A Discourse on Food Security

Article 47 of the Constitution of India states that “the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people and improvement in public health among its primary duties”. Successive Five-Year Plans laid down the policies and strategies for achieving these goals
---- Tenth Five Year Plan, 2002-2007

In the past, a lot of emphasis (particularly in the 1960s and 1970s), was given on green revolution technology with much emphasis on the package--major irrigation projects, hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, particularly to promote growth of agricultural output in the Western part of India, which later spread to the rest of India. Environmental and economic sustainability of the green revolution was questioned later. Green revolution further aggravated the problem of production relations that existed because of the feudal and semi feudal structure of the India society (not to speak about the case of zamindari). This sudden emphasis on agricultural production came when the 2nd Five Year Plan failed due to its much attention on industrial production. During the early 1950s, in India, community development programme, including extension services (which was sponsored by Ford Foundation) was given much attention. However, as per the critics, the programme could not do much since it relied too much on the advice of American sociologists (believing in modernisation paradigm and alien to Indian problems), on whom our first Prime Minister had too much faith. Reliance on external agencies (like World Food Programme and Food Agricultural Organisation) had been happening for getting technical and financial assistance. Some have also criticised that. Under the green revolution (which started after the IADP and IAAP in the early 1960s), there was much emphasis on growing up of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice (one should remember Norman Borlaug here), disregarding what impact it will have on those who rely on growing coarse cereals. Little emphasis was given to preserve indigenous varieties of seeds. We should also remember that even before the advent of green revolution, emphasis on growing cash crops like indigo, jute, tea, coffee, cotton, sugarcane et al came from the policies adopted by the then British Indian government for its vested interest of sustaining industrial revolution. Irrigation was developed in the Western part of India, by the Britishers. Promotion of railways (in the 19th century) for not only carrying foodgrains (for exports and may be for benevolent reasons--carrying food from food surplus to food deficit regions) but also for carrying arms, ammunitions and soldiers (remember the term Marshal race used by few army regiments), was also a part of the entire strategy. The Western metropolis (Britain, France et al) not only used cheap labour (in various forms such as indentured coolie labour in Fiji, Java, West Indies) from the peripheral nations to maintain its domination in markets for textiles, coffee and even spices, but also to maintain its balance of trade, if we talk from a political economic perspective. One should also talk about the case of the (in) famous Irish potato famine, and even the Bengal famine. One should also recall that after the Irish famine lot of migration took place to the newly white settled colony named America. Globalisation started long back, and not in the 1990s. But what happened in the 1990s was that the State (for the first time after Independence) started rolling back its support by reducing various forms of subsidies (on various grounds that it results in inefficiency, corruption, balance of payment crisis) resulting in the impoverishment not only of the landless and marginal farmers but also of the farmers from middle income groups. Dismantling of the Public Distribution System is just a part of the entire scenario (to reduce fiscal deficit and control inflation). Corporatisation of agriculture (by both national and international MNCs) also took place with policy recommendations that ceilings on land should be removed. This was done to make our agriculture export oriented. Reliance on GMOs (genetically modified organisms) also took place. Information technology came handy for such farms since that reduces transaction cost. Similarly, investment in infrastructure is emphasized since that promotes economic growth, reduces transportation and administration cost, and other related costs as per the mainstream economics. But one should also remember that some farms have started offering the farmers credit in advance provided they sell their product to them in the future (which reminds one about the putting out system that existed in Britain during the 19th century or the interlocking of factor markets). How much future and spot trading has really helped farmers (from all income and caste groups, and different land holding size) is a matter of controversy. The recent controversy or even in the past regarding impoverishment actually shows how media and even research groups are used by various lobbies of farmers and interest groups. The big question is what happened to poverty, distribution, inequality, and various forms of social evils that exists not only in the heart of rural India, but may be in an A class city? How far the past policies regarding trade reforms etc. have helped us? There should be clear cut discussion and understanding taking into account the present reality, the long term planning and our past track record in the current regime under the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The decade of 1990s saw the debate surrounding the contraction of public distribution system (PDS) in India where economists and social scientists of various camps (in relation to their stands with the IMF and World Bank policies) expressed their viewpoints in various journals, seminars and public meetings. The important areas which were touched during these discourses were: what one means by food adequacy, level of malnutrition, role of State and market in food allocation and distribution, impact of trade liberalization on the Indian food market (including producers, sellers and consumers) etc. To summarise such a rich and enlightening discussion in a few words would be both difficult and impossible. However, certain elements could be pulled out and pondered upon to understand the politics of rights-based approach to food security. Food security started as a 1970s-era global-scale concern for food supplies that saw the supply of food as the influential variable for food (in)security. Under this view, places with greater food supplies are perceived as more food secure than those with fewer supplies. The UN World Food Conference was thus held in 1974, a year when hunger in the world had reached a level that was unacceptable to most of the Third World countries. However, from the late 1970s through the 1990s, the food security focus on food supply failed to identify causal links between the material circumstances of particular groups and their experiences of food insecurity in events such as the African famine of 1984-85. Studies of such events revealed that even in the context of famine, the cause of food insecurity was not the amount of food in a given place. Rather, food outcomes are shaped by access (entitlements) and production, which are themselves linked to social roles and status. In the face of this new understanding, food security studies shifted their approach from a view of food as a basic need to a livelihood perspective that treats food as one of a number of objectives, resources and outcomes. The contemporary structure of food security recognizes the value of local knowledge and local perceptions of problems and insecurity in understanding the causes (and results) of that insecurity. One should also include the concept of social exclusion while talking about access to food. In the livelihood framework, outcomes are specified not only in terms of income but also in terms of well being and reduced vulnerability. Importantly, livelihoods are seen as being derived from a set of assets, particularly 5 kinds of capital: human, natural, financial, social and physical.

Streamlining the PDS

The public distribution system which was universal in nature during the pre-nineties came under criticism on various grounds. It was argued that there was limited accessibility of PDS by the poor, there was regional and rural urban disparities in PDS, there were inefficiencies associated with the PDS, and leakages from PDS was considered to be quite high [Swaminathan (2000); George (1984); Dev and Suryanarayana (1991); Ahluwalia (1996)]. The Revamped PDS was introduced by the government adopting an approach which could be expressed as: helping all the people living in the poor areas. Such poor areas included drought prone areas, desert areas, tribal areas, certain designated hilly areas and urban slum areas. The government short listed 1752 blocks under the RPDS to improve the food availability situation in these backward areas. Although the offtake from RPDS was going up (as can be seen from the table 1 above), the government decided to further curtail the PDS by adopting Targeted PDS i.e. TPDS. This can remind one of the phase wise liberalisation of the exchange rate regime (see notes)[i].

TPDS was the result of government’s policy of fiscal contraction which too came under criticism on various grounds. Although the TPDS was started to lower the food subsidies, it could not meet its objective because of pressures on the government to buy food grains at prices higher than the market prices. Those who were ‘net consumers’ suffered due to higher prices of food grains prevailing in ration shops (and also fair price shops), including the people living below the poverty line. In most of the cases, TPDS also suffered from non-inclusion of poor in the scheme, which can be termed as Type-II or E-mistakes [Cornia and Stewart (1993); Swaminathan (1996)].

The impact of targeting the PDS on food security was discussed too. The three broader aspects of food security i.e. food availability, food distribution and food accessibility, became the major areas of research and debates. It should be mentioned here that food security at the household level and intra-household food allocation which is determined by many factors including gender norms, formed a negligible part of these debates. One can mention about the household livelihood security model which allows for a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the relationships among the political economy of poverty, malnutrition and the dynamic and complex strategies that the poor use to negotiate survival. The model places emphasis on household actions, perceptions, and choices. Regarding the physical availability of food security, it was argued by some that the change in the cropping pattern in favour of non-food crops led to more risks and increased impoverishment of the small and marginal farmers, and decreased food availability per capita. This was countered by the argument that such a shift would lead to higher returns for small and marginal farmers, more exports and would be compatible with the change in tastes and preference of both the rural and urban consumers [Patnaik (1997); Radhakrishna (1996)]. However, one should also taken into account the vulnerability aspect (which covers external factors affecting food security viz. natural and man-made disasters), and sustainability aspect (which involves attention to the conservation and enhancement of natural resources like land, water, forests and biodiversity).

