in the Lok Sabha. One should remember that even in the first Lok Sabha election, the impressive victory of the Congress was made possible only with 43 per cent of the votes and this was largely due to opposition disunity. Since a successful army operation against another country is a sure recipe for winning an election, Nehru took this easy path abandoning his own principles and annoying the West and creating misgivings among our neighbours.

The annexation of Goa ran counter to India’s advocacy of peaceful settlement of disputes. The annexation of Portuguese territories in 1961 also resulted in our isolation during and after the 1962 war with China even among nations that professed non-alignment.

What appeared to be commonplace realism to AD Shroff of the Forum of Free Enterprise, that Nehruvian brand of socialism and comprehensive Soviet style planning would discourage individual initiative and enterprise and the inevitable march towards totalitarianism, did not make any impression on Nehru. He even went to the extent of claiming that “private enterprise and democracy are incompatible”. Shroff with a few others started the forum of Free Enterprise in 1956, in the background of the failure of the First Five-Year Plan to deliver the desired results. Had Nehru been receptive to such criticisms, then India’s track record would have been much better. The Nehruvian state-centric planning was rejected by Rajaji in 1959. He thought it was the fatal mistake of Nehru’s plan to achieve industrialisation “by the short-cut of heavy borrowing and central planning and a permit licence quota regime”.

Ironically the Congress party in the 1990s was forced to move away from the Nehruvian plank and embrace free enterprise and economic liberalisation. In the scale of history, Rajaji proved to be on the right side and Nehru on the wrong side.

Gunnar Myrdal remarked that under Nehru’s “exalted” leadership progressive commitments were put on the backburner and concessions were made to the conservative elements in order to maintain stability. Inevitable in such a situation of a ‘soft state’ politics of postponement, inaction, corruption, nepotism, compromise with merit and professionalism led to a situation of underdevelopment and decay. He failed to initiate basic reforms like repealing the draconian Police Act of 1861. No wonder Justice Mullaha of the Allahabad High Court rightly described the Indian police as the best organised gangster in 1956.

The Nehruvian period of Indian democratic evolution was a period of perpetuation of an overdeveloped colonial state apparatus with a large measure of personalised politics. It never occurred to Nehru to allocate external affairs ministry to another competent person, as holding both the offices of the head of the government and that of foreign affairs, was rare even in

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communist authoritarian regimes. Mao had a Zhou en Lai to take care of complex foreign relations. Added to this over-concentration, Nehru tried to play the role of mediator in the conflict between the US and USSR during the height of the Cold War and in the conflict between the USSR and China. Such actions were counter-productive and did not add much to our international standing nor did it advance our national interests.

Nehru's anti-Americanism was absurdly attributed to his school days at Harrow. When General Ayub proposed a no-war pact in 1959, Nehru’s reply was against whom? He ignored Gandhi’s advice not to internationalise the Kashmir issue in 1947-48 and forgot the basic dictum of national power. India's chinks were exposed during her humiliating defeat in the 1962 war with China. In retrospect, both in domestic and foreign affairs, Nehru’s achievements during the 17 years as Prime Minister were puny. Hiren Mukherjee called Nehru a “gentle colossus” but in reality, his tenure was marked by many colossal blunders and very few achievements.

(Concluded)

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HOUSING

HINDU, NOV 19, 2016DDA’s new housing scheme likely to be launched in Jan

Launch ‘delayed’ due to demonetisation drive; more than 13,000 flats on offer

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If you aspire to own a house of your own in Delhi, your dream may soon come true.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is going to launch its new housing scheme

with more than 13,000 flats on offer.

The housing scheme’s proposal was approved on Friday in a meeting chaired by

Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung. The date of the launch, however, was not decided

in the meeting.

The scheme was expected to be launched in December, but due to the demonetisation

drive it is now going to be launched in January, sources in the DDA said. “All banks at

the moment are busy and they are an important stakeholder in the process. We would

soon have a meeting with the empanelled banks for the scheme, which we expect to

launch in January,” said a senior DDA official. “We would also need about a month

and a half to finish other preparations for the scheme,” he said.

