FACE - OFF

A drop from the Whiskey River

2011-08-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

"What is your life about, anyway? Nothing but a struggle to be someone. Nothing but a running from your own silence."
- Rumi

This means that we have barely
disembarked into life,
that we've only just now been born,
let's not fill our mouths
with so many uncertain names,
with so many sad labels,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much yours and mine,
with so much signing of papers.

I intend to confuse things,
to unite them, make them new-born
intermingle them, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the unity of the ocean,
a generous wholeness,
a fragrance alive and crackling.
- Pablo Neruda

A Love Letter

2011-08-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

As a long weekend ends, I was skimming through some old posts in my father's blog. I stumbled upon a letter he once wrote to the girl with whom he was in love with(who eventually became his wife and my mother) when he was twenty. More than three decades since i could see that their feelings for each other still remains hard and strong. This was published in his blog about two years ago, when my mother was away from home for about two months months for my sister's delivery. I am re-publishing it here without his permission.

For days it was as if I never existed.
You have blotted me out of your world
Like a wilted flower from your vase.

I have treasured our unuttered pledges:
Rising with your name as a prayer on my lips,
Breathing the morning breeze,
Marveling,
Oh God,
Isn’t this the same fragrance my dear one breathes!

I waited beneath your window last night,
My heart aflutter in the moonlight
For a rustle at the curtain,
The fleeting glimpse of a shadow...

Throughout you kept it shut.

Signature

2011-08-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

"Most people make fun of me.But i say what is it that you do everyday that pushes you to the breaking point,that makes you feel alive while you are pouring every ounce of strength you have just to get a fraction of an inch farther. How often do you get to experience the ecstasy of doing something similar or have you ever in your dump dry life experienced something similar?. I do it every day, I live everyday and I can die any day without any regrets."

- Signature of a meat-head in a Weight Training forum

HOW FREE ARE YOU?

2011-07-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

##Center for Civil Society (CSS) conducted a national level essay writing competition this year.They invited papers on the topic 'How free are you?'. As the prize money involved was pretty descent,I have put some effort in compiling ideas from many write-ups and from a few articles previously published in this blog ##

Summary

"How free are you?‟ Six decades since independence, the relevance of this question is on an all time high. India has one of the worst human development indicators in the world and it is sobering to learn that we are behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as most other comparable Asian countries such as SriLanka, Vietnam and China on indicators such as life expectancy at birth and mean years of schooling. The cheer leaders of Indian economic growth have been boasting over the steady growth of 8-9% in real gross domestic product since 2003-04. But in this elite-consumption-cum-private corporate investment-led growth process, the question of whether this GDP growth is reflecting on all sections of the society is deliberately left unanswered. As the historian-philosopher Donald Sassoon has noted, “the ideology of growth for growth‟s sake is the ideology of the cancer cells”. In fact our economy is infected by this cancer. As a result of policy making which promotes „corporate socialism‟ pushing „social spending‟ to back seat, the chasm between different strata of the society is widening day by day. Corruption is on a all time high with around 240 crore rupees flowing out of the nation every day on an average through illicit means. Coincidentally the same amount of money is written off in terms of corporate income tax by the Government every single day. This plunder of public wealth is happening when the estimated rural poverty in India is 41.8%, when 77% of the population lives on a per-capita consumption expenditure of Rs.20 a day and 93% of Indian workforce live without food security, livelihood security and social security. When even the right of an individual to enjoy the fruits of economic growth of the nation is denied, how free are we? Is it possible to achieve human freedom in a capitalist economy, where human beings are objectified? Could mere patchwork reforms bring about a solution to these complex issues? This paper discuss these issues from the perspective of economic freedom, to which all other freedoms are inextricably linked.

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Democracy, Economic Freedom and Liberty are some of the commonly repeated words in the political arena, though most often used in a consciously dishonest way. Not to mention the fact that meaning of these words are forgotten long back. The quest for an answer to the question “How free are you?”, should begin from finding the word ‘freedom’. Quoting American author P.J. O'Rourke "Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights; those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle”. Then what is freedom? It is a scenario where the society provides all individuals equal opportunity for growth and personal development, where the ‘right to have the rights’ is guaranteed along with a duty to take up the responsibility of its consequences. In a free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, governments allow labour, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.₁

Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal recently conducted a study to rank the countries of the world on the basis of their economic freedom. The index ranking was based on the sum total of various parameters such as business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, freedom from corruption, financial freedom, investment freedom, monetary freedom etc in a country. India was ranked as 124th freest country in the world and was categorized under ‘mostly un-free nations’.₂ In one of the ranking parameters,’ freedom from corruption’, the country scores so low that it is categorized under ‘repressed nations’ Even worse is the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the different strata of the Indian society. Last October, when India celebrated the purchase of 150 Mercedes Benz in one go by a businessman in Aurangabad projecting it as a sign of rural resurgence, the latest report released by Crime Records bureau shows that over 17,368 farmers killed themselves out of debt in this year of rural resurgence.₃ The Tendulkar committee report of 2004-05 estimates the rural poverty in India as 41.8%. 77% of the population lives on a per-capita consumption expenditure of Rs.20 a day. 93% of Indian workforce does not have food security, livelihood security and social security. Clearly we are far from a position to qualify ourselves to the status of being called a ‘free-society’.

The Misleading GDP Calculus

The cheer leaders of Indian economic growth have been boasting over the steady growth of 8-9% in real gross domestic product since 2003-04. But in this elite-consumption-cum-private corporate investment-led growth process, the question of whether this GDP growth is reflecting on all sections of the society is deliberately left unanswered. Many a times, the overall progress of a nation is measured in the terms of GDP rates. But the plight of the lower strata of the Indian society over the years in which Indian economy proudly boasted its steady GDP growth proves that concept that ‘benefits of GDP growth will trickle-down to the poor’ is intellectually untenable and morally questionable₄.

The accelerating growth and accumulation of capital is associated with a phenomenal increase in share surplus. The hope that this surplus of shares could be taxed and be utilized for the welfare of the poor never gets realized. Instead what happens is the illicit flow of wealth from our country to abroad. And this becomes much easier under liberalised economy. According to a recent paper of Global Financial Integrity program of the Centre for International Policy titled “The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008”, the money that had flown out of India illicitly to accounts abroad over its post-Independence history stretching from 1948 through 2008 was around $213 billion. The adjusted present value of those historical flows has been placed at $462 billion or around 36 per cent of India's GDP in 2008. This paper also states: “68 per cent of India's aggregate illicit capital loss occurred after India's economic reforms in 1991, indicating that deregulation and trade liberalisation actually contributed to/accelerated the transfer of illicit money abroad.”₅.

