Space Applications
Indian space programme is acclaimed for the effectiveness in utilising the space systems for a variety of applications. The two main space systems, INSAT and the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite continue to be used for a number of applications relevant to national development. New initiatives are being undertaken to expand the application of these systems. The highlights of the applications programme are given in the following paragraphs.
Village Resource Centres (VRCs)
Satellite based communication and remote sensing technologies have demonstrated their capabilities to provide services related to education, healthcare, weather, land and water resources management, mitigation of impact of natural disasters, etc. To provide these space-based services directly to the rural areas, DOS has initiated a programme to set up Village Resource Centres (VRCs) in association with NGOs and trusts and state and central agencies concerned. VRCs are envisaged as single window delivery mechanism for a variety of space based products and services, such as tele-education, tele-medicine, information on natural resources for planning and development at local level, interactive advisories on agriculture, fisheries, land and water resources management, livestock management, etc, interactive vocational training towards alternative livelihood, e-governance, weather information, etc. VRCs will also address a variety of social aspects locally, and can act as helplines.
DOS provides satellite connectivity and bandwidth, telemedicine and tele-education facilities, available/customised spatial information on natural resources, along with indigenously developed query system. Housing, managing and operating the VRCs will rest with the associating agencies. The first cluster of three VRCs set up in Tamil Nadu in association with
M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai last year have been functioning well. These VRCs have so far provided over 800 programmes/advisories to local people. The areas addressed include agriculture, adult and computer literacy, alternative livelihood related vocational training, marketing of agro-products, micro-finance/enterprises, livestock management, healthcare, etc.
During the year, the second cluster of nine VRCs has been set up in Kerala (6) and Tamil Nadu (3), in association with AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham. This cluster has VRCs located in Schools, Tsunami Relief Camps and Orphanages. VRCs being set up include: six with Kerala State Planning Board including one mobile VRC, 15 with Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency in Karnataka, 19 with Karuna Trust in Chamarajanagar District of Karnataka, eight with M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, five with Kutchh Nav Nirman Abhyan, Bhuj, Kutchh District, Gujarat, five with Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Ahmedabad and eight with Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)- Allahabad. DOS is also identifying NGOs/Trusts for setting-up VRCs in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra states.
INSAT Applications
EDUSAT Programme
EDUSAT programme is aimed to provide distance education service using advanced space technology and ground technology of convergence. The programme is primarily for school, college and higher levels of education and to support non-formal education. EDUSAT pilot projects were taken up in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh ahead of EDUSAT launch using INSAT-3B, covering Visveswaraya Technological University in Karnataka, Y B Chavan Open University in Maharashtra and Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in Madhya Pradesh.
In the present semi-operational phase of EDUSAT programme, Karnataka Primary Education Project under ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ covering 885 primary schools has been made operational using the southern regional beam of EDUSAT. Networks for IGNOU, CEC/ University Grants Commission (UGC), CIT/National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) have been set up using the national beam. Interactive networks for Kerala and Tamil Nadu are operational and extensively used for teachers’ training and other training programmes using regional beam.
A total of five school networks (Chamarajanagar and Gulbarga in Karnataka, Sidhi in Madhya Pradesh, Mallapuram in Kerala and Lakshadweep) have been proposed of which two are operational and three are under implementation. A total of 33 interactive/ROT networks are proposed, in the national beam and regional beams of which 12 are operational. This includes a unique network for Blind Peoples Association operating in Ku-band western regional beam established in 10 blind schools of Gujarat. At present, more than 2300 classrooms have been connected through EDUSAT in various educational networks.
In the third phase, EDUSAT programme will be made fully operational. Manufacturers and service providers will replicate the systems and expand the present networks with funding by the end-users and technical and managerial support from DOS.
On-going Educational TV Services
INSAT is being used to provide Educational TV (ETV) service for primary school children in Tamil, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Hindi. A general enrichment programme on higher education (college sector) is telecast on the national network. These programmes, provided by the University Grants Commission (UGC), are a part of its countrywide classroom programme. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) broadcasts half an hour curriculum based lectures daily via the national network for the students.
Gyandarshan is an exclusive Educational TV channel of India started in January 2000 by IGNOU, Ministry of Human Resources Development and Prasar Bharati. Gyandarshan-I beams round the clock programmes acquired from UGC, NCERT, Central Institute for Educational Technology, State Institute of Research and Training and IGNOU. Aka Eklavya – Gyandarshan-III channel dedicated to technical education was started on January 26, 2003, in collaboration with the Department of Technical Education of the Human resources Development (HRD) ministry and Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), with IIT, Delhi as the nodal institution. The channel airing programmes originating from different IITs benefit the students pursuing technology and engineering.
Satellite-Based Training and Developmental Communications Channel (TDCC)
A total of eight Ext-C band channels — six on INSAT-3B and two on EDUSAT — are being used for the Training and Developmental Communication Channel (TDCC), a service that has been operational since 1995. It provides one-way video and two-way audio system of interactive education. The teaching-end includes a studio and uplink facility for transmitting live or pre-recorded lectures. The participants at the classrooms located nationwide receive lectures through simple dish antennas and have facility to interact with lecturers using telephone lines. The teaching-ends are now available at Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Goa University, Anna University and Ahmedabad. The Direct Receive System network consists of more than 4,000 classrooms spread over the country. Several state governments are using TDCC system extensively for distance education, rural development, women and children development, Panchayat Raj and industrial training.
Average monthly utilisation of TDCC is about 25 to 30 days a month with 100 to 110 interactive training programmes.
GRAMSAT Programme - GRAMSAT Pilot Projects (GPP)
GRAMSAT programme is an initiative to provide communication networks at the state level connecting the state capital to districts and blocks. The networks provide computer connectivity, data broadcasting, TV broadcasting facilities having applications like
e-governance, National Resource Information System (NRIS), development information, tele-conferencing, disaster management, telemedicine and distance education. The GPP/TDCC networks are operational in Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. It is under implementation for North-Eastern region. During the year, Andaman and Nicobar (VSAT based) network has been implemented. The planning for North Eastern Region, Rajasthan, Kerala, Lakshadweep and West Bengal is in progress.
In Andaman and Nicobar the network is currently serving seven islands through eight nodes. The utilisation during first two months was 45 days/122 hours for vocational training in multicast and multipoint video conference mode providing computer education (polytechnics). In Orissa, the network has been expanded and upgraded for TV broadcasting to Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput region (800) and also for interactive training programmes, e-governance and National (Natural) Resources Information System to reach all the 234 blocks in 30 districts.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is one of the unique applications of space technology for societal benefit. DOS telemedicine programme, which started in 2001, is aimed at linking via INSAT remote/rural district hospitals in areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman and Lakshdweep Islands, North Eastern States and some of the remote and tribal districts in the States of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, Punjab, West Bengal and Orissa with super-speciality hospitals in major cities.
While DOS provides the telemedicine systems - software, hardware and communication equipments as well as satellite bandwidth – the state governments and the speciality hospitals have to allocate funds for their part of infrastructure, manpower and maintenance. Technology development, standards and cost effective systems have been evolved in association with various state governments, NGOs, speciality hospitals and industry. DOS interacts with state government and speciality hospitals for bringing an understanding between the parties through an MOU.
During the year, the telemedicine network has been further expanded to cover 152 hospitals – 120 remote/rural/district hospitals/health centres connected to 32 speciality hospitals located in major cities. A mobile health service vehicle “DISHA” operated by private entrepreneur in the Madhurai District of Tamil Nadu has also been provided telemedicine connectivity.
An International Telemedicine Conference (INTELEMEDINDIA-2005) was sponsored by DOS and others at Bangalore during March 2005. An outcome of this conference was the constitution of a National Task Force by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The task force will work out various aspects of implementing telemedicine in the country.
Television
INSAT has been a major catalyst for the expansion of television coverage in India. Satellite television now covers over 65 percent of the Indian land mass and over 90 percent of the population. At present 40 Doordarshan TV channels including news uplinks are operating through C-band transponders of INSAT-3A, INSAT-3C and INSAT-2E (INTELSAT leased). Most of the TV channels are digitised.
The following satellite television services are being operated by Doordarshan:
• National networking service (DD-1), DD News (DD-2), DD-Bharti and Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) service.
• Regional services in Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, UP, Assam, Maharashtra, Punjab, North-East, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Nagpur, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Uttaranchal, Haryana, Port Blair, Nagaland, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh.
At present, 1,406 transmitters of Doordarshan are working in INSAT system out of which 1,138 transmitters (117 High Power ransmitters (HPT), 744 Low Power Transmitters (LPT), 259 Very Low Power Transmitters (VLPT) and 18 transposers) are working in the DD-1 network and 153 TV Transmitters (68 HPTs, 80 LPTs and five VLPTs) are working in the DD-2 network. 111 Regional service transmitters (six HPTs, nine LPTS and 96 VLPTs), four HPTs for digital transmissions are also operational in the Doordarshan Network. 47 Private TV channels are operational through four private TV teleports.
Satellite News Gathering and Dissemination
Satellite News Gathering using INSAT system enables on the spot real-time news coverage. Prasar Bharati has twelve Digital Outdoor-Broadcast DSNG terminals operating through INSAT network in C-band to cover important events in different locations for transmission to a central station at Delhi for rebroadcast over DD channels. Two Ku-band DSNG terminals have been added by DD in INSAT network. Five more DSNG terminals in Ku-band are in the process of induction and eight more are planned.
Press Trust of India (PTI) is implementing a system to provide its news and information services at higher speed and increased volume and variety directly to a wider range of media and other users by utilising the broadcast facilities of INSAT-3C. The project utilises a Radio Networking (RN) type of channel on one of the broadcast (CxS) transponders of the satellite. PTI satellite news and facsimile dissemination project is working with 15 terminals (14 from PTI and one shared with AIR).
Currently AIR has four DSNG terminals and four more DSNG terminals are in the process of induction. In addition, 53 terminals are operational for private DSNG channels.
Radio Networking
Radio Networking (RN) through INSAT provides a reliable high-fidelity programme channels for national as well as regional networking. At present, 213 All India Radio (AIR) stations have been equipped with S-band receive terminals out of which around 100 AIR stations have been upgraded to receive C-band analogue and digital RN carriers and rest of the stations are under process of up-gradation to receive analogue and digital C-band RN carriers.
A total of 76 RN channels are being up-linked at present. Out of these, 39 are operating in CxC and 37 CxC bands. For this AIR is utilising two S-band transponders and one C-band transponder of INSAT-3C. A total of 90 carriers in CxC band are being envisaged for up-linking by utilising an entire transponder of INSAT-3C.
In AIR network, a total of 27 stations are present with facility to uplink in both CxS and CxC band frequency. The Central earth station at Broadcast House, Delhi, is under augmentation to make provision for up-linking 24 RN carriers in CxS and CxC band. New earth stations are envisaged at AIR Varanasi, Rohtak, Aurangaband and Leh. Recently AIR has launched
12 radio channels on DTH terminals in Ku-band at Todapur, New Delhi. Efforts are underway to augment this to 30 channels.
Telecommunications
A total of 624 telecommunication terminals of various sizes and capabilities (excluding NICNET, RABMN and VSAT micro terminals) are operating in INSAT telecommunications network providing 10,070 two-way speech circuits or equivalent to over 492 routes. These include 89 BSNL, 125 for government users and 27 Closed User Group(CUG)/VSAT operators earth stations and 354 BSNL VSATs (239 multi-channel per carrier (MCPC) VSATs, 53 High speed VSAT Network (HVNET) terminals and 62 VSATs operating under the Remote Area Business Management Network. A total of 25,000 CUG VSATs are operating through INSAT.
The Bangalore-Delhi digital network with two 34 Mbps streams has been commissioned. Augmentation of existing eight Mbps connectivity amongst four metros is planned by using digital channel multiplying equipment.
Captive satellite-based networks for National Thermal Power Corporation, Gas Authority of India Ltd, Nuclear Power Corporation, Indian Telephone Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, National Fertilisers Limited and Coal India Limited are operational. A Coal India Limited earth station at Poonch has been commissioned. The National Stock Exchange VSAT network in extended C-band is operational. A number of captive government networks are also working with INSAT. More organisations are in the process of implementing their own captive networks using INSAT. DOT has licensed a few private operators to provide value-added services to the public using the extended C-band.
Mobile Satellite Services
An S-band Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) was added to INSAT system with the launch of INSAT-3C in 2002 and GSAT-2 in 2003. The following two classes of services were identified for MSS:
• A small portable satellite terminal that works with INSAT for voice/data communication has been developed with the participation of Indian industries. The terminal is useful for voice communication especially during disasters when other communication means break down. It can be used from any location in India for emergency communication. Transmit and receive frequencies of the terminal are in S-Band.
• The portable terminal is connected to the EPABX at central hub station through satellite channel and hence could be considered as an extension of EPABX and call could be made between any satellite terminals and local phones on the EPABX. Central hub station is located at SAC, Ahmedabad.
INSAT Reporting system: This consist of low bit rate one-way reporting service using shared channels with portable and hand-held terminals. This unique one-way messaging from a remote location to user-headquarters operates with the Delhi Earth Station (DES) of DOS as the hub. This is an experimental service. Short messages from user terminals are relayed through the satellite to the hub and are automatically forwarded to the respective user headquarters via Fax or data links. This reporting service is provided using small hand-held terminals. There is a provision to attach a GPS receiver to the reporting terminal for position information.
Meteorology
The meteorological data of INSAT system is processed and disseminated by the INSAT Meteorological Data Processing System (IMDPS) of India Meteorological Department (IMD). Upper winds, sea surface temperature and precipitation index data are regularly obtained. The products derived from the image data include: cloud motion vectors, sea surface temperature, outgoing long-wave radiation and quantitative precipitation index. The products are used for weather forecasting, both synoptic and numerical weather prediction.
INSAT-VHRR imageries are used by Doordarshan during news coverage and by newspapers as part of weather reporting. At present, repetitive and synoptic weather system observations over Indian Ocean from geostationary orbit are available only from INSAT system. INSAT VHRR data is available in near real-time at 90 Meteorological Data Dissemination Centres (MDDC) in various parts of the country. With the commissioning of direct satellite service for processed VHRR data, MDDC type of data can be provided at any location in the country.
IMD has installed 100 meteorological Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) and other agencies have installed about 200 DCPs all over the country. One DCP is also installed at Schiramacher, the Indian base station in Antarctica.
DCP services are provided using the Data Relay Transponders of Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3A. A rainfall monitoring system which operates at 300 bits/second has been developed. ISRO has taken up indigenous development of low cost automatic weather station for deployment in the country in large numbers. The data collection is proposed to be carried out in TDMA mode instead of the present random access mode.
For quick dissemination of warnings against impending disaster from approaching cyclones, specially designed receivers have been installed at the vulnerable coastal areas in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, West Bengal and Gujarat for direct transmission of warnings to the officials and public in general using broadcast capability of INSAT. IMD’s Area Cyclone Warning Centres generate special warning bulletins and transmit them every hour in local languages to the affected areas. Three hundred and fifty such receiver stations have been installed by IMD. Out of these 100 are Digital CWDS (DCWDS) based on advanced technology. The DCWDS has been deployed with acknowledgement transmitters to get confirmation at transmitting station.
A cooperative agreement has been signed with EUMETSAT for using meteorological data from Meteosat-5 at 63 degree East in exchange for weather pictures collected by INSAT.
Satellite Aided Search and Rescue (SAS&R)
India is a member of the international COSPAS-SARSAT programme for providing distress alert and position location service through LEOSAR (Low Earth Orbit Search And Rescue) satellite system. Under this programme, India has established two Local User Terminals (LUTs), one at Lucknow and the other at Bangalore. The Indian Mission Control Centre (INMCC), is located at ISTRAC, Bangalore.
INSAT-3A located at 93.5 deg East is equipped with 406 MHz Search and Rescue payload that picks up and relays alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land users. INSAT and GOES systems have become an integral part of the COSPAS-SARSAT system and they complement the LEOSAR system.
Indian LUTs provide coverage to a large part of Indian Ocean region rendering distress alert services to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The operations of INMCC/LUT are funded by the participating agencies, namely, Coast Guard, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Director General of Shipping and Services.
INSAT GEOSAR Local User Terminal (GEO LUT) is established at ISTRAC, Bangalore and integrated with INMCC. The distress alert messages concerning the Indian service area, detected at INMCC are passed on to Indian Coast Guard and Rescue Coordination Centres at Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. The search and rescue activities are carried out by Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force. INMCC is linked to the RCCs and other International MCCs through automatic telex and Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network. The Indian LUTs and MCC provide service round the clock and maintain the database of all 406 MHz registered beacons equipped on Indian ships and aircraft.
Development of indigenous search and rescue beacons has been taken up and prototypes are being tested.
During the year, the Indian search and rescue system detected and supported two real distress calls that resulted in rescue of 23 people.
• On January 19, 2005, a private helicopter belonging to Hindustan Ink crashed at Vapi (Daman). Both the crew members were rescued.
• On May 18, 2005, a Hong Kong vessel was drifting and later abandoned by the crew. The first alert was through INMARSAT-C followed by COSPAS-SARSAT EPIRB activation.
21 crew members were rescued. INSAT system detected the alert first with 98 minutes time advantage compared to LEO system.
Standard Time and Frequency Signal Dissemination Services
A Standard Time and Frequency Signal Dissemination Service using a Radio Networking (RN) type CxS carrier on INSAT-3C, is being operated by the National Physical Laboratory. This service is available round-the-clock in a broadcast mode at downlink frequency in S-band and is receivable on a set-up consisting of a 2.4 m diameter antenna, a front-end converter, an FM demodulator and a microprocessor controlled signal decoder. The service consists of a train of 5 kHz bursts signal, which is frequency modulated on the carrier. The time has a precision of better than one microsecond and accuracy of better than 20 microseconds.
Satellite Navigation
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to implement an indigenous Satellite-Based Regional GPS Augmentation System also known as Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) as part of the Satellite-Based Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)/Air Traffic Management (ATM) plan for civil aviation. A national plan for satellite navigation including implementation of Technology Demonstration System (TDS) over the Indian airspace as a proof of concept, has been prepared jointly by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and ISRO. TDS is the first step towards implementing an operational SBAS system.