Seven choices available

The scheme would offer 13,148 flats in areas such as Sarita Vihar, Jasola, Dwarka,

Pitampura, Sukhdev Vihar, Narela, Rohini, Jahangirpuri, Loknayakpuram, Dilshad

Garden, Paschim Vihar, Bindapur and Mukherjee Nagar among others. Applicants

will be allowed a maximum of seven choices of locations while registering for the

scheme.

The majority of the flats – 11,671 – are one-bedroom, most of which were allotted

during the 2014 housing scheme but later cancelled or surrendered by the allottees.

Most allottees had cited the small size of the flats as the reason for surrendering.

There are only 79 HIG flats on offer, with prices varying between Rs. 41.62 lakh and

Rs. 1.4 crore.

No price rise for

11,544 flats

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DDA has decided not to increase the prices of the 11,544 flats from 2014 housing

scheme that were surrendered and are now part of the new scheme.

The authority has hiked the registration fee of MIG and HIG flats to Rs. 2 lakh, even

as the earlier plan was to hike it as high as Rs. 5 lakh. Also, unlike its earlier plan,

applicants will be able to register through both online and offline process. The

allotments would be made on freehold basis.

DDA has done away with the earlier clause of five-year lock-in period, but added a

stringent condition this time to attract only genuine buyers and not speculators.

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JUDICIARY

HINDU, NOV 19, 2016SC Collegium stands by 43 names rejected by govt. Krishnadas Rajagopal

Centre bound to clear them for appointment as HC judges now

The Supreme Court Collegium, led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, refused to accept the government’s rejection of 43 names it handpicked for judicial appointments in various High Courts.

The battle lines were drawn when the Supreme Court informed the government on Friday that it had reiterated every one of the 43 names that was sent back by the Centre to the Collegium for re-consideration. The Collegium had met on November 15.

“We [the Collegium] met. We have reiterated all the 43 names sent back to us,” Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur informed Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi on Friday.

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The government is now on a sticky wicket as the new Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) is yet to be finalised. The prevalent procedure is that once the Collegium has reiterated its recommendations, as in this case, the government is bound to clear the names for appointment as judges.

The government had returned the 43, out of a total 77 names, recommended by the Collegium. The appointments of the remaining 34 names have already been completed by the government.

The recommendations are for various High Courts, including those in Allahabad, Karnataka and Madras.

Chief Justice Thakur had recently asked the Centre to send back any names recommended by the Collegium in case of a difference of opinion.

It was said this was better than keeping the entire process of judicial appointments hanging.

The court, however, did not mention any progress in the stalemate over the latest draft MoP, which was referred to the Collegium by the government on August 3.

“The last communication on the MoP was on August 3... since then there has been no reply from the Collegium,” Mr. Rohatgi had submitted at the previous hearing.

The government's submissions had come in the background of a tongue-lashing it received from the Chief Justice, who accused the government of trying to choke justice by not appointing judges and locking courtrooms en masse.

Chief Justice Thakur had accused the government of trying to “decimate the judiciary and lock justice out.”

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi today said that the government will have to study and examine the reasons of the Supreme Court collegium while rejecting its objections to the names recommended by it for appointment of judges to high courts.

“The government will start processing the files once again. If it has come late yesterday or today, the reasons have to be seen as to how the collegium had dealt with the objections (of the Centre) on the names recommended by it,” Rohatgi told PTI.

INDIAN EXPRESS, NOV 18, 2016Retirement of HC judges: Government noncommittal on billThe UPA proposal had sought to bring at par the retirement age of high court judges with that of Supreme Court judges at 65.

Even as confrontation persists between the government and the Supreme Court over vacancies in higher judiciary, the government refused to say Thursday if was mulling bringing afresh a bill to increase the retirement age of high court judges from 62 to 65. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha on whether any proposal for extension of retirement age of high court judges is under

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consideration, MoS for Law P P Chaudhary said in a written reply that a bill brought by the previous UPA government in 2010 lapsed after the dissolution of the then Lok Sabha in 2014. The UPA proposal had sought to bring at par the retirement age of high court judges with that of Supreme Court judges at 65. The bill, introduced in Lok Sabha on July 25, 2010, was referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which recommended it be passed in its present form should be passed without delay.

