How Indian are you?

The litmus test of Indian-ness, via Noise of India

Agree! Agree!

Saluting humour/Old is Gold

I absolutely respect witty writers. One of the best pieces I read recently was this piece by Krish Ashok.

Unfortunately, the butt of ridicule in this piece is Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara (2010) an attempt at a sequel to the iconic Mile Sur Mera Mera Tumhara (1988). Truly outrageous...no, tragic, it really is...

Path-breaking diplomacy on show...

Just when the non-inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the IPL left players, sports administrators and politicians in India and Pakistan furious, came probably the best anti-dote possible, giving much needed comic relief!

A former Pakistan Air Force chief appeared in an Indian government ad in the newspapers to mark the National Girl Child Day. The Prime Minister himself has apologised and ordered a probe. However, the Minster for State for Women and Child Development, Krishna Tirath thinks differently

“An inquiry is being ordered into the matter. We are convening the meeting,” said Tirath, who initially said that it being a Sunday the ministry could not do anything. Message is more important than the image. The photograph is only symbolic. The message for the girl child is more important. She should be protected,”

We all agree. It was perhaps a show of pan-sub-continental solidarity on an extremely crucial issue. The Indian Air Force though, is not amused.

Cop out of COP 15

India is not going to sign the so-called deal.

Neither is China, or the US. But then, what did we expect?

An Indian official now gets to say:

"...and the defeat of the Democrats in the Massachusetts bypoll, has forced the UN to postpone the deadline indefinitely. With the Democrats losing in one of their strongholds, the chances of the climate bill going through the US senate have receded dramatically. So if the US is not going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent, which was a very weak target anyway, why should we make any commitment even if it does not have any legal teeth?"

 It is a global village, for real.

Dress to kill

Please do not embarrass us is basically what the Ministry of Health seems to be trying to convey through the Roving Bandit.

Those of us who work in the 'sector' are familiar with the liberties some people take in the name of being non-conformist or anti-establishment. In India, the 'kurta and jhola' are standard NGO-wallah symbols. Add to that a stubble and open sandals - and you are sure to be known as a left-leaning intellectual. Sure enough, I have played to the stereotype, but it also helped that I had been wearing kurtas from long before I started working for Gram Vikas in Orissa.

I do agree that some people literally dress to kill. But then, I am also as vehemently in disagreement with over-dressing. For instance, I see men wearing suits and ties in the hot and humid Ghana. Sure, if I walk into their offices here even wearing a loose shirt and jeans, I would feel terribly under-dressed. However, it is official etiquette...wonder if they will ever be relaxed.
But there is hope - whenever anyone wears any local fabric, the official dress code vanishes. From colourful prints to over-sized gown-like attire...it is seriously casual, but smart. Much like the kurta-jhola look back home...

Disappointing fare from The Hindu

I was really disappointed by this report in The Hindu which was titled 'Solar eclipse bemuses many Africans'. While the tone of the report is not outright condescending, it still seems to suggest that no one in Africa knew any better.

In quite a contrasting report for India, the newspaper reports the same phenomenon as 'Scientists, sun-watchers gather in Rameshwaram to watch eclipse'. Talk about reinforcing stereotypes! I am sure there were millions in India who had no clue what the hell was going on and were at best 'bemused'; and nearly as many must have stayed indoors and prayed for the sun(!)...But see what the reports refer to.

On 'Governance' and my year at IDS

I have always struggled with definitions. Back in school, we had to learn them by-rote. That was easy - we didn't really have to understand everything that went into those long sentences. As I grew up, I began wanting to understand some concepts better. And definitions became very very difficult. Purely because I am not easily convinced that any one interpretation is necessarily the best one; and packing in a definition with all possible meanings for the concept/term made it unwieldy.

Definitions often represent a particular world-view. Particularly vexing are terms like governance, gender etc even without the adjectives or action-verbs (and other prefixes or suffixes) that normally accompany them. Just narrowing down on some of these are so damn hard!

To start - 'Governance'. I am not even going into 'good governance' for now. A quick sampler -

From the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI) page:

Governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them.

