India is the biggest victim of financial crisis-inducedpoverty, according to data obtained by TOI from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs' (UNDESA). Check out these figures.
The UNDESA data estimates that the number of India's poor was 33.6 million higher in 2009 than would have been the case if the growth rates of the years from 2004 to 2007 had been maintained. In 2009 alone, an estimated 13.6 million more people in India became poor or remained in poverty than would have been the case at 2008 growth rates.
In other words, while a dip from the 8.8% growth in GDP averaged from 2004-05 to 2006-07 to the 6.7% estimated for 2008-09 may be nothing like the recession faced by the West, its human consequences for India were probably worse. The 2.1% decline in India's GDP growth rate has effectively translated into a 2.8% increase in the incidence of poverty.
Link
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
India puts on hold first GM food crop : Just for Now
BBC reports : India has deferred the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first genetically modified (GM) vegetable crop due to safety concerns.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure genetically modified aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment.
The GM vegetable has undergone field trials since 2008 and received approval from government scientists in 2009.
My Take : Wait for the next food crisis.. GM Foods would be making a backdoor entry using Disaster Capitalist Strategy
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure genetically modified aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment.
The GM vegetable has undergone field trials since 2008 and received approval from government scientists in 2009.
My Take : Wait for the next food crisis.. GM Foods would be making a backdoor entry using Disaster Capitalist Strategy
Friday, February 5, 2010
Church of England withdraws from Vedanta
BBC : The Church of England has said that it will withdraw investment from a firm involved in a controversial mining project in the Indian state of Orissa.
This validates the stand of the environmentalists stand on Orissa. But POSCO is said to have started their operations there already. What would happen to Niyamgiri now?
This validates the stand of the environmentalists stand on Orissa. But POSCO is said to have started their operations there already. What would happen to Niyamgiri now?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Courts apathetic to sacking under cover of globalisation: Supreme Court
The Brand value of Globalization is under a Recession now. The Indian Judiciary is now siding with the Labour these days.
The Supreme Court has expressed anguish at courts’ apathy to the plight of workers being retrenched in the guise of globalisation and economic liberalisation.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, in different but concurring judgments, regretted that there was a visible shift in the courts’ approach to cases involving interpretation of social welfare legislation.
Justice Singhvi said: “The attractive mantras of globalisation and liberalisation are fast becoming the raison d’etre of the judicial process and an impression has been created that the constitutional courts are no longer sympathetic to the plight of industrial and unorganised workers.”
He said: “In a large number of cases like the present one, relief has been denied to the employees falling in the category of workmen, who are illegally retrenched by creating bylanes and sidelanes in the jurisprudence developed by this court in three decades. The stock plea raised by the public employer in such cases is that the initial employment/engagement of the workman-employee was contrary to some or the other statute or that reinstatement will put an unbearable burden on the financial health of the establishment.”
Harjinder Singh, appointed in the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation in March 1986, was dismissed in July 1988. Acting on a writ petition, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the order and he continued in service. Finally in September 1992, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn.
In November 1992, another order was passed sacking 22 workers including the appellant. While the labour court directed their reinstatement with 50 per cent back wages, a single judge of the High Court, entertaining an appeal, ordered compensation of Rs. 87,582. The present appeal is directed against this judgment.
Justice Singhvi pointed out that “Courts have readily accepted such plea unmindful of the accountability of the wrongdoer and indirectly punished the tiny beneficiary of the wrong, ignoring the fact that he may have continued in the employment for years together and that micro wages earned by him may be the only source of his livelihood. It needs no emphasis that if a man is deprived of his livelihood, he is deprived of all his fundamental and constitutional rights and for him the goal of social and economic justice, equality of status of opportunity, the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution remain illusory.”
Statutory goal
In a separate judgment, Justice Ganguly said: “I am in clear agreement with Justice Singhvi that this court has a duty to interpret statutes with social welfare benefits in such a way as to further the statutory goal and not to frustrate it.”
He said: “In doing so, this court should make an effort to protect the rights of the weaker sections in view of the clear constitutional mandate. Social Justice, the very signature tune of our Constitution and being deeply embedded in our constitutional ethos, in a way is the arch of the Constitution which ensures rights of the common man to be interpreted in a meaningful way so that life can be lived with human dignity.”
He said: “I share the anxiety of Justice Singhvi about a disturbing contrary trend which is discernible in recent times and which is sought to be justified in the name of globalisation and liberalisation of economy. Any attempt to dilute the constitutional imperatives in order to promote the so-called trends of globalisation may result in precarious consequences. Reports of suicidal deaths of farmers in their thousands from all over the country, along with escalation of terrorism, throw a dangerous signal.”
The Supreme Court has expressed anguish at courts’ apathy to the plight of workers being retrenched in the guise of globalisation and economic liberalisation.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, in different but concurring judgments, regretted that there was a visible shift in the courts’ approach to cases involving interpretation of social welfare legislation.