The Indian SBAS is planned to be implemented in three phases: Technology Demonstration System, Initial Experimental Phase and Final Operational Phase. The Indian SBAS is expected to bridge the gap between the European EGNOS (European Geo Stationary Navigation Overlay System) and the Japanese MSAS (MTSAT Space Augmentation System) to provide seamless navigation of aircraft from west to east and vice-versa. When implemented, the Indian SBAS system will play an important role in the introduction of satellite based navigation services in the Asia Pacific region. The Indian SBAS system has been given an acronym - GPS And GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN).
The first navigation payload is being fabricated and it is proposed to be flown on the GSAT-4 expected to be launched in 2006-07. Two more payloads will be subsequently flown, one each on two geostationary satellites.
Remote Sensing Applications for Natural Resources Management
National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS), under the aegis of DOS, is aimed at deriving optimum utilisation of the country’s natural resources by systematic inventory using earth observation data in conjunction with conventional techniques. The Planning Committee of NNRMS (PC-NNRMS) provides guidelines for implementation of the system and oversees the progress of remote sensing applications. Ten Standing Committees have been constituted for application of remote sensing in different areas. They are: (i) Agriculture and Soils, (ii) Bio-Resources, (iii) Geology and Mineral Resources, (iv) Water Resources, (v) Ocean Resources, (vi) Cartography and Mapping, (vii) Urban Management, (viii) Rural Development, (ix) Training and (x) Meteorology. Each of these Standing Committees is chaired by Secretary of the respective government departments and include experts from major user departments/agencies.
The remote sensing application projects at national, regional and local levels are carried out through NRSA, Hyderabad, SAC, Ahmedabad, five RRSSCs located at Bangalore, Dehradun Jodhpur, Kharagpur, and Nagpur and NE-SAC, Shillong. State and central government departments, state remote sensing centres and others are associated in these projects. Some of the major application projects carried out during the year are highlighted in the following paragraphs.
CARTOSAT-1 Data Utilisation: CARTOSAT-1, launched in May 2005, provides 2.5 m spatial resolution panchromatic stereoscopic data. Demonstrative studies on its utilisation have focused on land records metrology, land parcel mapping, city guide map updation, terrain parameter retrieval, base map generation, etc. Land parcel maps have been prepared for a few villages.
Groundwater Prospects Mapping: Under Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, funded by the Department of Drinking Water Supply of the Ministry of Rural Development, phase-I of Groundwater Prospects Mapping was launched for six states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan). The work involved preparation of maps on 1:50,000 scale and generation of digital database pertaining to ground water such as lithology, geomorphology, geological structures and hydrology.
Under phase-II, all the maps of Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh have been supplied. Work is nearing completion in Gujarat and Orissa. Phase-III has been proposed to cover the remaining states of India.
The user feedback indicates good success for targeting water. Training workshops have been organised in all the states to demonstrate the utility of these maps for selection of well sites and planning recharge structures. As many as 74,777 wells have been drilled in seven states with the overall success rate of 90 percent and about 3,600 recharge structures have been constructed.
CAPE and FASAL: Crop Acreage and Production Estimate (CAPE) is a countrywide project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation and executed by DOS along with various State Remote Sensing Applications Centres, State Departments of Agriculture and Agricultural Universities. Acreage and production estimates for principal crops such as wheat, rice, sorghum, cotton, mustard and groundnut are generated under the project using stratified random sampling approach. Achievements of CAPE include evaluation of multi-date remote sensing data for crop identification, creation of a geo-referenced cadastral data-base for accuracy evaluation, development of yield models using trend and weather data.
The all India wheat area was estimated as 26.43 million hectares and production as 72.92 million tonne for 2004-05 Rabi season. The national Kharif rice area was estimated as 36.39 million hectares and production as 71.49 million tonne for 2004. Kharif Rice acreage and production forecasts for Andhra Pradesh were 2.08 million hectare and 5.72 million tonne respectively. Rabi acreage and production forecasts for Andhra Pradesh were 855.43 hectare and 3.05 million tonne respectively. Sugarcane acreage estimates for nine districts of Uttar Pradesh was completed and the total acreage was 2.18 million hectare and production was 123.86 million tonne. The all India potato area was estimated as 1.16 million hectares and production as 24.39 million tonne for 2004-05. Jowar acreage estimates for ten districts of Karnataka was 1.07 million hectare and production was 0.805 million tonne for the
Rabi season of 2004-05.
Based on experience of CAPE, efforts are on to institutionalise Forecasting Agricultural output through Agro-meteorological and Land based observations (FASAL) which envisages phased implementation in collaboration with State Agricultural Statistical Agencies.
Agroclimatic Planning and Information Bank: Under Phase-II of Agroclimatic Planning and Information Bank taken up for six districts of Karnataka, web-based information bank has been generated for 63 major horticultural crops. The website has been launched and generation of the same in the regional language has been completed.
Precision Farming: A synergy of precision farming with other technologies like remotely-sensed images coupled with GPS and GIS offers a powerful tool for arriving at farm management decisions at within field level to optimise crop production based on the potentials and limitations of the available resources. To explore the potential of remote sensing in providing spatial and temporal information on soils and crops as input to precision farming technology, field experiments have been initiated in collaboration with other organisations for cultivation under irrigated conditions, rain-fed controlled and rain-fed farmers’ conditions. A study to assess the variability in soil fertility and yield of paddy using in situ observations and high resolution multi-spectral data has been taken up at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) Research farm.
Potential Fishery Zone (PFZ) Forecasting: Potential fishing zones were initially forecast using sea surface temperature data. Addition of chlorophyll information derived from OCEANSAT-1 introduced the important link of sea food chains and improved the accuracy of forecast. A third parameter, the Sea Surface Wind (SSW) which indicates the effect of currents on feeding grounds, has now been incorporated resulting in further improvement in forecasts. Forty forecasts have been given using SSW and Fishery Survey of India have made 156 observations in 43 suggested PFZs. The reliability of forecast has increased from 70 to
80 percent.
Biodiversity Characterisation: Initiated jointly by the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Space, the biodiversity characterisation at landscape level, covers four main biodiversity rich regions of the country - NE Region, Western Himalayas, Western Ghats and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Study in Andaman and Nicobar islands has been completed during the year and reports, atlases and CDs have been published and distributed to the users such as Department of Biotechnology, State Forest Departments, Ministry of Environment and Forests, subject experts, etc. Phase-ll of the Biodiversity Characterisation Project is in progress for the Eastern Ghats and Central India, covering West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa.
A Biodiversity Information System containing exhaustive database on species has also been developed. It allows identifying the gap areas and species-habitat relationship and helps biodiversity conservation and planning by setting priorities.
Desertification Monitoring and Assessment: Funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the study has been taken up as part of the Thematic Programme Network-1 of UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The study was carried out in selected parts of the country in both hot and cold desert areas on 1:50,000 scale.
Work has been completed for hot desert in Pali and Dausa districts of Rajasthan, Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh, Bellary district of Karnataka, Balia district of UP, Panchkula district of Haryana, Mehboob Nagar district of Andhra Pradesh and Theni Watershed in Tamil Nadu. and for cold desert in Kathua, Padam, Hanle, Leh, Panamic district in J & K and Chamba, Keylong and Lahul Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh. Desertification status mapping of the country using data of RESOURCESAT has been taken up.
Desertification Status map on 1:1 million scale for entire country is being prepared using AWiFS data.
Integrated Resources Information System for Desert Areas (IRIS-DA): Funded by the Ministry of Rural Development, this project envisages preparation of land and water resource management and utilisation plans on 1:50,000 scale to aid state, district and block level officials in planning development works. The project covers 76,527 sq km in 83 desert or drought-prone blocks distributed in 18 districts of four states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka. The project has been completed and block-wise thematic maps, final action plan maps for land and water resources development for 83 blocks and district-wise reports for 18 districts have been generated and provided to Ministry of Rural Development.
Snowmelt Run-off Forecast: Forecast of cumulative seasonal (April-May-June) snowmelt run-off from Sutlej river basin up to Bhakra reservoir is made available to Bhakra Beas Management Board by the first week of April every year, based on analysis of daily observed satellite data. This forecast is updated subsequently to provide new information for reservoir water scheduling. During the year, Kashmir valley saw unprecedented and late snowfall during February-March. Concerns were raised about flooding in the valley if these tons of accumulated snow melted. Studies were carried out to assess the snowmelt runoff in the Jhelum basin and the possibility of resultant floods in the Kashmir valley.
Snow and Glacier Investigations: Glaciers are emerging as first measurable indicators of global warming. Study of snow and glaciers is facilitated by data from IRS satellites. Glacier Atlas of Chenab basin containing 454 glaciers spread over an area of
1174 sq km was published showing extent of glaciers and related features. Snow line on glaciers is being monitored using weekly data of WiFS/AWiFS instruments carried on board IRS satellites from May to October (end of ablation season). Mean specific mass balance for 19 glaciers in Baspa basin shows mean annual loss of glacial ice at 0.11735 cu km per year. Digital elevation model generated from satellite data has been used to estimate mass balance in Gangotri glacier.
Snow and Glaciers studies (includes glacial inventory of entire Himalayas on 1:50,000 scale, snow cover monitoring on 1:250,000 scale every 10 days and glacier retreat and mass balance studies for selected glaciers) is in progress.
Coastal, mangroves and coral reefs studies: Coastal, mangroves and coral reefs studies include mapping and monitoring of coastal zone on 1:25,000 scale and selected areas on 1:5000 scale, mapping and monitoring of mangroves and coral reefs. Development of Coastal Zone Information System is in progress.
National Wastelands Inventory and Updation: Subsequent to mapping and creation of digital database on wastelands of the country, a project has been taken up at the behest of the Ministry of Rural Development to update the wastelands information using recent satellite data. The wasteland atlas depicting the spatial information, identification and delineation of new areas under wastelands, identification of areas where reclamation programme has been implemented and released. A Wastelands Information System is being designed. Geo database has been finalised for 20 states.
Archaeological Applications: Satellite archaeology is based on study of geometric patterns of soil and vegetation marks, palaeo-channels, palaeo-mudflats, and trend lines. Great Rann of Kachchh is believed to be the arm of sea or part of the sea where a few sites were located using analysis of LISS-IV data of IRS satellite. The sites identified and confirmed on ground are located in many places in Kutchchh district and North Gujarat. One such site is a fortified structure identified as Kotda archaeological site, which has been confirmed on ground by Directorate of Archaeology, Gujarat based on the pottery, copper coins, millstones, skulls, etc.
Watershed Development Project in Karnataka: Under this project, aided by World Bank, 854 micro watersheds in 77 sub-watersheds have been taken up in five districts (Kolar, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Dharwad and Haveri) covered by Karnataka Watershed Development Department. Apart from socio-economic data, the remote sensing derived maps/ inputs at cadastral level are used to assist the implementing agencies in generating action plans and also in monitoring the social and environmental changes. Satellite remote sensing derived inputs (like changes in land use, vegetation density, etc., at cadastral level) and ground based information are used concurrently and additively for an effective monitoring mechanism. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities have been taken up in sample micro-watersheds of all the sub-watersheds in three phases. Baseline survey has been completed in phase-1 and phase-2 watersheds and initiated in phase-3 watersheds. Concurrent monitoring is on in all the watersheds. Midterm evaluation has been completed in Phase-1 watersheds. Various software packages have been developed, installed and used for effective M&E. The entire
M&E approach evolved by ISRO has been acknowledged by World Bank. An impact study to highlight the short-term visible impacts on the natural resources, household income, employment generation and migration, community participation and empowerment of women, etc. has been conducted.
Sedimentation Survey of Reservoirs: Sedimentation survey using satellite remote sensing data has been completed for two reservoirs - Sriramsagar in Andhra Pradesh and Ujjani in Maharashtra. The project was completed in two phases, following which the personnel of collaborating agency, the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune were trained.
Water-logging and Salinity Mapping for Command Areas: A project on assessment and monitoring of salinity and waterlogged areas in major and medium commands in the country has been taken up on behalf of Central Water Commission (CWC). The database on major and medium irrigation commands of the country is fragmented, scattered and available in varying scale and language. Most of the maps and atlas available in different states are of symbolic in nature and the command boundaries and locations are only tentative lacking geographic correspondence. In this project all the major and medium command boundaries (2421 number) will be registered and brought onto single platform and scale (1:50,000). Exact delineation of command boundaries using multitemporal satellite data (crop extent) and updation of canal network are also envisaged in this project. Mapping of extent of water logging and salinity/alkalinity using two seasons satellite data; Creation of spatial database; point location of the observation wells for ground water depth along with attributes for continuous ground water surface representation and contouring; spatial correlation between ground water and surface waterlogged areas; creation of spatial database for all sampling points for soils, collected from the field along with soil chemical analysis values for subsequent spatial variability analysis; integration of results of soil analysis with satellite data to arrive at physical extent and severity of salt affected areas; developing robust and ergonomic information system on major and medium commands for the entire country (to facilitate decision makers on querying, monitoring and management) are the major work components in this project.
Ocean Applications: Estimation of sub-surface ocean temperature profiles has been derived using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach. It has been possible to distinguish salt pans at different stages of crystallisation in Kutchchh and aquaculture fields in Coringa using remote sensing data by combining spectral responses in short wave infrared and visible bands of LISS-III camera of RESOURCESAT-1.
National (Natural) Resources Information System (NRIS): Database for 30 district nodes in 17 states with a few case studies relevant to these nodes has been created. Database creation is progressing for 14 states - Mizoram, Sikkim, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
National Geographic Information System (GIS): National GIS is a major initiative of organising the image and spatial data assets and make them accessible to users – for both viewing and physical access. National level spatial layers on various themes at 1:250,000 scale has been organised. National GIS has been formally released in April, 2005. Major themes covered are land use/land cover, soils, drainage, water bodies, wasteland, vegetation type besides administrative boundaries at different levels, settlements, transport network, etc. RESOURCESAT-1 AWiFS based image base has been used in this effort. Planning Commission is intending to use this database for natural resources management. An intelligent front-end NNRMS map viewer has been developed that allows browsing and simple-querying of the National GIS layers.
Chhatisgarh State Developmental Planning: At the behest of the Chhatisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS), a project on state developmental planning using remote sensing and GIS for 20,379 villages covering 1,35,194 sq km has been taken up. The objectives include establishment of natural resources database, geo-referencing of village maps and development of land information system and development of road information system.
Comprehensive digital database has been created for all the 16 districts. Geo-referencing of village maps has been done for 75 out of total 98 taluks. Road information system has been created for all the 16 districts. The database generated under this project is being used for developmental activities like identification of suitable sites for industry development, horticulture, etc. Many other projects like inputs for preparation of forest management information system, delimitation of assembly constituencies, etc, have been carried out for Chhatisgarh.
Assessment of Irrigation Potential: High resolution satellite data helps to capture the existing irrigation infrastructure and to monitor the progress of new irrigation potential created under programs such as the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and Central Loan Assistance Programme. A pilot project is being taken up to study and speed up the implementation of on-going irrigation/multi-purpose projects, starting with the Upper Krishna project command area in Karnataka and Teesta barrage command area in West Bengal.
Natural Resources Repository (NRR): DOS has initiated the generation of natural resources repository for the country comprising mainly of remote sensing based data/information. This repository comprises a spatial database of seven key natural resources information — land use/land cover, soil, geomorphology, vegetation, snow/glacier, land degradation and wetlands — on 1:50,000 scale and land use/land cover maps (cropping season wise) on 1:250,000 scale, a spatial database of large scale base information on 1:10,000 scale and a cadastral referenced database. The repository will be able to serve the needs of government, business and citizens at large.
Natural Resources Census: The Natural Resources (NR) census will provide a snap-shot of the status of natural resources. At the same time, encapsulating these NR census maps and images into a GIS repository will enable instant availability of these maps for supporting developmental activities. This project uses IRS images to prepare natural resources information layers at 1:50,000 scale and land use/land cover at 1:250,000 scale, periodically for monitoring of natural resources. Under phase-1 land use/land cover mapping on 1:250,000 scale has been completed for Kharif season of 2004 and the mapping for Rabi and Zaid is progressing. Under phase-2, work on land use/land cover mapping on 1:50,000 scale has been initiated.
Large Scale Mapping (LSM): Bringing out large-scale maps at 1: 10,000 using the high-resolution satellite remote sensing data and aerial photography has been taken under two phases – 1) pilot phase using IKONOS data and 2) operational phase using CARTOSAT-1 data. Under the pilot phase, 74 sites covering an area of 12,000 sq km have been taken up. Mapping for 14 sites has been completed and the final product is available. Operational phase of the activity using CARTOSAT–1 data has been initiated.
Natural Resources Data Base (NRDB): NRDB is to organise and maintain a standardised GIS database of all thematic data sets, which are being generated under NNRMS and position the spatial data services for users. The activity has been initiated.
Cadastral Referencing Database (CRD): Digital Cadastral Referenced Database (CRD), which can be used for generating cadastral/village referencing of spatial information has been taken up for all the states of India under NNRMS.
NNRMS Portal: A portal providing information on NNRMS and metadata of the projects carried out so far has been opened on the internet for disseminating the information to user community.
DLR-ESAR Campaign: Data processing and data product generation of DLR-ESAR has been carried out during the year. A total of around 1000 GB of data was generated of which nearly 500 GB is user deliverable products related to slant range, ground range, geo-coded data as well as interferometric and coherence data. All Joint Experiment Projects identified under DLR-ESAR have been provided the required data.
RISAT Joint Experiment Programme (JEP): RISAT JEP has been initiated to address various activities covering aerial data acquisition, training and thematic studies — soil moisture, agriculture, geology, forestry, oceanography, terrain analysis and topographic studies, flood and water spread, snow and glaciers. In addition, space-borne SAR data from Envisat over several test sites during Kharif 2005-06 is being analysed for discrimination and acreage estimation of major crops and to identify the best polarisation combination for optimisation.
Aerial Remote Sensing
During the year, several aerial surveys as well as range calibration/sensor validation tasks have been carried out. Post-tsunami, ALTM-DC data for Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu coasts, Pondicherry and Andaman and Nicobar islands was acquired and processed and provided to ministries concerned. A pole-to-pole survey for electrical network mapping was carried out for West Bengal State Electricity Board in collaboration with Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. Location and attributes of 6 lakh poles covering 63 electric supply units were collected to facilitate development of power GIS applications. A customised municipal GIS solution for stand alone application and web browser based application has been developed for Bangalore Mahanagar Palike.
