Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu




FIRM ON MISSION: Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani at an interactive session at The Hindu in Chennai on Wednesday. He said the project will be rolled out in 18 months and 600 million people covered in four years. Photo: M. Vedhan

CHENNAI: While the Unique Identification project will not solve all the problems of the poor it will open "a ramp of access" to various benefits from the state, said Nandan Nilekani, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

"The whole idea is to unlock access to people who are outside the system." Citing the example of people from Bihar in Bangalore who, for the last 10 years, have had "zero contact with the formal system," he said, "In our cities there are millions of people who are non-persons."

He clarified that the UID would not confer any citizenship rights or other privileges but would only be used as a means of uniquely identifying the residents in the country.

At an interaction at The Hindu here on Wednesday, Mr. Nilekani said he had received a few hundred mails from Indian professionals round the world expressing interest in participating in this "complex, high-risk project."

"The largest database [in the United States] of this kind is of 120 million people. We are talking about 1.2 billion people. It is the only country where we are talking about online authentication," Mr. Nilekani said.

But the target was achievable: "If anyone can do it, India can," he said. It would take around 18 months to issue the first UID and 600 million people would be covered in four years.

In response to questions on the ease of enrolment, especially for the poor, Mr. Nilekani said the barriers to getting a UID number would be reduced because, "we will have a large number of registrars and because we will have a proactive strategy working with civil society NGO groups for outreach."

Project costs

On the project costs, Mr. Nilekani clarified, "Remember that in a country where spending maybe 100-200 thousand crore rupees on all kinds of subsidies and direct benefits, this is a one-time expenditure that will lead to a perpetual improvement in the quality of benefits." The return on investment would be "well worth it from an economic perspective."

Addressing concerns about the UID database being misused by an "Orwellian State," Mr. Nilekani said, having one large centralised database would necessitate being "careful in terms of checks and balances, in terms of the legality, in terms of privacy, and making sure that this database is not misused in some way."

But he added that ". the social benefits of giving UIDs to the people who are left out today are so massive that we should do it and come up with a way to mitigate the risks on the privacy issue."
Even government agencies such as the police would only have access to the database "under the appropriate laws," Mr. Nilekani explained. "As long as the legal system was followed, on the principle of security, the database could be "opened up for a suspect," he said.

Biometrics

He conceded that there could be errors in authenticating people based on biometrics. "Biometrics is not an exact science," he said. While fingerprinting was the most straightforward biometric available, iris scans were more reliable, he said. But the equipment for iris scans was expensive and the process was cumbersome. Many people could object to it as being invasive and there were also very few suppliers of iris scan technology, he said.

A Biometrics Committee with stakeholders from different Ministries would come up with the final biometric set and take a decision on whether iris scans were required or not in the next few months, Mr. Nilekani said.

Labels: biometrics, Nandan Nilekani, UID, UIDAI, Universal Identification

From The Hindu


Photo: M. Vedhan

Timothy J. Roemer, nominated by President Barack Obama as the 21st U.S. Ambassador to India, presented his credentials to President Pratibha Patil on August 11, 2009. Acting on the advice of Mr. Obama to get out of New Delhi to meet Indians all around the country, the former six-term Congressman and former president of the Center for National Policy in Washington D.C. visited Chennai in September for a packed schedule of meetings. Dr. Roemer addressed a range of bilateral, U.S. policy, and international issues while fielding questions during a one-hour interactive editorial meeting at The Hindu on September 24.

Shyam Ranganathan and Narayan Lakshman present an edited excerpt from the conversation (the full text is available at The Hindu's beta website):

Strategic cooperation

When President Obama asked me to serve in this role, he said this is not only one of the most important relationships in the world, it will be one of the best relationships in the world. The President, like the Secretary of State, meant this not only on bilateral issues such as the civilian nuclear deal that was passed by both our respective legislatures and approved by the executive branches, but now moving from one very important issue to five extremely important issues of bilateral, regional and global consequences.

Five pillars

We have a common threat with radical extremism emanating from different parts of the world particularly from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Toiba. And both India and the United States identify this common threat. After the attacks of 9/11 and after the Mumbai attacks, we are working together at unprecedented levels to share intelligence, to assess our strategic interests, to better train our personnel, to send delegations of people back and forth between the United States and India in a joint way so we learn from India and that India learns from the United States.

