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King is working against Nepal’s interests King Gyanendra of Nepal has once again given proof that he is least bothered about the interests of the people of his country who would like the restoration of democracy that he has suspended. Instead of doing this, the King has arrested former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on corruption charges. Firm verdict Vital is security |
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Well done, India
Inc
Grandchildren
Employment scheme
raises hopes Delhi
Durbar The annual World Punjabi Conference was held from April 17-19 in Lahore. Efforts of Fakhr Zaman, a Punjabi poet and author, have resulted in the use of Punjabi in the National Assembly as well as the state legislature.
Health centres need improvement A report has evaluated the functioning of the 87 urban family welfare centres and urban health posts in Punjab. It is based on a field survey of all the centres with the help of two structured questionnaires provided by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.
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Firm verdict The death sentence is handed down in the
rarest of rare instances. This extreme punishment has been announced for Aftab Ansari and his six accomplices for the attack on the American Centre,
Kolkata, because of the sheer heinousness and gravity of the crime. They not
only shot down several policemen on January 22, 2002, but also waged a war
against the country. This mayhem was spread using banned and sophisticated
arms. Even the defence admits that in such cases the Judge could do little
else than awarding the capital punishment. The other charge of sedition also
almost always fetches death sentence. What is noteworthy is that the court
has also acquitted two suspects on grounds of insufficient evidence. But
Ansari, the Dubai-based underworld don, the prime architect of the attack,
and his six accomplices have not only been given the death sentence but also
life imprisonment for murder and conspiracy. The Judge has called it the
“rarest of rare crimes”. The seven terrorists have continued to insist that
they are innocent and have made it known that they will go in appeal. Even
otherwise, the death sentence is subject to confirmation by the High Court.
But the evidence against them is so overwhelming that any dramatic reversal
of the order may prove difficult. The Kolkata court’s judgement will send a
stern message to anyone else choosing to target the Indian State. Reacting
to the sentence, the USIS Director is reported to have only said that “the
sentencing was a matter for the Indian judicial system to handle. The US
commends the Indian Government for apprehending and trying the perpetrators
of the attack on the Indian policemen outside the American Centre at
Kolkata”. Having faced Nine Eleven, the US now appreciates better that those
who deliberately maim and kill are not worthy of the leniency that the
civilised society normally shows towards everybody. |
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Vital is security
Notwithstanding
the fiscal deficit, the
report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence tabled this
week needs to be taken very seriously. The report has specifically
pointed to a Rs 10,000 crore shortfall in the capital allocation of Rs
34,375 crore by the Finance Ministry. It also highlights, amongst
other things, the shortage of artillery guns in the Army and the
growing strategic gap in our submarine fleet. The Finance Ministry
might well state that though the capital allocation has not been
increased significantly this year, it has been maintained at the high
levels to which it was raised in last year’s budget. Much of this,
however, will only take care of outflows on deals already pushed
through, like those concerning the Gorshkov aircraft carrier and the
Hawk trainer. While the artillery deal is amongst those under the
scanner for pay-offs, the acquisition plan for submarines, which was
in an advanced stage, is reportedly being held by the Finance Ministry
keen on examining cheaper options. It is a fact that defence
procurement is a messy affair in any country. But the endemic problems
routinely scuppering the procurement process need political will and
decision-making to overcome. That onus is on the concerned ministries.
And while India cannot afford a runaway defence budget, the gap
between what is required and what is at hand is too large. A crippling
of our ability to respond effectively to the daily threats at the
tactical level, or to hold our own in the strategic realm, will wear
us down as a nation. Defence spending is still under the 3 per cent
GDP mark, and the report’s suggestion to allocate every year, “at all
costs,” a fixed percentage of the GDP to defence might well be a
useful step in the right direction. |
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Courage without conduct is like a
ship without ballast. — American proverb |
Well done, India Inc
The
corporate world is upbeat. The data
on the performance of different companies show an impressive trend in
the recent past. But is it sustainable? The financial year 2004-05
shows spectacular profits. Many companies have excelled their last
year’s performance. Their performance in 2003 was also excellent. In
several cases, the profits increased manifold. Surpassing the
performance of last year by so many companies really means excelling
the excellent. No doubt, there are companies that have reported
comparatively less profits as compared to that last year. Also, there
are some that have reported losses. But overall the performance of the
corporate sector has been very impressive. During the period
April-December 2004 (the first nine months of the current fiscal), 344
companies posted profits, substantially higher than in the last
fiscal. Over 120 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange have
reported profits of quarter-3, 2004, more than those of the entire
last year. Six companies are expected to cross $1 billion in net
profits in 2005. In 2002, only the ONGC was in this category. Indian
Oil became the second company joining the club in 2003. Reliance
Industries became the fourth in 2004. There are several reasons for
the optimism. One, the positive trend swept across all industries.
