SPECIAL: how not to select vinod rais successor p.

34

April 16-30, 2013 | Vol. 04 Issue 06 | ` 30

R N I No. U PE N G/ 2010/ 33794 | PRN: UP/GBD-150/2012-14
ww w.gove rna nce no w. co m

murdochs
in the
making p.16

A blueprint to Rajnaths team of Working of

evaluate digital unknowns adds information
governance numbers, not commission: An
value insiders account
p.62 p.05 p.20
 contents
Founders Team
Gautam Adhikari
Markand Adhikari
Anurag Batra

Editor
B V Rao
bvrao@governancenow.com
Managing Editor 34 How not to pick Vinod
Ajay Singh Rais successor
ajay@governancenow.com
Deputy Editors
Prasanna Mohanty, Ashish Mehta

Contributing Editors
Rohit Bansal, Kajal Basu, Bhavdeep Kang,
Alam Srinivas, Dr R Swaminathan, Imran
Qureshi, Kumar Deep Banerjee
Senior Editors
Akash Deep Ashok, Shantanu Datta

Special Correspondents
Brajesh Kumar, Trithesh Nandan
Principal Correspondents
Geetanjali Minhas, Jasleen Kaur,
Pratap Vikram Singh, Pankaj Kumar 32 India does not have
Copy Desk robust oil and gas
Adity Srivastava (Chief Sub-Editor) infrastructure
Sarthak Ray
Correspondents
Shivangi Narayan, Puja Bhattacharjee,
Srishti Pandey, Ankita Lahiri
Design
Parveen Kumar, Noor Mohammad
Photographer
Arun Kumar
16 INDIAS MURDOCH WILL LOOK LIKE THEM!
The recent embrace of the Ambani brothers has raised
General Manager (Sales) the spectre of a media empire that will eclipse everything
Debabrata Ray
debabrata@governancenow.com else. A peek into the not-so-distant future
Manager (Sales) 05 Rajnaths team of unknowns adds numbers, not value
Arpan Das Gupta
arpan@governancenow.com New office-bearers in Team BJP seem to have been 64 Unless we use data,
Circulation & Distribution Head
selected not for their intrinsic worth but for their there is no open
Rajshekhar Chakrabarty potential to keep camp fights under wraps government
rajshekhar@governancenow.com
Phone: 9873739266 20 RTI? You are in queue!
Senior Executive, Distribution A former information commissioner looks back in
Md. Neyaz horror on how casual information commissioners
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Santosh Gupta (Manager)
Alok Mishra (Website Developer)
38 Budgeting for (and by) dummies
Manager HR Is Amit Mitra the worst finance minister in West
Monika Sharma
Bengals troubled economic history?
Design consultants
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www.GovernanceNow.com 3
LETTERS
Is ICDS a centre for huddling kids or for their growth?
I must congratulate Governance Now for
bringing out the Other India development
stories [concluding with the cover story of
the April 1-15 issue]. The other India is the
Real India and these stories really capture
the impact of our development programmes
right on our people who are supposed to
get the benefits. Another Other India story,
ICDS: No Childs Play by Puja Bhattacha-
rjee [March 16-31 issue], on how the ICDS
[integrated child development services] in
Salboni in West Midnapur district of West
Bengal is a sad tale of how our child devel-
opment programmes are managed by our
state-level leaders, bureaucrats and ground-
level functionaries.
The ICDS programme is almost three
decades old and the problems faced by
anganwadis in Salboni like dirty space
for kids to play, inappropriate nutritional
food, untrained anganwadi worker, lack of
parents interest in dropping their kids in
the age group of 3-6 for early childhood
care and education are almost same
across the country.
But Pujas coverage has not included how
the kids nutritional gains have taken place
despite the supplementary foods provided.
How do you measure nutritional gains?
Weight gain is the best indicator. Three
decades ago UNICEF in India provided
portable weighing scales so that the child
Appointment at NHRC
This refers to media reports indicating that the
union government was moving ahead with its
majority say in appointing former national in-
vestigation agency (NIA) chief Sharad Chandra
Sinha as a member of the national human
rights commission (NHRC) despite stiff resis-
tance by the leaders of opposition in the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha who also happen to
be members of the high-profile body selecting
NHRC members. It seems to be a repeat of
an earlier episode in which the union govern-
ment had to face a showdown on its majority
dictate on appointing controversial PJ Thomas
as chief vigilance commissioner which was
subsequently quashed by the supreme court.
If appointments to such bodies requiring en-
dorsement by a selection committee also com-
prising of the leaders of opposition are to be
done through majority say of the union gov-
4 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
weight gain can be seen not just by the
anganwadi worker but also by the parents
who come to drop the kids in the angan-
wadi centre. If the child has gained weight
then the parents feel great. This is how the
anganwadi worker should get the parents
involved. Parental involvement is most cru-
cial for the childs early stage development.
Puja could have interviewed some parents
to understand how the parents view the
early childhood care of their child.
ernment, it is senseless to have the formality
of the leaders of opposition in such selection
bodies. There should be all sincere efforts to
make all such appointments with consent of
the leaders of opposition rather than crushing
their say through a majority vote in the selec-
tion committees.
The NHRC Act should also be amended with a
provision enabling a retired judge of supreme
court to be made the chairperson of NHRC
rather than only a retired chief justice of India,
for a wide-ranging choice. The important post
remained vacant for long because one of the
two available retired chief justices of India, RC
Lahoti, declined the post, while the other, YK
Sabharwal, was not considered fit for the post
by the union government because of adverse
reports against him. Even the appointment of
the current incumbent, KG Balakrishnan, is un-
ethical because it was he himself who in his
Another important issue of these ICDS
centres across the country is the retention
of the kid from 3-6 age group in the angan-
wadi and then enrolling the 6+ child in the
nearest primary school so that both early
childhood education/learning helps a great
deal for that child in the primary school.
If there are 50 kids in Salboni anganwadi
centres we want to know how many have
been enrolled in the primary school nearby.
We have seen that kids who are enrolled
from the anganwadis in the primary school
do well in their primary schools also be-
cause of their early childhood learning in
the anganwadi centres.
The only visible things in the aangwan-
wadis are the lack of buildings, as noted
by Puja, and bad sanitation facilities. In
many anganwadis the workers lock up the
toilets because they feel that kids make
them dirty! This is precisely the reason why
sanitation habits are to be taught to the
kids in the early stage how to keep the
toilets clean, how to wash the hands with
soap etc and how to keep away loose mo-
tion affecting the kids. I hope more Other
India stories bring out exciting news in the
days to come.
Manu N Kulkarni
Bangalore
capacity as chief justice of India ordered
a time-bound posting for which he could
be the only available choice!
Madhu Agrawal
Delhi
Write to Governance Now
We invite your suggestions, reactions to
the stories and analyses and, of course,
your own take on all matters related to
governance. You can email or send snail
mail. All letters must accompany your
postal address.
feedback@governancenow.com
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 opening

account

Rajnaths team of unknowns

adds numbers, not value
New office-bearers in Team BJP seem to have been selected not for their
intrinsic worth but for their potential to keep camp fights under wraps

Ajay Singh doubled the strength of general secretaries in his team. Ram
Lal is the general secretary (organisation), a post held by
Thakre in Advanis time. Unlike Thakre, Ram Lal is known
for all the wrong reasons among the BJP cadre, particularly
those from western UP. Leave aside Ram Lal, have you heard
of Thawarchand Gehlot or Tapir Gao? The new incumbents
like Varun Gandhi and Amit Shah are classic cases of infamy
getting legitimised in public life. Rajiv Pratap Rudy is hardly

