The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Long rope for builders
Towers of Babel galore in Shimla

Shimla, once considered the “Queen of Hills”, seems hell-bent to turn into a hi-rise town, its environment and beauty be damned. In the name of development, construction activity is going on even in green areas through the convenient escape route of “special exemption”. While the common man would find it difficult to cut even a branch of a tree, colonisers can bend the rules to suit their needs. The end result is that many monstrous eyesores abound.

One of the curious cases is that of the Jakhu aerial ropeway. As if the permission granted to raise an 11-storey, 39.55-metre high structure in the green area, where there has been a blanket ban on construction for a decade, was not enough, the company setting up the ropeway later raised two more storeys, taking the height to 43.92 metres and even proposed to increase it to 46.90 metres. Mercifully, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has halted work on the controversial project, saying that if the court does not intervene, they (government officials) would permit this Tower of Babel to increase in height indiscriminately.

The excuse given by the company was weird. It claimed that the increase in height had been necessitated by the fact that when the initial survey was conducted, there was some error and difference of three metres was not noticed and the height of trees was also miscalculated. Naturally, the court has expressed its shock that a company which proposes to run a ropeway could make such “miscalculations”.

Its observation that “officials of the state government seem to be more interested in protecting the interests of Jagson Ropeways rather than the environment of the area” should occasion a serious re-look at the entire gamut of construction activities in the state capital. The “core area” of Shimla is in need of decongestion. Instead, there is an underhand attempt to change the land use from “residential” to “mixed” wherever possible. A similar self-defeating exercise goes on in other hill towns also. Nobody seems to realise that this will sound the death-knell for tourism, to promote which all this commercial activity is being ostensibly allowed. It is necessary to assess whether the towns bursting at the seams are at all in a position to sustain mass tourism.

India’s new coach Fletcher
Nothing much to write home about

The appointment of former Zimbabwe captain Duncan Fletcher as Team India coach has come as a bit of a surprise especially given the fact that he has been out of a regular job for quite a while. But the Board of Control for Cricket in India seems to have a penchant for providing gainful employment to many who are in need, and Fletcher is the newest name on the list.

The surprise indeed lies more in the fact that Fletcher had a lacklustre stint as coach of England, culminating with the World Cup disaster in 2007, after which his relations with the British media made it impossible for them to co-exist.

While the players affiliated to the BCCI are not really in a position to comment negatively about the appointment, at least a couple of former India captains have been very critical of the choice. Kapil Dev has been quite derisive about Fletcher’s credentials as a cricketer and stressed that players like Robin Singh or Venkatesh Prasad would have been better choices as coach. Sunil Gavaskar on the other hand thinks that Mohinder Amarnath would have been a better choice. A strange observation, considering that Gavaskar was in the panel which chose Gary Kirsten ahead of Amarnath when the coaching job was up for grabs last.

Fletcher is not known for his flair and eloquence, and according to former England captain Michael Vaughan, never understood how the media works. So his tenure in India isn’t likely to be too cordial, especially when it comes to the media. But in terms of profile, Fletcher fits the Indian scheme of things perfectly. He is a behind-the-scene kind of person, something that John Wright and Gary Kirsten understood quickly was the ideal course in India, which Greg Chappell never did. In any case, top cricket teams do not need a coach but a man manager. However, Fletcher’s man management skills are uncharted and untested, so one can assume that it will be an interesting tenure, from the media point of view at least.

Thought for the Day

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. — G.K. Chesterton

ARTICLE

Chinese influence in Nepal
A major challenge for India
by S.D. Muni

For the past couple of years, India has been trying to get its grip over slippery relations with Nepal. Towards that end, former Foreign Secretary and envoy to Nepal Shyam Saran was sent to Kathmandu in August 2010. This was followed by present foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s visit to Nepal in January 2011.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna’s three-day visit to Nepal in April (19-22) should be seen in continuation of these visits. Though formally Mr. Krishna had to inaugurate a newly built check-post on the Indo-Nepal border in Birgunj, his main mission was two-fold: to express India’s growing concerns on the security of its stakes in Nepal and to assess the prospects of faltering peace process and constitution making, for which the deadline is only five weeks ahead - May 28t.

