Friday, July 17, 2009
Initiatives to upgrade efforts of Narcotics Intelligence Bureau
From The Hindu
A range of policy initiatives for upgrading the efforts of the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau (NIB) were outlined on Friday. Also, while alcohol production and revenue had increased, the State government emphasised its commitment to curbing the sale and transportation of illicit liquor.
In the context of an increase in the number of drug offenders detained in 2008 from the previous year, the Home, Prohibition and Excise Department said that “intensive raids will be conducted in railway stations, bus stands and near schools and colleges.”
Balancing the focus on raids with plans to spread awareness of narcotics issues, the proposed plan of action for 2009-10 says, “At least one programme per month will be conducted in a school in consultation with the Prohibition and Excise Department.” Addressing the issue of ganja, plans were announced for the coming year to prevent, in coordination with the Forest Department, the cultivation of ganja plants in Tamil Nadu. Steps would be taken to address the issue of “heavy influx of ganja from Andhra Pradesh by road and train.”
The production of Indian Made Foreign Spirits and beer increased to 48.19 crore bulk litres during 2008-09 from 42.82 CBL the previous year.
Revenue from this sector, including excise revenue and sales tax, increased to Rs.10601.5 crore in 2008-09, up from Rs. 8821.16 crore during the previous year.
Labels: Assemby, excise, ganja, illicit liquor, Narcotics Intelligence Bureau, Tamil Nadu
Thursday, July 16, 2009
School education policy note focusses on girls
From The Hindu
New proposals for school education during 2009-10, announced on Wednesday, include plans to fill a significant number of posts for secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers.
In addition to filling 5,166 vacancies for teachers in elementary education, the policy note presented by Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu reaffirmed the State government’s commitment to the universalisation of secondary education and emphasised the support given to Kasthurba Gandhi Balika Vidyala (KGBV), a “special intervention for enrolling out-of-school girls in the age group of 11-14 years.”
Speaking to The Hindu about special provisions in the policy for girls’ education, Mr. Thennarasu said: “As part of the secondary education programme, we are also building residential blocks in 12 educationally backward districts. We have allocated Rs.42.5 lakh for each hostel, which can accommodate 100 students.”
The total plan outlay for this scheme is Rs.18.7 crore and it will benefit girls from Standard VI to Standard XII. The Assembly has passed a total outlay of Rs.862.309 crore to be utilised for elementary education schemes. The School Education Department has proposed a number of elementary education initiatives relating to projects for enrolling out-of-school children through bridge courses, inclusive education for persons with disabilities, in-service training for teachers and community training for the Universal Elementary Education scheme (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission).
Further, the Assembly has sanctioned the use of these funds to provide materials to schools.
Labels: Assembly, school education, Tamil Nadu
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Dr Anil Wilson: A Man for All Seasons
In a one-off departure from the political debates, I celebrate the life and mourn the passing of Anil Wilson, Principal, St. Stephen's College, Delhi 110001
Dr Anil Wilson, former Principal of St. Stephen's College, passed away today, 25th June 2009. I am unspeakably saddened at the thought that such a fine human being has passed on, for this troubled world is in dire need of more people of his calibre, his unimpeachable moral fibre and his ability to impart to any conversation or process a sense of what truly mattered. Rather than write about the record of his many accomplishments here (which I am sure many others will do quite soon) I would like to say a few words about what he meant to me and why I feel pained to think he is no more.
Dr Wilson for me personified the most fundamental essence of what being a Stephanian was all about. With an understated approach that was nevertheless always given away by a twinkle in his eye and a knowing grin beginning to break (but not always fully breaking, depending on the context) across his face, any words he uttered were always about doing good, being good, feeling good -- thus making the world a better place to live in, and die in. And of course his words were always directing us, his flock, towards doing whatever we did with an uncompromising commitment to brilliance, to the highest level of performance, and taking pride in this. And in return he took tremendous pride in us Stephanians, and the grand old College itself.
