Wait For The Brick....... story 2

A young and successful executive was traveling down a propinquity(neighborhood,पड़ोस) street, going a bit too brisk(fast,तेज़) in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and drove the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The disgruntled(angry,नाराज़) driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, “What was that all about and who are you?
Just what the heck are you doing?
That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money.
Why did you do it?”
The young boy was penitent(apologeticक्षमाशील),. “Please mister … please, I’m sorry… I didn’t know what else to do,” he pleaded.
“I threw the brick because no one else would stop…”
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.
“It’s my brother,” he said.
“He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too ponderous(heavy,भारी) for me.”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the expeditiously(rapidly,तेज़ी से) swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.
“Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the little boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, dilatory(slow,धीमा) walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very perceptible(noticeable,प्रत्यक्ष), but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us.
It’s our choice: Listen to the whisper … or wait for the brick!

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Military fables of a democracy

In 2004, the world saw evidence of one of the most horrific acts of torture and sexual abuse by an army on captured prisoners. The soldiers did not belong to the army of a banana republic or a military dictatorship(absolute rule,तानाशाही) but to the U.S., a democracy. The prisoners were Iraqi, held at the Abu Ghraib prison.

At present, India is going through a staggering(unstable,विचलित) phase of amnesia(memory loss,भूलने की बीमारी): that it is a democracy. War clouds have caused a flight of reason. The valorization(value,मूल्य) of the Indian military after the “surgical strikes” has culminated(highest,पराकाष्टा) in a perverse(distorted,विकृत) logic amplified(enhance,बढ़ाना) by a shrill media: you cannot question the government on matters military as it is equivalent to insulting the army, which itself is beyond scrutiny(examine,जाँच) and reproach(insult,तिरस्कार).

Aggressive nationalism 

The question here is not of the veracity(reality,सच्चाई) of the surgical strikes but whether questions can be asked of the government and the army. The logic that answers in the negative is one that suits a military dictatorship, not a democracy.

If this logic held, we would have never known how the American and British governments led their people to the catastrophic(destructive,विनाशकारी) Iraq war over flimsy(weak,कमज़ोर) reasons of national security. The Abu Ghraib expose too would have never seen light. Nor would have our own Kunan Poshpora. That such logic shows a tendency towards the militarisation of society, especially now when an aggressive nationalism gains ground.

Witness the closing of public mind since Uri and the surgical strikes. Actors are facing a public outcry either for “disrespecting” soldiers or for “supporting” Pakistani artistes. Parties are being condemned for demanding “proof”. And farcically(laughable,विनोदपूर्ण), television guests are thrown off studio debates for speaking over martyred soldiers’ fathers. The army, in essence, has become a holy cow.

This is a dangerous tendency, for the militarisation of society and the predominance(supremacy,प्रबलता) of militaristic values is opposed to some fundamental tenets(belief,सिद्धांत) of democracy like critical thinking and questioning of hierarchy. Militaristic values are also intrinsically(internally,आंतरिक) connected to notions(opinion,मत) of hypermasculinity(bravery,बहादुरता). Of course, unquestioning obedience is useful in the institutional context of the army and in limited situations of war, but it cannot become a general value of society for all times.

More crucially, militarisation fundamentally obfuscates(unclear,अस्पष्ट) society’s real problems. Fear becomes the basis of society, and a soldier’s job becomes the most important occupation. People who clean the sewers with no protective equipment, and at great threat to their lives, do not, in this narrative, serve the nation. As the writer Aakar Patel asks, why are sewer cleaners, dying in the hundreds, and sanitation workers not considered martyrs?

The tragedy of a dead soldier is justifiably commemorated by all. But millions die unsung, performing jobs in hazardous(risky,जोखिमपूर्ण) conditions. The precariousness(uncertainty,अनिश्चितता) of soldiers on the Siachen Glacier is rightly sympathised with, but not the horrors of manual scavengers who have to handle human faeces and die due to diseases.

Shouldn’t there also be outrage(anger,गुस्सा) over men carrying their dead daughter and wife on their shoulders because hospitals refused ambulances, as was the case in two separate incidents in Odisha? Where is the outrage and TV coverage about the 1.2 million (preventable) child deaths in India last year, the highest in the world? How does this number compare with deaths caused by terrorism? For society’s well-being, should this not be the most important problem exercising discourse?