The Issue of Malnutrition

It was argued that the most of the rural and urban population do not have enough purchasing power to meet their calorie norms [See the table 2]. But this argument was countered by saying that given the increase in the level of real expenditure per capita of the poor, there is shift in consumption from calorie based food to non-calorie based food. However, the calorie based definition of food security itself is subject to many criticisms---the required calories by a person may vary across geographies, culture and time. Even if one assumes that ‘adequate’ calories are available to every member of the household, there is no certainty that available calories will meet the requirements of protein energy, and micro-nutrients, such as iron, iodine and important vitamins. The construction of poverty line on the basis of minimum required calorie intake has also been debated [Swaminathan (2002); Vyas (2004); Dev (2005)]. Micronutrient deficiency is somewhat related to changing food habits of the people because of the changes in their tastes and preferences, and is also related to their respective income levels. The relation between tastes and preferences, and income levels is subject to the condition, which creates values. There is no exact one to one relationship between income level and micronutrient deficiency. The importance of capacity building to create awareness about food values is quite essential. However, once awareness is generated, it can be the people with more access to income as well as non-income resources, which can benefit. Thus keeping the prices of the food (which are rich in micronutrients) affordable is quite pertinent.

There was a growing consent among economists and social scientists to widen the connotation of food security by including the concept of nutritional security at the household level. Some argued that the calorie based definition of food security be replaced by nutrition based definition of food security at the household level (Vyas, 2000). Without an assurance of nutritional adequacy, food security has very little meaning (United Nations Administrative Committee for Co-ordination: Sub-committee on Nutrition (ACC: SCN) (2000): Fourth Report on World Nutrition Situation, Geneva). The usage of anthropometric measures in order to find the level of malnutrition (see notes)[ii] and measuring the micronutrient contents in food are some techniques in order to assess the nutritional aspect of food security. If the nutritional aspect of food security is followed, then it can be found from the Second National Family Health Survey that 47 percent of all Indian children are undernourished, 52 percent of all adult women are anaemic and 36% have a BMI (body mass index) below the cut-off of 18.5 commonly associated with chronic energy deficiency (International Institute of Population Sciences, 2000). Although there is decline of extreme hunger and severe undernutrition but the improvement of anthropometric indicators (heights and weights of Indian children) is quite slow. Anthropometric indicators show rural-urban disparity and gender disparity (Dreze, 2004). One can look at the table 3, in order to get the anthropometric measures among women and children across various states and union territories (UTs). One should also mention about life cycle approach to understand food and nutrition security.

In order to understand the complexity of food security, one can look at the figure 1, shown above. Figure 1, clearly shows that nutrition status of an individual not only depend indirectly on household food security, but also gender norms practiced in the society as well as sanitation, access to health facilities and safe drinking water etc. Micronutrient deficiency—especially deficiencies in iron, iodine and vitamin-A—are even more widespread worldwide than that of protein-energy malnutrition. Besides being important causes of disability in themselves, micronutrient deficiencies often underlie other types of morbidity. Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia worldwide. The consequences of iron deficiency are more serious for women.

Rise in net availability of food grain at the national level do not ensure food security at the household level. But still there is a necessity to become self-sufficient in food production. There are limits to increasing production through area expansion as the country has almost reached a plateau in so far as cultivable land is concerned. Hence the emphasis has to be on productivity increase. Overall growth rate decelerated to 1.80% per annum during the decade of 1990s which is just about equal to annual population growth and therefore is a matter of concern (see table 4). Annual growth in wheat continues to be robust but in rice it tapered off in 1990s after fairly high growth in 1980s. Whereas decline in coarse cereals output is understandable because of substitution effect, failure in improving growth in pulses is quite a setback.

Rights Based Approach to Food Security

Coming back to the issue of TPDS, it could be said that the new scheme could not reach its target population as has been argued by some. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the food stocks in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns went up due to lowering purchasing power of the rural masses, and very little price differential between market prices and issue prices of food grains in ration shops, as has been argued by some. Drought and famine led to further impoverishment of the rural poor as there were little concerted efforts to improve their entitlement by capitalizing on the endowment poor people has i.e. labour power. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), which was introduced in mid-2001, was no better and suffered from the problems of under-utilisation of funds, mechanization of work, and fudging of the muster rolls. The Indian state was unable to provide ‘safety net’ to its small and marginal farmers who could not get the return for their investment in agricultural activities. News of starvation deaths and suicides were reported from different parts of India. Although the civil society voiced its concern about these issues, the government seemed to pay no attention to it. Some of the states which performed poorly in ensuring food security were Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh. Cases of starvation deaths were also reported from the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The poorer regions which suffered hugely were Palamau in Jharkhand, Sarguja in Chattisgarh, Kalahandi in Orissa. Cases of starvation deaths were reported from the tribal communities such as sahariyas, musahars, kols and bhuiyas. Consumption of ghas ki roti made from sama (a forest grass) took the lives of sahariyas in Rajasthan. Tribals in Bolangir district of Orissa were found to mortgage not only their land but also their rations cards for a paltry sum of Rs. 50. The moneylenders also lent back the cards at higher prices [EPW (2002); Mander (2003); Dreze (2003)]. Farmer’s suicides in Vidharbha region in Maharastra can also be mentioned which is happening because of high debts, high cost of inputs (including credit) and too much reliance on green revolution technology instead of traditional farming methods (Mohanty, 2005).

The ‘right to food’ movement / campaign which grew after the hearing by the Supreme Court of a writ petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Rajasthan), at that critical junction not only provided the Indian citizens with information about the food security situation but also made a serious attempt to draw the attention of Supreme Court to consider ‘right to food’ as a fundamental right. The early dialogue on food security happening among economists changed its track, giving more stress on action oriented research. There are however hurdles to make right to food as a fundamental right because: (i) There are multiplicity of meanings of the term ‘freedom from hunger’[iii]. It can mean—getting two square meals a day, meeting specific calorie norms, avoiding nutrition related ailments and so on. (ii) If right to food is seen as right to ‘nutrition’ as provided in the Article 47 of the Indian Constitution, then one can look into the debate among nutritionists regarding the constituents of ‘good’ nutrition. Another aspect of nutrition is that ‘good’ nutrition varies across time and space (already discussed). Nutrition can also be linked with issues like safe drinking water, good health etc., without which body’s absorption and metabolism of nutrients goes down; and (iii) Ensuring right to food is not only the responsibility of the State but also institutions and individuals (Dreze, 2004).

Despite the international summits such as the Vienna Declaration, 1993 adopted at World Conference on Human Rights affirming that ‘extreme poverty and social exclusion constitutes a violation of human dignity’ and the Rome Declaration (1996) made during the World Food Summit stating that ‘food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active life’, it is difficult to transform these into the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution. Although the right to food comes under the Directive Principles, it is difficult to convert it into a fundamental right. While the Article 37 explicitly states that the Directive Principles ‘shall not be enforced by any court’, it goes on to stress that (i) that these principles are nevertheless ‘fundamental to the governance of the country’; and (ii) that ‘it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws’. However, the manner in which right to free and compulsory education to every child has been made into a fundamental right through pressures coming from the civil society organizations and international agencies like the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), gives one some hope about pursuing the State to make right to food as a fundamental right. But this does not mean by making right to food as a fundamental right will automatically ensure food security for all at all the times. There may still be problems in enforcing and implementing such rules. This is what was happening with the right to free and compulsory education to every child as has been reported. Many have even questioned the quality of education imparted through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan [Jha, (2002); Dreze (2004)].

The politics behind making right to food as an obligatory fundamental right of a State can be understood from the stand United States took. During the 1996 World Food Summit, the US refused to sign the final declaration based on the logic that such a step would make “welfare reform illegal under international law”. While some countries like the G-77 and some European countries were pushing for a clearer and a stronger language regarding the enforcement of right to food, the US opposed the inclusion of any language whatsoever. After a compromise was struck, the World Food Summit 1996 was followed by the establishment of General Comment 12 which was adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1999. The General Comment 12 outlined the duties and obligations of states with respect to implementation of the right to food. In the year 2000, the United Nations appointed a Special Rapporteur on the right to food. During the World Food Summit 2002, which was held in Rome, Italy, from June 10-13, the US Administration wanted to support a much narrower world-hunger agenda which focused on a greater role for the private sector, including the interests of biotechnology firms[iv]. Since the US could no longer demand for the exclusion of language, they were asking for alterations in language—pushing for the right to access to food, rather than for the right to adequate food. In fact, the US preferred the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the non-ratified ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) formulation of right to food, which is vague and non-binding. (President Jimmy signed the ICESCR, which has still not been ratified by the US). During the World Food Summit 2002, the United States expressed this idea by arguing that “..…the attainment of the right to an adequate standard of living is a goal or aspiration to be realized progressively that does not give rise to any international obligation or any domestic legal entitlement and it does not diminish the responsibilities of national governments towards their citizens”. The US therefore did not understand the right of access to food as a guaranteed entitlement. Thus, we find the United States among few of the nations which has not ratified the ICESCR. Expecting to halve world hunger by the year 2015 is now a distant dream particularly for most of the countries of South as there is lack of political will to take steps vis-à-vis right to food. But one can learn from Norway which has recently adopted the legislation making the ICESCR legally binding within the country and has established the right to food as the basis for its agricultural policy. [Rosset (2002); Sheff (2002)].