C
a force in his own home state, Bihar, where he lost successive
hristophe Jaffrelots scholarly work on the rise of elections, while Ananth Kumar represents a faction from the
Hindu nationalism deals extensively with the role Karnataka BJP.
Kushabhau Thakre played in building up the or- Rajnath Singh seems to have cobbled together a team with
ganization from scratch, for the BJP as well as its members selected primarily to appease factional groups
predecessor, Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS), in Madhya Pradesh. within the Sangh parivar. Their roles remain undefined and
Thakre thus was a figure more revered than Atal Bihari they repose loyalty to their chieftains in the faction-ridden
Vajpayee and LK Advani for BJP saffron fold. There is no deny-
workers in the state. Arun kumar
ing the fact that unlike Vajpayee
In Advanis team, he served as and Advani, Rajnath Singh has
general secretary (organisation) neither stature nor charisma to
and was elevated to the post of make office-bearers fall in line.
BJP president in 1999. As an RSS At the moment there is hardly
pracharak loaned to the BJS, a defined political goal before
Thakre emerged as the fulcrum the party other than to keep
around which the BJPs organisa- afloat and retain its base. This
tional structure used to revolve. is precisely what explains the
But Advanis team had four other induction of Uma Bharti and
dynamic general secretaries Prabhat Jha as vice-presidents
KN Govindacharya, M Venkaiah in the BJPs national team.
Naidu, Pramod Mahajan and Members of Singhs team seem
Sushma Swarajand the roles to have been chosen not for
allocated to them were unam- their intrinsic worth but for
biguously defined. their potential to keep factional
If Mahajan was a fundraiser feuds under wraps.
and strategist, Govindacharya Of course, there were indica-
was the interface with the media tions that Rajnath Singhs task
to put across the BJPs socialist and amiable face in the idi- of choosing the team was made all the more difficult by am-
oms of Hindutva. Swaraj represented the face of the woman- bitious satraps within the parivar. The RSS has lost its moral
next-door with a unique gift of the gab, while Venkaiah Nai- authority and is divided in various camps to pursue their
du was allowed to experiment in a domain till then known as different political goals. For instance, Suresh Soni, the RSS
infertile ground for Hindutva: south India. joint general secretary, has managed to induct his own set of
This was by far the most cohesive and winning team of protgs in the team.
general secretaries cohered by Advani with the full support But, by and large, a team largely comprising acolytes and
of the RSS. The team delivered results not only in 1996 (albeit social climbers can hardly be called a winning team. n
for only 13 days), but also in 1998 and 1999.
Nearly 15 years later, BJP president Rajnath Singh has ajay@governancenow.com
people politics policy performance
Back to School
Jasleen Kaur
A class of its own
good thing about the right
to education (RTE) act is that
poor parents too can send
their children to much-sought-
after upscale schools. But the
downside is that good intentions apart, it
usually leaves both sides unhappy: chil-
dren from poor families face cultural dis-
crimination and schools complain of eco-
nomic burden with the 25-percent quota.
Thankfully, six-year-old Gulshan and his
Vidya School in Gurgaon have not faced
this downside. The school, exclusively for
children from economically weaker sec-
tion (EWS) families, offers quality educa-
tion in English medium and charges a to-
ken fee of `200 per month.
The son of a daily-wager electrician who
earns around `5,000 a month, Gulshan
would have been forced to enroll in a
government-run school. But teachers
dont pay much attention to children in
government schools. In our colony, many
children have dropped out, says his
mother, Rita. I wanted my son to study
in a private school (through 25% EWS
quota under RTE) but I was told that chil-
dren face a lot of discrimination. Here (in
Vidya School) every child has a similar
background and they also get quality edu-
cation. She is especially happy to see her
son learn English.
The school, spread over 5 acres with
over 70,000 square feet of covered area,
has 530 children from nursery to class X.
The schools origins date back to 1985
when its founder, Rashmi Misra, opened
a small learning centre at her home on
the IIT-Delhi campus (where her hus-
band, Ashok Misra, was a professor) to
educate five young girls whose parents
couldnt afford schooling. Later, others
joined and helped her expand the centre,
then registered as an NGO.
In early 2000, it started operating as
an afternoon literacy programme. From
2002 to 2009, Misra operated the literacy
programme from the premises of three
schools Happy School, Sriram School
and Pallavan School in Gurgaon and
taught children for three to four hours
every day.
After the construction of the school
building in DLF Phase-3 in Gurgaon
in 2009, a formal school, following the
6 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
A school in a
Vidya School in Gurgaon provides quality education
to children from poor families. The fee is token, the
gesture is not
central board of secondary education
(CBSE) curriculum, was started in 2010.
While the school is yet to get the boards
recognition more than 11,000 children
from the poor communities of Delhi and
Gurgaon have been educated through
various stages of Vidya.
Initially, Vidya provided free educa-
tion but later it started charging a token
amount. We felt that people do not re-
gard something that comes free of cost.
But those who cannot afford, we do not
charge them, says Meenakshi Roy, prin-
cipal of Vidya.
The school has a capacity of teaching
1,000 children. Roy explains: It is not
aided by the government and is totally
fund-driven. Thus, it is a huge challenge
The school is not aided by
the government and is totally
fund driven. Thus it is a huge
challenge to keep it going.
We admit students as we
receive funds.
Meenakshi Roy, principal of Vidya School
to keep it going. We admit students as we
receive funds.
The school has been specially supported
by a US-based couple, Natalie and Wil-
liam Comfort. Other sponsors include GE,
KPMG and the Bajaj group.
The school is built on land taken on
lease and runs on an annual budget of
`1.5 crore. Its expenditure per child is
`49,000, which includes salaries of teach-
ers and the staff and food, with a major
portion going toward paying the lease.
The school also provides fruits in break-
fast and nutritious midday meals to stu-
dents. Moreover, books, stationery and
uniforms are provided at subsidised rates.
Children are admitted after a rigorous
periodic survey and selection process. Ac-
cording to Roy, the admission criteria are
that the familys monthly income should
not be more than `10,000 and it should
not have a house of its own. Children
come to the school from areas of Chakkar-
pur, Sikanderpur, MG Road, Golf Course
road and sector 56 of Gurgaon.
Today, the school has two sections of the
nursery and class I and one section each
of other classes up to class X. It has a girl
-boy ratio of 60:40.
Six classrooms have digital boards, and
students there are taught using an audio-
video learning method. Two of the boards
are used in primary classes and the other
four used to teach science subjects in se-
nior classes.
The visual method of learning is very
important for children because they have
limited exposure of the world, Raji Nam-
bissan, the school headmistress, says.
They cannot perceive or imagine many
of the things mentioned in the classroom.
The school has computer and science
 photos: arun kumar

Children at Vidya school learn through inno-

vative methods and yet do not get disciminat-
ed against, as many students admitted on the
EWS quota feel in high-profile institutions.

laboratories, a mathematics lab, sports

training and assisted homework facilities.
Children get one period in the school
to finish their homework with assistance
from teachers. Most children studying
here are first-generation learners and we
cannot depend on parents (to help them
in studies), Nambissan says. These chil-
dren are willing to learn and we do not
want them to miss this opportunity.
Many children studying here, in fact,
help their parents in their work after
school hours and thus do not get time to
study at home. Also, most of them typi-
cally live in one-room quarters and face
difficulty in studying at home.
Raji, who used to teach at Scottish High
International School in Gurgaon, joined
Vidya in April 2010 and teaches Chemis-
try and Biology in classes IX and X. She
says Vidya Schools concept is different
from other institutions: Many organisa-
tion run literacy programmes for children
coming from EWS families. But those pro-
grammes do not lead them anywhere.
This school gives them the right kind of
education Vidya educates them in a
way that they see change happening.
Last year, the first batch of students from
Vidya got admission in a government
school. Till now these children appeared
for the class X board examination through
the National Institute of Open Schooling.
Elite schools were reluctant to admit
children from EWS because of cultural dif-
ferences. Besides, education is a business
for them. But there is nothing like that in
Vidya. The government should support in-
stitutions like these, says Raji. n

jasleen@governancenow.com

www.GovernanceNow.com 7
 Mind
On The
Margin
Anil Gupta
W
hen economic indicators are
not very promising, one thing
which can bring cheers to
everybodys life is an entrepreneurial ac-
tivity in social, cultural, educational and
technological fields. These mavericks will
bring about a new hope and generate
a new space for creativity to manifest,
connections to be forged and empathy to
pervade across sectors, spaces and social
segments.
If this is the question I have to ask my-
self, then I expect a political consensus
to emerge around certain key strategies.
And that is possible only through bipar-
tisan approach, taking nation-building
as a common goal. Political parties may
not agree on a common agenda for most
things but there could be areas on which
consensus can be built. Innovation-based
entrepreneurship development can be
one such area.
What do we need to do to promote
entrepreneurship?
[A] Five steps involving a very difficult
and risky journey of an innovator/entre-
preneur are: (1) idea to proof-of-concept,
(2) proof-of-concept to prototype, (3)
prototype to product, (4) product to util-
ity, and (5) proof of market, and develop-
ment of supply chain, certification, test-
ing, branding, etc. More than 90 percent
ideas are aborted before the final stage
for want of support. The country badly
needs a nurturant ecosystem for each
of these stages of innovations. I am not
sure if the `200 crore innovation fund
announced by finance minister P Chid-
ambaram in the budget will be used for
such risky steps in value chain or only
for scaling up the solutions which have
survived in the market. But regardless of
this, parliament should seriously discuss
the health of an ecosystem for these
8 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
Nurturing the
entrepreneurial spirit
Innovators need hand-holding through the whole
cycle, from idea to market
stages. If we dont sustain the spirit of
creative people during these stages, the
long-term growth will not get a boost.
[B] We should realise that not all innova-
tions need to be diffused through market
channels. Some need social channels. Dif-
ferent ventures need different scaling-up
strategies. Social diffusion of an eye-test-
ing or haemoglobin or iron-testing facility
for villages may not diffuse only through
market channels. One of the innovators
honoured with the Anjani Mashelkar
award for the innovation for the elderly
Budgeting for innovation
Five steps in the risky journey of
an innovator are: (1) idea to proof-
of-concept, (2) proof-of-concept to
prototype, (3) prototype to product,
(4) product to utility, and (5) proof
of market, and development of
supply chain, certification, testing,
branding, etc. More than 90 percent
ideas are aborted before the final
stage for want of support. I am not
sure if the `200 crore innovation
fund announced by finance minister
P Chidambaram will be used for
such risky steps in value chain or
only for scaling up the solutions
which have survived in the market.
has developed a `5,000 solution for test-
ing iron deficiency among people in a few
seconds. Every primary health centre and
school should have this device.
Will the public procurement policy
ever encourage such innovations? Will
market ever take such facilities to the
poorest people? When have we spent
time to take an annual roll-call of all such
technologies and institutional models of
importance for common people and then
audit all polices from the perspective of
scaling these? Never. The national in-
novation council has not spent even ten
minutes on this issue so far. Hope things
will change some day.
[C] Should scale be made an enemy of
sustainability? Not every innovation
can and should diffuse widely. Entire
agro-biodiversity would have been lost
by now if such was the case. If Dhimaji
district of Assam has high iron content
in water which does not get completely
removed even with the best local tech-
nology, will we develop water filters for
possible diffusion only in one or a few
such districts? What is the incentive
given to private actors to invest in prod-
ucts which will have limited diffusion?
Should such needs be neglected? Will
this not lead to the birth of more ULFAs?
Incidentally, the leadership of that insur-
gent organisation mainly came up from
this region. We can neglect such localised
needs at our own peril. The project of
keeping the country together will not be
fulfilled if we continue to neglect such
needs. I can list a hundred other similar
localised problems which are not getting
attention of the formal R&D system and
we will not encourage local innovations
either in those areas.
[D] We need to de-emphasise the ex situ
model of incubating entrepreneurship
and encourage the in situ model that we
evolved at GIAN and National Innovation
Foundation. In most cases, budding en-
trepreneurs cannot leave their families
and location to stay in an incubator. Oc-
casional meetings are fine but sustained
long-term stay in incubators is not pos-
sible for many entrepreneurs. We need
to nurture the start-ups where they are.
I hope that we will gather the courage
to converge and make budding innova-
tors and entrepreneurs feel wanted and
nurtured in the country. If innovators
and entrepreneurs are not happy, future
is bleak. Let us turn the leaf for once and
show that India can develop an inclusive
and assimilative model of development. n
Gupta is a professor at IIM Ahmedabad.
 people politics policy performance Photo: Swapna Majumdar/WFS