There are also areas that are extremely important on climate and energy security issues that the two countries can work on. I think both countries see it in their strategic interest to lessen their dependence on oil, on imported oil, and broaden their alternatives, co-operate more on technology and science, improve their energy efficiency and their conservation, look for new markets so their entrepreneurs can raise money to create new jobs respectively in the United States and in India. This is a very exciting and important part of this partnership moving forward.

There are also areas of development, education, healthcare, that are extremely important to the two countries. There are also issues of strategic cooperation on agriculture and something that was referred to in the 1960s as the Green Revolution. The last one I would mention would be economics, trade and investment opportunities. The United States and India look for more partnerships moving forward that benefit both the United States and India in this global economy.

Public diplomacy

This President of ours thinks in broad and big and ambitious terms. That is why he wants to take this relationship from the civilian nuclear deal to five strategic partnerships. He expects me to meet as many people as I can. Public diplomacy is a vital goal for the President of the United States. It is for me to meet everyday Indians to see what families are experiencing, to see how we can listen and learn, to see how we can improve the people-to-people ties because of course it is the people-to-people ties that have been leading this relationship over the last few decades. 95,000 Indian students are in American schools. We have several million Indians engaged and active in the American community. We have very intimate business-to-business ties.

This relationship is very positive and on a trajectory going up in extremely optimistic ways. When Presidents and Prime Ministers get along so well, when you have these great people-to-people ties, when you have a strategic vision, an ambitious vision of five new dialogues and pillars to move this relationship forward, that bodes extremely well for our relationship going forward.

Change and continuity in the Obama administration

A lot of credit must go to the Republican Party, to the Democratic Party, to President Clinton, to President Bush, to governments here in India, to the BJP party, to the Congress party, to Mr. Vajpayee, to Prime Minister Singh, to the people-to-people ties. This is a relationship that is constant, that is continuous, that is forged on historic ties, that are people-to-people, business-to-business, and government-to-government at many levels. The continuity is a strength of the relationship.

I think that change is also a harbinger of an Obama administration and Secretary Clinton’s leadership style that wants to do big, bold agendas and believes that we can do several things at the same time – that we can expand on the success of the civilian nuclear deal that expanded the confidence and trust between our two governments. That provided essential steps forward in our relationship – jobs in America, opportunities for increased electricity and power, and life-changing results for people in rural communities that desperately need access to electricity.

This is a great foundation to build on, but now we have more pillars, more great things to accomplish together not only in the bilateral relationship. With India’s emergence as a leading regional and global player, there are many opportunities to forge these relationships for India to lead on globally – proliferation and disarmament issues, energy security issues, green revolution issues, education reform issues, security issues leading the way to cooperate against the regional and global threats like the al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Toiba. So there is both continuity and change in this relationship. Both are statements of the stability in the relationship. But the change also challenges both countries to do bigger and broader things together on a global stage.

Trade policy

The President is very cognisant of the fact that free and fair trade helps grow our economy at home. It will be a fundamental goal for me as United States Ambassador here to strengthen the trade, investment, and economic opportunities between our two countries. That has been on a trajectory upwards.

The President recognises that helping our businesses get access to new markets is absolutely essential for future economic growth and continuing to pull out of this (as it’s called in America) Great Recession. The President talked very eloquently in the campaign about creating new jobs, green collar jobs, and creating new markets for those green collar jobs. Hybrid cars, new batteries, solar power, geo-thermal power, alternative technologies, clean coal technologies and finding ways to exchange these technologies, trade these technologies, sell these technologies with other global players.

When he became President, several of his initiatives passed through Congress. The stimulus bill contained tens of billions of dollars for alternative energy investments to follow through on his pledge to create green collar jobs, to look for more opportunities in the United States and globally. In some subsequent legislation, not just in the stimulus bill but in the pending bill on energy that is in the U.S. Senate now, he has got billions of dollars of additional money for new investment opportunities in the energy sector. So he has committed his words, his eloquence to this issue, but he has also committed his political capital and achieved much in these areas legislatively.

Civilian nuclear cooperation

We are certainly very pleased with the progress attained in this historic deal and in this relationship on the civilian nuclear partnership. There are however some key legacy issues to complete. It is extremely important to the Obama administration that we try to do these as soon as possible — for India’s interests and also for the United States of America’s interests. This means commitment and fulfillment of an agreement, jobs for Americans, and electricity and changing people’s lives in India.

There are issues such as the public announcement of the two reactor sites for the United States and the two States that they will be located in. We are waiting for the Indian government to publicly announce that.