From a note by Mick Moore, introducing MA Governance and Development  at Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex that gives two possible meanings of the term (and not strict definitions)

Governance 1: A general term to refer to the process or arrangements through which any set of actors (the staff of Oxfam, the market for fertiliser in Ethiopia, all the government organisations in Thailand, the population of Uexapoptyl village, etc.) are coordinated or ruled.  This includes ‘corporate governance’, the governance of value chains (in the analysis of how specific markets work), the governance of Malawi, the governance of cricket clubs, etc).  Note that governance can be accomplished in a very hierarchical (top-down) way, in a very decentralised and quasi-voluntaristic fashion, or anything in between.

Governance 2: The process through which a group of actors are coordinated/ruled to produce collective/public goods (i.e. things that benefit more-or-less everyone).  This is a bit narrower than Governance 1: it focuses on the use of authority to do things in the common interest, and effectively de-legitimates the use of authority purely to benefit those who have authority.

And helpful as ever, Google gives us all this. And here is Wikipedia.

I was interested in studying Governance, motivated by my desire to learn about how civil society organisations are governed; what the relationship with people they serve is (their ability to genuinely represent people); how better synergies could be achieved between civil society actors and the state (along with managing accountability in both directions); and exploring what I as a professional could do to improve outcomes/effectiveness of civil society organisations. My interest in the government was limited to the direct interface between the bureaucracy and citizens or civil society organisations. During my year at IDS, I realised how different that made me from someone who say, was motivated by a different definition of governance. For example, I had no serious/rigorously analytical views on global governance, on civil wars, state building etc.

The papers I wrote during the year centered around the NGO I had worked for, exploring various aspects of its structure, expansion plans, engagement with communities they partnered with etc. For example, I was interested in how IDS ran its courses - more than just an interesting topic of discussion, as an issue that I was interested in engaging with while I was there. My MA thesis was on 'Implementation challenges to Democratic Decentralisation in Kerala, India' - focusing on a state-led programme and the challenges that arose from within the structure of the state government (bureaucrats and politicians). I got interested in Decentralisation as a policy-implementation problem and quickly found a fascinating body of literature that explored this issue.

The trouble with acronyms

is that sometimes minor differences in the sequencing of letters are lost on people. Especially if those people happen to be hopeful and expectant.

Today, I saw a house in Lower Manya (Eastern Region, Ghana) that had been painted bright yellow and the home-owner had made sure he wrote 'EGC-025' (the markings made on a corner of his wall during our survey's household listing phase) on all sides prominently. Apparently, the man had confused EGC (Economic Growth Centre, Yale University) for Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and had assumed that the houses marked out were next in line for an electricity connection.

Lesson for us - one can never be too careful! Clear and honest communication is key.

Supporting livelihoods of migrant labour

Duncan Green's post proposes an Ethical Construction Initiative to regulate/coordinate/improve transnational migration by construction workers. In the current state of the construction sector, such an initiative seems highly appropriate. This could be an important step in providing some form of social security to scores of unorganised construction workers. 

Of course, organising migrant workers within the same country is difficult enough. Ajeevika Bureau, working in Gujarat and Rajasthan in India, have been working to improve skills and working conditions of rural seasonal migrant labour. The website says

Aajeevika Bureau works both in the “source” as well as the “destinations” of rural migrants within western India.  The Bureau addresses issues that collectively influence the contributions of rural migration to the national economy, the livelihoods of the migrants and their families, and the very survival of their home communities. It provides a range of services to help migrants improve their outcomes from the labour markets and acts as an agent of policy change and advocacy in favour of migrant workers.

Five critical services provided include - Registration, Legal aid, Training and Placement, Collectivising labour and Financial Services. The group is also building up an interesting research portfolio.

Freedom in a Chinese-led world

This is a piece 'Will China rule the world?' by Dani Rodrik in the as part of his regular commentary on Project Syndicate. At the very end, Rodrik says:

The good news is that a Chinese global order will display greater respect for national sovereignty and more tolerance for national diversity. There will be greater room for experimentation with different economic models.

This is significant optimism, coming from an economist who has constantly emphasised the important of 'context' in economic analysis. Of course, for most of the article, Rodrik points out the challenges China faces. both internal and external, on its path to global superpower-dom.

However, China has the potential to be as Janus-faced as the US. Its aggressive posturing over border issues with India is just one example of its disregard for national soveriegnity. China's position on climate change, where China preferred to position itself among the poor countries even when its own leadership position (politically as well as in the polluting stakes) was never in question.Yes, the Chinese have been astute in using business to win friends where necessary, sweetening deals by rolling out freebies to appeal to poor-country governments and their people, and have also not hesitated in using their might (economic and political) to crush rivals when provoked. I have never been convinced by western arguments against China's aid and investment in Africa. I don't see any reason to begrudge the rapid infrastructure development that African countries. In doing so, China is ironically employing the oldest trick in democracy - that of patronage politics.