Ironically, a militarised society despite valorising the soldier does not actually speak for him/her. Warmongering could only lead to the deaths of more soldiers. While Kargil and its 527 war heroes entered India’s military folklore, Operation Parakram and its 798 dead soldiers are little discussed by the public. How is it justifiable to lose nearly 800 soldiers without even fighting a war?

Further, in every violent conflict like Uri, the overwhelming numbers of the dead are sepoys and non-commissioned officers hailing from the most marginalised strata of society. It is a tragedy at many levels.

The uniting factor 

The valorous(brave,बहादुर) soldier versus the pusillanimous(coward,कायर) civilian and the patriotic soldier versus unpatriotic civilian are false binaries on which a militarised society thrives(grow,पनपना). On the one hand, defence arms procurement, and land and recruitment scams show the involvement of both higher echelons(group,टोली) of the military, and civilians (politicians and bureaucrats). On the other, what unites both is that tragic social conditions are disproportionately shared by the soldiers and civilians from the poorest and most oppressed groups, especially the costs of war. After all, the shrieking TV anchors and the elite(specific,विशिष्ट) civilian classes wanting a war are not the ones fighting the war, or are among the 15 lakh people forcibly evacuated from border village homes and living in makeshift camps.

The valorisation of the military in a democracy is ironical. Ultimately, what is the military fighting for? Is it merely Indian territory? The military, while protecting the nation, does not dictate India’s constitutional values. By conflating the two, a fundamental mistake is made. In the eyes of the world, what distinguishes India from Pakistan is not that it has a bigger military, but that it is a settled, even if flawed, democracy. The Indian Army is different from the Pakistani Army because it is, ultimately, under the control of the people.

Every public institution, including the military, has to be subject to public accountability and scrutiny. There is no maxim in a democracy that says you cannot ask questions of its army.

Similarly, striving for non-violent resolutions is not being anti-national. An army veteran writes: “It’s easy to ask for peace when you are a thousand miles away from the Line of Control.” This is why soldiers facing bullets at the border are not the ones in charge of public policy in a democracy. As Onkarnath Dolui, who lost his son in Uri, painfully pleads, “Believe me, I don’t want war as it demands countless of lives, like that of my son, on either side.”

Soldiers and their sacrifices deserve respect in society, but they cannot overwhelm every other aspect of society. Military fables have their place, but they cannot substitute democratic debates. While we mourn the deaths of soldiers, we have to understand that poverty is the biggest killer in India, by a million times over. A militarised society prevents us from seeing that.

 courtesy:the hindu

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A first step to wholesome reform

Last week the Supreme Court of India made it mandatory for the police toupload within 48 hours a First Information Report (FIR) drawn up by itsuo motu or on a complaint. Aimed principally at protecting the accused who may come to know that he figures in an FIR, but has no idea of the allegations which formed its basis, this order is also a shot in the arm for activists who want to protect citizens from State harassment on flimsy(weak,कमज़ोर) grounds. In this momentous order, Youth Bar Association of India v Union of India and others, Justices Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan laid down several guidelines which could help to promote transparency and curb(control,नियंत्रण) arbitrariness(willfulness,मनमानापन) in police work.

The apex court direction, incidentally, also benefits victims of crime who have no means of getting to know whether their complaint had been brought on record or not. This is welcome because of the Indian police’s dubious(doubtful,संदिग्ध) record of suppressing crime. Viewed in this perspective, the court’s prescription makes it difficult for station house officers to ignore crime, a common practice adopted with a view to helping an offender or to dress police statistics up so that they conceal even a slight rise in crime.

A logical next step

Right through its history, the Supreme Court of India has distinguished itself by coming out with directions which seek to buttress the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. We need to recall how the court has been tirelessly active in ensuring that police arrests of individuals are kept to the minimum, and when taken in custody, the accused/suspects are accorded civilised treatment, including access to legal assistance. The decision prescribing expeditious(fast,शीघ्र) uploading of FIRs on to the Internet is therefore in sync with the court’s consistent stand that human rights are sacrosanct(holy,पवित्र) and cannot be trampled(crush,रोंदना) upon out of malice(hatred,द्वेष) or at the instigation of the political executive (read ministers). We consider this latest fiat as appropriate against continued reports from across the country of police misconduct for their own benefit or to satisfy the ruling party.