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LIBRARIES

HINDU, NOV 17, 2016Demolition of 55-year-old public library stayedAkanksha Jain

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the demolition of the 55-year-old Delhi Public Library at Karol Bagh after a petition was moved by many people, including academicians and editors.

Notice

A Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini directed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to stay the demolition of the library, adding that the library shall be kept closed and no one shall be allowed entry. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation had issued notice as per which the library was to be demolished on Wednesday.

Commercial complex

However, the court granted a stay till December 5.

Pankaj Pushkar, an MLA and a member of the Delhi Library Board, had vehemently opposed the move saying the library was being demolished to bring up a commercial complex in its place.

“Corrupt practices”

“The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has been manipulated using corrupt practices, to declare the premises as dangerous now, while in 2011, the same civic body had certified the building as safe, provided minor maintenance is continued. The library is still being demolished due to pressure and corrupt tactics by the owners,” said the petition filed before the court.

The library was established in 1964 on rented premises.

After the demise of the erstwhile owner of the land, it was sold to its current owner.

Its current owner, said Mr. Pushkar, has been trying to get the library demolished over commercial interests.

The library is run by an autonomous board. It consists of officers from the Centre and Delhi government, intellectuals from libraries all over Delhi, members of the Legislative Assembly and Councillors.

Board order violated

Mr. Pushkar said that the library board, in its previous three sittings, had given a clear order that the library will not be closed despite pressure from the builder.

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“The library chairman has clearly violated the board’s order. The present board was not even informed. The informed local residents and readers have alleged that a transaction of crores of rupees has taken place in to have the library premises vacated,” he said in a statement.

The North body had in 2011 certified the building as safe, provided minor maintenance is continued

Pankaj Pushkar

Delhi Library Board member

Bench ordered that Delhi Public Library shall be kept closed and no one shall be allowed entry

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS

HINDU, NOV 23, 2016India joins CERN as an associate memberMARTIAL TREZZINI

India on Monday became an associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear

Research (CERN), the world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory and best

known as operator of the Large Hadron Collider, which found the elusive Higgs boson in

2012.

India was inducted as an ‘Observer’ at CERN in 2004. The latest upgrade allows Indian

companies to bid for lucrative engineering contracts and Indians can apply for staff

positions at the organisation.

The associate membership would cost India CHF (Swiss Franc) 11.5 million

(approximately Rs. 78 crore) annually though it still wouldn’t have voting rights on

decisions of the Council. “Most decisions of the Council proceed by consensus but the most

significant outcome is that our industry can bid for developing sophisticated equipment,

software and instruments,” said Arun Srivastava, Secretary, Atomic Energy Commission.

Operational from January

The agreement was signed on Monday by Sekhar Basu, chairman of Atomic Energy

Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and CERN Director

General Fabiola Gianotti in Mumbai.

The Union Cabinet had cleared India’s participation last year and though the deal was

signed on Monday, it will formally become a member around January after depositing an

instrument of ratification.

“We can choose to apply for full membership after two years or continue with this status for

five years,” Mr. Srivastava told The Hindu.

CERN is based in Geneva on the French-Swiss border. It has 22 member states and four

associate member states and other associate members transitioning to full member status.

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Associate members pay about 10 per cent what full members pay.

Active involvement

Though India was invited to be member of CERN at least two years ago, it tarried.

Incidentally, Pakistan became an associate member of the body in 2014. This, even though

India’s association with CERN goes back decades with an active involvement in the

construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in the areas of design, development and

supply of hardware accelerator components/systems and its commissioning and software

development and deployment in the machine.

Indian scientists have played a significant role in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)

experiment, one of the two large experiments that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

TELEGRAPH, NOV 16, 2016A victory foretold - It is important to brief Donald Trump on India

Diplomacy- K.P. Nayar

For a full week now in president-elect Donald Trump's United States of America, friends of India belonging to Washington's permanent 'establishment' have been trying to get the transition team set up by the next president to brief Trump on India.

