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Defence
Either way, the soft-spoken Kerala leader has sent across a strong message. Indeed, Antony is playing the right notes and slowly making the entire orchestra —the scientists in the defence production sector, the babus of the ministry and the three armed services—play in symphony. Antony’s idea of modernisation is “no compromise on transparency and fairness”.The languid pace of reforms and delay in the induction of key equipment has its fair share of detractors. Antony, has however, set some sort of a pace. The intention is to reduce the import bill for procuring defence equipment. About 70 per cent of the nearly Rs 50,000 crore of the annual procurement budget is spent on imports. Thus the stress on indigenously equipment, including the nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant, a stealth warship and the Arjun tank. The Defence Research and Development Organisation has been made accountable for delays in delivery. Antony also intends to transform the IAF into a strategic aerospace power “befitting our national growth and aspirations”. Crucially, even as India inched closer to the US, India and Russia again displayed how they are locked in a “bear hug” when it comes to traditional defence ties. The inter-government agreement between the two nations was extended by another 10 years. On the issue of accountability, Antony did not mince words when he asked the former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor to court martial Lt-Gen Avadesh Prakash, his military secretary. Last word: Slow implementation of accountability. — Ajay Banerjee
DONE: DRDO reorganisation and stress on
indigenisation Sketches by Sandeep Joshi
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Human Resource Development But a year in office and Sibal has shown he doesn’t just think differently but also has the ability to translate that difference into reality. No wonder this man from Chandigarh – a poet, a lawyer, a fine cook of Chinese cuisine—has emerged among the top performers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. In the Budget session, when Parliamentary business remained suspended, Sibal managed to introduce in the Lok Sabha four draft bills that promise to change the way education is delivered in India. While one of them – the Foreign Education Providers’ Bill 2010 – saw the Left’s opposition at the time of introduction, the others sailed through with ease. These include the law to accredit higher educational institutes through the National Accreditation Authority Bill 2010; a law to establish national and state educational tribunals to adjudicate disputes related to the sector and a law to prohibit malpractices in education by penalising charging capitation fee, made a cognizable offence for the first time in history. Sibal he has delivered on his promise to de-stress the school system by making Class X boards optional and replacing marks with grades at school. Also in force is the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Elementary Education Act, which rolled across India from April 1. Action is, however, awaited on the law on innovation universities and dematting of educational degrees on the lines of share certificates. Last word: Man-in-a-hurry promised a lot, delivered well. — Aditi Tandon
DONE: RTE, board exams optional, replaced marks with
grades
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Health How the government goes about regulating medical education will determine how it is perceived in the future. Last year in June, the Health Ministry received the report of the taskforce to create an overarching regulator for human resources in health. It was called the National Council on Human Resources in Health and was meant to subsume the existing regulators —MCI, Dental and Pharmacy Council of India. Ironically, Azad and Desai worked closely together when the government allowed private companies to open new medical colleges. They also relaxed norms for creation of more postgraduate doctors. Teaching experience requirements for professors and associate professors were relaxed by one year to “increase the availability of faculty.” To encourage doctors for rural stints, Azad announced several incentives including 50 per cent reservation in PG diploma courses for those who serve three years or more in villages. The Minister gave the MCI permission to start a controversial three and a half year Bachelor in Rural Medicine Course. Despite stiff opposition from the Indian Medical Association, which said the course would legalise quackery, Ketan Desai and Azad sealed the deal. National Rural Health Mission has managed to achieve some heartening goals — Maternal Mortality Rate fell to 254 per 1000 as against 301 in 2003. Fertility rate remains a challenge at 2.7; the goal is 2.1 by 2012, with Himachal, Delhi, Punjab, Andhra, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal reaching the target. Another major development of the past year has been the revival of vaccine PSUs, which former Health Minister had closed down. Crackdown on spurious drug makers is also on even as India this year produced its first indigenous influenza vaccine following the H1N1 outbreak. Last word: MCI scam overshadowed other positives gain. — Aditi Tandon
DONE: Focus on rural health; fall in maternal mortality
rate
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Environment
However the year largely saw Ramesh — the central figure in the government’s climate change battle — struggle to balance competing environmental demands. He may not have violated India’s traditional stance on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, but ever since he took over the ministry (which earlier was directly under the Prime Minister) he consistently questioned it. Serious differences with Ramesh on his approach on climate change negotiations also saw the exit of Shyam Saran, the prime minister’s special envoy on climate change and Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, a key negotiator in Saran’s team. Caught in controversies, the good work by Ramesh got lost, whether it was announcing Dolphin as the national aquatic animal or initiating indigenous scientific climate research to determine and monitor health of glaciers after depending all these years on the West for data on glaciers in the country. Ramesh announced the setting up of the National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology at Dehradun (Uttarakhand). Another step was the Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), a network of scientists to publish peer-reviewed findings on climate change in India. The ministry can also be credited for setting up of specialised “green benches”. The Parliament recently approved the long-pending National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bill to quickly dispose environmental protection cases. Recently, the Ministry and the Survey of India also launched an initiative to map the hazard line along India’s coast. Last word: Controversial stand mars good work.