Other projects completed during the year are - aerial photography over Mumbai, Karnataka and Vishakapatnam, ALTM-DC survey for NWDA, aeromagnetic survey over Indo-Gangetic plains for DGH, digital mapping of Bangalore city and surroundings covering 1424 sq km, base map preparation for 11 towns in Andhra Pradesh, mapping for 16 towns covering 1200 sq.km for LSM project and SAR sensor validation tasks. Calibration targets have been established at Shadnagar. GPS reference station has been operated for NWDA project. GPS surveys have been done over Uttarkashi for disaster management support.
Thematic mapping of Dubai and Hatta regions was executed. Post-tsunami, ALTM-DC survey and aerial photography were carried out in Sri Lanka and the islands of Maldives. Digital mapping of Maldives is being carried out while in-depth training has been conducted for Maldivian officials.
Disaster Management Support
The Disaster Management Support (DMS) programme of DOS addresses information requirements of the user community by utilising space-based data. With a synergistic use of the remote sensing and communication capabilities of the Indian satellites, several support services are being provided in the event of disasters. DMS programme includes: i) creation of digital database for facilitating hazard zonation and damage assessment ii) monitoring major natural disasters using satellite and aerial data and development of appropriate techniques and tools iii) acquisition of close contour data for hazard-prone areas using air-borne Laser Terrain Mapper iv) strengthening the communication backbone for timely dissemination of information and emergency support v) development of Air-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) towards all-weather monitoring capability vi) establishment of a Decision Support Centre (DSC) at NRSA as a single-window service provider and vii) support the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, as a signatory to the charter.
The Decision Support Centre (DSC) has become operational during the year. The DSC is linked through a VSAT to National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Plans are afoot to expand the VSAT-based Virtual Private Network by linking 22 State Emergency Operation Centres (SEOCs) and other central agencies.
The creation of a digital database with GIS layers on land-use and land-cover, infrastructure and geomorphology for 60 districts in five states (Assam, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh) is near completion. The database, which is being installed at DSC, will provide information on areas affected, affected population, optimal route planning, etc. Development of ASAR to support all-weather monitoring capability is in an advanced stage.
During the year, support and services were provided during natural disasters such as floods, drought, cyclone, earthquake etc. The highlights are:
• The Pereechu lake in the Tibet region (across the Indian border, formed during end-July 2004 due to blockade by landslide) was regularly monitored till end-June 2005, when the blockade was seen to have breached. The information was provided to MHA and CWC so as to take precaution to prevent loss to lives and property downstream in Himachal Pradesh.
• At the behest of Relief Commissioner, Tamil Nadu, the tsunami affected areas in the State (Nagapattinam, Karaikal, Chennai, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Pondicherry coasts) were mapped using RESOURCESAT-1 data for planning rehabilitation.
• All the flood events in the country during the year (flash floods as well as others) were monitored, inundation maps prepared in near real-time basis, were provided to MHA, CWC and states concerned. The events monitored included those in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. About 250 disaster watch reports and over 40 flood monitoring maps were generated.
• As part of the National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS), monthly reports on the crop condition were prepared at district level for 14 states, and provided to Dept. of Agriculture and Cooperation and states concerned.
• Forest fire which occurred in certain parts of Uttaranchal and Kerala were monitored.
• Landslides which occurred in the Joshimath - Badrinath sector were mapped, and information provided to MHA.
• The J&K earthquake affected areas were studied using CARTOSAT-1 data and information provided to MHA.
Plans are afoot to procure an aircraft for flying ASAR and a large format digital camera, 50 additional INSAT Type-D communication terminals for use during emergency communications and make available INSAT based weather data and services through DSC, by developing appropriate analysis and software tools.
Towards the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS), being set up by Department of Ocean Development (DOD), DOS has initiated actions towards networking of seismic stations, tide gauges and data buoys of Deep sea Assessment and Reporting Terminals (DART); development of pressure sensor for DART and generation of spatial database for vulnerable coastal areas for inundation and storm surge modeling.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
land reforms in andhra pradesh
Status of Land Reforms in Andhra Pradesh and the Need to Implement Radical Land Reforms
[A summary of the paper presented by K. Gopal Iyer in the Hyderabad convention on “Land Reforms and State Repression”]
1. Background: Tenancy Reforms
Telangana movement is the precursor to land reforms initiative in Andhra Pradesh. The Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act enacted in 1950 with its subsequent amendments resulted in the Conferment of Protection to nearly 6 lakh tenants with over 75 lakh acres in their possession. This constituted 33 percent of the total cultivated area. The Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Act, 1956 sought to give protection to certain categories of tenants in the Andhra Region from unjust evictions. However, it was preceded by large-scale eviction of tenants by the landlords. In the absence of militant peasant movement, the tenancy legislation in Andhra area had only a negative impact on tenants as the landowners resorted to large-scale evictions and leasing out lands only on oral basis.
1.1. Land Ceiling
The land ceiling which came into effect in June 1961 allowed a family to retain 180 to 360 acres wet land or 1080 to 2160 acres of dry land. It provided nothing about the large-scale benami transactions that had taken place prior to June 1961. High levels of ceiling exemptions were allowed in the case of plantations, orchards, specialized farms, sugarcane farms, religious and charitable trusts etc. There was no provision in the Act regarding the clandestine transfer of land in favour of other members of the family by way of gift, partition etc. The land leased out by the landowner was not taken into account in fixing the ceiling area. The impression given to the legislative assembly was that about 30 lakh acres constituting a little under 10 per cent of the total land would be available for redistribution. After a decade of implementation it was found that only 25584 persons had filed declarations and a total area of 4305.37 acres in the Andhra region and 29995.27 acres of land in the Telangana regions had been declared surplus.
As a corrective the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act of 1973 was enforced on 1st January 1975. The unit of application of ceiling was not more than five members. ‘Family’ as defined in the Act consists of an individual, his spouse, their unmarried sons and unmarried minor daughters, major sons and daughters, married and widowed daughters, mother, father, brothers and sisters are not included in the family unit. The ceiling limit ranged from 10 to 54 acres depending upon the class and category of land. Exceptions were made to land held by the government, religious, educational and charitable trusts, land devoted to plantations etc. At the time of introduction of the Bill in the Assembly Government thought that approximately 20 lakh acres of land would become surplus. On 31st March 2004, the distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land in Andhra Pradesh was as follows:
(Area in acres)
1 Area Declared Surplus 799663
2 Area Taken Possession 641655
3 Area Distributed 582319
4 Area declaredsurplus but not distributed 207722
5 Area involved in Litigation 147450
Litigation in Revenue Courts 55289
High Court 78047
Supreme Court 14113
(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, Pages 207-208)
The total number of beneficiaries was 540344. Much of the land distributed was dry and of inferior quality. This is a clear indication of the ineffective implementation of the land ceiling legislation in Andhra Pradesh.
1.2 Government Land
However, the distribution of government land (commonly known as Banjar land) constituted an important component of the land reform programme in Andhra Pradesh. As on March 2004, the distribution of Government Wastelands in Andhra Pradesh was 42.02 lakh acres which constituted the highest area to be distributed by any other state in the country. (Annual Report 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, page 211). There are several constraints in the implementation in the State of Andhra Pradesh in the distribution of Government land. In reality a large part of the government land, particularly the better cultivable lands, have been encroached by big landowners. The process of evicting them from their illegal occupation and allotting the land to the landless has proved to be a formidable task. Another problem in implementation is ensuring physical possession of the allotted land as the landlords implicate the poor people in litigation or use coercive methods to prevent the allottees from cultivating the land. There are also cases of land assignment in Andhra Pradesh pending for two or three decades.
1.3. Tribal Land
Andhra Pradesh has a very long record of legislation for the protection of Tribal Land. There are large tracts of tribal lands which are still under the occupation of the non-tribals. For example, as on March 2004 the status on alienation and Restoration of Tribal Lands in Andhra Pradesh are as follows:
1 No. of cases filed in the Court 65875
2 Area 287776 (acres)
3 Cases disposed of by the court 58212
4 Area 256452 (acres)
5 Cases rejected 31737
6 Area involved 150227 (acres)
7 Cases decided in favour of tribals 26475
8 Area 106225 (acres)
9 Cases in which land was restored to tribals 23383
10 Area 94312 (acre)
(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India Page 213).
Thus only one-third of the total area alienated has been restored to them. Besides, they are subjected to displacement from thousands of acres due to various development projects and evictions by forest department on the plea of encroachment of forestland. The Samta Judgement and the Panchayat Extension Act of 1996 are silver linings in this respect which should be utilized by the peasant organizations in protecting the land rights of the tribals.
1.4 Impact of LPG
One of the major threats being posed to the land reforms programme is the adverse impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization under the pretext of encouraging Aqua culture. The Andhra Pradesh Government, by a mere executive order Go/Ms/No. 27 of January 11, 1994 (Revenue Department), granted exemptions U/S 18/2 of Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms Act, 1973 for prawn/pisiculture project upto 200 hectares (500 acres). The area under prawn farms in Andhra Pradesh increased from 19500 Ha in 1993-94 to 66290 ha in 1997-98. The Supreme Court through its directives in 1991 banned the conversion of agricultural land and brackish water poramboke lands into aquaculture. In spite of this, large area of agricultural lands have been converted to aquaculture and Poramboke Brackish Water lands have been encroached by big prawn farmers. Another point is that 92% of the total area under prawn farm in Andhra Pradesh is located within CRS which is prohibited. Besides, the extent of agricultural land converted into aquaculture until 1999 was 31081.74 Ha and 25188-19 ha of poramboke brackish water lands are encroached. Andhra Pradesh agriculture is virtually in an explosive situation and in a seething cauldron.
2. Measures for Radical Land Reforms
In view of this, certain radical land reforms measures are inevitable. There are still enough scope for radical land reforms as indicated below:
2.1 Land ceilings
1. All the exemptions from land ceiling legislations e.g. for temple lands, Charitable Trusts, Plantations etc. should be immediately withdrawn. This would unable 6 to 7 lakh acres of surplus lands to be distributed among landless agricultural labourers.
2. The cases under litigation in Land ceiling should be decided within a year and the lands involving 1.4 lakh acres should be distributed among landless.
3. ‘Absentee Landlordism’ is prevalent on a considerable scale in Coastal Andhra and Telangana Region which should be strictly discouraged by enforcing rigorous definition of ‘Personal Cultivation’ on the pattern of West Bengal Land Ceiling Legislation. This would bring more than 5 lakh acres under ceiling net in Andhra Pradesh.
2.2 Tenancy Reforms
4. The Coastal Andhra has increasing area under tenancy. The latest research studies indicate that the informal/concealed tenancy in the Coastal Andhra ranges from 15% to 30% of the total owned area.
5. It is suggested that Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Reforms Legislation should be amended to confer proprietary rights to all tenants/sharecroppers who are cultivating the lands during last three years on the pattern of Assam. Madhya Pradesh legislation even prescribes proprietary rights to tenants cultivating for past one year as well.
6. The revenue officials at the village level should record the names of actual cultivators in the village revenue records each year to facilitate the tenancy records and conferment of proprietary rights.
2.3 Government Land
7. The Encroachment of Government lands done by landowners should be evicted within six months and such lands should be distributed to landless labourers.
8. A through survey should be conducted of available government lands for distribution to landless labourers.
9. As per Government of Andhra Pradesh Policy Note on the Assignment of Government Lands the Andhra Pradesh Government has undertaken a crash Programme of assignment of lands to tribals in eight districts of Adilabad, Khamman, East Godavari, Warangal, West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, and Srikakulam. An estimated 12,80,968.22 acres of banjar land is available in the tribal areas of the state. So far area of 5,57,768.87 acres have been surveyed and balance 7,23,199.35 acres are yet to be surveyed. This survey work must be undertaken on a priority basis to be completed within one year for distribution to tribals.
2.4 Reversing the Impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization
10. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should immediately withdraw the Executive order GV/MS/ Ho. 27 of 11th January 1994 with which the exemptions from land ceiling upto 500 acres have been permitted for Aqua Farms.
11. In Future also the Land ceiling limit as contained in Land Ceiling Act 1973 should continue and exemptions should be withdrawn.
12. The Brackish Water Poramboke land should be distributed to agriculture labour and fishermen.
13. The brackish water Poramboke lands encroached by prawn farmers should be retrieved and distributed to Agriculture Labour and Fishermen
14. The Agriculture land converted to Aquaculture should be taken over by Government and distributed to landless.
15. The Contract Farming and Corporate Farming should be completely discouraged.
[A summary of the paper presented by K. Gopal Iyer in the Hyderabad convention on “Land Reforms and State Repression”]
1. Background: Tenancy Reforms
Telangana movement is the precursor to land reforms initiative in Andhra Pradesh. The Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act enacted in 1950 with its subsequent amendments resulted in the Conferment of Protection to nearly 6 lakh tenants with over 75 lakh acres in their possession. This constituted 33 percent of the total cultivated area. The Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Act, 1956 sought to give protection to certain categories of tenants in the Andhra Region from unjust evictions. However, it was preceded by large-scale eviction of tenants by the landlords. In the absence of militant peasant movement, the tenancy legislation in Andhra area had only a negative impact on tenants as the landowners resorted to large-scale evictions and leasing out lands only on oral basis.
1.1. Land Ceiling
The land ceiling which came into effect in June 1961 allowed a family to retain 180 to 360 acres wet land or 1080 to 2160 acres of dry land. It provided nothing about the large-scale benami transactions that had taken place prior to June 1961. High levels of ceiling exemptions were allowed in the case of plantations, orchards, specialized farms, sugarcane farms, religious and charitable trusts etc. There was no provision in the Act regarding the clandestine transfer of land in favour of other members of the family by way of gift, partition etc. The land leased out by the landowner was not taken into account in fixing the ceiling area. The impression given to the legislative assembly was that about 30 lakh acres constituting a little under 10 per cent of the total land would be available for redistribution. After a decade of implementation it was found that only 25584 persons had filed declarations and a total area of 4305.37 acres in the Andhra region and 29995.27 acres of land in the Telangana regions had been declared surplus.
As a corrective the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act of 1973 was enforced on 1st January 1975. The unit of application of ceiling was not more than five members. ‘Family’ as defined in the Act consists of an individual, his spouse, their unmarried sons and unmarried minor daughters, major sons and daughters, married and widowed daughters, mother, father, brothers and sisters are not included in the family unit. The ceiling limit ranged from 10 to 54 acres depending upon the class and category of land. Exceptions were made to land held by the government, religious, educational and charitable trusts, land devoted to plantations etc. At the time of introduction of the Bill in the Assembly Government thought that approximately 20 lakh acres of land would become surplus. On 31st March 2004, the distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land in Andhra Pradesh was as follows:
(Area in acres)
1 Area Declared Surplus 799663
2 Area Taken Possession 641655
3 Area Distributed 582319
4 Area declaredsurplus but not distributed 207722
5 Area involved in Litigation 147450
Litigation in Revenue Courts 55289
High Court 78047
Supreme Court 14113
(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, Pages 207-208)
The total number of beneficiaries was 540344. Much of the land distributed was dry and of inferior quality. This is a clear indication of the ineffective implementation of the land ceiling legislation in Andhra Pradesh.
1.2 Government Land
However, the distribution of government land (commonly known as Banjar land) constituted an important component of the land reform programme in Andhra Pradesh. As on March 2004, the distribution of Government Wastelands in Andhra Pradesh was 42.02 lakh acres which constituted the highest area to be distributed by any other state in the country. (Annual Report 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, page 211). There are several constraints in the implementation in the State of Andhra Pradesh in the distribution of Government land. In reality a large part of the government land, particularly the better cultivable lands, have been encroached by big landowners. The process of evicting them from their illegal occupation and allotting the land to the landless has proved to be a formidable task. Another problem in implementation is ensuring physical possession of the allotted land as the landlords implicate the poor people in litigation or use coercive methods to prevent the allottees from cultivating the land. There are also cases of land assignment in Andhra Pradesh pending for two or three decades.
1.3. Tribal Land
Andhra Pradesh has a very long record of legislation for the protection of Tribal Land. There are large tracts of tribal lands which are still under the occupation of the non-tribals. For example, as on March 2004 the status on alienation and Restoration of Tribal Lands in Andhra Pradesh are as follows:
1 No. of cases filed in the Court 65875
2 Area 287776 (acres)
3 Cases disposed of by the court 58212
4 Area 256452 (acres)
5 Cases rejected 31737
6 Area involved 150227 (acres)
7 Cases decided in favour of tribals 26475
8 Area 106225 (acres)
9 Cases in which land was restored to tribals 23383
10 Area 94312 (acre)
(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India Page 213).
Thus only one-third of the total area alienated has been restored to them. Besides, they are subjected to displacement from thousands of acres due to various development projects and evictions by forest department on the plea of encroachment of forestland. The Samta Judgement and the Panchayat Extension Act of 1996 are silver linings in this respect which should be utilized by the peasant organizations in protecting the land rights of the tribals.
1.4 Impact of LPG
One of the major threats being posed to the land reforms programme is the adverse impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization under the pretext of encouraging Aqua culture. The Andhra Pradesh Government, by a mere executive order Go/Ms/No. 27 of January 11, 1994 (Revenue Department), granted exemptions U/S 18/2 of Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms Act, 1973 for prawn/pisiculture project upto 200 hectares (500 acres). The area under prawn farms in Andhra Pradesh increased from 19500 Ha in 1993-94 to 66290 ha in 1997-98. The Supreme Court through its directives in 1991 banned the conversion of agricultural land and brackish water poramboke lands into aquaculture. In spite of this, large area of agricultural lands have been converted to aquaculture and Poramboke Brackish Water lands have been encroached by big prawn farmers. Another point is that 92% of the total area under prawn farm in Andhra Pradesh is located within CRS which is prohibited. Besides, the extent of agricultural land converted into aquaculture until 1999 was 31081.74 Ha and 25188-19 ha of poramboke brackish water lands are encroached. Andhra Pradesh agriculture is virtually in an explosive situation and in a seething cauldron.