At Knifepoint

Healthcare,
Swapna Majumdar

C
onsider this chilling

unhealthy
statistic: In the last two
years, in various states
of India, more than

practices
30,000 women were re-
ported to have under-
gone hysterectomies.
In 2011, 16,000 women
opted for hysterectomies in Bihar;
doctors performed about 7,000 uterus
removal surgeries over a period of 30
With an eye on health insurance money,
months in Chhattisgarh, while a total of
11,000 such procedures were done over a
unscrupulous doctors are forcing
period of two years in Andhra Pradesh.
Not only is this sudden rise in hyster-
hysterectomies on unsuspecting patients
ectomies deeply worrying, even more
serious is the fact that 80 percent of the
women who underwent them were be-
tween the ages of 20 and 40 years. Health
activists contend that rural women living
below the poverty line (BPL) are being
advised to go under the knife to avail of
their health insurance money provided
under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima
Yojna (RSBY), the union governments
premier insurance scheme that pro-
vides health coverage to underprivileged
families.
According to reports, in Bihars Samas-
tipur district alone, 14,851 BPL women
were admitted to 16 private hospitals in
the past one year to avail the benefits
under the RSBY. In Chhattisgarh, private
nursing homes billed the state govern-
ment `2 crore under the scheme for con-
ducting hysterectomies of 1,800 women
over a period of eight months last year.
In Andhra Pradesh, under the Aarogyasri
scheme, the state health insurance plan,
a sum of `2.9 crore was paid for 656 sur-
geries carried out in 2009-10.
According to Sulakshana Nandi of the
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a collective of can cost up to `60,000 an amount that Dr SV Kameswari, who has been campaigning
over a thousand NGOs are working on was reimbursed under the states Aarog- against unnecessary hysterectomies in the
health rights. The RSBY and similar yasri scheme. state, says that lack of awareness among
health insurance schemes are incentiv- Nandi, who has done four studies women and the power of medical practitio-
ising unethical practices leading to the assessing the implementation of the ners to influence their decision led to the
large number of irrational and unneces- RSBY in Chhattisgarh, points out that spate of unnecessary hysterectomies.
sary surgeries, Nandi says. private hospitals were cherry-picking
Heres why health activists are con- the patients they wanted to treat. Doc- to a caesarean section. It is ironic and
cerned. Under the RSBY, cashless insur- tors chose patients who needed high- scary that a woman can, in some sense,
ance of `30,000 is given yearly to a BPL end surgeries that are more expensive have easier access to hysterectomy than
family and a doctor can charge a hefty and, therefore, more profitable. For simple treatment for her problems at
`12,500 for a hysterectomy. In Andhra example, a hysterectomy is considered an early stage of any uterine infection
Pradesh, for instance, a hysterectomy a more profitable surgery compared because of RSBY and other insurance

10 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013

schemes, she contends.
In Andhra Pradesh, aarogyamitras, or
health helpers, are appointed by private
hospitals to scout around for patients
who can be enticed to get operated upon
in private hospitals, reveals N Purendra
Prasad of the department of sociology at
Hyderabad university. Prasad, along with
research scholar P Raghavendra, found
that a spurt in unnecessary surgeries
had been reported after Aarogyasri was
launched. For instance, in district Wa-
rangals 13 private and five government
hospitals, 38,090 cases, of which 3,346
operations related to hysterectomy, were
reported from August 1, 2008 to August
21, 2010. As there was scope for quick
money to be made in surgeries, private
hospitals used registered medical practi-
tioners (RMPs) to refer poor women with
gynaecological problems as hysterec-
tomy cases.
Unfortunately, it is the women who are
ultimately paying a very heavy price.
When Rajamma of Kannaram village in
Andhra Pradeshs Medak district went
to the doctor complaining of pain in her
lower abdomen, she was wheeled in for
a hysterectomy. All she was told was
that this would help relieve her pain.
Rajamma was just 20.
But it was not just Rajamma who went
under the knife. Almost all the women
in Kannaram village had undergone
hysterectomy for routine complaints
like abdominal pain or white discharge.
This was revealed by the Centre for
Action, Research and Peoples Develop-
ment (CARPED), a Hyderabad-based
NGO. The 2009 survey found that most
of the women in the 125 households in
the village had undergone procedures to
remove their uterus. This was backed by
a study in the same year by the Andhra
Pradesh Mahila Samatha Society, a state
government organisation, which found
hysterectomy cases in women between
the ages 25 and 40 had increased by 20
percent since Aarogyasri was launched
in 2007. Of the 1,097 women surveyed
in five districts, 30 percent reported that
doctors had told them that they would
die if they did not get operated.
In Chhattisgarh, health activists say
that poor illiterate women complain-
ing of back pain were warned that they
would contract cancer and die if their
uteri were not removed, even as those
suffering from excessive bleeding or While governments of Chhattisgarh,
vaginal discharge too stood no chance of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have initiated
escaping the surgery. While the proce- action against erring hospitals, nurs-
dure may have been necessary for some, ing homes and doctors, health activists
in most cases it was not required. argue that great damage has already
According to Dr SV Kameswari of Life- been done. They say that the number of
HRG, a Hyderabad-based NGO provid- unnecessary hysterectomies conducted
ing healthcare to rural women and may have come down in Andhra after
campaigning against the unnecessary the guidelines were revised in April 2010,
hysterectomies in the state, the reason but it could not undo the harm done to
for the indiscriminate usage of surgical the thousands of women who were en-
treatment in the state was a combina- couraged into removing their uteruses.
tion of the socio- economic and cultural It cannot assuage the grief of women
background of the women. The lack of like Rani whose chances of having a
awareness of the women and the power second child have ended because of a
of the medical practitioners to influence callous system. Much to the shock and
their decision led to the spate of unneces- horror of the 19-year-old who was ad-
sary hysterectomies, she contends. mitted to a private hospital for a severe
Dr Kameswari, who studied medi- stomachache, her uterus was removed
cal ethics of hysterectomies in rural instead of being operated for ap-
Andhra Pradesh, found several pendicitis, as her family
aberrations. Instead of had imagined.
following the normal Health activists
protocols while ex-
According believe that unless
amining women to Sulakshana there is an effec-
with complaints Nandi of the Jan Swasthya tive, efficient
of abdominal and account-
pain, bleeding
Abhiyan, a collective of over able public
or vaginal dis- a thousand NGOs are working health sys-
charge doctors on health rights. The RSBY and tem, unethi-
performed or cal prac-
advised hys-
similar health insurance schemes tices will
terectomies, are incentivising unethical practices continue.
she reveals. leading to the large number of The absence
Standard pro- of quality
tocol demands
irrational and unnecessary healthcare
that women have surgeries, Nandi says. in rural areas
to be informed forces women
about the after-ef- to approach good
fects of such a surgery. doctors in towns.
Medical studies have The doctors advice
established that those who to remove their uteruses
have undergone hysterectomy face makes them believe that it will
long-term health implications, includ- end their medical problems once and
ing a higher risk of heart disease and for all. What makes the procedure more
osteoporosis. They are also more likely to attractive is that being covered by the
become depressed. RSBY or other government-sponsored
At least Dr Kameswaris study had a insurance schemes, it is free. They are
positive outcome. We were called by neither informed about its long-term
officials of the Aarogyasri scheme to consequences, nor the alternative medi-
discuss the data emerging from our cal treatments available.
study. Other experts were also consulted. Not only is a more robust monitoring of
Thereafter, revised guidelines were is- the insurance schemes needed, focused
sued banning private hospitals empan- attention on improving basic health ser-
elled under the scheme from conducting vices could save women like Rani from
several surgical procedures including losing a second chance at motherhood. n
hysterectomies, appendectomy and the
removal of the gall bladder, she states. Womens Feature Service
www.GovernanceNow.com 11
 people politics policy performance
Her World
I
t has been over two years that the
womens reservation bill, an initiative
of the UPA government to ensure gen-
der equality, was passed in the Rajya
Sabha. It has not moved beyond that since.
How serious this government is towards
gender equality can be gauged from the
fact that after the recent reshuffle of the
cabinet, there are just 10 women in the
80-member council of ministers.
According to a report, Men and Women
2012, prepared by the union ministry of
statistics and programme implementa-
tion, women continue to lag behind their
male counterparts. The report indicates a
marginal participation of women in gover-
nance and economic sections. Key findings
of the report:
Participation in decision-making
n In 2012, there were two women judges
out of 26 judges in the supreme court
and there were only 54 women judges
out of 634 judges in different high courts.
In the age group of 15-19 years, 46% of
women are not involved in any kind of
decision-making.
n In the rural sector, 23.4% women are
not involved in any decision-making while,
in the urban sector, only 13.9% of urban
resident women are not involved in any
decision-making. As many as 32.7% illiter-
ate women and 21.6% unemployed wom-
en are not involved in decision-making.
Participation in economy
n For the country as a whole, only 59.6%
women have access to money.
n The workforce participation rate of
women in rural sector was 26.1% in 2009-
10 while that for men was 54.7%. In urban
sector, it was 13.8% for women and 54.3%
for men. Among the states and union ter-
ritories, workforce participation rate of
women in the rural sector was the highest
in Himachal Pradesh at 46.8% and in the
urban sector it was the highest in Mizoram
at 28.8%.
n In the rural sector, 55.7% women were
self-employed, 4.4% had regular wage/sala-
ried employment and 39.9% were casual
labourers compared to the 53.5%, 8.5%
and 38.0% men in the same categories
respectively.
n A total of 20.4% women were em-
ployed in the organised sector in 2010
with 17.9% working in the public sector
12 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
of all ages was 2.4% compared with 2.0%
`308.79 and `377.16 per day for women
and men respectively.
In India,
s is
silent in
she
Gender equality is
still a far, far cry, says
a government report
and 24.5% in the private. The labour force
participation rate of women across all
age-groups was 20.8% in rural sector and
12.8% in urban sector compared to 54.8%
and 55.6% for men in the rural and urban
sectors respectively in 2009-10.
n The unemployment rate for women
for men in the rural areas in 2009-10. It
was 7.0% for women and 3.1% for men in
urban areas during the same period.
n In 2009-10, the average wage/salary re-
ceived by regular wage/salaried employees
of age 15-59 years was `155.87 per day for
women compared to `249.15 per day for
men in rural areas. For urban areas, it was
n In 2010, the number of accounts oper-
ated by women in all commercial banks
was `153.18 crore compared to `487.37
crore accounts operated by men. The de-
posit amount was Rs. 5,17,209.74 crore for
women and `18,38,826.25 crore for men.
n In 2011-12, the share of women swaro-
jgaris in the total swarojgaris assisted
under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgaar
Yojna (SGSY) stood at 69.4%. The share of
women employed through MNREGS stood
at 48.3% in 2011-12 (all districts with rural
areas).
Health and well-being
The female infant mortality rate (IMR)
n
was 49 (per thousand) compared with the
male IMR of 46 and the overall IMR of 47
in 2010.
n Life expectancy at birth (LEB) has
increased more among women compared
to men. It is observed that in 2002-06 LEB
for males was 62.6 years compared to 64.2
years for females.
Crimes against women
n Cruelty by husband and relatives con-
tinues to occupy the highest share (43.4%)
among the crimes committed against
women in 2011 followed by molestation
(18.8%). 10.4% cases of cruelty by husband
and relatives underwent trial by the courts
of law in 2011 and conviction was done in
8.3% cases.
n 15.6% cases are that of kidnapping and
abduction, 10.6% of rape, 3.8% of dowry
deaths and 3.7% of sexual harassment.
In international arena
India ranked 134 in 2011 among 187 coun-
tries in terms of the UNDP Human Devel-
opment Index (HDI) and Gender Inequality
Index (GII). n
feedback@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 13
 people politics policy performance
Her World

No poverty of
ideas here
Srishti Pandey

D
esperate times call for desperate measures, and it is in such crises that people with
the ability to lead from the front emerge. On April 3 and 4, the Confederation of In-
dian Industry (CII) awarded the woman exemplar award to three such women. In
its ninth edition, the award was instituted to encourage womens empowerment by
recognising their contribution as catalysts of development at the grassroots level.
While Mithu Jana received the award from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for her
work in the field of health, G Muniammal was recognised for efforts in setting up microenter-
prises in a remote Tamil Nadu village and Priya Chandrasekar for her contribution in educat-
ing students with special needs. Governance Now meets the trio.