Corporate Socialism and Maoism

The word freedom does not confine within the limits of economic freedom. But all other freedoms are inextricably linked with Economic freedom. This is a country which calls itself a democracy and at same time is forced to openly declare war within its borders. The government calls Maoism as the gravest internal security threat our country is facing. But in reality it is not. Poverty, non-governance, and corruption are. Maoist rebels are merely mirrors of our own failings as a nation₆. If we analyse the root cause of this sort of extremism, it ultimately points to abdication of governance by the state, extreme poverty, social discrimination and expropriation land from the poor.

It is the policy making that is ultimately responsible for all these extremist outbreaks. In India, every plunder of public money for private profit is projected as a pro-poor measure. The Indian union budget writes off corporate income tax worth Rs.240 crore every single day on average. In six years from 2005-06, the Government of India wrote off corporate income tax worth Rs.3,74,937 crore — more than twice the 2G fraud ₇. While promoting this legal plunder of money at one end, the expenditure on PDS and food subsidies is heartlessly slashed. As per the budget estimates for 2010-11, the spending on education was only 2.98 per cent of GDP and that on health was an even megre 1.27 per cent. As a result of these policy makings which are meant exclusively to safeguard the interests of private investors, what that is expropriated for the sake of economic development went out of the reach of the proletarians. So instead of trickling down, the benefits ended up being siphoned away to the privileged sections of the society. This ‘corporate socialism’ has been a major cause of rise of left wing extremism in India, When policy makers deny the right of an individual to enjoy the fruits of economic growth through legislation, how free are we?

Multidimensional Poverty

In order to initiate an inclusive growth process where the fruits of our economic growth reach all sections of the society, it is essential to bring about reforms targeting benefits to the underprivileged sections of the society. Now another question that arises is whether while targeting benefits, is income of a person a good enough criterion for determining his deprivation or level of poverty? The Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has now come up with a new criterion for determining this called Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). According to OPHI "Multidimensional poverty encompasses a range of deprivations that a household may suffer. Most countries of the world define poverty by income. Yet poor people themselves define their poverty much more broadly, to include lack of education, health, housing, empowerment, humiliation, employment, personal security and more”.₈ No one indicator, such as income or caste, is uniquely able to capture the multiple aspects that contribute to backwardness or poverty. Alkire Foster Method identifies who is poor by considering the intensity of deprivations they suffer. Undoubtedly, a more accurate measure of well-being.

Extreme diversity in all walks of life is a key feature of Indian social set up. The OPHI studies in fact shows that India is made up of different nations stretching from middle income Asian nations to starving sub-Saharan nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that the conditions of the states Kerala and Goa are close to that of Paraguay and the Philippines. At the same time Somalia, where 300,000 people died in a famine in the early 1990s, performs slightly worse than Bihar while Sierra Leone, the world's third worst performer on the Human Development Index, is at roughly the same level. When such a diversity in MPI exist in this country, is it not nonsensical to have a common criterion for the implementation of upliftment programs? This is an issue which need to be discussed and debated with seriousness.

Achieving Freedom from Corruption

In our country there are institutions to fight corruption. First one is the judiciary. For example the Supreme Court, through public interest litigation [PIL], has been able to strike a blow for citizens' rights. In 2004, a Supreme Court judgment that every candidate [contesting an election] has to declare the number of criminal cases filed against him, his educational qualification and his wealth brought about a great element of transparency in the electoral system. Second one is the Election commission. The third is the CAG [Comptroller and Auditor General].The fourth agency is the Central Vigilance Commission, though it has very limited powers. The fifth, is the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Accoding to R.K Raghavan, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the clause that makes it necessary the approval of government for CBI for even preliminary enquiry against officers above the rank of Joint Secretary, considerably whittles down the power of CBI to bring the wrongdoers to light. He says that the provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure in this regard, which vests authority on the government [whether or not to appeal] needs to be deleted as it is heavily misused by governments.₉ By strengthening these agencies, by giving them powers that will enable them take actions even against people of high social and political status, the problem with corruption can be tackled up to a great extend.

The sensitisation challenge in Education

Greed of the privileged class is undoubtedly the underlying force that promotes an environment that denies all sorts of freedom for the underprivileged. We live in a society, where a sudden increase in wealth of an individual is looked upon as an indicator of business acumen. Here profit-making and the accumulation of wealth are celebrated and rewarded, an increase in the wealth is normally seen as a virtue and a reflection of “entrepreneurship” and “innovation”. The source of wealth or whether corruption or violation of laws is involved in the process of accumulation of this wealth is never put under scanner. In a society which promotes an environment which breeds such attitudes in individuals from their very young age, instances of corruption will be high. Unfortunately, in our society, to a very great extent, education is associated with common sense and intelligence and sharpness which need not always be the case. It is finally the mind that plays a role in defining attitudes. One is either are open, sensitive, creative, concerned and are adaptable to change - or not. Education itself does not necessarily bring about drastic change. Education, instead of breeding a competitive, profit-motive generation, should sensitise individuals about the real issues in our society and develop values of philanthropy in them.

High quality teaching staff is an essential pre-requisite for achieving all these. But the latest reports show that there is a shortage of 1.2 million teachers in our country.₁₀ It is high time to make teaching profession attractive by introducing incentives and making facilities of schools better. Many solutions have been proposed to successfully tackle all these challenges, including emulating the decentralization model followed in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and giving greater power to gram panchayats to oversee teacher recruitment and training in rural areas. Along with this, a reform in the education system, with a stress on creating an environment that help develop a generation of individuals who uphold the right values can be created in schools must be also looked into.

Transcendence of Capitalism – An essential requisite for Human Freedom

Amartya Sen in his seminal work ‘Development as Freedom’ states that the well being of humans should be considered both the goal and the means for development, not simply as a spurious side effect. “Freedoms,” he argues, “are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means.” Development should be seen as a process of expanding freedoms.₁₁ But the means-based development approach that the Indian government projects, is rather exploitative in nature, giving rise to growth of wealth at one pole and of misery at another. This capitalistic approach is inimical to human freedom precisely because within it mankind is trapped in a self-acting and self-driven order where individuals become coercive forces. Human beings under this system this system is ‘objectified’, in a sense that immanent tendencies of capital are mediated through human beings, who therefore cease to be subjects and are reduced to a mere status of objects.₁₂ This objectification is denial of human freedom: capitalism is incompatible with human freedom because it objectifies human beings.

