The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Identity proof for all
“Aadhar” can spur better governance

With Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi releasing the first set of unique identification numbers (“Aadhar”) in Tembhli village of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra on Wednesday, the most ambitious project of the UPA so far has finally started rolling. The site of the launch is significant. Nandurbar is a largely tribal, poor district inhabited mostly by the kind of marginalised people that the project strives to empower the most. It will give them a unique identity proof which will come in handy in everything from getting rations to utilising the rural employment schemes. At the same time, the 12-digit number will be useful in avoiding rigging in elections and embezzlement of government funds meant for the people.

Providing such biometric-based cards to 1.2 billion people will be a gigantic task. The Nandan Nilekani-led UID Authority of India, which has now been renamed “Aadhar”, has not only to make sure that none of those for whom the card is meant is deprived of it, but also that no unauthorised person manages to procure one. The card has multiple uses and for that very reason, the chances of misuse are also greater. So, there is need for having a foolproof system in place before going full steam ahead.

The project can transform health, education, public distribution and employment sectors by plugging leakages which are legion. Since the project is novel, it has many critics also who fear that it will allow the government to play Big Brother. Their objections are mainly two-fold: that it infringes on an individual’s right to privacy and that it is a national security project in the garb of a social policy initiative. With strict restrictions to eliminate the possibility of the profiling of minorities and Dalits and the misuse of UID data in place, the benefits that this radical change can bring about far outweigh the projected negative fallouts.

Tackling poverty
India must step up efforts

Poverty, a global reality, is no stranger to India. Thus, a decade ago, it was in the fitness of things that India was one of the nearly 190 member states of the UN that had set eight ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to tackle poverty around the world. As the world leaders met again recently in New York, the UN’s admission that most of the MDGs are likely to be missed in most regions is disheartening, in context of India too. With five years left to meet the ambitious goals, India’s track record on most of the targets, be it health, gender equality, poverty, hunger or environment sustainability, is far from satisfactory.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs that a country with a robust growth rate is home to 50 per cent of the world’s hungry people. Worse still, 46 per cent of its children remain undernourished. On other development indicators like infant mortality rate, what with over 1.5 million children dying before their first birthday too, it has a long way to go. India where the growth has at best been uneven must pay more attention to states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the proportion of poor is not only more but likely to increase as well by 2015.

India cannot take refuge under the convoluted argument as propounded by some experts that First World standards can’t be applied to it. Instead, it must bear in mind Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general’s assertion that the achievement of the goals is not optional bur an essential investment in a fairer, safer and more prosperous world. If the nation has to emerge as a global power the government’s commitment to meeting the MDGs must translate into more concerted action. Indeed. MDGs that vow to reduce extreme poverty by half, maternal mortality by three quarters and child mortality by two thirds are not an end in itself. Yet these provide a well-illumined road map to social and economic development.

Thought for the Day

No plagiarist can excuse the wrong by showing how much of his work he did not pirate. — Learned Hand

ARTICLE

Attracting foreign investment
Look beyond retail and defence
by Jayshree Sengupta

THE continuing need for industrialisation and foreign investment was emphasised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently for rapid poverty reduction. While it is true that export growth with the help of foreign investment has helped reduce poverty quickly in many countries, its role in India has been ambiguous. While India’s domestic rate of investment is rather high at 33 per cent of the GDP at $430 billion, the importance of FDI has been stressed by our leaders and many changes in the FDI policy have been introduced in recent years to make India an attractive foreign investment destination. The idea of establishing special economic zones (SEZs) for attracting FDI has also gained in importance, especially since the SEZ Act of 2005, which guarantees exemption from the payment of tax on book profit and exemption from the dividend distribution tax for developers.

As pointed out by Sonia Gandhi, SEZs should not be established on prime fertile agricultural land. Alongside industrialisation, a nation of over a billion people needs a robust domestic agricultural production. Enhancing agricultural growth through technology, water management, better land use, land reforms as well as building rural roads is going to remain important for any strategy aimed at rural poverty reduction.

In the SEZs FDI plays an important role as it brings not only foreign exchange but also technical knowhow, intellectual property rights and efficient organisational and managerial practices. In a span of a few years China’s poverty was reduced to 2 per cent (ours is 37 per cent) in which FDI played an important role as it went to exporting industries that were mainly labour intensive.

All big American companies opened their subsidiaries in China since its opening up in 1979. This created jobs and boosted exports. But unlike China, in India FDI has not gone into the labour-intensive export sector. It has remained in capital-intensive sectors like cars, consumer durables and electronics — catering mostly to domestic demand. FDI has not been able to absorb a big proportion of India’s labour force. Most workers ( 92 per cent of the 523.5 million workforce) still remain in the unorganised sector. They are semi-skilled and semi-literate.