Trump has shown absolutely no interest in such a briefing, according to those who have been trying to organize it for the victor in last week's presidential poll. This may come as a wake-up call to those in India who never tire of spouting the piffle that a Republican president in the White House is better for India than a Democrat.

One of those behind this hitherto unsuccessful attempt was brutally frank about pundits and strategic analysts in India. "Trump is neither pro-India, nor anti-India. He is solely pro-America. If he has to be persuaded to take any interest in India, he and those in his immediate circle have to be incentivized into doing that."

The establishment which has embarked on this India-familiarization project for Trump fits the description of "permanent" because the puppeteers who manipulate and control those who run America's national capital do not change, no matter who comes to power. These puppeteers - just as in the corridors of power in New Delhi - merely switch sides and find a way to fraternize and then influence the new lot which has assumed power.

For many years now, India has been a favourite of the Washington establishment. In turn, that has found reflection in the India policies of successive US presidents, from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Barack Obama. This establishment is very concerned that unless Trump is made aware of America's stakes in its relationship with India, the relationship is in danger of hitting a trough or even going downhill.

The president-elect has signalled within days of his victory that he is hedging on some of his election promises which he will treat as jumla, to borrow a phrase made notorious in a similar context by the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah. As the realism of political exigencies dawns on the new president, coupled with legislative restraints built into the American system by the founding fathers of the US Constitution, Trump is likely to persevere only with the most doable of his populist promises.

Creating new employment for his people and restricting immigration in a manner that preserves existing American jobs are two areas where he will seek to issue executive orders in the first 100 days of a Trump presidency.

The danger is that in seeking to restrict the inflow of aliens any new administration rule or

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Republican legislation in the US Congress may have blanket provisions. These may not distinguish Indian immigrants or temporary workers from those that a Trump administration is seeking to keep out of the US for economic reasons. Legislation in a democracy has to be nationality neutral and cannot be discriminatory on the basis of ethnicity, gender or even religion. Otherwise, it will be struck down as unconstitutional or illegal in a country with an independent judiciary such as the US.

The truth is that most Indians who arrive in America to make it their home - temporarily or permanently - enter the US to improve their lot economically. More often than not, this is at the cost of the welfare of the class of people who supported Trump's promise to enrich them and voted for him in the belief that he would translate that promise into action.

Fundamentally, a clash of interest, therefore, exists between the migration of Indians to America and the convictions and promises that Trump will attempt to translate into policy if he wants to be re-elected after four years. One of the reasons why the Washington establishment wants Trump to be urgently educated about India is that the movement of people from India to the US has elements which are uniquely different from those of other developing countries. It is more at par with European or even Jewish immigration in our time.

Such migration from India has an aspect which goes beyond H-1B or L-1 visas, which have attracted scrutiny by xenophobes in the present atmosphere in the US and criticism by American workers who have lost their jobs or by labour unions which have campaigned against imports of white collar workforce from India.

What is not so well known, for instance, is that virtually every large American corporation today has a research facility in India. The GE Global Research centre and the Xerox Research Centre, India, both in Bangalore and the SAS Research and Development India Private Limited in Pune, an offshoot of the large American corporation which began as a small project at North Carolina State University to analyse agricultural research, are only a few examples among the many which underline the research linkages that now bind India and the US.

Cutting edge research links such as these have no geographical boundaries and require the constant movement of people across borders: in this case, between India and the US. Unless special provisions are made in any potential Trump administration decisions to ensure that movement of people from India and the US and vice versa is unimpeded, such links could seriously suffer.

It is risky from an Indian point of view to take comfort that Trump, being an entrepreneur himself, understands the needs of business or to speculate that as president he will not stand in the way of multinational corporations accessing global talent. Even businessmen who move into public life have to meet the exigencies of politics, so Trump may realize that he has no room for manoeuvre on issues like letting in alien talent into the US under its present atmosphere.