Mithu Jana on spreading AIDS awareness in West

From being a young bride to a young
widow, Mithu Jana has seen it all in
her 32 years so far. Fifteen when her
parents got her married to a 26-year-
old factory worker in Medinipur, West
Bengal, Janas first daughter was born
three years later. She gave birth to a
second girl in 2002, the year her hus-
band was diagnosed with HIV.
One of the countrys most backward
districts, Medinipur is characterised by
a large number of deaths due to AIDS.
Awareness, though, is abysmally low.
Jana was only learning to cope with
the reality, and the associated stigma,
when she and her younger daughter
were also diagnosed with the virus.
Life got a few notches worse when
her husband died a year later: shunned
by neighbours, Jana and her children
spent the next two years in the con-
fines of their home.
But life changed after Jana met a
health worker from the Society of Posi-
tive Atmosphere and Related Support
to HIV/AIDS (SPARSHA), which works
Bengal, in 2005 and joined as a com-
munity worker. Since then, she has
conducted several workshops aimed
at freeing the society of stigma, provid-
ing anti-retroviral therapy, advocating
safe-sex practices and counseling the
HIV-infected.
The journey, though, was not easy:
The mere mention of sex is a taboo in
many areas. At times, I was issued life
threats and driven out. But persistence
is the key I figured that no one was
interested in going through technicali-
ties mentioned on brochures. Instead, I
shared my own story to draw people to
our workshops.
Working with the World Bank and lo-
cal artistes, Jana has covered over 190
districts.
Asked about the future, Jana, who
passed class 12 exams in 2011 and will
enroll for graduation in the coming ses-
sion, laughs: I never think about death.
My daughters know how best to handle
themselves during adversities: after ev-
ery fall, you have to get up, brush your-
self and move on.

14 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013

 photos: Arun kumar

G Muniammal ranging from handbags to boxes and

Then 45, G Muniammal, an agricultural
labourer in Padavedu village in Thiru-
vanamalai district, Tamil Nadu, was the
only person of 2,000-odd villagers who
volunteered to join Srinivasan Services
Trust (SST), which approached the vil-
lage in 2000, offering help to set up mi-
croenterprises for women.
I earned barely `10 per day and did
not have much to lose, she says. Had
the idea not worked out I would eas-
ily have landed another job as a daily
wage worker. But I had to try.
With banana plantations aplenty in
Padavedu, the trust suggested setting
up microenterprises to make commer-
cial use of banana tree byproducts.
As part of the training, Muniammal
was sent to Bangalore to learn design
and create various handicraft made
from banana fibre products. Munia-
mmal went against her familys wish
and returned a week later to get a fur-
ther training at the trusts office in the
village.
A month later, Muniammal started
producing innovative fibre products
baskets to table mats. But were there
any takers for her products in the vil-
lage? Initially, we sold the products
to a retail store that dealt in organic
products in Bangalore. Later, as word
spread, some corporate houses started
buying these items.
As money started pouring in, more
women joined and formed self-help
groups. Muniammal and others began
imparting craft-making skills to these
women, with the end products now
sold in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Banga-
lore and other cities.
From initial monthly earnings of `300
as a daily wage worker to now churn-
ing the same amount every day, Muni-
ammal has been able to fulfill most of
her ambitions. Besides educating her
three children, she has also been able
to build a pucca house. Today, all the
women are financially independent
and most have own bank accounts,
she says, with justifiable pride.
As for the next step, Muniammal has
it all sorted out: the trust would try
contacting accessories and interiors de-
signers to pitch in with newer designs.

Priya Chandrasekar batch and is today a trainer

For Priya Chandrasekars par-
ents, the premature birth of
twins 26 years ago and their
survival is nothing less than a
miracle. Doctors had asked them
to prepare for the worst some-
thing they havent forgotten till
date.
While her twin Preethi grew
up as a quick learner, learn-
ing came with difficulty, and at
a much slower pace, for Priya.
It is known as low intellectual
disability, explains Priya, who
is also physically challenged.
After she dropped out of school
in August 2003 on teachers
advice, her parents learnt about
AMBA Centres for Economic
Empowerment of the Intellectu-
ally Challenged (CEEIC). Priya
got enrolled in the centres first
there, having directly trained
over 250 students with intellec-
tual disability and ensuring that
they become emotionally and
financially independent.
The confidence she exudes
and her ability to customise
training according to needs of
each encourage students to be-
come self-reliant, says Sugand-
ha, who runs the centre.
With over 31 centres across the
country, the organisation has
enabled its students to work on
various data-entry and adminis-
trative jobs that generate sustain-
able income. Statistics published
by various health organisations
and NGOs has shown that over
3.5 million people are born with
physical and intellectual disabili-
ties and need special care, like I
was given, Priya says.

www.GovernanceNow.com 15
 people politics policy performance
Media Moguls

Indias
Alam Srinivas

L
ast year, Rupert Murdoch, the
chairman and CEO of the $34-bil-
lion News Corporation and an un-
Murdoch
Will Look
disputed global media czar, urged inves-
tors not to judge us the way you would
a conventional company. He added that
News Corps corporate culture was dif-
ferent as it knew that business models
that work today might become obsolete
tomorrow. Hence, we are always invest-

Like Them!
ing in the next generation especially
when our established models are doing
well.
Such statements could have easily been
echoed by either Mukesh Ambani or
his younger brother, Anil. Over the past
eight years, ever since they split in 2005
after a no-holds-barred public fight,
The recent embrace of the Ambani brothers has
raised the spectre of a media empire that will eclipse
everything else. A peek into the not-so-distant future

the two siblings have slowly, although
separately, thought and acted like
Murdoch. They have done in India,
what the controversial media baron
has achieved in markets as diverse as
the US, UK, Asia, Australia and Latin
America. In some ways, the Ambanis
are better off than Murdoch.
After years of acrimony, now that
the Ambanis have taken the first baby
steps to partner with each other, they
can emerge as the unchallenged media
czars in India. If Mukesh and Anil get
their act together, as they are more like-
ly to do in telecom and media, they can
overwhelm a Bennett, Coleman & Com-
pany, which is present across platforms
(print, TV, digital). They can mercilessly
overpower the dominance of a Zee
Group, which is integrated vertically in
TV (as a broadcaster and distributor).
Recently, the two hitherto-estranged
brothers inked a deal that allowed
Mukesh to use 1,20,000 km of the optic
fibre network, owned by Anil, to launch
the formers 4G/broadband services.
They indicated that this was the begin-
ning of more such agreements, whereby
both could use their combined telecom
infrastructure (telecom towers and ad-
ditional fibre pipes) to deliver news and
entertainment content. Analysts shouted
with glee that this was a win-win
partnership.
But, if the brothers also agree to share
content and other distribution platforms
(digital and direct-to-home) in the near
future, their Indian business model will
be akin to Murdochs international one.
In fact, given the lack of regulations and
restrictions on cross-media ownership
in India, contrary to the situation in the
US and Europe, the Ambanis blueprint
will be more expansive and dominant.
Together, they can do what Murdoch has
only dreamt about, tried, and failed.

