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‘Hype around Aadhaar misplaced’ Aditi Tandon talks to Aruna Roy, Member of the National Advisory Council
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since she quit the IAS to devote her time to social work, Aruna Roy has helped shape critical legislations involving people’s rights. Her contribution to the Right to Information Act is well known, as is her role in pushing citizens’ entitlements in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), Aruna is engaged in the debate on the need for pre-legislative consultations to improve the efficacy of laws. Last week, she joined rights activists in the Capital to make the government hear people’s voice. The “jan sansad” also discussed pending legislations. Excerpts: What was the need for ‘jan sansad’? Would it be a regular feature? Several people’s movements across India are working with single issues, be it land rights, education or health. We are part of a broad coalition with similar interests. The ‘jan sansad’ met for five days while Parliament remained disrupted. We discussed pending legislations. We will continue to pursue our demand for constitutional guarantees and ensure that people’s issues find prominent place in the political discourse. Is ‘jan sansad’ a political grouping? Politics is more than just electoral politics. We are an assembly to look at the nature of inequity and inequality in the democratic system and demand remedies. These affect development paradigms and, therefore, our lives. We work to influence policy, to tell the government that we matter. Would you join politics? I will never join any party nor contest elections. However, my life has been a continual engagement with political processes, in a struggle against inequality and injustice. What was the biggest concern emerging from the ‘jan sansad’? The government is moving away from its responsibility to guarantee constitutional rights to its people. For instance, the Right to Education is a part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, but it took years to become a law. The dominant message from the assembly was that the model of growth the government is pursuing excludes a vast majority of the poor. That is the biggest irony; 60 per cent Indians should be the mainstream. Did the NAC discuss government’s scheme to replace direct subsidy with cash transfers? No, it was not discussed. But it should have as it impacts social welfare programmes. We are against any good or service being replaced with cash. The hype around the scheme is misplaced because evidence does not support the claim that cash transfers end corruption or improve the lives of the poor. MNREGA’s biggest problem today is delayed payments. Bolsa Familia of Brazil, quoted by the government to promote cash transfers, has a different context and details than from what India intends to do. Do you think linking Aadhaar with every service delivery is good? Biometric systems can be used in very limited ways. To use Aadhaar as a one-point solution for corruption is a red herring. All systems of governance cannot be lumped. Localised transparency systems work much better. There is danger in demographic data collected and stored in one place without clear responsibility and accountability under the UID scheme. This is state intrusion into private lives and there are possibilities of social profiling through control of such data. We also don’t understand how efficiently fingerprinting can work. I do not have clear finger impressions. What do you feel about FDI? We are against big money which can influence markets. Big companies can monopolise and manipulate markets. FDI in multi-brand retail should not have been brought without discussion in Parliament and with people. The NAC is for pre-legislative consultative process. What does that entail? The NAC working group has prepared recommendations for the government on pre-legislative consultative processes that need to be followed whenever a policy is conceived and a law initiated. The working group has asked for every draft Bill to be discussed in the public space before being finalised. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has stalled the process, saying the draft should be circulated to 83 ministries for opinion. Would it require legislative backing? In the long run it might. But both we and the DoPT are saying the government can introduce it immediately using Section 41 (c) of the RTI Act, which says the government should share every policy it is making with the people of the country. There is talk to amend the RTI Act and exempt private partners in PPP projects. We are against the Act being diluted. When everything from water to power is being privatised, you cannot leave out private players from the ambit of the RTI law. The exemption granted to the CBI bothers us. The CBI is not a security or an intelligence agency that needs exemption. The CBI has been put under the Lokpal in the new Bill. How can the government explain this contradiction?
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Two
scientists of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Dr KV Prabhu (left in sketch) and Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, have been honoured with the prestigious Borlaug Award for their pathbreaking achievement in making basmati rich enough to compete in the international market. Dr MS Swaminathan, Chairman of the Swaminathan Research Foundation and head of the five-member jury, announced that the scientists were instrumental in producing high-yielding strains of basmati that “will significantly boost farmers' incomes and help them compete in the international market”. While Dr Prabhu has been associated with crop improvement programme of wheat, barley and rice, leading to the development of 14 varieties of rice, including Pusa Basmati-6 and Pusa Basmati-2221, Dr Singh has pioneered changes in basic applied research in rice genetics and breeding and was instrumental in improving Pusa Basmati-1121 for resistance to blight and salinity tolerance. The award, instituted in the honour of Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug (father of green revolution), carries a gold medal, citation and cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, which will be shared by the two scientists. The duo worked on inducing semi-dwarf characteristics into the genes of the basmati to reduce its height and also bring down the gestation period. This experiment resulted in 6.6-mm-long aromatic rice, which doubled when cooked. Of 12 basmati varieties available in India, farmers' favourite is Pusa, which is grown on 70 per cent of available land. About 15,500 quintals of rice generated foreign exchange worth Rs 1,100 crore. “This has brought a revolution as far as prosperity of farmers is concerned,” says Dr Prabhu. Pusa Basmati doesn't need a large area to grow. “Our country uses 7.2 tonnes of basmati every year, including 3.2 tonnes for export. For such mass produce, it is essential we come up with high-yielding varieties,” says Dr Singh. They propose to adapt genetic-resistant properties into regular basmati varieties. “We identified the required genes and transferred them into the basmati using a technique called marker-assistance breeding. To make basmati grow in saline conditions, we have genes of Pokkali crop grown in Kerala, which is highly resistant to salt,” says Dr Singh. Dr Prabhu joined the IARI at Shimla in 1986 and became a part of the wheat breeding team. He took the responsibility of rust-resistance breeding till 1992, when he was transferred to its headquarters in Delhi to initiate molecular breeding in wheat, mustard and subsequently rice as an experienced plant breeder geneticist. Dr Singh joined the IARI in 1996 and was inducted into the basmati breeding group. His training in genetic analysis and plant breeding methods provided the background for pioneering contributions in basic and applied research in rice genetics and breeding, helping the team at the IARI reorganise its rice breeding programme at higher levels of precision.