We are working closely with the Indian government on all these issues but also on the declaration of safeguarded facilities with the IAEA. We think there is great progress being made there. We hope to get that over the finish line. There is needed liability legislation passed through Parliament in India. We are hopeful that it will be completed in time for the Prime Minister’s visit in November. And then there is the issue on licensing that we still have to complete.

U.S. companies are very anxious and excited to have this completed. I can also assure you that at the highest levels of the United States government this is an extremely important and vital priority. It just so happens out of the four or five remaining legacy issues, almost every one of them is in the court of the Indian government.

Climate change: resources committed

The President has committed not only money and resources to climate change, but also his energy bill and his stimulus bill, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. He has committed people to it. When the President took office he appointed people like Carol Browner and Lisa Jackson — Carol Browner, in the White House to help strategise on climate change and energy security issues, who served in the Clinton administration. Lisa Jackson is in charge of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] — somebody at the state level who has put climate and energy issues at the front and centre of her career.

He has a Vice-President who is firmly committed to these issues and an Energy Secretary too, who has brought great expertise from the National Labs to the energy and climate change issues. In Congress he has allies — in the Senate and in the House — people like Barbara Boxer and Howard Berrman, key strategists throughout the legislative branch who are working hard, supporting his legislation and his initiatives.

So from the level of money and resources to the level of personnel and time in the White House, to people who are helping him and partnering with him in the legislative area, there is a great deal of commitment to this climate issue. We hope that is contagious. We hope key players like India will also look at some of the challenges in their country.

We have made mistakes on this issue in our history. So I think rather than following some of our example on this, our two countries must work together for innovative, new solutions – reforestation programmes, planting new trees to form the sink to absorb some of the carbon emissions, alternative energy sources, science and technology partnerships, global partnerships with India and other countries. I think this is key.

Action on terrorism

You have to remember that about two months after 9/11 took place, a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden said it was not 19 Arab armies or 19 Arab tanks that attacked the U.S. — it was 19 postgraduate students! He was saying it’s a different world; that the transnational threats are very real, and it’s not just the nation state that can be a threat. It could be a cell of terrorists being trained somewhere north of here, coming in and attacking in Mumbai. It can be a cell of people training in Afghanistan and going into New York City. It can be a cyber security or computer threat. It can be a healthcare threat.

In almost every press conference I have had in my short tenure here, I have underscored the importance of the U.S. and India working together to confront this common global threat. Encouraging the government of Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the bloodthirsty attacks in Mumbai to justice is absolutely key.

The U.S. government is completely devoted to going after people who are threatening our allies, like India, and killing Americans. That needs to be urgent, timely and comprehensive, on the part of the Pakistan government — to implement the sentences on these six people they now have on trial. I would also take it a step further than you have and say that people like Hafiz Sayeed, who are on the Interpol Red Notice List, who are on the UN 1267 Resolution, who have long been on lists in the U.S., need to be brought to justice.

Finally, the third point, which is absolutely vital for our moving forward and successfully taking on this common threat, is to help dismantle the infrastructure of LeT [Lashkar-e-Toiba], who have become a regional threat, not just a threat to India, but a player in terrorism and destruction in this entire region.

Those are three extremely important issues. At the same time we talk about national security issue, it is vitally important for the U.S. and India to talk about the economic issues, the education issues, the alleviation of poverty issues, where 650 million people in India live on less than $2 a day, the public diplomacy issues that the President has tasked me with – getting out and meeting people, broadening and deepening this relationship. It’s not just only about national security but about economic security, development security, energy security — that’s where this relationship really has the ability to grow.

Teach for America and India

I had a very productive, interesting, and expansive discussion with your new Minister of Human Resources and Education, Kapil Sibal. We talked about the opportunities for moving forward on higher education and legislation that, I think, is soon to be introduced. Hopefully this is legislation that might allow these partnerships to grow and prosper in the future, between American universities and Indian universities, that would guarantee a sound curriculum, good faculty, good partnerships.

The Teach for America idea, originated by Wendy Kopp in America, where we now go out in America and try to recruit some of our best and brightest to teach under some of the most difficult circumstances in inner city schools and rural schools, where it is hard to place teachers in American schools – how might we replicate that in India?

There is a Teach for India programme – how might that be scaled up to get more and more teachers into the communities? I heard from people in the Indian community in this Round Table that they are concerned that we need more and more people going into the teaching profession in India.

Quality and access in education

Access to education in America is broad, wide, and expansive. Whether you are living on a native American Indian reservation, whether you are in an inner city school, whether you are a disabled student, you have access to public education in America.

