Maoists trigger off landmine blast in Lalgarh ahead of Chidambaram visit!
US has huge stake in closer ties with India: Geithner
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - THREE HUNDRED Twenty NINE
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Risks, Farmers' Suicides and Agrarian Crisis in India:
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Blast in Lalgarh on eve of Chidambaram visit
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Privatisation of Indian Agriculture Imminent as PPP Model Pushed for Rural Infrastructure with Indiscriminate Land Acquisition, Urbanisation, Industrialisation, SEZ Drive, Retail and Food Chain!
Maoists trigger off landmine blast in Lalgarh ahead of Chidambaram visit!
Suspected Maoists triggered off a landmine blast in Lalgarh in West Midnapore District on Saturday morning, ahead of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to the region.
Lalgarh is considered a stronghold of the Maoists.
According to the police, the Maoists triggered off the blast on an isolated road near Bamal village, which is over four kilometers from Lalgarh.
There were no reports of casualties.
Police have launched a search operation in the region.
Chidambaram is currently on a two-day visit to West Bengal. He is expected to reach Kolkata on Saturday evening and visit Lalgarh on Sunday.
Chidambaram will hold a meeting with senior police and security officials and review ongoing anti Naxal operations in the state.
This is the first time that Chidambaram will be visiting a Maoist stronghold since the launch of "Operation Green Hunt."
Me, as a Child belonging to a SC Bengali Refugee Resettled Peasant Family in Basantipur, only SIX KM away from Pant Nagar University, have witnessed and felt the Phenomenon of the Green Revolution in Sixties as we, the Bengali Refugees learnt to eat BREAD only after PL 480 Wheat was Inserted in our Daily Diet amidst the High Time of the Agrarian Revolution which wiped out Traditional Harvesting at once.
My Father Pulin Babu was the Vice President, the Highest Elected position , of the Terai Vikas Sahakari Sangh and our People could not avail loan or seed or fertilisers or pesticides available for the BIG Big Farms around the University.
We witnessed the Machination right in mid Sixties and were virtually Seized within as AFFLUENT Farmers all over Western UP, Haryana and Punjab dominated the Scene.
Thousands of Small farmers lost their Holding in the Process adopting the new Methodology of the Modern Farming as the Could not Afford the Cost and had NEVER to be paid back. The Deficit created such a crisis for small holding surrounded by Big Farmers who captured the Market immediately pushing us aside.
Pulin Babu was close to Chaudhuri Charan Singh despite the Man, as the Home and revenue Minister of Uttar Pradesh had CRUSHED the the First Agrarian Uprising after Telengana, the DHIMRI Block Revolt in 1958 led by my father and his Comrades.
The Comrades were TRIED for almost a decade until the SAMVID SARKAR withdrew the CASE. While the Communist Party of India betrayed the Cadres.
Pulin Babu was member of the National Executive committee of Bhartiaya KRISHAK Samaj headed by CHOWDHARI Charan Singh.As a Reading Worm, I had to eat every document landed at Home and most of it related to Green revolution. As an EYE Witness me and my Friends used to visit the University campus to be aware of the Experiments and research work!
ECONOMIC Times published the Planning commission Blue Print to Privatise Indian Agriculture and it did expose the Real Meaning of Second Agrarian Revolution! It is Privatisation, Deregulation and Contract farming, rural Marketing and Retail chain all over with RURAL Infrastructure. Planning commission has SOLVED the AGRARIAN Stand still Crisis with PPP Solution which means the Companies would take over Small Holdings and the Peasants would be helped with PRIVATE Investment to GROW CASH Crops only. Cereals, Dal and Oil Seeds have to be IMPORTED. There would not be any Minimum support Price or whartever Price Control.
The News was never Published in the Mainstream Newspapers as far as I Know. The ET News Item was Followed by FULL Page ADs for FOOD Processing Industry Drive with color Photos of Sonia Gandhi,Dr. Manmohan Singh and Subodh Kant Sahai!
Only today, ANANDA Bazaar Patrika , CIRCULATED 1.6 Million, Published an EDIT to plead for Private Investment in AGRICULTURE. It raised the question of INCLUSIVE Growth and EQUITY as the Shining India avails the Capital and Private Investment. Hence, the RURAL India MUST not be DEPRIVED of Private Investment which would Change the Rural Life. What a HUMAN face of Excellent Mind control game! It means the ball now ROLLS around. Now the CONVINCING would be at large in every piece of Media! Well Done, MONETK Babu!
The Planning Commission has called for course correction in various policy measures concerning social, agriculture and infrastructure sectors in a bid to bring the economy back on high growth trajectory, even as it lowered its growth target for the five years to 2012.
In its mid-term appraisal (MTA) of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), the Planning Commission has rolled back the GDP growth target for the period to 8.1 per cent from earlier projected 9 per cent (See: Planning Commission lowers 11th plan growth target to 8 per cent).
''The growth momentum is picking up again, thereby giving us the confidence to achieve higher growth of 9-10 per cent in the Twelfth Plan (2012-17),'' Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters after the meeting of the commission.
According to the MTA the path of fiscal correction was of crucial importance for macro-economic credibility and larger private investment. The full Planning Commission cleared the MTA on Tuesday.
The MTA document will now be placed before the cabinet and then to the National Development Council (NDC) for final approval.
''The MTA has not suggested that subsidies should be withdrawn completely. We are of the view that subsidies should not be open ended with possibility of leakage. The best way is control it from exceeding further from the current budgeted levels,'' Ahluwalia said.
Thought for food
Business Standard | 2010-04-02 02:10:00
The Planning Commission has offered an objective assessment of the unsatisfactory situation as far as Indian agriculture is concerned in its mid-term appraisal of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The commission has done well to remind us that the farm sector is still subject to strangulating controls that dissuade private investment in key areas, including logistics and storage. The government's agricultural pricing policies, which have rendered minimum support prices (MSPs) the de-facto procurement prices, have also come in for sharp criticism for discouraging farmers from diversifying into high-value crops even while failing to keep food-price inflation down. What should cause concern is that the challenge of food security continues to stare us in the face despite the generous funding of the agriculture and irrigation sectors, where Plan outlays have more than doubled in the 11th Plan compared to the 10th Plan. Though agriculture accounts only for less than one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), it still supports over 60 per cent of the nation's population. Only in the first year of the current Plan did the agriculture sector grow at a healthy 4.9 per cent. Growth fell to 1.6 per cent in the second year and is projected to be around minus 0.2 per cent in the current year. There have been years of good performance, but it is unclear as to how much of this was due to good monsoons and how much was due to public and private investment.
It is in recognition of these facts that the prime minister has repeatedly called for a second green revolution and the government has spoken eloquently about investing more in agriculture. Yet, the gap between performance and promise remains wide as the Planning Commission has once again shown. The mid-term appraisal document puts out a wide range of policy options on the menu like making the agricultural pricing system more market- oriented by delinking MSPs from procurement prices to abolition of levies, stock limits and curbs on export of farm goods. Unhindered movement of agro-products across the country can help achieve the objective of creating an all-India single open market for agriculture as envisaged in the National Agriculture Policy adopted by Parliament during the previous term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). In any case, the MSP system, as also the official grain procurement policy, is confined to a few states (where the public grain purchase network is in place) and to a few crops, chiefly wheat and rice. For other crops, the MSPs are irrelevant. Thus, farmers in most parts of the country do not get remunerative prices for their produce. The 11th Plan's basic strategy for boosting agricultural output, as outlined in the original approach paper, envisaged improving farmers' access to technology and diversification towards higher value crops and livestock. It had also stressed rationalisation of farm subsidies and efficiency-enhancement of public investments in the agricultural sector. None of this has actually happened. A major policy correction seems imperative.