Two, an improvement in profit performance has been witnessed in both
the private and public sector companies. The wind of globalisation,
liberalisation and competition has had a positive impact on both
private and public sectors. This supports the thesis that efficiency
of a company depends on the quality of management and its
responsiveness to change, and the attitude of the government towards
the corporates rather than on the private or public sector. Three,
the indigenous companies have withstood the onslaught of MNCs after
the economy started opening up in the 1980s. Most of the 83 companies
of the top 100 Indian companies today existed in the 1980 also. It is
due to the strength, resilience and competitiveness of the Indian
companies that they are competing with the best in the world. Indians
—- living in India as well as abroad — are considered icons of
entrepreneurship the world over. The appreciable performance of the
corporate sector has been able to make up for the deficiency in the
agriculture sector growth to a large extent. The exuberance extends
to the foreign trade sector. The exports have surpassed the target to
touch $80 billion in 2004-05 with a record growth of 24 per cent over
the previous year. The growth rate is expected to be sustainable,
according to Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, making it
possible to achieve exports of $150 billion ahead of the target year
of 2009 as stipulated in Foreign Trade Policy-2004-09. A report
titled “Mapping the Global Future,” prepared by the National
Intelligence Council (NIC), a group of intelligence analysts that work
for the CIA, forecasts that India and China are set to rule the world
by 2020. According to the report, the 21st century belongs to the two
Asian giants. “A combination of sustained high economic growth,
expanding military capabilities and large population will be at the
root of the expected rapid rise in economic and political power for
both countries,” the report says. A recent report by Goldman Sachs
predicts that India would be the only economy in the world growing in
excess of 5 per cent annually till 2050. India’s growth rate is
expected to exceed China’s by 2010. By 2050 India will be third
richest behind China and the US. India’s youthfulness —- with an
average age of 26 compared to China’s 33 and with a population in the
group 16-64 — would increase the savings rate and encourage the flow
of capital from aging nations. However, there is the other side of
the coin. The NIC report indicates that the possible rivalry with
China that lurks just beneath the surface, resistance from the
declining powers and those left behind in the developing world might
come in the way of the growth of India. India is ranked 101th among
146 countries on the environment sustainability index produced by Yale
and Columbia Universities and presented at the World Economic Forum in
Davos on January 27. Scientists studying satellite data observed a
“tongue of pollution” extending across a large part of the country.
Indeed, the threat to the very sustainability of economic development
looms large. While India is gaining strength in economy,
unfortunately the polity is getting weaker. Good governance, the sine
qua non of development, is in jeopardy. The worst is the phenomenon
of infights within close circles of corporate India that is spreading
like an epidemic. The Ambani empire built by Dhirubhai is on the verge
of split, if not decay, due to the battle between his two sons. There
was a report about a “saas-bahu” tangle between Manu Chabria’s mother
and his wife. R. S. Lodha is the enemy numero uno of the Birlas. The
legal battle between TPG Nambiar and his son-in-law Chandrashekhara
over the control of BPL Mobile is on. The family feuds are too many to
count in lesser known, not so big industrialist families. Most of
the mergers and acquisitions taking place in the wake of the
intensification of global competition might be giving rise to hidden
ill feelings. While India is shinning on the economic landscape, there
are so many question marks on the side of business ethics and human
relationship. Who knows what is in store in the long run as regards
corporate governance? The nation is, however, well on the way to
glory. Nonetheless, the path is full of potholes and obstacles. Amidst
the crisis of character, political uncertainties, shaky governance,
both at the national and corporate levels, and callous exploitation of
resources and environmental degradation, one doubts if corporate
performance will sustain. The writer is former Chairman and Dean,
University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh. |
Grandchildren
W Khurshid is a relative to two of us and a friend to the other two.