16 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013

Ambanis & Murdoch: Shared vision in
content
Browse through the 2012 annual report
of News Corp and you will get a sense of
Murdochs vision and global presence.
He is one of the largest generators and
acquirers of content, be it news, sports
and entertainment. He owns TV and ca-
ble channels (the famed Fox bouquet of
news, business and entertainment chan-
nels in the US, and the Star network in
India); produces, co-produces and buys
movies and TV serials; and has tele-
cast rights to sporting events (National
Football League and Major League Bas-
ketball). This content is beamed across
countries and geographies such as India,
Greater China, South East Asia, Middle
East, Africa, the UK, Europe and North
America.
His reach in print media is unprece-
dented. He owns the Wall Street Journal,
Barrons and the New York Post, apart
from dozens of other publications in
the US. His print properties in the UK
include The Times, The Sunday Times,
and The Sun. Of course, in Austra-
lia, his native country Murdoch is
now a US citizen he manages 140
national, metropolitan, suburban,
regional and Sunday titles. And
one cannot forget his control over
HarperCollins, the publishing house.
Indirectly, both the Ambani broth-
ers have access to news content.
Through a trust, Mukesh has given
a huge personal loan to Raghav Bahl,
who is the promoter of Network18
Group that owns TV news channels
(CNN IBN and CNBC TV 18) and websites
(moneycontrol.com and firstpost.com).
The money that Bahl owes can be con-
verted into equity at a later date, which
will give the Mukesh-controlled trust
a stake in Bahls privately-held firm
which, in turn, owns Network18.
One has heard rumours that the elder
brother has benami stakes in at least
two Hindi news channels. Through
his financial services arm, Reliance
Capital, Anil has a stake in Bloomberg
India (business news channel) and a
minor one in TV Today (Aaj Tak and
Headlines Today). In the past, he has
had influential holdings in TV Today
and Network18. So, there is no reason
to disbelieve that Anil can get into the Tata Sky, beams news and non-news
news segment quite quickly through the programmes into the viewers homes.
several mutual funds launched by Reli- In the US, it shares and leases cable
ance Capital. and terrestrial networks to achieve the
The Ambani siblings also have several same objective. Content is also delivered
fingers in the movie and entertainment through third party-owned digital plat-
pie. Anil has official tie-ups with several forms like Amazon.com.
Hollywoods famous director/producers, The Ambanis have a similar distribu-
including Steven Spielberg, to produce tion model. Anil owns a direct-to-home
movies and the US-based CBS Group to (DTH) network to beam its and others
air TV channels in India. Mukesh has content. In mid-2010, Anils Reliance
sold regional channels, owned by the Communications announced an all-
Andhra Pradesh-based Eenadu Group stock deal to buy a controlling stake in
to Network18, where he has an indi- Digicable, one of the largest cable dis-
rect control. Through benami deals, the tribution companies. Reports indicate
elder brother also owns other Hindi that Mukesh has an undeclared hold-
entertainment channels. His wife, Nita, ing in another cable distribution firm.
Through Big Cinemas, Anil is one of the
largest distributors and exhibitors of
movies in the organised segment.
Concludes Ambanis & Murdoch: Crucial
differences
someone who While both the Ambani brothers and
is close to the Ambani Murdoch make their news and enter-
family: In the early 2000s, tainment content available in digital
Mukesh visualised the synergies
between telecom and media. But he
lost the telecom firm to Anil in 2005.
If the two Ambani brothers can now
combine Mukeshs vision and
Anils media assets (content
and distribution), they can
easily become Indias, or
even Asias, Murdoch.
manages Mumbai Indians, a leading
cricket franchise in the Indian Premier
League (IPL).
Ambanis & Murdoch: Ownership over
distribution
Having content to sell is one part of the
game. The other is to control distribu-
tion to deliver them into the customers
living rooms and bedrooms. In this re-
gard, News Corp, through holdings Brit-
ains BskyB, Italys Sky Italia and Indias
www.GovernanceNow.com 17
 people politics policy performance
Media Moguls
One more deal in the
offing?
The Ambani brothers are likely to
sign another deal for infrastruc-
ture in telecom business soon.
Anil Ambani-owned Reliance
Communications (RCOM) and
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance
Jio Infocomm (RJI) are negotiating
an agreement, under which the
latter will lease RCOM's towers
for its 4G services, the Hindustan
Times reported. The two firms de-
clined to comment on the matter.
"Unlike OFC network, there will
not be any upfront payment in the
tower deal. RCOM will get only
monthly rental that will depend
on the number of towers. RCOM
has about 50,000 towers. Initial-
ly, RJI may lease only 60% of the
towers," a source familiar with
the developments was quoted as
saying.
format, the former are one step ahead
of Murdoch. Anils group includes a
gaming website, social network one and
a digital marketing website. Murdochs
experiment in this arena through his
purchase of myspace.com didnt suc-
ceed, and his internet operations today
amount to high-profile websites of his
newspapers in the US and UK. But the
US media tycoon can always acquire
new sites.
Another difference between the two
is that Anils media bouquet includes
FM radio stations. The website of Reli-
ance Broadcast Network claims that
92.7 Big FM is present across 45 cities,
1,200 towns and 52,000+ villages with a
weekly reach of over 40 million Indians.
In 2008, the group announced plans
to launch similar radio channels in
Singapore, the US, UK and Middle East.
Although Murdoch lacks this content
avenue, he owns dozens of local (mostly
city-based) TV stations in the US.
However, the crucial and the most sig-
nificant difference between the Amba-
nis and Murdoch is the formers entry
into telecom services. Between Mukesh
18 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
and Anil, they will offer 2G, 3G, 4G/
broadband and, as mobile becomes an
important platform to download news
and non-news content, they will sur-
pass Murdochs vision in terms of distri-
bution and delivery. Explains a source
in Mukeshs camp, After we expand in
4G, we will be in an ideal position to of-
fer value-added services as Indians are
likely to watch music, movies, games
and news on their smartphones.
Telecom may turn out to be a game-
changer, and enable the Ambanis to
be several steps ahead of Murdoch
and other Indian competitors. Already,
Anils Reliance Communications has
over 160 million mobile subscribers.
Locally, the competition can come from
telecom majors (Airtel), who can tie up
with content providers. But the restric-
tions on sharing of 3G network has cur-
tailed Airtels ambitions to offer value
content, and given a fillip to Reliances
4G, which aims to do the same.
Ambani & Murdoch: Regulatory failure
versus regulatory hijack
In the US, strict laws on cross-media
ownership have stalled or delayed
several moves made by Murdoch. For
example, one of those rules stipulates
that in the same localised market, TV
channels in the top four viewership
slots as per Nielsen ratings cannot own
a newspaper among the top 20. In 1993,
after he threatened to close down his
New York-based tabloid, New York Post,
he got a permanent waiver to own both
the tabloid and the local TV station,
WNYW.
Today, he is fighting a similar battle
as he wishes to buy the prominent
newspaper, Los Angeles Times,
although he owns two Los Ange-
les-based TV stations, KTTV and
KCOP, of which the latter shuttles
between No. 4 and 5 among lo-
cal stations. It is because of such
compulsions, among others, that
Murdoch decided to separate
publishing businesses from TV
ones. According to an analyst
quoted in the New York Times,
If their TV stations are going to
be spun off from the larger con-
glomerate, then they wont directly
own newspapers and stations in those
particular markets anymore.
Similarly, after the controversial
phone-hacking incident in the UK, when
Murdochs tabloid, News of the World,
was alleged to have hacked mobiles
and bribed officials to get exclusives,
News Corps plans have suffered a huge
setback. One of them was the companys
inability to acquire a majority stake in
BskyB. Murdoch has had to constantly
change, and dilute, his business strate-
gies in other nations such as China and
India because of the fear among policy-
makers about his overarching powers.
Media theorists dub the above cases
as regulatory failure. It is a scenario
where the regulators are unable to cope
with the ever- and fast-changing media
models, and are forced to take action
after, or when, the media owners have
initiated actions. This, as is the case
with Murdoch, could result in refusal to
mergers and acquisitions, denial to pur-
chase of higher stakes in cross-media
entities, and/or directly and indirectly
force existing media conglomerates to
break up.
As opposed to regulatory failure,
what we have witnessed in India is
regulatory hijack. The latter hap-
pens when the regulators are weak
and dont have legal teeth to enforce
their decisions. The process is aided
by pliable policymakers, who are only
too willing to bend over backwards to
As
opposed to
regulatory failure, what
we have witnessed in India
is regulatory hijack. The latter
happens when the regulators are weak
and dont have legal teeth to enforce their
decisions. The process is aided by pliable
policymakers, who are only too willing to
bend over backwards to accommodate
corporate interests. And the judicial
bodies are unable to understand
the implications of the technical
issues unless it is too late or
irrelevant.
 Bigger than Murdoch empire?
Mukeshs media pie
Through a trust, Mukesh Ambani
has given a huge personal loan to
Raghav Bahl, who is the promoter
of Network18 Group that owns TV
news channels (CNN IBN and CNBC
TV 18) and websites (moneycontrol.
com and firstpost.com). Rupert Murdoch
There are rumours that he has be-
nami stakes in at least two Hindi
news channels. accommodate corporate interests. And
He has sold regional channels, also owns other Hindi entertain- the judicial bodies are unable to under-
owned by the Andhra Pradesh- ment channels. stand the implications of the technical
based Eenadu Group, to Net- His wife, Nita, manages Mumbai In- issues unless it is too late or irrelevant.
work18, where he has an indirect dians, a leading cricket franchise in This happened in telecom; in 2002,
control. Through benami deals, he the Indian Premier League (IPL). before the split, the Ambanis entered
the sector through the back door. Once
their CDMA operations were legitimised
in 2003, they changed tracks. Post-split,
Anils media stakes in 2007, Anil convinced the policymakers
Through his financial services arm, to allow him entry into GSM. Although
Reliance Capital, Anil Ambani has a the norms in 2G said that licensors could
stake in Bloomberg India (business not sell their stakes for a specific pe-
news channel) and a minor one in riod, no such rules were imposed in 4G/
TV Today (Aaj Tak and Headlines broadband. So, the day a little-known
Today). entity, Infotel, got a pan-India 4G licence
In the past, he has had influ- through e-auction, it sold a majority stake
ential holdings in TV Today and to Mukesh, who found his way back into
Network18. his dream sector, telecom.
Anil has official tie-ups with several to produce movies and the US- In the case of Anil, neither the regula-
famous director/producers of Holly- based CBS Group to air TV channels tors nor the relevant ministries attempt-
wood, including Steven Spielberg, in India. ed to stall his ownership over content and
delivery platforms. Well, the same is true
for his competitors in telecom and TV, but
they may not have the requisite mindset
If they join hands to virtually capture a sector, as the Amba-
If Mukesh and Anil get their act to- nis did with petrochemicals, refining and
gether, as they are more likely to do polyester fibre in the 1980s and 1990s.
in telecom and media, they can over- Big is beautiful in the Ambani rulebook,
whelm a Bennett, Coleman & Compa- and if it is at the expense of others, so
ny, which is present across platforms much the better.
(print, TV, digital). They can merci- Concludes someone who is close to
lessly overpower the dominance of a the Ambani family: In the early 2000s,
Zee Group, which is integrated verti- Mukesh visualised the synergies between
cally in TV (as a broadcaster and distributor). telecom and media. But he lost the tele-
If they agree to share content and other distribution platforms (digital com firm to Anil in 2005. If the two Am-
and direct-to-home), their Indian business model will be akin to Murdochs bani brothers can now combine Mukeshs
international one. In fact, given the lack of regulations and restrictions on vision and Anils media assets (content
cross-media ownership in India, contrary to the situation in the US and and distribution), they can easily become
Europe, the Ambanis blueprint will be more expansive and dominant. To- Indias, or even Asias, Murdoch. n
gether, they can do what Rupert Murdoch has only dreamt about, tried, and
failed. Srinivas is a veteran business journalist with
several books to his credit.
 people politics policy performance
Right to Redressal

Shailesh Gandhi

W
i th most of our judicial and quasi-
judicial bodies suffering from
enormous delays, the system is in a
way surviving on its own. Though
there are some good orders and
judgments, our lives are finite and
if things are not done in reasonable
time they become meaningless for
most people.
So, in delivering information to
an applicant under the RTI Act,
the challenge is to define a time-
frame be it 50 days, 90 days, two
months, six months or a year, which
isnt the case at present.
Despite enormous amounts of
money spent on them, various com-
missions in our quasi-judicial sys-
tems like women, minority, child
rights or information commissions
have become unaccountable. We
hear about them only when some-