Eight years of constant refrain by Barack Obama about how Americans are being overtaken by

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Indians and Chinese in science, technology, engineering and similar areas have made many Americans realize that the US urgently needs sustained infusion of specialized talent in these areas.

Obama's solution was two-fold. One was to attract bright foreign students to prestigious institutions of higher learning in the US and then make it possible for these students to stay back in America after their studies. This way they would contribute with their talent to maintaining America's competitiveness in the world. The other solution was to make it easier for people from abroad who have already demonstrated their talent in various fields to move to the US and make America their home.

Just as Trump is now convinced after meeting Obama last week that parts of 'Obamacare,' the president's signature health plan, need to be preserved - during the campaign Trump had said he would bury Obama's health reform - it is important to convince Trump of the benefits of discriminating in favour of allowing certain categories of immigrants into the US from countries like India.

Otherwise, the ground would be set to fritter away a lot of what has been achieved in Indo-US relations in the last 10 to 15 years. Hence the idea of briefing Trump on India, not by the usual suspects but by businessmen like his supporter, Wilbur Ross, who once held a 27 per cent stake in SpiceJet that he later sold to Kalanithi Maran's Sun Group.

One of the few Indian strategic analysts who foresaw a Trump victory on November 8 was the former diplomat, Hardeep Singh Puri, who was Trump's tenant in New York. For four years when he was India's permanent representative to the United Nations, he lived in Trump World Tower across the road from the UN headquarters. Being a quintessential diplomat he indicated diplomatically in his recent writings that Trump will be the next US president and foresaw Hillary Clinton's defeat.

It is significant that in his latest book, Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos, written while the presidential campaign was under way, Puri clinically analysed Lieutenant General Michael Flynn's contention that the US policy on Syria - which led to the current conditions there - constituted a "wilful decision." It was Flynn's briefings to Trump which persuaded the Republican candidate to allege in campaign speeches that Hillary Clinton, along with Obama, created the Islamic State in Syria. Flynn is likely to be Trump's national security adviser.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the US was convinced that Trump would win and maintained contacts with him under the radar, in the usual RSS style. One of its leading lights, Shekhar Tiwari, emphatically argued in e-mails to this columnist while the campaign was under way that Trump would defeat Clinton. Narendra Modi may find the RSS contacts with Trump to be useful in the coming months.

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POVERTY

DECCAN HERALD, NOV 18, 2016Grave implicationsP S M Rao

WORLD POVERTY SURVEY : The latest reports from World Bank and other sources should make the government take the danger signals seriously.

Close to 30% of the world’s poor live in India as per a World Bank’s recent report, ‘Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016’.

India alone housed 224 million of the world’s 767 m poor as of 2013. The report once again brings to focus India’s dubious distinction of being the world’s number one country in this respect, its disputable criterion to count the poor notwithstanding. 

The World Bank’s poverty threshold is $1.90 a day per person. That is not at market exchange rate, which would translate to Rs 117.45 in 2013 at Rs 61.82 per dollar, but is at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) which equals Rs 31.77 (at Rs 16.72 a dollar). The PPP compares the values of currencies in relation to their purchasing power. For instance, just to explain it in simplest possible terms, if a cup of tea costs Rs 10 in India and $1 in the US, the value of one dollar equals Rs 10 whereas today’s market exchange rate is much higher, at Rs 66.77 a dollar.

So, the World Bank’s poverty line threshold is no better than the much criticised Tendulkar norm. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee which submitted its report in 2009 fixed a daily spending per person of Rs 27.2 in rural areas and Rs 33.3 in urban to be the poverty line, resulting in 270 million poor.

Subsequently, the Rangarajan committee slightly revised these limits to Rs 32 and Rs 47, respectively, with the number increasing to 363 million. The Niti Aayog which is still undecided on the criterion, is understood to have decided to set up a panel to again define the poverty.

The World Bank’s threshold definitely is not beyond a serious criticism and rebuttal. But it should be noted that any increase in the threshold, to correct the wrong, will surely increase the number of poor all over the world including India. That means India’s number one position will remain unchanged. The country in the second position – Nigeria – has 86 million poor. Though it is a big number to that country, it is equal to just about 38% of India’s numbers!