His passing marks the loss of one of those rarest of rare individuals who has a certain je ne sais quoi about them, an unspoken but powerfully felt understanding of what it means to be a noble human being, one who, despite the relentless onslaught of events and people that seek to undermine this nobility, holds firm in the knowledge that there can be no other way. Ultimately this knowledge, in the case of Dr Wilson, came from his deeply spiritual attitude towards life, but equally from his unshakeable humanism, his belief in the equality of all sentient beings despite their differences. The most wonderfully charming thing about him, however, was that this immense spiritual and humanitarian gravitas was always, always, couched in a delightfully capricious and utterly astute sense of humour. He took himself, us, and College lightly too, none of these being spared his sometimes biting witticisms.
To me personally, he is one of the greatest role models of my life and I will always strive to be true to the powerful worldview that he believed in and taught (albeit not always in a formal classroom context). Although we kept in touch ever since I graduated many years ago, I was always hoping to get a chance to meet him again in person, see that twinkle in his eye and mischievous grin beginning to break -- my loss is more profound for having been deprived of this opportunity.
Sir, you will be missed and gratefully remembered for showing us, by your life's example, what being a Stephanian, and a fine human being, implies. In the words of the Great Bard:
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’
Labels: Anil Wilson, St. Stephens College
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Barack Obama’s bitter medicine
(This article is reproduced from The Hindu)
Success will depend on the government’s ability to get service providers such as doctors and insurance companies as well as patients to break with conventional thinking in at least four areas.
With the oratory that has now become the Obama signature, the U.S. President recently addressed the American Medical Association (click here to read Obama's speech) (AMA) on one of the thorniest issues his country faces: reform of the U.S. healthcare system. Barack Obama’s persuasive powers were further challenged by the composition of his audience. A powerful lobby representing the medical profession, it has often in the past sided with the Republican view in debates on healthcare reform.
As with the other challenges Mr. Obama faces domestically and internationally, actions will matter more than words. Both the AMA and his detractors elsewhere in America will be waiting to see what concrete policies emerge to back his promise to expand medical insurance to the 50 million Americans who are uninsured and face uncertain prospects should a health problem or crisis emerge. What is more, virtually all Americans now have a vested interest in how reform pans out: the country faces a public finance crisis given the Wall Street bailouts and the deep recession. Costly healthcare reform, if mishandled, could be the sledgehammer that breaks the camel’s back. Critics of Mr. Obama will point to two aspects of the proposed reform that are ambiguous: first, the numbers and, secondly, the attitudinal or paradigm shifts needed to get this reform working on the ground.
The numbers thus far do not ring in Mr. Obama’s favour. Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and Christopher Dodd, responsible for the proposal for healthcare reform, have produced a draft version that suggests, according to Congressional Budget Office calculations (click here to read the document), that reforms would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, increase the number of insured Americans by 16 million, and yet leave 36 million Americans uninsured, even by 2017. Hardly an easy case for pushing through one of the most complex and embattled cases for reform?
Wrong, answered Mr. Obama, who contended that “one essential step” on the American journey towards prosperity was to “control the spiralling costs of healthcare in America... and in order to do that we are going to need the help of the AMA.” Recent estimates suggest that the U.S. spends close to $700 billion a year on healthcare and almost 50 per cent more per person than the next most costly nation. According to Peter Orszag of the Office of Management and Budget: “For families, after adjusting for inflation, health insurance premiums have increased 58 per cent while wages have risen only 3 per cent since 2000.” Similarly the states face burgeoning healthcare costs and resultant budget squeezes, which lead to cuts in essential services and tax rises.
So where, in the parched wastelands of the U.S. economy is the President going to find $1 trillion? A major portion will come from what Mr. Obama calls the Health Reserve Fund — $635bn set aside over 10 years. Half of this massive saving will be financed by limiting the itemised deduction rate for the wealthiest Americans to what it was when Ronald Reagan was President (an implicit allusion to Republican provenance); the other half from ending overpayments to Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans (a system of private companies offering care under Medicare and essentially a subsidy to insurance companies). A further $313bn will be wrested by reducing payments to hospitals that cater to uninsured Americans — the logic being that the number of such Americans should decline if the overall insurance coverage is expanded, as the Kennedy-Dodd proposal hopes it will be.