This “silsila” of coming together began with Khurshid’s wedding in
1968 and we came together again last month for Khurshid’s nephew’s
wedding. In between, over 34 years we have come together 14 times. I
cannot honestly say that these meetings have bound us in any way or
made us friends — but there is a comfort in being together and sharing
notes about each other’s lives. At the beginning, like all young men,
we would talk of clothes and movies and music and girlfriends but by
the time we came together last month all we could talk about were our
grandchildren. As each story was told, the creased face of each
grey-haired old man lit up with a divine radiance and the weariness of
the long, careworn years slipped away. Asif and Shafiq narrated
incidents of the precociousness of their grandchildren. We laughed and
laughed till tears rolled down our cheeks and the world was young and
innocent once again. Then it was Raminder’s turn. His granddaughter
had come to visit him after a year and, within moments, had filled his
life with her effusiveness. Next day, as soon as the shops were open,
he bore her off to the neighbourhood general store and insisted that
she buy everything in the little shop that caught her fancy. “Dadu,
why are you buying me all this?” Raminder bent down, touched the
girl’s hair and said: “Because I love you very much”. The little girl
thought about this for a while and then her face lit up with a dimpled
smile. She reached up and touched her grandfather’s cheek: “Then I
want you to finish all your money today”. It was my turn to tell a
story. My four-year-old granddaughter was on a visit to me during her
school holidays. We would go for long walks together and I would try
to teach her to identify the different birdcalls and to pick the
yellow berries from the bushes that grew on the hillside. I don’t
think that she was particularly impressed by the birds but she enjoyed
the berries hugely. Her enjoyment spurred me to climb higher and
higher up the hillside. I think she was impressed and touched by my
efforts on her behalf because when we were finally walking up the
slope to my house, her mouth smeared with the juice of the berries,
her sticky little hand firmly in mine, she looked up at me and said:
“Nanu, I saw you on TV” I knew this was her way of saying thank you so
I thought I would humour her. “And what programme did you see me on?”
Pat came the reply: “India’s Most Wanted”. |
Employment scheme raises hopes
In
recent months the debate on the employment guarantee scheme (EGS) has
dominated the discussion on poverty alleviation. Earlier, the overall
response to the EGS was very positive. The positive response was based
on the draft circulated by the National Advisory Council (NAC). In
more recent times, the response to the EGS has been mostly critical.
This is because the government has diluted the NAC draft to such an
extent that the guarantee aspect has almost vanished. However, it is
still possible to amend the pending legislation on the EGS. So the
potential of taking benefits of a good EGS to people still
exists. Under the original NAC draft, the government promises to make
available, on demand, 100 days of casual manual work in one year to
any rural family which needs this work. Each family will be
registered and provided a joy card by the panchayat. Those registered
can apply for employment (for a minimum of 14 days at a stretch) to
the panchayat or the designated local authority. It will be the
responsibility of this authority to provide employment within 15 days
at a site located in the same administrative block. If the
authorities fail to provide employment — and this is where the
guarantee part comes in — they’ll have to provide an unemployment
allowance to the applicant. The government promises employment at the
legal (minimum) wage fixed for agricultural labourers in any state. An
earlier proposal was to fix the unemployment allowance at two-thirds
of the legal wage rate for farm labour. But this was later brought
down to one-third of the legal wage rate. This is unfortunate as just
one-third of the already low wage rate for farm labour can hardly
provide real security to the poorest rural families. While 100 days
of work at a wage rate of Rs 60 can provide Rs 6,000 in one year to a
poor rural family, unemployment allowance at one-third this rate will
provide Rs 2,000. This is obviously too less to provide economic
security. However, if employment is provided so regularly that the
need for resorting to unemployment allowance arises only very rarely,
then this shortcoming will not pose any serious problems. What is
essential is to build a faith among the most economically hard-pressed
rural families that employment guarantee is a reality, not just a
promise. To alleviate poverty, it is important to take up soil and
water conservation works, plant more trees and protect the existing
greenery. It is tragic that while the people of these villages do not
get the opportunity to do all this extremely important work in their
own villages, they have to migrate to distant places in search of
elusive, uncertain work. The EGS has the potential to link the
long-term development and environment protection needs of these
villages with the alleviation of immediate distress of their people.