The security of India’s interests in Nepal has come under severe pressure; not only due to personal attacks (with stones and shoes) on the Indian Ambassador, but also by defacing of Indian flag, politically inspired breakdowns and disruptions of Indian business establishments, the continuing use of Nepal for the flow of fake currency and terrorists into India and the expanding space of China’s strategic presence in the sensitive neighbour. Krishna articulated these concerns strongly and frankly to his Nepali interlocutors and pressed Nepal to move forward on the India-initiated pending proposals of tying up loose ends in this regard, including the conclusion of bilateral Treaties of Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance. Maoists being the principal driving force behind the attacks on The Indian Ambassador and business establishments, Mr Krishna forcefully conveyed India’s displeasure while talking to Maoist supremo Prachanda.

Mr Prachanda reassured Mr Krishna that the Maoists valued the importance of constructive engagement with India, but without mincing matters regarding his party’s reservations on India’s interference in Nepal against the Maoists since 2008, specially during the various rounds of elections For the Prime Minister in 2010.

The prospects of the peace process and constitution making in Nepal are passing through a dismal transition. Failure to accomplish these tasks by the deadline of May 28, may create a highly unstable and chaotic situation in Nepal with unwelcome adversary implications for India. The breakdown of consensus among major political parties and internal fragmentation within these parties on account of ideological differences and competing power ambitions of the key party leaders are the reasons behind the prevailing political stalemate. While the peace process is stuck on the question of integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist armed cadres, constitution making is held up due to unresolved power-sharing among the principal stakeholders and the resulting breakdown of national consensus on critical issues of federalism, nature of the executive and the basic structure of the polity.

Days before Mr Krishna’s visit to Kathmandu, indications of a positive turn in Nepal’s political situation had emerged. Internal tussle within the Nepali Congress, between its President Sushil Koirala and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, on the question of Working Committee nominations had been resolved amicably. Similarly, Maoist leader Prachanda had distanced himself from the party’s line of “people’s revolt” and come out with a new document for speeding up the “peace process” and “constitution making”. This was the result of his swing away from his hardline mentor and Vice- Chairman Mohan Baidya, and towards the balanced and moderate ideologue, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.

Mr Prachanda also realises that realistically, it is fool-hardy to resort to a second “peoples war” in Nepal now.

It may be recalled that the Maoists shift from the “people’s war” to democratic mainstreaming during 2005-06 had been led by the Prachanda-Baburam duo. There have also been signs of softening between the Nepali Congress and the Maoists. While Mr Baburam has been openly asking for the Maoists and the Nepali Congress to work together, the Nepali Congress hardliners are also realising that the Maoists demand for the integration of their armed cadres need to be considered carefully.

How can the process of mainstreaming the Maoists be accomplished without proper rehabilitation of their militant cadres? Some in the Nepali Congress are willing to accommodate as much as 6000 of these cadres through the integration in security forces. There is now even a proposal formally advanced by the Nepali Army for integration of militant cadres, and the response of the Maoists to this proposal so far has not been negative.

Mr Krishna in his public pronouncements had pleaded for the completion of the peace process and constitution making. He also underlined the need and significance of political consensus among Nepal’s political parties towards that end. The extent to which his parleys with the political leaders focused on this process and will help in advancing it will be known only when political moves of these leaders unfold in Nepal in the weeks to come. Mr Krishna has been assured by the Maoists that they do not have a policy to hurt India’s interests in Nepal. There are reasons to believe that the Maoist attacks on Indian diplomats and business establishments have mostly been in reaction to their perception that India wants to keep them on the margins of power-structure in Nepal.

These perceptions were reinforced by the outcome of the visits of Mr Shyam Saran and MsNirupama Rao in the midst of prime ministerial elections.

The Maoists are the largest party in the Constituent Assembly and they think that they should legitimately be accepted to lead any coalition government. They want India to be helpful by remaining at least neutral, if not supportive, to their claims in the process of government formation in Nepal. One does not know if there has been any change in India’s stance in this respect. The Maoists should be expected to change their calibrated hostility towards the Indian establishments in Nepal if Mr Krishna has succeeded in impressing upon the Maoists that India indeed wishes them well. But has he?