While these proposed savings, assuming they are possible, puts the Obama administration “in a good position to fully fund health reform in a deficit neutral way,” the real bite of the reform will depend on the government’s ability to get service providers such as doctors and insurance companies as well as patients to break with conventional thinking in at least four areas.
First, doctors must be incentivised to provide the best care rather than simply more care. For this to happen there would not only have to be changes in the system of doctor remuneration, for example, rewarding doctors for good patient health outcomes rather than for treatments prescribed. Doctors would also need to be provided better information on patient histories and the relative effectiveness of different treatments. President Obama spoke of both issues to the AMA, asserting that a switchover to an electronic records system would help restore doctors to their traditional role of healers instead of being “bean-counters” and “paper-pushers”. Further the system’s ability to inform doctors about the most effective treatments available will be honed. Currently less than 1 per cent of healthcare spending goes into determining which treatments are most effective. However, Mr. Obama said, initial investments towards improving electronically available information to doctors have already been undertaken as part of the economic recovery programme.
Secondly, patients will have to invest much more in preventive care so as to “avoid illness and disease in the first place,” Mr. Obama demanded. The American struggle with obesity and sedentary and harmful lifestyles is well known, the stuff of movies like “Supersize Me” and numerous newspaper columns. But if there is to be any real hope of long-term cost reductions in healthcare, this message must be spread with unprecedented emphasis and effect. Mr. Obama seems to agree. He now faces the task of convincing America.
Thirdly, insurance companies will have to yield to the growing clamour of voices seeking greater competition in the industry. For decades, health insurance giants such as Cigna and Humana have enjoyed a relatively unrestricted ability to set insurance premiums and in many cases deny payouts to sick patients on the basis of controversial ‘prior conditions.’ This status quo may be significantly altered under Mr. Obama’s plan to introduce an “insurance exchange” or a system of publicly provided, lower-cost insurance policies for the uninsured. The AMA has already signalled its opposition to this single payer public-funded insurance plan. The path of persuasion Mr. Obama has chosen may be longer than he hopes.
Fourthly, and this is being hailed as a benefit of Mr. Obama’s revolutionary campaign tactics, is his gentle hint to the AMA that medical malpractice reform, anathema thus far to Democrats and very much a Republican agenda item, may be necessary. If the 44th President really hopes for a cost-effective healthcare system where doctors can prescribe treatments based on evidence and evidence-based guidelines, it does imply a shift away from excessive treatments, leading to a potential increase in medical malpractice suits. Under other Democratic administrations, including Bill Clinton’s, the President’s ability (setting aside the question of willingness) to tackle the increasingly obese white elephant of malpractice suits has been circumscribed by the fact that the Democrats have had an entrenched relationship with the trial lawyers interest group. The latter, the prime beneficiaries of the litigious circumstances that have trapped the U.S. healthcare system, have fiercely resisted challenges to this source of their ascendancy. Yet Mr. Obama has, given his grassroots approach to campaigning and campaign financing, been able to sidestep the influence of this lobby, perhaps by sheer luck — or perhaps not.
Beset by massive financing and paradigm-shift challenges, President Obama is likely to sleep lightly over the coming months. However, his conciliatory approach combined with a no-nonsense speaking of truth to power might turn out to be the best chance of transforming the ailing healthcare system that any President could ask for.
Labels: healthcare, insurance, Obama, reform, U.S.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Post-Godhra Revisited: Death and Politics beneath the Saffron Veil
What’s common between an electoral defeat in the world’s largest democracy, and religious-fundamentalist violence in the same? Give up? The answer is one word: power.
A few weeks before the post-Godhra riots, India has witnessed both events. Four Indian states- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur- went to the polls, and all four delivered a crushing mandate against the ruling party in these states– the BJP. Within 48 hours of this catastrophic event for the BJP, sectarian violence erupted in a fifth state- Gujarat- where there were no elections, but where the BJP’s ascendancy is presently unchallenged. Could this be a coincidence?