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Montek wants agri reforms, pushes for market prices
NEW DELHI: The country's apex planning body has called for wide-ranging reforms in agriculture, while criticising the strategy employed by
The Planning Commission said the agriculture pricing system should be made more market-oriented by delinking support prices from procurement prices. It suggested measures such as abolition of levies and stocking limits, encouraging free movement of goods across the country and doing away with bans on exports and futures trading.
In its mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) to be ratified by the full Planning Commission under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, the panel pointed out that while the farm sector did well between 2005-06 and 2007-08 to grow at 4%, the performance in the past two years showed that the government's strategy was not effective and more needed to be done on the supply side to maintain growth.
"There is no adequate analysis of how much of this — growth in the three years starting 2005-06 — was due to increased allocation of public resources for agriculture under this strategy rather than to a favourable weather pattern or private investment response to better demand and prices in a booming economy," the document said.
The government's management of agriculture has drawn criticism from several quarters after its policies failed to rein in food price inflation, which is hovering around 18%, a level unseen in several years. Growth in agriculture production dropped to 1.6% in 2008-09 and is estimated to post a decline of 0.2% in 2009-10 due to poor rains affecting kharif crops. The government has targetted 4% agriculture growth for the plan period. Agriculture and allied activities account for less than a fifth of India's gross domestic product (GDP), but it provides livelihood to more than 60% of the country's 1.2 billion people.
The Eleventh Plan strategy for enhancing farm production stressed on improving farmers' access to technology, enhancing the quantum and efficiency of public investments, increasing systems support while rationalising subsidies and encouraging diversification towards higher value crops and livestock, while addressing food security concerns. Despite policymakers talking about the need to open up the domestic agriculture sector to encourage private investments, the Planning Commission believes that the system is still full of "strangulating controls" dissuading major private sector investments in logistics and storage.
"Restrictions made sense in the '60s and the '70s when the country was not self-sufficient and farmers needed protection. Now, in a globalised world market, such restrictions act as a disincentive to producers," said Surabhi Mittal, senior fellow at ICRIER. Price incentives would either motivate farmers to diversify to higher value crops or allow them to continue to produce what they have been producing more efficiently so that it fetches them a better price in the market, she said.
PPP for rural infrastructure
The finance minister in this year's Budget speech spoke of the weaknesses in government structures and structures that are "bottlenecks in our
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This is also true for development of rural infrastructure. Several constraints are responsible for the impact not being so visible and for lower levels of citizen satisfaction despite large sums of money being spent every year.
First, the schemes operate autonomously and there is little synergy in the implementation resulting in suboptimal use of resources. For example, road may reach a village in the year 2008, electricity in 2010 and telecom in 2012. By the time telecom services are rolled out, the road is already in a state of disrepair. Secondly, whereas funds are available for capital expenditure (capex) for new infrastructure assets, little resource is available for the maintenance of the assets. Thirdly, standards set for infrastructure services delivery are far below those set for the urban population.
Poor infrastructure dampens economic potential of the rural areas and results in acceleration in the rate of migration to the urban areas, putting pressure on urban infrastructure and resulting in mushrooming of slums in the cities. The central government's recent decision to redesign scheme for providing urban amenities in rural areas (PURA) could actually act as the catalyst not only for convergence between different rural infrastructure development schemes but to emerge as a new model for the management of urbanisation of the rural areas.
For the first time, a uniquely designed public-private partnership (PPP) model is being tested for creation and maintenance of rural infrastructure assets with predetermined service delivery standards almost akin to urban standards. While most of the capital expenditure needs would be met from the existing central schemes with the service charges determined by the government, the construction and maintenance of assets and service delivery, for a predetermined period would be by the private partner on commercial basis. To attract the private sector, the scheme is designed to be 'project based' with well defined risks, measures for risk mitigation fully explained and allocation of risk between the sponsoring authority (panchayats), the Centre/ states and the private developer clearly spelt out.
PURA's primary objective is to provide good quality infrastructure and associate services in rural areas. Urban amenities that are essential for fulfilment of PURA include drinking water, sewerage, drainage, solid waste management, skill development, and development of economic activities. In addition, electricity distribution, street lighting through non-conventional energy sources, etc, could also be provided. It is expected that the private partner would undertake add-on commercial activities that not only create revenue streams for him but also add to the economic infrastructure of the identified villages.
Meanwhile,Urging all citizens to participate in the Census 2011, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that the enumeration would constitute a treasure house of information for planning development of the country. The 2011 Census of India, the fifteenth census in the country and the seventh after independence, kicked off on April 1 with President Pratibha Devisingh Patil being the first person to be enumerated.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/PPP-for-rural-infrastructure/articleshow/5756138.cms
AWKWARD TRAP - In spite of billionaires, an investment crisis looms over India | |
| Ashok Mitra | |
Policymakers in New Delhi have had enough of the poverty lobby, which keeps whining about how 200 million or more Indians subsist below the level of poverty. Do not these people see anything but the flip side of things? Here then is a stick to beat this lobby with. Two of the ten top billionaires in the world, the Forbes magazine has just announced, are from India. Is not that a fact even starving Indians should be proud of? An equally encouraging report, has emanated from United Nations sources. India has finally made it as one of the world's top ten industrial nations. China has succeeded in emerging, right after the United States of America, as the second largest industrialized country, pushing Japan down to the third position. A cluster of five European nations occupies the next five slots; India is ninth in the list followed by the lone Latin American nation, Brazil. Those in the country who have been dreaming of matching China in economic and industrial performance may be a shade disappointed. Even so, to be one of the industrial titans in the world is no mean achievement. And there will be others to point out that the greater concern should rather be about whether we can hold on to where we have already arrived, whether we would be able to maintain in the coming years the currently reigning momentum of industrial growth. For it is an unusual framework of industrial development policy-formulators have been experimenting with. Growth has been mostly propelled by activities, which either cater to exports or meet the consumption — and consumption related — demands of the top 10 to 15 per cent of the community. Can this arrangement be viable over any reasonable stretch of time? The issues are fairly straightforward. The country's upper and upper middle classes control the polity and therefore exercise control over its economic agenda. They have an enormous hunger for consumer durables, including glitzy automobiles and a whole range of luxury items covering textiles, food, drinks, tourism and entertainment. There is always a sliver of apprehension: what if a saturation point is reached in this brand of grand consumption demand generated from such a narrow section? Such an eventuality could give rise to what economists describe as demand deficiency. A slack in the domestic demand for industrial products might of course be made good, either wholly or in part, in case a spurt takes place in exports. Here too, though, problems abound. India produces a wide range of manufactures and service items for which a clientele has grown steadily in different parts of the world. The key factor still continues to be exports to the US. That country is trying to dig itself out of the hole it found itself in two years ago. But progress is halting. If the American economy grows by barely one per cent or thereabouts in the foreseeable future, India would have little prospect of raising significantly the level of its exports there. China with its superior productivity in several areas might also nibble into India's potential share in the American market. That apart, hanging like Damocles' sword will be the issue of outsourcing, which has contributed in a major way to the income — and consumption — explosion of the Indian middle class. There is a built-in resentment within the American nation at the fact that the country's administration is yet to come down heavily on the practice of outsourcing which, it is claimed, robbed qualified American citizens of employment opportunities and, instead, rewarded foreigners. Should the US economy fail to pick up soon, opposition to job losses through outsourcing might get shriller and shriller and force the authorities there to some action that could cast a pall on the prospects of demand that is crucial to sustain India's industrial growth rate. Problems on the supply side can hardly be ignored either. The tempo of growth in manufactures can be maintained only if productive capacity is adequate. In the past, the public sector had contributed substantially to the expansion of industrial capacity via investments on a large scale. Neo-liberal economic philosophy is now the ruling ideology and the role of the public sector is shrinking fast. Disinvestment, in