There have been unmistakable signs of China expanding its presence and influence in Nepal. The latest evidence of this was provided by the visit of a powerful Chinese military delegation to Nepal in March (23-26) under the leadership of the PLA chief, General Chen Bingde. An MoU was signed during his visit offering Chinese assistance of $19.9 mn to Nepal for medical equipment and construction machinery.

Mr Krishna must have explored the extent of growing Chinese influence in Nepal, particularly during his talks with President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Khanal and Nepal’s army chief General Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.

Indian policy makers must accept the hard reality that the assertion of influence by a rising China in Asia, including in India’s sensitive neighbourhood, is inevitable and Indian diplomacy has to equip itself strategically, politically and economically to face that reality. In a country like Nepal, it is the deficiencies and failures of Indian diplomacy that will be exploited by an assertive China to its advantage with the help of all those Nepali political forces that feel alienated from India.

The writer is Visiting Research Professor, Institute for South Asian Studies, Singapore

MIDDLE

Maid in India
by Vivek Atray

Indian cities are witness to a revolution of a very different kind these days. The maids are taking over!Schedules, appointments, wakeup times, meals, birthday parties, vacations, and even weddings are dependant these days on the convenience of the all-important family maid. Make no mistake, she has veto rights of the kind that no Head of State enjoys anywhere in the world.

If the maid of the house says she has a toothache, no food will be cooked in the yuppie household that day. And God-forbid, if the maid decides that she should visit her grandmother for a week, the man of the house may have to take time off from work to help out at home.

These formidable ladies need no training and no tutoring. They are immensely more talented and capable than their employers. They know how to cook, make beds, take messages, iron clothes, and provide beauty-treatment to their lady-bosses.

At birthday parties, maid-power is at its most evident. Since the practice nowadays is to invite only the kids and not the parents, such occasions are witness to large-scale maid re-unions. Sometimes two maids accompany each child and the hosts have to arrange many boxes to cater to these hungry guests.

At a recent party, however, the poor hostess was in a real quandary. What happened was that the maids refused to eat from the ‘maid-boxes’ and demanded plates and seats like the guests. They did not wait for formal approval from anyone and walked up to the table to dig in to the ‘apple-turnovers’ and ‘blueberry pies’. So compelling was the hunger from within and so large the number of maids that the food on the table vanished in no time.

It is anybody’s guess as to who had to eat from the ‘maid-boxes’ in the end.

My sister-in-law has her priorities in perfect order. She has identified the specialist maid who would chaperon her second baby and has booked her in advance even though the said woman is working elsewhere nowadays.

The only thing that remains to be decided is whether and when she is to have the second baby.

In my own home there is a very old and very imposing looking maid who is like someone out of the history books, but who works more effectively than any maid of the modern era. My wife goes out of her way to look after her, and we all call her ‘Mataji’.

I must also confess to being a little afraid of her; so intimidating is she. She bosses me around whenever I’m around and often asks me to move away from the room that she’s busy cleaning.

She is quite a born leader, it seems. In fact I hear that she might soon take over as the President of the All India Maids Association. The whole country had better watch out!

OPED agriculture

FARMING FOR THE MARKET
With the growing consumerism due to an increase in disposable incomes, a higher level of education, increasing urbanisation and the changing tastes of the younger generation, a consumption-oriented market system is becoming more effective than the one driven by production
Joginder Singh

Open storage of food grains is common Photo J.S. Virdi

The Green Revolution, which was ushered in the mid-sixties in Punjab, faded away in the early nineties, leaving agriculture to struggle for its mere sustainability. This is apparent from the fast-sliding compound growth rate in this sector from 5.37 per cent in the Sixth Plan to 1.90 per cent in the Ninth Plan and 2.28 per cent in the Tenth Plan period. Without visualising emerging problems, the political, economic and social systems continued to thrive on the past performance.

Apparently, there is little scope for improvement in productivity of food-grain crops due to technology fatigue. The government and policy planners kept high hopes on the research systems without rectifying the policies, particularly in terms of inadequate funding the research and development, lack of initiative for value addition, non-economic use of a huge mass of crop residue, encouraging overuse of most precious resources such as electricity and water and paralysed export infrastructure.