In writing its order, the court demonstrated an intense application of mind in respect of two issues: the need to protect national security, as well as the privacy of a citizen; and the technical feasibility of implementing its directive that FIRs should be uploaded within 48 hours of their registration. According to the order, there will be exemption from the directive when the alleged offence is sensitive, such as sexual violence or one in which there is an angle of national security, insurgency or terrorism. We endorse this exception, because we are living in times when both privacy and terror issues matter greatly.

The uploading of FIRs will also not be mechanical and as a simple rule of thumb. The order visualises a circumstance in which the authorities could sometimes decide against uploading on grounds of security. The court however laid down that such decisions could not be taken unilaterally(one sidely,एकतरफा) by a single police official. First, such decisions cannot be taken at a level lower that a deputy superintendent of police. Second, such a decision is appealable by an aggrieved party to a committee to be set up by a district superintendent of police or a commissioner of police.

The court also provided for the possible objections of a technical nature that could be raised by vested interests — both policemen and the political network — who did not want FIRs to be publicised through the Internet.

Issue of logistics

One principal negative response to the order points to existing modest police resources, especially in the rural areas, that could hinder(stop,बाधा पहुँचाना) easy implementation of the court directive. Many police stations, especially those in remote areas, may have a computer, but may not necessarily be connected to the Web. Taking cognizance(awareness,जागरूकता) of this logistical problem, the court permits the latitude of extending the deadline for uploading FIRs from 24 to 48 hours, or even to 72 hours, under special circumstances arising from the remote location of a police station. Such relaxation of the time limit for uploading would be related only to connectivity difficulties, and nothing else.

We suggest that where there is a connectivity issue, the solution would be to hand deliver expeditiously a hard copy of the FIR to the district police headquarters — where connectivity may not be a problem — through a special messenger. An alternative would be for the State Crime Branch CID at police headquarters to act as the repository or nodal agency to undertake the task of uploading of FIRs. Most States are small and transmission of FIRs even to the CID by special police messengers is practical. We estimate that each State may, at the maximum, have about 100 FIRs each day to upload to the Net. In our view, the Supreme Court order is therefore eminently(highly,उत्कृष्ट) practical.

If you ignore these minor logistical difficulties in the way of its quick implementation, the order should be welcome to every honest, apolitical citizen as one that carries few uncertainties and gives no room for anyone in authority to intimidate(frighten,धमकाना) the police into gross impropriety(misconduct,अनौचित्य). In a country that still has a substantial population which is unlettered and is befuddled(confused,भ्रमित) by the complexities of our legal system, this new arrangement should come as at least a partial antidote to the misdeeds of a law enforcement machinery that lapses into corruption and high-handedness at the drop of a hat, especially in rural India.

A telling cynicism

Talking to officers across regions, we however found a measure of cynicism(distrust,सनक) on the practicalities of implementing the apex court’s order. We are not surprised at this, because every time courts have sought to curb police arbitrariness by clamping restrictions on the day-to-day routine, there has been furtive(hidden,छुपाया) resentment(anger,गुस्सा). This is why we strongly believe that we should not permit any sabotage(mess,नाकाम) of the latest court order. We should work towards building public opinion which would demand implementation of the directive both in letter and in spirit. For genuine adherence(fulfillment,पालन) to what the court has laid down here, and in several other instances, we need the stakeholders — the executive, policemen and the lay public — to not flinch from their basic duty of wholeheartedly welcoming what the court has said and spreading the message as widely as possible. Without this happening, we do not see any prospect of the directive being followed strictly.

We have not forgotten about what happened to the blueprint for police reform that the Supreme Court drew up in September 2006 on the PIL filed by former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prakash Singh. Our hearts ache while recalling the tendentious(controversial,विवादास्पद) dilution of all that the court prescribed on that occasion in the hope that we would succeed in establishing an autonomous and professional police force.