According to Adam Smith, any restriction placed on the functioning of the self-acting, self-driven economic order of the bourgeois society by meddlesome sovereigns or governments is at the best futile and at worst pernicious since it destroys the coherence of its functioning. As human freedom is denied under this economic system and as precisely because government intervention cannot mend this issue, it is evident that to achieve such a freedom, it requires transcendence of this order.

Exclusion of one section of the society from the benefits of Economic growth, by all means is violation of human rights. Welfare of people should be the primary aim of any legislation. It should be understood that welfare is not a gift given to the people by the state, but a basic right of a citizen. The pseudo rights that the bourgeois government in India projects that it is giving to the people like a Right to Education Act, with no access to proper quality state- run schools in rural areas and a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) without a guarantee of minimum wages is not enough. What we need is a system which has humans is placed at centre stage and development process mended around it, where the right to have rights is guaranteed through legislation, a policy-making that has the capacity to initiate the trickle-down and not just a mere effort to maximize the value of the equation ‘GDP= C+ Inv +G +(eX-i)’ *.

Need for Individual transformation

If we want to change the existing conditions, we must first transform ourselves, which means that we need to become more aware of our own actions, thoughts and feelings in everyday lives. If we avoid the responsibility of acting individually and wait for some new system to bring about the change, we shall merely become slaves of that system. Now, what that is happening over the world is that we, who are citizens and educators, who are responsible for the existing government, do not fundamentally care whether there is freedom or misery for man. We want a little reform here and there, but most of us are afraid to tear down the present society and build a new structure, for this world requires a radical transformation of ourselves.₁₃It is high time for us to understand that we are confronted, not with a political or economic crisis, but with a crisis of human deterioration which no political party or economic system can avert. Everyone want to make the change, but most of us are doing nothing about it. We go on day after day exactly as before; we do not want to strip away all our false values and start anew. We want to do patchwork reform, which only leads to problems of still further reform. But the building is crumbling, the walls are giving away, and the fire is destroying it. We must have the guts to leave the building, start on new ground, with different foundations, different values.

Notes

* GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)

References

1. Terry Miller and Anthony B. Kim, “Defining Economic Freedom,” Chapter 5 in Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., 2010 Index of Economic Freedom (Washington: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 2010), p. 58.

2. 2009 Index of Economic Freedom - Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal - Ambassador Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D.

3. P.Sainath , Of luxury cars and lowly tractors – THE HINDU, December 27,2010.

4. Prabhat Patnaik, A left Approach to Development – Economic and Political Weekly, July 24,2010.

5. “The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008” - http://www.gfip.org/storage/gfip/documents/reports/india/gfi_india.pdf

6. Sudeep Chakravarti, ‘Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country’

7. P.Sainath, Corporate Socialism’s 2G Orgy, THE HINDU

8. Alkire, Sabina & Maria Emma Santos. 2010. India Country Briefing. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Multidimensional Poverty Index Country Briefing Series. ww.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-country-briefings/

9. Optimism on speedy 2G spectrum scam trial – Interview with R.K. Raghavan , the distinguished former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), published in THE HINDU

10. Krishna Kumar ,Reading is basic to democracy – THE HINDU, January 20, 2011.

11. Development as Freedom – Amartya Sen, Oxford University Press, 1999.

12. Prabhat Patnaik, Re-Envisioning Socialism – Economic and Political Weekly, Novembr 3, 2007.

13. J.Krishnamurthi, Education and significance of Life.

Other References

i. A Modest Man Named Smith - By Leo Rosten

ii. Government failure versus Market Failure – Robert Anderson. Just get out of the way : ‘How Government help business in poor countries’.

iii. J.Krishnamurthi, On Politics,The Collected Works, Vol. VI.

iv. Make Poverty History: Tackle Corruption -Wolfgang Kasper

v. Vishnu Venugopal, A trickle down that Never happened

vi. Vishnu Venugopal, Is Caste a commensurate criterion for Reservations?

vii. Interview given by N.Vittal, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to Frontline, December 2010.

viii. Global multidimensional poverty - OPHI’s interactive world map
http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index

Being Alive

2011-05-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

The dark sky,the cold wind blowing on my face, the slow ballad played from a gramophone next door set the mood perfect in the silence of the dark night.I can feel the sand beneath my feet, I breathed in life, I am alive. The very understanding that we are in a phenomenal condition of 'being alive', kills almost all psychological problems and unhappiness in life.

Mantra for Life

2011-03-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Dead-lift as if your whole life depended on it.
Smile at those who frown at you.
Be sympathetic to pseudo-intellectuals and
Live and die as a successful nobody.

Dialogue

2011-02-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

Lover Boy: Its Valentine’s day

Brainy Guy : Yes..Another trade gimmick of bourgeois companies to make money taking advantage of stupid people like you who got stuck by Cupid’s arrow. According to Research Bureau of ASSOCHAM, Corporates,big, small and tiny across our country earned around Rs.12,000 crore on account of extra sales of V-cards, chocolates, diamonds and watches in the year 2010. Remember that this is happening in a country where 77% of the population lives on a per-capita consumption expenditure of Rs.20 a day.

Lover Boy: I've heard this 77% statistics atleast a hundred times over from you.

Brainy Guy : Like Andre Gide says “Everything has been said already; but as no one listens, we must always begin again”.

Lover boy: You know what? You’ll never understand a thing about this love... There are many things that defies the language of logic. When she smiled and waved her hands at me that day, not even in my wildest dreams had I thought that it would be the last time I would be experiencing that ecstasic feeling of her presence. We (I) had plans. To meet her again, to let her know what she meant to me, not expecting anything, without even a demand of being loved in return. But plans never workout, this is the very beauty of life and now thus we are oceans apart. Like a tiny bird in search of nectar, I flew from place to place, tossed up and down, fluttered my tiny wings , performed the balancing act and impressed many pretty audience. But I realized that nothing could come anywhere close to the unmatched ecstasy her very presence offered me. Without even my knowing, she had occupied every thought of mine that I could no longer think of anything else. Its been almost an year since I last saw her and I’m still in love with her.

Brainy Guy : Illusions, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. Only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, you must know it by now, it's pointless!!(Matrix 1999). Think !!..Am I not speaking logic? It is a disease of human mind. Everyone always want to be validated and recognised by someone. The underlying force behind almost every thing a person do is this need. That is exactly what people who go in search of that special person in life is also doing. Searching for a means to satisfy their need to be validated and recognised by someone.

Lover Boy: You are nuts..Just like Wachowskis

Brainy Guy : I just love Agent Smith...That guy speak logic.

Lover Boy : See..you are also in LOVE. Its just that you are not thinking STRAIGHT.

.