fact, is the dominant slogan, and even the so-called Navaratnas among the public sector undertakings are being forced to shed their equity to private entities. In the circumstances, further capacity creation in the industrial sector, including in the sphere of infrastructure, will largely depend on private initiatives. This is where concern is inevitable. With tax on dividends off and continuous lowering of the overall direct tax burden, it is carnival time for India's stock exchanges. In addition, international finance capital has arrived in strength, inducing share prices to reach dizzy heights. Even ordinary householders are borrowing from the banks to partake of the share market banquet. It is an old adage that has not yet lost its validity: when share prices rule high, savings contract and capital investment in productive assets receives the short shrift. The rate of private investment has, in fact, levelled off in recent years; investors are most reluctant to invest in industrial capacity expansion in the time of share market buoyancy. There is apparently no easy way out. The country's elite never had it so good, they are determined not to vacate the vantage position they have come to occupy. It will be excruciatingly difficult to convince them that disturbing the present arrangements, such as dampening the share market and suspending the regime of low direct taxes, is called for, really for their own sake: to ensure the viability of the class-biased economic growth model thrust upon the nation. If persuasion fails and the upper and upper middle classes refuse to abdicate the advantages they have come to corner, another way out of the looming investment crisis can be thought of. This will entail refocusing attention on the farm sector. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries continue to provide livelihood to more than one-half of our countrymen. The principal policy plank of economic liberalization has been a purposive withdrawal of the State from all spheres of economic activity, including from the farm sector. With public investment languishing and no private parties ever dreaming of putting their money on such projects as irrigation, land reclamation and rural roads that are exceedingly low-yielding in nature, what could be expected has happened: the rate of farm growth has declined ominously since the mid-1990s. In case the dogma of refraining from public investment is discarded and farm production and productivity revived through State initiative, the spin-off could be a rise in the income level of more than one-half of the national population, which in turn could lead to a significant strengthening of the demand for industrial goods as well. But where is the government going to find the money to invest in agriculture? Financial orthodoxy is the ruling deity: this year's budget has actually promised to cut back the fiscal deficit to 5.5 per cent of the gross domestic product. Providing for public investment in agriculture is likely to be an awesomely difficult task. Should the authorities seek to put the squeeze on some other areas in order to arrange funds for agriculture? But what are these areas? The defence and security budget, for instance, can hardly be tampered with; any step towards that direction will infuriate the domestic jingos and alienate both the Americans and the commission agents. Should the government then propose fresh taxation measures? We are thus back to the original problem. The direct tax burden has been purposely lowered in recent years to encourage elite consumption. Any rethinking in this sphere will be regarded as outrageous by those who matter. Is the way out then in more indirect imposts, leading to further price rise and greater immiseration of the poorer classes? It is an awkward trap of a political economy that the ruling classes have walked into; adding to the number of native billionaires will be of little avail for getting out of it. |
| Need to focus on food crisis | |
| By Supachai Panitchpakdi, IPS | |
Addressing threat of food insecurity will require nothing short of another green revolution. | |
| The current financial and economic crisis drew attention away from the food crisis, but the latter still remains a threat to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sends a warning of the dangers of low investment and poor policies in the agricultural sector. The causes of the food crisis lie partially in the specific conditions of the 2008 price spike, which included climatic conditions, such as drought, and widespread speculation in commodity markets. But the food crisis reveals also an underlying and persistent crisis of development in some countries' agricultural sectors. Addressing the long-term threat of food insecurity will require nothing short of anothe green revolution. Using Africa as a case study, growth in the continent's agricultural sector overall has averaged 2-to-2.5 per cent per annum since the late 1970s, with serious implications for its ability to feed itself: it is a well-known fact that having been a net food exporter until as recently as 1988, the continent is now a net food importer. The situation is compounded by price increases, which have meant that a growing proportion of export earnings is used to feed rapidly expanding populations. As pressures on land availability grow, countries will have to depend more on yield gains than on the expansion of cultivated land. Yet there is also the potential for rapid increases in yields if better access can be provided to fertilizers and technology -not necessarily sophisticated biotech solutions, such as genetically manipulated plant varieties, but new crop varieties, tractors, ploughs and irrigation systems. Supply capacities As is now widely accepted, the relative neglect of the agricultural sector in many developing countries has led to disinvestment in supply capacities, such as extension services and infrastructure. In the past, market reforms, including structural adjustment programmes, have also played a role in undermining agricultural productivity. The role of the state in agricultural development was significantly reduced. The result: private investment, both domestic and foreign, was diverted more into cash crops for export than into food for local consumption. In poorer economies where domestic investment in agriculture is limited, the potential for increased investment in agriculture relies on either official development assistance (ODA) or the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI). Yet, multilateral and bilateral ODA for agriculture declined dramatically between 1980 and 2002, by 85 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. UNCTAD research has shown that FDI in agriculture (including forestry and fisheries) and food processing (including tobacco) grew more slowly than in other industries from 1990 to 2006, in both flows and stocks. Thus the shares of these industries in total FDI inflows declined during this period by nearly half, and are now insignificant in both developed and developing host countries. UNCTAD's world investment report 2009 explored the role that FDI can play in helping developing countries fight hunger and develop their agricultural sectors to meet the needs of their people. Between 1990 and 2007, FDI flows into agricultural production tripled from $1 billion to $3 billion a year. Huge source of finance Although these flows are quite small in proportion to overall FDI flows, they represent a huge source of finance for many low-income countries. Examples include such countries as Cambodia, Ecuador and Tanzania. TNCs' participation in agriculture can have both positive and negative effects in developing countries. On the negative side, governments should be especially sensitive to environmental and social concerns associated with their involvement, such as the crowding-out of small farmers that might create job losses, land grab, dispossession of indigenous peoples and an overdependence on TNCs. On the positive side, TNCs' involvement can result in the transfer of technology, standards and skills, along with jobs and market access -all of which can improve the productivity of the industry, including the farming of staple foods, and the economy as a whole. The contribution of TNCs to food security is not just about supply: they can exploit potential economies of scale that can make food more affordable, and their higher level of conformity with standards enhances food safety. All of these factors depend, however, on host countries adopting the right policies that will maximise benefits and minimise the costs of TNCs' participation. The 'real' question for most developing countries, then, is not whether to involve TNCs in agriculture and agribusiness value chains, but how to establish a framework and develop national capabilities to best harness their involvement in agriculture. | |
Treasury says bailout repayments reach $181 billion
WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Friday said total bailout repayments have reached $181 billion with the receipt of $3.4 billion from
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BARACK OBAMA
The Treasury said in a statement repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program are running well ahead of 2010 repayment projections made last fall.
It currently estimates that $245 billion in bank investments, including larger bailouts of Citigroup and Bank of America, "will earn a profit thanks to dividends, interest, early repayments and the sale of warrants".
These investments were initially projected to produce a $76 billion loss for taxpayers. However, for TARP as a whole, including investments in automakers, insurer American International Group and housing rescue efforts, the Treasury is still projecting a loss.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last month told US lawmakers that the TARP loss estimates had fallen from around $500 billion when the Obama administration took office last year to less than $100 billion.
U.S. taxpayers have received a total of $14 billion through interest and dividends, the Treasury said, adding that total could be "considerably higher" by the end of 2010.
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US has huge stake in closer ties with India: Geithner
Washington, April 3 (IANS) The US has huge mutual stake in closer economic ties with India and a key focus of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's visit to New Delhi next week will be cooperation in the Group of 20 leading economies on three core areas: global growth, global recovery and financial reform.
'It's about putting in place higher standards globally for constraining risk taking across the major institutions as markets become more integrated,' Geithner said in an interaction in his office with select Indian media ahead of the trip starting Tuesday.