2. Measures for Radical Land Reforms
In view of this, certain radical land reforms measures are inevitable. There are still enough scope for radical land reforms as indicated below:
2.1 Land ceilings
1. All the exemptions from land ceiling legislations e.g. for temple lands, Charitable Trusts, Plantations etc. should be immediately withdrawn. This would unable 6 to 7 lakh acres of surplus lands to be distributed among landless agricultural labourers.
2. The cases under litigation in Land ceiling should be decided within a year and the lands involving 1.4 lakh acres should be distributed among landless.
3. ‘Absentee Landlordism’ is prevalent on a considerable scale in Coastal Andhra and Telangana Region which should be strictly discouraged by enforcing rigorous definition of ‘Personal Cultivation’ on the pattern of West Bengal Land Ceiling Legislation. This would bring more than 5 lakh acres under ceiling net in Andhra Pradesh.
2.2 Tenancy Reforms
4. The Coastal Andhra has increasing area under tenancy. The latest research studies indicate that the informal/concealed tenancy in the Coastal Andhra ranges from 15% to 30% of the total owned area.
5. It is suggested that Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Reforms Legislation should be amended to confer proprietary rights to all tenants/sharecroppers who are cultivating the lands during last three years on the pattern of Assam. Madhya Pradesh legislation even prescribes proprietary rights to tenants cultivating for past one year as well.
6. The revenue officials at the village level should record the names of actual cultivators in the village revenue records each year to facilitate the tenancy records and conferment of proprietary rights.
2.3 Government Land
7. The Encroachment of Government lands done by landowners should be evicted within six months and such lands should be distributed to landless labourers.
8. A through survey should be conducted of available government lands for distribution to landless labourers.
9. As per Government of Andhra Pradesh Policy Note on the Assignment of Government Lands the Andhra Pradesh Government has undertaken a crash Programme of assignment of lands to tribals in eight districts of Adilabad, Khamman, East Godavari, Warangal, West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, and Srikakulam. An estimated 12,80,968.22 acres of banjar land is available in the tribal areas of the state. So far area of 5,57,768.87 acres have been surveyed and balance 7,23,199.35 acres are yet to be surveyed. This survey work must be undertaken on a priority basis to be completed within one year for distribution to tribals.
2.4 Reversing the Impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization
10. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should immediately withdraw the Executive order GV/MS/ Ho. 27 of 11th January 1994 with which the exemptions from land ceiling upto 500 acres have been permitted for Aqua Farms.
11. In Future also the Land ceiling limit as contained in Land Ceiling Act 1973 should continue and exemptions should be withdrawn.
12. The Brackish Water Poramboke land should be distributed to agriculture labour and fishermen.
13. The brackish water Poramboke lands encroached by prawn farmers should be retrieved and distributed to Agriculture Labour and Fishermen
14. The Agriculture land converted to Aquaculture should be taken over by Government and distributed to landless.
15. The Contract Farming and Corporate Farming should be completely discouraged.
UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION AT THE CROSSROADS
UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION AT THE CROSSROADS
by Dr Subhash Kapila
Introductory Observations:
The United Nations came into existence in 1945 on conclusion of World War II in which the world witnessed unprecedented death and destruction, made possible by the harnessing of advanced technologies in the instruments of war. The United States use of atomic bombs against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the massive destruction in its wake vividly illustrated how horrific future wars could be.
Gripped with this fear and horror, the victorious nations and other nations got together and established the United Nations Organisation. The Charter of the United Nations spelt out that the primary objective was “ to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
In the last sixty years of its existence, the United Nations had to manage and cope with security conflicts ranging from the Cold War era to post-Cold War and now the abominable spectacle of global terrorism of the Islamic Jehad variety as exemplified by the Al Qaeda, Taliban and Pakistan state-sponsored terrorism against India in Jammu and Kashmir, more specifically.
The United Nations Has Failed:
If the primary aim and role as envisaged by its founders was to spare humanity from the “scourge of war” then it would not be wrong to argue that the United Nations has failed, as the following brief examination would indicate:
Prevention of Conflict: The United Nations in the last sixty years, as the record would show, was unable to prevent conflicts and wars breaking out all over the world e.g. Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan, the United States sponsored Islamic Jehad via Pakistan on Afghanistan against the Soviets, the three Gulf Wars and the wars leading to the break up of Yugoslavia.
Conflict Resolution: Unable to deter conflict, the United Nations has been a failure in conflict resolution also. In fact it seems that over the years, vested interests have impeded conflict resolution as it served the purpose of keeping in being a large number of United Nations missions, observer groups and ‘Advisers’ to the United Nations Secretary General. Cambodia seems to be the only exception.
Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament: The prevention of Nuclear Proliferation should have been accorded top-most priority along with nuclear disarmament. Here again the record of United Nations agencies charged with this task has been deplorable. The United Nations did not focus, highlight or condemn any of the following developments:
· China’s assistance to Pakistan in development of nuclear weapons.
· China’s supply of nuclear capable missiles and missile technology to Pakistan.
· China’s assistance in building up of North Korea’s long-range and nuclear capable missiles.
· Pakistan’s supply of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea.
· United States permissiveness in tolerating all of the above developments. Inaction despite CIA evidence was sought to be justified by the United States on grounds of lack of “actionable intelligence”.
Obviously, structural inadequacies of the United Nations, the resolve and political inclinations of the United Nations Secretary General and the strategic interests and preferences of the United Nations Security Council permanent members were at play.
War on Terrorism: Terrorism especially after 9/11 has acquired a disturbing salience in global security. More so, when there are indications that the Al Qaedists could use nuclear ‘dirty bomb’ or chemical and biological weapons against their so called enemies i.e. USA, Israel and India and other Western countries too. The United Nations should have been overwhelmingly and single mindedly dedicated in its efforts towards this end.
Why Has the United Nations Failed in its Primary Role:
The United Nations has failed in its primary role of securing the international community against the “scourge of war” in the estimate of this author, due to the following reasons:
The United Nations has deviated from its primary role of preventing conflicts and over-extended into fields extending from education, to health, to humanitarian issues, to social and cultural fields.
The United Nations today has emerged as an overextended empire with vested interests to enlarging its extent from New York to Paris to Rome and all sorts of UN advisors present from Africa to East Timor.
The United Nations bureaucracy is too heavy and flabby with no justifiable functions.
Millions of US dollars are spent on United Nations functions and operations other than the primary role of conflict prevention.
United Nations operations and functions which could be performed by regional organisations or players are abrogated or duplicated by United Nations organisations.
Millions of United Nations dollars are spent on various committee meetings and honorariums to their select members which have no connection at all with global security.
Non-traditional security threats are being given priority at the expense of conflict prevention. This again is part of United Nations empire-building by vested interests.
All of the above could lead to the failure of the United Nations as an effective instrument for conflict prevention and global security, more so today, when the world is passing through uncertain and testing times as far as global security is concerned.
United Nations at the Crossroads:
The United Nations can truly be said to be at the crossroads. This is evidenced by the inclination of the world’s only superpower namely, the United States to bypass the United Nations, tired of its obstructiveness and endless meetings. It is also evidenced by the concern of other powers that the United States as the leading power is hijacking the United Nations and that the United Nations be made more representative by restructuring United Nations Organisation.
In view of the above, the United Nations is at a critical juncture of its existence and the leading powers of the world including the emerging ones have to ponder over the following questions:
Will restructuring of UN organs and making them more representative, especially the Security Council, would make the United Nations more effective?
or
Would reviewing the existing over extended roles and restricting the United Nations to its primary role of global security management and prevention of conflict, make the United Nations more effective?
While deciding on the above questions, certain terms of reference need to be recorded and these are:
United Nations cannot substitute or provide for a ‘world government’.
While pursuing a more representative character of its Security Council, the Security Council as the supreme body for global security management cannot be allowed to become a “trade union”.
Global security management is frightfully expensive and hence United Nations operational costs need to be drastically reduced by a wholesale elimination of organs like UNESCO, WHO, FAO, UNCHR. UN Human Right’s Commission etc, and all the various exotically named standing committees.
In the same context espousing creation of standing and dedicated United Nations Military Force needs to be excluded.
United Nations Future Challenges:
Future challenges to global security are not going to be global wars but more of asymmetric type of wars, limited wars, insurgencies and terrorism. All of these would be more possibly driven by religious fundamentalism, ethnic strife and ethnic genocide.
The Greater Middle East and Africa are more conflict prone than other regions of the world. Conflictual flash points exist in East Asia and South-West Asia.
In terms of security management, the United Nations would be challenged by a variety of scenarios namely:
Regional instabilities caused by ‘rogue states’ especially those with a record of nuclear proliferation.
‘Failed states’, where the state apparatus, rule of law and economic breakdown lead to state disintegration by exorbitant defence expenditure and corruption.
Conflicts over control of energy resources, strategic materials and water-sharing.
United Nations' Responses to Future Security Challenges.
United Nations' responses in terms of security management of future challenges would basically boil down to:
· Preventive Diplomacy
· Conflict Prevention
· Peace Building
Implicit in all of the above would be the necessity of using military force if necessary. In terms of using military force for global security management, the United Nation would have to fall back on the use of any one of the following options:
· Military and diplomatic assets of the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council
· Military assets of any other nations willing to join a UN Coalition.
· Military assets of regional organisations and regional powers to ensure and enforce peace in their regions.
United Nations has to divest itself of UN Peace Keeping Operations (PKO). Such PKO activities, it has been seen become endless. UN empire building exercises draining disproportionate financial resources. Such PKO operations also have a tendency to delay conflict resolution and many a times rendering them totally irrelevant to the existing ground realities e.g. The United Nations Military Observer Group in Kashmir stationed in India and Pakistan wasting resources in redundant roles.
The criteria for both the present Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and those to be included in any future expansion should be:
· Commitment to provide their military assets to the United Nations for global security management when called upon to do so, without any preconditions or reservations.
· Commitment to share expenses for global security management.
· Commitment to share expenses for peace-building operations where and when required.
Countries like China without any financial contribution to the United Nations and no military contribution towards any UN coalition forces should not qualify for Permanent Membership of the UN Security Council.
As in nature, where there is a hierarchical order in operation, so should it be for global security management. It is already operative as seen by United States unilateral military assertiveness by passing the United Nations. This has come about because global security management cannot be done by a “trade union” of countries demanding equitability but without contributing or being in a position to contribute for the “Peace Umbrella” that they seek from the United Nations.
Concluding Observations:
In global security management there is no room for “liberalism” or “peace offensives”. The definition of peace itself is negative; it means a state of absence of war. So if war is to be absent than the resultant peace has to be secured by the United Nations, by use of force if necessary.
United Nations Organisation was primarily charged with the responsibility of saving future generations from the “ scourge of war”. The United Nations should exclusively concentrate on this role and divest itself from social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. The manner in which security challenges are manifesting themselves in the 21st Century and the disparate destructive forms that are appearing can only be combated by a United Nations exclusively focused on global security management.
by Dr Subhash Kapila
Introductory Observations:
The United Nations came into existence in 1945 on conclusion of World War II in which the world witnessed unprecedented death and destruction, made possible by the harnessing of advanced technologies in the instruments of war. The United States use of atomic bombs against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the massive destruction in its wake vividly illustrated how horrific future wars could be.
Gripped with this fear and horror, the victorious nations and other nations got together and established the United Nations Organisation. The Charter of the United Nations spelt out that the primary objective was “ to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
In the last sixty years of its existence, the United Nations had to manage and cope with security conflicts ranging from the Cold War era to post-Cold War and now the abominable spectacle of global terrorism of the Islamic Jehad variety as exemplified by the Al Qaeda, Taliban and Pakistan state-sponsored terrorism against India in Jammu and Kashmir, more specifically.
The United Nations Has Failed:
If the primary aim and role as envisaged by its founders was to spare humanity from the “scourge of war” then it would not be wrong to argue that the United Nations has failed, as the following brief examination would indicate:
Prevention of Conflict: The United Nations in the last sixty years, as the record would show, was unable to prevent conflicts and wars breaking out all over the world e.g. Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan, the United States sponsored Islamic Jehad via Pakistan on Afghanistan against the Soviets, the three Gulf Wars and the wars leading to the break up of Yugoslavia.
Conflict Resolution: Unable to deter conflict, the United Nations has been a failure in conflict resolution also. In fact it seems that over the years, vested interests have impeded conflict resolution as it served the purpose of keeping in being a large number of United Nations missions, observer groups and ‘Advisers’ to the United Nations Secretary General. Cambodia seems to be the only exception.
Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament: The prevention of Nuclear Proliferation should have been accorded top-most priority along with nuclear disarmament. Here again the record of United Nations agencies charged with this task has been deplorable. The United Nations did not focus, highlight or condemn any of the following developments:
· China’s assistance to Pakistan in development of nuclear weapons.
· China’s supply of nuclear capable missiles and missile technology to Pakistan.
· China’s assistance in building up of North Korea’s long-range and nuclear capable missiles.
· Pakistan’s supply of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea.
· United States permissiveness in tolerating all of the above developments. Inaction despite CIA evidence was sought to be justified by the United States on grounds of lack of “actionable intelligence”.
Obviously, structural inadequacies of the United Nations, the resolve and political inclinations of the United Nations Secretary General and the strategic interests and preferences of the United Nations Security Council permanent members were at play.
War on Terrorism: Terrorism especially after 9/11 has acquired a disturbing salience in global security. More so, when there are indications that the Al Qaedists could use nuclear ‘dirty bomb’ or chemical and biological weapons against their so called enemies i.e. USA, Israel and India and other Western countries too. The United Nations should have been overwhelmingly and single mindedly dedicated in its efforts towards this end.
Why Has the United Nations Failed in its Primary Role:
The United Nations has failed in its primary role of securing the international community against the “scourge of war” in the estimate of this author, due to the following reasons:
The United Nations has deviated from its primary role of preventing conflicts and over-extended into fields extending from education, to health, to humanitarian issues, to social and cultural fields.
The United Nations today has emerged as an overextended empire with vested interests to enlarging its extent from New York to Paris to Rome and all sorts of UN advisors present from Africa to East Timor.
The United Nations bureaucracy is too heavy and flabby with no justifiable functions.
Millions of US dollars are spent on United Nations functions and operations other than the primary role of conflict prevention.
United Nations operations and functions which could be performed by regional organisations or players are abrogated or duplicated by United Nations organisations.
Millions of United Nations dollars are spent on various committee meetings and honorariums to their select members which have no connection at all with global security.
Non-traditional security threats are being given priority at the expense of conflict prevention. This again is part of United Nations empire-building by vested interests.
All of the above could lead to the failure of the United Nations as an effective instrument for conflict prevention and global security, more so today, when the world is passing through uncertain and testing times as far as global security is concerned.
United Nations at the Crossroads:
The United Nations can truly be said to be at the crossroads. This is evidenced by the inclination of the world’s only superpower namely, the United States to bypass the United Nations, tired of its obstructiveness and endless meetings. It is also evidenced by the concern of other powers that the United States as the leading power is hijacking the United Nations and that the United Nations be made more representative by restructuring United Nations Organisation.
In view of the above, the United Nations is at a critical juncture of its existence and the leading powers of the world including the emerging ones have to ponder over the following questions:
Will restructuring of UN organs and making them more representative, especially the Security Council, would make the United Nations more effective?
or
Would reviewing the existing over extended roles and restricting the United Nations to its primary role of global security management and prevention of conflict, make the United Nations more effective?
While deciding on the above questions, certain terms of reference need to be recorded and these are:
United Nations cannot substitute or provide for a ‘world government’.
While pursuing a more representative character of its Security Council, the Security Council as the supreme body for global security management cannot be allowed to become a “trade union”.
Global security management is frightfully expensive and hence United Nations operational costs need to be drastically reduced by a wholesale elimination of organs like UNESCO, WHO, FAO, UNCHR. UN Human Right’s Commission etc, and all the various exotically named standing committees.
In the same context espousing creation of standing and dedicated United Nations Military Force needs to be excluded.
United Nations Future Challenges:
Future challenges to global security are not going to be global wars but more of asymmetric type of wars, limited wars, insurgencies and terrorism. All of these would be more possibly driven by religious fundamentalism, ethnic strife and ethnic genocide.
The Greater Middle East and Africa are more conflict prone than other regions of the world. Conflictual flash points exist in East Asia and South-West Asia.
In terms of security management, the United Nations would be challenged by a variety of scenarios namely:
Regional instabilities caused by ‘rogue states’ especially those with a record of nuclear proliferation.
‘Failed states’, where the state apparatus, rule of law and economic breakdown lead to state disintegration by exorbitant defence expenditure and corruption.
Conflicts over control of energy resources, strategic materials and water-sharing.
United Nations' Responses to Future Security Challenges.
United Nations' responses in terms of security management of future challenges would basically boil down to:
· Preventive Diplomacy
· Conflict Prevention
· Peace Building
Implicit in all of the above would be the necessity of using military force if necessary. In terms of using military force for global security management, the United Nation would have to fall back on the use of any one of the following options:
· Military and diplomatic assets of the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council
· Military assets of any other nations willing to join a UN Coalition.
· Military assets of regional organisations and regional powers to ensure and enforce peace in their regions.
United Nations has to divest itself of UN Peace Keeping Operations (PKO). Such PKO activities, it has been seen become endless. UN empire building exercises draining disproportionate financial resources. Such PKO operations also have a tendency to delay conflict resolution and many a times rendering them totally irrelevant to the existing ground realities e.g. The United Nations Military Observer Group in Kashmir stationed in India and Pakistan wasting resources in redundant roles.
The criteria for both the present Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and those to be included in any future expansion should be:
· Commitment to provide their military assets to the United Nations for global security management when called upon to do so, without any preconditions or reservations.
· Commitment to share expenses for global security management.
· Commitment to share expenses for peace-building operations where and when required.
Countries like China without any financial contribution to the United Nations and no military contribution towards any UN coalition forces should not qualify for Permanent Membership of the UN Security Council.
As in nature, where there is a hierarchical order in operation, so should it be for global security management. It is already operative as seen by United States unilateral military assertiveness by passing the United Nations. This has come about because global security management cannot be done by a “trade union” of countries demanding equitability but without contributing or being in a position to contribute for the “Peace Umbrella” that they seek from the United Nations.