We worked on this bill called “No Child Left Behind.” We were able to pass that legislation with bipartisan support. There were two fundamentally important goals.

One, we said in a global economy it is absolutely essential that when you are passed from the sixth grade to the seventh grade or out of high school, there need to be specific goals and curricula and standards you have attained. It does not do anybody any good, whether you be poor or disadvantaged, or rich and advantaged, to be passing somebody through school but they cannot read at the right level, or they do not have the right sense of history, or they haven’t attained the goals of the technical training and drafting or an animation that it required, the computer skills.

So we set strict standards in this legislation saying you need to be able to attain certain goals going from one grade to the next. A diploma will mean something and you have to earn this in this 21st century global economy, which is so competitive.

Secondly, we said that we need to continue to be able to recruit, train and promote the best teachers in the world. If you are teaching students physics, you should be certified in physics. If you are teaching English you should be certified in English and have a broad background in Shakespeare and Byron and the great writers of the world rather than be trained in a different area. So we insisted on certain goals being reached on teacher training and teacher qualifications.

I think both of those goals try to get to this issue: with a vast opportunity of access in America, extended to so many groups of people, how do you insist on quality? How do you improve quality going forward with the teacher training programmes, with the teacher certification programmes, and with the student performance programmes? I think we found a good balance in “No Child Left Behind.”

Labels: 26/11, Al-Qaeda, Barack Obama, climate change, IAEA, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Mumbai attacks, No Child Left Behind, Taliban, Teach for America, Teach for India, Timothy Roemer, U.S. Ambassador

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, on Wednesday warned against subsidising ecological suicide in the Indo-Gangetic plains. “We cannot afford that area to suffer. If you enter policymaking you should ensure that you do not give subsidies for what I call eco-cide, or ecological suicide,” he told students of the Madras School of Economics on the occasion of its Founding Day.

He added that this would apply to subsidies given “in normal years as a part of political favour-seeking.” However, in a drought year such as this year, support to affected people would be essential.

Highlighting recent and “increasingly alarming reports,” for example in Science magazine, Professor Swaminathan said the latest remote sensing technology has shown that the heartland of the Green Revolution, including the Indo-Gangetic plain, is in deep ecological distress. “But that is the region feeding the public distribution system,” he said, explaining that if natural resources are exploited beyond their rejuvenation capacity, that will lead to difficulties in agriculture.

Professor Swaminathan addressed the student body, faculty and guests on the occasion of MSE’s 16th Annual Day celebrations as chief guest. MSE also marked the passing of its Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Dr. Raja J. Chelliah, with Professor Swaminathan remarking that he personally knew how much effort Dr. Chelliah took to establish the School, including the academic programmes and infrastructure .

MSE Director D.K. Srivastava delivered the welcome address. Certificates were presented by Professor Swaminathan to students graduating with masters degrees and the course toppers.

Economists in Chennai

Pointing out that Chennai has been fortunate to have renowned economists such as Dr. Chelliah and Dr. Malcolm Adiseshiah, who established the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Professor Swaminathan said: “Such economists have not only made enormous personal contributions to the science and to policy formulation but also to institution-building.”

C. Rangarajan, Chairman of MSE and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, described the MSE as Dr. Chelliah’s ’child.’ “It was due to his vision and dedication that this institution has become what it is today.” Dr. Chelliah’s ambition was to set up an institution which provided excellent avenues for teaching and research in economics in this part of the country, Dr. Rangarajan said, and this has been fulfilled.

Advising economists graduating from the MSE to “marry collegiate economics with public policies,” Professor Swaminathan said agricultural development policies, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and policies in the area of food and nutrition security deserved more attention from policymakers.

Professor Swaminathan underscored the ecological importance of the NREGA, saying: “If you look at the NREGA guidelines, labour is to be used for the purpose of watershed management, water harvesting, soil conservation and a whole series of steps which will lead to building up permanent assets.”

Dr. Rangarajan touched upon prospects for the Indian economy as it emerged from the global financial crisis even as it faced a drought. “My own estimate for the current year is that the economy will grow at between 6 per cent and 6.5 per cent,” he said. But the distress faced in rural areas caused by output shortfalls and deficient rain should not be underestimated.

He said: “The financial crisis and the meltdown shows that India is integrated with the rest of the world,” and the drop in the growth rates for the present year from earlier years when it was above 9 per cent reflected this integration.

“The de-coupling theory does not hold good and globalisation cuts both ways, spreading distress as well as prosperity.”