With the taking off of the state economy during the Green Revolution era, there was a strong need for shifting people from agriculture to manufacturing and the service sector. This process demanded a fast growth of these sectors. In Punjab the banking, insurance, communication and trade, tourism, construction and manufacturing sectors did not catch up with the growth of majority of other states. Hence as much as about 33 pe cent of the gross state domestic product of Punjab is still contributed by the slow-growing agriculture sector whereas almost all right thinking states of the country are concentrating more on the secondary and tertiary sectors.

Diversification

The farm sector is facing serious environmental problems due to the declining water resources, deteriorating soil health, direct human health hazards caused by pesticide residues, air pollution etc. About 30 million tonnes of crop residues are burned every year in Punjab. This calls for immediate attention of its use for livestock, degeneration as humus for soil, making industrial use such as manufacture of cardboard, paper, packing material, energy generation etc.

There exists a vast production potential of various alternative crop and livestock enterprises which can replace rice and wheat crops but their contribution to the overall production is not responding due to lack of processing and other value addition processes, domestic market and export infrastructure. Still on paper, diversification of agriculture is our motto. In the light of this, our planners are unsuccessfully forcing some unviable crops such as soybean, banana etc whereas their roots are refusing to enter the soil. In the attempt at diversification, clear-cut agro-climatic regions should be used as guiding indicators.

The state has south-western districts covering about 7.5 lakh hectares as a clear-cut demarcated cotton belt having brackish underground water. Following a long spell of failure of cotton, the paddy crop infiltrated this area and farmers had to explore deep groundwater by investing in submersible tubewells. Now, the cotton crop is on the recovery path, particularly with the introduction of Bt varieties. Apart from offering diversification possibility of agriculture from rice to cotton on another about two lakh hectares in the state, it has a high potential of employment and value addition in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

The production of fruits, vegetables and various other farm products can be accelerated in the state but lack of processing facilities due to their seasonal production, high carry-over cost and lack of processing attributes are some hindrances. About 9 per cent of the geographical area of the state along the Shivalik hill range having undulating topography, popularly known as Kandi belt, which by default, is more suitable for organic farming of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices due to agro-climatic conditions. This could be encouraged through training, developing internal and external inspection system, and encouraging Self Help Groups of farmers. All these examples highlight the role of processing industry in not just processing products but also contributing to R&D for boosting production of their raw materials.

Supply chain management

To ease the situation within agriculture, it is suggested to strive for the Second Green Revolution through value addition. Most of the potential alternative produce is highly perishable and requires special treatment with quick transportation, delicate handling, storage at specific low temperature, processing in different forms, scientific packaging, sound market information and outlook services and development of export infrastructure. Now, the question is that what can be the most suitable agency to carry it out. Incurring such heavy investments is obviously not within the reach of an average farmer who is handicapped by constrains of inadequate resources. A vast majority of farmers' cooperatives have not been successful due to various technical, administrative and social reasons and thus lack initiatives to take up such activities. Autonomous investment is also a remote possibility as the state government has already washed off its hands with the excuse that it is starved of financial resources, obviously due to various measures adopted on different fronts. The initiation of contract farming was an interesting positive step taken by the state government a few years back. This experiment too could not succeed due to a number of obvious reasons, especially inbuilt constraints and over-interference of the government. The buying agencies thrived on trading rather than appropriate value addition processes. Still the only ray of hope is investments by big business houses with backward and forward linkages in spite of certain possibilities of certain exploitative practices.

Consumer is king

The fact remains that our farmer got expertise on production system, which he has nicely demonstrated on the ground. Now with the opening up of the economy, we need to view the things in diametrically opposite perspective. The production system has to be volatile to cater to consumers' requirements. To capture the need of well-to-do sections of society in terms of consumer's taste, product quality, safety, nutrition aspects etc, the essential services are required to be provided, necessitating the opening of retail chain stores in the state. Therefore, to demonstrate the technical and pricing efficiency, organised retailing through horizontal and vertical market linkages, harnessing the scale economies can be a feasible solution. Moreover, with growing consumerism due to an increase in the disposable income, a higher level of education and urbanisation and the changing tastes of the younger generation, a consumption-oriented rather than production-oriented market system is becoming more effective with the passage of time. Let the successful farmers' cooperatives and individual farmers also coordinate and compete within the system. Going a step further, the market view should not be limited only to domestic consumers but also to potential global markets.