When its major foreign policy goals have beet met and its global supremacy established, will China continue to appreciate diversity? Is it entirely rhetorical today to wonder whether a time will come when China attempts to censor news and opinion that is not in its favour in the international media? I may be wrong, but I do feel that in spite of all its hegemonic power, it has to be conceded that the American government never suppressed dissenting voices through prominent and fringe media. In fact, no where possibly have we seen as much domestic political dissent as in the US itself. If we do risk losing that freedom, it will indeed be very tragic.

Help yourself and give me the publicity...

Jug Suraiya's satirical piece in Times of India - he refers to Tajnagar, a village near Gurgaon that built its own railway station - a 'community railway station' - Impressive! The villagers have apparently been petitioning for close to thirty years. The railways probably have been busy (and their finances stretched) from servicing Bihar and Bengal, under instructions from parochial railway ministers hailing from that region.

Note that having constructed the basic structure, the village has decided to invite the Member of Parliament from Gurgaon Rao Inderjeet Singh to inaugurate the station. This probably will be a nice occasion for the MP to hold forth on the spirit of cooperation in India's villages, the virtues of the aam-aadmi and how self-help is the best help. I don't know if any local village organisation (or NGO) had a hand in suggesting that the MP be invited for the ceremony. It would be fitting to have the village head do the honours. And if they really want to make a point, put an ad in the newspaper inviting the Honourable Union Railway Minister Mamta Bannerjee to grace the occasion.

'Attending inaugurations' is probably jotted into a politicians' job description. Often, they are invited to inaugurate even if they had little to do with the particular effort, if only in the hope that they would now take note of the local efforts and provide some additional assistance. While working in Orissa, we routinely had politicians inaugurate our community projects - some of which were constructed in the face of opposition/disinterest/indifference of local bureaucrats and unhelpful politicians. On being invited, they often arrived late, made their long speeches and offered mere platitudes to the community, before making their way to the next function on their schedule. Sometimes (though rarely), being invited to such events changed their minds and they turned into great champions of replicating the initiative. This one hopefully will be different.

Coming back to the Gurgaon MP and on a slightly unrelated note - will the MP have anything to offer to the thousands of construction workers in Gurgaon who live in tin shanties (in the scroching Gurgaon heat) right next to glitzy malls and apartments? I have very little hope anything of that sort will happen.

What is Africa for me?

Thanks to Chris Blattman for pointing me, through this post, to the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina. He recommended the interview. I gladly followed the lead and absolutely loved it. 

It also got me thinking - I too, am an outsider in Ghana, working in the development sector with a local research institution. What do I really think about Ghana? and about Africa? I actually don't have an answer to that. How do I process a situation here, or get things done? I know something about that. What am I learning from here? I can figure that out too. In a previous post 3 weeks after reaching Accra, I had written about how easy it was to start out and settle in. Now, I am two weeks short of completing four months in Ghana. So these thoughts make sense.

First things first. I am completely aware of my overwhelming ignorance about the continent. About the specifics. Yes, I was aware Africa is not a country. And, I guess one of the good things about growing up in India is that our parents did not need to show us images of naked starving children from across the seas. They were always there, just across the street. In spite of that though, I knew about famines in Ethiopia and Sudan. We read the basic geography of Africa in secondary school. We obviously did Indian history in good detail too, especially in a broad-brushed manner - choosing to focus selectively through 5000 years of civilisation (that we Indians take very seriously) - on a narrative of our past glory. So yes I know of a Nelson Mandela (because of his association with Mahatma Gandhi). I also had heard of dictators and guerrillas. No names, just information that they existed. And about diamonds. First movie set in Africa that I remember - Gods Must be Crazy. It was really funny and we used to watch it over and over. I was very aware of how people of African origin dominated the sports world.