RTI? You are

thing drastic happens.
As these commissions are checks
and balances of a democracy, all
information on their activities must

in queue!
be put up on their websites in a
transparent manner, as they are
supposed to check and monitor gov-
ernment structures throughout. But
that is not happening.
For example, despite a sizeable
staff of 80, the office of the lokayuk-
ta in Maharashtra has not inves- A former information commissioner looks back in
tigated any complaints. We have
never heard of what they are doing
horror on how casual information commissioners
either they merely forward the are, and says selection of officials in all quasi-
complaints they receive to the min-
istries concerned. judicial bodies must be open to public scrutiny

20 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013


Transparency in selection
While the supreme court has also called
for transparency in the selection of
information commissioners, what is a
transparent selection process for ap-
pointments to such bodies? The RTI law
stipulates a committee consisting of the
prime minister, the leader of opposition
and a minister for selection of the central
information commissioner. The same
process is meant for the states, too in
this case the chief minister, the leader of
opposition and a minister.
But in reality this political team does
not have the time to go through the selec-
tion process, which can lead to political
appointments.
Additionally, we have to ensure that
those selected are competent for the
office people who may be otherwise
good but have no passion for transpar-
ency will be complete misfits in the RTI
regime. We have had people from the
intelligence bureaus and police as infor-
mation commissioners but their mindset
is bound to be different.
A search committee comprising vice-
chancellors and eminent retired people
could shortlist three times the number
required and hold public interviews of
the shortlisted candidates on national
television. Citizens can then form an
opinion based on these interviews and
should then be able to send their views
to the search committee. In democracy,
Ashish asthana
there is no harm in even a political ap-
pointment if the due process is followed.
The selection panel, in fact, should
recommend twice the required number
(of candidates) to be selected to make the
final call.
Whereas all such selection processes
in our country can get shortchanged, a
televised public interview of a candidate
will act as a big check. Though purely
as a matter of formality, the department
of personnel and training (DoPT) has
started advertising the requirement of
information commissioners (ICs). Ideally
the same process must be followed in the
judiciary, as judicial appointments can
also be arbitrary.
Shortcomings in system of
appointments
A system for delegation of appointments
is also missing today. The appointments
have become a game in which eminent
positions are sought after retirement.
Like the era of kings, most commission-
ers, including ICs, are selected for pa-
tronage; they are rewarded for the work
they have put in.
A broad look at the various commis-
sions shows that a majority of commis-
sioners are retired bureaucrats or judges,
whereas for the sake of accountability
right people must be selected for each
post. Even an undersecretary is appoint-
ed after a process more diligent than
the one in place for appointing heads
of these bodies. Therefore, a lot of them
usually have little interest in their work.
We have to see whether these people
are competent for their jobs. While I
have seen that most ICs dont even un-
derstand the RTI Act, the same applies to
a host of other commissioners. Because
the RTI Act has been taken up by citizens
very enthusiastically, ICs are criticised
much more than other commissioners.
Too many people, too little work done
The RTI law provides for 11 commission-
ers (per commission) but in most cases
we dont require so many officials. In
my experience, we dont get more than 2
lakh appeals and complaints across the
country. Going by a figure of 5,000 cases
per commissioner per year, we can say
that we need 40 ICs countrywide, and the
number could stretch up to, say, 80 or
www.GovernanceNow.com 21
 people politics policy performance
Right to Redressal
100 and cases could be easily cleared off.
Instead, even with 140 to 160 commis-
sioners at present, a huge number of cas-
es are piling up across the country. Even
a small state like Arunachal Pradesh,
which gets about 100-300 complaints an-
nually, had six to eight ICs at one point.
The apex court said the information
commissions must decide in benches
of two commissioners, one of whom
should be a retired judge. Despite that a
single commissioner hears complaints at
present.
ICs are among the highest paid public
servants and they are required to do
minimum work. But even that is not
happening. In reality, most commissions
dont put in a bare minimum of 40 hours
per week. Even a clerk is expected to
work 40 hours a week.
In a five-day week, at least five hours
a day or 25 hours per week should be
devoted to hearings. (But) in cases where
some commissioners are putting in a
40-hour week, the time is not necessarily
devoted to work. Instead, many spend
the time (dealing with) stock market
investments or fixing somebodys job
appointment.
Further, despite putting in five years
in their job, many ICs cannot figure out
what the job requires.
With the exception of the current CIC
of Maharashtra, Ratnakar Gaikwad, who
holds 20-25 hearings a day disposing of
cases at a fast pace; others attribute de-
ficiencies to the lack of enough commis-
sioners, power or resources. With a wait-
ing period of six to 10 months (to release
information), the RTI Act has started
becoming weaker.
Each commissioner must guarantee at
least 5,000 decisions in a year, declare
work done in the previous six months
to a year and make a workflow forecast
for the next one or two years. Based on
that they can calculate the requirement
of commissioners, and the government
should announce the requirement of
commissioners.
To introduce efficiency, systems must
be put in place to forecast and publicly
declare in a transparent manner work
done in previous months and years and
in months to come. There must be a
norm for disposal of applications, speci-
fying the number of cases to be disposed
22 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
Points to ponder
Ensure that those selected are
competent for the office people
who may be otherwise good but
have no passion for transparency
will be misfits in RTI regime
A search committee comprising
vice-chancellors and eminent re-
tired people could shortlist three
times the number of officials re-
quired and hold public interviews
of shortlisted candidates on na-
tional TV
Citizens can then form an opin-
ion based on these interviews
and then send their views to the
search committee
Even with as many as 140 to 160
commissioners across India, a
huge number of cases are piling
up
ICs are among the highest paid
public servants and they are re-
quired to do a minimum work
but even that is not happening
most commissions dont even put
in a bare minimum of 40 hours per
week
With a waiting period of six to 10
months to release information,
the RTI Act has started becoming
weaker
Each commissioner must guar-
antee at least 5,000 decisions in
a year, declare work done in the
previous six months to a year and
make a workflow forecast for the
next one or two years
of. Incidentally, I have dealt with 5,900
cases in a year (but) most commissioners
who do 1,500-3,000 cases a year feel the
figure is more than enough.
We need to perform or resign. While
it is a normal attitude to pass the buck
on to the government, it cannot go on
intervening in everything. When I was
in the central information commission,
I proposed a transfer of resources to
deliver and said that through a citizens
charter we must make a commitment
to the citizens that any matter referred
there would be resolved within 90 or 120
days. People must be told whether infor-
mation will be given or not and if not,
why. There was huge opposition and they
said, We dont want to decide anything
like this.
Rather than spending huge amounts of
money on so-called senior citizen clubs,
which is unacceptable, the intent to take
work more seriously will be stronger if
the age of commissioners is reduced to
below 60. For each one of us who sits in
as IC, our salaries are being paid for by
the taxpayer; money cannot be wasted
like this. You need to deliver, and none of
us are delivering.
Other bodies
Take the case of consumer forums,
headed by retired high court judges.
They were launched with great promise
in 1986 and as per law, a case has to be
decided within a maximum of three to
six months. But in practice it may take
up to eight or 10 years before a case is
finally decided and in 80 percent or more
cases you cannot go through it without a
lawyer.
At least this problem has not come up
so far in information commissions.
Further, bringing in more laws to add
to the existing set of good laws, setting
up additional bodies and then forgetting
about them is of no use. Seven states in
the country already have police com-
plaint authorities but we have never
heard of any work done by them. With
some exceptions, grievance cells in most
parts of the country are dysfunctional.
If they were working you can imagine
what would happen to the governance
structure of our country.
Are we asking for any kind of responsi-
bility? My submission is that we, the citi-
zens and the media, must start demanding
accountability from bodies like (informa-
tion) commissions and get them to work
reasonably. With citizens raising their
voice ensuring that these organisations
work well and the media highlighting that
agenda, the government will act. n
Gandhi, a former information commission-
er with the central information commission,
spoke to Geetanjali Minhas.
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www.GovernanceNow.com 23
 I N T E R V I E W