Foreign investors have always sought out prosperous states in which there is a good supply of skilled labour, which is educated and this preference for FDI to go to some states and not to others has not helped in poverty reduction much.

Yet India’s policy-makers have been in an overdrive to facilitate the opening up of various sectors for FDI. The result so far has been encouraging and more foreign investors have come in the last few years than before but FDI has not increased the number of jobs. In fact, India has been witnessing jobless growth. The invested FDI was 12.9 per cent of the GDP in India and 10.1 per cent in China last year. India gets around $34.6 billion a year and China gets $108 billion a year.

The government has been trying to open up multi-brand retail and defence to FDI. Already India allows 51 per cent in single-brand retail and 100 per cent in multi-brand retail but only in ‘cash-and-carry’ outlets. By opening up the muti-brand retail sector fully, the government hopes to attract bigger amounts of FDI.

The prospects of India being an attractive FDI destination seem good because of the high rate of economic growth that India has been experiencing lately. A recent UNCTAD survey reveals that India will be the sixth most-favoured FDI destination and China will be the second most attractive destination after the US in 2010-2012.

However, if the government wants to reduce poverty through FDI then some fine-tuning in policies will have to be undertaken. FDI will have to be directed to sectors using workers from the unorganised sector. To make labour-intensive industries attractive, the government will have to improve infrastructure and invest in training labour. In Bangladesh much of the FDI has gone to the garment sector which has enriched workers and reduced poverty.

But in opening up the multi-brand retail sector there is the issue of rendering jobless people engaged in petty trading. It is a serious matter as there are 10 crore small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and traders in the retail sector whose growth has been 15 per cent. If retail is opened up fully then Walmart and European retail giants like Metro and Macro would walk in and capture a sizeable market of $450 billion because the Indian middle class would shop for everything available under one roof.

Of course, many of the poor would not go to Walmart-type stores because they could feel intimidated by the grand façade etc. and would probably still buy from small “kiryana shops”. The main argument in favour of opening up retail is that big multinational firms would source their products from small producers within the country and hence help in creating jobs. But what guarantee is there that they would not outsource their products from cheaper producers like China, Thailand and the Philippines?

Similarly, defence is a capital-intensive sector which would not be inclined to employ a semi-literate and semi-skilled workforce. The government is contemplating tripling the cap on FDI going into that sector to 74 per cent.

Making FDI more hassle-free and giving approvals quickly would also help attract more FDI but the main reason why India is not able to attract a big quantum today is also the general recession in the countries from where FDI originates. There has been a decline in the FDI flows in 2010 as compared to 2009.

India is also emerging as an important country from which FDI originates. While the outward flow of FDI from India is 6.1 per cent of the GDP, it is 4.9 per cent of the GDP in the case of China. India and China can be important global investors in future and not just recipients of FDI. It will strengthen their role as global powers and India can assist industrialisation in Africa like China is doing. Why not emphasise on that role more and leave industrialisation of the country to well-planned domestic investment strategies instead of reliance on FDI? Moreover, domestic investment in local industries that are labour intensive could be assisted with poverty-alleviation programmes in the poorest regions.

MIDDLE

Who will call the PM ‘Mohna’ again?
by Rashmi Talwar

I look at the golden shower cassia tree in my garden and I am reminded of two such cassias growing in far-off Gah village in Pakistan, that I had presented to the late Raja Mohammed Ali, a childhood classmate of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Meinu mere Mohne nal milva do! Meinu Hindustan da visa mil gaya hai!” was one call I received in May of 2008 from Rajaji alias Babaji. I was aghast! ‘Mohna’ was the nickname he used for the Prime Minister. In March that year I had met Babaji the second time in Katasraj (Pakistan) and carried copies of an article by me in The Tribune about him and his friend ‘Mohna’. I gave a copy to a senior officer of the Indian High Commission at the Katasraj shrine, urging him to issue Babaji a visa.

After four rejections, three months later, Babaji was ready to come to India and elated in anticipation of a meeting with his illustrious classmate – albeit without any appointment!

I looked for ways to fix that seemingly ‘elusive’ appointment, on the Net. I wrote on the PM’s website, even found an IAS officer, seemingly by divine intervention, who helped script a letter and fax to the Prime Minister, but to no avail.

Meantime, a thrilled Babaji, unaware of the ‘trials and tribulations’, called everyday and we agreed on ‘priceless gifts’ for the Prime Minister comprising ‘soil and water’ of the PM’s school and ancestral home in Gah besides ‘tilley wali chakwali juttis’ and a 150-year old ‘resham ka lachcha’ made by Babaji’s grandparents.

A week left, and still no reply! Finally, media had to become my ‘sole-mate’. There were renewed media contacts in Lahore, Amritsar and Delhi. A foreign news agency in Lahore filmed the story about preparations to meet the Prime Minister, and ended it with a question –‘Whether the Pak friend would meet the Indian PM?’ It was featured on BBC just prior to Babaji’s arrival in India. Still no reply!