Very superficial. And basic - this is all I knew as I grew up. Along the way, I picked up little bits here and there - some that interested me and so I kept them in mind, some that didn't interest me, so I forgot about them. So yes, I will never claim to be an Africa expert, not even to be a Ghana/Accra expert (just as I will never claim to be an India expert). Life, as it unfolds around me, is almost always anecdotal. While I carry some generalised impressions, I will never make the mistake of assuming I have completely understood the people or their successes/failures. All I can quote are examples - "this is what I saw in city X at this time. This suggests that..." or "this is what person Y told me about this issue. I think that is an interesting view because it supports/refutes the claims made by person Z (who may be a policy maker/practitioner/academic/layman)".  I did not think of development work in any part of Africa as being any more different or difficult than in say, any part of India. Obviously, the solutions could not be the same. I have always believed that its more important to cultivate the right perspective to look at a situation - often more important than even coming up with a solution.

All this of course does not in any way mean I don't want to know 'why' something works and 'why' something else doesn't. I am. But learning is a slow process, and I am prepared to be patient in my quest.

Now, coming back to Binyavanga Wainaina - listening to the interview made me realise there was so much of the conventional image of Africa that I had never heard of previously. Wainaina is oozing sarcasm in this piece. Firstly, I do not feel any special love for Africa/Ghana/Accra. And I dont feel the need to justify my existence here.

With the mental framework I carry, I am reasonably sure I will never make the mistake of generalising Africa or Africans and talking of them in halo-ed stereotypes. If anything, the three months in Accra have given me a completely diverse picture. Again, Accra is not Ghana. Everyone in Ghana knows that and keeps repeating that. It is probably as true that Ghana is not like the rest of Africa.

So what have I seen so far? Glimpses from my life here:

• There are a million hawkers on the roads, at traffic signals, selling almost everything possible - maps, clothes, footballs, phone cards, bread, water, fruits, key chains, pens, magazines...everything. A lot of people are working very hard to make a living.
  
• Religion is a big deal here and Christians in particular, are very loud in their prayers. Its like a thousand big parties at different places every Sunday morning and whenever else they schedule special sessions.
• Everyone bargains - just like in India. It is annoying at times, but mostly, just banter followed by a compromise.  There is a thriving local economy; and a parallel over-priced, but cushy expat economy.
  
• The roads here are impressively well laid, but the open gutters on both sides are not and neither is the traffic management.
  
• As academic researchers or research managers, people are excellent and usually have great insights from long years of experience. I am reasonably sure they hold their own when negotiating with the government or international agencies. But admin is a mess.
• I have seen/met many feisty, outgoing women. Is that a sign of women's empowerment in general? Probably not. But its strikingly different from India. 
• There are slums, people living in boxes. Poverty is easily visible in the rural and semi-urban areas I have visited as well
• There seems to be a thriving democracy. Politicians bicker, allege and ridicule each other. People I have talked to make judgments on the government's performance, grumble about their problems and often, tell me they are proud to be Ghanaian.
• Corruption - I have seen it play out both ways - in situations which could have  been easily exploited, there were helpful government officials (immigration personnel, police, etc) and the other extreme where some officials not only insisted on being paid off, but also made it  a really tortuous experience for us. And a third, where some people just try their luck and look for a little pay-off, but refrain from pushing it.
  

None of this is surprising; or exciting or anymore depressing than a scene in another part of the world. That is really the reality for me. In any case, reading/hearing about anything in Africa surely doesn't infuriate me as much as reading about the dismal public policy failure in regulating the obscene global (speculative) financial sector.

One of the few FMCG companies I have some interest in

is HLL. Yes, I know its HUL now. But I haven't quite made the switch in my head. And whether HLL remains an iconic FMCG company in India or not, it is the one name in a headline that is sure to grab my attention in a newspaper or the internet.

Why? well, its silly. I had my first ever job interview with HLL. In 2003. HLL used to offer a rather attractive trainee-ship programme to undergraduates (in their final year) in select few colleges in India. SRCC was one of them. In my final year, sometime in the last few months of college-life, placement season started. Of course, placements in SRCC have now expanded way beyond what it was back then. Click here for a quick glimpse

Back then, there were a few random companies on campus, HLL was the prized catch. I cant remember for sure, but surely over a 100 students applied. I did too. I was short-listed. Big first step - we were down to six or so. Then, I  gave the first job interview of my life. It was great fun.

I clearly remember the panel pleased and nodding their heads when I mentioned how integrated HLL's products are in the day-to-day activities at my home. That we often didn't know that the products we used regularly were HLL, but knew only the brands of the specific products like Surf, Sunlight, Vim, Rin etc etc. We talked about ethics - of factories without pollution clearance not shutting down (not realising ever that HLL was in fact embroiled in a controversy in Kodaikanal - the story pretty much as described by the interviewers).