Dhir Jhingran, national commission for protection of child rights

Some elements in NCPCR

are opposed to the RTE Act

Arun kumar
A
fter working in the minis-
try of human resource and
development (HRD) for nine
years and more than 20
years of work in the education sector,
Dhir Jhingran was appointed as the na-
tional coordinator of right to education
(RTE) Act at the national commission
for protection of child rights (NCPCR).
An IAS of 1986-batch Assam cadre,
Jhingran resigned from the post within
just six months of appointment. Signifi-
cantly, his last day in office, March 31,
was the Supreme Courts deadline for
implementation of the Act.
Also significant is the fact that Jhin-
gran is the second national coordina-
tor of the RTE division to leave work
midway through his term.
Exactly a year before, Kiran Bhatty,
the consultant who established the di-
vision in 2010, put in her papers along
with five members on March 31, 2012.
Though Bhatty refused to get into de-
tails, she said it was important to
have specific roles and duties for a
department to work efficiently.
In an interview with Jasleen
Kaur, Jhingran now explains the
reason behind his premature res-
ignation from the RTE division of
NCPCR, and the problems with the
enforcement of RTE Act.
Excerpts from the interview:
What forced you to quit?
I dont think there is enough com-
mitment on part of NCPCR as an
organisation to be an effective
agency to monitor RTE. Its not
about the chairperson she is
very committed but as an
organisation, it is not com-
mitted to RTE.
I think the problem lies
somewhere in
the fact that NCPCR is strongly con-
trolled by the women and child de-
velopment (WCD) ministry. (In fact) it
is seen as a WCD subordinate office,
whereas the RTE division is funded
by the HRD ministry. Though NCP-
CR is mandated to be an autonomous
body, that mandate is not backed up
by funds or strong commitment of the
organisation. While Shantha Sinha
and Dipa Dixit (member) had worked
really hard to set up RTE division and
start institutions like state representa-
tives and social audit of RTE.
Some members are (also) very criti-
cal of the RTE and raise issues about
The situation
worsened after the new
member-secretary, Ashish
Srivastav, joined. I feel he is not
convinced that NCPCR should be
working for RTE. We had a meeting with
the MHRD and we came to know that he
is also talking to the ministry whether
there is a need for the NCPCR
to monitor the
implementation of
the act.
1. Provide funding that is not tied to
earlier problems in the division. I
somehow feel they (these members)
do not want the RTE to be effective.
These include -
But the situation really w members
and the member-secretary Ashish
Srivastav, who joined o months back.
They want to undo the good work
done by chairperson and Dipa Dixit.
It is important that attempts of these
persons are thwarted so that NCP-
CR can play an effective role in RTE
monitoring.
What really went wrong?
We took several new initiatives in
the six months I spent there. But the
last two months were only about tak-
ing unnecessary permissions, clear-
ances, funds and so forth from the
commission.
There have been cases where it was
very difficult to get permission even
after several rounds of discussions
and file movements. So it was not
really a great environment to
work. Having worked in the gov-
ernment for 26 years I am least
interested in doing these clerical
things.
What are the problems you faced
while working in the division?
I am a trained official and I under-
stand rules of the government. So
What needs to be done:
Jhingran-speak
any ministry. For example, if we are
monitoring MHRD, I should not get
funds from MHRD; I should get it
from elsewhere like the planning
commission.
2. The RTE division, specifically, should
be headed by someone from the
government. Most people working
here are consultants; I was also
employed as a consultant. But it
cannot work (that way).
3. The MHRD has to be very specific
about what has happened, what
needs to be done and (should)
regularly issue clear instructions to
the states so that the NCPCR can
monitor those deadlines.
www.GovernanceNow.com 25
 RTE: where
problems lie
Responsible for monitoring RTE
act, National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights has
analysed data of 320 districts to
evaluate standing of different on
implementation
RTE came into force on April 1,
2010 and gave 3 years to schools
to comply with its norms: of suf-
ficient teachers, proper class-
rooms, toilets and supply of drink-
ing water
NCPCR discussing issues with
states depending on their needs
for instance issues of large-scale
migration in Odisha
Jharkhand has problems in RTE im-
plementation on all fronts: teacher
appointment, delay in supply of
textbooks, zero special training,
and no continuous comprehension
evaluation
Uttar Pradesh has problems of
proxy teachers, teachers absence
from duty, poor quality of midday
meal
No state has done special training
for out-of-school children to admit
them in classrooms appropriate to
their age
Continuous comprehensive evalu-
ation is in total chaos everywhere
No state has focused on margin-
alised group like migrated children
On other infrastructure issue like
classrooms, toilets, drinking wa-
ter, states are on different level of
completion; will take them a year
or two to complete
Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
and Orissa have huge backlogs in
teachers appointment, which they
have committed to do in a year
Teachers being trained through
open distance learning mode,
either by IGNOU or state open
schools, due to absence of ade-
quate training institutions
Teacher absenteeism is a big is-
sue in many states, including
Jharkhand and UP
(As told by Dhir Jhingran)
when I am finding problems, it means
there are huge issues involved. There
is a problem of intent in not allowing
things to work. I came here to work
but its sad to be leaving so early.
One can fight on principles or poli-
cies but not on such basic issues. Its
a very harassing way of working. I
would definitely blame the member-
secretary, apart from the contradic-
tions within the commission. I think
the member-secretary has failed to
provide the support that was required
(of him). I understand there are prob-
lems between the WCD minister and
the chairperson; (that) they somehow
do not see eye to eye.
I have worked here very indepen-
dently in the six months and the chair-
person, in fact, insulated me from a lot
of interference that may have come
from the WCD ministry. She played a
very positive role but how much can
she alone do? Its not worth (the effort)
if the organisation is not committed to
it. The NCPCR should see it as a great
opportunity for its role in RTE but you
need a strong organisation to take up
things.
Do you think forming an independent
body to monitor RTE could help?
NCPCR and state commissions are sup-
posed to be autonomous bodies but the
problem is, we are not serious about
our institutions. Whats the logic of cre-
ating an alternative body when you
have got these institutions which are
statutory provided for. They are under
the acts of parliament.
But we create institutions and do not
invest in them and weaken them for
purpose. In many states, the SCPCRs
(state commission for protection of
child rights) are given such a low sta-
tus and salary that they cannot actual-
ly be effective in monitoring. So the an-
swer is not the new institution but to
recognise that such institutions should
work autonomously in real sense.
One of the things that can be done is
to provide funding that is not tied to
any ministry. For example, if we are
monitoring MHRD, I should not get
funds from MHRD; I should get it from
elsewhere like the planning com-
mission or somewhere. Right now,
MHRD approves the work plan and we
are supposed to monitor that, which
is a little complex situation. The other
thing, specifically for the RTE division,
is that I feel it should be headed by
someone from the government.
Most people working here are consul-
tants; I was also employed as a consul-
tant. But it cannot work (that way). Its
a structural arrangement that is bound
to fail. Someone from the government
should head it. We are all within NCP-
CR but to be at the mercy of a person
in the administration, who one fine
day decides that nothing should be ap-
proved, is ridiculous.
As an institution, NCPCR has never
taken full responsibility of RTE; some
members keep opposing it. These are
all dynamics about who is aligned with
WCD ministry and who is against the
chairperson, or for her. But that should
not affect the functioning of the divi-
sion which has to monitor RTE. I could
not travel much in the last two months
because it was all about signing files
and notes, which was not my job.
Last year, when the RTE Act
completed two years, there was no
one heading the division. And now,
when it is completing the third year,
there would be no one heading the
division
Its a bad situation. Its unfortunate
that I have to leave so soon. But one
good thing is that the member who is
now put in charge of the RTE is very
serious about the work. Hopefully
she would take more responsibility of
what the national coordinator was do-
ing till they get someone. And the com-
mission should give complete support
for RTE, and not any individual.
Should the HRD ministry play a more
serious role in implementing and
monitoring the RTE Act?
The HRD ministry does monitoring of
its own also. There are lots of reports
that MHRD collects from the state
government. But, yes, they have to
be very specific about what has hap-
pened, what needs to be done and
(should) regularly issue clear instruc-
tions to the states so that the NCPCR
can monitor those deadlines. n
jasleen@governancenow.com

RTE division in `51-lakh soup
Audit report reveals NCPCR incurred expenditure of `51.12 lakh without
sticking to primary guidelines of general financial rules
Jasleen Kaur
T
here were serious anomalies
in the transactions of the na-
tional commission for protec-
tion of child rights (NCPCR)
in the financial year 2011-12,
the office of the director general of audit
has found.
According to the audit report (Gover-
nance Now has a copy of it), there were
irregularities in the appointment of state
representatives (SR) and social audit
groups (SAG) by the right to education
(RTE) division of commission to conduct
social audit of implementation of the RTE
Act.
The division started the social audit to
get education officers at block and district
levels take up responsibility, and fix their
accountability, for functioning of schools.
What audit report
alleges
NCPCR engaged 12 district coor-
dinators, 58 block monitors and
253 panchayat facilitators in eight
states and incurred an expendi-
ture of `51.12 lakh during 2010-
11 and 2011-12 without following
primary guidelines of the general
financial rules.
Guidelines or criteria of selection
of NGOs or outsourced agencies,
district coordinators, block moni-
tors, panchayats facilitators and
state representatives not found on
record.
No term of reference for proce-
dure of submission of proposal
Unveiled in 10 states, the division started
the pilot project by tying up with various
civil society groups and asking people to
give feedback on functioning of schools
and engaging, or outsourcing qual-
ified or desired agencies.
Commission incurred expenditure
of `51.12 lakh during audit but
eligibility, pre-qualification crite-
ria, experience and suitability for
providing the services by agencies
or NGOs concerned not found on
records.
No CV and experience of agencies
or NGOs found on record to justify
suitability for the assigned work.
Procedure followed by NCPCR in
bid evaluation and selection proce-
dure could not be ascertained.
Guidelines related to engagement
of outsourced agencies/NGOs did
not incorporate requisite terms
and conditions and procedures to
be followed.
people politics policy performance
Penny Wise?
It was a pilot project and
the commission fulfilled
requirements before appointing
the NGOs. All the NGOs
appointed are really good in
their work.
Shanta Sinha, chairperson, NCPCR
and implementation of the RTE Act.
In all, 250 panchayats were to be cov-
ered in the first year for comprehensive
and concurrent social auditing. In addi-
tion, they were to be assisted by a district
resource person and state representative.
The division is yet to release the report. n
jasleen@governancenow.com
Conducted in February, audit
sought explanation on the circum-
stances in which state representa-
tives and social audit groups were
engaged.
Letter (dated March 12, 2013) from
NCPCR to the national coordina-
tor of the RTE division points out
release of funds to state represen-
tative and state audit group of the
division. It says national coordina-
tor of RTE division was repeatedly
requested to send all files regard-
ing release of these funds but all
verbal requests failed to elicit a
response.
Report states the matter is being
examined and appropriate deci-
sion will be taken after examina-
tion of all records and files.
www.GovernanceNow.com 27
people politics policy performance
Planning Against Crime
No safety in job
numbers
The real reason behind the rise in crimes
like the Delhi gangrape is the rise in
unemployment, which will take gargantuan
proportions by 2018. Here is what our
planners should be doing very quickly
Ashish Puntambekar
O
ur anger and agony over the
Delhi gangrape will not pre-
vent such events in future.
For this we need to properly
identify the reasons for a
rise in crimes and implement strategies
in the short, medium and long terms at
various levels to make women feel safe
in India. Before we begin, it is important
to understand the size of the problem.
Central problem and its magnitude
The 2011 census data and employment
statistics appear to indicate that overall
crime in India is likely to rise by almost
five times by 2018. Population data in
the accompanying table indicates that
young people in excess of 20 crore will
join Indias working age group by 2018.
This is in addition to the 11.2 crore al-
ready unemployed according to the 2011
census. This is equivalent to two-thirds
of the population of Europe entering the
working age group in an environment
where no new jobs are being created.
Today maybe just 1015 % of those 20
crore unemployed youngsters have hit
28 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
the street and we already have so much
crime. Imagine what will happen when
the balance 85%-plus arrive. This is not
to say that a majority of them are poten-
tial criminals, but the authentic numbers
in the table and empirical correlations
linking rising crime, especially theft, to
unemployment from around the world,
indeed make for a planners nightmare.
To rising unemployment, if we add
a skewed sex ratio, the forecast gets
ominous. India might well be on its way
to becoming the most dangerous place
on earth for women. We cannot blame
police for this, they and the judiciary
are dealing with mere symptoms of bad
governance.
Need for a systemic response at various
levels
Short-term measures: Launch of large
Employment Generation Projects
The truth is that a very large propor-
tion of the problem of the rising crime
in India can be traced directly to lack
of directional inputs from the prime
ministers office and a non-serious plan-
ning commission. The primary job of the
latter is to detect trends very early and
initiate timely and measured policy or
project based responses. It is therefore
worrying that it has not initiated a single,
sustainable, large employment generat-
ing scheme since 2004.
Lack of strategic thinking within the
planning commission and the govern-
ment shows up in the schemes that
have been promoted. They started the
MNREGS to create rural employment but
it did not create any real sustainable ca-
pacity within the economy. The Aadhaar-
based initiatives too do not and cannot
create any genuine productive capacity
or employment.
Given this, the justice JS Verma com-
mittees report looks rather narrow and
relatively unimportant in its scope.
A more pressing need is to know why
the government has not initiated a single
genuine employment generation project
in eight years when it is aware of the
unemployment projections.
Census data and education statistics
indicate that in excess of 60% of students
drop out of school after class 5 because
there is a shortage of 5,00,000 second-
ary schools across India. This indicates
that approximately 60% of the 20 crore
maybe just 10 % 15 % of those 200 Million unemployed young people have reached the street and
we already have so much crime. Imagine what will happen when the balance 85 % + arrive. This is
not to say that a majority of unemployed young people are potential criminals, but the authentic
numbers in the table below and empirical correlations linking rising crime, especially theft to un-
employment from around the world, indeed make for a planners nightmare.