Justice Singhvi said: “The attractive mantras of globalisation and liberalisation are fast becoming the raison d’etre of the judicial process and an impression has been created that the constitutional courts are no longer sympathetic to the plight of industrial and unorganised workers.”
He said: “In a large number of cases like the present one, relief has been denied to the employees falling in the category of workmen, who are illegally retrenched by creating bylanes and sidelanes in the jurisprudence developed by this court in three decades. The stock plea raised by the public employer in such cases is that the initial employment/engagement of the workman-employee was contrary to some or the other statute or that reinstatement will put an unbearable burden on the financial health of the establishment.”
Harjinder Singh, appointed in the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation in March 1986, was dismissed in July 1988. Acting on a writ petition, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the order and he continued in service. Finally in September 1992, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn.
In November 1992, another order was passed sacking 22 workers including the appellant. While the labour court directed their reinstatement with 50 per cent back wages, a single judge of the High Court, entertaining an appeal, ordered compensation of Rs. 87,582. The present appeal is directed against this judgment.
Justice Singhvi pointed out that “Courts have readily accepted such plea unmindful of the accountability of the wrongdoer and indirectly punished the tiny beneficiary of the wrong, ignoring the fact that he may have continued in the employment for years together and that micro wages earned by him may be the only source of his livelihood. It needs no emphasis that if a man is deprived of his livelihood, he is deprived of all his fundamental and constitutional rights and for him the goal of social and economic justice, equality of status of opportunity, the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution remain illusory.”
Statutory goal
In a separate judgment, Justice Ganguly said: “I am in clear agreement with Justice Singhvi that this court has a duty to interpret statutes with social welfare benefits in such a way as to further the statutory goal and not to frustrate it.”
He said: “In doing so, this court should make an effort to protect the rights of the weaker sections in view of the clear constitutional mandate. Social Justice, the very signature tune of our Constitution and being deeply embedded in our constitutional ethos, in a way is the arch of the Constitution which ensures rights of the common man to be interpreted in a meaningful way so that life can be lived with human dignity.”
He said: “I share the anxiety of Justice Singhvi about a disturbing contrary trend which is discernible in recent times and which is sought to be justified in the name of globalisation and liberalisation of economy. Any attempt to dilute the constitutional imperatives in order to promote the so-called trends of globalisation may result in precarious consequences. Reports of suicidal deaths of farmers in their thousands from all over the country, along with escalation of terrorism, throw a dangerous signal.”
Friday, January 29, 2010
Bullets trains for US
The Automobile Lobby is said to be behind the absence of state-of-the art trains in the US. With Oil Price Peaking, things seems to change. Could mass-adoption of Trains the next thing world over?
Wired:Believe it: Bullet trains are coming.
After decades of false starts, planners are finally beginning to make headway on what could become the largest, most complicated infrastructure project ever attempted in the US. The Obama administration got on board with an $8 billion infusion, and more cash is likely en route from Congress. It’s enough for Florida and Texas to dust off some previously abandoned plans and for urban clusters in the Northeast and Midwest to pursue some long-overdue upgrades. The nation’s test bed will almost certainly be California, which already has voter-approved funding and planning under way. But getting up to speed requires more than just seed money. For trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly. Officials are pushing to deploy state-of-the-art rail rockets. Next stop: the future.
Wired:Believe it: Bullet trains are coming.
After decades of false starts, planners are finally beginning to make headway on what could become the largest, most complicated infrastructure project ever attempted in the US. The Obama administration got on board with an $8 billion infusion, and more cash is likely en route from Congress. It’s enough for Florida and Texas to dust off some previously abandoned plans and for urban clusters in the Northeast and Midwest to pursue some long-overdue upgrades. The nation’s test bed will almost certainly be California, which already has voter-approved funding and planning under way. But getting up to speed requires more than just seed money. For trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly. Officials are pushing to deploy state-of-the-art rail rockets. Next stop: the future.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Basu pushed land reforms but left Bengal as industrial wasteland
Economic Times about Jyoti Basu, who strode the nation’s political landscape like a colossus, passed away this afternoon at a Kolkata hospital. Basu, who missed being the prime minister in 1996 because of the CPM’s ideological rigidity, was in charge of West Bengal for a record 23 years and, in the process, became the longest-serving chief minister of any state.
Basu, who put the emphasis on the bread and butter goals of communism, leaves behind a mixed legacy — while he was credited with decentralisation of power and land reforms, the state became an industrial wasteland during his tenure. Along with his senior colleagues EMS Namboodiripad and H S Surjeet, he scripted his party’s political pragmatism in 1989 and later in 1996 by aiding the formation of two non-Congress coalitions at the Centre. Despite hailing from a party seeped in dogmatism, he was credited with running a coalition through consensus politics.