Long and short of it - I made it through that round. One among the two candidates chosen from SRCC to go on to the subsequent rounds. Big ego-booster. The next round was to be in the Gurgaon HLL office. That interview, it turned out, was a day before my IRMA interview for which I had to travel to Anand, a 16 hour train journey. Luckily for me, when I proposed that I could go to Bombay (6 hours from Anand) and appear for an interview at the HLL head office at Backbay Reclamation a day after my IRMA interview, HLL agreed. I was even impressed by the name - Backbay Reclamation!

Armed with blessings from parents and the good wishes of friends, the IRMA interview was smooth. I wasn't quite sure if I would make it, but I liked the campus and the people and the questions at the interview. I talked a lot about the little I knew of Kerala and explained the (now-silly-sounding) logic of how the 'Development Economics' class in my final year at SRCC had spurred my interest in Development and convinced me to run away from the latter part.Anyhow - mission completed and as I would later know - with success. Began planning the train ride to Bombay - the first of many on that route - and all of them easily rank among the toughest train rides I have ever been on.

I had never been to Bombay before (I think). But I was out, on the designated date, in full-sleeved shirt (blue Vaish), pleat-ed trouser (dont remember which one. With my expanding waist line, I have had to discard many trousers over the years, but I still have that shirt) and a tie borrowed from my cousin - tied, but kept safely in the pocket for the duration of the commute by the Bombay local.

Earlier that day, at breakfast, my cousin asked me - what are some examples of FMCGs? I started with TV, washing machine...! That was my level of preparedness for this mission. I also remember, later that day, walking around in circles in and around Nariman Point for over half-an-hour before I could find the famously reclaimed backbay. Now, with the tie in the right place and wiping sweat off forehead, I made my way in. I had to focus so hard to finding my way to the place that by then, I had all but forgotten about the interview.

The interview itself was hilarious. I of course do not remember exactly in how many ways I made an ass of myself in there. I tried making a pitch about why sales excited me (my friends would have laughed even at the thought of me doing sales). But I was mixing it up with 'development' and improvement in quality of life of the poor and whole lot of bull. The HR head was there. And so was another very senior manager. I was much less savvy back then, or else, I would have taken their business cards and gotten in touch with them a decade later.

The senior guy asked me - What are the three main problems faced by an Indian farmer? Damn, why, IRMA had not asked me that in their interview. If they had I probably would have never made it there. Here at HLL, I felt what it was like to sweat in a air-con cabin. As I fumbled and struggled and said something about fertilisers, I could clearly see the panel sympathizing with me, probably thinking - "there is no way in hell we can give him this job. And he probably wont make it to IRMA either. The other topic I remember was one about career choices. He asked me what my second choice of career was (sitting in there, my first choice obviously was selling FMCG). I said - 'civil service'. Why did I then choose sales over civil service? I started with all the negatives of civil service that I could think of. Turns out, the interviewer's daddy was a civil servant. He said he was going to play the 'devil's advocate' and defend civil service. He won. I lost.

By the time the interview got over, everyone was done even pretending that I had a vague shot at the job. I had looked up the HLL website in some detail before this interview. None of it had been of any use. I consoled myself thinking that I got screwed because I had to face the real tough guys, a choice I made by opting out of Delhi and scheduling a Bombay slot. Anyways - IRMA worked out and life took off in a completely different direction. But I never forgot HLL...

Saving the tiger (contd)

More on tiger conservation. An entirely new area for me - I am only trying to get a 5-min summary of the debate and obviously, am not in any kind of position to debate the specifics with environmental experts.

This morning, I caught up with an old friend of mine, a keen student of Ecology, who I was sure could give me a bit of a lead into the issue. He admitted he didn't know much about what exactly was wrong with the World Bank approach and what had gone wrong in the specific cases in the past - but the crux of the matter is - the WB doesn't have a great reputation for eco-development projects. And, typical international efforts to promote conservation efforts have (rightly or wrongly) given left the on-ground implementers very little room for maneuver. As the conservation sector in India had gradually matured, there has been a tendency to determine an independent course and not rely on external aid, even when easily available.

Sounds like a typical donor-driven development scenario. Except, it is not often that we get to hear of a recipient country politely declining assistance. Sure, these days, India is not your typical recipient (not for good reasons though, if it has to do with India's megalomania of being a to-be-superpower) waiting for any aid for be thrown its way. But I am only looking for a rough illustration.