In the absence of political will to make right to food as a fundamental right, there are certain steps which the civil society organizations and human rights activists have taken. Firstly, right to food in India can be linked with right to information. Information regarding the unavailability of food grains in ration shops, non-issuance of below poverty line ration cards and corruption in general can be found from the authorities, if a particular state has enacted the Right to Information Act. Disclosure of records of ration shop can help in preventing corruption, where through bogus entries food grains from ration shops are siphoned off to open market for a better bid. Some grassroots level NGOs are working in the state of Delhi in order to check such illegal activities. States that have done considerably good in Panchayati Raj, should go for implementing the Right to Information Act judiciously [The Tribune (2003)][v]. Secondly, the issue of right to food can be linked with right to free and compulsory basic education to children. On 28 November 2001, the Supreme Court under the pressure of public campaigns directed state governments to introduce cooked mid-day meals in all government and government-assisted primary schools within six months. On 15 August 2003, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced that cooked mid-day meals would soon be extended up to Class 10 as a national programme. Under the mid-day meals programme, 50 million children are covered. Although the quality of mid-day meals varies from state to state, but states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have performed exceptionally well. Some states have given the excuse of shoe string budget of not introducing such schemes. Introduction of schemes like mid-day meals in schools, not only ensures higher enrolment of children, but also reduces the drop-out ratio among girl children. Even the problem of child labour could be countered to a large extent. Eating food together also leads to social cohesiveness among children of various castes. Further, it leads to employment of women cooks in the schools. Thirdly, there is need for efforts to establish an Optional Protocol, which would allow the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) to hear grievances regarding right to food at the international level. While the decisions taken will be non-binding and subject to the approval of the defending state, establishment of an Optional Protocol would be an important step towards the rising enforceability of economic rights, including the right to food. Distress migration of farm labourers, distress sale of land and other valuable assets (including ration cards) by small and marginal land owning farmers, committing of suicides by consuming harmful chemical pesticides in the backdrop of debt trap, adivasis (tribals) eating ghaas ki roti (breads made of local grass) due to hunger etc. are some of the incidents, which can really create agony and angst in the mind of any normal human being. Some of the Indian states have also seen plundering of groundwater by corporate sector, which have adversely affected not only environment but also the very common man. However, a special package for farmers was announced for 31 districts in Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka and Kerala, where there was high incidence of farmers' suicides. The measures include: (a) Waiving of interest on overdue loans as on July 1, 2006 so that farmers have no past burden; (b) The overdue loans of the farmers as on July 1, 2006 will be rescheduled over a period of 3-5 years with a one year moratorium; and (c) A credit flow of INR 21,422 crore will be ensured in these 31 districts in 2006-07. But it can pointed out that what we have seen in India is gross regional inequality in development, which even created and perpetuated old social problems like bonded labour system, child labour system, gender-based discrimination, caste-system, illiteracy and what not.

It is increasingly felt that Indian agriculture is currently suffering from “technology fatigue”, due to which the earlier gains made during the green revolution has withered away. Moreover, green revolution itself has been criticized for being Euro-centric, environmentally unsustainable and being apolitical (it never addressed the issues of land and tenancy reforms, and other related institutional reforms). Green revolution actually tried to improve yields and production, without taking into account the needed change in rural and social institutions. Since it offered a high-valued package, so it helped only the rich farmers (owning large landholdings) from assured irrigated areas. Areas where rainfed irrigation take place could not gain much from the green revolution. Green revolution only promoted production of certain crops which are agro-climatically suitable for certain regions, which some say have affected biodiversity. Green revolution relied excessively on major irrigations (instead of minor irrigation and rainwater harvesting), chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In order to sustain green revolution, huge subsidies were given on inputs (for producers of inputs—firms, and consumer of inputs—farmers) like electricity, fertilizers etc, thus making the entire effort economically unviable and unsustainable. The Bollgard Bt cottonseed and other such seeds, which have been recently introduced, have failed to cater the needs of the rural farming community who belong to the lower income group (as well as socially backward groups), and possess small-sized farmlands and cropping fields. In fact there are allegations that due to the liberalization of the Indian economy, multi-national corporations (MNCs) from the North got the opportunity of plundering the farmers of the South, by patenting and giving 'new names' to the indigenous varieties of plants (such as turmeric, basmati rice) and animals (via genetic engineering) from the South, thus leading to bio-piracy. Issues and debates surrounding bio-ethics, bio-piracy and violation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) have come to the forefront during the recent years, which are still needed to be solved at international forums like World Trade Organisation (WTO). The National Agricultural Policy (NAP) (2000) announced by the Government of India, sought to give a prominent role to contract farming. However, it is said that contract farming has led to 'corporatization' of Indian agriculture, which has adversely affected the small and marginal farmers. Contract farming has been criticized as being a tool for the agribusiness firm to exploit an unequal power relationship with growers. However, advocates of contract farming view it as a way to create a synergy between agribusiness firms and small farmers that benefit both without sacrificing the rights of either. It is seen as a mechanism to modernize small peasant holders through transfer of technology.

Conclusion

The debate over the issue of food and nutrition security is going to become more intense in the coming days. While many will put forward the argument of allowing genetically modified food, which is cheap, to float in the Indian market, others may raise their concern regarding the risks associated with such food. The government will try to promote biotechnological research for raising the food availability. But ecologists and environmentalists may disagree to taking such steps. It is important to mention that in the year 2002, many South African countries expressed concern about genetically modified crops supplied as food aid by multilateral agencies. Their concerns regarded both food safety and environment. However, the WFP, FAO and WHO reacted by stating, “the consumption of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) now being provided as food aids in Southern Africa is not likely to present human health risks. Therefore, these foods may be eaten”. International law, however, does not currently address GMOs in food aid (FAO, 2005). Under such circumstances, raising the issue of right to food and nutrition security from a human rights perspective will become more difficult unless a global forum is created and used for pressure tactics and monitoring. It is also imperative to understand that under the human development framework, one cannot compartmentalise one right from another.

The 'green revolution' which spread from the Western part of India to the rest of India, could not help in pulling majority of the rural masses out of the poverty and debt trap. Eyebrows have been raised about the role of old institutions (for R&D) like: State Agricultural Universities, krishi vigyan kendras (KVKs), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) etc., apart from the public distribution system (PDS). Taking such institutions as pious would be a great mistake. There are needs for institutional reforms so that they cater the needs of the rural farming community keeping in mind the issues of ensuring food security, rural development and poverty reduction. It has been felt by economists that instead of giving subsidies to those schemes which lead to environmental hazards and other negative things (can happen also due to negative externalities), more finance should be allocated in crucial areas such as soil amelioration, watershed development, groundwater recharge, surface irrigation and other infrastructure and also allow for substantial expansion in the reach of critical farm support systems. It is now suggested that agricultural production has to be increased not only through increase in yield but also through increase in area under cultivation.

Endnotes:

[i] Note: The system of partial convertibility of rupee was done in the budget of 1992-93, to be followed by full convertibility of rupee on trade account in the budget of 1993-94. Full convertibility on current account was achieved on August 19, 1994. Many other relaxations regarding convertibility were introduced in the subsequent years.

[ii] Notes: Anthropometric measures are calculated by finding the z-scores of weight-for-age, weight-for-height and height-for-age, and finding their standard deviations from the norms. This is done mainly for pre-school children. For more information, see India Nutrition Profile (1998), published by Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

[iii] Note: The phrase ‘freedom from hunger’ was coined during the World Food Conference (1974) which resolved that, ‘every man, woman and child has a right to be free from hunger and malnutrition’.