On Republic Day

2011-01-26T01:05:00.000-08:00

About Nine decades since M.K Gandhi was sentenced to six years imprisonment, under the colonial law of sedition by the British, it is a matter of grave concern the abysmal nadir to which our judiciary has convoluted to, when the Raipur high court sentenced Dr. Binayak Sen for lifetime imprisonment, under the same colonial law, without even a fair trial. Dr.Binayak Sen, a man who walked bare footed into the lowest strata of society and took up issues of basic health, social security and human rights of the people of Chhattisgarh, ended up being a prey to the vendetta of the fascist police state of Chhattisgarh , for his bold opposition against the state sponsored canniballic anti-maoist onslaught of Salwa Judum, which forced tens of thousands of civilian tribals abandon their homes . On the 62nd anniversary of Indian Republic, it is time for all believers in democracy to raise up their voice against the draconian laws like that of sedition, and the miscarriage of Justice against Dr.Binayak Sen.

GM crops – A Response

2011-01-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

This is a response to a letter published in The Hindu newspaper on 07th of January 2011.

"This refers to Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac's statement that the CPI (M) is neither opposed to Genetically Modified crops nor is ready to offer them unqualified support (Jan. 3). To Mr. Isaac, GM crops means Monsanto and Monsanto means GM crops. It is hard to believe that he is unaware of the ground realities of GM crop cultivation in the world. To say that he is neither for nor against GM crops and then proclaim that the State is GM-free is contradictory.
GM crops have been rigorously examined the world over for their biological, human, animal and environmental impact and there are scores of peer reviewed research reports testifying to the scientific aspects of safety and environmental risks. It has been clearly established that the economic benefits of the technology reach the growers directly. Mr. Isaac should pay more attention to his party colleague Ramachandran Pillai who is reported to have said that opposition to GM crops amounts to superstition."

-Dr. Shanthu Shantharam

The sarcasm on left parties for not supporting the introduction of GM corps into Indian market is out of sheer ignorance of the author on this topic. Experts could have waved white flag over the concerns on biological, human, animal and environmental impact of GM corps. But the matter of concern is the impact of the same on Indian economy. During the recent visit of US president Barack Obama, a joint statement was made with Dr. Manmohan Singh which called for the co-operation of both the counties towards developing, testing and replicating transformative technologies to extend food security as part of an ‘Evergreen Revolution’.
Many high-yielding varieties of seeds were launched during the first green revolution. The intellectual property rights of most of these GM seeds are now held by Mosnsantos and Dupuntos, US agribusiness corporations. Now they are attempting to use the human resource potential of India to work for their business-oriented research in this field, which has the potential to rapidly commercialise their products. US agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Wal-Mart and Archer Daniels Midland, are now trying to bring about changes in regulation related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), GM seeds, contract farming, and intellectual property rights in agriculture.

Quoting an editorial article published in Economic & Political weekly in the light of recent Joint statement issued by our Prime-minister and President of United States on the collaboration in agricultural research in the name of food security : “Overall, if all goes well for US agribusiness interests and their Indian representatives, the local agents of the Monsantos and the Duponts will increasingly be trading hybrid seeds with “terminator genes”, contract farming will spread, irrigation and the distribution of water will be further commercialised, land reform will proceed in reverse, food coupons for a very narrowly defined “poor” will replace the public distribution system, and futures trading in food grains will flourish, all in the name of ushering in food security”.

If we are indigenously able to develop GM corps, or if we are able to make agreements with foreign countries on collaboration in research and development of the GM corps, without norms that can potentially harm Indian economy, it will be a welcome move. Unfortunately the Government of India has been successful in fogging the true picture of the possible consequences of promoting GM corps which are intellectual properties of Multinational Agribusiness giants under the cover of the term ‘food security’. It is interesting to note that Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill has sections, that aims to suppress the opposition to GMOs and GM products and that promotes non-disclosure of relevant data and other information to the public. It may be a truth the statement that “for Dr.Thomas Issac GM crops means Monsanto and Monsanto means GM crops”, but for India Monsantos and Duponts mean ‘social and economic catastrophe’.

A Trickle Down that Never Happened

2011-01-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

An analysis on why trickle-down of wealth to the proletarians does not happen in a liberelised economy.

The year 2010 ended with good news and a bad news. The good news is that India is showing signs of economic recovery and is moving up fast in the spiral of growth with its GDP for the year estimated as 8.5 p.c. The sad news is that in this year of economic resurgence, the latest report released by Crime Records bureau shows a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides compared to the previous year, with over 17,368 farmers killing themselves. It is quite natural the question of why this is happening when the nation is flying high in the development trajectory, to arise in the minds of any mediocre Indian.

The GDP figure is often looked upon as the sum total of entire development of a nation. Many a times, the overall progress of a nation is measured in the terms of GDP rates. By logic, a larger GDP enables the State to garner larger resources through taxation, and hence to spend more for the benefit of the poor. The economists give explanation for how a growth in GDP of a nation improves the standard of living of the lower strata of the society through a concept called ‘trickle-down-effect’. But plight of the lower strata of the Indian society over the years in which Indian economy proudly boasted its steady GDP growth makes it clear to any layman that the process of trickle down is actually not working. Dr.Prabhat Patnaik in one of his papers calls this concept intellectually untenable and morally questionable.

The Manmohan effect, as some people call it, Indian economy has been growing steadily since economic liberalisation. There is no doubt that liberalisation has brought about a lot of good to the country. Under liberalisation, the state stared diluting the strict policies it took earlier in public interest, to regulate private activity and started acting as an agent to promote private investment. This resulted in large scale private investments to take place in our country which resulted in an increase the inflow of foreign money. But liberalized regime was also associated with large instances of corruption. For example under-pricing of public-assets in the process of disinvestment of public-enterprises became a common scenario.

According to Mr.N.Vittal, former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC),in an interview given to Frontline “Liberalisation has led to mega corruption. Earlier, under the permit-license raj, it was retail corruption because individuals were trying to get licenses. After liberalisation, politicians can make money only by mega corruption, which can come only through policymaking.” As a result of such policy makings which are meant to safeguard the interests of private investors, what that is expropriated for the sake of economic development went out of the reach of the proletarians. So instead of trickling down, the benefits started moving up by capillary effect.

The accelerating growth and accumulation of capital is associated with a phenomenal increase in share surplus. The hope that this surplus of shares could be taxed and be utilized for the welfare of the poor never gets realized. Instead what happens is the illicit flow of wealth from our country to abroad. And this becomes much easier under liberalised economy. According to a recent paper of Global Financial Integrity program of the Centre for International Policy titled “The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008”, the money that had flown out of India illicitly to accounts abroad over its post-Independence history stretching from 1948 through 2008 was around $213 billion. The adjusted present value of those historical flows has been placed at $462 billion or around 36 per cent of India's GDP in 2008. This paper also states: “68 per cent of India's aggregate illicit capital loss occurred after India's economic reforms in 1991, indicating that deregulation and trade liberalisation actually contributed to/accelerated the transfer of illicit money abroad.”