While they were working very closely on things like climate change, energy policy, multi-trade agenda and terrorist financing, Geithner said: 'We want to make sure that we are working together to reinforce that process of recovery, of expansion.'
'China and India are ahead of the major economies, the US is ahead of the other major economies and the balance of policy is going to shift over time, but we're going to make sure we're doing that carefully together so we don't risk undermining the process of recovery and reform.'
Another reason for the trip to India, Geithner said was 'to get a better sense of what is happening there: Both in the economy and the broader reform process in the financial sector and elsewhere.'
'And of course as always I am going to make sure that the leaders in India get to understand directly from me how we
are managing our challenges here and how things feel here.'
Geithner said he had 'huge admiration' for India's politicies in the economic, financial sector and for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 'and have great admiration for what they have accomplished in dealing with this difficult time.'
The US, he said, wanted 'to build a much stronger corporative partnership with India on broader global financial issues, which I think are important to, both our countries interest economically.'
On India's pitch for greater weightage at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of reforming the architecture of the financial system, Geithner said the US had initiated and committed to support a substantial rebalancing of the basic voting rights across institutions.
On the issue of deepening capital markets in India, Geithner said: 'I think they recognize that they're not at the end of the process of reform in the financial sector, there's a range of things that'll be in India's interest to manage through going forward and I want to get a better sense o how they're going to do that.'
'I don't actually sense a lot of tension or disagreement with India on the core parts of global financial reform, but that doesn't mean it's not worth talking about it because it's good for both of us to be close on these things,' he said.
Asked about some countries questioning the salience of the dollar, Geithner said: 'The dollar's role in the system overtime in the future is going to depend primarily on how well the US manages our economic challenges.'
'My general view on this is if we do that right, it is better for the world and we will have a more stable global financial system.'
The differences in the US economic strategic partnership with China and the one it was going to launch with India 'are mostly defined by the differences in our economies.'
'We believe we have a huge mutual stake in closer economic ties, integration and we have a very strong interest in working together closely in the G-20 international institutions in pursuit of common interest for reform.'
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
Arun Kumar
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1. Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in its meeting of 27th October, 2005 approved the procedure for approval of public private partnership (PPP) projects. Pursuant to this decision, a Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC) has been set up comprising of the following:
The committee would be serviced by the Department of Economic Affairs, who will set up a special cell for servicing such proposals. The Committee may co-opt experts as necessary. The procedure approved by the CCEA for the approval of the PPP projects is enclosed at Annex-I. Notification dated Nov 29, 2005
For appraisal of individual projects under NHDP which are of Rs.250 crore or more but less than Rs.500 crore and which fulfill certain specified conditions, a Committee comprising of the following is being set up:
Detailed guidelines for the appraisal/approval procedure to be followed for the Committees being set up under paragraphs 3 and 4 above will be notified separately by this Department. Notification dated April 02, 2007
Viability Gap Funding (VGF) The composition of Empowered Committee will be as follows:
The Empowered Committee will:
The Composition of the Empowered Institution is as follows:
The Empowered Institution will sanction projects for Viability Gap Funding Eligible Sector: The sectors eligible for Viability Gap Funding under this Scheme are:
Provided that the Empowered Committee may, with approval of the Finance Minister, add or delete sectors/sub-sectors from the aforesaid list.
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Food prices may ease after rabi harvest: Pranab
Rituraj Borthakur Shillong, Apr 3 (PTI) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he expects food prices to start falling with the harvest of winter crop this month and also on the back of imports of essential commodities. "We are doing whatever is possible.
Private sector undertakings are also importing. We hope, the rabi harvest should have a moderating effect on the prices of foodgrains," he told PTI here.
Rabi (winter) crop is due for harvest in April and is expected to more than make up for the shortfall in foodgrain production in last Khariff season when rainfall was deficient. Food inflation for the week ended March 20 was ruling at 16.35 per cent, but items such as sugar and pulses, which were driving inflation till recently, have seen prices softening due to imports.
He said prices of sugar internationally have come down because of supply from Brazil, and hoped it would fall further. "Very few countries produce pulses and the international prices are also high.
The same is the case with sugar. There is a shortfall of about 90 lakh tonne," Mukherjee said, adding that the country has to import about 20 lakh tonnes of edible oil.
He, however, said that despite allowing duty free imports adequate supply of the commodities was not available. India needs 18 million tonnes of pulses while production was only 14 million tonnes.
"There is a shortfall of 4 million tonnes and we have to import it," Mukherjee pointed out. RBI last month increased key policy rates as part of measures to check food inflation from spilling to the general price line.
On oil prices, Mukherjee said the global prices of energy were on the higher side and so there was a ''tendency of inflationary pressure''.
Now, Shiv Sena has 'no objection' to Sania-Shoaib marriage
A day after attacking tennis star Sania Mirza for her proposed marriage to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, the Shiv Sena did a U-turn on the issue Saturday, terming it her 'personal matter'.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray told mediapersons here that the party's views on Sania-Shoaib marriage were made clear in party mouthpiece Saamna Friday.
'Beyond that, we have no problems with Sania Mirza's marriage with anybody. It's a personal matter and she has right to make a choice of her life partner,' Uddhav declared.
To a question whether Sania should not marry Shoaib, Uddhav replied: 'How can I tell her that? We have no objections to her marrying anybody.'
'Do you have any objections?' he countered to the journalist who had raised the question, even as gathering was in splits.
In an editorial in Saamna, the Shiv Sena had Friday lashed out at the proposed Sania-Shoaib marriage. It even advised her to 'play for Pakistan' after her marriage.
Nalco achieves all-time high production in 2009-10
Surpassing its previous record, the National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has achieved metal production of 4.31 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, against 3.61 lakh tonnes last year, company said today. Similarly, NALCO''s Alumina Refinery at Damanjodi has also recorded the highest-ever production of 15.92 lakh tons of alumina hydrate against the previous best 15.90 lakh tonnes in 2005-06, with capacity utilisation of 101.05 per cent during the last fiscal.
Despite, external hindrances due to Maoist attack on its mines last year, Nalco''s bauxite mines at Panchpatmali Hills of Koraput achieved the highest-ever production, with 48.79 lakh tons against the previous best of 48.54 lakh tons in 2005-06, with capacity utilisation of 101.64 per cent. Similarly, notwithstanding acute coal shortage and severe power fluctuations, its captive power plant, which feeds to the smelter plant at Angul, also achieved highest-ever generation of 6,295 million units against previous year''s 5,541 million units, up 13.6 per cent.
Besides, the Navratna company achieved the highest-ever domestic metal sale of 2.89 lakh tons in 2009-10, surpassing the previous highest of 2.71 lakh tons in 2008-09, with an increase of 6.5 per cent, sources said. The company also registered the highest-ever metal export of 1.47 lakh tons against the previous year''s export of 82,314 million tonne, up by 78.5 per cent.
WCL pre-tax profit at Rs 601 crore
State-owned Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has recorded a profit before tax of Rs 601.04 crores in 2009-10 fiscal. This pre-tax profit was against the budgeted profit of Rs 399.58 crores and last year''s profit of 516.12 crores, WCL chairman-cum-managing director D C Garg told reporters here today.
He said WCL has contributed approximately Rs 892 crores to the state exchequer by way of royalty and taxes and approximately Rs 400 crores as corporate tax. WCL is the highest-paid Corporate Tax payee in the Vidarbha region, Garg said.
Garg, however, rued about problems in acquiring land for coal mining. WCL requires 8,794 hectares of land for mining but had acquired only 4,241 hectares.
Edible oils held steady in thin trade
Edible oils traded steady on the wholesale oils and oilseeds market today as activity remained restricted amid adequate stocks positions.
However, mahuwa oil in the non-edible section, showed some weakness due reduced industrial offtake and traded lower.