Labels: C. Rangarajan, de-coupling, ecology, Indian economy, M.S. Swaminathan, Madras School of Economics, NREGA, Rajah Chelliah

From The Hindu


Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

CHENNAI: Venu Srinivasan, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, on Monday said his “biggest concern today” is where India will derive future competitiveness from in world markets, especially vis-À-vis competitors such as China and Indonesia.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Srinivasan emphasised the role of reform in several key areas of the economy, including the labour market and the tax code, if India is to retain and strengthen its competitive edge in industry.

Touching upon the growing labour supply in India, he said, “For India to become competitive we need to create 15 million jobs. This is the single point that we need to consider.”

“Ultimately we are competing for the same space as large population countries like China, Indonesia and Brazil,” Mr. Srinivasan pointed out, suggesting that failure to improve competitiveness may lead to more jobs going to these countries than India.

“With fiscal deficits being high, we will not have investment in infrastructure. Our social infrastructure is creaking. So is our education system. If you go to schools run by government or primary health centres and hospitals, they are terrible,” he said.

In some areas such as value-added manufacturing, however, India is more competitive than China, he added. “This is because our design inputs are higher than China’s. While China is the biggest manufacturer of cell phones and washing machines, their value addition on exports is as low as 10% on electronics and maybe 15-18% on manufactures. India is close to 25% and is much higher in IT,” he said.

Emphasising that India could compete and get a fair share of the world market, he said, “China does see India as a competitive threat, not a political or military threat. Certainly as a competing country they would like to ensure that you are not as competitive as them and you cannot blame them for it. It is for us to make ourselves competitive and not for China to give way.”

On the labour market, Mr. Srinivasan said that despite labour union activity being low during the last few years of rapid growth, India had still not touched labour reform. “We are not talking about hire and fire. In fact, I have always maintained the view that hire and fire will create too much of a social discord in a country like India. But you should have the ability to continuously improve productivity and settle disputes quickly.”

Regarding tax reform, Mr. Srinivasan argued for a reduction in “multiple levels of taxation accumulating and making industry uncomfortable.” Such laws hinder the free movement of goods and services even across States, he said.

The direct tax code is well intended and the tax rates have been reduced. Yet a minimum investment or wealth tax could be a disincentive, for example, to foreign investment in infrastructure, Mr. Srinivasan said. “This has to be debated further,” he said, adding it was still not quite clear why this tax on assets has been imposed.

Mr. Srinivasan underlined the overall concern of labour market disparities across States, saying that while conditions for rural labour have improved in Tamil Nadu, in part due to policies such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, in States in eastern and northern India, there would appear to be stagnation.

Labels: Brazil, China, CII, Indonesia, labour market, labour unions, NREGS, tax code, Venu Srinivasan

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: Highly placed sources in the State Industries Department on Monday confirmed that the planned Financial City in Chennai would most probably be housed in a 100-acre site of vacant government-owned land in Sholinganallur along the Old Mahabalipuram Road.
After the Deputy Chief Minister visited the site over the weekend, an Industries Department official said: “He is happy with the site.”

Probable site

“Although it is not yet finalised, this is most probably the site that we will go with,” the official said.

Labels: financial city, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Sholinganallur, Stalin

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: Front office functions will now be included within the gamut of services to be housed in the financial city planned here, sources close to the project authority have said.

With recent behind-the-scenes discussions suggesting it will be more than a back office hub, the financial services being considered for inclusion are a commodity exchange, a stock exchange, asset management, risk assessment services, banking services and insurance and reinsurance services.

Speaking to The Hindu, a State Industries Department senior official said: “Mumbai is a financial centre, Gujarat has announced GIFT, the Gujarat International Financial Tech-City, and Hyderabad is also making similar plans. So where do we position ourselves?”

While clearly ruling out direct competition with Mumbai as a financial hub, the official pointed out that the Chennai financial city would meet companies’ need for additional facilities given that concentrating major resources in one place was no longer an option for large financial institutions.

“Your nerve centre cannot be in only one place; this is basically risk management. So we would try to project the financial city essentially in terms of the following concept: whatever Mumbai can offer, we will also be able to offer,” the official said.

Attracting talent

However, to effectively provide an alternative to sophisticated financial hubs such as Mumbai by attracting world class talent, education services offered in Tamil Nadu would have to be ramped up.

The Ministry official explained: “While we have a strong presence in terms of number of Chartered Accountants, in some other areas we really need to improve. For example we need better management institutions, we need to have better risk assessing capabilities built into the system. In areas such as risk assessment, risk allocation and risk management there will be, in parallel, a need to improve the educational set-up as well.”