To answer this question, it is insightful to look at the BJP’s rhetorical position or the ideological stilts upon which it is propped up. Hindutva, or the Hindu way of life, is the clarion call that the BJP and its political family (the Sangh Parivar) echo at every election, presumably to attract to themselves the vast majority of this theoretically secular nation. The Congress Party’s political capital has been steadily eroded since the time Indian independence from colonial rule (but of course, the trend would seem to have been reversed in 2004 after 8 years of the party being in the opposition). Ever since the untimely electoral debacle suffered by this erstwhile leviathan in 1996, the era of coalition governments- mostly those led by the BJP- seem to have taken root. In this light, the strategy of the BJP, some would argue, was, during these 8 years, by and large successful. Of course, this precludes its increasingly anti-poor, pro-urban stance that culminated in the hollow but much touted ‘India Shining’ campaign in 2003-04. In any case, those who would suggest that the BJP was prudent in adopting a majoritarian line would base their evidence on the fact that the party enjoyed power at the central government for two terms, albeit with some perilously close shaves. They would be right- but they would be missing the deep irony of their argument.
The biggest problem that any political party faces is India is that constituencies of political support are not time-independent. That is to say, the ability of rival parties to pull out the political rug from under the feet of any government in power creates an environment of uneasy watchfulness between elections, and furious bickering, horse-trading and murder when it comes to poll-time. The Congress had to deal with this issue immediately upon securing Independence from a battle-weary Britain in 1947. Jinnah had built a strong base among certain Muslim leaders in the Punjab and Bengal, and was able to appeal to their identity as Muslims over their identity as Indians. With good reason of course- the spoils of the skulduggery and machinations between Jinnah, Nehru and Mountbatten was none other than the glorious state of Pakistan (if we forget for the moment that ironically Jinnah was not really aiming to found a state in the first place). In any case, the same problem of fluctuating loyalties plagues the leaders of modern India.
The caste system plays no small part in this process. Caste in India is a powerful source of identity that can build coalitions and fragment them, moving like the tide with the gravitational pull of the political moon. To illustrate the basic point, if a caste-neutral leader (obviously hypothetical in the case of India!) were to claim representative rights over a particular region, then his power base is likely to be quickly eroded by more localised leaders who appeal to caste identities and promise their supporters a larger share of the spoils.
To find the classic example of political manipulation of the caste system for electoral gains (and one that backfired rather punishingly), we need go no farther back in time than 1991. Under huge amounts of political pressure (mostly because of the risk of economic collapse under the weight of a dangerous imbalance in the balance of payments), the then Prime Minister, VP Singh, attempted to alter the reservation quotas for certain backward castes in government jobs, educational institutions and so forth, in an ill-planned move to attract voters. The results of tampering with this institutionalised system of ‘positive discrimination’ were disastrous- for a number of student protestors who undertook self-immolation, for numerous victims of the riots that broke out across the nation, and certainly for Singh, whose fragile 10-month coalition crumbled to dust. The interesting link between this example and the analysis of Sangh Parivar politics is a link that is shocking, and yet representative of permanent conditions in India.
The link is the fact that the Sangh Parivar’s right-wing, jingoistic majoritarianism, dangerous as it is per se, is under present circumstances nothing more than a massive mind-job, a fabricated social gel that is a means to building transactional alliances in an environment of fluctuating political loyalties. In other words, like caste, religious fundamentalism is another source of ‘imagined identity’, easily translated into political coalitions and the spoils of office. Why? Because here is a very basic problem that India faces- most of it’s inhabitants are dirt poor, and they have suffered this state of degrading deprivation for more than the fifty years that the country has been politically free. Leaving aside for the moment the details relating to resource allocation mechanisms that perpetuate this state of mass poverty, we can link this phenomenon to our current discussion easily, if we just look at how it is possible for inequality of this extreme kind to go unpunished in a democratic framework. After all, if the majority were poor and a minority were fabulously rich (as they are in India), a democracy ought to be the perfect political system to fix this problem right? Wrong.