Traders said adequate stocks positions against sporadic demand mainly kept edible oils around previous levels but sluggish demand from consuming industries helped non-edible mahuwa oil to trade lower.
In the non-edible section, Mahuwa oil lost Rs 50 at Rs 4,000 per quintal.
In oilseeds section, mustardseed also shed Rs 50 at
at Rs 2,500-2,600 per quintal.
Mkt extends weekly gains for 8th week
The BSE benchmark Sensex continued its northward journey for the eighth straight week ending higher by 48 points at 17,793.01 points on weekly basis after sustained buying by foreign funds.
Buying was seen mainly in capital goods, consumer durables, metal and realty stocks, while IT companies suffered sharp losses following higher rupee values which touched an 18-month high against the dollar.
Foreign funds made heavy purchases in the last month.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought stocks worth more than Rs 19,000 crore in March 2010.
The 30-share Sensex resumed the week higher at 17,639.18 points and immediately touched to a two-year high at 17,793.01. It declined afterwards to 17,488.75 before ending the week at 17,692.62, a net rise of 47.86 points, or 0.27 per cent. The key index had ended at 17,824.48 on March 28, 2008, after hitting an intra-day high at 17,921.51 on the same day.
The rupee rallied to a fresh 18-month high of 44.89 against the greenback, affecting the profit margin of IT firms as the sector derives a lion's share of revenue from exports, especially to the US.
The BSE-IT index declined sharply by 159.41 points, or 2.89 per cent.
Agencies
Rel may not renew Iran crude deal: Report
Reliance Industries may not renew a contract to import Iranian crude oil from this financial year, a media report has said.
According to the report, India's top privately-run refiner did not purchase any Iranian crude in February and March in line with a trend that has seen its purchases from Iran shrink rapidly over the past year.
It is not immediately clear why Reliance is not renewing its annual deal, but it could be due to a price disagreement when the refiner has easy access to competing grades, the report quoted sources as saying.
"For 2010 as of now, we don't have a term contract," a National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) source told Bahrain's Gulf Daily News. "It has nothing to do with the US," he said, adding, the deal had not been renewed due to differences over pricing of Soroush and Nowruz crudes.
While the 90,000-100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude Reliance bought last year made up only eight per cent of its purchases and 2.4 per cent of Iran's sales, the move underscores a drift in Asia away from Iranian crude, the report said.
Japan's imports in 2010 are set to fall by 11 per cent on year to the lowest in 17 years, the report said, citing high prices for Iranian grades, while China's purchases fell nearly 40 per cent in the first two months of the year.
Reliance did not respond to enquiries and Iranian officials declined to comment, the report said.
Reliance's sophisticated complex in Jamnagar in western Gujarat state can refine 1.24m bpd of crude as varied as light West African to heavy sour Middle East grades, allowing it to switch to whatever crude is cheapest, it said.
"It could be they are not happy with the NIOC's reluctance to drop its prices, especially with more attractive competing grades like Russia's ESPO coming onto the market," a trader told the newspaper. Crude from the ESPO pipeline is gaining favour among refiners in Asia due to its attractive price and quality versus the Gulf's heavier sour grades. ESPO offers Reliance an option.
Goa port to build berths for foreign navies, cruises
Separate berthing facilities for Indian Navy's aircraft carriers, foreign naval ships and a passenger cruise terminal for high end liners will be created by 2011 at Goa's only major port at Mormugao, a senior official said Saturday.
Speaking to reporters, Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) chairman Praveen Agarwal said the new facilities were being created at the port as part of a Rs.3,000-crore modernization drive.
'The (Indian) navy has asked us to build a berthing facility for handling aircraft carriers at the Vasco bay,' Agarwal said, adding that a special cruise terminal was also being constructed to encourage passenger cruise tourism.
The port at Mormugao is 40 km from here.
'Although running a passenger cruise terminal is not a very profitable proposition for the port per se, but it has enormous spinoffs for the state and people,' Agarwal said, adding that the terminal would be a shot in the arm for Goa's tourism industry.
The 20-odd passenger cruise ships that docked at the MPT facility in 2009-10, were parked near dusty coal dumps and iron ore loading facility, which is not a pleasant sight for high-spending tourists on a holiday.
'Handling cruise ship traffic is demanding. There are high-end passengers onboard who demand the best. A luxury cruise ship itself is generally spotless white in colour, so even a little coal dust can cause problems,' Agarwal said, adding that the new berth away from the coal and ore heaps would serve as a big draw for cruise tourism.
Agarwal said that nearly Rs.33 crore were also being spent on building a facility for foreign navies who arrive in submarines and large naval vessels to Goa on R&R (rest and recreation) visits.
'Goa is a preferred option for foreign navies who want to make R&R halts. According to navy regulations, they have to get their crew ashore every six months,' Agarwal said.
The official further said that R&R visits by navymen were a good source of money for businesses because of the quantum of money spend by sailors on their recreational trips.
The MPT handles nearly 35 percent of the country's iron ore export.
Centre to increase enrolment ratio in education
Shillong, April 3 (IANS) The central government proposed to increase its gross enrolment ratio (GER) in education sector from the current 12.4 percent to 30 percent by 2020, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said here.
'Education is not only a vehicle of growth but it is also an effective and reliable tool to ensure social justice,' Mukherjee said while addressing the first convocation of the Indian Institute Management-Shillong here in Meghalaya.
The IIM-Shillong also became the first business school in the country to webcast its first convocation ceremony live. As many as 63 students were conferred degrees Saturday.
The 63 graduates have got job offers, with an annual average salary of around Rs.10 lakh with the highest pay package being Rs.34 lakh.
Top recruiters included Deloittes, E&Y, KPMG, PwC, Ogilvy & Mather, Viacom, Warner Brothers, AC Nielsen, Cadbury, Citigroup, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, Tata AIG, SBI Cap, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Siemens, Bosch, Ford, Honda, Lafarge, Hero Group and ONGC.
Mukherjee stressed the need to create a system in education that allows access and inclusion without diluting quality.
'This will require effective partnerships with all stakeholders and collaborative efforts,' Mukherjee said.
In order to achieve the 30 percent gross enrolment ratio, there is a need to have additional infrastructure and increased capacities in higher education system, the finance minister said.
'The government has initiated action towards structural transformation in education sector to ensure expansion, inclusion and excellence,' Mukherjee said.
On IIM-Shillong, one of the youngest B-Schools in the country, Mukherjee said the institute has marked itself out by its unconventional thinking and innovative ideas.
'The IIM has tried to develop and provide an educational framework that would have sustainable management education as the core thrust area,' he said.
He, however, said there is a need to alleviate poverty and to ensure that the benefits of growth and development percolate down to every section of society.
'The centre seeks to ensure that local communities imbibe the best management practices and become partners in India's economic growth and success story,' Mukherjee said.
He also praised the institute for its emphasis on research and development activities.
'Research combined with extension activities can help in nation building by facilitating the benefits of sound technical education to reach more people,' he said.
A. Dutta, the director of the institute, said that the mandate of the institute was to challenge conventional wisdom, integrate traditional knowledge and create a framework for management education.
The institute took in its first batch of students in July 2008 and is looking at increasing the number of seats to 'anything between 90 and 120' this year. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility.
Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex - the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa.
The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is underway for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.
The institute will also hike its annual fees for the next academic session. The board of governors will take the decision in April.
Indo Asian News Service
US stocks fall on fresh jobs fears
New York, April 1 (DPA) US stocks declined Wednesday after a private survey suggested that March was a worse than expected month for the struggling US labour market.
ADP Employer Services predicted that US firms shed 23,000 jobs over the month, dealing a blow to the hopes of economists that the labour market would finally begin emerging from a prolonged slump.