Exclusion of one section of the society from the benefits of Economic growth under the liberalised regime, by all means is violation of human rights. Welfare of people should be the primary aim of any legislation. It should be understood that welfare is not a gift given to the people by the state, but a basic right of a citizen. The pseudo rights that the bourgeois government in India projects that it is giving to the people like a Right to Education Act, with no access to proper quality state- run schools in rural areas and a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with no guarantee of minimum wages (Read ‘A Political Agenda to Minimise Wages’ – Economic & Political Weekly, Vol XLV No.50) are not enough.

What we need is a complete reform in policymaking with a clear cut understanding what the term ’development’ intend to mean for a nation, an understanding that what we need is an ‘inclusive growth’. What we need is a reform in policy making which actually guarantees the rights of every citizen and prevents the illicit flow of wealth that is meant to reach the proletarians, that has the capacity to initiate the trickle-down and not just a mere effort to maximize the value of the equation ‘GDP= C+ Inv +G +(eX-i)’.

References

A left Approch to Development – Prabhat Patnaik
Interview given by N.Vittal, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to Frontline, published on December 17th 2010 issue.
“The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008” - http://www.gfip.org/storage/gfip/documents/reports/india/gfi_india.pdf

The Free Man

2011-01-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more dynamic, spontaneous and hence more dangerous than a free-man.

An Observer's Note 2

2010-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

It was a day eagerly awaited by all. They called it "The Freshers Day".Most of the girls took half day leave and left office early. Nobody wanted to be late for appointments fixed with the beauticians for their makeover sessions. It would be pointless of them spending all their money on the extensive shopping exclusively made for this evening, if they were to get eclipsed by some other girls at the party.

While almost all girls followed the widely accepted "lesser the better" law in selecting their apparels for the night, guys turned up dressed like the Blackberry boys. Every possible effort was made to look better, smarter and more seductive.Like Prof.John Nash [The Beautiful Mind(2001)] says, at the end of the day essentially what everyone want out of all these is simply fluid exchange.

Living Passionately

2010-11-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

## This is an excerpt form a letter I've written to my father. Edited so as to publish in a public blog ##

“Live passionately, with all the injuries that can happen as a result: it is worth it” -Paulo Coehlo

“ When you yourself are not ambitious, not acquisitive, not clinging to your own security – only then you can respond to a challenge and create a new world.” - J.Krishnamurthi

My father once told me that wherever we go, whatever we do, we should live every moment creatively and that it is possible to do that, if we are able to switch ourselves to a particular orbit. When he said, ‘being creative’, I assume that he didn’t mean indulging into doing creative stuff all the time, but putting ourselves into a position free from conditioning and external pressures, so that our mind is in a ready-state for being creative, any second, spontaneously. To be in that position, the most essential pre-requisite is to have a mind that is not fragmented, fully focused.

But the question is will it ever be possible to have a mind that is not fragmented, not under conflict. Even many of those whom we label as ‘creative’, in a deeper sense will be in deep conflict – with their wife, society, family. The solution to this conflict, I believe should arise from an understanding of its root cause. Discovering the answer to an old kinder garden question “what do you want to do in life?’, is the first step towards this. The moment we start doing something with our heart, the moment we start living passionately, that very moment we break-free of this inner conflict, that very moment we become immensely creative.

But we are all conditioned to be ambitious, conditioned to be achievers. The toxic brew of this achievement pressure and comparative evaluations by the society always put our inner-self in conflict. The main problem that I believe, in yielding to these pressures is that we end up being in a flow, like a dead log of wood with no sense of direction.

The fear of an insecure illusionary future pulls back most of the people from doing things they are passionate about. The purpose of their whole life, end up being - “to retire”. Many of them, never in their life, will realize the foolishness in clinging to their own security and the few who does, will be too late that they could then do nothing else but look back and regret at what they have forfeited for mere materialistic gains.

The question is, ‘is it worth keeping our life’s passion at hostage for materialistic gains like money, security and respect?’, ‘is it not foolish if we don’t respond to a call of realization that many people get only much later in their life?’.

If I had a life to live over - published in Paulo Coehlo's blog

Of course, you can’t unfry an egg, but there is no law against thinking about it.

If I had my life to live over, I would try to make more mistakes.
I would relax. I know of very few things that I would take seriously.
I would go more places. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less bran.

I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary troubles.
You see, I have been one of those fellows who live prudently and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.
Oh, I have had my moments. But if I had it to do over again, I would have more of them – a lot more.

I never go anywhere without a thermometer, a gargle, a raincoat and a parachute.
If I had it to do over, I would travel lighter.

If I had my life to live over, I would pay less attention to people telling us we must learn Latin or History; otherwise we will be disgraced and ruined and flunked and failed.
I would seek out more teachers who inspire relaxation and fun.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted a little earlier in the spring and stay that way a little later in the fall.
I would shoot more paper wads at my teachers.
I would keep later hours.

I’d have more sweethearts.
I would go to more circuses.
I would be carefree as long as I could, or at least until I got some care- instead of having my cares in advance.

I doubt, however, that I’ll do much damage with my creed.
The opposition is too strong.
There are too many serious people trying to get everybody else to be too darned serious

Love in a Metro

2010-09-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

Love in a Metro. An escapism it is, from work you hate doing, a life you hate living, the passion you relinquished with pain for money.

Ordinary

2010-08-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Being 'ordinary' is phenomenal. The quest for ways to prove yourself extraordinary, to be validated and recognised by everyone kills the absolute quality of life. What is left with you, if you miss this very moment as your vision is clouded by the plans for an ambitious illusionary future and your mind stressed under the achievement pressure imposed upon you by the society?

Is Caste a Commensurate Criterion for Reservations?

2010-07-31T12:13:00.001-07:00

Reservations has always been a hot topic of discussion in India. Till date, almost all reservations including those for the admissions in professional colleges and entry to government services are all based on caste. From time immemorial there existed in India a caste capitalism, which over the years blocked the socio-ecnomic development of the lower castes, making them minorities (a group that enjoys less than its proportionate share of scarce resources).The aim of implementing reservations at the very core is to bring soical justice to people who have been denied opportunities historically to climb up in the socio-ecnomic spiral.So it is unobjectionable that SCs and STs are eligible for these reservations.