The very same flexibility of the political system that makes the power base of any regime perilously thin also facilitates the economic dominance of the elite in India. The simple reason for this is that the poor are never able, or willing, to vote along class lines. That is to say a poor ‘backward caste’ farmer and a poor ‘other backward caste’ farmer would each vote for a backward caste and other backward caste leader respectively, rather than vote together for a representative of the poor. They never follow the second strategy for several reasons. For one, the leaders of the caste group appeal to a more localised audience, and hence can promise a larger share of the spoils per supporter than the leader who hopes to represent the poor. Second, the traditional hierarchical system of social dominance and deference makes it possible to build and sustain alliances within the caste group, as opposed to the class group.
Enter Hindutva, and all the pot-banging, the trident-waving and the saffron brigade’s most glorious hour. What better incentive to unite the poor man in the village with his rich, educated counterpart in the cities than their collective rage against the ‘other’- the Muslim? Thus begins the mind-job, and the rest is history. In fact history itself corroborates this line of thinking. The use of religious identity to mask deeper divides and perpetuate the dominance of a few is not a new trick pulled out of this democracy’s top-hat. When the Garibi Hatao (‘Eliminate Poverty’) programme of the Congress failed to generate adequate momentum during the 1980s, the party helped sow the seeds of communal hatred by appealing to the ‘interests of the majority’. All it was really doing was helping to sustain the investment drive for big industry, to achieve which political stability was necessary. If this could not be achieved by appealing to the poor (for then the rich would lose out, and that, of course, was unthinkable), then the easy alternative was to appeal to the Hindus to stand up for the collective rights of their brethren.
The connection with the present situation, in which more than 500 Hindus and Muslims have been killed in the span of a few weeks, is straightforward to see. The fatal loss of power in the prior state elections, and especially in the state’s stronghold- Uttar Pradesh- meant that the time had come for the Sangh Parivar to take up arms again, to prey upon the minds of unemployed, often illiterate youth, and recreate that illusion of a deep gash between Hindus and Muslims upon the soil of religious tolerance that India was so well known for in previous centuries of this millennium. The most obvious source of conflict that they could draw upon was of course the simmering cauldron of the Ayodhya issue (where a mosque was razed by fundamentalists in 1992, on the grounds that millennia ago, a Hindu God was born on the same spot- a much disputed claim). So now there is a media frenzy about Ayodhya, while this deep festering issue, involving the lives of deprived and dying individuals all across rural India is not even mentioned during ‘normal’ times.
Some would argue that this line of thinking is excessively conspiratorial, but I suggest to you it that it is not- based on the following evidence (to supplement what has been presented already).
If the Ayodhya issue is at the heart of the dispute, then why did the violence erupt deep in Gujarat, and not in Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is, and from whence the slogan-chanting ‘activists of the Sangh Parivar returned by train (and were fatally burned)? The fact is violence along the lines of a particular theme, requires systematic planning, and planning requires control. If the BJP and its allies attempted to instigate violence in Uttar Pradesh, chances are that it would be quelled too soon, or, even worse, it could fail in its aim to create ‘the other’- and instead of Hindu-Muslim violence, the killings could take on an inter-caste character. On the other hand, Gujarat presents a fine opportunity to enlist the help of state functionaries, including police, to channel the violence along desirable lines, so as to bring maximum rewards in the future to the trident-wavers. Thus does the BBC report that “Aside from the mob onslaught, the police stand accused of callous inactivity last Thursday and Friday as the riots and killings grew in intensity” (‘Eyewitness: Muslims Under Siege’, by Adam Mynott, BBC Online). And that there was meticulous organisation behind the violence is no longer in doubt: it is alleged that “[Mohammad Hussain] Kalota was the mastermind behind the incident. According to eyewitness accounts, Kalota was present at the scene from the beginning to the end and was seen goading the mob” (‘Evidence Behind The Godhra Carnage Uncovered’, by Shai Venkataraman, NDTV.com, linked to MSNBC.com).