Economists have predicted that 40,000 jobs were added in March, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The government's official monthly tally will be released Friday.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 50.79 points, or 0.47 percent, to 10,856.63. The broader Standard and Poor's 500 Index fell 3.84 points, to 1,169.43. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 12.73 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,397.96.
Wednesday marked a disappointing end to an otherwise strong first quarter. The Dow has climbed 4.11 percent, the S&P jumped 4.87 percent, and the Nasdaq gained 5.68 percent since the start of the year.
The US currency dropped Wednesday against the euro to 74.02 euro cents from 74.56 euro cents Tuesday. The dollar climbed against the Japanese currency to 93.45 yen from 92.8 yen a day earlier.
Indo Asian News Service
Mumbai gets first of 29 revamped holiday inns
New Delhi, April 2 -- Hotel chain Holiday Inn has made a new beginning in India by opening its first up-graded hotel in Mumbai and 28 such 'refreshed' hotels would be added soon. All the hotels would be run through management contracts. This is part of Intercontinental Hotel Group's (IHG) $1 billion (Rs 4,600 crore) global re-branding exercise for Holiday Inn, which includes more than 3,300 hotels around the world. India's first 225-room 'refreshed' Holiday Inn features all the required modifications and is located at Saki Naka, Andheri, an emerging business destination.
Asia Pacific has already got 30 revamped Holiday Inns.
Hindustan Times
5 steps to boost Indian agriculture
The Confederation of Indian Industry is bullish on the Indian agriculture and feels the sector can lift its growth rate above the last ten years' average of 2 per cent.
The industry body has also scripted a five-point agri-reforms agenda to boost Indian agriculture and attract private investment in to the sector.
"Indian agriculture is bouncing back. It is scripting its own success story, thanks to rising private investment, which will lead to a faster growth. Faster growth in agriculture tomorrow will happen because of rising private investment in agriculture today," says Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, CII's Agriculture Council, and Chairman, ITC.
The CII, however, cautions that it is unrealistic to expect a repeat of last year's double-digit growth in agriculture, despite the forecast of a normal monsoon. But CII is of the view that in the coming years, Indian agriculture will grow faster than before.
CII's optimism stems from the fact that across India [ Images ], agribusiness companies are developing new models to reach out to farmers and consumers, providing new technologies, investing more in modern supply chains and in organized food retailing that sells more and more processed food.
According to CII, the surge in private investment is due to increased demand for food and other agricultural commodities. With the income level rising, demand for milk, meat or fish, fruits and vegetables is also increasing. With more urbanisation, Indian families also consume more processed foods, more ready-to-eat foods, etc, says CII. India is becoming a medium-sized agricultural exporter, selling tea, fish, spices and now rice and wheat to foreign countries.
According to CII, smart businesses have realized that it is a growing opportunity to be present in any part of the agricultural value chain, which has led to more investment not only by big companies but even by first-generation entrepreneurs.
Improved rural infrastructure is also playing a key role behind the agri sector's comeback trail. With better rural infrastructure, is comparatively easier and cost-effective to bring farm produce to the market. Better rural roads, more godowns and cold storages, improving rural electricity supply, will all result in faster growth in agriculture, says CII.
According to CII, Indian farmers are learning to take on the challenge of producing better quality produce at internationally competitive prices. They are willing to use new technologies, and become organized.
CII's confidence in India's agriculture stems from the fact that specific commitments are made in the manifestos of the main parties. Significant importance has been given to reforms in agriculture.
CII, however, points out that Indian agriculture still suffers from:
CII, however, points out that Indian agriculture still suffers from:
- Poor productivity.
- Falling water levels.
- Expensive credit.
- A distorted market.
- Many intermediaries who increase cost but do not add much value.
- Laws that stifle private investment.
- Controlled prices.
- Poor infrastructure.
- Produce that does not meet international standards.
- Inappropriate research.
- Tax evasion by unorganised sector leading to the lack of a level playing field.
All these hamper the farmers and the Industry. In addition, agriculture is a state subject, and most states have little funds to invest in agriculture development. According to CII, if these problems are removed, India can become the 'food factory of the world.'
CII believes that agricultural reforms and increased private investment must, benefit farmers, especially small farmers. CII is of the opinion that farmers would benefit by greater corporate investment in agriculture, especially in three areas: getting competitive sources of finance; getting competitive markets to sell to; and getting competitive suppliers of knowledge.
'The Indian Farmers and Industry Alliance' that the CII has set up to bring companies and farm leaders together is only the first step to greater cooperation between these two natural allies. This development was a significant step towards bringing the farmers and corporate sector together, says CII.
According to CII, agriculture in 2004 is like industry was in 1991. The private sector was awaiting policy reforms that would allow it to make much larger investments in this sector.
CII's five main agri-reform agenda includes:
- Give States an incentive to amend the APMC act and abolish mandi taxes. This would allow competitive markets to develop; farmers and processors will both gain.
- Support the organised private sector in increasing its spending on extension and technology transfer. This would give farmers the knowledge of what to grow, and how to grow so that stringent quality norms are met.
- Implement the Unified Food Law, and back it up with lowering the total tax burden on processed foods so that the sector picks up, and consequently demand for farm produce rises.
- Target foreign buyers of high-value ethnic Indian foods, as opposed to commodity exports-starting with the large NRI population of 20 million, which can be a huge market.
- Create a viable model of public-private partnership that allows private investors to invest in agriculture infrastructure in partnership with banks and financial institutions.
According to CII, the problems in Indian agriculture are well known; the many successes that have been achieved across different sectors were not so well known.
Deveshwar says CII will hold 'The Agriculture Summit 2004' at Jaipur [ Images ] on May 11 and 12. This CII flagship conference would showcase these success stories with the idea of 'learning from what works'.
The summit will see the industry, the farmers, the policy makers, financial institutions and commodity exchanges come together and brainstorm with the policy makers, to push reforms in the agri sector.
The CII Agri Summit would be inaugurated by Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister, Rajasthan [ Images ], and would also be addressed by K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
The summit will highlight and discuss several policy issues and other issues, including:
- Agricultural marketing.
- Retailing.
- Wasteland development.
- Risk management.
- Farm extension.
- Farm mechanisation.
- Contract farming.
- Finance.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/may/03spec.htm
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Private investment is helping India's farmers in a way government support cannot
Source: The Economist, 11th March 2010
INDIA is the third-biggest producer of potatoes in the world. The humble spud finds itself stuffed into flatbread, encrusted in cumin seeds or tucked into pancakes. But the truckloads of large, oblong potatoes that arrive at the McCain Foods plant in the Mehsana district of Gujarat face a more exacting ordeal. Ferried by a conveyor belt and propelled by water, they are sized, steam-peeled, sliced, diced, blanched, dried, fried (for precisely 42 seconds in vegetable oil at 199ºC), chilled, frozen, bagged and then boxed.
The 15kg boxes of fries that emerge at the other end of this pipeline supply the growing chain of McDonald's restaurants in India. When McDonald's first entered India in 1996, the food-processing industry was confined largely to ice cream and ketchup. Even importing frozen fries was complicated by the fact that such an exotic item did not appear on India's schedule of tariffs and quotas. It took McDonald's roughly six years and $100m to weld a reliable supply chain together.
For fries, that supply chain begins with 2,000 acres of potato fields in Gujarat, cultivated by 400 farmers under contract with McCain Foods. These cultivators belong to a profession which still employs about half of India's workforce. In Gujarat, agriculture is growing almost as quickly as the rest of the Indian economy. But elsewhere, agriculture is said to be in crisis. The average size of farmers' landholdings is only about 1.3 hectares. If their fields are irrigated at all, they are flooded wastefully, with water flowing down furrows on either side of the crop, taking valuable nitrogen with it. India produces more tractors than any other country, but many farmers still use bullocks instead. They sell their produce at controlled prices in government mandis: marketplaces regulated by the state with the aim of protecting farmers from exploitation by unscrupulous traders.