[iv] Note: There were protests by a noted ecologist during the year 2000 against the food aid which was given by the US after the Orissa cyclone of 1999. It was alleged that the corn-soya mix had genetically engineered content. American officials said that the GM content of corn and soya in the US was such that it was likely that the food-aid supply to Orissa would be genetically engineered, but they said that would not be in breach of any Indian or international regulations and met American safety standards. Source: ‘US 'dumped' GM food in Orissa’, Saturday, 3 June, 2000, 00:09 GMT 01:09 UK, by Mike Wooldridge, accessed from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/775326.stm

[v] ‘Ration Shops Case Hearing Fixed on Oct 13’, The Tribune, September 16, 2003.

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Vyas, VS (2000): ‘Ensuring Food Security’, Notes, in Economic and Political Weekly, December 9.

Vyas, VS (2004): ‘Ensuring Food Security: The State, Market and Civil Society’, in Economic and Political Weekly, December 9.

Wooldridge, Mike (2000): ‘US 'dumped' GM food in Orissa’, Saturday, 3 June, 2000, 00:09 GMT 01:09 UK, accessed from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/775326.stm

Tenth Five Year Plan 2002-2007.

What do we mean by blogging?

Reviewing the 'Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents', September 2005
Publisher: Reporters without Borders
ISBN 2-915536-36-8
Pages: 87

The handbook says that blogging has become a powerful tool of freedom of expression in the midst of other media. Blogs provide one, irrespective of educational or technical background, the opportunity to publish material. The handbook very well explains the meaning and purpose behind blogging. The handbook has enough resources for journalists who work from countries, where there exists authoritarian regimes. In fact in such countries, bloggers can serve the function of a press. The handbook finds that often blogging is done by real journalists in countries, where the mainstream media is censored or is under pressure. It has been informed that security is not the main concern for bloggers; rather finding an audience is the problem. But this is not true, of course, since it has been found by the Reporters Without Borders' Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007 that in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Egypt bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible during the year 2007. In fact, the present handbook is really worthy to go through in the midst of the crackdown on democratic institutions (including monks, bloggers, journalists, citizen journalists, students and activists) in Myanmar during 2007. The handbook explains in a layperson's language the need for choosing the best tool for blogging. The book informs that blog tools are programmes that are installed on a server, using scripts to run the site automatically and a database to store. One important chapter in the handbook is on how to set up and run a blog. Meanings of the terms like: administration log-in, dashboard, posting, trackbacks, RSS syndication etc, are provided in this handbook.

'Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents' asks for ethics on the part of journalists who blog. It explains that the standard pillars of journalism are: thoroughness, accuracy, fairness, transparency and independence, which must be kept in mind, while blogging by the journalists. Personal biases, even unconscious one, should be avoided while blogging. In this handbook, one blogger has stated that he closely follows the growth of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Creative Commons (CC) licenses. There are separate chapters in the handbook on subject specific issues, which have been written by various bloggers, who are situated in different parts of the world. There is one entire chapter dedicated to Internet censorship, which talks about China and other such nations, where there exists too much censorship and restrictions. This is definitely a bold step, altogether. According to the handbook, China had been one of the repressive regimes where there existed too much of restrictions on the free flow of knowledge, information and news. Unfortunately, the handbook fails to mention that China had been doing so because it wanted to put curbs on pornographic content, and on content which represents (political) dissent against the State (given the various kind of incidents, which took place in modern Chinese history, including the crackdown on students' uprising in Tiananmen Square, during 1989). Whenever, Western human rights groups have shown cases of human rights abuse in socialist, communist and other such restricted regimes, the counter-argument that was provided was that these countries have performed better than countries from South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa in terms of human development index, and even economic growth. In fact, such allegations of human right abuse are very much imperialistic in nature, which affects sovereignty, according to some. So, it is extremely difficult at this current juncture to judge whether countries (particularly the post-colonial ones, which got freedom and independence from their 'White masters' during the 20th century) which are performing better in terms of having democratic media, are also the ones which are performing better in terms of inclusive economic growth, good governance, and in fighting the scourge of poverty. By saying this, one is of course not undermining the importance of the Fourth Estate in a democratic country. In fact, democracy itself is in a nascent stage, and various nations are pursuing various forms of (democratic) governance. By simply saying that democracy is a way of life, one would be underestimating the complexities of democracy itself. Otherwise, not so many books would have been written on the subject 'Political Science'. Moreover, the term 'development', which is associated with democracy, has been questioned by many for being pro-Western, anti-traditional and top-down in nature; and those who propagate it are affected by White man's burden, some analysts claim. Lastly, it can be mentioned that it is indeed a pleasure to (t)read through this handbook!

Source: http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_cyberdissidents-GB.pdf

Report of the Workshop on Science Commons

On January 18th, 2008, Knowledge Commons, Delhi Science Forum, IIT Delhi, Red Hat and Sun organised a workshop on science policy for a very select group of 20 policy-makers. Participants included members of the Planning Commission, which drafts India's Five Year Plans; the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body that reports to the Prime Minister of India, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi and some of the most respected scientists in the country.

The objective was to look at the Free and Open Source model of knowledge creation and examine the impact it can have on India. The highlight of the event was the session on Open Source Drug Discovery, a $34 million programme to fight diseases like tuberculosis, that are prevalent in India.

Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum and the brain behind the event, set the ball rolling by giving a brief overview of how the patent system evolved as a trade-off between the inventor and society, with society granting a temporary monopoly to the inventor in return for disclosure of the invention, which ensured that inventors did not take their creations to the grave. He pointed out that the era of the individual inventor is over and most innovations are now done by corporations. Prabir also pointed out that the myth about patents leading to innovations was not always true and cited the example of James Watt's patent over the steam engine which led to 30 years of stagnation. It was only after Watt's death that the efficiency of the steam engine was improved. Even during this era, collective innovation flourished as can be seen from the invention of the blast furnace and the improvements in the steam engine within the Cornish mines. He added that science is not purely for profit and the current scenario, where patents are seen as a metric of innovation could lead to a situation where sharing is hindered. This could be dangerous in areas like medicine and agriculture. In this context, the Free and Open Source model has emerged as an important paradigm that generated advances that are outside the proprietary domain. Therefore, the question in front of the group was – Can we look at alternate ways of doing research and can these be harnessed for the public good? He said that it is possible to do collaborative work without going for proprietary software. He informed that the new paradigm named 'open source' is not new. He said that patenting of science was absent in the past. Science or knowledge systems always had an open model. Regarding patents, he asked for public disclosure of invention. He said that R&D (research and development) can be done either by corporate or public funding. He placed four questions before the audience: Can we really allow companies to go for serving only those who can pay? Can we do scientific research in a different way? Can we have an alternative way of doing research? Can we stop corporate funding and go for state funding in R&D?

Prof. VS Ramamurthy, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and one of the veterans of the Indian scientific establishment said that knowledge is important for socio-economic development and today, knowledge has become multi-disciplinary. When multi-disciplinary groups are involved, secrecy will only increase the cost of doing research. In science, failures are as important as successes but the patenting system encouraged only the recognition of success and not the process by which a particular result was arrived at. He said that there is need to look at knowledge management in totality and examine whether answers given in the past are relevant anymore. He said that the open source model has enormous relevance for countries like India which has limited resources but unlimited human resources. Dr. Ramamurthy informed that R&D is done to attract investment in R&D. He said that knowledge has become important to economic and social development. Scientific research is not an individual initiative, he added. Scientific research and knowledge creation has today become a total enterprise. Innovation at the grassroots level do not need specialisation, he emphasised. Innovation do not need structured research, which is corporatised, he said. Knowledge management, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation should be seen in totality, he added.

Prof. Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission and one of India's leading economists asked a succinct question, "Do patents deliver?" Prof. Sen pointed out that patents create private property through exclusion, increase the cost of communication and therefore escalate the cost of the production process in science. In areas like climate change, which involved a whole range of technologies, the free flow of knowledge was extremely important. "Property rights are not an unalloyed virtue if the externalities are very large. If patents do incentivise, do they do so in the right manner?" he asked. Prof. Sen pointed out that two of the world's poorest countries, India and China, are now becoming more important globally and for those managing money, it becomes important to invest in these countries. Therefore, these countries should re-examine patents in the light of the new realities of the commons and growing economic clout. Prof. Abhijit Sen (from the Planning Commission of India) reiterated whether patents could deliver what it wanted to deliver. He asked about the production process in science. He asked whether patenting is the right way in getting innovation. He said that patenting may not lead to creation of knowledge for the right kind of people. He said that global warming and climate change are big issues before humanity. He said that technology can play a big role in combating climate change. He asked for looking at the TRIPs issue in this context. He asked for the need to have a relook at externalities, when one is dealing with climate change. He said that inequalities are increasing in India and China, despite facing economic growth. He informed that inclusive economic growth is opposed to patenting.