Besides the number of the poor, there are several other crucial presages that India can ill afford to ignore. The most disheartening thing is that the children under 18 accounted for half the global poor and the share of younger children, in the age group 0-14, is much more than their share in the world’s population.

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Similar to its overall share in poverty, India is home for 30% of the world’s poorest children. Another worrisome fact is that child poverty is heavily concentrated in rural areas with four out of five children in extreme poverty living there.

A United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report adds that more number of children, 45%, are poor even at higher threshold $3.10 a day. Equally dreadful, India had the highest number of under-five deaths – as many as 1.4 million – in 2012 as per the UN Millennium Development Goal report 2014. The children’s plight – their poverty, ill health and illiteracy – mirrors the future state of the country.

Equally shocking is that the poverty is more among the farmers, the food givers to the society. While 80% of the world’s poor live in rural areas 64% work in agriculture.

Another distressing thing, rather the cause for the persistent poverty, is the high inequality in the country. The income of top 1% of Indians is found to be increasing similar to what happening in some other countries like the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Taiwan, China and the United States.

At another level, India is being projected to be not lagging much behind the world’s rich. It is among the top 10 wealthiest countries. Its rank is seventh with $5,600 billion individual wealth (private wealth held by all the individuals, all their assets minus liabilities).

As per the report of the New World Wealth, India is ahead of even Canada ($4,700 billion), Australia ($4,500 billion) and Italy ($4,400 billion). Its GDP was $2.07 trillion in 2015, in PPP terms, $7.9 trillion. But this is a misleading hype because of its over 130 billion population. India ranks 170 with $1,590 per capita income in 2015; even in PPP $6,020 per capita it ranks 151.

Dubious distinction

Furthermore, the income distributed is highly unequal. The Gini index of India (which indicates inequality – higher the index value, more would be the inequality) has gone up from 45.18 in 1990 to 51.36 in 2013 – worse than Latin America’s 43.69 – as per a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report. In fact, India has also earned further dubious distinction of being among the top rankers in inequality.

Although India has reduced the number of poor over years as per the official statistics, the other countries, for instance, China, Vietnam and Indonesia all started with higher poverty levels than India in 1990 and have been able to do better than India. While there is no marked improvement in the lives of the poor, the rich are undoubtedly becoming richer. The income of high net worth individuals in India, numbering 1,98,000, with incomes more than $1 million aggregates to $785 billion according to world wealth report 2015. According to Credit Suisse’s report, the top 1% of India’s population own 53% of the country’s wealth; the top 5% own 68.6% and the top 10% own 76.3% whereas the bottom 50% of the people apportion only 4.1% of the wealth. So, the latest reports from World Bank and other sources should make the Indian government

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take the danger signals seriously and rework its plans to halt this deplorable course, before things move from bad to worse.

RAILWAYSINDIAN EXPRESS, NOV 22, 2016Why trains derail: Explained by former Railways minister

The Indian Railways has lost focus. The system needs a generational change.Written by Dinesh Trivedi

A policeman stands at the site of Sunday’s train derailment in Pukhrayan, south of Kanpur city. (Source: Reuters)

While I pen this article, the latest figure of the dead in the Indore-Patna Express derailment is

145, seriously injured 58, injured 122, due to an avoidable mishap. I am not calling this an

accident. I am calling it a mishap, which means a disaster which could have been avoided. After

such a horrible incident, a routine inquiry is ordered and the inquiry commission gives its report

after many months. By then, the public would have forgotten about this accident till another such

unfortunate accident takes place and the data of the dead is then compared to find out which

accident was bigger, yet another inquiry commission being ordered. And so, the cycle of

accidents and routine inquiry commissions will go on — but who will never forget such horrible,

avoidable accidents? The families who would have lost their near and dear ones? A mother who

might have lost her children? A son who might have lost his father? A woman who might have

lost her husband — the only bread earner of a poor family?

The fact is, if one analyses such rail accidents, mostly poor people lose their lives. Most of such

accidents take place in trains categorised as non-VIP ones, unlike the Rajdhani, Shatabdi, etc.