This evidence, and much, much more that emerged after the dust settled, combines with the arguments made previously to present the case against a deadly alliance of elites that is responsible for several horrific injustices in India. At one level, the outcome of this masked repression is ‘sectarian’ violence, wherein innocents are massacred. And more insidiously, the very same power alliances that underpin the outbreak of such carnage are responsible for uncountable numbers of silent deaths in the countryside. That they have escaped the sword justice thus far is a small achievement, considering the institutional support that they may expect to receive for many years to come.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Sainath and the Journalism of Courage
Palagummi Sainath has won the Judges' prize (newspaper category) in the 2005 Harry Chapin Media Awards, New York.
The award is given for journalistic writing that "that focuses on the causes of hunger and poverty," including "work on economic inequality and insecurity, unemployment, homelessness, domestic and international policies and their reform, community empowerment, sustainable development, food production".
As Amartya Sen and others have pointed out, there is a serious issue confronting honest newspapers in developing countries today, and that is the 'incentive structure' associated with reporting of poverty and hunger. Farmer suicides in Vidharbha are nowhere near as 'sexy' as the Rahul Mahajan saga. Exploding newspaper competition and rising costs of newsprint, both ongoing phenomena in India, only exacerbate the pressure on publishing houses to focus on 'news that sells'.
What place then, for warrior-journalists who are on the formidable 'hunger beat'? As Sainath himself has argued, "The dominant feature of the media scene is the growing disconnect between mass media and mass reality. The duty of the journalist is to overturn that paradox and help bring about an informed state among people. That happens by showing up the contradictions. By not merely speaking the truth to power, but by speaking the truth about power. And by challenging unjust power itself, if need be".
In a country like India, with possibly more poor people than anywhere else in the world, nothing, not even the possibility of financial losses, ought to divert responsible newspapers from incisively reporting and editorializing poverty, hunger, unemployment and discrimination. If they are so diverted, something of the very soul of substantive democracy will die.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
The Tamil Nadu Assembly Carnival
The last week has seen some stormy scenes in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly. With mike-hurling AIADMK members facing off with equally unruly members of the Congress and DMK, and also an iron-fisted Speaker of the House, utter chaos has marked the onset of the 13th State Assembly.
While we may consider it our holy duty, as politics-obsessed Indians, to criticize this sort of behaviour, it is also worthwhile to pause and reflect on whether there is anything positive about this charged atmosphere present in the state legislature.
Consider this, the 2006 State Assembly election in Tamil Nadu was a watershed in that for the first time in the history of the state, the margins of victory/defeat between the major Dravidian parties were not overwhelming. This development is a function of tectonic shifts in the political terrain of the state, as analysts have now clearly shown.
What has not changed in Tamil Nadu, however, is that political power has always been keenly contested, from the deep-South plains of Andipatti to the northern tracts of Dharmapuri, and Dalits, Thevars, Vanniyars, Mudaliars, Chettiars, Brahmins, Gounders, Christians, Muslims, Nadars, and hundreds more communities have always been relentlessly courted through innovative means, as potential supporters.
In other words, during and after elections, political parties whether in power or in the opposition, have consistently embarked on numerous campaigns and policy initiatives to capture the imaginations of communities at every point in the spectrum- whether poor, middle class or rich, women or men.
And all through, there has been a vibrant energy, even a festive sense, attached to political mobilization. The language agitations and secessionist demands of the DMK in the 1960s were part of a colourful (if at times parochial) and emotionally charged movement to turn the Nehruvian paradigm of industry-led development in the states on its head and thrust an alternative 'model' to the fore. MGR's meteoric rise to power in the 1970s represented an even more amazing cultural phenomenon, the ascendancy of a shrewd and even autocratic leader who nevertheless tapped into the mass hysteria that is the Tamilians' love of cinema.
So is it any wonder then, that with the boundless reservoirs of energy, capacity to innovate and deep emotional ties that Tamil politicians have to (what they perceive as) the various burning issues at hand, they tend to act silly, bordering on boorish?
Personally I would prefer this scheme of things to what one finds in some other states of India- cold transactional politics, elite pacts to retain control of the system, and a lack of genuine engagement with mass realities.