Dr. Nagarjuna informed that free software is a economic, social and political movement, which is somehow related to copyleft. He said that 'hacking' is exploring new means in a constrained environment. He said that 80% of the Internet runs on free software. He informed about the existence of free hardware. He said that reputation is important for free software developers. He informed about the release of a new book on hacking culture. He said that there is no lack of elitism in this model. The government protects proprietary companies, he added. He said that free and open source software is given along with coder and decoder. He said that opening up of spectrum is essential, as it can help the FOSS movement. He said that the electro-magnetic spectrum is controlled by the government and the industry. The frequencies are currently being sold, he added. The control on spectrum is a crime, he informed. He said that nowadays, biological inventions are being controlled. All institutions like Pentagon etc. have now switched to free software, he said. Free software do not have loopholes in comparison to proprietary software from say Microsoft. He said that mathematics cannot be patented. He said that one cannot separate code from decode.

Jaijit Bhattacharya from Red Hat spoke on patents. He informed that the patents system is not working. He said that colonisation means the extraction of economic benefit from an area of influence through manipulation of the rules of engagement by either force or deceit. He informed about social colonisation, politico-military colonisation and digital colonisation.
Intellectual Property--> International Standards-->Unfair Rent on IPR/ Anti-trust

Digital colonisation happens in DVDs, camcoders, televisions, word processing, WiFi vs. Wapi, WiMax, Processors etc. Every PC has US$ 150 amount of proprietary software. He said that IPR protection and standards are required but it should not be based on: (i) frivolous patents; (ii) monopolistic practices; (iii) beating the system by incrementally modifying patents and getting extensions on the IPR etc. While speaking on the future of technologies, he said that (i) local industry will suffer; (ii) digital divide will increase; (iii) the present generation will teach children those technologies that are proprietary and hence forever condemn them to tech-slavery; and (iv) digital colonisation will happen due to the colonial mindset.

Venkatesh Hariharan said that small libraries cannot access proprietary journals. So, there is need for open content which can be freely accessed by the students and teachers from developing and third world nations.

Prof. V Kumar, Senior Associate Dean, Director, the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, MIT, said that 'Commons' is not a destination. It is a process. The rules and equations will change overtime. He informed that MIT has launched open content for students and learners worldwide. He informed that MIT open courseware has content for 1800 courses, which has site highlights, syllabus, course calender, lecture notes, exams, problem/solution sets, labs and projects and video lectures. He also informed about Richard Hall. He said that open courseware need to be efficient and should be of good quality. He talked on lab space, e-Science initiatives, Faulkes Telescope Network, access and various digital library initiatives. He said that nowadays sharing of tools is also taking place. He said that although there is cost associated with producing open courseware, but if that is not done, then there is the opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is by failing in competition in today's knowledge economy. He spoke about the interconnectedness between creation, sharing and usage. While talking on value proposition, he talked about proximity, visibility, adaptability, flexibility and interactivity. He also spoke about the iLab Vision. When multi-disciplinary groups are involved, secrecy will only increase the cost of doing research. In science, failures are as important as successes but the patenting system encourages only the recognition of success and not the process by which a particular result was arrived at.

T Jaya Raman from the Tate Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) talked on the defending/expanding of the scientific commons. While talking on knowledge production, he said that historically this has been dominated by the labour of the individual scientist. However, the public dissemination of this knowledge is critical, which means intricate system of verification/peer review/rewards/ peer recognition. He also talked about 'co-operative rivalries'. He said that due to the growth of 'big science'/'big lab', there has been dilution of the role of individual scientist. He said that team work cannot be undermined. He gave extreme examples of big accelerators and space-based astrophysics. 'Large labs' even in areas where infrastructure does not necessarily force teamwork. He talked on the reward/ peer recognition process. He said that large network work together even on theoretical problems. He talked on the conference format evolving into more co-operative research activity beyond simple result sharing/dissemination. He also talked about the rise of multi-author paper. He said that access to 'tacit knowledge' helps in knowledge management. He said that availability of the Internet helps in the development of 'big lab' model. He emphasized on the larger role of tacit knowledge and scientific publishing. He explained the manner of scientific knowledge production in the USSR and the USA/ Europe, which was recognisably the same-despite the profound differences of the institutional structures of the economy and productive activity. He said that the inherent tendency in scientific knowledge production is open knowledge. He asked for developing 'democratic' acceptance of excellence.

Prof. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University, talked on biotechnology from an Indian perspective. He said the key question in the case of Indian agriculture is how the market can provide common good. He said that the situation of agriculture in India is critical. He said that agriculture is not like drugs and vaccines. He spoke on the technological aspect of genomics and scientific research into agriculture, which is both publicly and privately funded. He said that African agriculture is suffering from lack of productivity. He said that Indian politicians always believe that agriculture is vital. He informed that the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was opened by none other than Lal Bahadur Shastri during the 1960's. He said that Indian agriculture is currently suffering from stagnation in terms of low productivity. He talked on the importance of Bt varieties of seeds and evergreen revolution, which is propagated by Prof. MS Swaminathan. He also talked about the issue of subsidies and technology starvation in Indian agriculture. He informed that China is utilising technology far more efficiently compared to India. He asked for intervention of the corporate sector in Indian agriculture. He said that public-private partnership is a new tool to intervene in agriculture and raising its productivity. He also talked on the inefficiency of the official institutions pertaining to agriculture. He said that scientists are not paid well in government sector, so they move towards private sector where they are well paid. There is also the need for open source plant transgenic breeding. There is also the need for profit free interventions in the area of agricultural R&D, he added.

Dr. Samir Bramhachari, Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), informed about unveiling of a US$ 34 million plan for Open Source Drug Discovery. CSIR is one of the world's largest publicly funded R&D organisations which has got 38 laboratories working on a range of subjects from molecular biology to road research to Himalayan bio-resources. The Council has more than 4,000 scientists working in these 38 labs. Dr. Bramhachari noted that there was very little R&D money being spent by MNCs on the typical diseases that afflict Indians because of the relatively low purchasing power in the country. At the same time, MNCs are aggressively scanning Indian academia for research being done by Indian students and adding this knowledge to their database. He also pointed out that collaborative R&D networks like 'Innocentive' had a lot of Indians contributing to it. Therefore, he had proposed to the Indian Government the creation of an Open Source Drug Discovery framework which will harness the collective minds of Indian scientists. The OSDD project will kick off by focussing initially on the Tuberculosis bacilli and the web site will be launched once CSIR finalises the legalities of a "Pharma GPL" share-and-share-alike license. Prof. Brahmachari talked on "Can open source drug discovery address global health care challenges in infectious disease?' He talked on Open Source Drug Discovery model in the area of tuberculosis, which is patent-free and collaborative (http://www.osdd.org/SCIDEV.pdf; http://www.osdd.org/). This workshop demonstrated that there is remarkable understanding of the potential of open source within the highest echelons of the Indian policy-making elite. Prof. Ramamurthy summed it up best when he said that in the Government system, change is always a very slow process. However, open source is inevitable and will be the norm 10 years from now. There is need to accelerate the change in favor of open source, he concluded.

--Reported by Shambhu Ghatak, with inputs coming from Prof. V Kumar, MIT

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has recently launched a new initiative in order to develop low cost drugs for infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB). Generally the poor in India and other developing nations gets afflicted by TB. Since there is want of adequate returns on R&D costs in discovering new drugs for TB, that is why big pharmaceutical companies do not spare much resource. The initiative is in the form of a web portal, which would provide a platform for researchers in the academia, industry and institutes across the world to share their knowledge and ideas and conduct collaborative research on a voluntary basis.