State governments once took it upon themselves to spread know-how, market intelligence and the fruits of agricultural research to smallholders. But the agricultural extension system is now in some disrepair. Public investment in agriculture has stagnated over the past few years as the government's subsidy bill for food, fertiliser and fuel has risen.
In the absence of public investment, Indian agriculture is increasingly dependent on private outlays, which now account for three-quarters of total investment in the sector. McCain Foods, for example, invested $25m in the Mehsana plant. And in the absence of government extension services, some private companies are finding alternative ways to let farmers know what the customer expects, and how to meet that expectation.
Hitesh Patel, for example, used to grow cottonseed on his six hectares in Idar village, about 125km (80 miles) from the Mehsana plant. Four years ago he planted a hectare of potatoes at McCain Foods' urging and under its guidance. Now he plants potatoes on all of the six hectares he owns and another 1.6 he has leased.
McCain Foods offers him an assured price of 6.50 rupees ($0.14) per kilogram of potatoes, a better rate than the mandi. But they will not buy just any potato. India's common varieties are too small, watery and sugary, caramelising when fried.
Potatoes fit for processing are usually grown in more temperate latitudes. The tuber likes warm days and cool nights. "Wherever are the best regions for wine, potato is not far behind," says Ghislain Pelletier, a McCain agronomist. Firms before McCain had tried and failed to produce potatoes in India that were suitable for processing into fries. Even Harrison McCain, one of the company's founders, doubted it could be done.
But after several years of experimentation, McCain can now supply all of McDonald's needs in India, as well as producing some creations of its own, like Masala Fries. "We used to struggle for size; now we struggle to reduce the size," says Devendra Kumar of McCain India.
McCain's agronomists would first visit farmers like Mr Patel every other day. Now they check in once a week. They insist that farmers give up flooding their furrows with water in favour of drip irrigation, which flows through a pipe punctuated with small nozzles laid along the crop-bed. Drip irrigation produces "more crop per drop", as Mr Pelletier puts it. It moistens the soil at each root, but leaves the ground otherwise dry. This in turn reduces the humidity that attracts pests and blight.
This kind of contract farming began with Punjabi farmers growing tomatoes for Pepsi's food business in the 1980s. But its spread was hampered by tight regulations at the state level on who could buy produce and how. Most states have now eased those restrictions, raising hopes that contract farming—which only accounts for a small fraction of India's annual agricultural output of $220 billion—will flourish.
As incomes in India rise, tastes are changing. Staples are receding in importance. In 1983 food grains accounted for 32% of India's agricultural output; 15 years later they accounted for less than a quarter, according to Ashok Gulati of the International Food Policy Research Institute. But food grains still occupy nearly 64% of India's farmland and an even higher fraction of government concern and energy. "In India, cereals are being increasingly overtaken by fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and poultry," Mr Gulati argues.
McDonald's, for example, recently introduced the Chicken McNugget to India, where it counts as a premium product: all white meat without any bone. When the firm first entered the country, it struggled to find poultry suppliers who could debone meat. Because the chain's products are delicate or perishable they must be handled with far more care than rice or wheat. Frozen fries, for example, are so brittle that they must be handled like eggs. But McDonald's also found that the few refrigerated lorries in the country were mostly devoted to transporting ice cream.
Investments by multinationals like McDonald's can spread into the wider economy. McDonald's, for example, invited East Balt Commissary of Chicago, whose founder supplied buns to Ray Kroc's first McDonald's franchise, to go to India to train the Cremica bakeries in Delhi and Mumbai. East Balt is what Abhijit Upadhye of McDonald's India calls a "good system player". It also asked Schreiber International, which supplies sliced cheese, to tie up with Dynamix Dairy in India. As a result, many other companies, including Nestlé, Unilever and Pepsi, started doing business with Dynamix.
The economic benefits to Gujarat's farmers will also spread. Mr Patel, for one, cannot wait to harvest his potatoes and receive his payment from McCain. He wants to trade in his Maruti-Suzuki car for a grander model made by Honda.
Emerging trends and issues in public and private investments in India agriculture: A statewise analysis
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The trend in public investment in Indian agriculture and its relationship with the private investments have generated considerable interest and debate in recent years. The debate seems to suffer from infirmities on several counts. One, almost all the studies on the theme have used CSO (Central Statistical Organisation) series on public investment in agriculture which is very restrictive, as about 90 per cent of the CSO series is reported to consist of investments in major and medium irrigation (Rao, 1997). The CSO series does not include investment in several items of infrastructure, like …
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The world's worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated four million people died of hunger that year alone in eastern India (that included today's Bangladesh). The initial theory put forward to 'explain' that catastrophe was that there as an acute shortfall in food production in the area. However, Indian economist Amartya Sen (recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1998) has established that while food shortage was a contributor to the problem, a more potent factor was the result of hysteria related to World War II which made food supply a low priority for the British rulers. The hysteria was further exploited by Indian traders who hoarded food in order to sell at higher prices.
Nevertheless, when the British left India four years later in 1947, India continued to be haunted by memories of the Bengal Famine. It was therefore natural that food security was a paramount item on free India's agenda. This awareness led, on one hand, to the Green Revolution in India and, on the other, legislative measures to ensure that businessmen would never again be able to hoard food for reasons of profit.
However, the term "Green Revolution" is applied to the period from 1967 to 1978. Between 1947 and 1967, efforts at achieving food self-sufficiency were not entirely successful. Efforts until 1967 largely concentrated on expanding the farming areas. But starvation deaths were still being reported in the newspapers. In a perfect case of Malthusian economics, population was growing at a much faster rate than food production. This called for drastic action to increase yield. The action came in the form of the Green Revolution.
The term "Green Revolution" is a general one that is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is NOT specific to India. But it was most successful in India.
What was the Green Revolution in India?
There were three basic elements in the method of the Green Revolution:
(1) Continued expansion of farming areas;
(2) Double-cropping existing farmland;
(3) Using seeds with improved genetics.
Continued expansion of farming areas
As mentioned above, the area of land under cultivation was being increased right from 1947. But this was not enough in meeting with rising demand. Other methods were required. Yet, the expansion of cultivable land also had to continue. So, the Green Revolution continued with this quantitative expansion of farmlands. However, this is NOT the most striking feature of the Revolution.
Double-cropping existing farmland
Double-cropping was a primary feature of the Green Revolution. Instead of one crop season per year, the decision was made to have two crop seasons per year. The one-season-per-year practice was based on the fact that there is only natural monsoon per year. This was correct. So, there had to be two "monsoons" per year. One would be the natural monsoon and the other an artificial 'monsoon.'
The artificial monsoon came in the form of huge irrigation facilities. Dams were built to arrest large volumes of natural monsoon water which were earlier being wasted. Simple irrigation techniques were also adopted.
Using seeds with superior genetics
This was the scientific aspect of the Green Revolution. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (which was established by the British in 1929 but was not known to have done any significant research) was re-organized in 1965 and then again in 1973. It developed new strains of high yield value (HYV) seeds, mainly wheat and rice but also millet and corn. The most noteworthy HYV seed was the K68 variety for wheat. The credit for developing this strain goes to Dr. M.P. Singh who is also regarded as the hero of India's Green revolution.