If these villagers have a faith that they will definitely get
employment for at least 100 days at the legal wage, then they will not
migrate and wait for the opportunity, which they will certainly
welcome, to use their labour for building the foundation of their own
long-term development needs. For the success of this effort, two
additional requirements should be met. First, there should be a close
involvement of the village community (not just the gram panchayat but
the gram sabha) in the selection and implementation of various works.
Secondly, there should be transparency and social audits. The NAC
draft had provisions to meet both these requirements. Even if the
right to information legislation is not ready for implementation by
the time the EGS comes into force, the NAC draft had its own
provisions for transparency and inspection of relevant documents by
villages. Unfortunately, some of the most positive features of the
EGS have been taken away in the Bill introduced by the government so
that the guarantee aspect has also vanished. The provision of a
minimum guarantee of 100 days employment, continuity, access to all
rural families, legal minimum wages and adequable unemployment
allowance have all been curtailed. Therefore, it is necessary to
consider carefully what should be the minimum essential features of a
good legislation on the EGS. There should be a time bound-programme
for its introduction in the entire country. The days for which
employment is guaranteed to a household should be adequate to meet
subsistence needs. It should not be pushed below the minimum 100-day
norm that was announced at an early stage of the discussion on the EGS. In
all states at least the legal minimum wage for farm workers should be
paid for the EGS as well. Unemployment allowance should be provided
in all states and it should not be less than two-thirds of the legal
wage paid in the EGS. Opportunities for making use of the EGS should
extend to all rural families. There should be a provision for
punitive action against those officials who do not discharge their
legal responsibilities for the EGS. Adequate opportunities for
employment of women should be ensured under the EGS. This legislation
should be implemented not in isolation but in co-ordination with other
most important efforts to reduce poverty, including land reforms. The
implementation of this scheme will certainly be better in those areas
where the rural poor are better organised. So support for organisation
of the rural poor should also be stepped up. |
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Delhi Durbar
The annual
World Punjabi Conference was held from April 17-19 in Lahore. Efforts
of Fakhr Zaman, a Punjabi poet and author, have resulted in the use of
Punjabi in the National Assembly as well as the state legislature.
The conference proposed that a memorial to Shaheed Bhagat Singh
should be set up in Lahore. The Mayor of Lahore promised to take up
the matter with the Punjab government. The conference noted that
Punjabi was being read in Shahmukhi (Punjabi in Urdu script) in the
neighbouring country and underlined that Gurmukhi and Urdu should be
popularised on this side of the border.
Pawar woos Karunakaran Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar is
desperately trying to
woo Kerala stalwart K. Karunakaran whose relationship with the
Congress high command is anything but stable. A little bird tells us
Pawar has suggested to Karunakaran, the wily old war horse that
instead of floating a regional outfit in Kerala, it would be ideal if
he took over the Nationalist Congress Party in Kerala. It would
benefit both.
Delimitation worries
During his meeting with
Congress President Sonia Gandhi earlier this week, PPCC Vice-President
M.M. Singh Cheema stressed that the delimitation process should be
uniform all over the country. The exercise is scheduled to get under
way in Punjab on May 9. He fears that if the quota of the Scheduled
Castes is increased to nearly one-third of the 117-member Punjab
Assembly, then the space for the Jats, OBCs and Hindus would get
restricted to just 83 seats.
PDP, Cong in competition If the
start of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus saw both the PDP and the
Congress in the race to take credit for the historic step, subsequent
developments have not helped the two partners of the ruling coalition
in Jammu and Kashmir present a picture of unity. First, it was the
tiff between the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohamamd Sayeed, and Deputy
Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma during a Cabinet meeting which
compelled the latter to rush to Delhi to consult the central leaders
of the party. The state Congress has not waited for the Mufti
government to clear its position on the claims being made by the bus
passengers coming from PoK about “ancestral property” in Jammu and
Kashmir, saying it was against entertaining any such move.