The ‘open source drug discovery’ programme took inspiration from the success of the open source movements in software (including wikipedia) and the Human Genome Sequencing Project, which happened in the West. The website is based on the popular Wiki-based model and is designed to enable anyone to contribute or modify content in a collaborative mode. The ideas will be reviewed by experts and the contributors can get certificates and even monetary rewards if their contributions prove useful. The initiative makes use of the recent developments in bioinformatics, which have enabled research to identify potential drugs by comparing on computer, potential disease targets against large chemical databases. The website will host different types of data on the pathogens and the various tools needed for data analysis. Further, it will have a discussion forum for members to share ideas. A core committee of expert scientists would monitor the process closely. The website would be open to all–scientists, researchers, academicians, doctors, software professionals, traditional healers, and industry. Even lay persons, who had some useful idea or the other to contribute could share them on the website. Among others, the Global Research Alliance, which comprises government and non-profit research organisations around the world, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Hyderabad, Delhi University, Sun Microsystems, TCG Lifesciences and LeadInvent Technologies have already extended their support for the programme.

The discovery of new potential drugs would be in the public domain, thus precluding any monopoly. The CSIR in collaboration with international philanthropic agencies such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would then provide resources to conduct clinical trials and other such steps required to bring the medicines to the market place. The potential drugs would be made generic as soon as they were discovered to ensure that the drug prices were kept low. However, the idea of getting funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation can be frowned by some since there are many anti-trust cases put against Microsoft, a monopoly, in the US and EU by its rivals. Presence of private corporate firms will be always be opposed by people who are against the policies which supports liberalization, privatization and globalization. The programme would initially focus on tuberculosis, since though it was a leading cause of death from bacterial infection in the world, no major advancement in treatment had emerged over the past half a century, particularly since market forces discouraged big pharma firms from developing drugs for such diseases as they had a long gestation period, heavy research and development costs and low returns. It can be recalled here that TB is an infectious disease that is not confined to HIV+ individuals. However, those infected with HIV are at high risk of developing active TB because of low level of immunity. Although TB is curable, poor case detection and patients' lack of adherence to treatment make it the leading cause of death among HIV+ people particularly in Africa. Intensive TB case finding must take place in areas severely affected by HIV through coordination of TB and HIV services. According to the data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) 1/3rd of the world’s population is currently infected by TB. The estimated incidence of the disease in India is 1.8 million new cases annually and 3,70,00 deaths take place due to it every year, thus making it an average of two deaths every three minutes.

Source: The Hindu, http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/17/stories/2008091756501400.htm
Family Health International

Note:

The above image has been taken from:

http://entregeeks.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jc4_01.jpg

State of agriculture in India

Introduction

Agricultural development is vital in a developing country since a vast majority of the workforce derive their livelihood from it. During the Tenth Five Year Plan, the gross domestic product (GDP) emanating from agriculture and allied activities in India registered a growth rate of 2.3 percent, which was lower than the growth rate observed in the industrial sector (8.0 percent) and services sector (9.5 percent). Growth in agriculture and allied activities averaged 2.3 percent during the 10th Plan period, lower than 3.2 percent during the 1990s and 4.4 percent during the 1980s. Hence, it is felt that a big push to the 'agricultural sector' is urgently required via the second green revolution, by implementing the National Agricultural Innovation Project. When one is talking about agricultural development, one cannot neglect food security, nutrition security and livelihood security, since these are related concepts. It is important to point out that per capita foodgrains production has come down to the 1970s level since per capita production of cereals has declined from 192 kg in 1991/1995 to only 174 kg in 2004/2007. Net production of foodgrain has declined from 183.6 million tonnes in the year 2000 to 173.6 million tonnes in the year 2005. However, production of milk has increased from 84.4 million tonnes in 2001-02 to 97.1 million tonnes in 2005-06 as per the Economic Survey 2006-07. Production of eggs has increased from 38,729 millions in 2001-02 to 46,231 millions in 2005-06. Production of fish has increased from 5,956 thousand tonnes in 2001-02 to 6,510 thousand tonnes in 2005-06. It can be recalled that the growth rate in real gross domestic product (7.6 percent) at factor cost has far exceeded the growth rate in agriculture (2.3 percent), during the Tenth Five Year Plan. The revised estimates of the CSO (Central Statistical Organisation) too show that real gross domestic product (GDP) emanating from agricultural and allied activities decelerated from 6.0 percent in 2005-06 to 2.7 percent in 2006-07. During the South-West Monsoon (1, June 2006 to 30, September 2006), India received 886.6 mm of rainfall against the normal rainfall of 892.2 mm, with a deviation of (–)1 per cent. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh faced drought/drought-like situation of varying magnitude during 2006-07. Such a pathetic and dismal situation in agriculture is believed to have led to not only the miserable plight of the farmers but also inflationary pressures in the economy. As a result of the higher order of increase in food prices, various measures of CPI inflation rose from 4.9-5.3 percent in March, 2006 to an intra-year peak of 7.6-9.8 percent in February, 2007, before coming down to 6.7-9.5 percent in March, 2007. Inflation mainly happened in wheat, pulses, milk, oilseeds and raw cotton during 2006-07. After improving steadily from 1980 to 1997, the terms of trade turned against agriculture between 1999 and 2004, and reduced profitability of farming. Public investment in agriculture too has declined from 3.4 percent of agriculture GDP in 1976-1980 to 1.9 percent in 2001-03. Although budgetary subsidies to agriculture have risen from around 3 percent of agriculture GDP in 1976-1980 to about 7 percent in 2001-03, the agricultural scenario does not look positive. Food subsidy as percentage of GDP (new series based on 1999-00) too has risen from 0.48 percent in 1999-00 to 0.66 percent in 2005-06. India's total exports of agricultural and allied products including plantations at US$ 10.5 billion in 2005-06 constitute 10.2 per cent of its export share. Developed country markets have continued to account for nearly 35 per cent of India's agri-exports. Total farm power availability is estimated to have increased from 0.295 kw/ha in the year 1971-72 to 1.502 kw/ha in the year 2005-06. As a result of the joint efforts made by the Government and the private sector, the level of mechanisation has been increasing steadily over the years. Tractor sales increased from 2,54,825 in 2000-01 to 2,63,146 units in 2006-07. Power tillers sales have increased from 16,018 in 2000-01 to 13,375 in 2006-07.

Kindly, look at the figures and graphs above in order to check the trend growth rates in production of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals.

Policies and programmes for agriculture

Some of the institutions/ authorities that have been newly created are: National Rainfed Area Authority, Mini Mission-II of Jute Technology Mission, scheme on micro-irrigation, National Bamboo Mission, Forecasting Agricultural Output Using Space, Agri-Meteorology and Land-based Observation (FASAL), Terminal Markets under the National Horticultural Mission, National Bee Board Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Central Institute of Horticulture (Nagaland). The National Water Development Project in rain fed areas (NWDPRA) is being implemented in 28 states and 2 Union Territories. Under the Watershed Development Fund, the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation and NABARD have contributed equally to establish a corpus fund of the amount INR 200 crore at NABARD.

The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan has undertaken the following strategies to raise agricultural output: (a) doubling the rate of growth of irrigated area; (b) improving water management, rainwater harvesting and watershed development; (c) reclaiming degraded land and focusing on soil quality; (d) bridging the knowledge gap through effective extension; (e) diversifying into high-valued outputs, fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and spices, medicinal plants, bamboo, bio-diesel, but with adequate measures to ensure food security; (f) promoting animal husbandry and fishery; (g) providing easy access to credit at affordable rates; (g) improving the incentive structure and functioning of markets; and (h) refocusing on land reforms issues. Emphasis has also been promised on research and development (R&D) in agriculture. A National Strategic Research Fund has been created within the Agricultural Research System (NARS) so as to see the adverse impact of climate change. Various schemes that have been implemented under Technology Mission on Oilseeds and Pulses (TMOP) are: (a) Oilseeds Production Programme (OPP); (b) National Pulses Development Project (NPDP); (c) Accelerated Maize Development Programme (AMDP); (d) Post Harvest Technology (PHT); (e) Oil Palm Development Programme (OPDP); (f) National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development (NOVOD) Board; and (g) UNDP Sub-Programme on Maize based Cropping System for Food Security in India. Under the resolution on agriculture undertaken by the National Development Council (NDC), there have been plans to amend the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act apart from more allocation of resources for the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP). There have been talk on the use of bio-fertilizers, organic manure and micro-nutrients, to enhance soil health. The Government of India is also promoting soil test-based, balanced and judicious use of chemical fertilisers, in conjunction with bio-fertilisers and organic manures to maintain soil health and its productivity, under the programme of Integrated Nutrient Management through various schemes. The NDC has also given a thought on launching a Food Security Mission. Although the Government of India has undertaken several steps to ensure agricultural development, but it is essential to cross-check how the projects are running at the ground-level. Ground-level credit flow for agriculture and allied activities has increased from the level of INR 1,25,309.00 crore in 2004-05, to the level of INR 1,67,775.00 crore in 2005-06. As against the credit flow target of INR 1,75,000.00 crore during 2006-07, INR 1,49,343.16 crore was achieved up to December 2006, thereby forming 85.34 per cent of the target. The Kisan Credit Card Scheme has been extended to the borrowers of long-term cooperative credit. A rehabilitation package of INR 16,978.69 crore has been announced for 31 suicide-prone districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala (India).