More on tigers - I came across this blog - Indianaturally by Prerna Bindra, and realised that there is hardly anything news-worthy about this issue. There has been opposition building over the last few years in India, urging the government to resist advances made by the World Bank to include India in its tiger conservation initiatives. An old post from the blog is titled - Save tigers from the World Bank. A little excerpt from the post:

"...the high-profile GEF-India Eco-development Project in the 1990’s — not only failed to achieve the desired conservation but also ended up having a lethal effect on tigers. The bank had pumped in colossal amounts of money, but PK Sen, former director of Project Tiger, estimates that consultancies and WB overheads alone consumed over 40 percent of the funds. The WB’s policies and its efforts to marry conservation with development goals were a failure, leading to a mission drift in wildlife management, the collapse of protection systems and destruction of natural habitats" and "...eminent tiger conservationists like Valmik Thapar, Ullas Karanth, PK Sen, Brijendra Singh, Bittu Sahgal, Belinda Wright and Raghu Chundawat had written that the project “had massive deleterious effect on tigers and their habitat by sheer scale of corruption and incompetence which accompanied their execution".

Seems like the project got a lot of flak. The Bank's own assessment report for the project in 2007 wasn't too flattering, with the outcomes judged 'moderately satisfactory'. The completion report in 2004 had said pretty much the same thing (the outcome though went from 'satisfactory' in 2004 to 'moderately satisfactory' in 2007). And local experts and activists have now prevailed in convincing the government that we can do without WB funds. Fortunately, as Prerna Bindra points out, the government isn't just sitting back after refusing external help. That is really encouraging. And that, is what could make this a good example.

News I enjoyed reading today

is this one about India rejecting a potential World Bank aid for tiger conservation. Is this a good example of the country-led processes that Owen Barder talks about? or is it a bad example?

Reports are that the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was quite keen on getting the WB aid, but 'experts' opposed the move and succeeded in changing the Minister's mind.  Apparently the last time the World Bank ad worked with India on tiger conservation (1996 - 2004), there were serious differences of opinion.

I donot know enough about the issue to take sides on this one. But I'm going to find out...

Double roles

The US is having fun with double agents -

First, David Headley, arrested recently in connection with 26/11 Mumbai attack, was said to be a double agent. Sure enough, the US declared upfront that he will not be extradited to India. I guess its a good thing - at least he will get punished in time by the US courts. We only lose out on some 'intelligence'

Now, there are reports that Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the man who helped to ambush 7 CIA agents in Afghanistan, was a double-agent too! Hmm...

Political parties: embattled and competing for infamy

A few weeks back, BJP leaders were indicted for the 1992 Babji masjid demolition. BJP also gets pasted for Narendra Modi's complicity in the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, where close to 2000 people died. From 2002 until 2004 when BJP was in power at the centre and till today, in Gujarat, the party has denied breaking the law and constantly attempted to cash in on its misguided interpretation of nationalism. 

Last week, the CBI was permitted to go ahead with the prosecution of Sajjan Kumar one last time, one of the prime accused in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 which killed at least 3000 people. INC, in power at Delhi for about 17 of the 25 years that have passed since, has done everything possible to defeat the charges in court.


With India's two premier political parties engaged in a circle of self-denial and double-speak, there is nothing to suggest that anything about the political culture is due for a big change. Over 100 parliamentarians in the 2004 Lok Sabha had pending criminal charges against them. But compared to the transgressions committed in the name of loyalty to the high command and fundamentalist ideology, that seems insignificant.

Agricultural subsidies - for the farm or the farmer?

It is not the farmer who makes the food: he is only a facilitator. Food is actually made by plants. Therefore it is important to understand the requirements of plants and supply them without restrictions in order for plants to deliver food.

The lesson India has to learn is that instead of subsidising food supply to the people, the plants need subsidised food such as fertilizers and other inputs in order for them to produce the food to achieve food security.

This is Dr. Lux Lakshmanan, Director, California Agriculture Consulting Service, Davis, California writing in The Hindu. According to him, the underlying problem with agriculture in India is low productivity. I did find his simple and direct assertion favouring the farm over farmers quite striking - definitely food for thought. The full article is here.