We would have been happier had the Supreme Court’s latest order on FIRs incidentally — by way ofobiter dictum — addressed certain fundamental issues afflicting(torture,सताना) police administration. The first is one of police resources at the grass-root level being grossly inadequate(insufficient,अपर्याप्त). It is not uncommon for many police stations in the country to each have an effective complement of what is less than 10 staff at any point of time. This is ridiculously small. The scene is particularly deplorable(shameful,चिंताजनक) in rural stations. This is explained by the fact of many States having a huge number of vacancies, a state of affairs that can be solved mainly through systematic annual recruitment. It is scandalous(dishonorable,लज्जाजनक) that many States are woefully negligent in this respect. A judicial direction that makes annual recruitment mandatory would go a long way in alleviating(reduce,कम) this ill.

A more painful fact is the extent of graft that prevails(famous,प्रचलित) at police stations in many regions of the country. There are very few police stations where a citizen can get his complaint registered without greasing the palm of the station house officer. This goes unchecked because of the graft at supervisory levels. Choice of officers to head districts police forces is often on the basis of their political leaning and pliability(flexibility,लचक), rather than on their professional competence. As long as this situation remains unchanged, prescriptions such as transparency in FIR-related matters may end up being purely cosmetic.

courtesy:the hindu

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Lend aggressively but responsibly

Developing countries today target high growth through investments in infrastructure, modernization and expansion of manufacturing and service facilities, and in agriculture and allied areas. At the same time, they seek to enable disadvantaged sections to upgrade their standard of living. In this, the developing countries expect financial institutions to act aggressively as well as responsibly.

The global financial structure, as it is evolving, is a technological marvel. Assets originating at the base are securitized, packaged in different forms for sale to investors all across the globe. These assets, if infected with a high probability of default, will always carry the germs of a systemic crisis. The lending agencies therefore have an enormous(large,विशाल) responsibility; while a high-growth economy offers opportunities for profits, lenders need to be (despite insistent pressures from powerful borrowers and politicians) extremely cautious and desist from taking on high-risk assets.

A good example in this regard is the subprime crisis in the US during the decade just gone by. The lending ambience was congenial(favourable,अनुकूल) : a continually rising property market, a flood of liquidity fed by an upsurge in global savings and an accommodating credit policy. The lenders had two options: low profit, low risk from sound but relatively few mortgage assets, and high profit, high risk from high risk but abundant(excessive,अत्यधिक) mortgage assets.

Lending agencies chose the second option—a choice dictated by the inexorable(harsh,कठोर) logic of a profit-driven market economy. They lured(entice,लुभाना) subprime borrowers with a slew of “innovations” to create assets at any cost: progressively relaxing margin money, dispensing with the requirement of income investigation and dismissing borrower concerns about unexpected shortfalls in their disposable incomes. All this they did, not out of any philanthropic(generous,परोपकारी) zeal but out of the urge(force,मजबूर) (given the opportunity) to make quick profits. The major premise underlying their behaviour was that if the property market collapsed, leading to a systemic crisis, the state could not but step in, as it had indeed done several times in the past.

State intervention in a crisis is a must, but the challenge before any polity is to intervene before the crisis erupts and to do so in a manner that helps the lending agencies generate a sustainable level of good assets. Such intervention must be planned and designed such that a balance is struck between the aspiration of marginal borrowers (to create and own assets) and the continued viability of lending agencies—critical for the efficiency and stability of any financial system. If we are to grapple(fight,लड़ना) with the recurring problem of non-performing assets and continue uninterruptedly with pushing social sector lending and infrastructure development, the polity has to act innovatively: There has to be a partnership, so to speak, between the state and the financial system.

But what kind of a partnership? Two points need to be made here. The plea for state participation is not to seek a return to the “loan mela” days of political patronage, to open the purse strings for subsidies, to interfere with the credit decisions of lending agencies, or to justify the oft-talked about practice of lending at political behest. This is a plea for selective public investment aimed at enhancing(increase,बढ़ाना) the viability of private sector projects and the income and employment potentials for the disadvantaged sectors.

Take housing, for instance. Our desire to have a pool of affordable houses has hardly made any headway, primarily because of the prohibitive cost of land. The state has to do some out-of-the-box thinking to clear the hurdles(problem,बाधा) in the availability of land at a reasonable price. The flow of funds from the state and the lending agencies, made available in tandem(one behind other,एक के बाद एक) and planned and targeted at select locations, should be the basis for this partnership.