Conclusion

India hopes that the policies and programmes that have been undertaken are going to produce the desired results. But the issues related to the trade-related distortions, access to international markets, and tariff and non-tariff related barriers need to be mitigated at the right forum with the right kind of spirit. India should also ensure right to food, apart from striving for agricultural development.

References:

Reserve Bank of India, Annual Report 2006-07
Economic Survey, Ministry of Finance, 2006-07
Agriculture Strategy for Eleventh Plan, Planning Commission
Recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers
Resolution of the National Development Council of the Prime Minister of India
2006-07 Annual Report of Ministry of Agriculture, GoI

Tale of the dragon and the elephant

Introduction

The focus of the current article would be on India and China, which are considered as two of the fastest growing economies of the world. According to the newly released report titled 'Asian Development Outlook 2007 Update (ADO Update)' by the Asian Development Bank, developing economies from Asia are expected to register impressive economic growth in 2007, driven by fast growth in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India. PRC and India, which together account for 55.3 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in developing Asia, recorded their fastest growth in 13 years during the first half of 2007, and the fastest in 18 years in the fiscal year 2006, respectively. The present analysis, would cover the existing economic scenario in India and China—internal as well as external, in the backdrop of economic reforms, which are associated with the openness to foreign trade and (long-term) investment. In China, the merchandise trade ratio to gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded 60 percent, which was more than double of India's. China attracted direct foreign investment of US $ 79 billion a year, about 13 times than that for India.

'The heat is on'

In India, the balance of payments (BoP) data show that FY 2006 has seen growth of exports by 20.9 percent, and import by 22.3 percent, and the trade deficit widened to US $ 64.9 billion. The current account deficit rose marginally to US$ 9.6 billion from a year earlier. The capital account surplus nearly doubled from a year earlier to US$ 44.9 billion. The balance of payments surplus has escalated to US $ 36.6 billion from US$ 15.0 billion. The net direct investment flows as a whole doubled to US $ 8.4 billion. Net portfolio investment fell to US$ 7.1 billion from US$ 12.5 billion. In China, high trade surpluses and capital inflows have boosted foreign exchange reserves. Foreign exchange reached US$ 1.3 trillion by end-June, 2007 up by US$ 266 billion in 6 months. The trade surplus (US $ 122.5 billion) and actual foreign direct investment (up 12.2 percent to US$ 31.9 billion), accounted for 54 percent of the total foreign exchange accumulation in the first half of 2007, while non-FDI capital inflows contributed 46 percent (against just 3.0 percent in 2006). During the year 2006, India's international reserves amounted to US $ 1,76,105 million (as end of the period); whereas for the same year, Chinese international reserves amounted to US $ 10,72,564 million (calender year), which is almost six-times than that of India. The following table 1, provides a detailed picture of the balance of payments scenario for both India and China. From the table 2, one can find about the economic growth faced by India and PRC during the last four years. The PRC has registered higher economic growth in the recent years compared to India.Economies in transitionIt can be recalled that both India and PRC, historically, have very restrictive regimes, including outright prohibition on foreign direct investments (FDI), which got opened up only during the past 20-25 years (see table 3). The reforms process in the PRC started in the year 1978, thanks to the efforts of Deng Xiaoping (one can remember the term 'Four Modernisations'), which got further consolidated in the late 1980s, and again in 2002 upon its accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (because of the support coming from the United States). The PRC's successful effort to bring foreign direct investment (FDI) in the special economic zones (SEZs), needs to be mentioned here. Special export processing zones (EPZs) along China's southern coast allowed it to exploit its comparative advantage in low-wage labour. Due to the ongoing reforms in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, there was substantial reduction in the workforce. The loss of manufacturing sector employment could be felt more in the state sector. Under the new competitive climate, starting from the mid-1990s, SOEs and the agricultural collectives started adopting the capital intensive technologies in China. However, services still continue to be constrained by high entry barriers, excessive state involvement, opaque regulatory process and overly burdensome licensing and operating requirements. China has promised that by the year 2006, it will drop all form of discriminations against the foreign firms. China has become the final processing and assembly platform for a large volume of exports originating from its Asian OECD neighbours but destined for European and North American markets. Despite the processing exports in China being less value-added and more labour-intensive, the expansion of manufacturing employment has slowed down in China. The intellectual property rights regime in China is considered as weak, which is a major stumbling block before China's trading partners. The year 1991 is regarded as the key reform year for India, following which phase-wise reforms started in terms of fiscal reforms, monetary reforms, trade reforms, banking sector reforms, currency and foreign exchange related reforms, etc. However, in the case of India, it is said that the labour market reforms is yet to be carried out, in the backdrop of labour market militancy, which exists in certain states of India. The labour laws are considered to be restrictive in India. India reduced its trade barriers since the 1990s, along with an expansion of exports of mostly capital and skill intensive products. It is perceived by some economists that too much openness of the economy can be a bane instead of a boon, since this can lead to flight of capital, de-industrialisation and massive unemployment. The Indian growth process has been termed as service sector-led growth, whereas Chinese growth process has been described as manufacturing-centric. However, the unorganised services constituted two-thirds of the service sector output in India, during the last decade. Among sectors attracting high cumulative FDIs, electrical equipments retained the first spot, to be followed by services and telecommunications, in India.

ICT scenario

The IT (Information Technology)-enabled services and business process outsourcing (ITES-BPO) in India have shown their superiority, sustained cost-advantage and fundamentally-powered value proposition in the global market, according to the Economic Survey 2006-07 (Government of India). The IT industry's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) rose from 1.2 percent in 1999-2000 to an estimated 4.8 percent in 2005-06. The value of the electronics hardware exports has increased from US$ 1.2 billion in 2000-01 to US$ 2.12 billion in 2005-06. The value of the computer software exports has increased from US$ 7.8 billion in 2000-01 to US$ 25.8 billion in 2005-06. The total number of professionals employed in the IT and ITES sector has grown from an estimated 2,84,000 in 1999-2000 to 12,87,000 in 2005-06, in India. In the year 2005, Chinese ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) spending is estimated at US $ 118 billion, following growth of 22 percent a year in current US $ since 2000. According to the Information and Communication Outlook 2006 (OECD 2006), India and China account for 6.5 percent of exports and almost 5 percent of imports of computer and information services and other business services. In 2005, ICT-related FDI inflows in China valued US $ 21 billion. China is ranked as the sixth largest ICT market in 2005. During 2007, China's rapid growth continued to be largely investment led, although net exports have been contributing a growing share. India's domestic demand gained further momentum, taking growth there to more than 9 percent. Chinese share of world total trade in ICT goods was worth less than US $ 35 billion in 1996. However, by the year 2004, Chinese ICT goods trade reached almost US $ 329 billion. Since the year 2002, China has become a net exporter of high-technology goods to OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Chinese ICT firms do not merely assemble and re-export to OECD countries, but also compete in aspects of production process that utilise skilled labour, and absorb higher technology inputs. Rodrik (2006) finds that the Chinese exports is not merely about the volume of exports or its large pool of labour that allows the country a huge labour cost advantage, but it is also about what it produces and sells, which is associated with a productivity level that is much higher than a country at China's level of income. Research also shows that the worst weaknesses of China’s state-led capitalism are—excessive reliance on creaking state companies rather than more efficient private ones, a weak financial sector, pollution and rampant corruption.