So what is the public policy implication for this? In 2008-09, India's fertilizer subsidy bill was INR 75,849 crore. A recent report from an IIM Ahmedabad study had suggested that fertilizer subsidies should continue to be routed through the industry rather than as direct transfer to farmers, as is apparently being proposed/debated. Makes sense, in the light of Dr. Lakshmanan's points.

Rare agrarian success story

In the current issue of the Economic and Political Weekly, Tushaar Shah and his co-authors analyse the rapid growth of agriculture in Gujarat after 2000, while becoming more stable than in the previous decades. The full paper is here.

Interesting bits from the paper - 

"The Gujarat government has aggressively pursued an innovative agriculture development programme by liberalising markets, inviting private capital, reinventing agricultural extension, improving roads and other infrastructure"

On all the above counts, the state government seems to have pulled off a rare policy success. Inviting private capital is a contentious issue in Indian agriculture. The state government has utilised central government schemes where available and buffered by offering its own packages in areas such as micro-irrigation.

Canal irrigation has traditionally been Gujarat's mainstay. With Gujarat's push for the Sardar Sarovar Project hitting the headlines, it is clear how important the state government thinks canals are. However, as the authors point out, the state is also reaping huge dividends from its decentralised ground-water management projects - run by both by the government and NGOs and "the vast corpus of check dams, percolation ponds, boribunds and farm ponds" facilitated double-cropping and tremendous increases in agricultural production.

The authors also praise the state government for its management of GM seeds - yet another hugely controversial issue. Resolute regulation of seed prices by the state government seems to have worked. At the same time,

 "The role of the private sector in ushering in the Bt cotton revolution cannot be overstated".

The Gujarat story is very interesting - not in the least because its neighbouring states are in the throes of a agrarian crisis which has been the cause for policy concern.

What I would love to read more about, regarding the Gujarat story, is about the distribution of gains made in the sector. How did the small farmers do? Did the combination of market-led reforms tilt the balance in favour of the large farmers?  

The paper also mentions that the area under food crop production has gone up by about 30% between 2004-5 and 2007-08. From the paper, though, I didn't get the reason for that. I wonder why farmers would expand food crop cultivation instead of taking on the lucrative cash crops, especially in this favourable policy environment. In some ways, this might be part of the answer to the fears of those who feel that a mass shift from food to cash crops will make farmers more vulnerable/increase the risk of food insecurity. But I guess we would have to know a lot more about who is expanding on their food crop cultivation and why to begin to make the above argument.

Socio-political challenges to India in the new decade

N Ram in his column in Frontline, gives us what he thinks are the five main socio-political challenges India faces. The column is here. Quick interpretative summary + comments as follows -

1. Internal violent conflict motivated by "religious fundamentalism or ethnic chauvinism or other extremist ideological and social tendencies". The Union Home Minister Chidambaram recently said that the country was witnessing simultaneously "insurrection or insurgency in order to carve out sovereign states; armed liberation struggle motivated by a rejected ideology; and terrorism driven by religious fanaticism". Make not mistake, none of this is new to India. Yes, naxalism has taken on dangerous proportions now and that is easily the most grave challenge to the Indian state. Since the change of guard at Delhi, there seems to be more urgency in dealing with the challenges to internal security. Less than two years back, the Home Minister of the time, Shivraj Patil had tried to downplay the threat posed by the naxals. Terrorism (now cutting across religious lines) will continue to be a serious threat and will hog the headlines because of its international flavour. But the spreading tentacles of naxalism is a real governance issue. There are today, parts of the country where popularly (??) elected governments are in power, where the Indian state does not have even a token presence. 
2. According to Ram, the second issue is militant communalism. The communal elements seem to raise their heads when they have a friendly political formation in power and with the BJP, Shiv Sena etc in disarray, we have been given a breather. But as Ram says, we cannot afford to be complacent.
3. Third - mass deprivation and the grave social injustice. This may be (whether justified or not) one of the primary factors spurring the naxal insurgency through sustaining the culture of violence and retribution; winning them allies from within the deprived communities. As political parties continue to hob-nob with mining companies and continue the agenda of mindless industrial expansion, this situation will continue to worsen. Thousands on NGOs work in remote areas, trying to fix one little problem after another. However, better strategies are required if micro-level development work is to make a dent on the macro political environment.
   