Concluding Observations:
In global security management there is no room for “liberalism” or “peace offensives”. The definition of peace itself is negative; it means a state of absence of war. So if war is to be absent than the resultant peace has to be secured by the United Nations, by use of force if necessary.
United Nations Organisation was primarily charged with the responsibility of saving future generations from the “ scourge of war”. The United Nations should exclusively concentrate on this role and divest itself from social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. The manner in which security challenges are manifesting themselves in the 21st Century and the disparate destructive forms that are appearing can only be combated by a United Nations exclusively focused on global security management.
INDIA’S LOOK-EAST POLICY: More aggressive, Better Dividends
INDIA’S LOOK-EAST POLICY: More aggressive, Better Dividends
by C. S. Kuppuswamy
“I reiterate India’s commitment to work with ASEAN and other East Asian countries to make the 21st century truly an Asian century”
- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Introduction
With the participation of India in the recently concluded East Asian Summit and from the level of interaction evidenced at the 4th India-ASEAN Summit, both held at Kuala Lumpur from 12-14 December 2005, it is seen that the Look-East policy is being pursued aggressively and has started yielding results on the economic, political and strategic fields. The policy which was primarily directed towards improving relations with ASEAN will now be enlarged to cover other nations of the region such as China, Japan and Korea where the interaction was more bilateral till date.
Look-East Policy
The policy launched in 1992 had its genesis in the end of the cold war, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of India’s liberalization, it was more than just a foreign policy alternative as it provided a development alternative as well, in synchronization with the globalization and the resurgence of Asia as an economic powerhouse. To quote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “it was also a strategic shift in India’s vision of the world and India’s place in the evolving global economy”.
Though the policy was given an initial thrust with the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visiting China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore and India becoming a sectoral dialogue partner with ASEAN in 1992, the policy was pursued in fits and starts till recently. It is only since the beginning of this century, India has given a big push to this policy by becoming a summit level partner of ASEAN (2002) and getting involved in some regional initiatives such as the BIMSTEC and the Ganga Mekong Cooperation and now becoming a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in December, 2005.
India – ASEAN
India’s interaction with ASEAN in the cold war era can be described as a tale of missed opportunities. India declined to get associated with ASEAN in the 1960s when full membership was offered even before the grouping was formed.
It is only with the formulation of the Look-East policy in the last decade (1992), India had made amends by giving this region due importance in the foreign policy planning. India became a sectoral dialogue partner with ASEAN in 1992, a full dialogue partner in 1995, a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996, and a summit level partner (on par with China, Japan and Korea) in 2002.
The first India-ASEAN Business Summit was held at New Delhi in October 2002. The then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee addressed this meet and since then this business summit has become an annual feature prior to the India-ASEAN Summits, as a forum for networking and exchange of business experiences between policy makers and business leaders from ASEAN and India.
Four India-ASEAN Summits, first in 2002 at Phnom Penh (Cambodia), second in 2003 at Bali (Indonesia), third in 2004 at Vientiane (Laos) and the fourth in 2005 at Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), have taken place till date.
The following agreements have been entered into with ASEAN:
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (for establishing a FTA in a time frame of 10 years) was concluded in Bali in 2003.
An ASEAN-India Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism has been adopted.
India has acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 2003, on which ASEAN was formed initially (in 1967).
Agreement on “India-ASEAN Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity” was signed at the 3rd ASEAN-India Summit in Nov 2004.
Setting up of Entrepreneurship Development Centres in ASEAN member states – Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. (The one in Laos is already functional)
The following proposals were announced by the Prime Minister at the 4th ASEAN-India Summit:
Setting up centres for English Language Training (ELT) in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Setting up a tele-medicine and tele-education network for Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
Organising special training courses for diplomats from ASEAN countries.
Organising an India-ASEAN Technology Summit in 2006.
Organising education fairs and road shows in ASEAN countries.
Conducting an India-ASEAN IT Ministerial and Industry Forum in 2006.
The ASEAN region has an abundance of natural resources and significant technological skills. These provide a natural base for the growth of synergies and integration between ASEAN and India in both trade and investment. The present level of bilateral trade with ASEAN of nearly US $ 18 billion is reportedly increasing by about 25 % per year. India hopes to reach the level of US $ 30 billion by 2007. India is also improving its relations with other elements like offers of lines of credit, better connectivity through air (open skies policy), rail and road links.
Regional Initiatives
BIMSTEC. The littoral states of Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) came together to form this economic association in June 1997. Myanmar has joined this grouping in December1997 and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004. This grouping aims at promoting economic cooperation between members in key areas like, Trade, Investment, Fisheries, Agriculture, Transportation and Human Resources Development. The first BIMSTEC Summit held in July 2004, renamed the grouping as “Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical Cooperation” with the same acronym.
BIMSTEC has identified six sectors of focused cooperation. For each a lead country has been designated: Trade and Investment (Bangladesh); Technology (Sri Lanka); Transport and Communication (India); Energy (Myanmar); Tourism (India) and Fisheries (Thailand). A Framework Agreement, with the aim of establishing a FTA has been signed in February 2004 and a time frame has been worked for implementation in various phases. India has taken a leading role in this grouping and will also hold the next Summit in 2006.
Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Project. The foreign ministers of the six nations (India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) decided at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting at Bangkok in July 2000 to launch this cooperative venture. It may be noted that barring India, the rest are member states of ASEAN. This project is aimed at development of overland trade, tourism, communications and transport linkages. The Trans-Asian highway (an old proposal of ESCAP) may become a reality through this grouping. The MGC ministerial level meetings will be held every year.
CSCAP. The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) established in 1993, is a non-governmental (Track II) process for dialogue on security issues in Asia Pacific. India became an associate member in 1994 and a full member in 2000. CSCAP is consolidating its links to the first track ARF. This is a useful mechanism (though unofficial) to discuss political and security issues and make such recommendations and facilitate information exchange with interested actors.
Bilateral Relations
Thailand. The first Framework Agreement for a bilateral FTA (with an ASEAN nation) was signed with Thailand in October 2003. Under this agreement, the commencement of FTA in Services and Investments will be in 2006 and in Goods from 2010. Some Memorandums of Understanding were also signed in October 2003, on tourism, agriculture and cooperation in bio-technology. A Joint Working Group is also in place for information and intelligence sharing on terrorism.
Malaysia. India is Malaysia’s largest trading partner among countries in the south, excluding China and the ASEAN, with the bilateral trade valued at US $ 4.29 billion in 2004. Indian public sector undertakings such as BHEL and IRCON have undertaken and successfully completed a number of projects in Malaysia. There are 57 Indian joint ventures in Malaysia in the fields of palm oil refining, power, railways, civil construction, training and information technology.
During the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2004, India and Malaysia agreed to initiate a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). 12 agreement/MOUs were also signed covering wide ranging cooperation in satellite technology, biotechnology, information technology, infrastructure and education.
Indonesia. During the visit of the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to India in November 2005, Indonesia and India agreed to establish a “strategic partnership” based on shared values and commitment to democracy and aimed at broad based development of relations in the political, security, economic, commercial, cultural and science and technology fields. Three MOUs were signed- one on marine and fisheries cooperation, one on establishment of Joint Study Group for CECA and one on training cooperation for training of diplomats.
India has many joint ventures in Indonesia since the 1970s. The bilateral trade currently at around US $ 4 billion will be tripled to US $ 15 billion in the next five years. Indonesia was insistent on the inclusion of India into East Asia Summit and had supported India at the other forums like WTO and OIC.
Myanmar. Myanmar is the only ASEAN country with which India shares both land and maritime boundaries. Hence Myanmar has to be accorded a special position in its foreign policy, especially in view of India’s strategic and security concerns. Consequent to visit ofSenior General Than Shwe, Chairman SPDC,to India in 2004, the bilateral relations are at an all time high.
India has extended a number of general and project-specific credit lines to Myanmar in the last few years. A number of agreements and MOUs, including the Tripartite Maritime Agreement between India, Myanmar and Thailand, the Border Trade Agreement and an agreement on Cooperation between Civilian Border Authorities, have been signed. Indian companies are involved in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. A feasibility study has been undertaken for a rail link between India and Myanmar.
India had upgraded the 160 km long Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway in 2001 and will be maintaining it for the next six years. There is an ongoing project for construction of a trilateral highway from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand to Bagan in Myanmar, the progress of which is being reviewed regularly by the foreign ministers of the three nations. True to Myanamar’s assurances, it has been launching operations against the Indian rebel groups such as NSCN (K) camping in its soil.
Singapore. AComprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore was signed on 29 June 2005 during the visit of Singapore Prime Minister to India. This agreement which came into effect on 01 August 2005, includes a bilateral investment promotion treaty, a double taxation avoidance agreement and an air services agreement in addition to an FTA. It may be recalled that it was Singapore that paved the way of India’s association with ARF. Lee had also supported India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Singapore along with Indonesia had also supported India’s entry in to the East Asian Summit.
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
These three economically under developed countries of this region, in comparison to the rest of ASEAN, have enough scope and opportunity for India to extend its influence and reap the benefits.
Since 1981, when India recognized the Hang Samrin regime, India had cordial relations with Cambodia. India has entered into a number of bilateral treaties and agreements for cooperation in the fields of trade, science & technology, agriculture, tourism, air services and visa exemption. India has some major projects in the areas of education, entrepreneurship development and information technology. India has helped Cambodia in a big way through the ITEC programme.
India and Laos have signed a number of agreements and MOUs in the fields of culture, cooperation in defence, cooperation in science & technology, agricultural cooperation, drugs and illicit trafficking, and exemption of visas for diplomats and officials. India has also set up and Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Laos and will be setting up an Information Technology Centre shortly.
India has a number of bilateral treaties and agreements with Vietnam in the areas of Consular relations, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Narcotics, Science & Technology and Culture. Since 1976, India has extended 14 lines of credit amounting to Rupees 3,610 million to Vietnam. Another credit line of US $ 27 million to Vietnam was signed in August 2004 between Exim Bank of India and Ministry of Finance, Vietnam. India is also helping Vietnam in setting up an Advanced Resource Centre in IT in Hanoi and HRD in the field of IT in six educational institutions in Vietnam.
India has also proposed in the 4th India-ASEAN Summit at Kuala Lumpur in 2005 to set up Centres for English Language Training, tele-medicine and tele-education centres in these three states.
Visits
Visits to and from the South East Asian nations at the level of the heads of state, at the level of the ministers, at the level of the service chiefs and at the level of the bureaucrats and business leaders have also helped in giving a major thrust to the Look-East policy. Some of the visits in the last three years which were significant are given below:
2003
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee visited Bali (Indonesia) in October 2003 to attend the ASEAN Summit and had also bilateral meetings with the Korean President and the Prime Minister of Vietnam.
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee made an official visit to Thailand on 9-10 October 2003, when a Framework Agreement for a bilateral FTA was signed.
Vice-President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat visited Myanmar from 2-5 November 2003.
2004
Prime Minister ManmohanSingh visited Bangkok (Thailand) in July 2004 to address the first BIMST-EC Summit meeting.
Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, visited India in October 2004.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vientiane (Laos) to attend the 3rd India-ASEAN Summit and to flag off the India-ASEAN car rally.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia visited India in December 2004.
2005
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Indonesia in April 2005 to attend the AFRO-ASIAN Summit.
Thai Premier Thaksin Shinwatra was in New Delhi from June 03-04, 2005 to expedite the setting up of the FTA (agreed in October 2003).
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore was on a state visit to India from June 29 to July 01, 2005 along with a small delegation of his ministers.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited India from 22 to 24 November 2005.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) from 12 to 14 December 2005 to attend India-ASEAN Summit as well as the inaugural East Asia Summit
India International Trade Fair (IITF)
South East Asia was the focus in the IITF this year (2005), which happened to be the silver jubilee of this fair. Companies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand took part in the fair. After more than two decades of emphasizing trade with Europe and U.S., this fair reached out the South East Asian businesses.
The China Factor
China is virtually dominating this region. By the ASEAN-China Accord entered into in November 2004 (during the 10th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane), the world’s biggest free trade area has been created removing all tariffs for 2 billion people. The tariff cuts that began in 2005 will be completed by 2010 drawing the ASEAN’s combined economies of US $ 1 trillion closer to China’s US $ 1.4 trillion. (For more details refer to Paper Number 1184 dated 10-12-2004 of this author titled “ASEAN ECONOMY: Dominated by China”).
James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State, in a testimony to the U.S. Congress said “China’s bilateral agreements mean little in economic terms, but they serve notice of how China is using its newly won economic power to expand its presence and political influence among its southern neighbors”.
In the Cold war era, South East Asian nations perceived China as dangerous because of its military expansionist scheme in Asia. While now the “peaceful rise” of China is being considered as more of an opportunity despite the challenges. To dispel the fears of this region Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said in a speech during the last ASEAN Summit that “China will continue to seek peace and development through cooperation and will strive to achieve development that will bring about peace, openness, cooperation and harmony as well as benefit to itself and other countries”.
Despite the pronouncements of the Chinese Premier some analysts are of the opinion that Beijing preferred a smaller Asian grouping (without U.S., India, Australia and New Zealand) that can move quickly on the economic front and which China can influence more significantly. Perhaps it is this increasing influence of China and its benign motives that had prompted countries like Singapore and Indonesia to co-opt India, Australia and New Zealand into the EAS.
Hence India must be aware that it has not been invited to EAS because of its rising economic potential alone but more as a balancing force to offset the China factor. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, did mention that in a global environment, India is not afraid of competition. He added that India and China are not rivals and they can complement rather than compete in the EAS. India and China have engaged more purposefully than ever before bilaterally at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, at the UN and as part of the India-China-Russia axis.
Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr. Shyam Saran had remarked in this connection that ‘There will be increased capabilities that China will bring to bear in this region and even beyond. India also is going to be a major player in Asia ….I think India and the U.S. can contribute to much better balance in the Asian region”. It is debatable as to whether India should be worried about bringing this balance with the help of the U.S. or assert itself in the region on its own with whatever capabilities it may have or challenges to be met.
Conclusion
The Look-East policy has been given a significant thrust since the beginning of this century and the results achieved are evident as seen from the foregoing.
India has entered into a number of pacts, agreements and FTAs but its record for implementation of such accords has been poor as can be seen from the follow up of the Indo-Thai FTA and CECA with Singapore. The reasons may be – the Indian industry’s doubts about its competitive efficiency or it does not want competition at home or it is scared of cheaper exports to India from these countries.
There are some domestic political compulsions which impinge on the desired reforms or changes and the Indian Prime Minister had to admit at the ASEAN Business Advisory Council about the struggle the liberalization process is undergoing in the ‘minds of our people”. India has come under harsh criticism from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia for the 1414 “negative items list” in the proposed FTA with ASEAN. This has put India in an embarrassing situation.
The meteoric rise of China’s economic potential and the resultant influence on this region should not deter India, as the region is looking for an alternative in India. However India has to set its house in order and go ahead with its economic reforms, liberalization process and infrastructure development to gain the confidence of this region, which at present is wanting in some respects.
Improvement of bilateral relations with the nations independent of the grouping is equally important. Each nation has its own characteristics – some are supportive of India at international fora, some are predominantly Muslim, some are economic tigers, some are underdeveloped and one is a close neighbour influencing the security of India. Hence the bilateral relations have to be tailored to suit the requirements of that particular state and that of India.
ASEAN and EAS hold great promise for India. Aggressive interaction with these groupings will result in better integration with this region and facilitate India’s entry into APEC, which is the major forum for the strategic and security concerns of this region.
The crux is,that this Look-East policy should reinforce and demonstrate India’s commitment to this region, which accounts for one-third of India’s trade. It should also be made clear that this commitment will not be influenced in any way by the improving relations between India and the U.S. and EU.
by C. S. Kuppuswamy
“I reiterate India’s commitment to work with ASEAN and other East Asian countries to make the 21st century truly an Asian century”
- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Introduction
With the participation of India in the recently concluded East Asian Summit and from the level of interaction evidenced at the 4th India-ASEAN Summit, both held at Kuala Lumpur from 12-14 December 2005, it is seen that the Look-East policy is being pursued aggressively and has started yielding results on the economic, political and strategic fields. The policy which was primarily directed towards improving relations with ASEAN will now be enlarged to cover other nations of the region such as China, Japan and Korea where the interaction was more bilateral till date.
Look-East Policy
The policy launched in 1992 had its genesis in the end of the cold war, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of India’s liberalization, it was more than just a foreign policy alternative as it provided a development alternative as well, in synchronization with the globalization and the resurgence of Asia as an economic powerhouse. To quote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “it was also a strategic shift in India’s vision of the world and India’s place in the evolving global economy”.
Though the policy was given an initial thrust with the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visiting China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore and India becoming a sectoral dialogue partner with ASEAN in 1992, the policy was pursued in fits and starts till recently. It is only since the beginning of this century, India has given a big push to this policy by becoming a summit level partner of ASEAN (2002) and getting involved in some regional initiatives such as the BIMSTEC and the Ganga Mekong Cooperation and now becoming a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in December, 2005.
India – ASEAN
India’s interaction with ASEAN in the cold war era can be described as a tale of missed opportunities. India declined to get associated with ASEAN in the 1960s when full membership was offered even before the grouping was formed.
It is only with the formulation of the Look-East policy in the last decade (1992), India had made amends by giving this region due importance in the foreign policy planning. India became a sectoral dialogue partner with ASEAN in 1992, a full dialogue partner in 1995, a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996, and a summit level partner (on par with China, Japan and Korea) in 2002.
The first India-ASEAN Business Summit was held at New Delhi in October 2002. The then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee addressed this meet and since then this business summit has become an annual feature prior to the India-ASEAN Summits, as a forum for networking and exchange of business experiences between policy makers and business leaders from ASEAN and India.
Four India-ASEAN Summits, first in 2002 at Phnom Penh (Cambodia), second in 2003 at Bali (Indonesia), third in 2004 at Vientiane (Laos) and the fourth in 2005 at Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), have taken place till date.
The following agreements have been entered into with ASEAN:
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (for establishing a FTA in a time frame of 10 years) was concluded in Bali in 2003.
An ASEAN-India Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism has been adopted.
India has acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 2003, on which ASEAN was formed initially (in 1967).