But what about OBCs?. They do not qualify into the definition of 'being denied of opportunities for betterment historically'. Even then the butter cake of reservation was thrown up to them .The 27% OBC reservation was implemented on the basis of the Mandal Commission estimate that 52% of the total population belong to OBC. The justification of forced proportional representation of a caste/community in any profession is highly unscientific and abstruse.The criterion for the exclusion of creamy layer in OBCs is too flawed, that almost everybody who is a backward caste by the accident of birth could pass the Income/wealth test and be eligible for reservations.Thus the well-to -do among the backward castes becomes the key beneficiaries of these schemes.

Demographic Trends

In order to target the benefits to the needy and fine-tune the reservation policy,exact numerical info of all castes in necessary. To settle endless issues on the size and backwardness of various communities, the exact information on their socio-economic status is vital. The demand of enumeration of OBC in census is strongly backed by leaders and parties representing the politics of OBC assertion, with a hope for an increase in expected count of OBCs and hence demand for a higher percentage reservation. For this very reason Hindutwa groups are dead against this reform, calling it a colonial practice.

The demographic trends indicate that the percentage of OBCs are on a raise every year.Though this is not a conscious effort from the part of any community to turn the social demography to their favour, this is an issue worth watching. It is beyond question that the OBC political fraternity will come up with a demand of increase in proportional representation once their percentage share of population go beyond the Mandal commission estimate of 52%. But experts consider that this is unlikely to happen as National sample survey estimated the percentage of OBCs only as 36% in 99'-00' and 41% in 04'-05'.To implement a reform in the reservations system, the most essential pre-requisite is the enumeration of castes in census. Not just OBCs, but all castes. Upliftment of the oppressed being the basic idea behind all these schemes, the information on who is oppressed and who need to be empowered is vital.

Devising a new Criterion for Reservation based on MPI Data

Six decades since Independence, the issue of oppression of lower castes by higher castes is of little relevance in Urban India. But this issue is still relevent in the rural areas of the sub-continent.Now discussing the need of a new criterion for the implementation of reservations in India on the basis of wellness indicators other than caste, is very relevant. Especially in the context of the recent studies of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) on the basis of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

According to OPHI "Multidimensional poverty encompasses a range of deprivations that a household may suffer.Most countries of the world define poverty by income. Yet poor people themselves define their poverty much more broadly, to include lack of education, health, housing, empowerment, humiliation, employment, personal security and more. No one indicator, such as income or caste, is uniquely able to capture the multiple aspects that contribute to backwardness or poverty.Alkire Foster Method identifies who is poor by considering the intensity of deprivations they suffer, and includes an aggregation method. The method is flexible and can be applied to measure poverty or well being, target services or conditional cash transfers and for monitoring and evaluation. Different dimensions (e.g. education) and indicators (e.g. how many years of education of person has) can be chosen depending on the society and situation."

MPI Table of States of India [Click to Enlarge]

Extreme diversity in all walks of life is a key feature of Indian social set up. The OPHI studies in fact shows that our country is made up of different nations stretching from middle income Asian nations to starving sub-Saharan nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that the conditions of the states Kerala and Goa are close to that of Paraguay and the Philippines.At the same time Somalia, where 300,000 people died in a famine in the early 1990s, performs slightly worse than Bihar while Sierra Leone, the world's third worst performer on the Human Development Index, is at roughly the same level. When such a diversity in MPI exist in our country,is it not nonsensical to have a common criterion for the implementation of upliftment programs ?. When these programs end up being insufficient in some states they may turnout being tools of reverse discrimination in other states.

Comparison of Bihar with Kerala [Click to Enlarge]

This chart very much brings out the problems in considering India as a whole while enforcing policies like reservations. The fruits of reservations have already reached many millions belonging to once backward communities and it is still out of the reach for many others. In many states the oppressed among the forward community, remain excluded from these upliftment programs for the only reason of the accident of birth as an upper caste. If empowerment of the real oppressed is the motive behind the implementation of upliftment programs, it is time to devise a new criterion, considering more wellness indicators beyond caste and target benefits of reservations to the needy.

References

1. Alkire, Sabina & Maria Emma Santos. 2010. India Country Briefing. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Multidimensional Poverty Index Country Briefing Series. Available at: www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-country-briefings/

2. Global multidimensional poverty - OPHI’s interactive world map
http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index

3. National Commission for Backward classes (NCBC) - Persons/Sections Excluded from Reservation which constitute Creamy Layer of the Society. Available at : http://ncbc.nic.in/html/creamylayer.htm

Unvieling the Freedom of Choice

2010-07-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

A Response to Martha Nussbaum's 'Veiled Threats?'

Considering Burqa as a moral and religious obligation is more or less a form of coercion against women. The right of a MUSLIM to 'wear Burqa' as it is a religious norm is heavily out-weighed by the right of a WOMAN to 'not to wear Burqa', as it is her freedom of choice and expression. The argument that the tremendous cultural pressure to market oneself as a sex object, can be resisted only by wearing a lot of covering is totally unjustified.The basic underlying force that bulldoze Burqa on women is the chauvinistic male attitude that they possess the body of their female partner. Is this not the real 'objectification' of women?. Legal ban of Burqa by France was a right move, as this freedom of choice cannot be achieved otherwise.

An Observer's Note

2010-07-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

Love Story
That day i thought that not letting her know how i felt about her was the biggest mistake in my life. She ran away with a big jelly-belly guy on a hyper-calorie diet and i had an 18-year old equivalent of a heart-attack. Good God!!, Lucky Me !!..she now looks like fat British white cow ready to "MOO.." !!

Model Hunt
They have the looks to kill, attitude to conquer and style to make you drop your jaws. A bunch of wannabes with a dream of making their presence felt in the world of glamour and fame. The guys who had their 14" biceps popping out of the short sleeves were competing to outwit others in the queue with his charm. The smart one raised his right eye-brow above his Ray-ban glass in style - a typical 'try me...i'm hot' look. And girls (who looked more like aliens) had a message board around their neck which read "I'm too good for you".A fat-mummy,who looked more like a Hungarian powerlifter,boasted from behind about the lead role in a movie, her girl has been chosen for. The girl acceded that with a coy giggle.

A Heartless Reform

2010-06-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

'Mistimed and insensitive', this is how 'The Hindu' defined the UPA's decision to deregulate oil prices.The statement very much explains almost everything about this issue. Calling this action 'inevitable' sounds even more insensitive. According to Mr.Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Minister, "this reform will rationalise the way we spend money and fuel and will help India become a more efficient global player".The statement shows how much UPA has moved away from the much applauded pro-poor status, it has gained during their first tenure in the ministry.The prime minister's justification is that this reform is intended to safeguard the greater interests of our country. A very relevant question in this context, when the food inflation has touched a whooping 17 p.c is, 'who are we trying to include in the so called inclusive growth?'. The ministry is in fact trying to veil the cascading effect this fuel price hike can have on the prices of commodities.With the inflation curve climbing northwards everyday, this is undoubtedly the worst time for the implementation of such a reform.

