Home Minister's Useless Appeal To China

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is currently visiting China. He has sought cooperation in various sectors. Making an appeal to Chinese leaders, he said: 'China should extend cooperation in the struggle against terrorism. It is a global threat to counter, which there are need-concerted endeavors by all the nations of the world. We are faced with such political ideologies as smack of narrow loyalties.'

Support for Permanent UN Membership
The minister also said: 'China should extend support for permanent membership of the UN Security Council for India. The two countries should exhibit maturity in the resolution of various disputes including the complex boundary dispute. They are not rivals and the Indian military is not in competition with China on the modernization issue.'

In so far as China is concerned, viewing its role from the very beginning, it has been undermining India by keeping its interests uppermost. It replied to the 'Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai slogan through an invasion in 1962 and grabbing 60,000 sq mile territory of India. So far so, China recognizes Arunachal Pradesh as is part and expressed opposition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders visiting the Indian state. In Ladakh and Uttaranchal, the Chinese aircraft and helicopters have repeatedly violated the air border.

In 2009, the Chinese troops entered the Indian territory up to 1 km, and painted rocks there with red Chinese letter. They stopped the construction of a rural roadwork, which was in progress under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) project. Recently, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation toured the border area of Ladakh and it was learnt from the shepherds of that region that China is capturing the Indian territory inch by inch. It was the first visit of an Indian political party's delegation to that place.

Expressing protest over such a state of affairs, BJP President Nitin Gadkari said: "China occupied 147 spots within the Indian border during the current year and the government is concealing the fact. It is not taking any solid steps to retrieve these spots." In the Himalayan region, in the vicinity of the India border, China is building a road network and railway lines, establishing cantonments and constructing a dam on the river Brahmaputra, thereby preventing the water flow toward India. All this has greatly undermined India's security interests.

By flooding the Indian markets with its cheap and low quality products China is causing a huge damage to the Indian industries. So far so, its milk products and toys have been found extremely dangerous for health.

Communist China's Admission to United Nations
Whenever efforts are initiated for India's permanent membership in the UN Security Council, China and its camp follower Pakistan vehemently oppose it though China could get the UN Security Council membership by virtue of India's endeavors. The United States and other Western countries were opposed to the Communist China's admission to the United Nations.

China is bent upon undermining the Indian interest. A defense expert close to the Chinese troops had said in 2009 that China should adopt a strategy of disintegrating India. According to the US and Canadian analysts of the Toronto University, Chinese hackers have hacked classified documents of the Indian Defense Ministry and its missile defense system owing to which a threat has been posed to its defense mechanism.

Talking in terms pf the Chinese cooperation to counter terrorism is really astonishing. It is no secret that insurgents and rebels active in the northeastern sector of India are imparted training by China, besides receiving financial and arms support.

Inspiration for Maoists
The source of inspiration for Maoists that have become a big threat to India is none else than China and they invariably receive arms and training from China. China has also incited anti-Indian sentiments among Maoists active in Nepal. Not only that, China is a close friend of Pakistan, which is recognized as nursery of terrorism. It is China that supplied missile and nuclear know-how to Pakistan. A big seaport is being built by China at Gwadar in Balochistan for the Pakistan Navy.

In such circumstances, making an appeal to China for cooperation to counter terrorism is nothing but self-deception. Why will China extend cooperation to India against Pakistan and its own nurtured militants?

Pranab Mukherjee's General Budget

There are many a thing in the general budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on 26 February, as were expected by economists. At the same time, there are other areas where despite having taken harsh decisions, softness has been employed in the budget proposals.
There was a general opinion that the government may withdraw stimulus packages. Even the Economic Survey, 2009-10 had hinted at the same. Yet, avoiding withdrawal of the package immediately, there is a proposal to withdraw these packages gradually and slowly. This made the industrialist community heave a sigh of relief.

The economic survey portrays the growth rate for this fiscal year at 8.7 percent. Yet the finance minister, going far ahead of it, has thrown many encouraging hints maintaining that the achievement of 10 percent growth rate is not much beyond our reach. Even during the new fiscal year, the growth rate is expected to be at 9 percent. The budget proposes to enhance allocations for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Rajiv Awas Yojana, heavily. Continuance of one percent subsidy on the rate of interest for the home loans for yet another year carries good news for both homebuyers and the builders. It would certainly help the reality sector to come out of the grip of recession.