Agreement on “India-ASEAN Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity” was signed at the 3rd ASEAN-India Summit in Nov 2004.
Setting up of Entrepreneurship Development Centres in ASEAN member states – Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. (The one in Laos is already functional)
The following proposals were announced by the Prime Minister at the 4th ASEAN-India Summit:
Setting up centres for English Language Training (ELT) in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Setting up a tele-medicine and tele-education network for Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
Organising special training courses for diplomats from ASEAN countries.
Organising an India-ASEAN Technology Summit in 2006.
Organising education fairs and road shows in ASEAN countries.
Conducting an India-ASEAN IT Ministerial and Industry Forum in 2006.
The ASEAN region has an abundance of natural resources and significant technological skills. These provide a natural base for the growth of synergies and integration between ASEAN and India in both trade and investment. The present level of bilateral trade with ASEAN of nearly US $ 18 billion is reportedly increasing by about 25 % per year. India hopes to reach the level of US $ 30 billion by 2007. India is also improving its relations with other elements like offers of lines of credit, better connectivity through air (open skies policy), rail and road links.
Regional Initiatives
BIMSTEC. The littoral states of Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) came together to form this economic association in June 1997. Myanmar has joined this grouping in December1997 and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004. This grouping aims at promoting economic cooperation between members in key areas like, Trade, Investment, Fisheries, Agriculture, Transportation and Human Resources Development. The first BIMSTEC Summit held in July 2004, renamed the grouping as “Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical Cooperation” with the same acronym.
BIMSTEC has identified six sectors of focused cooperation. For each a lead country has been designated: Trade and Investment (Bangladesh); Technology (Sri Lanka); Transport and Communication (India); Energy (Myanmar); Tourism (India) and Fisheries (Thailand). A Framework Agreement, with the aim of establishing a FTA has been signed in February 2004 and a time frame has been worked for implementation in various phases. India has taken a leading role in this grouping and will also hold the next Summit in 2006.
Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Project. The foreign ministers of the six nations (India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) decided at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting at Bangkok in July 2000 to launch this cooperative venture. It may be noted that barring India, the rest are member states of ASEAN. This project is aimed at development of overland trade, tourism, communications and transport linkages. The Trans-Asian highway (an old proposal of ESCAP) may become a reality through this grouping. The MGC ministerial level meetings will be held every year.
CSCAP. The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) established in 1993, is a non-governmental (Track II) process for dialogue on security issues in Asia Pacific. India became an associate member in 1994 and a full member in 2000. CSCAP is consolidating its links to the first track ARF. This is a useful mechanism (though unofficial) to discuss political and security issues and make such recommendations and facilitate information exchange with interested actors.
Bilateral Relations
Thailand. The first Framework Agreement for a bilateral FTA (with an ASEAN nation) was signed with Thailand in October 2003. Under this agreement, the commencement of FTA in Services and Investments will be in 2006 and in Goods from 2010. Some Memorandums of Understanding were also signed in October 2003, on tourism, agriculture and cooperation in bio-technology. A Joint Working Group is also in place for information and intelligence sharing on terrorism.
Malaysia. India is Malaysia’s largest trading partner among countries in the south, excluding China and the ASEAN, with the bilateral trade valued at US $ 4.29 billion in 2004. Indian public sector undertakings such as BHEL and IRCON have undertaken and successfully completed a number of projects in Malaysia. There are 57 Indian joint ventures in Malaysia in the fields of palm oil refining, power, railways, civil construction, training and information technology.
During the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2004, India and Malaysia agreed to initiate a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). 12 agreement/MOUs were also signed covering wide ranging cooperation in satellite technology, biotechnology, information technology, infrastructure and education.
Indonesia. During the visit of the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to India in November 2005, Indonesia and India agreed to establish a “strategic partnership” based on shared values and commitment to democracy and aimed at broad based development of relations in the political, security, economic, commercial, cultural and science and technology fields. Three MOUs were signed- one on marine and fisheries cooperation, one on establishment of Joint Study Group for CECA and one on training cooperation for training of diplomats.
India has many joint ventures in Indonesia since the 1970s. The bilateral trade currently at around US $ 4 billion will be tripled to US $ 15 billion in the next five years. Indonesia was insistent on the inclusion of India into East Asia Summit and had supported India at the other forums like WTO and OIC.
Myanmar. Myanmar is the only ASEAN country with which India shares both land and maritime boundaries. Hence Myanmar has to be accorded a special position in its foreign policy, especially in view of India’s strategic and security concerns. Consequent to visit ofSenior General Than Shwe, Chairman SPDC,to India in 2004, the bilateral relations are at an all time high.
India has extended a number of general and project-specific credit lines to Myanmar in the last few years. A number of agreements and MOUs, including the Tripartite Maritime Agreement between India, Myanmar and Thailand, the Border Trade Agreement and an agreement on Cooperation between Civilian Border Authorities, have been signed. Indian companies are involved in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. A feasibility study has been undertaken for a rail link between India and Myanmar.
India had upgraded the 160 km long Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway in 2001 and will be maintaining it for the next six years. There is an ongoing project for construction of a trilateral highway from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand to Bagan in Myanmar, the progress of which is being reviewed regularly by the foreign ministers of the three nations. True to Myanamar’s assurances, it has been launching operations against the Indian rebel groups such as NSCN (K) camping in its soil.
Singapore. AComprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore was signed on 29 June 2005 during the visit of Singapore Prime Minister to India. This agreement which came into effect on 01 August 2005, includes a bilateral investment promotion treaty, a double taxation avoidance agreement and an air services agreement in addition to an FTA. It may be recalled that it was Singapore that paved the way of India’s association with ARF. Lee had also supported India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Singapore along with Indonesia had also supported India’s entry in to the East Asian Summit.
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
These three economically under developed countries of this region, in comparison to the rest of ASEAN, have enough scope and opportunity for India to extend its influence and reap the benefits.
Since 1981, when India recognized the Hang Samrin regime, India had cordial relations with Cambodia. India has entered into a number of bilateral treaties and agreements for cooperation in the fields of trade, science & technology, agriculture, tourism, air services and visa exemption. India has some major projects in the areas of education, entrepreneurship development and information technology. India has helped Cambodia in a big way through the ITEC programme.
India and Laos have signed a number of agreements and MOUs in the fields of culture, cooperation in defence, cooperation in science & technology, agricultural cooperation, drugs and illicit trafficking, and exemption of visas for diplomats and officials. India has also set up and Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Laos and will be setting up an Information Technology Centre shortly.
India has a number of bilateral treaties and agreements with Vietnam in the areas of Consular relations, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Narcotics, Science & Technology and Culture. Since 1976, India has extended 14 lines of credit amounting to Rupees 3,610 million to Vietnam. Another credit line of US $ 27 million to Vietnam was signed in August 2004 between Exim Bank of India and Ministry of Finance, Vietnam. India is also helping Vietnam in setting up an Advanced Resource Centre in IT in Hanoi and HRD in the field of IT in six educational institutions in Vietnam.
India has also proposed in the 4th India-ASEAN Summit at Kuala Lumpur in 2005 to set up Centres for English Language Training, tele-medicine and tele-education centres in these three states.
Visits
Visits to and from the South East Asian nations at the level of the heads of state, at the level of the ministers, at the level of the service chiefs and at the level of the bureaucrats and business leaders have also helped in giving a major thrust to the Look-East policy. Some of the visits in the last three years which were significant are given below:
2003
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee visited Bali (Indonesia) in October 2003 to attend the ASEAN Summit and had also bilateral meetings with the Korean President and the Prime Minister of Vietnam.
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee made an official visit to Thailand on 9-10 October 2003, when a Framework Agreement for a bilateral FTA was signed.
Vice-President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat visited Myanmar from 2-5 November 2003.
2004
Prime Minister ManmohanSingh visited Bangkok (Thailand) in July 2004 to address the first BIMST-EC Summit meeting.
Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, visited India in October 2004.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vientiane (Laos) to attend the 3rd India-ASEAN Summit and to flag off the India-ASEAN car rally.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia visited India in December 2004.
2005
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Indonesia in April 2005 to attend the AFRO-ASIAN Summit.
Thai Premier Thaksin Shinwatra was in New Delhi from June 03-04, 2005 to expedite the setting up of the FTA (agreed in October 2003).
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore was on a state visit to India from June 29 to July 01, 2005 along with a small delegation of his ministers.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited India from 22 to 24 November 2005.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) from 12 to 14 December 2005 to attend India-ASEAN Summit as well as the inaugural East Asia Summit
India International Trade Fair (IITF)
South East Asia was the focus in the IITF this year (2005), which happened to be the silver jubilee of this fair. Companies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand took part in the fair. After more than two decades of emphasizing trade with Europe and U.S., this fair reached out the South East Asian businesses.
The China Factor
China is virtually dominating this region. By the ASEAN-China Accord entered into in November 2004 (during the 10th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane), the world’s biggest free trade area has been created removing all tariffs for 2 billion people. The tariff cuts that began in 2005 will be completed by 2010 drawing the ASEAN’s combined economies of US $ 1 trillion closer to China’s US $ 1.4 trillion. (For more details refer to Paper Number 1184 dated 10-12-2004 of this author titled “ASEAN ECONOMY: Dominated by China”).
James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State, in a testimony to the U.S. Congress said “China’s bilateral agreements mean little in economic terms, but they serve notice of how China is using its newly won economic power to expand its presence and political influence among its southern neighbors”.
In the Cold war era, South East Asian nations perceived China as dangerous because of its military expansionist scheme in Asia. While now the “peaceful rise” of China is being considered as more of an opportunity despite the challenges. To dispel the fears of this region Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said in a speech during the last ASEAN Summit that “China will continue to seek peace and development through cooperation and will strive to achieve development that will bring about peace, openness, cooperation and harmony as well as benefit to itself and other countries”.
Despite the pronouncements of the Chinese Premier some analysts are of the opinion that Beijing preferred a smaller Asian grouping (without U.S., India, Australia and New Zealand) that can move quickly on the economic front and which China can influence more significantly. Perhaps it is this increasing influence of China and its benign motives that had prompted countries like Singapore and Indonesia to co-opt India, Australia and New Zealand into the EAS.
Hence India must be aware that it has not been invited to EAS because of its rising economic potential alone but more as a balancing force to offset the China factor. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, did mention that in a global environment, India is not afraid of competition. He added that India and China are not rivals and they can complement rather than compete in the EAS. India and China have engaged more purposefully than ever before bilaterally at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, at the UN and as part of the India-China-Russia axis.
Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr. Shyam Saran had remarked in this connection that ‘There will be increased capabilities that China will bring to bear in this region and even beyond. India also is going to be a major player in Asia ….I think India and the U.S. can contribute to much better balance in the Asian region”. It is debatable as to whether India should be worried about bringing this balance with the help of the U.S. or assert itself in the region on its own with whatever capabilities it may have or challenges to be met.
Conclusion
The Look-East policy has been given a significant thrust since the beginning of this century and the results achieved are evident as seen from the foregoing.
India has entered into a number of pacts, agreements and FTAs but its record for implementation of such accords has been poor as can be seen from the follow up of the Indo-Thai FTA and CECA with Singapore. The reasons may be – the Indian industry’s doubts about its competitive efficiency or it does not want competition at home or it is scared of cheaper exports to India from these countries.
There are some domestic political compulsions which impinge on the desired reforms or changes and the Indian Prime Minister had to admit at the ASEAN Business Advisory Council about the struggle the liberalization process is undergoing in the ‘minds of our people”. India has come under harsh criticism from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia for the 1414 “negative items list” in the proposed FTA with ASEAN. This has put India in an embarrassing situation.
The meteoric rise of China’s economic potential and the resultant influence on this region should not deter India, as the region is looking for an alternative in India. However India has to set its house in order and go ahead with its economic reforms, liberalization process and infrastructure development to gain the confidence of this region, which at present is wanting in some respects.
Improvement of bilateral relations with the nations independent of the grouping is equally important. Each nation has its own characteristics – some are supportive of India at international fora, some are predominantly Muslim, some are economic tigers, some are underdeveloped and one is a close neighbour influencing the security of India. Hence the bilateral relations have to be tailored to suit the requirements of that particular state and that of India.
ASEAN and EAS hold great promise for India. Aggressive interaction with these groupings will result in better integration with this region and facilitate India’s entry into APEC, which is the major forum for the strategic and security concerns of this region.
The crux is,that this Look-East policy should reinforce and demonstrate India’s commitment to this region, which accounts for one-third of India’s trade. It should also be made clear that this commitment will not be influenced in any way by the improving relations between India and the U.S. and EU.
POVERTY AND SLUMS IN INDIA – IMPACT OF CHANGING ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE
POVERTY AND SLUMS IN INDIA – IMPACT OF CHANGING ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE
Guest Column by Hari Sud
Western media headlines as usual are as follows – twenty five percent of Indians live on less than a dollar a day and seventy percent live on less than two dollars a day. The forgoing was the headline of May 9, 2005 in a major international newspaper. Others headlines are not any less mischievous. These are all meaningless analysis. It does not reflect that same amount of money has differing values in different places. A more acceptable and bit accurate description of incomes in countries is Purchase Power Parity (PPP), which is, pricing identical products and services as needed by the local population in different countries, thus establishing a new and a more equitable exchange rate. The foregoing is applicable mostly to tradable goods. The PPP will put India’s GDP at $3.7 Trillion. This will raise daily monies of twenty five percent of Indians at the lowest rung of the society to seven dollars. The latter is still low but is much higher than the Western media would like to project. The forgoing is not the point; the point is that poverty is a major shame in India’s otherwise decent, scientifically advanced, peace loving and at times turbulent image. Poverty creates slums and slums breed hopelessness and crime. Hence it needs to be tackled as an integral part of economic development.
The key question that arises - will the current hype in economical development in India alter the landscape for the very poor?
The answer is that, not much will change in next 20 to 25 years. The real impact will be felt later than twenty-five years. That is when 8% growth trajectory will take the PPP daily income of the very poor in India from seven dollars to forty dollars. By then, a $20 Trillion GDP economy (PPP basis) and $600 billion in exports (year 2001 basis) will add one hundred and fifty million jobs, of which forty to fifty million will go to the very poor segment of the society. This general prosperity will not only put food on the table but will add to better living, better housings etc. In the intervening period of 25 years, rising income levels will definitely add to the exodus from the slums to planned living areas. The forgoing also requires massive governmental effort to house people properly.
Let us examine this issue of poverty and slums in Indian cities and its relationship to the betterment of economic conditions of the masses, a bit further?
What Causes Slums in the Cities in the First Place?
It is vicious cycle of population growth, opportunities in the cities (leading to migration to the cities), poverty with low incomes, tendency to be closer to work hence occupying any land in the vicinity etc. The key reason out of all is the slow economic progress. After independence in 1947, commercial and industrial activity needed cheap labor in the cities. Plentiful was available in the rural area. They were encouraged to come to cities and work. People, who migrated to the cities and found work, brought their cousins and rest of the families to the cities. Unable to find housing and afford it, they decided to build their shelter closer to work. First, one shelter was built, then two and then two thousand and then ten thousand and on and on. Conniving governments provided electricity and drinking water. Politicians looked at the slums as vote bank. They organized these unauthorized dwellers into a political force; hence slums took a bit of a permanent shape. More slums developed as more population moved to the cities. By mid sixties Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and all other large cities were dotted with slums.
Very poor people live in slums. They are not the only one dwelling there. Fairly well to do people also reside there. They are either offspring of the slum dwellers that found education and an occupation. They have prospered but are unable to find affordable housing, hence have continued to stay in the shantytowns. Others are avoiding paying rent and property taxes. The latter is more often the case. It is not unusual that in the dirtiest of slums, where misery prevails that TV sets, refrigerators and radios are also blaring music. This is quite a contrast from the image which one gets in the media or from the opportunist politicians.
India’s capital of Delhi has a million and a half out of fourteen million living in slums. Mumbai is worst with greater percentage living in slums. Other big urban centers have done no better. Newly built cities like Chandigarh and surrounding towns where shantytowns could have been avoided altogether have now slums. The forgoing is India’s shame despite huge progress.
How will the growing Economy impact Poverty and the Slum dwellers?
As stated above, 8% growth rate of Indian economy will push per capita GDP to $2,000 level in about twenty to twenty-five years (PPP per capita GDP will be much higher). The forgoing presupposes that the population does not explode in the near future but continue a healthy 1.5 to 2% growth. That is where the magic equilibrium of prosperity and desire to live a better life begins. These two together could end poverty and slums. With availability of affordable housing and jobs, slum dwelling is the last thought on people’s mind.
On the other hand if the above does not happen then slums dwellers will triple in 25 years and so will the poverty. Delhi will have four and a half million-slum dwellers. Kolkata and Mumbai will have even bigger numbers. India’s shame will have no end. To avoid that, India’s economy has to remain at a high state of growth. Jobs created by the economic growth, hence higher incomes are key criteria for poverty reduction and slum elimination. The foregoing together with the current urban renewal in progress in the urban areas today will give cities in India a new look. Higher incomes will create a demand for in-expensive housing, which will have to be met with innovative use of land and building techniques. Government provided housing would be a great failure as it has been elsewhere in the world. Instead sufficient cash has to be placed in the people’s hands together with in-expensive land that people’s housing program become efficient and affordable. In addition slum living has to be made unattractive with land taxes and denial of social services. Slum colonies, which opt out of current hopelessness, should get a better deal in housing which replaces the slums. This followed with rapidly growing rural economy will kill migration. That will also reduce pressure on housing.
No single policy has ever brought an end to poverty and slums. It is a concerted effort and better policies, which will end it. No country in the world has ever been able to end poverty and slums completely. That includes the richest nation of the world – USA. The point is that if economy progresses and special effort is made to uplift the poor, poverty and slums will be overtaken by better economic conditions of the people.
How did US Tackle its Slums?