The Petroleum Minister Murli Doera's argument that the implementation of this reform aims at saving the OMCs from bankruptcy is also unjustified.According to Petroleum Ministry's annual report, IOC posted a net profit of Rs. 10,998 crores in FY 2009-10 that too after holding the price line for the four major products – petrol,diesel, PDS kerosene and LPG for domestic use.BPC and HPC earned 834 crores and 544 crores respectively as profits in the same Financial Year. When the OMCs are making profits of this margin, the theory of these companies going bankrupt is hard to digest.

It is estimated that without the deregulation, for OMCs the subsidy burden is to produce an under-recovery of around 15,000 crores in FY2010 and around 39,000 crores for the FY2011. This fancy term 'under-recovery' can generate an idea in the mind of a common man reading these statistics that this 'price de-regulation is inevitable' .Under recovery is nothing but the difference between the import parity price [A price charged for a domestically produced good that is set equal to the domestic price of an equivalent imported good -- thus the world price plus transport cost plus tariff - courtsy:http://www.personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/i.html] and the retail price of petrol, diesel,LPG & kerosene, before deregulation. Quoting The Hindu "Under-recoveries are notional losses that only lower book profits relative to some benchmark. Thus, there is little danger that the industry would be bankrupted even if prices were kept at their earlier levels".

When the inflation is rocket shooting to super-high levels,it is highly insensitive to make the common man share the burden of these under-recoveries by imposing the de-regulation on oil prices. The cascading effect of this price de-regulation on the price-hike of essentials have far reaching consequences. The concept of food security cannot be limited to distribution of foodgrains at subsidised rates to BPL families and fuel-price hike connot be de-linked from this.This insensitive reform is infact a denial of the basic right of a human being, 'food security'. The government must not forget the fact that, 77% of our population earn not more than Rs.20 a day for their survival. Whatever may be the reason, keeping their interests hostage is a highly callous and politically self-damaging act.

Understanding Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala

2010-06-04T06:36:00.001-07:00

Plachimeda, Express highway, Muthanga and now Kinaloor, every time ‘Solidarity’ take up social issues like this, its parent organization Jamaat-e-islami is making its strong presence felt in Kerala. To some extend Jamaat-e-Islami has been sucessful in creating an image of a progressive pro-people organization in Kerala. They made it possible by making their active presence felt in issues like gender-equality, democracy, dalit rights, environment protection, human rights etc. But there are strong reasons to believe that this is just a mask they have deliberately put on to hide their real nature to achieve their ulterior political motives.

To know their real nature, let’s have a look into the history of Jamaat-e-Islami. It was Abul Ala Maududi who found Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941. The basic concept he raised when he started Jamaat-e-Islami was that ‘a person who is Muslim by religion cannot be economically socialist or Politically Secular’. He proclaimed that Islam is not just a religion but a complete way of living. It must be noted that Maududi’s concepts were essentially against democracy. According to him the greatest threat Muslim community is facing are the progressive views of secularism and democracy. He believed that the ultimate power should be with God (Allah) and not with people. People are allowed to run a government only as the representatives of God to enact his wishes. Their basic idea is to bring in the ‘Rule of God on Earth’. Maududi calls in for a nationalism that is beyond the boundary of nations and urges Muslims to work to bring up a ‘Muslim nation’.

It is the same Jamaat-e-Islami, that has now come up with a progressive face in Kerala. It is out of the understanding that they cannot run their roots in Kerala exposing their real face, they have put on this mask of a progressive organization. To gain public support they started an 'intellectual Jihad'. In 1987 Jamt-e-islami launched 'Madhyamam' daily in Kerala. With a clear intention of creating a pro-people image, they started giving space for Leftist progressive writers and even naxelites in the Editorial/opinion pages of 'Madhyamam' daily. Later on columns of feminists, environmentalists and dalit rights activists started appearing frequently in 'Madhyamam' weekly. Their 'intellectual Jihad' didnt stop there. They started conducting workshops and seminars on relevant issues where eminent faces like Arundhathi Roy, Medha padker and Vandana Shivam took part. In 2003, Jamaat-e-Islami started their youth wing under then name 'Solidarity', which later became successful in getting into the headlines of daily news by taking up each and every issue in Kerala. How authentic Jamaat-e-Islami is in the issues that they started taking up recently is a topic worth discussing.

Starting with 'Gender-equality’: Feminist organizations started popping up in Kerala in 1980's. 'Bodhana', 'Prajodana', 'Manushi' etc were some among the popular feminist organizations of that time. In early 90's 'Kerala Sthree Vedi' was formed. It must be noted that none of these secular feminist organizations had a single Jamaat-e-Islami activist as its member. The reason for this is very simple, Jamaat-e-Islami never wanted to promote any sort of secular women's progressive movements. Maududi in his famous work 'Parda' says that 'women should be always dependent on men'. He pointed out that women’s being self-dependent is the basic reason of lack of stability in marriages and relationships in the west. Maududism and hence Jamaat-e-Islami in its very core is against empowerment of women.

Another tool Jamaat-e-Islami uses in its intellectual jihad is Dalit-rights. Without doubt, Jamaat-e-Islami is genuinely interested in promoting Dalit politics. But the fact of the matter is that, they are interested in promoting only 'Hindu-dalit politics'. Jamat-e-islam prefer looking at Muslims beyond dalit-non-dalit distinction and they fear that promoting Muslim-dalit movements can end up being a hindrance to their political motives. It must be noted that in North India, Jamt-e-islami tried to bring down all sort of Muslim-dalit-OBC movements. That is Jamat-e-islam do not beileve in secular-dalit politics. Hindu-dalit politics, they believe can act as tool to breakdown the unity of their 'Majority Hindutwa' opponents.

The third in the list is 'anti-imperialism'. Solidarity came up with the slogan 'Muthalalitham Valicheriyuka' (Throw-away Capitalism). They did postering and distributed leaflets across Kerala urging the people for the same. But they never mentioned anywhere about the alternative they suggest for 'capitalism'. Is it socialism?.. Defenitely not!!. For Jamaat-e-Islami the alternative of capitalism is Moududism. If we look closely we can see that they are in fact NOT against impereialiam as such, they are only against American Imperialism (Christian Imperialism, as they call it). All they want is to replace it with Muslim Imperialism.