On Babaji’s arrival a local school gave him a thumping welcome with bhangra by kids at the Wagah Indo-Pak border. The press grabbed bytes of the dancing children, gifts of soil, water and juttis!

The same night an official of the PMO called! More relieved than elated, I requested for accommodation and conveyance in Delhi for them, besides security during travel to Delhi, the following day.

Babaji reached Delhi and was whisked off to a five-star guest house and given a chauffeur-driven car. Two days before the meeting , Babaji urged me to accompany him but my refrain was “this is the time for only friends, not me”.

It turned out to be a most poignant moment between India and Pakistan. Later, a tearful Babaji left India carrying the cassia saplings, a booklet with publications of his visit, a large photo with the Prime Minister and him wearing the chakwali juttis, gifts by the PM of a pair of watches, suits, shawl, dry fruit and Assam tea and even a doctor’s prescription, as live proofs for his village-mates.

Even though Babaji is no more, the entire village safeguards these prized possessions and has even framed the Indian doctor’s prescription — as a historical memory of Gah’s priceless connection with India.

OPED

Fears on injected vegetables, milk unfounded
D.S.Khurana and Kulbir Singh

Oxytocin produced in all mammals is responsible for stimulation of nerves. It is produced at the time of milking in the milch animals. It is the hormone used during the late stage of pregnancy to induce labour. This drug may also be used during pregnancy to test the heartbeat of the fetus and control bleeding of the womb after childbirth. Thus, it is a naturally occurring hormone and is secreted endogenously in all mammals for induction and maintenance of labour as well as for initiation of milk let-down in the female.

Since it is a peptide hormone, it disappears rapidly within two to six minutes from the blood stream due to the action of various enzymes. Synthetic oxytocin is, therefore, used quite commonly in human as well as veterinary medicine. The reports on the harmful effect of milk produced by oxytocin-treated dairy cattle are quite misleading and not based on scientific facts.

Whether secreted endogenously in response to natural stimuli or administered exogenously, oxytocin produces the desired effect within minutes and gets metabolised rapidly leading to inactive products. Till date, there is not a single report which demonstrates the presence of this hormone in the milk. Those who imagine that it may escape the action of degrading enzymes and seep into milk in traces should also realise that in such a situation, all the breast-fed infants and newly born calves must be constantly exposed to these traces of oxytocin in mother's milk all the time without facing any health hazards whatsoever.

The reason is that if at all ingested orally along with milk, oxytocin is bound to be digested like other proteins and peptides due to action of gut enzymes and gastric acids and cannot be absorbed from the intestines to reach the blood circulation again.

Keeping in view the press reports and news on the various TV channels against indiscriminate use of oxytocin in cucurbitaceous crops such as bottle gourd, pumpkin, cucumber etc, a research was conducted in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during rainy season 2009. The study was conducted on two varieties of bottlegourd, namely Punjab Komal and Punjab Long. The result are depicted in the table. The oxytocin was injected into different parts of the plants.

It was concluded from the study conducted on the effect of oxytocin on yield and quality of bottle gourd that oxytocin has no effect in influencing the yield and quality of bottle gourd.

It seems that application of oxytocin to improve the yield of vegetable crops is misconceived if this practice is being followed. On the contrary, the survey conducted in the previous year in three districts of the state also revealed the fact that farmers of the Punjab do not follow such practice as advertised by different TV channels and newspapers.

The writers are Professors in the department of vegetable crops, PAU, Ludhiana

Safe methods of fruit ripening
B.V.C. Mahajan and B.S. Ghuman

Ripening is a dramatic event in the life of a fruit, in which structure and composition of unripe fruit is so altered that it becomes acceptable to eat. Ripening marks the completion of development of a fruit and the commencement of senescence and it is normally an irreversible event.

Ethylene, a gas at physiological temperature, is a natural hormone involved in fruit ripening. The autocatalytic production of endogenous ethylene is considered to immediately trigger off the ripening process in fruits like banana, mango and papaya etc. These fruits produce large amount of ethylene once ripening is underway.

Need for artificial ripening: No doubt that the natural ripened fruits are good in taste and flavour, but these fruits take longer time to ripe and at the same time ripening is not uniform and the chances of spoilage are also more. In order to regulate the supply chain in the markets, the artificial ripening of fruits is a necessity during their commercial handling and this is a standard practice all over the world.

Methods of ripening: The various traditional as well as modern safe methods used for commercial ripening are discussed below.