US had its share of poverty and slums in around the immigrant dominated cities. New York and Boston had great amount of poverty and slums at the turn of the twentieth century. These slums worsened further with the arrival of newly liberated African-American population from Deep South. The era pictures give a glimpse of everyday life and it is not pretty. People without jobs and with no prospects crowded cities in the North. A new word, Ghetto was coined, which described these places. Immigrant from different background or race crowded together and gave rise to Ghettos. At that time US did not have control over its economy and Civil War debt and additional monies borrowed to rehabilitate agriculture and commerce after the Civil War was unpaid. As twentieth century progressed a concerted effort was made to clean up the Ghettos and push people inland with free grant of land and promise of prosperity. Industrial Revolution, which was slow in reaching America from Europe, finally arrived. And it made the difference. It provided the much-needed jobs to the immigrants and colored. Also, free land in the West gave rise to food self-sufficiency and paying off of all Civil War and post Civil War debts. First World War gave US economy a boost and America joined the select group of countries of Europe in prosperity. Poverty by the end of the Second World War was a thing of the past. In just fifty years, i.e. by 1950, US were nation of 160 million souls, all prosperous and all well employed (forget the habitual lazy). That does not mean that all the Ghettos disappeared. They continued to exist. They exist today, but on a much lower scale. These are not eyesores.
One critical factor which eliminated slums and poverty in US was quadrupling of the US economy from 1900 to 1940. A free wheeling economy created industrial giants and a super rich class. Need for war material during the WWII resulted in creation of huge industrial infrastructure and innovation. Post war reconstruction in Europe added greater impetus to the economy. General well being of the people living in the poorer section of the cities dramatically improved. US raced ahead of Europe and are still ahead, 60 years after the WWII. In most cities, ghettos disappeared or shrunk. Urban renewal and building boom in last sixty years has completely changed the landscape of the country.
There is a parallel here. Poverty and slums in India are at the same level as they were in beginning of the twentieth century in America. Economic growth over fifty years eliminated them. It is possible in India too if the economy sustains the 8% growth trajectory.
Slums and the Great Briton
Great Briton was a great big slum before they became a colonial power in the nineteenth century. For eight hundred years prior, until 1800s, Great Briton was an agrarian society, where the lord lived happily in his Manor and Castles and the masses lived in a great squalor. Slums were everywhere. London had the biggest slums. Colonization brought prosperity and prosperity brought in a huge effort to improve the lot of the people and clean up of the cities. That is when the unemployed and slum dwellers were pushed to newly developing industrial hubs of Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Compared to that Delhi, Kolkata were heavens. First slums in Kolkata appeared in 1850-70 as a result of systematic destruction of textile industry in Bengal and destruction of trading infrastructure in and around Kolkata. Slums elsewhere followed.
It took all the Victorian age from 1825 to 1900 to vanish poverty and slums in England. Their GDP multiplied 8 times over this period. British factories produced goods and services which were sold at profit in the in the colonies. Work for everybody in England was the cornerstone of building well-serviced cities.
The point is that reduction of poverty and slums follow closely with economic development. Faster the economic development, sooner will the poverty vanish and with it, the slums.
How did China handle its Poverty and Slums?
Chinese had a unique way of making slums disappear from its urban centers. Permit system to live in a city or in a particular neighborhood was introduced just after the Communist took control in 1949. That means that a migration of rural population to the urban areas in search of jobs was arrested. In addition the war ravaged eastern provinces where rural population had moved to the cities and into the slums, were emptied out. Nobody questioned Mao Tse Tung’s wisdom; hence he had a free hand. People were permitted to return to their homes in the cities only after proof of their residency had been established. Outsiders were sent back to their own homes and land in the rural area. Future residency in the cities was permitted on a permit basis only. Hence the major problem of unplanned urban squatting was prevented. Even today the foregoing policy continues. The FDI built cities of Guangdong province carry on with the permit system established in 1949. In order to move there, a person has to have a job and place to reside. The latter could be a factory provided bunk bed. This prevents urban squatters. The above is no comparison to how poverty was vanished in UK, US and elsewhere. Major economic progress in last 20 years has re-invigorated the cities with investment and reconstruction. Whether the same is true in the China’s rural areas is a debatable issue. China likes to pretend that poverty has been removed. Published reports state otherwise. (http://www.economist.com/World/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5636460)
Urban Renewal In India
Urban renewal is in progress in India in a big way for the last 50 years. The British starved cities in India of the funds for two hundred years. They only built regal palaces for themselves in Delhi, Shimla and Kolkota. No new funds were made available to the people to renew and rebuild, hence Moghul Delhi presented a decaying and a rundown look, when they finally left India in 1947. The problem got compounded with migration of people from rural areas. Expanding industry and commerce needed them hence migration was encouraged. Thus urban slums and squatting began in a big way. Today, some estimates place 10 to 15% of Delhi population as slum dwellers. Slums in Kolkata predate Delhi slums. So do the Mumbai slums. They all began the same way – people’s livelihood was destroyed or they were invited to work in factories without adequate housing. The problem grew acute with huge population growth after 1950. From 1950 to today, cities lacked funds to renew themselves and help build additional housing. People lacked adequate jobs hence are caught in the poverty cycle.
Only recently a huge building and construction boom has started in all cities in India. Whereas governments are concentrating on building infrastructure and industrial base, private construction is building work places, shopping districts and housing for the middle class. The poor and slum dwellers are not there in any building equation. Cheap housing projects are lowest in the category. Hence slum dwelling has become a way of life.
How Long the Poor have to wait?
If the experience elsewhere is a guide then poverty, slums and urban squat will be a diminishing phenomenon, if the rapid economic progress keeps its pace. Today we would have smaller of the slums, had economic policies of the present were in place 50 years back. Only now, all signs point to a rapidly rising GDP together with rising per capita GDP. With rise in income level, tendency to head to the slums has lessened. Die-hard slum dwellers who wish to pay no taxes and spend nothing on housing will most certainly continue to stay there. Others will prefer to move out. This is a normal phenomenon. It happened in US and elsewhere. It will happen in India too. An economic equilibrium has not been reached in the society yet, where enough money in people’s pocket will persuade them to vacate the slums. This won’t we reached for another 20 to 25 years. By about middle of this period with increased availability of housing and higher incomes, the growth in slum dwelling will be arrested. Decline will begin only when much higher incomes are reached (as stated above), provided India does not make the mistake of regularizing the slums/bustees with land tenure on tenable land and other amenities. That is a sure fire method to keep the slums going. People will always wait for free grant of land ownership even if these grants never materialize. Even the possibility of this ever happening in a distant future will keep the slum dwellers in the slums.
Conclusion
Poverty, slums and urban squat are not going to go away in next 20 to 25 years. Reversal of this phenomenon will begin after sufficient economic progress had been made. Eight percent GDP growths is a good sign. With quadrupled GDP in 25 years, there is a good chance that the new and upcoming generation may stay away from slum dwelling. It may take another 25 years before the slums are vacated.
Guest Column by Hari Sud
Western media headlines as usual are as follows – twenty five percent of Indians live on less than a dollar a day and seventy percent live on less than two dollars a day. The forgoing was the headline of May 9, 2005 in a major international newspaper. Others headlines are not any less mischievous. These are all meaningless analysis. It does not reflect that same amount of money has differing values in different places. A more acceptable and bit accurate description of incomes in countries is Purchase Power Parity (PPP), which is, pricing identical products and services as needed by the local population in different countries, thus establishing a new and a more equitable exchange rate. The foregoing is applicable mostly to tradable goods. The PPP will put India’s GDP at $3.7 Trillion. This will raise daily monies of twenty five percent of Indians at the lowest rung of the society to seven dollars. The latter is still low but is much higher than the Western media would like to project. The forgoing is not the point; the point is that poverty is a major shame in India’s otherwise decent, scientifically advanced, peace loving and at times turbulent image. Poverty creates slums and slums breed hopelessness and crime. Hence it needs to be tackled as an integral part of economic development.
The key question that arises - will the current hype in economical development in India alter the landscape for the very poor?
The answer is that, not much will change in next 20 to 25 years. The real impact will be felt later than twenty-five years. That is when 8% growth trajectory will take the PPP daily income of the very poor in India from seven dollars to forty dollars. By then, a $20 Trillion GDP economy (PPP basis) and $600 billion in exports (year 2001 basis) will add one hundred and fifty million jobs, of which forty to fifty million will go to the very poor segment of the society. This general prosperity will not only put food on the table but will add to better living, better housings etc. In the intervening period of 25 years, rising income levels will definitely add to the exodus from the slums to planned living areas. The forgoing also requires massive governmental effort to house people properly.
Let us examine this issue of poverty and slums in Indian cities and its relationship to the betterment of economic conditions of the masses, a bit further?
What Causes Slums in the Cities in the First Place?
It is vicious cycle of population growth, opportunities in the cities (leading to migration to the cities), poverty with low incomes, tendency to be closer to work hence occupying any land in the vicinity etc. The key reason out of all is the slow economic progress. After independence in 1947, commercial and industrial activity needed cheap labor in the cities. Plentiful was available in the rural area. They were encouraged to come to cities and work. People, who migrated to the cities and found work, brought their cousins and rest of the families to the cities. Unable to find housing and afford it, they decided to build their shelter closer to work. First, one shelter was built, then two and then two thousand and then ten thousand and on and on. Conniving governments provided electricity and drinking water. Politicians looked at the slums as vote bank. They organized these unauthorized dwellers into a political force; hence slums took a bit of a permanent shape. More slums developed as more population moved to the cities. By mid sixties Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and all other large cities were dotted with slums.
Very poor people live in slums. They are not the only one dwelling there. Fairly well to do people also reside there. They are either offspring of the slum dwellers that found education and an occupation. They have prospered but are unable to find affordable housing, hence have continued to stay in the shantytowns. Others are avoiding paying rent and property taxes. The latter is more often the case. It is not unusual that in the dirtiest of slums, where misery prevails that TV sets, refrigerators and radios are also blaring music. This is quite a contrast from the image which one gets in the media or from the opportunist politicians.
India’s capital of Delhi has a million and a half out of fourteen million living in slums. Mumbai is worst with greater percentage living in slums. Other big urban centers have done no better. Newly built cities like Chandigarh and surrounding towns where shantytowns could have been avoided altogether have now slums. The forgoing is India’s shame despite huge progress.
How will the growing Economy impact Poverty and the Slum dwellers?
As stated above, 8% growth rate of Indian economy will push per capita GDP to $2,000 level in about twenty to twenty-five years (PPP per capita GDP will be much higher). The forgoing presupposes that the population does not explode in the near future but continue a healthy 1.5 to 2% growth. That is where the magic equilibrium of prosperity and desire to live a better life begins. These two together could end poverty and slums. With availability of affordable housing and jobs, slum dwelling is the last thought on people’s mind.
On the other hand if the above does not happen then slums dwellers will triple in 25 years and so will the poverty. Delhi will have four and a half million-slum dwellers. Kolkata and Mumbai will have even bigger numbers. India’s shame will have no end. To avoid that, India’s economy has to remain at a high state of growth. Jobs created by the economic growth, hence higher incomes are key criteria for poverty reduction and slum elimination. The foregoing together with the current urban renewal in progress in the urban areas today will give cities in India a new look. Higher incomes will create a demand for in-expensive housing, which will have to be met with innovative use of land and building techniques. Government provided housing would be a great failure as it has been elsewhere in the world. Instead sufficient cash has to be placed in the people’s hands together with in-expensive land that people’s housing program become efficient and affordable. In addition slum living has to be made unattractive with land taxes and denial of social services. Slum colonies, which opt out of current hopelessness, should get a better deal in housing which replaces the slums. This followed with rapidly growing rural economy will kill migration. That will also reduce pressure on housing.
No single policy has ever brought an end to poverty and slums. It is a concerted effort and better policies, which will end it. No country in the world has ever been able to end poverty and slums completely. That includes the richest nation of the world – USA. The point is that if economy progresses and special effort is made to uplift the poor, poverty and slums will be overtaken by better economic conditions of the people.
How did US Tackle its Slums?
US had its share of poverty and slums in around the immigrant dominated cities. New York and Boston had great amount of poverty and slums at the turn of the twentieth century. These slums worsened further with the arrival of newly liberated African-American population from Deep South. The era pictures give a glimpse of everyday life and it is not pretty. People without jobs and with no prospects crowded cities in the North. A new word, Ghetto was coined, which described these places. Immigrant from different background or race crowded together and gave rise to Ghettos. At that time US did not have control over its economy and Civil War debt and additional monies borrowed to rehabilitate agriculture and commerce after the Civil War was unpaid. As twentieth century progressed a concerted effort was made to clean up the Ghettos and push people inland with free grant of land and promise of prosperity. Industrial Revolution, which was slow in reaching America from Europe, finally arrived. And it made the difference. It provided the much-needed jobs to the immigrants and colored. Also, free land in the West gave rise to food self-sufficiency and paying off of all Civil War and post Civil War debts. First World War gave US economy a boost and America joined the select group of countries of Europe in prosperity. Poverty by the end of the Second World War was a thing of the past. In just fifty years, i.e. by 1950, US were nation of 160 million souls, all prosperous and all well employed (forget the habitual lazy). That does not mean that all the Ghettos disappeared. They continued to exist. They exist today, but on a much lower scale. These are not eyesores.
One critical factor which eliminated slums and poverty in US was quadrupling of the US economy from 1900 to 1940. A free wheeling economy created industrial giants and a super rich class. Need for war material during the WWII resulted in creation of huge industrial infrastructure and innovation. Post war reconstruction in Europe added greater impetus to the economy. General well being of the people living in the poorer section of the cities dramatically improved. US raced ahead of Europe and are still ahead, 60 years after the WWII. In most cities, ghettos disappeared or shrunk. Urban renewal and building boom in last sixty years has completely changed the landscape of the country.
There is a parallel here. Poverty and slums in India are at the same level as they were in beginning of the twentieth century in America. Economic growth over fifty years eliminated them. It is possible in India too if the economy sustains the 8% growth trajectory.
Slums and the Great Briton
Great Briton was a great big slum before they became a colonial power in the nineteenth century. For eight hundred years prior, until 1800s, Great Briton was an agrarian society, where the lord lived happily in his Manor and Castles and the masses lived in a great squalor. Slums were everywhere. London had the biggest slums. Colonization brought prosperity and prosperity brought in a huge effort to improve the lot of the people and clean up of the cities. That is when the unemployed and slum dwellers were pushed to newly developing industrial hubs of Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Compared to that Delhi, Kolkata were heavens. First slums in Kolkata appeared in 1850-70 as a result of systematic destruction of textile industry in Bengal and destruction of trading infrastructure in and around Kolkata. Slums elsewhere followed.
It took all the Victorian age from 1825 to 1900 to vanish poverty and slums in England. Their GDP multiplied 8 times over this period. British factories produced goods and services which were sold at profit in the in the colonies. Work for everybody in England was the cornerstone of building well-serviced cities.
The point is that reduction of poverty and slums follow closely with economic development. Faster the economic development, sooner will the poverty vanish and with it, the slums.
How did China handle its Poverty and Slums?
Chinese had a unique way of making slums disappear from its urban centers. Permit system to live in a city or in a particular neighborhood was introduced just after the Communist took control in 1949. That means that a migration of rural population to the urban areas in search of jobs was arrested. In addition the war ravaged eastern provinces where rural population had moved to the cities and into the slums, were emptied out. Nobody questioned Mao Tse Tung’s wisdom; hence he had a free hand. People were permitted to return to their homes in the cities only after proof of their residency had been established. Outsiders were sent back to their own homes and land in the rural area. Future residency in the cities was permitted on a permit basis only. Hence the major problem of unplanned urban squatting was prevented. Even today the foregoing policy continues. The FDI built cities of Guangdong province carry on with the permit system established in 1949. In order to move there, a person has to have a job and place to reside. The latter could be a factory provided bunk bed. This prevents urban squatters. The above is no comparison to how poverty was vanished in UK, US and elsewhere. Major economic progress in last 20 years has re-invigorated the cities with investment and reconstruction. Whether the same is true in the China’s rural areas is a debatable issue. China likes to pretend that poverty has been removed. Published reports state otherwise. (http://www.economist.com/World/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5636460)
Urban Renewal In India
Urban renewal is in progress in India in a big way for the last 50 years. The British starved cities in India of the funds for two hundred years. They only built regal palaces for themselves in Delhi, Shimla and Kolkota. No new funds were made available to the people to renew and rebuild, hence Moghul Delhi presented a decaying and a rundown look, when they finally left India in 1947. The problem got compounded with migration of people from rural areas. Expanding industry and commerce needed them hence migration was encouraged. Thus urban slums and squatting began in a big way. Today, some estimates place 10 to 15% of Delhi population as slum dwellers. Slums in Kolkata predate Delhi slums. So do the Mumbai slums. They all began the same way – people’s livelihood was destroyed or they were invited to work in factories without adequate housing. The problem grew acute with huge population growth after 1950. From 1950 to today, cities lacked funds to renew themselves and help build additional housing. People lacked adequate jobs hence are caught in the poverty cycle.
Only recently a huge building and construction boom has started in all cities in India. Whereas governments are concentrating on building infrastructure and industrial base, private construction is building work places, shopping districts and housing for the middle class. The poor and slum dwellers are not there in any building equation. Cheap housing projects are lowest in the category. Hence slum dwelling has become a way of life.
How Long the Poor have to wait?
If the experience elsewhere is a guide then poverty, slums and urban squat will be a diminishing phenomenon, if the rapid economic progress keeps its pace. Today we would have smaller of the slums, had economic policies of the present were in place 50 years back. Only now, all signs point to a rapidly rising GDP together with rising per capita GDP. With rise in income level, tendency to head to the slums has lessened. Die-hard slum dwellers who wish to pay no taxes and spend nothing on housing will most certainly continue to stay there. Others will prefer to move out. This is a normal phenomenon. It happened in US and elsewhere. It will happen in India too. An economic equilibrium has not been reached in the society yet, where enough money in people’s pocket will persuade them to vacate the slums. This won’t we reached for another 20 to 25 years. By about middle of this period with increased availability of housing and higher incomes, the growth in slum dwelling will be arrested. Decline will begin only when much higher incomes are reached (as stated above), provided India does not make the mistake of regularizing the slums/bustees with land tenure on tenable land and other amenities. That is a sure fire method to keep the slums going. People will always wait for free grant of land ownership even if these grants never materialize. Even the possibility of this ever happening in a distant future will keep the slum dwellers in the slums.