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Uddhab
Kumar Bharali from Lakhimpur town of north Assam has earned global fame for his technology-driven innovation of cost-effective, user-friendly machine and tools that make life comfortable for the common man. Not yet 50, awards and accolades have been bestowed on Bharali, who “lives to innovate”. Recently, he won NASA's prestigious Create the Future Design contest for his bench-top pomegranate de-seeder. And he has been able to achieve all this from his small workstation-cum-research centre. “When I first developed a polythene filmmaking machine at a cost of Rs 57,000, I took a bank loan of Rs 1 lakh. I was in dire straits because of a family loan burden of Rs 18 lakh. Today, there is no loan to be repaid. Life has been very hard, but also satisfying as I can help needy people,” he says. “I hail from a small town surrounded by agrarian villages inhabited mostly by poor people. I observe their lifestyle and the hurdles they surmount every day to carry on with their business of life. It gives me the idea for my innovations, which are meant for common people. I always think of doing something new, so it can benefit them. Innovations are my obsession as well as passion,” he says. “The beauty of Uddhab Bharali's innovations is that they are unique, efficient and cost-effective for first-generation entrepreneurs like me,” says Angshuman Goswami, a young entrepreneur who bought a concrete brick-making machine from Bharali for a mere Rs 60,000. The market price of a concrete brick is Rs 7.50. The machine can produce 600 concrete bricks per day with the help of two workers and does not cause pollution. Chitta Borthakur of Bishwanath Chariali, Assam, procured a machine to make coconut husk cakes for Rs 1 lakh. The machine produces 250 kg of coconut husk cake every day. “A similar machine would cost Rs 12 lakh if it has to be procured from Kerala. That is beyond the purchasing power of entrepreneurs like me. Bharali has promised to upgrade the machine, so that I can meet the demand,” Borthakur says. Creations of concern
Some of his innovations include pomegranate de-seeders promoted by TePPDSIR, Government of India; lap-cutting machine for eri and areca nut bisector promoted by the IIT, Guwahati; passion fruit gel extractor; cone-shaped agarbatti maker promoted by Gujarat Agarbatti Association; safed musli peeler promoted by Maharashtra Musli Growers Association; mosquito repellent making machine (herbal) promoted by a self-help group from Kerala; manual bamboo splitting machine for Ethiopia; cassava peeling machine for South Africa; garlic peeling machine; trench-digger machine; root slicing machine; sugarcane chips maker; improvised muga reeling machine; decortications machine; dehydration plant; and dry arena nut de-husking plant. “Nine of my technologies are in the international market. Pomegranate de-seeder has received appreciation from many countries. Without any support from anyone, I have set up UKB Agrotech to continue my research. I have employed a group of trained workers. This unit has produced around 50 skilled workers so far,” says Bharali, who has a soft spot for the poor and goes all out to help them. He sets aside 25 per cent from his income from royalty and patents, etc. for R&D, 5 per cent for his family and with the rest, he helps old-age homes, cancer patients and other people in need. “I have seen very hard life. I know how it is to be in abject poverty. I hear a voice from the deepest corner of my heart, prodding me to develop a device that will help physically challenged women wear clothes without any help. Whenever I see models walking on the ramp flaunting designer clothes, I wish to make such a device for disabled women,” he says. President’s Award
Often, Bharali is invited to take classes in technology innovations, especially in agriculture and rural development sectors, at the IIT, Guwahati, and Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship. He is UGC visiting faculty at Dibrugarh University in Assam. Bharali is currently working on an electric portable paddy thrasher. If it works, he plans to upgrade it to separate paddy from the plants on the field itself. He is a winner of various prestigious awards, including the President's Award for innovation (2009), Shristi Samman by NIF-India (2007), and Meritorious Invention Award by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Bharali was adjudged first in the open innovation competition (Northeast) organised by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Assam, for his unique “toileting and cleaning chair for physically challenged people”.
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Kapil Sibal, minister of communications Harsimrat Kaur Badal, sad mp Mamata Banerjee, west bengal chief minister Amitabh Bachchan, bollywood actor Bhupinder Singh Hooda, haryana chief minister
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How can the Left oppose FDI when its ideology is imported from China? The BJP is a multi-brand party; if there’s competition, Sushmaji’s promotion prospects will increase. 
Pepsi promised it would buy tomatoes from local farmers to make sauce. Farmers made new investments and diversified. But Pepsi shut down its unit. Who will guarantee returns to farmers?
The Centre wants us to die of hunger. But as long as we are in power in the state, we will not let that happen. We might be poor, but we are not beggars. We will not buckle under pressure. 
They pursue the same profession that I do, and I wish them well. There is no question of legacy. I don't tell them to carry forward my torch. I don't have a torch in the first place. 
I don’t know why Chautala has been given Punjab Police security. As a former CM and leader of the opposition party, we've given him sufficient security. There has been no laxity.