A second point. Admittedly, we have to push private sector investments into different types of infrastructure projects, industry and agriculture for sustaining growth and generating employment. In this regard, a good many projects are clearly viable and remain good candidates for institutional funding, even as several others continue to inhabit the penumbra zone. Given the technological complexities and demand in today’s dynamic global economy, and with the kind of in-house skills currently available, the projects of the latter variety do not lend themselves to easy appraisal. It is also next to impossible for individual lending agencies to cost-effectively build in-house skills for the accurate evaluation of these projects. If investments in all key sectors are to be pushed aggressively, we must have special institutions with the mandate to assess these projects and to provide such critical financial assistance as can induce the lending institutions to lend appropriately to them.

We had set up development finance institutions in the early stages of our industrialization in the 1950s and early 1960s; nearly 75% of the cumulate private investment was canalized through these. However, we committed the grievous(serious,गंभीर) mistake of scrapping these institutions in the 1990s. On the other hand, China, years after it had switched over to a market economy, set up its National Development Bank in 1995; the institution is estimated to have financed over 60% of the total private investment in that country since then. Brazil is another illustrious example in this regard, while even Germany and Japan are continuing with these types of development banks.

Back home, in India, we must recognize that, without the critical support, financial and otherwise, that such national-level development finance institutions can provide, our objective of creating a sustainable level of good assets and maintaining a steady rate of growth is bound to remain hamstrung.

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The great GDP fudge

“I am puzzled by the new GDP growth numbers. This is mystifying because these numbers, especially the acceleration, are at odds with other features of the macro economy. Import of goods declined. typically growth booms are accompanied by surges in imports not declines… similarly, real gross capital formation declined”. This was the chief economic advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian in an interview to the Business Standard on February 3, 2015. Lest you be fooled into believing that the CEA was being intellectually honest about the state of the current economy, he was actually talking about the revised GDP number for the year 2013-14, when UPA 2 was in power.

After the new GDP series was rolled out under the current government, it revealed that India’s GDP growth in 2013-14 was 6.9 per cent compared to the reported 5 per cent, as per the old methodology. A 6.9 per cent GDP growth in 2013-14 would have meant that India was the second fastest growing large economy in the world, after China. But the CEA expressed bewilderment(mystification,हैरानी) at that number because he said this was in dissonance(dispute,मतभेद) with the actual macro-economic reality. He explained meticulously(clearly,बारीकी से) how other economic parameters such as imports, gross capital formation etc are truer indicators of GDP growth and dismissed the view that India’s GDP could have grown as fast in 2013-14.

Fast forward to September 2016. India’s imports have fallen for 20 straight months. In April 2016, India’s imports touched a six-year low. Exports are still at 2011 levels, down significantly from the 2013 peak. Industrial production which creates real jobs in the economy is actually shrinking(smaller,सिकुड़ना). Gross fixed capital formation has fallen. What does the same CEA have to say this time about the same macro-economic indicators — “It signals improvement in underlying real economy, holds out hope for the corporate sector”.

In a poorly disguised attempt at face-saving, the CEA has waxed eloquent(fluent,सुवक्ता) about how most commentators have misinterpreted the latest GDP numbers showing 7.1 per cent growth, driven almost entirely by government spending (IE, September 8). He says “Nearly all commentary has focused on decline in constant price GVA and GDP. But real story lies in nominal magnitudes”. This is the first time that we are being asked to judge the economy’s health by nominal GDP and not real GDP, that is GDP adjusted for inflation. In a hair-splitting effort, he argues we should focus on nominal growth, then argues that the nominal growth should not be assumed to be solely due to increase in prices but also an increase in quantity but does not explain if that was the case, then why not just use real growth directly.

Instead, he makes a convoluted(complex,जटिल) point about corporate revenues growing faster than interest costs which could boost the currently anemic(weak,कमज़ोर) credit growth, going forward. He then lays out a string of conditions — if monsoons boost agriculture growth, if falling exports have bottomed out, if the construction sector can perk up due to “reforms” — then we can be cautiously optimistic about GDP growth.