1. Traditional method— Ripening with Calcium carbide: Bananas, mango, papaya, chiku etc are commercially ripened by traders with calcium carbide popularly known as Masala. Calcium carbide is usually kept in a small paper packet in the piles of bananas, papaya or inside the boxes or crates of mango fruits. The chemical, when hydrolyzed, produces heat and acetylene gas along with traces of ethylene which hastens the ripening process.

In the case of banana the ripening starts within 24-48 hours, depending on ambient temperature and when fruits yield to slight finger pressure, they are kept under ice slabs for lowering the temperature and to develop colour.

However, the fruits ripened with calcium carbide are overly soft with a short shelf life. In addition, it is very dangerous to handle calcium carbide because of its explosive properties. The chemical is so reactive that it causes blisters if touched unknowingly with wet hands. The low price of carbide results in its indiscriminate use in artificial ripening of banana. This practice is banned U/S 44-AA of Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, 1954 with PFA rules, 1955, due to health reasons.

2. Safe methods:

i) Ripening with Ethephon/Ethrel: Ethephon (2-chloroethyl-phosphonic acid) is commercially available and is registered for pre-harvest use on a variety of crops for controlling developmental processes or inducing ripening. This chemical is approved for post-harvest use on fruits crops for enhancing ripening. For post-harvest treatments, 1.25 ml of ethephon is diluted in one litre of water and fruits are either dipped in the solution for 2-3 minutes or the solution can also be sprayed on the produce. The treated fruits are air dried, packed in boxes or plastic crates and kept at optimum temperature which varies from 16-25 OC and 90-95% RH. This temperature range is considered to be optimum for ripening of most fruits.

This substance ensures uniform ripening of fruits and fruits retain their flavour. This technique provides a safe and effective method of ripening of fruits compared to normal technique of using calcium carbide. The fruits ripened with this technique can be stored for couple of days at their specific storage temperature for enhancing their sweet juiciness and crisp crunchy texture.

ii) Ripening with ethylene gas (internationally acceptable technique): Ethylene is a plant hormone which acts physiologically and stimulate ripening of fruits. Although fruits contain natural ethylene, but its concentration is not enough to regulate the ripening. Therefore, fruits are required to expose to desired level of ethylene for developing uniform ripening and acceptable quality. This technique is very useful during commercial handling of fruits in pack house.

In this technique, the fruits are exposed to low level of ethylene gas (100-150 ppm) in a air-tight ripening chamber for 24 hours to induce the fruits to ripen. The most important thing in this technique is temperature and relative humidity control inside the ripening chamber, which should range between 16 -25OC and 90-95% RH, depending upon the fruit type.

This process facilitates adequate ripening of banana and other fruits which can be utilised for systematic marketing strategies. This technology can meet the increased consumer demand for properly ripened fruits and also enable the high volume retailers, especially supermarkets to better supply their customers and control the postharvest losses. It guarantees uniform ripening with development of good flavour and colour.

Although, initially, the cost of infrastructure is high, but it will compensate with quality of fruits. The technology can be used at wholesale markets prior to distribution to retailers. It is important to recognize that though ethylene gas can promote the ripening and colour changes, the quality of such artificially ripened fruits depends mostly on the maturity level of the fruit at the time of harvest.

One such ripening chamber of one ton capacity with controlled temperature and relative humidity range and portable ethylene generator has been installed at Punjab Horticultural Postharvest Technology Centre (PHPTC), Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana. This facility has been used to standardise the techniques for the ripening of banana with ethylene gas and to recommend for commercial use. In the past, series of experiments were conducted in the ripening of bananas and it was observed that banana harvested at green mature stage can be successfully ripened in four days by exposing to ethylene gas 100 ppm for 24 hours in a ripening chamber maintained at 16-18°C and 90-95% RH. The fruits attained uniform colour excellent quality during shelf life.

Based on the studies conducted at PHPTC an up-scaled pilot facility with six ripening chambers each having capacity 10 MT has been established by Punjab Mandi Board at new fruit and vegetable market, Ludhiana. During the trials recently conducted by PHPTC scientists on the ripening of banana at the new pilot scale facility at fruit and vegetable market Ludhiana about 6 companies (corporates as well as banana commission agents) such as Bharti Field Fresh, Ladowal, Khet Se (Tata Enterprise) Malerkotla etc. participated. The technology suggested by PHPTC scientists has been fully adopted by these companies / stakeholders and they are satisfied with the results of this new technique of ripening of bananas. Such facilities for banana ripening have been set up by these corporates at Ladhowal, Malerkotla and Pathankot etc.

Similar facilities are also planned in 13 more fruit and vegetable markets of Punjab by Punjab Mandi Board. It is hoped that this new safe technique of banana ripening will eventually replace the harmful and banned method of ripening with calcium carbide thus providing the consumers with healthy and safe fruits.

The writers are working as Senior Horticulturist and Senior Research Engineer at PHPTC, PAU, Ludhiana