4. Centre-state relations - with growing tensions between regional parties and national parties, states frequently do their own thing and complain the centre of blatant partisanship. In the 2009-14 Parliament, the INC and its core allies already do not require the support of small regional parties for survival. If national parties get stronger in future, centre-state relations could be a big mess.
5. Foreign policy challenges - the danger of 'leaning west'. There is already a lot of disquiet about our PM's love for the US. Indeed, he feels no shame/presumptuousness in single-handedly declaring the nation's collective love for someone as reviled as George Bush. (Unfortunate. Really). That aside, at critical fora such as climate change, WTO etc, India needs to be smart in order to safeguard its interests. 
   

Ram doesn't emphasise enough on the issue of regional chauvinism. Recent events in Mumbai where the MNS has basically appropriated the license to loot and destroy in the name of Marathi identity and regional roots (he is neutral towards the South Indians, while spewing venom on North Indians) - an attitude that is not only foolhardy, but also threatens the country's socio-economic and cultural integration. A dangerous precedent - and in my book, a potential stand-alone top-5 threat to India in the new decade.

The worst winters...

for me were during my three years in Delhi. Living in a room with wooden windows and doors that had cracks in them; no room heating; going to bed wearing three layers of warm clothes and socks under a warm razai (duvet) - doesn't matter the temperature is rarely ever sub-zero. Its just cold everywhere. No respite. A couple of friends in the hostel had electric heaters - the kind that you could use for cooking as well as room heating. A clear fire hazard. But we had so many nights of instant noodles and toasted bread thanks to those things. Midnight parties and warm friends - that's what saw us all through.

And then there were the train rides in the winter breaks to Trivandrum and back. A 54 hour train ride to get home. Luckily, it wasn't cold all the way. South India was pleasant. But to get there, we had to pass one night in the train - with the open windows and doors and the pores in the coach through which the cold wind streamed in. On the way back to Delhi, the train used to pass Bhopal at about 5 am. I remember on almost every such train ride, walking down the coaches to the pantry and getting a cup of hot milk. No coffee/tea for me back then.

Last year in Brighton, I experienced snow for the first time ever. And made it through the notorious English winter. It was a breeze. Really. After the kind of training Delhi put me through, I bet I can stand much worse. In fact, we would be outdoors a lot more in Delhi, since staying in rarely made a difference, and sometimes, was just worse - cold and damp.

Read that Delhi is getting terrible weather right now. Hold on, people...

Idiots fool creator?

I am blogging about this only because a previous entry was sparked off by the movie 3 Idiots (3I). The row between Chetan Bhagat and the makers of 3I is too farcial to be true. In an interview to Rediff, this is what Hirani said:

Chetan gave me this book to read and I wanted to make a film on it. But I knew right from the start that I could not make a film completely on the book, as it was very anecdotal and a film needs a plot. So I had decided to rewrite it in a screenplay format. You'll see that the film is very different from the book. After I wrote the script, I called Chetan and narrated it to him. I told him that if he did not like the script, I would stop the project. But he was okay with it.

3I is totally based on Bhagat's Five Point Someone (FPS). Chopra and Hirani apparently are claiming otherwise. The movie is very faithful to the book and there is absolutely no way anyone in the audience (who has read the book) is going to miss that. So who is lying?

That said, there are these possibilities -

1. Bhagat and the producers had a deal which Bhagat reneged on when the movie became such a smash-hit. He felt denied and wanted his share of fame. Ah. Minor problem there - Bhagat is already a best-selling fiction writer in India. And in the hands of a team like Chopra-Hirani-Aamir, only an idiot (not the kinds feted in the movie) could have been doubtful of the movie's commercial success. But are we to believe that Bhagat went along with the production for the last two years without even reading the final script? Eh! something wrong there...
   
2. The producers and Aamir are being petty, first denying credit to Bhagat and now accusing him of pulling a publicity stunt. Which is unfortunate because Aamir is usually trying to appeal to the intelligent (we will for now ignore questions about the veracity of the said group's intelligence) audience, particularly the urban youth. Unfortunately for Aamir, it is this precise crowd thats likely to have read FPS. Just take a look at his Twitter page.... So it is stupid of Aamir to even go down that lane.
   

So what is going on? I am not inclined to think that this was a joint effort by both parties just to gain publicity. I wouldn't care about this bollywood gossip normally, but this is different because the people, the book and the film are so big. It is insane in the way it would be if Dan Brown and Tom Hanks/Ron Howard had got into a row over Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons.   

To Chopra and Hirani - where is your gandhigiri ??