Technical mumbo-jumbo and caveats(warning,चेतावनी) aside, he essentially surmises(guess,अनुमान) that we should be ecstatic(happy,खुश) that nominal GDP growth is now in double digits. One really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel if one had to go back to the basics of nominal and real GDP growth and take solace(relief,सांत्वना) in a nominal double-digit growth, albeit with cute quotes about “nominal being real” and “real being nominal”, this time.

All this hiding behind economic theory misses the simple point — using exactly the same yardstick that the same CEA applied in passing judgment about India’s 2013-14 GDP growth calculated under the same methodology. India’s current state of the economy is in utter(absolute,निरा) disarray(disorder,अव्यवस्था). While we all endorse the Bernard Shaw quip that “if all economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion”, this one is about the same economist in the same position reading the same set of numbers but taking two diametrically opposite views. If the CEA had a well-argued position on his reservations about India’s 2013-14 GDP growth, then how can he be optimistic about the state of the current economy using exactly the same macro-economic parameters?

We have been repeatedly witness to this dangerous trait of the current government and its inhabitants becoming delusional with their own rhetoric(oratory,वाक्पटुता). We saw that with the government’s claim of savings of Rs 15,000 crore in the LPG subsidy scheme due to Aadhaar based Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT), which, again, the CEA endorsed healthily through similar articles in the English press. It turned out, as the CAG pointed out last month, that a meagre Rs 1,764 crore (approximately 10 per cent) of the subsidy savings was due to DBT and the remaining 90 per cent of the savings was due to the fall in global oil prices. The government and its CEA were simply disingenuous(dishonest,बेईमान) and resorted to such misleading claims to falsely justify their decision to table the Aadhaar bill as a money bill and pummel it through Parliament. The current claims of the CEA about the health of the economy are similarly misleading.

I have known Arvind Subramanian to be a fine and fearless economist for almost three decades. I have myself tried in the past to lure(entice,लुभाना) him back but the timing was not ripe for him. He has never been an apologist for anything dubious(doubtful,संदिग्थ). My piece of unsolicited(unasked,अनचाही) advice to him: Spin is a powerful tool in both cricket and politics but not in economics. Leave it to those who have made a brilliant career out of it — such as his senior minister.

courtesy:indian express

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For power to reach all, it will need a multi-pronged strategy, collaboration between Centre and states

That the government of India’s recent initiatives in the power sector have started bearing fruit is undeniable(unquestioned,निर्विवाद). It is for this reason that the ministry of power and renewable energy (RE) has been graded as one of the most performing ministries at the Centre.

With the increasing availability of power in the country resulting in a fall in prices and the gradual easing of transmission constraints, it is clear that the milestone of 24×7 supply to all parts of the country is around the corner. The big question, however, is to ensure supply of power, even if it is not 24×7, to all and here, the objective of “power for all” set by policymakers comes under scrutiny(examine,जाँच).

Both Central and state governments have recently been applauding their rural electrification programme. As per government of India estimates, out of 5,87,464 villages in the country, only 18,542 were not electrified at the beginning 2015-16. Of these 14,813 were to be electrified through the grid while 3,639 were to be electrified off-grid through RE sources. Till March 2016, 6,479 villages have already been electrified and the rest are to be electrified by December.

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In the states, this figure stands between 95 to 100 per cent with the exceptions of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. States like Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu are already claiming 100 per cent electrification. Even states like Bihar, UP and Rajasthan claim to be touching 99 per cent. The glaring issue in the light of these figures is that by the Centre’s own admission, the number of households without electricity in the country stands at a staggering seven to eight crore. In UP, this figure is about two crore.

This contradiction(opposition,विरोधाभाश) comes from the definition of electrified villages adopted by the government of India. According to the rural electrification policy guidelines of 2004, a village is classified as electrified if basic infrastructure like distribution transformers, poles and distribution lines are provided in the locality, including one “Dalit basti”, and if electricity is provided in one of the public places like schools, panchayat offices, health centres etc and the number of households electrified are 10 per cent of the total number of households in the village.

Prior to October1997, the definition was that a village should be classified as electrified if electricity is being used within its revenue area for any purpose. After October 1997 and till the arrival of the present policy in 2004, a village was deemed to be electrified if the electricity is used in any of the inhabited localities, within the revenue boundary of the village, for any purpose. Thus, even though a village may appear in the electrified list of villages, the actual number of households getting power may be a mere 10 per cent.