Among the options being considered is the possibility of bringing in business schools of repute through a tie-up with the University of Madras or Anna University. “Some of these universities can sign an MoU for creating such institutions. We don’t really need to bring an institution here if you can simply provide limited courses of three to six months for CAs and MBAs, tailored to a specific kind of role,” the official said.

While risk diversification would be an important differentiating factor for the Chennai financial city, cost competitiveness and overall product quality would be important for attracting global players.

There may be certain services for which it is possible to be equally effective whether you are in Mumbai or in Chennai and some things are location-neutral, the official explained.

“Suppose that you are in a particular niche where traders are important. You can have all the facilities, but if the traders are all elsewhere, then it will not click. That is the thinking that needs to go into our initial planning on what are the two or three things that we are going to do first,” he said.

However, in some areas the presence of traders can be neutralised by technology: “Today even in the stock exchanges technology can actually neutralise the presence of a trader and everybody is only sitting on his own terminal, isn’t he?”

Knowledge economy

The move to include front office functions and systemic improvements in education and healthcare services reflects a “bigger issue”: Tamil Nadu would be making a big leap in establishing the financial city, having already achieved a similar goal in the IT space. In the announcement made by the Deputy Chief Minister earlier, there was also a mention of an information and media city.

“The point we are trying to make is that Tamil Nadu should get into the knowledge-based economy more. We should stake a claim for everything that is based on that,” the Ministry official said.

Labels: asset management, banking, Chennai, commodity exchange, financial city, front office, GIFT, Gujarat, insurance, knowledge-based economy, Mumbai, risk management, stock exchange

From The Hindu

* Stalin to visit potential sites to indicate his view
* Group discussions with finance service firms on

CHENNAI: Discussions between the State Industries Ministry and industry representatives on plans for the Chennai financial city are gaining momentum: the location of the city is to be finalised in one month and a list of potential occupants and the nature of services are to be finalised in two months.

“The Deputy Chief Minister will visit several potential sites for the financial city and then indicate his view,” a senior official in the Ministry said, speaking to The Hindu. Group consultations with a number of financial service companies are under way, he added.

Outlining the next steps, he said, “What we would like to do is to identify maybe ten possible services we could offer and of those we can decide on two or three to offer at first. And for those two or three, we would try to identify a list of ten or twenty companies that we would like to target.” This would be followed by presentations to these target companies on the services that the financial city would offer.

The ongoing discussions are also looking into the question of what incentives the occupants of the city should be offered. Highlighting capital investment incentives and tax sops given in the manufacturing sector, the Ministry official said: “For the financial city we need to understand what incentives would excite them. There is no point in saying, ‘We will give you this’ if that does not change his decision and we still end up giving the incentive.” To avoid this situation, a brief survey would be undertaken to ask prospective occupants: “What are the five things which you think are most important?”

Foreign players coming in

Discussions are also focussed on the process of identifying the list of potential occupants.

The plan to offer the services of the financial city to foreign players could be traced back to the banking roadmap that the RBI had earlier given. According to the roadmap, foreign banks could grow organically in India by opening new branches.

In this context, there is an opportunity. “We need to determine which banks have aggressively tried to get branch licences – that shows their intentions. Also, some of those who have already started some kind of office presence in India, we could approach them as that could be one list,” the official said. The same would apply to insurance companies that have struck agreements with local players.

The initiative is being developed in coordination with the Confederation of Indian Industry, the official confirmed. “We believe that in Tamil Nadu we have very good responsible and responsive industry and we can work in tandem,” he said.

Outlining the CII’s role, he explained that they are also coming out with ideas and suggestions and are in touch with other financial centres. The immediate steps, however, are concerned with defining the “product” more clearly.

“What we are very clear on is that our approach would not be to announce something very big, very huge, to dazzle,” the official said. The aim would be to forge a strong partnership with the private sector and try and take local players along, including Tamil Nadu-based organisations and then, moving forward, organisations in other parts of the country.

Labels: CII, financial city, RBI, Stalin

From The Hindu (with S. Vydhianathan)



Photo: PTI


The "real power" of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) "is in how it reshapes the labour market and puts a floor below poor people," according to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing mediapersons here on Thursday, Mr. Gandhi said the NREGA gave the poor support in the labour market by not letting them fall below a certain level. "No matter who you are, you can get 100 days of work at a particular salary," he said.