Statistical Results of the Green Revolution
| (1) | The Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 million tons in 1978-79. This established India as one of the world's biggest agricultural producers. No other country in the world which attempted the Green Revolution recorded such level of success. India also became an exporter of food grains around that time. |
| (2) | Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30 per cent between 1947 (when India gained political independence) and 1979 when the Green Revolution was considered to have delivered its goods. |
| (3) | The crop area under HYV varieties grew from seven per cent to 22 per cent of the total cultivated area during the 10 years of the Green Revolution. More than 70 per cent of the wheat crop area, 35 per cent of the rice crop area and 20 per cent of the millet and corn crop area, used the HYV seeds. |
Economic results of the Green Revolution
| (1) | Crop areas under high-yield varieties needed more water, more fertilizer, more pesticides, fungicides and certain other chemicals. This spurred the growth of the local manufacturing sector. Such industrial growth created new jobs and contributed to the country's GDP. |
| (2) | The increase in irrigation created need for new dams to harness monsoon water. The water stored was used to create hydro-electric power. This in turn boosted industrial growth, created jobs and improved the quality of life of the people in villages. |
| (3) | India paid back all loans it had taken from the World Bank and its affiliates for the purpose of the Green Revolution. This improved India's creditworthiness in the eyes of the lending agencies. |
| (4) | Some developed countries, especially Canada, which were facing a shortage in agricultural labour, were so impressed by the results of India's Green Revolution that they asked the Indian government to supply them with farmers experienced in the methods of the Green Revolution. Many farmers from Punjab and Haryana states in northern India were thus sent to Canada where they settled (That's why Canada today has many Punjabi-speaking citizens of Indian origin). These people remitted part of their incomes to their relatives in India. This not only helped the relatives but also added, albeit modestly, to India's foreign exchange earnings. |
Sociological results of the Green Revolution
The Green Revolution created plenty of jobs not only for agricultural workers but also industrial workers by the creation of lateral facilities such as factories and hydro-electric power stations as explained above.
Political results of the Green Revolution
| (1) | India transformed itself from a starving nation to an exporter of food. This earned admiration for India in the comity of nations, especially in the Third World. |
| (2) | The Green Revolution was one factor that made Mrs. Indira Gandhi (1917-84) and her party, the Indian National Congress, a very powerful political force in India (it would however be wrong to say that it was the only reason). |
Limitations of the Green Revolution
| (1) | Even today, India's agricultural output sometimes falls short of demand. The Green Revolution, howsoever impressive, has thus NOT succeeded in making India totally and permanently self-sufficient in food. In 1979 and 1987, India faced severe drought conditions due to poor monsoon; this raised questions about the whether the Green Revolution was really a long-term achievement. In 1998, India had to import onions. Last year, India imported sugar. |
However, in today's globalised economic scenario, 100 per cent self-sufficiency is not considered as vital a target as it was when the world political climate was more dangerous due to the Cold War. | |
| (2) | India has failed to extend the concept of high-yield value seeds to all crops or all regions. In terms of crops, it remain largely confined to foodgrains only, not to all kinds of agricultural produce. In regional terms, only Punjab and Haryana states showed the best results of the Green Revolution. The eastern plains of the River Ganges in West Bengal state also showed reasonably good results. But results were less impressive in other parts of India. |
| (3) | Nothing like the Bengal Famine can happen in India again. But it is disturbing to note that even today, there are places like Kalahandi (in India's eastern state of Orissa) where famine-like conditions have been existing for many years and where some starvation deaths have also been reported. Of course, this is due to reasons other than availability of food in India, but the very fact that some people are still starving in India (whatever the reason may be), brings into question whether the Green Revolution has failed in its overall social objectives though it has been a resounding success in terms of agricultural production. |
| (4) | The Green Revolution cannot therefore be considered to be a 100 percent success. |
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Top domestic news of the week Business Standard Times of India - Calcutta Telegraph - Sify - Financial Express Email this storyPunjab CM to meet PM over death sente4nce to 17 Punjabi youth in UAEPunjabNewsline.com - - 1 hour ago CHANDIGARH: The core committee of Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) which met here Saturday under the Chairmanship of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has decided that Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would meet Prime Minister ... Punjab to set up 1000 mw solar power plants Press Trust of India Cong U-turn: Sharing dais with Big B okayIndian Express - Apr 1, 2010 A section of Maharashtra Cong had objected to CM Ashok Chavan sharing the dais with Bachchan at a public function last week. Making a turnaround on Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, the Congress on Thursday praised him as a "very good actor" and said it ... Video: Did Congress' attack on Big B backfire? NDTV.comThe Sea Link De-link Zee News (blog) Merinews - Daily News & Analysis - Little About (blog) - SINDH TODAY Email this storyNo Army help for anti-Naxal operations: Chief General VK SinghTimes of India - - 19 hours ago NEW DELHI: The armed forces, already heavily deployed in battling militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, remain steadfast in their opposition to being dragged into anti-naxal operations as well. New Army chief focused on curbing corruption IBNLive.com India launches Census 2011, the biggest-ever in historyThe Hindu - - Apr 1, 2010 MORE THAN A HEAD COUNT: Registrar-General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli announces the launch of Census 2011 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, where the first citizen and President, Pratibha Patil, was enumerated. Census 2011: Govt begins mother of all headcounts Hindustan Times Census 2011 begins: 21 lakh officials roped in Indian Express Chavan govt's pace will put a tortoise to shame, says new state BJP chiefIndian Express - 17 hours ago Succeeding Nitin Gadkari as state BJP president, Sudhir Mungantiwar on Friday said his priority would be to launch public campaigns against the Congress-NCP government and increase the party's support base. Sudhir Mungantivar is new Maharashtra BJP president Daily News & Analysis BJP to intensify stir over price rise Assam Tribune |
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Sweden's futuristic medium fighter, the Gripen NG, has been given a second chance in the $11 billion contest to select a Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has asked Gripen International, which last month failed to send the Gripen NG fighter for trials in India on the dates allotted by the IAF, to send the fighter for trials in the middle of May.
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A report by Saby Ganguly
The world's worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated four million people died of hunger that year alone in eastern India (that included today's Bangladesh). The initial theory put forward to 'explain' that catastrophe was that there as an acute shortfall in food production in the area. However, Indian economist Amartya Sen (recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1998) has established that while food shortage was a contributor to the problem, a more potent factor was the result of hysteria related to World War II which made food supply a low priority for the British rulers. The hysteria was further exploited by Indian traders who hoarded food in order to sell at higher prices. What was the Green Revolution in India? There were three basic elements in the method of the Green Revolution: (1) Continued expansion of farming areas; (2) Double-cropping existing farmland; (3) Using seeds with improved genetics. Continued expansion of farming areas As mentioned above, the area of land under cultivation was being increased right from 1947. But this was not enough in meeting with rising demand. Other methods were required. Yet, the expansion of cultivable land also had to continue. So, the Green Revolution continued with this quantitative expansion of farmlands. However, this is NOT the most striking feature of the Revolution. Double-cropping existing farmland Double-cropping was a primary feature of the Green Revolution. Instead of one crop season per year, the decision was made to have two crop seasons per year. The one-season-per-year practice was based on the fact that there is only natural monsoon per year. This was correct. So, there had to be two "monsoons" per year. One would be the natural monsoon and the other an artificial 'monsoon.' The artificial monsoon came in the form of huge irrigation facilities. Dams were built to arrest large volumes of natural monsoon water which were earlier being wasted. Simple irrigation techniques were also adopted. Using seeds with superior genetics This was the scientific aspect of the Green Revolution. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (which was established by the British in 1929 but was not known to have done any significant research) was re-organized in 1965 and then again in 1973. It developed new strains of high yield value (HYV) seeds, mainly wheat and rice but also millet and corn. The most noteworthy HYV seed was the K68 variety for wheat. The credit for developing this strain goes to Dr. M.P. Singh who is also regarded as the hero of India's Green revolution. Statistical Results of the Green Revolution
Economic results of the Green Revolution
Sociological results of the Green Revolution The Green Revolution created plenty of jobs not only for agricultural workers but also industrial workers by the creation of lateral facilities such as factories and hydro-electric power stations as explained above. Political results of the Green Revolution
Limitations of the Green Revolution
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