The recent controversy over whether Nagla Fatela village in Hathras district, now famous because of its mention by the prime minister in his Independence Day speech, was electrified in 1985 or 2015, is, in a way, an outcome of this bureaucratic juggling.

Further, as per the existing practices of the electricity supply code applicable in different states, all households within 40 metres of an electrical pole are supposed to take their connection from the pole. This leaves a colossal(large,बड़ा) chunk of the population located within the “electrified village” but outside this 40-metre limit. Coupled with this is the problem that even in electrified hamlets, not all the households within 40 meters of the distribution lines/poles, take the connection.

Thus there is a situation where people wanting to take connections cannot get it because they are situated more than 40 meters away and those within the area refuse to take connections and instead use what is commonly known as “katia” to take clandestine(illegal,अवैध) connections. This results in double the trouble: First, the revenue of discoms does not increase and second, the dissatisfaction among the villagers grows.

If you look into the numbers as per the census, there were 22.66 crore households in the country out of which only 16.58 crore had connections. Of these, 30-40 per cent are unmetered. Those with unmetered connections get electricity at very cheap or subsidised rates as they are billed either on a per connection basis or a per kilowatt basis. The discoms, it is widely believed, use this as an opportunity to load most of the stolen electricity into the consumption of this category. This is also the cause for the poor financial health of several discoms.

A three-pronged strategy is required to tackle this problem: One, people who fall within 40 metres of the poles should be persuaded to take the connections. Apart from persuasion(encouragement,प्रोत्साहन), a legislative approach could be to charge the households within the 40 meters an electricity cess, as is done in the case of water provided by the municipal corporations.

Two, power department officials should ensure that people within the 40 metres range take connections. One impediment(barrier,बाधा) to taking these connections is their cost, which should be reduced and charged in instalments, especially from low-income applicants. Three, an extensive assessment of how much investment is required to let the electricity network go up to all the households. This investment should be made on priority basis, as it would bring more revenue to the discoms and it may reduce the tariff burden on existing consumers.

If the investment on expanding the network to each household is too high, governments may consider encouraging private micro-grids and mini-grids. In several states, off-grid micro and mini-grids are a reality. In UP and Bihar, where the grid coverage is poor, 70-80 such projects have already come up. Many other states are following suit.

Simultaneously, the Central government has come up with a draft mini-grid policy which should give a big boost to them in the country. The need is to have a coordinated plan to extend the existing grid and to set up more mini-grids in remote villages. This would require not just coordination but active collaboration among the states and the Centre. Only this can turn the dream of “power for all” into a reality.

 courtesy:indian express

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The Margarita mirror

The 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will be held between September 13-18 in Margarita, Venezuela. Heads of government of 120 member states will descend(get down,उतरना) on this Venezuelan island, which sits at the edge of the Caribbean Sea. NAM was formed in 1961, at the initiative of Egypt, India and Yugoslavia. It is telling that of these three, one no longer exists (Yugoslavia), one no longer has the kind of magnetic sway(influence,बोलबाला) it had in the 1950s and 1960s (Egypt), and the third seems disinclined(unwilling,अनिच्छुक) to favour the idea of non-alignment (India).

Indeed, India will not be represented by its head of government — Prime Minister Narendra Modi — but by its Vice President. Only once before has the Indian Prime Minister not been to the NAM Summit, and that was in 1979 when caretaker Prime Minister Charan Singh did not go to Havana (Cuba). Is NAM now irrelevant, so much so that India’s head of government no longer feels the need to attend its meetings?

From Brijuni to Baku

In July 1956, Egypt’s Gamel Abdel Nasser, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito met at the island retreat of Brijuni on the Adriatic Sea to discuss the state of the world. The previous year, in Bandung (Indonesia), newly independents states of Africa and Asia gathered to inaugurate a new approach to inter-state relations: non-alignment. Fresh out of the darkness of colonial rule, these new states, they felt, should not be sucked into alignments with the West or the East. These camps would suborn the independence of the new states, drawing them into military obligations and economic entanglements(complexities,उलझने). But sovereign foreign policies could not be sustained by these individual states. They needed to shelter together, to forge an alternative, to fight to build a peaceful world order where the obligations of the UN Charter could be met.