Stirred,
not shaken The bickering between Sheila Dikshit loyalists and her
detractors led by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) President
Ram Babu Sharma may have forced Congress President Sonia Gandhi to
broker an uneasy truce for now, but supporters of the Chief Minister
cannot resist gloating over the fact that the dissident camp could
gain precious little in the bargain. Ms Dikshit continues to remain
firmly in the saddle which prompted a loyalist to quip that her
detractors may have stirred up a row but could not shake her from the
office she holds. “Stirred, but not shaken,” he noted, which may
amuse those who prefer their drink to be otherwise. Contributed
by Satish Misra, S Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and Ramesh
Ramachandran. |
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Health centres need improvement A
report has evaluated the functioning of the 87 urban family welfare
centres and urban health posts in Punjab. It is based on a field
survey of all the centres with the help of two structured
questionnaires provided by the International Institute for Population
Sciences, Mumbai. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India, New Delhi, sponsored the study, which has been
carried out by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial
Development, Chandigarh, . The representative findings of the study
are put succinctly below: Majority of the centres were housed in
non-permanent rent-free buildings, such as places of worships like
gurdwaras, temples, dharamshalas and Red Cross premises. These were
operating from one or two rooms. Privacy of the client could not be
assured while providing the service. The overall status of the
centres on the available infrastructure and materials/equipment left
much to be desired. None of the centres had all items of equipment
listed. The unavailability of hemoglobinometer at over three-fourths
of the centres and the instrument being non-functional at one-third of
the centres portrayed a dismal picture of the affairs in the state
where anaemia is fairly common among women and children. Nearly
one-third of the beneficiaries were accessing these centres for
primary health care rather than for family welfare services. There was
a general complaint highlighting the quite frequent absence of the
health staff during the working hours. Almost one-half of the
respondents reported no household visits by the health
staff. Notwithstanding all this, the scheme was recommended for its
continuation. The decision to locate the Urban Health Posts in slum
areas was acclaimed in particular. A case was made for bringing
additional slums under the purview of the scheme. At present 68 per
cent of the centres are concentrated in three cities of Ludhiana,
Amritsar and Jalandhar. First, these should be housed in proper
buildings, if not separate ones, and the condition of the existing
rent-free ones should be improved. Secondly, to pre-empt dropping
out by clients, delays in the supply of materials and equipment by the
office of the Chief Medical Officer should be minimised. Thirdly,
all efforts should be made to conduct the deliveries at these centres.
Fourthly, the supply of requisite medicines should be ensured.
Fifthly, the frequency of home visits by paramedical staff must be
increased so as to sustain their interpersonal relations with the
community. The study was carried out by Mr Pawan Kumar Sharma, the
leader of the team, that also included Ms Neetu Gaur and Dr Shaik
Iftikhar Ahmed. — TNS
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From the pages of
It
is one of the most unfortunate features
of the present momentous agitation that the public mind has been so
fully engrossed by it that other grave and pressing questions seem to
have been almost forgotten. This is indeed carrying matters to
extremes, and we feel bound to warn the public against the evils which
generally result from such extremes. These evils need no enumeration
here. But we should like to remind the public of one thing. It is a
long-felt want of Lahore, a want which the public has felt more keenly
during the late Contempt Case demonstrations here. Need we say that
the want we refer to is that of a public hall at Lahore? No; the
public are perhaps more conscious of it than we are. In fact, there is
no respectable place of public meeting in a place full of respectable
and well-to-do people. The recent meetings have been held in our small
compound quite inadequate to contain such vast multitudes of people as
gathered on the occasions. |
Speak the truth and realise the Lord within; for, He is not far from you. You have only to see Him intuitively. — Guru Nanak A real teacher is he who is well-versed in the Vedas, sinless and unsmitten by desire. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya He who keeps my commandment loves me; and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. — Jesus Christ What I say to you, I say to all. Watch, watch and pray, lest you should be tempted. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. — Jesus Christ God pervades everywhere and drives all in His will. — Guru Nanak  |
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