Market information is another important dark area which, if cared for prudently, can help in facilitating the process further. Marketing innovations are coming up at a fast rate and sale, which was once effected on the physical display of produce, is now done by samples, by quality description, by grade standards or even by display on the internet. Therefore, a regular monitoring of the domestic and global markets by taking stock of demand, prices, quality requirements and other market forces along with the tariff structure is needed for guidance to farmers and market agencies to facilitate their safe entry. Since small farmers do not have the capacity to develop such market infrastructure, it is for the state to work through the farmers' commission in this direction for some worthwhile performance.

The writer is a former Prof. & Head, Department of Economics & Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana.

Rich crops, poor farmers
Suman Sahai

This year the wheat crop, by and large, is good. Western and Central Uttar Pradesh produces surplus grain like Punjab and Haryana and since the days of the Green Revolution, these have been important centres where rice and wheat are procured for the Central pool.

In the earlier days this worked well for farmers but in the recent years, procurement has become an exercise to torment farmers rather than support them. First, the minimum support price (MSP) is never paid in full.If the price announced for wheat is Rs 1,120 per quintal, as it is this year, the real price that the farmer will get can be anything from Rs 750 to Rs 950 per quintal. Corruption locks farmers in a vice-like grip because they have no storage facilities and must sell their produce immediately after harvest.

The procurement agencies and where relevant, private buyers, know this and turn the screws on the price since they know the farmer has no choice but to sell. Other strategies that are used to press prices down is to tell the farmer that their grain has not been dried sufficiently (whether that is true or not) and will not be lifted. As soon as palms are greased, the grain dries miraculously. Other tricks are to declare the grain too 'light', not fulfilling the standards set by the FCI. The FCI's exacting standards are equally miraculously met once farmers' pockets have become correspondingly lighter.

Often there is an unholy nexus between FCI agents and private companies. The deal is that the procurement agency will reject much of the grain on one pretext or another. Farmers have to travel to procurement centres with their grain, for it to be inspected, weighed and lifted. If they do not have their own bullock carts, they hire these or rent trucks or tractor-trailers to bring their grain to the centre. Every day of delay costs the farmer in rental money. It's like ports charge demurrage charges if you do not lift your goods. Each day the port holds your goods, it charges you a fee. The bullock cart, tractor and truck owners do the same. So if they have to wait till the farmer can negotiate the deal, the cost of hire keeps going up every day.

This eats into the farmer's profit. When the farmer's grain is held up and he is desperate to sell it, private companies step in and buy up the grain at low prices. In this way the back-breaking effort put in by the farmer and the little subsidy he gets on fertiliser and diesel to irrigate his fields goes to benefit private companies. Despite a good harvest the farmer may not make a profit. Sometimes he cannot even recover his cost and in this way he gets poorer and so desperate that he wants to abandon agriculture.

This is not my version. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) discovered this in its survey in 2007 when almost half the country's farmers said they would abandon farming if they could find another occupation. This should set the alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power. If the farmer does not grow food what will we eat? Import food? But there is nothing available on the international market to buy! Drought in Australia and Russia, floods in New Zealand and turbulent weather everywhere has ensured that guaranteed food surpluses cannot be counted on. The biofuel drive in the US has drawn away the American corn into ethanol production so that wheat is diverted to animal feed and both corn and wheat are now in short supply.

It is not a rocket science to understand that we need to make agriculture work if we as a nation are to get anywhere. Pursuing the dreams of 9 per cent growth while leaving large chunks of India out of the ambit of such growth is fraught with danger as the developments in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are showing us every other week. Internal security, the Prime Minister says, is the country's largest crisis. Fixing agriculture and putting money in the farmers' pocket is a dead-sure way of finding our way out of the crisis of internal security. When will we get that?

The writer is the Chief Editor of the New Delhi-based GeneNews