Conclusion

There are risks before the two emerging economies, namely India and China, unless they take bolder steps to reforms, which aims at both internal and external macroeconomic stability without affecting the medium-term growth rate and rate of employment generation. The strengths and weaknesses need to assessed by both India and China, before they move into another round of reforms, and openness. Lastly, it must be mentioned that globalisation has also seen rise of Multi National Enterprises (MNEs) from the emerging market economies (EM) such as Brazil, China, Korea, India, Malaysia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Turkey. These MNEs are termed as the 'second wave MNEs', who appear to be driven directly by firm-to-firm contracting in a global setting. Firms in the developing economies now manufacture for others, which allow them to capitalise on their cheap labour while avoiding the expense and risk of marketing, distribution and research and development (R&D). Another feature of globalisation has been the vertical fragmentation of manufacturing production into discrete activities that can be performed in different locations by different firms for producing wide range of products. EM-MNEs utilise various types of strategic and organisational innovations in order to establish a presence in industrial sectors, which is already populated with world class competitors. These firms have also invested in brand-building. At the end, one can say that China and India can become economic superpowers provided the growth experienced by them is inclusive in nature.

References and statistics:

Divergent Asian Views on foreign Direct Investment and Its Governance', by Douglas H. Brooks and Hal Hall, Asian Development Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1-36
'Poverty and Inequality in China and India: Elusive Link with Globalisation', by Pranab Bardhan, The Economic and Political Weekly, September 22, 2007, pp. 3849-3852.
'Key Indicators of Developing Asian and Pacific Countries', The Asian Development Bank, pp. 91-95, pp. 98-102, pp. 202-207 and pp. 230-236.
The Economic Survey 2006-07, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, pp. 139-147.
Information Technology Outlook 2006 Highlights, pp. 3-15.
'Regional Economic Outlook, Asia and Pacific', April 2007, International Monetary Fund
'Asian Development Outlook 2007 Update' (ADO Update), The Asian Development Bank
'Jobless growth in Chinese manufacturing', by Jayati Ghosh and CP Chandrasekhar,
http://www.macroscan.com/fet/may07/print/prnt150507Jobless_Growth.htm 'Strengthening Productive Capacity in Emerging Economies through Internationalisation: Evidence from the Appliance Industry', by Federico Bonaglia and Andrea Goldstein, Working Paper No. 262, July 2007, OECD Development Centre
'China's Trade and Growth: Impact on Selected OECD Countries', by Malory Greene, Nora Dihel, Przemyslaw Kowalski and Douglas Lippoldt (Unclassified), Working Party of the Trade Committee, OECD Trade Policy Working Paper No. 44, 28-Nov-2006.
'What's so special about China's exports?', by D Rodrik, NBER Working Paper 11947, Cambridge, MA, January 2006.

Hindustan Times Mint SME Summit 2007

The Hindustan Times Mint SME Summit, which was hosted by Hindustan Times along with National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Aveya Global Connect Ltd., Global Trade Finance Ltd. (GTF), Tata Telecom, SMERA and SAP, was held in Hotel Crown Plaza, New Delhi (India) on 21st February 2007. Sandip Ghose, Head New Ventures, Hindustan Times Media Ltd, delivered the welcome note, where he informed about IT’s (information technology) positive role in transforming not only big but also small and medium enterprises. He asked for enabling policies on the part of government to provide incentives to SMEs for usage of IT. Jawahar Sircar, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (SSI), informed that the number of SMEs is around 12.4 million headcount-wise in India, which include village and cottage industry, micro and small industry. He said that the total number of registered companies is 0.9 million which is miniscule. He said that some of the vision of Government of India is archaic in terms of providing protection instead of promoting them to become competitive at the global level. He informed the audience about the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC), Limited Liability Partnership Bill, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Bill and OP Bhatt and Gupta Committees Report, which are oriented to strengthen the SME sector. Soum Mukherjee, Director, Aveya Global Connect Ltd., informed that SME contribute to a fair chunk of the GDP, and industrial output. IT usage could help SMEs in doing better business, with cost efficiency, he said. During the first session, HP Kumar, Chairman, NSIC informed about the India’s Finance Minister’s decision about increasing lending support to the SMEs by twice. He welcomed the credit guaranty fund to support SMEs. He informed about the credit linked capital subsidy scheme of the government. Rajesh Dubey, CEP SMERA, said that credit rating helps in cost efficiency and innovation to be undertaken by SMEs, and helps the bank to go for less riskier lending venture, provided the credit rating is done in a scientific way. J Ahluwalia, Head, Business Development, GTF, informed about Exim Bank of India’s financial solutions to the SMEs. During the second session, Anirudh Kalia, GM-SME, Tata Teleservices, talked about SMEs’ potential in transforming Indian economy. He said that companies, which have registered could go to the stock exchange to raise capital. He also informed about the various IT-based products and services, which Tata Teleservices is offering to Indian SMEs. He said that IT or Internet-enabled environment helps in fast decision-making by the SMEs as this leads to mobility. Deb Deep Sengupta, Vice President–Mid Markets and Channels, SAP India, said that service providers could provide various kinds of IT enabled services to raise the productivity of the SMEs. Amit Gupta, CEO, S Chand and Company, talked on how usage of IT by the SMEs raises productivity of the sector in particular and the economy in general. He mentioned about product, leadership, operational excellence and customer relationship, which SMEs look at while using IT-based solutions. He said that SMEs have to be good decision-makers, planners and strategy-makers regarding the type of technology, which it is adopting. He informed how technology has changed the face of mankind from the days of industrial revolution to the post-Fordist era. Rajiv Chawla, President, Faridabad Small Industries Association, mentioned about the need for best manufacturing practices in the SME sector. He emphasized on innovation, design development and validation by the SMEs in the face of globalisation and rapid technological advancement, to stay afloat during competition. He said that instead of IT use being limited to accounting or some in-house activities, there is need to use IT to look at inventories and capacity utilisation. He also mentioned about TQM, TPM, 6 sigma, benchmarking ISO et al for effective standardisation of the SMEs. He added that the framework has to move beyond built to print to art to part, where ERP (enterprise resource planning) has a possible role. The emphasis should be not only on cost efficiency and quality, but also on speed and innovation. He asked for investing in youth for the IT sector to sustain and the key role entrepreneurs can play to bring change. The sessions were moderated by Josey John, National Coordination Editor, Mint (promoted by the Wall Street Journal).

Budgetary Allocation for e-Gov, India

CSCs have been envisioned under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) as change agents which are going to change the socio-economic fabric of rural India. According to the Annual Report 2006-07 of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has a annual plan budget of INR 1500 crore for the period 2007-08. Of the total amount of INR 1500 crore, INR 800 crore has been earmarked for Electronic Governance, which is almost 53 percent of the entire budget of the Department of Information Technology (DIT). Similarly, the figures for 2005-06 and 2006-07 are INR 300 crore (32.3 percent) and INR 440 crore (40.37 percent) respectively. This shows that e-Governance is the most prioritized area for intervention by the Government. Under the NeGP, the CSC scheme has been approved at a total cost of INR 5742 crore over 4 years. For the CSC scheme, the Government of India is estimated to contribute INR 856 crore, and the State Governments will contribute INR 793 crore. The balance resources (amounting to INR 4093 crore) would be mobilized from the private sector. Hence the CSCs scheme would be implemented in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Under the NeGP, the CSCs would be designed as ICT-enabled kiosks having a PC along with basic support equipment such as printer, scanner, UPS, with wireless connectivity as the backbone and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems, etc. The Government has approved a scheme for establishing State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) across the country in 29 states/ 6 UTs at a total outlay of INR 3334 crore with Central Assistance component of INR 2005 crore over a period of 5 years, which is going to operationalize the CSCs. The Annual Plan 2007-08 of the Department of IT, reveals that of the INR 1500 crore, INR 238 crore (15.87 percent) has been allocated for R&D programmes and INR 884.70 crore (58.98 percent) has been allocated for infrastructure development. The Annual Plan 2006-07 of the Department of IT shows that of the INR 1090.00 crore, INR 218.50 crore (20.05 percent) has been allocated for R&D programmes and INR 530.10 crore (48.63 percent) has been earmarked for infrastructure development. The Annual Plan 2005-06 shows that of the INR 929.30 crore, INR 192.00 crore (20.66 percent) has been allocated for R&D programmes and INR 424.50 crore (48.68 percent) has been earmarked for infrastructure development. Hence it can be seen over the years that infrastructure development had been the focus of the Department of IT. Proposals for 11 states have been sanctioned by the Empowered Committee at a total cost of INR 877.63 crore and the first installment of Government of India contribution of INR 109.71 crore has been released to these States. According to the Annual Report 2006-07, three states have floated the Request for Proposal (RFP) for selection of Service Centre Agencies (SCAs) and the other States are in the process of finalizing the RFPs.