Basu, who became the unanimous choice of the United Front to lead the government at the Centre in 1996, was denied the opportunity by his own party’s central committee which rejected the proposal by three votes. Incidentally, it were Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and S Ramachandran Pillai, who had mobilised support against the proposal in the central committee meeting. Basu, known for whiplash candour, told the media in December 1997 that the decision of the party was a “historic blunder”.
Basu, who put the emphasis on the bread and butter goals of communism, leaves behind a mixed legacy — while he was credited with decentralisation of power and land reforms, the state became an industrial wasteland during his tenure. Along with his senior colleagues EMS Namboodiripad and H S Surjeet, he scripted his party’s political pragmatism in 1989 and later in 1996 by aiding the formation of two non-Congress coalitions at the Centre. Despite hailing from a party seeped in dogmatism, he was credited with running a coalition through consensus politics.
Basu, who became the unanimous choice of the United Front to lead the government at the Centre in 1996, was denied the opportunity by his own party’s central committee which rejected the proposal by three votes. Incidentally, it were Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and S Ramachandran Pillai, who had mobilised support against the proposal in the central committee meeting. Basu, known for whiplash candour, told the media in December 1997 that the decision of the party was a “historic blunder”.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Aamir, 3 Idiots and Pursuit of Excellence
Film-making is very similar to entrepreneurship. The role of a film producer is analogous to that of a venture capitalist. Good producers, like smart venture capitalists, know that it's not just about writing a check and it's not just about big stars and quality music. In the same way, simply providing venture funding or throwing money at a start-up cannot ensure success, and it's not necessarily a great thing for entrepreneurs to have lots of work experience and domain expertise in their industry. The actors and the director, like entrepreneurs, work to bring the script and business plan to life. More than anything else, making a good film and building a business from scratch both require oodles of creativity.
Mr. Khan's recent cinema has sensitized millions of parents to let their children become what they want to, rather than forcing them to be doctors, lawyers or engineers. The subtext of why parents would wish so for their children is, however, missing from the narrative.
In a socialist India with strict government control over economic activity, those vocations were likely the only ones which came with a certain guarantee to a minimum standard of living. Since the liberalization of 1991 and the boost to economic freedom given by the BJP-NDA government from 1998-2004, career opportunities have expanded dramatically. Today, young Indians can be productively employed as radio jockeys, artists or sportspeople. Popular attitudes haven't caught up with the growth of opportunity and the majority of Indians continue to believe that what you study in college should dictate what you do in life. It is incomprehensible to the pre-1980s generation why someone might choose to study literature, or why an engineer might want to be a photographer. This stems from the perceived or real lack of economic opportunity in "unconventional" career choices, and the solution is economic liberalization.
Creating an environment that allows people to pursue excellence in a field of their choosing is what makes for a prosperous and happy society. The importance of effective policy design and implementation cannot be over-stated to achieve that end. In that context, last year's Right to Education bill was a major letdown. It does not allow individuals and communities to run schools as they would deem fit, favoring needless government control instead. It focuses on rationing existing supply instead of sowing the seed for capacity expansion.
My Take : Pursuing Excellence has been sure way of disaster for "Leaders" in my generation of Indians. Nothing has changed with Globalization in India means migrating to US, Europe or Singapore. Pursuing Excellence for the current teenage upper middle class Indians is a distant possibility (but more practicality) with private colleges commoditizating Engineering degrees.
Mr. Khan's recent cinema has sensitized millions of parents to let their children become what they want to, rather than forcing them to be doctors, lawyers or engineers. The subtext of why parents would wish so for their children is, however, missing from the narrative.
In a socialist India with strict government control over economic activity, those vocations were likely the only ones which came with a certain guarantee to a minimum standard of living. Since the liberalization of 1991 and the boost to economic freedom given by the BJP-NDA government from 1998-2004, career opportunities have expanded dramatically. Today, young Indians can be productively employed as radio jockeys, artists or sportspeople. Popular attitudes haven't caught up with the growth of opportunity and the majority of Indians continue to believe that what you study in college should dictate what you do in life. It is incomprehensible to the pre-1980s generation why someone might choose to study literature, or why an engineer might want to be a photographer. This stems from the perceived or real lack of economic opportunity in "unconventional" career choices, and the solution is economic liberalization.
Creating an environment that allows people to pursue excellence in a field of their choosing is what makes for a prosperous and happy society. The importance of effective policy design and implementation cannot be over-stated to achieve that end. In that context, last year's Right to Education bill was a major letdown. It does not allow individuals and communities to run schools as they would deem fit, favoring needless government control instead. It focuses on rationing existing supply instead of sowing the seed for capacity expansion.
My Take : Pursuing Excellence has been sure way of disaster for "Leaders" in my generation of Indians. Nothing has changed with Globalization in India means migrating to US, Europe or Singapore. Pursuing Excellence for the current teenage upper middle class Indians is a distant possibility (but more practicality) with private colleges commoditizating Engineering degrees.
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