In 1961, Tito hosted the first NAM meeting in Belgrade, where 29 states gathered to lay out this new order. Their bravura(skills,कुशलता) was sneered at in Washington, where the government suggested that non-alignment was merely capitulation(surrender,संधिपत्र) to the Soviet Union. The Soviets, meanwhile, saw an opportunity in the NAM, where a newly free Cuba, with close ties to the Soviets, had begun to assert its leadership despite its tiny(small,छोटा) size. NAM announced that it would push for an alternative economic order and that it would campaign against the arms race that had put the fear of nuclear annihilation(destruction,विनाश) across the planet. These were halcyon(slow,धीर) days for NAM, asserting its moral authority against war and poverty.

Over the course of the past 60 years, the NAM has seen an erosion of its authority. The Third World debt crisis of the 1980s crushed the economic ambitions of these NAM states. By the time NAM gathered in Delhi in 1983, it was a shadow of its origins. In NAM they had wished the centuries away, but now, awash(flooded,भरा) in debt, they had to settle for the present. The Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. bombed Panama and Iraq, and history seemed to end with American ascendency(dominance,प्रभुत्व). Proud nations queued up to curry favour with Washington, settle accounts at the International Monetary Fund and begin to sniff their noses at platforms such as NAM.

By the early 1990s, several important powers of NAM began to back away (Argentina left in 1991). Yugoslavia crumbled, with war tearing apart its promise. India went to the IMF and gestured to the U.S. that its days of non-alignment had gradually(slowly,धीरे धीरे) come to a close. Over the past few years, countries with a more skeptical(doubtful,संशयवाद) attitude towards American power have held the mantle of NAM — South Africa (1998), Malaysia (2003), Cuba (2006), Iran (2012) and now Venezuela (Egypt, which presided over NAM from 2009, was convulsed in the Arab Spring during its presidency). NAM oscillated(shake,डगमगाना) between suspicion of U.S. motives and attempts to regenerate the economic engines of its members. The next president of NAM after Venezuela will be Azerbaijan, which is a newcomer to NAM and one that does not have a presence on the world stage.

Turmoil in Venezuela

Venezuela has been eager to make this NAM summit a success, a showcase for the resilience of its social revolution. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro argues against the view that the ‘NAM has lost its raison d’être(purpose,उद्देश्य) upon the end of the Cold War’. Indeed, he suggests, using language that is resonant of the earlier NAM and alien to the Modi government, “we are convinced that neo-colonial dominance can be seen nowadays in both an aggressive and brutal manner”. Mr. Maduro points to the wars of aggression and the deep social and economic inequalities that plague the planet. The emergence of multi-polarity, he stresses, needs to be shaped by the Global South, whose instrument is NAM. Venezuela’s socialist government does indeed face steep challenges. Steve Ellner, who teaches at the Universidad de Oriente, identifies the three issues as “declining oil prices, economic war, and the exchange rate distortions(deform,विकृति)”. The decline in oil prices has certainly struck this oil-exporting state. This crisis has been magnified by an economic war by the business elites in Venezuela who have on several occasions sought to overthrow this government. Poor policy decisions by the government to handle inflation and currency manipulation have further weakened its hand. When Mr. Maduro travelled to Margarita Island, where the summit will be held, a crowd banging pots and pans jeered at him. Mr. Maduro and the socialist movement are fighting to regain the trust of the people against both genuine problems facing the government and exaggerations(overstatement,अतिशयोक्ति) from the U.S.-backed opposition.

NAM will be one of the largest gatherings in Venezuela in recent years. It is hoped by the government in Caracas that this would help the country by shoring up an alternative bloc to the West. But such an alternative will require a visionary leadership. What should be the contours(outline,रूपरेखा) of the emerging multipolar world? How would the new poles tackle the difficult problem of poverty and joblessness? It is not sufficient to point fingers at the West. An alternative has to be developed. At the 1973 NAM meeting in Algiers, the member states laid out the New International Economic Order (NIEO), a charter for a different way to manage political disagreements and trade across states. The NIEO proposed a new path. It had an electric effect, but it died in the rubble of the debt crisis. A new charter for a 21st century NAM is needed. If the NAM is to be relevant, it needs to develop such a visionary document.

courtesy:the hindu

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