Does that mean Rajdhanis and Shatabdis are absolutely safe? The answer is a big no. As the

tracks and signalling system are common, what is different is the quality of rolling stock, namely

locomotives, LHB coaches and better monitoring of tracks before such trains pass on them.

An accident report is of use if its recommendation is followed in letter and spirit — but nothing

much happens with these recommendations. Otherwise, why would reports prepared by experts

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in consultation with the railways gather dust? The Kakodkar and Sam Pitroda committee reports

are just two, in recent times.

When I had taken oath as minister of railways on July 12, 2011 the railways had just been

overtaken by an unfortunate accident at Fatephur Malwa, near Kanpur, on July 10. I rushed to

the accident site immediately after taking oath, straight from Rashtrapati Bhavan. The pain and

misery of passengers and relatives of those who’d died still haunt me. That moment, I vowed to

eliminate the recurrence of such painful happenings. I decided my entire emphasis as railway

minister was going to be “Safety, safety and safety.” In times of such advanced technology,

frequent accidents leading to death on the rail tracks are not acceptable.

Now, the question is, “What is really ailing the Indian railways?’’ I heard the honourable

minister, reacting to this incident, say, “strictest possible action would be taken against the

guilty.” Who is the guilty? Do we blame the British government for an inefficient railway

system? Certainly not. One of the assets we inherited from the Raj was an efficient railway

system. Then where does the buck stop? The poor gang-man on duty? Of course not, as he isn’t

qualified to know the quality of rail and how much wear and tear it can take. I wouldn’t even

blame the minister. My view is, successive governments have to take the blame, all those who

have treated the Indian railways as a political tool rather than an asset, capable of transporting

people and freight and adding at least two per cent to our GDP.

Indian railways is still one of the best organisations in the world, next to the army, with the most

talented people. But the organisation is being systematically damaged by successive

governments because of the lack of understanding of this organisation’s potential. Indian

railways needs to be benchmarked to the Japanese railway system, Shinkansen, which, since

1964, has been carrying millions of passengers with zero fatality. Indian Railways is more than

capable of achieving this benchmark, provided we give it the necessary resources.

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The present problem of the railways is that the organisation is on the verge of bankruptcy. Very

soon, Indian Railways may need to borrow money to pay salaries as it is likely to report a net

loss of Rs 25,000 crore or more. My biggest worry is safety as the Depreciation Reserve Fund

(DRF) and Development Fund (DF) are getting depleted, since the railways are cash-starved.

The railways are not generating enough operating cash surplus to even meet daily operating

expenses. To replace an old asset (tracks, rolling stock or signalling systems), you need to put

money in the DRF. On an average, the system requires Rs 20,000-25,000 crore year after year to

replace old assets. Instead of that, a provision had been made for a mere Rs 3,200 crore for the

DRF in the 2016 budget. Therefore, the much required replacement of old assets is postponed —

knowingly compromising safety.

The railways have lost their focus from operation with safety, to peripheral activities like

catering, Wifi, bullet trains, etc. The railway organisation is totally demoralised as uncertainty

looms large in terms of major changes at the top level. Even an extension for a two-year term

given to the present chairman, Railway Board, after his retirement is unprecedented and has

caused heartburn. The railways are also spending less on existing assets, like tracks, rolling

stocks, etc., while the replacement of worn-out assets is not being done. Freight loading is 15 per

cent lower than last year and 25 per cent below target. Passenger traffic is also down by millions.

The quality of maintenance isn’t being monitored while replacement of LHB coaches is

happening very slowly — if Indore-Patna Express had LHB coaches, the casualties would have

been less. Further, continuous track circuiting (CTC) is needed on all tracks to detect rail

fractures. With CTC, the derailment of the Indore-Patna Express would not have occurred.

In conclusion, we need to go for a generational change in our railway system and completely

modernise it with latest technology. For this, the government needs a massive investment

programme without relying on revenue from the railway’s internal generation. This investment

will not only save precious lives, it will give handsome dividends to the GDP. It’s time we

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change the definition of the railways from a “commercial organisation” to a “basic infrastructure

provider”.The writer, a TMC member, is former Union minister for railways.