— Vibha Sharma
DONE: Green benches, research on
glaciers
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Finance Few finance ministers in the world are that comfortable with their job these days. Most are rattled by the European debt crisis as the economic recovery lands in the danger zone. Pranab is not doing much except talking, giving interviews lauding his own government’s fiscal prudence. There are no demands on him to push economic reforms. Being a member of the old guard of the Congress, Pranab Mukherjee is not as enthusiastic about reforms as his predecessor, P. Chidambaram or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He knows when to talk and when to keep quiet. No foot-in-mouth statements from him. The loose talk virus has afflicted many of his colleagues, including the veteran NCP leader, Sharad Pawar. But Pranab weighs his words before he lets them out. If price rise is an issue, he does not face the flak. It is Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who finds himself in the dock. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor have a lot to learn from him. Pranab Mukherjee presides over meetings of various groups of ministers and indirectly takes or influences major decisions of the UPA government. At one time he headed 42 empowered groups of ministers and still has 17 EgoMs under him. When Sonia Gandhi picked up Dr Manmohan Singh for the top post, he did not sound bitter. Earlier as the Finance Minister, he had appointed Dr Manmohan Singh as the RBI Governor. When asked about being sidelined in the race for Prime Ministership, Pranab famously said: “I am comfortable at the height where destiny has put me”. Last word: He knows when to talk and when to keep quiet.
— Nirmal Sandhu
DONE: Disinvestment of PSUs, managed economic
recovery
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Railways Mamata Banerjee, the Minister, has been spending more time in her home state than in her ministry. She has not only been missing from the Rail Bhawan for days, but has also been skipping the Union Cabinet meetings. The earnings of Indian Railway have been on the rise. Progress has also been made in the implementation of various projects. Mamata has also launched a project to open hospitals and is also ready to offer land for universities. Janata meals priced at Rs. 10 have been revamped on Indian Railways, to meet the catering requirement of common passengers. An expert committee under the chairmanship of Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI for developing business models and innovative funding techniques through public-private partnership instruments has been constituted. While the last stretch of the rail in Kashmir was completed, Sikkim is the rail map with the laying of foundation stone of the new broad gauge railway line between Sikkim’s small township of Rangpo and West Bengal’s border town of Sivok. The ministry is on a roll Last word: Case of the Missing Minister. — Girja Shankar Kaura
DONE: More trains introduced, better
food
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Home For Chidambaram, the first year has been like a roller coaster ride. Chidambaram took on the most powerful of all agencies, the Intelligence Bureau saying “...there was no time to be lost in making a thorough and radical departure from the present (IB) structure”. He listed out “routine and complacency” as the two biggest enemies of change. The Minister also announced the setting up of a national counter terrorism centre and this will be in place by the year end. Among the path breaking projects is the Rs 2,000 crore crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS), a national databank of crime and criminals with their biometric profiles. Besides the enforcing agencies, the courts, jails, immigration and passport authorities will have access to it. The second project is the Natgrid. Eleven designated intelligence agencies will have online inter-connected access to details of phone calls, credit card transactions, visa and immigration records, property records and driving licences of all citizens in the country. The ministry also launched a project to connect 169 Indian missions abroad. Aimed at keeping a track on immigration, visa and foreigners’ registration, it will, in future, stop a David Coleman Headley from slipping in and out. The Ministry has started a project to have integrated check posts at border crossings. ICPs shall be a sanitised zone with dedicated passenger and cargo terminal providing adequate customs and immigration counters and X-ray scanners. The one at Attari-Wagah land route to Pakistan was opened a few weeks ago. Last word: Trouble-shooter in a hot seat. — Ajay Banerjee
DONE: Reformed intelligence gathering, set up 4 NSG
hubs