Education Sector
By allotting Rs.310.36 billion for school education, the government has taken a step toward reform in primary and secondary education providing free education. Yet, there is no hint whatever at reining in the institutions of higher learnings and private technical and training institutions which charge exorbitant fees. Reining in these institutions to bring down their fee structure is extremely necessary to enable the common man to aspire for high education.
By increasing the allocation by 75 percent for urban development it has been pegged Rs.54 billion. Though, a mention has been made to improve infrastructure in urban and rural sectors and a huge amount of Rs.1.735 trillion has been earmarked yet, the government appears to be inclined more toward urban development. The government has stressed the need of paying attention to public expenditure and providing resources yet, there is no mention whatsoever of any concrete measure for the same.

Step Toward Privatization
The announcement of earning Rs.250 billion through disinvestments, is yet another step toward privatization. Yet, one wonders how the government would deal with issues like employment of those working in this sector and other issues. Empirically speaking, earlier experience of the government in this regard has not been much successful. Yet the decision to provide services to the economically weaker sections of the society is an appropriate one.
It is only for conjecture how far would the initiatives taken toward power and energy sector be successful and effective, because despite best efforts of the government in this sector, there has been no worthwhile improvement and the progress has been rather slow. The finance minister also made a mention of initiation of measures to check inflation and price rise. Yet, until concrete results of such announcement are visible, it is difficult to appreciate them.

Revamping of Income Tax Slabs
The most significant and entirely unexpected decision in the budget is the revamping of income tax slabs, which aims at providing relief to the middle class. Under the new slab, structure, those earning up to Rs.500,000 a year would pay income tax at the rate of 10 percent, earlier it was 20 percent. The decision would provide relief to 60 percent of taxpayers. However, the common man has been further burdened by the increases in the prices of diesel and petrol.

It would have its impact on public transport and freight section. This would nullify the measures the government's efforts in chocking price rise and may further escalate prices of essential commodities and consumer goods. It was however, already expected by the people. On the whole, the budget proposals, if not laudable, contain some good decisions, which were not being expected of the government.

Highlights of Budget

* Taxes on big cars and SUVs increased 2 percent to 22 percent
* Basic duty of 5percent on crude oil restored
* Tax on cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco up
* Rs 26,000 crore revenue loss due to cut in direct taxes
* Partial roll back of reduction in central excise duty
* IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified
* Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore
* Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11; 1 percent improvement over 2009-10
* 46 percent of plan allocations in 2010-11 will be for infra
* Implementation of direct tax code from April 2011
* FDI flows in April-Dec 2009 $20.9 billion
* National Social Security Fund created for workers in unorganized sector
* National Clean Energy Fund to be established
* Exclusive skill development program for textile sector
* Banking facilities to be provided to all habitations with a population of 2,000 and more
* New fertilizer policy from April 2010
* Toy balloons, water filters, refrigerators, mobile equipment, set top boxes, CDs cheaper

Food Guarantee in India

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government is reportedly considering enacting a legislation that guarantees to provide food for all. Recently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the meeting of the empowered group of ministers to draft such a bill on national food security.
It is, however, not certain whether the proposed bill would be ready by the time the Parliamentary budget session commences, and what would be the provisions of the bill, who would be brought under its sphere, and whether it would be confined to people Below Poverty Line (BPL) or others would also be included?

Government's Initiatives
Whatever be it, the proposal can safely be termed a historic initiative of the UPA Government. A system that guarantees food can safely be termed an oasis in the vast expanse of a dessert at a time when the common man is groaning under the heavy yoke of sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities with food articles like wheat, pulses, and rice getting out of reach of the common man. Food security implies no one would die of hunger and starvation. It is, indeed, no easy task to give guarantee of providing food through enactment of legislation. Had it been an easy task, the UPA Government would have enacted and implemented the law even during last year, when President Pratibha Patil had referred to food security in her address to Parliament.
In fact, this is a very difficult, complex issue that also requires huge amount of money. If the report submitted by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee were accepted to be true, 38 percent of the country's populace falls in the category of living BPL. If the government drafts its budget in line with the report, it would need an estimated expenditure of Rs.450 billion. Further, the estimates of states are different than those of the committee. Various state governments maintain that the number of those living BPL is four to five times higher than the centrally projected figures. In such a scenario, the estimated expenditure may cross Rs.650 billion. Further, fixing the quantity of food grain and their price, and ensuring that no eligible person gets left out of its purview would be no less a horrendous task.