SANITATION

STATESMAN, NOV 19, 2016Appalling sanitationSK Sarkar |

On November 19, the world including India will be celebrating the World Toilet Day 2016, the theme of which is 'Toilets and Jobs'. It aims to increase awareness on how access to or lack of access to sanitation affects the livelihood of people, impacts the economy,  and  the health and physical safety of people,  especially women and girls.

The world over, about  2.4 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation, and about one billion people still defecate in the open, of which India's  contribution is sizable. The  Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) sanitation targets during 1990-2015, which promised to reduce the number of people  without access to improved sanitation by half,  were not achieved  in 95 countries, including India. The new global promises under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also aim that by 2030  every country in the world should achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women,  girls and those in vulnerable situations. India is also committed to achieve this target.

Unlike 'access to safe water' goals under MDGs, India has achieved 'moderately' with respect to sanitation access targets.  In 2015, 54 per cent urban sanitation coverage and 21 per cent rural coverage were achieved, and the  proportion of population (urban and rural) that gained access to sanitation has gone up to 31 per cent. Still, about 564 million people openly defecate in India, categorizing her as a country with the highest open defecators in the world.

Lack of improved access to water and sanitation  causes health hazard to the population, resulting in loss of productivity. A World Bank estimate (2016) shows that about 6.4 per cent of the gross domestic product in 2006 (at US $ 53.8 billion) was lost in India due to inadequate  sanitation.  Every year about 73 million workdays are lost in this country  due to lack of access to safe water and improved sanitation.

To address the entire issue, initiatives have been taken by the governments in the past, the latest  being the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) with an objective, inter alia, to eliminate open defecation and to eradicate manual scavenging, by constructing a huge number of new toilets and reconstructing a large number of dysfunctional toilets by October 2019. The construction of toilets is taking place rapidly, but the overall progress is not encouraging.

Although the SBM also aims to create awareness and effect behavioral changes among the non users, these aspects are given less emphasis. While construction of toilets is a must, ignoring

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these soft aspects and also relegating the faecal sludge management to a secondary or tertiary position would imply that the ultimate objectives of having healthy population in our society may not be achieved.

For instance, it may take many years to change the behaviour of people in terms of usage of improved toilets. Success stories in Kerala show that the initiatives for making the state free from open defection  started way back in 1970s with a mass awareness programme for toilet usage, backed up by a civil society movement in the 1980s, and supplemented through total literacy campaign, demand of women's  group for improved toilets, and allocating as much as about one-third of the state budget to municipalities in the 1990s.

Such  efforts will have to be supplemented with faecal sludge management efforts as well. Presently,  human waste is either disposed through 'off site' methods, suh as conveyance  through centralized sewerage network for treatment, or if untreated, putting the same in open drains causing water contamination, or through 'onsite' arrangement  which  includes use of septic latrines or pit latrines for disposal of such septage. About 50 per cent of the urban population use the latter system. In the absence of a national regulation on septage management, lack of commitment of states, and poor enforcement capabilities by local bodies, there is poor management in handling faecal sludge matter at all levels of the value chain ~ access, containment, conveyance, and disposal/reuse of human waste.

Improper construction of septic tanks and usage of toilets with septic/pit latrines pose danger to the availability of safe drinking water due to faecal bacteria which cause tropical enteropathy and stunting in children.

India needs to look into the entire issue of sanitation from the demand side as well as through understanding  the locally specific barriers for changing the behaviour of the people for usage of improved latrines, and addressing the same. This task is impossible to achieve through the governments' efforts alone. Involvement of stakeholders including the private sector is a must. In addition, faecal sludge management for 'end to end'  solution has to be undertaken on an urgent basis, as 'on site' sanitation coverage is increasing rapidly every year.  In the absence of scientific management of faecal waste, health hazards are bound to linger.

The writer is former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources & DoPT, and Fellow and Director, Water Resources and Forestry Division, TERI.

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