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External Affairs The Americans today desperately need Pakistan more than India, given the troubles they are facing in Afghanistan, where the security situation is deteriorating at a frightening pace. India, the largest donor to Afghanistan, has almost been reduced to a mere spectator as Hamid Karzai vigorously pursues a Pakistani-propagated proposal to reintegrate the Taliban into the mainstream of the Afghan society, with the blessings of the US and its Western allies. While promising to build on the strategic partnership between India and the US, President Obama and his aides continued to arm Pakistan to the teeth on the pretext of the necessity to fight the Al-Qaeda and Taiban, ignoring India’s protestations. India and the US are clearly divided on the NPT and the CTBT though President Obama has so far avoided any reference to the two treaties in his interactions with the Indian leadership. In 2009, China displayed a rather unusual belligerence towards India, stonewalling developmental assistance for Arunachal Pradesh opposing the visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal, issuing stapled visas on separate sheets to Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir to virtually question the state’s accession to India, and its troops making threatening intrusions into the Indian territory. The two countries are at quite a distance from finding a mutually acceptable settlement of the vexed boundary issue. The former Soviet Union played the role of a balancing factor in world affairs . It was Russia’s eclipse in the 1990s which made New Delhi turn to the US for strategic support. Perhaps it’s time for the Indian establishment to reinvent the time-tested Indo-Russia friendship and not put all its eggs in the American basket. Last word: Incremental changes. — Ashok Tuteja
DONE: Revived talks with Pakistan
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Agriculture The Food Security-Act is also unlikely to be implemented for another year. The legislation is now lost because of political considerations, differences over poverty numbers and logistical hurdles. But what kept the NCP boss and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and his Ministry in the dock was the government’s inability to control spiralling prices of essential commodities. Pawar blamed bad monsoon, states’ and international conditions. The late decision to import sugar, Pawar attributes to “noble intentions” of protecting the interests of farmers besides consumers. The contention for his statement also comes in the form of continuing farmers’ suicide with most prosperous agrarian state Punjab registering more than 50 farmers’ suicide last year. With prices still way above they were in January last year, Pawar claims the worst is over and food prices are coming down. Boxed into the corner by the Opposition, Pawar’s discourses revolve around steps being taken to control inflation. Agriculture is the lifeline of economy. But in the first year of the UPA II the agriculture and allied sector GDP has shown a negative growth. Last word: Too much attention to cricket, too less to the fields.
— Vibha Sharma
DONE: Nothing of significance
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IT
is difficult to say which of Defence Minister AK Antony’s pursuits will secure India’s long-term strategic interests. Will it be his quest of seeing the “made in India” tag to high value defence equipment or his near fanatic trait of enforcing honesty and probity? 
WHEN
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal promised to draft nine education reform legislations in the first 100 days of assuming office, he was mocked for being in tearing hurry. On June 25 last, Sibal unveiled his 100-day agenda, promising to de-traumatise and de-regulate education. The radical measures Sibal proposed ran the risk of falling by the wayside, given the system’s inherent ability to resist change.
MORE than anything else, Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad’s first year in office will be remembered for his move to wind up the scam-hit Medical Council of India. Azad dissolved the MCI within a month of the CBI arresting MCI chief Ketan Desai on corruption charges. 
J
WITH a normal monsoon forecast, a booming economy growing at 8.5 per cent and foreign capital flowing in despite the economy opening up any further and an unexpected Rs 68,000 crore windfall from the G3 spectrum auction, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sits pretty. 
THE Indian Railway has achieved higher growth targets and implemented policies which would attract train travel. It also suffered a few accidents that showed lack of emphasis on safety.
H
THE ruling coalition has hardly achieved anything worthwhile to crow about, be it the relationship with the US and China or dealing with complexities in relations with India’s immediate neighbours. Pakistan remains as defiant as it was one year back, indulging in double-speak on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks. And after repeatedly telling Islamabad that it could not be business as usual between the two countries until the Mumbai attackers faced the law, New Delhi agreed to revive bilateral talks at the Thimphu meeting between the two Prime Ministers last month. 
N