Legislation on Food Security
There are a large number of people in the country who continue to be deprived of ration cards even to this day. To get ration card issued, one needs a proper address where one lives, but there are thousands of homeless people. This raises the question of taking the scheme to cover homeless people. It is a complex issue indeed, without addressing which even the proposed legislation on food security may fail in its objective. There is, therefore, the need that the central and state governments together find a solution to the issue.
It has been noticed that state governments, at times, inflate the figures of those living BPL with a view to getting higher federal aid, and these governments do not usually substantiate their claim with concrete proof. Consequently, even during this era of science and technology, figures of BPL families continue to be disputed, and the targeted population for welfare of which the scheme was formulated suffers. Similarly, state governments would desire that while implementing the Food Security Act, it should remain outside the purview of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes, and no scheme under NREGA be amalgamated with the proposed Food Security Act.

Price Hike of Essential Commodities
The UPA Government's decision to enact legislation on food security needs to be welcomed. It would be the second major and historic achievement of the UPA Government, after the Right To Education Act. It can be taken as a glimmer of hope for these poverty ridden people who find it difficult to get a square meal a day at a time when spiraling price hike of essential commodities has broken the back of the common man.
It is, perhaps, because of this that various political parties have impressed the need to enact such legislation as soon as possible. Yet, it would have gone a long way to provide succor to people had the bill been drafted before the Parliamentary budget session, due soon.

Failure To Reform Administration Dents Government Credibility

Addressing the first annual meeting of chief secretaries, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh referred to the anger of the common man at the extreme indifference, lethargy, and corruption of the government machinery. His evaluation of the general mood pervading the country was, of course, correct. However, it is equally true that problems cannot be avoided by merely admitting them. Had confession of shortcomings been enough the purpose would have been served much earlier.

Warning to Bureaucrats
Complaints on corruption in administration have been raised for years. It has also been pointed out that hardly 5 percent or 10 percent of the total allocation was being spent correctly. If the prime minister is under the impression that a warning to the bureaucrats is all that is required, he is only day dreaming, since this too is an old practice.
Strangely enough, he has confessed that the administration has become quite complicated in the present situation. Yet, he has refrained from taking any steps to make its functioning smooth.

Recommendations of Second ARC
The country would like to know why recommendations of the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) are not being implemented? They should have actually been introduced in the first term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It is very difficult to predict in the present conditions whether this will be done during its present term. It is both frustrating as well as disconcerting that the work, which should have been taken up on a priority basis, now seems to have been excluded from the agenda.
What is even more tragic is that an effort is being made to solve the problems by giving advice. Are our bureaucrats so naive that they will be aware of their obligations on listening to such advice? It is a waste of time and money to summon senior officials in the states, now and then, to Delhi in order to counsel them on improved methods of functioning and on meeting public expectations. If the federal government fails to realize even now that the situation cannot be improved in this way it is rather unfortunate for the country.

Government's Style of Functioning
On 1 February, the prime minister confessed before the chief secretaries that the masses were getting restless with the speed at which results are declared. On 2 February, he referred to the shortcomings that still remain in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at a function organized on the completion of four years of this scheme. If the most important project of the federal government suffers from lapses can it be said with certainty that everything is satisfactory at least in some field?
The weaknesses of bureaucrats cannot, of course, be removed overnight. But if necessary steps are not taken in this direction, what can be deduced from such reluctance? At a time when it is necessary to change the government's style of functioning drastically, failure to take even ordinary measures prove that the government is itself not determined to reform the administration. Due to this lack of resolve, the UPA government has so far failed to create any impression during its second tenure.

Soaring Unemployment

Unemployment is enforced idleness of the workforce, which are able and willing to work but cannot find jobs. In societies in which most of the people can earn a living only by working for others, being unable to find a job is a serious problem. Because of its human costs in deprivation and a feeling of rejection and personal failure, the extent of unemployment is widely used as a measure of workers’ welfare. The proportion of workers unemployed also shows how well a country’s human resources are used and serves as an index of economic activity.