"This has changed completely the dynamics in poor States like Uttar Pradesh, in areas where it has been used effectively, which frankly are limited." In States like Andhra Pradesh, it has "revolutionised the system," he said.

Arguing that the Congress had a different view from that of other parties in India, Mr. Gandhi said, "On the one side you have the BJP and its view is of an 'India Shining' concept. They say: let us focus all our efforts on that India with opportunity and let us not worry about the India with no opportunity."

On the other side are the Left parties, which focus on the India without opportunity and ignore the India with opportunity, according to Mr. Gandhi.

"That is the difference between the three formations. What we are saying is, we are going to bridge these two Indias. And we are going to make sure that this one India that is formed has opportunity for all."

Touching on the gulf between rich and poor India and the Congress approach towards bridging it, Mr. Gandhi said, "The central thrust of what the Congress does and is going to do for the next couple of years is try and recreate that one India but ensure that it is an India of opportunity for all."

Underscoring the redistributive nature of welfare policies adopted by the UPA government, he said, "The idea is that you take the India of opportunity, you grow that India. Then you take some of the benefits and put them into the villages and thus engage and integrate that India into the first India."

Mr. Gandhi said that in the effort to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich Indias, "NREGA is one such weapon we are using. Massive expansion of the education system is another weapon. Massive expansion of the health system is the third. Universal ID is the fourth weapon."

Mr. Gandhi strongly opposed the integration of rivers in the country, stating that it would have serious implications on environment. He said interlinking of rivers within a State might be a workable proposal but the integration of the entire river system in the country would be "disastrous." He hastened to add that this was his personal view and not that of the Central government.

Asked about the idea that MPs should fly economy class because of the downturn, Mr. Gandhi said austerity measures should be the norm. "I don't think there should a phase where there should be austerity measures and then a phase where we should not have austerity measures. I think, as a politician, you have a duty to be austere."

Labels: AICC, BJP, Congress, integration of rivers, Left parties, NREGA, Rahul Gandhi, universal ID

From The Hindu (partial contribution)

CHENNAI: While ruling out senior positions for cine stars who gain lateral entry into the party, All-India Congress Committee secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that anyone who wanted to join the party and the Youth Congress were welcome as long as they were not “terrorists or fundamentalists.”

Actor Vijay had met Mr. Gandhi in New Delhi some time ago amid reports that the Congress was planning to rejuvenate the organisation using film stars.

On the “open system” for entry into the Congress, Mr. Gandhi said: “When we started this process, Mr. Vijay expressed an interest in understanding the process… and we explained our process to him.”

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Gandhi said, “Anybody who wants to come into our system is more than welcome to come. As long as the person is not a criminal, and I don’t think Mr. Rajinikant is a criminal, he is more than welcome to come.” The Congress did not create any roadblocks; however, the party was not reaching out to any particular person, he said.

Sri Lankan Tamils issue

Denying the allegation that the Centre had not done anything to mitigate the sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Mr. Gandhi said: “India is applying massive pressure on Sri Lanka to protect the rights of Tamils affected by the ethnic strife. It had sent two senior functionaries, including the then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to Colombo to talk to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Centre would do everything to protect the rights of Tamils,” he said. Moreover, his family, right from his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi, had deep sentiments for Tamils, not only in Sri Lanka but across the world, he said.

He said his three-day visit to the State was to monitor elections to various posts in the Youth Congress. Whether the party would go it alone in the next Assembly elections and issues regarding sharing of power with the DMK would have to be decided only by the high command .

Mr. Gandhi said he was overwhelmed by the response from the youth for elections to various posts in the Youth Congress. He made it clear that it would be a shallow idea to follow the Uttar Pradesh model, where the party successfully contested independently in the last general elections, as issues differed from one State to another. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the party considered various options and finally decided to go it alone. That could not be a standard formula for all States, he added.

Stating that factionalism in the Congress in Tamil Nadu was not a major issue, he said it existed in all parties and in all States.

Labels: AICC, DMK, factionalism, Mahinda Rajapakse, Pranab Mukherjee, Rahul Gandhi, Rajinikant, Sri Lanka, Uttar Pradesh, Vijay, Youth Congress

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has helped farmers in Tiruchi district to cope with an unreliable monsoon and shortage of farm labour, according to the district administration.

Speaking to The Hindu, District Collector T. Soundiah said the production cost of paddy under the new cultivation technique is in the range of Rs.2,000-3,000 a hectare, whereas it is close to Rs.10,000 under traditional cultivation methods. Where traditional methods of paddy cultivation yielded about two tonnes of paddy a hectare, under SRI farmers are able to get up to 6.7 tonnes a hectare.