Solidarity has taken up several environmental issues in Kerala. They joined the 'Plachimeda Samara Samithi'(2 years since the agitation started), came out supporting Dr.Nandakumar in the agitation against Philip Carbon company in Ernakulam and joined V.M Sudeheeran on the Black-sand (karimanal) Mining issue in Alappuzha. They are out there to support anyone who takes up any environmental issue, a desperate effort to improve their public image.

The believers of Maududist ideologies wearing a mask of a progresive organisation and promoting an intellectual jihad to gain public support is major political issue as far as Kerala is concerned. It is high time we realize that, it is our democracy, nationalism and above all the unity of our nation that is at stake when an organization whose ideologies at its very core is flawed and is against democracy and secularism is planning to set their feet in the Indian parliamentary politics.

Ignorance or Insensitivity ?

2010-05-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

What should be the parameters taken into consideration to scale the development of a nation ?. Unfortunately the youth of Kerala for some reason is more inclined to support the bourgeois style development. They prefer having an IPL team over a BPL Public Distribution Scheme.

This is the very reason why 'Dr.Shashi Tharoor-style' development ideologies gain more social acceptance over the leftist development strategies. Mushrooming of Internet cities, express highways and shopping malls will benefit only a certain sections of the society. But what we really need is 'inclusive growth'.Oxford Dictionary defines the word 'inclusive' as "not excluding any section of society." It gives emphasis on the improvement in standards of living of those below the poverty line through increase in employment opportunities as well as better delivery systems to ensure access to intended benefits by intended beneficiaries.

The ignorance of the meaning of the word 'development' is the basic reason for this attitude among the youngsters. They end up supporting new genesis politicians with no grass-root level political experience who come up with bourgeois development strategies. This ignorance can be also called 'insensitivity towards the issues of the lower strata of the society'.

What makes us Different from Terrorists?

2010-05-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

On May 6th the whole of India, celebrated the declaration of the death sentence of Kasab. The picture of Ujjwal Nikam smiling like a butcher's dog, holding a graphic of a noose to illustrate the demand for his death sentence and mumbaikars beating drums over the declaration was irrational. The whole sequence of events projected an image that 'we Indians are no different from those terrorists'.

It is true that people like Kasab should be removed from the society. I'm sure that the argument of banning 'death sentence' as it is a fatal insult to 'respect for life' and 'beauty of creation' will not stand, especially in this case, as the high cost of holding such a dangerous person alive, fear of another Kandahar etc will come in the way. But i strongly believe that the issue could have been handled with a higher level of sensitivity, without encouraging the irrational emotions of vengeance and hatered.

Is Implementation of UID a Prime Need for India ?

2010-01-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Written for an Online Debate competetion.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) headed by Nandan Nilekani, was established aiming not only national security but also with an objective to help the poor to access the benefits of various government schemes with greater ease. If implemented properly this is undoubtedly going to be a revolutionary step that can have huge benefits and impact on public services and also on making the poor more inclusive in what is happening in India today.

But the question is the feasibility of implementation of this project which has a guess estimate of 1.5 lakh crore (according to Frontline magazine), in a developing country like India, where one fourth of the population live below poverty line and over 80 percentage of the population live under Rs.20 a day (Arjun Sen Gupta Committee report). There is no doubt that the unique identification number could play some role in targeting benefits better at people who deserve it, but in India the prime need is education, health and sanitation (40% of the children in India are chronically malnutritioned and 700 million Indians do not have proper sanitation facilities). When such a situation persists, surely this money could be better used.

London School of Ecnomics (LSE) did a study for the implementation of a similar project in Britain and concluded that the technology envisioned for this program is highly untested and unreliable and that similar projects when implemented even in small scales have encountered serious technological and operational problems and this is defenitely going to get amplified when implemented in national level. So there is no guarantee that the system is secure or that it cannot be hacked or misused.

The concept of UID came up with an anti-terror agenda , but there is need to safeguard against potential harassment of undocumented individuals, especially poor migrants and there is no provision for this in the scheme. And regarding its potential benefits in public service schemes, the service delivery in rural communities is hampered less by the inability of resident to prove identity (population size is small; everyone knows each other) than by defalcation and corruption. Two of the biggest government outlays for social security are NREGA and PDS. In NREGA, there are two avenues for misappropriation are labour (fake names, over/understated days worked) and material (overstated amounts, fake bills). UID will not address the latter and will address the former only if the worker physically clocked in/out using automated biometric readers, and if money could be taken out of bank accounts only after positive biometric proof. The simplest fingerprint readers cost $50 (Rs. 2000) and it’s financially unviable to put one in each of the 600,000 villages in India (or even ~300,000 Panchayats). Again these finger-print readers are not totally fool-proof.

Likewise in PDS, eliminating defalcation using UID will require positive biometric proof before grain disbursement otherwise what is to stop the FPO from making fake entries, or not opening the ration shop etc? In addition, the problem in targeted welfare schemes is of eligibility and not of identity. The varying numbers of BPL families in the country is not a problem of inability to identify the uniqueness of an individual but of his/her eligibility based on different criteria such as income, nutrition (calories), other wellness indicators.

Again enrollment into the UID scheme is not mandatory, but demand-driven. So if an organization mandates UID before providing their services then, the burden of enrollment will be on the organization as opposed to the beneficiary. Lastly, the estimated cost of each card is Rs. 20-25, which should not be taken from the outlays of social security schemes without clear explanation of consequent benefit in service delivery.

The developed countries like US, UK etc, as they couldn't respond to public concerns about misuse, have effectively put aside the consideration of similar schemes for those countries. Now if developed countries cannot tackle the problem of misuse, then how can India, where not even the issue of Election ID cards without misspelling the name and adress cannot be gauranteed claim that this huge scheme can be implemented without flaws effectively?

A Self- Preservation Thing

2009-12-05T06:43:00.000-08:00

-Fiction

She appeared into my frame out of the blue.She danced down the steps, her white shawl fluttering in the breeze, the only woman i've ever dreamed of, my Zahir. Every part of my body, all my senses, wanted her so badly that sex was only a minute fraction of my total desire for her. She paused abreast me and flashed her dimpled smile at someone over a distance. I was spellbound for a moment. But i soon took control over my senses,looked around, made sure that no-one noticed, switched back to my rough- manly look.." A self-preservation thing".

Forward

2008-08-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Thus I start off my blog. My thoughts,my interests,I write. This is the end to my quest for a space to express myself and to improve my poor english writing skills. This blog serves no other purposes and I'm not expecting anyone give any interpretations to whatever i write here.