ILO Report
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on April 2, 2009 forecast that global un- employment could increase by more than five crore in 2009 unless policies are implemented which balance social and economic dimensions. The global turmoil has also made casual workers four times more vulnerable in the job market than regular workers, the ILO report stated. However, the trend can be reversed if the world acts together and implements policies which balance social and economic dimensions. There should be convergence of policies to maintain and create jobs, get credit flown into enterprises, expand and deepen social protection and promote social dialogue to ensure workers rights are respected. ILO has clearly stated that the current crisis has its root in the past. The economy was not creating enough descent work and the inequalities within and between countries were widening, she said referring to a study. The role of markets was over valued, the role of state was undervalued and dignity of work devalued. In other words there was already a crisis before the current financial crisis. Therefore, ILO has forecast that unless policies are implemented that balance social and economic dimensions, global unemployment could increase by more than 50 million in 2009 from 2007.

Indian Scenario
India though showed more resilience during these hard times as it was partially inte- grated into the world market. Nonetheless, the export oriented industry and manufacturing sector saw significant job losses. A reduced demand and limited access to credit has also put pressure on micro and medium enterprises.

According to the Labour Ministry report, the country has witnessed more than five lakh
job losses between October 2008 and January 2009. Even as the Centre continues to maintain officially that only about half a million jobs were cut in reaction to the economic downturn since September 2008 and sections of the government continue to assert that jobs recruitments would resume by mid 2009-10, the ILO has taken a diametrically opposite view on a recession/downturn-led job crisis in 2010, dubbing it a prolonged and severe one. This follows recent projections by ILO study that projected that nearly 90 million net new jobs would be needed over 2009-10 to absorb new entrants in the labour market and to avoid a prolonged jobs gap. In earlier financial crises, the labour market recovered only four to five years after the economic recovery. The ILO survey also found that the stimulus packages lean heavily toward financial bailouts and tax cuts instead of job creation and social protection and noted that on average, fiscal stimulus packages for the real economy are five times smaller than financial bailout packages.

11th Five-Year Plan Target
Laying strong emphasis on education, the 11th Five-Year Plan has set a target of reducing drop out rates of children to 20 per cent to 2011-12. During 2003-04, the rate was 52.2 per cent. The Plan further lays emphasis to develop minimum standards of educational attainment in elementary school, and by regular testing monitor effectiveness of education to ensure quality.

However, the 11th Five-Year Plan does not make employment a central objective of the policy, though it speaks of generating it as a corollary of the growth process. In this connection, it would be relevant to heed the advice given by the Human Development Report, which states that a clear political commitment to full employment is the essential condition for development.

Government’s Initiatives
The Government has taken a number of initiatives to provide employment and alleviate under-employment. Some of them include Rural Works Programme; Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Scheme; Small Farmers Development Agencies Scheme; Agro-Service Centres; Area Development Schemes; Cash Programme for Rural Employment; National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; Integrated Rural Development Programme; Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme; Jawahar Rozgar Yojana; Jawahar Gram Smridhi Yojana; Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana; Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, etc.

The structure of employment may be studied by recognising the following characteristics—(i) Distinction between organised and unorganised sector; and (ii) the relative share of self-employment, regular salaried employment and casual labour. It would be of interest for oneself to examine the structure from these two points of view.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
The Union Government had the extended the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees 100 days of wage employment to rural households, to all districts in the country. Since April 1, 2008 the scheme has been covering the remaining 265 districts from. With an initial allocation of Rs. 11,500 crore, the scheme was started in Feb. 2006 in 200 most backward districts having high Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) population.

The Measures
The various Government schemes for employment generation, especially in rural areas, are not bearing fruit because the benefits earmarked for such areas are not reaching the target groups. The following measures can be adopted to improve the working of the various schemes initiated by the Government:
(i) The bureaucratic set-up and red tapism involved in the implementation of these schemes must be reduced to barest minimum. It should not cover more than five per cent of the total allocation for a particular scheme if the benefits intended are to percolate down to the people in rural areas.

(ii) The role of middlemen at the regional, zonal or village level must be done away with simply because of the fact that such middlemen often take all the benefits of employment generation schemes for themselves on for their kinsmen, leaving the really needy people high and dry.

(iii) Realistic schemes in a given set-up in a specified rural area must be formulated to cater to their immediate requirements. Most Government-sponsored schemes do not take this factor into consideration. As a result, they do not bear any fruit.

Unemployment, which is a matter of concern for the Goverment, problem need to be solved at a war level. For a developing country like India, this menace needs an immediate attention. Though the Government has taken many indirect steps yet a few direct steps are required in both the rural as well as urban areas to alleviate unemployment from the country.