The use of SRI is spreading in Tiruchi: the technique is being successfully implemented here on 20,000 ha out of a total of 70,000 ha under cultivation, according to data provided by the district administration.

“For many farmers, this has meant an additional income of Rs.25,000-30,000 per acre,” according to S. Sivaraj, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Central Government Schemes.

The SRI helps economise on resources use while maximising the yield.

“It requires a high level of farmland manure and a minimum quantity of seeds,” Mr. Sivaraj said. Only 2 kg of seeds were required per acre. The minimum age of seedlings would be eight to 12 days.

“Other important factors include wider spacing between seedlings and the use of the Cono-Weeder four times during the crop cycle,” Mr. Sivaraj said. Most important, SRI requires minimal use of water, according to Mr. Soundiah.

“The aim is to maintain the soil by wetting, not by flooding the fields as traditional cultivation methods suggest,” he said.

The district administration is implementing subsidy schemes for harvester and weeder machines to further boost productivity.

Labels: Cono-Weeder, harvester, monsoon, paddy cultivation, rice, System of Rice Intensification, Tiruchi

From The Hindu

Assured livelihood: Recent audits have affirmed the contribution the NREGS has made to employment security. Photo: P. Goutham

CHENNAI: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has matured from its 2006 launch to the point where the concept of NREGS-II is now doing the rounds in policy circles. However, before this act of succession occurs, greater clarity is required on which features of the policy need to be refined to strengthen this lifeline for the rural poor.

M.S. Swaminathan, chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, outlines some of the policy attributes that the history of the NREGS would suggest are important. The Maharashtra government was the first to introduce an Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in the 1970s, which guaranteed work at slightly below the minimum wage, he points out.

In 1980, the national version of the EGS programme was named National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) without the guarantee element included.

“The NREGS has taken the initiative of the 6th Five Year Plan to its logical end, namely converting NREP into NREGA. The aim of all such programmes starting with the colonial era is the development of permanent assets. NREGA, for example, aims to promote water harvesting, watershed management, soil conservation, land reclamation, etc.,” says Professor Swaminathan.

With the monsoon failing this year, the scheme has attained even more importance as a source of off-farm work during months that would have otherwise seen workers employed in agriculture. Recent social audits, such as those led by Jean Dreze and his colleagues, have affirmed the contribution to employment security the scheme makes in districts such as Villupuram, while acknowledging that implementation problems exist, including “mass fudging of muster rolls,” and “institutionalised kickbacks to private contractors,” in some cases.

Labour market impact

Wider economic effects, including a labour market impact, are also being observed across States: the supply of farm labour has, in some cases, dwindled, and this has been attributed to the NREGS. However, such claims must be seen in the context of two issues. First, the NREGS is designed to improve the labour market prospects of those living on the subsistence margin, and if farm owners need to raise the daily wage rate to compete for more labour, that will be a positive outcome for farm workers. Second, labour supply in many areas, including the Cauvery Delta, is, in any case, falling due to rural-urban migration, especially of younger members of the workforce searching for better-paid and physically less strenuous opportunities.

Any deleterious effects of the NREGS on farm labour supply can be minimised if, as Mihir Shah of the Planning Commission has argued, the government tries to bring about a convergence between NREGS projects and farm-related asset-creation works. For example, the NREGS could achieve convergence and synergy among numerous ongoing programmes in the fields of watershed development, water harvesting and so on.

Emphasising the need to increase technical inputs for the next phase of the programme, Professor Swaminathan suggests creating a technical consortium of experts drawn from agricultural universities. Additionally, “small and marginal farmers should be allowed to work under this scheme to develop farm ponds in their own farms, in order to enrich the aquifer and give crop life saving irrigation when needed.”

“Gender sensitive”

The revised programme should also permit women labour to work as organisers of crèches, daycare centres etc. “The programme must be gender sensitive,” he says.
Although the Finance Minister recently announced that more than 100 days of employment will not be provided, the drought or drought-like conditions found in many districts this year may require extension of the scheme.

In this backdrop raising the wage rate from its present level of Rs.80 per day to Rs.100 or more and increasing the number of guaranteed days under NREGS-II will signal the continued commitment of the government to a meaningful pro-poor agenda.

Labels: Cauvery, delta, EGS, Finance Minister, Jean Dreze, M.S. Swaminathan, NREGA, NREGS, NREGS-II, NREP