Conclusion
Poverty, slums and urban squat are not going to go away in next 20 to 25 years. Reversal of this phenomenon will begin after sufficient economic progress had been made. Eight percent GDP growths is a good sign. With quadrupled GDP in 25 years, there is a good chance that the new and upcoming generation may stay away from slum dwelling. It may take another 25 years before the slums are vacated.
Rich & Poor in India – Redistributing the Gains of Improved Economy
Rich & Poor in India – Redistributing the Gains of Improved Economy
Guest Column by Hari Sud
Careers in India’s political systems have been made or lost on one slogan – Vanish Poverty (Garibi Hatao). This slogan has been the buzzword of the ruling political party, since 1950. The irony is that the slogan makers were, very poor economic managers. From 1950 to 1998, India could boast of one or two achievements only i.e. food self-sufficiency and a bit of improved services to the village folks. In contrast, India failed on every other front. Economy slugged at a low 3.5% growth rate and population multiplied from 400 million in 1947 to 950 million in 1998. These additional mouths have to be fed, housed and provided economic means to make a living. Without that, civil disorder will be, the order of the day. Lucky for India , the political party then in power took control in 1998 and decided to redress all the above grievances. First and foremost on their mind was to accelerate economic growth. This they began by making friends with US. The latter is the prime mover of all economic activities in the world. Also the new leaders had a model in front of them. The Chinese had befriended US twenty years earlier and had gained a tremendous economic advantage. India had to do the same. In addition the economy had to be opened up for foreign competition and investment. Once this was achieved over five years, economy accelerated to 8% growth. Then the primary task before new government(s) was to work hard to redress rich and poor imbalance. Gains on economic front have to be felt by the poor also. For this entrepreneurship has to be encouraged at all levels. Skill base of the private sector becomes very useful. To harness private sector energies, they have to be allowed to retain some of the gains of prosperity. It is they, not the governments, who will pass on the benefits to the less fortunate. Governments in their capacity as overall managers have to ensure that the poor get the benefits of economic gains.
Before we discuss rich-poor income gap, we have to understand it and then quantify poverty. This subject is the favorite of economists worldwide. Huge amount of literature and studies have been conducted and advice offered. Much of it is academic in nature. Some simple concepts on the subject are discussed below.
How has the Poverty Curve Moved in last 50 Years?
There are many ways to measure poverty. Western economists prefer GDP and per capita income as a measure. GDP of less developed countries suffer a currency conversion disadvantage hence another measure – Purchase Power Parity (PPP) has been coined to recalculate GDP. Then again, GDP does not show what segment of the society is poor. It is a measure of overall prosperity of the nation. Indian politicians have their own formula for measuring poverty. They define poverty as lack of three meals a day, enough clothing and shelter. This is hard to quantify and a measure still harder to compare your performance with others. Hence, the Western economic measurement technique has been adopted. One such measure is called GINI coefficient (Index). It measures economic inequality in a country, with zero implying perfect equality and 1 indicating perfect inequality. Wealthy nations with high standard of living in the West, should have a value close to Zero and poor countries have close to One (It is usual to multiply the coefficient by 100 to get a more manageable number). This index, more or less, measures income distribution in a country. In 2005, India had a GINI Index of 37.8, indicating significant inequalities in income distribution. If this index for India increases in next ten years then it means that India has done a miserable job in income re-distribution. Fortunately it is at about same level for a number of years. That means 8% economic growth has provided equal relief to the poor and also made a few more millionaires. The same index for Brazil is 60. The latter indicates that there is a huge income disparity in the country. This leads to one conclusion that if high economic growth is accompanied by high GINI index then poverty reduction via economic progress has been entirely lost. This is true about Brazil.
The above Index is not the best measure of poverty and income mal distribution. Consider this – relatively poor countries of Eastern Europe have a GINI index close 25, but US has an index of 45. That means, income in Eastern Europe (formerly Communist ruled) is well distributed and in US it is not so well distributed. Does it mean that, that poverty has vanished from Eastern Europe ? Not true. It only indicates that low income there is well distributed, with no high-income millionaires/billionaires. At 45, the GINI Index does not state well about US. It only indicates that there are very many billionaires in US. Looking at the prosperity in US and opportunities for everybody, this concept fails to clarify the discrepancy. Hence let us look at other means to study and quantify poverty.
A number of studies undertaken in the last 50 years have tried to explain income disparity in multiple segments of a society in almost all the countries. These concepts are again hard to follow just like the GINI index above. Interestingly, there is an Australian study, which simplifies this concept. It divides a nation e.g. India into five income groups. Then it plots these income groups against incomes. Superimposed on this chart are the Word Bank’s one dollar a day (extreme poverty in 1986 dollar value) and two dollars a day poverty lines. A graph for every ten years starting from 1970 is plotted. The resulting chart gives a little better understanding of poverty. The Chart below shows that in 1970 & 1980, about 40% of the total population in India was below the $1 level. But there is a dramatic shift by the time 1998 rolls in. This percentage decreases to about 20%.
Income Distribution – India
Reference: Australian Government, Treasury reports on Poverty, inequality and Distribution of Income in G20.
The above also shows a definite shift in the incomes towards higher numbers. In fact poverty reduction has made a definite progress in last 20 years. A similar graph for 2005 (unavailable) will show a movement to the right indicating smaller segment below the poverty line and a bigger size of the middle-income group. This fact is evident in India as the middle-income group is making its presence felt.
The same graph as above plotted from available data for China shows similar results. Note that statistics is not the best-kept science in China and available data for China for 1970 and 1980 is confusing. Still let us plot it and see, what it tells us.
Income Distribution - China
Chinese chart is very similar to India’s chart. One glaring difference is that the Chinese chart (1998) has much bigger inverted bell with a flat top, indicating that a big percentage of people have graduated from $1 and $2 a day income to higher income bracket in last 20 years. The forgoing is evident from all reports emanating from China. There is a large population base of 200-300 million on the East Coast, which has distinctly better life style than the rest. They have to thank the Foreign Direct Investments for it.
Hence, both China and India have made enormous progress against poverty. If extreme poverty as per World Bank (in 1986 dollars) is defined as $1 a day, then shift of the graph towards right and its flattening as seen in 1998 graph for both China and India is a good sign. It would appear that still about 15 to 20% of the population is below the poverty line in 1998. One wonders where do the skeptics in the Western media get their figure of 350-400 million people in India below the poverty line.
Changes in India with Economic Progress
These changes are evident as you pass through rural as well as urban India . Slums are cohabitated with high-rise buildings in the cities. Even slums have a significant population of well to do residents except that they have not moved out. Rural India, although still poor, is much better off today than any time in the past. Thatched roofs have given way to slate or cement roofs. One-room hovel residents are dwindling rapidly. Roads and transport has reached the remotest corner. Electricity and clean water, barring a few exceptions are almost everywhere. Schools and medical dispensaries are every 3 miles. Prior to that it was always 10 miles for a primary school and 30 miles for a hospital. All the forgoing is a social change achieved with economic progress. This author hails from a remotest village in Himachal Pradesh. All the forgoing is clearly visible as the author observed during his visit last January. Much of this social change has been induced with self-help. Governments have lent a hand, but government efforts are always slow and cumbersome. Hence people have forced the change on themselves.
Have the Government Poverty Reduction Schemes worked in the Past?
Too many schemes have been implemented to reduce poverty in the past 50 years. None have worked. Bulk of the money is lost in bad management and other significant portion is lost in the bureaucratic hassle. Only scheme, which seem to work in the rural areas is upgrading of the agriculture and general availability of education. Both have provided a stable environment for progress. The urban areas have not done very well. The slum population has multiplied and crime rate has increased. Slum dwellers even if they could afford better living are unable to move out because housing and other facilities are too expensive. Few poverty reduction schemes specifically tailored for the urban areas are successful. Newer of the new schemes – National Employment Guarantees Scheme has been initiated recently. It guarantees employment of 100 days for anybody willing to work, especially in the rural areas. As a matter of fact it was an act of Parliament, which created this scheme in 2005. Funding of this scheme is 75% Central Government and rest from the State Government. In order to make it work, a huge civil bureaucracy is needed, which in itself will eat away the funds allocated. Hence apart from minor benefits here and there, especially during failure of the rains, success of this venture is unlikely. True impact on rural economy and poverty reduction will be when the agriculture is made even more productive. Current production of 2.5 tons of grain from a hectare is high as compared to twenty years back. But it is low compared to US and European standards. A 50% improvement in this sector with better water management, improved seeds and other agricultural inputs will go a long way to change the face of rural India. With higher agricultural productivity, poverty in villages will be a thing of the past.
Targeted poverty reduction programs in urban areas with development of infrastructure like sanitary & waste management, housing, and urban renewal investment etc. have a significant poverty reduction component. Each of these provides meaningful employment together with cleaning up of the cities. These schemes are low on government priority. Hence poverty in urban areas will stick around for a little bit longer.
Conclusion
A figure of 350 to 400 million poverty stricken people in India is false. It is a figure on which Western media and vested political circles thrive. They only wish to foul mouth India’s achievements. The figure is half or even third of that. One point, which needs to be borne in mind is that when the country attains 8% a year growth, income redistribution must go hand in hand. Otherwise the benefits of the national growth to the poor are lost and inequalities become more apparent. Government schemes on poverty reduction other than infrastructure upgrade in rural and urban areas never work. In urban areas industrial activity is already providing significant employment. This in itself provides the biggest push to the poverty reduction. Governments have to help to upgrade the lot of poor with more employment, housing and slums clearance etc.
Guest Column by Hari Sud
Careers in India’s political systems have been made or lost on one slogan – Vanish Poverty (Garibi Hatao). This slogan has been the buzzword of the ruling political party, since 1950. The irony is that the slogan makers were, very poor economic managers. From 1950 to 1998, India could boast of one or two achievements only i.e. food self-sufficiency and a bit of improved services to the village folks. In contrast, India failed on every other front. Economy slugged at a low 3.5% growth rate and population multiplied from 400 million in 1947 to 950 million in 1998. These additional mouths have to be fed, housed and provided economic means to make a living. Without that, civil disorder will be, the order of the day. Lucky for India , the political party then in power took control in 1998 and decided to redress all the above grievances. First and foremost on their mind was to accelerate economic growth. This they began by making friends with US. The latter is the prime mover of all economic activities in the world. Also the new leaders had a model in front of them. The Chinese had befriended US twenty years earlier and had gained a tremendous economic advantage. India had to do the same. In addition the economy had to be opened up for foreign competition and investment. Once this was achieved over five years, economy accelerated to 8% growth. Then the primary task before new government(s) was to work hard to redress rich and poor imbalance. Gains on economic front have to be felt by the poor also. For this entrepreneurship has to be encouraged at all levels. Skill base of the private sector becomes very useful. To harness private sector energies, they have to be allowed to retain some of the gains of prosperity. It is they, not the governments, who will pass on the benefits to the less fortunate. Governments in their capacity as overall managers have to ensure that the poor get the benefits of economic gains.
Before we discuss rich-poor income gap, we have to understand it and then quantify poverty. This subject is the favorite of economists worldwide. Huge amount of literature and studies have been conducted and advice offered. Much of it is academic in nature. Some simple concepts on the subject are discussed below.
How has the Poverty Curve Moved in last 50 Years?
There are many ways to measure poverty. Western economists prefer GDP and per capita income as a measure. GDP of less developed countries suffer a currency conversion disadvantage hence another measure – Purchase Power Parity (PPP) has been coined to recalculate GDP. Then again, GDP does not show what segment of the society is poor. It is a measure of overall prosperity of the nation. Indian politicians have their own formula for measuring poverty. They define poverty as lack of three meals a day, enough clothing and shelter. This is hard to quantify and a measure still harder to compare your performance with others. Hence, the Western economic measurement technique has been adopted. One such measure is called GINI coefficient (Index). It measures economic inequality in a country, with zero implying perfect equality and 1 indicating perfect inequality. Wealthy nations with high standard of living in the West, should have a value close to Zero and poor countries have close to One (It is usual to multiply the coefficient by 100 to get a more manageable number). This index, more or less, measures income distribution in a country. In 2005, India had a GINI Index of 37.8, indicating significant inequalities in income distribution. If this index for India increases in next ten years then it means that India has done a miserable job in income re-distribution. Fortunately it is at about same level for a number of years. That means 8% economic growth has provided equal relief to the poor and also made a few more millionaires. The same index for Brazil is 60. The latter indicates that there is a huge income disparity in the country. This leads to one conclusion that if high economic growth is accompanied by high GINI index then poverty reduction via economic progress has been entirely lost. This is true about Brazil.
The above Index is not the best measure of poverty and income mal distribution. Consider this – relatively poor countries of Eastern Europe have a GINI index close 25, but US has an index of 45. That means, income in Eastern Europe (formerly Communist ruled) is well distributed and in US it is not so well distributed. Does it mean that, that poverty has vanished from Eastern Europe ? Not true. It only indicates that low income there is well distributed, with no high-income millionaires/billionaires. At 45, the GINI Index does not state well about US. It only indicates that there are very many billionaires in US. Looking at the prosperity in US and opportunities for everybody, this concept fails to clarify the discrepancy. Hence let us look at other means to study and quantify poverty.
A number of studies undertaken in the last 50 years have tried to explain income disparity in multiple segments of a society in almost all the countries. These concepts are again hard to follow just like the GINI index above. Interestingly, there is an Australian study, which simplifies this concept. It divides a nation e.g. India into five income groups. Then it plots these income groups against incomes. Superimposed on this chart are the Word Bank’s one dollar a day (extreme poverty in 1986 dollar value) and two dollars a day poverty lines. A graph for every ten years starting from 1970 is plotted. The resulting chart gives a little better understanding of poverty. The Chart below shows that in 1970 & 1980, about 40% of the total population in India was below the $1 level. But there is a dramatic shift by the time 1998 rolls in. This percentage decreases to about 20%.
Income Distribution – India
Reference: Australian Government, Treasury reports on Poverty, inequality and Distribution of Income in G20.
The above also shows a definite shift in the incomes towards higher numbers. In fact poverty reduction has made a definite progress in last 20 years. A similar graph for 2005 (unavailable) will show a movement to the right indicating smaller segment below the poverty line and a bigger size of the middle-income group. This fact is evident in India as the middle-income group is making its presence felt.
The same graph as above plotted from available data for China shows similar results. Note that statistics is not the best-kept science in China and available data for China for 1970 and 1980 is confusing. Still let us plot it and see, what it tells us.
Income Distribution - China
Chinese chart is very similar to India’s chart. One glaring difference is that the Chinese chart (1998) has much bigger inverted bell with a flat top, indicating that a big percentage of people have graduated from $1 and $2 a day income to higher income bracket in last 20 years. The forgoing is evident from all reports emanating from China. There is a large population base of 200-300 million on the East Coast, which has distinctly better life style than the rest. They have to thank the Foreign Direct Investments for it.
Hence, both China and India have made enormous progress against poverty. If extreme poverty as per World Bank (in 1986 dollars) is defined as $1 a day, then shift of the graph towards right and its flattening as seen in 1998 graph for both China and India is a good sign. It would appear that still about 15 to 20% of the population is below the poverty line in 1998. One wonders where do the skeptics in the Western media get their figure of 350-400 million people in India below the poverty line.
Changes in India with Economic Progress
These changes are evident as you pass through rural as well as urban India . Slums are cohabitated with high-rise buildings in the cities. Even slums have a significant population of well to do residents except that they have not moved out. Rural India, although still poor, is much better off today than any time in the past. Thatched roofs have given way to slate or cement roofs. One-room hovel residents are dwindling rapidly. Roads and transport has reached the remotest corner. Electricity and clean water, barring a few exceptions are almost everywhere. Schools and medical dispensaries are every 3 miles. Prior to that it was always 10 miles for a primary school and 30 miles for a hospital. All the forgoing is a social change achieved with economic progress. This author hails from a remotest village in Himachal Pradesh. All the forgoing is clearly visible as the author observed during his visit last January. Much of this social change has been induced with self-help. Governments have lent a hand, but government efforts are always slow and cumbersome. Hence people have forced the change on themselves.
Have the Government Poverty Reduction Schemes worked in the Past?
Too many schemes have been implemented to reduce poverty in the past 50 years. None have worked. Bulk of the money is lost in bad management and other significant portion is lost in the bureaucratic hassle. Only scheme, which seem to work in the rural areas is upgrading of the agriculture and general availability of education. Both have provided a stable environment for progress. The urban areas have not done very well. The slum population has multiplied and crime rate has increased. Slum dwellers even if they could afford better living are unable to move out because housing and other facilities are too expensive. Few poverty reduction schemes specifically tailored for the urban areas are successful. Newer of the new schemes – National Employment Guarantees Scheme has been initiated recently. It guarantees employment of 100 days for anybody willing to work, especially in the rural areas. As a matter of fact it was an act of Parliament, which created this scheme in 2005. Funding of this scheme is 75% Central Government and rest from the State Government. In order to make it work, a huge civil bureaucracy is needed, which in itself will eat away the funds allocated. Hence apart from minor benefits here and there, especially during failure of the rains, success of this venture is unlikely. True impact on rural economy and poverty reduction will be when the agriculture is made even more productive. Current production of 2.5 tons of grain from a hectare is high as compared to twenty years back. But it is low compared to US and European standards. A 50% improvement in this sector with better water management, improved seeds and other agricultural inputs will go a long way to change the face of rural India. With higher agricultural productivity, poverty in villages will be a thing of the past.
Targeted poverty reduction programs in urban areas with development of infrastructure like sanitary & waste management, housing, and urban renewal investment etc. have a significant poverty reduction component. Each of these provides meaningful employment together with cleaning up of the cities. These schemes are low on government priority. Hence poverty in urban areas will stick around for a little bit longer.
Conclusion
A figure of 350 to 400 million poverty stricken people in India is false. It is a figure on which Western media and vested political circles thrive. They only wish to foul mouth India’s achievements. The figure is half or even third of that. One point, which needs to be borne in mind is that when the country attains 8% a year growth, income redistribution must go hand in hand. Otherwise the benefits of the national growth to the poor are lost and inequalities become more apparent. Government schemes on poverty reduction other than infrastructure upgrade in rural and urban areas never work. In urban areas industrial activity is already providing significant employment. This in itself provides the biggest push to the poverty reduction. Governments have to help to upgrade the lot of poor with more employment, housing and slums clearance etc.
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