the working age group resulting in low

young people who will arrive in the job
If to rising
market un-employment,
by 2018 can only be employed we in add a skewed sex ratio, the forecast
wellagriculture and construction. Capacity
be on its way to becoming the most dangerous place on earth of the problem
creation projects in these sectors (for ex-
theample,
police fordams
this, they andareas)
the Judiciary are just dealing with symptoms
check in drought-hit
therefore need to be cleared on a fast-
track basis to generate jobs fast.
The problem is getting bigger. Every
single day that the government hesi-
tates to clear projects, an astounding
3,65,000 people are being rendered job-
less. The asking rate is getting worse.
There is therefore a clear need to create
long-term employment for at least 10
crore people in a sustainable manner.
Healthcare alone can employ over three
crore, but the planning commission in a
decision which reflects a serious lack of
imagination has now clearly stated that
it wants to reduce government involve-
ment in the sector.
Some may argue that FDI in retail is
aimed at creating jobs. That is simply
not enough as by the governments own
admission, this move will add just one
crore new jobs. Project initiation and
clearance therefore needs to be put on a
fast track.
Medium- to long-term measures: Focus
on building new secondary education
capacity
The fundamental reason for the disinte-
gration of value systems in Indian society
and crime against women is a rapidly
failing education system and especially
the collapse of secondary education.
The truth is that a very large
proportion
of the rising crime in India
can be traced directly to lack
of directional inputs from
the prime ministers office
and a non-serious planning
commission. The primary
job of the latter is to detect
trends very early and initiate
timely and measured policy
or project based responses.
The data clearly indicates the true rea-
sons for the rise in unemployment and
crime:
1. Shortage of over five lakh secondary
schools: Most children are dropping out
of school after class 5, not because they forces three to five times so that more
want to but because there are no schools
to go to.
2. Very poor teacher quality: Only 46%
of teachers in India have studied beyond
class 12. In
Bihar only 21% of teachers have stud-
ied beyond class 10.
Thus, if any single factor were re-
sponsible for low skill levels within
employment and a galloping crime rate,
it is the crippling shortages and teacher
quality issues we have in our secondary
school system.
The governments response in the
form of the RTE Act has not added any
sustainable productive capacity within
the economy. It is destroying even the
private school system by making existing
private schools financially unviable. The
planning commission and the HRD min-
istry have seriously damaged the school
system due to a lack of understanding of
fundamentals.
The current literacy-centric system
within the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan has
lowered the status of the teacher and
therefore the least qualified people
have landed the most important jobs in
the country training our children. No
amount gets ominous
of computerisation canIndia
replacemight
the teacher who provides us with our
for women. We cannot blame
values. Only a good teacher and enlight-
of bad
ened parents governance.
can inculcate the concept of
manwoman equality in a childs mind.
India led the world for thousands of
years because it had a teacher-centric
system. So, if we provide excellent incen-
tives for teachers, universal literacy will
follow by itself.
Therefore, if the government is sincere
about making India safe for women, it
should initiate a large project to build
more secondary schools and provide
good incentives for teachers. Building
more secondary schools will repair our
rapidly disintegrating moral fabric and
dramatically bring down crime against
women. Necessary financing can be put
in place in three months while adding 20
lakh new jobs.
The other alternative to initiating large
social infrastructure projects by the gov-
ernment and the
planning commission is to increase the
size of the land-based internal security
than 31.2 crore jobless people can be
effectively controlled. As this is clearly
unviable, India needs to enter an era of
megaprojects very quickly. n
Puntambekar, a corporate planner with a
Fortune 500 company, is also project de-
signer of the Indian Education Megaproject.
Views expressed are personal.

www.GovernanceNow.com 29
 people politics policy performance
Readers Write In
(C)laws of the land
For the sake of humanity, there is a need to
review the criminal tag to suicide attempt
Mukesh Rawat
Man was born free, yet everywhere he is
in chains
Rousseau
I
ndia chose to be a welfare state 66
years ago with promises of remov-
ing tears from every eye. In this
view, the fifth and sixth decades of
our independence have been leg-
endary when it comes to realising how
those promises could never be realised.
In the 15 years of these two decades so
far, every year an average 1.2 lakh Indi-
ans committed suicide.
More than one lakh persons (1,34,599)
in the country lost their lives by commit-
ting suicide during 2010. This indicates
an increase of 5.9% over the previous
year (1,27,151). The number of suicides
in the country during the decade (2000
10) has recorded an increase of 23.9%
The all-India rate of suicide (number
of suicides per one lakh population)
was 11.4 as compared to 10.9 in 2009,
says the national crime record bureaus
(NCRB) report on Accidental Deaths and
Suicides in India 2011.
These figures, apart from raising many
serious questions about our policies and
the nature and notion of our welfare
state, also point a finger at inefficiency
and indifference of the society in ad-
dressing the issue.
Here I will focus solely on the issue of
the plight of the suicide attempt survi-
vors under the law and not suicide per
se. Section 309 of the Indian penal code
(IPC) reads: Whoever attempts to com-
mit suicide and does any act towards
the commission of such offence shall be
punished with simple imprisonment for
a term which may extend to one year or
30 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
fine, or with both.
In a society like ours, which sees an act
as an end in itself without venturing into
the wisdom of the contributory reasons
for that act, a suicide attempt survivor is
seen with an unsympathetic eye. Attempt
to suicide is definitely an act of shame
for humanity and its principles. It is an
act that demands mourning (both for
the individual and the phenomenon) but
should it necessarily be a crime? Yes, we
must strive hard in unison to outwit sui-
cide but we should not tag its attempt
as a legal offence. Because, by doing so,
those who fortunately escape from the
jaws of death will be tagged as criminals,
with their names registered in the crimi-
nal records forever a burden they will
have to bear for the rest of their lives.
By criminalising it, will that person not
live under a heavier burden than ever
before? Will this tag (and the shadow it
casts) not instigate him to do the same
again, and thus reduce his chances of
recovering life again? Is this what the
union and the law of the land aspire
for? The answer definitely has to be a big
No. The union and the law want them to
live as dignified citizens and not as crimi-
nals. All mistakes need not necessarily
be crimes at times you need to handle
them with emotions and sympathy and
not legislation.
A supreme court bench of justices Mar-
kandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra in
2011 noted that the time has come when
it (section 309 of IPC) should be deleted
by parliament as it has become anach-
ronistic we therefore recommend to
parliament to consider the feasibility of
deleting section 309 from the IPC.
In September 2011, when asked their
opinion, 25 states gave their consent to
the home ministry to remove that sec-
tion. The law ministry then said that
it would be removed within one year.
However, it has been 16 months since
and the draconian section continues to
haunt the society.
The 210th report of the law commission
says: It needs mention here that only a
handful of countries in the world, like
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singa-
pore and India have persisted with this
undesirable law it is felt that attempt
to suicide may be regarded more as a
manifestation of a diseased condition
of mind deserving treatment and care
rather than an offence to be visited with
punishment.
The Delhi high court in State vs Sanjay
Kumar Bhatia, a case under section 309
of IPC, observed: Instead of the society
hanging its head in shame that there
should be such social strains that a young
man (the hope of tomorrow) should be
driven to suicide compounds its inad-
equacy by treating the boy as a criminal.
It is ironic that section 309 still continues
to be on our penal code. The result is that
a young boy driven to such frustration
so as to seek ones own life would have
escaped human punishment if he had
succeeded but is to be hounded by the
police, because the attempt has failed.
It would be helpful to listen to some-
body who has undergone this trauma.
The way society treats you after your
failed suicide attempt has a great role in
determining the future course of your
journey. Even though my family mem-
bers never mentioned it to me, neigh-
bours always gave me a nasty glare
whenever I crossed them, says Nikhil
Gupta (name changed), a second year
student of Delhi University. Behind my
back they would say, Look, he tried to
commit suicidewhat a disgrace he is to
his family!
Now, when I look back on my life, it
is not the attempt that scares me, what
scares is the treatment I was subjected
to after the failed attempt. It does a lot of
psychological hampering and you start
cursing yourself all again. You sometime
even think of a second attempt.
In Maruti Shripati Dubal v. State of Ma-
harashtra case, the Bombay high court
observed: If the purpose of the punish-
ment for attempted suicide is to prevent
the prospective suicides by deterrence,
the same is not achieved by punishing
those who have made the attempts, as
no deterrence is going to hold back those
 Arun kumar

who want to die for a social or political way the victim himself was thinking at If we carefully observe why people
cause or to leave the world either be- that very instant. Otherwise, our quest commit suicide it does appear that most
cause of the loss of interest in life or for for the solution will result in a series of of them are driven out of frustration
self-deliverance. hysteria wherein we will be focusing over their mad, sad and bad state of life
It is important that we understand solely on the ethos of morality and which consequently perpetuates a feel-
that suicide is not a choice legality and not p racticality. ing of helplessness and hopelessness;
but a compulsion. It is Section 309 may be con- a downtrodden mind and the ever-
not something that stitutionally sound, as engulfing and expectant society casting
one does with a Section declared in the Gian a lingering glare, often resembling that
great pomp and 309 of IPC (which Kaur case, but the of a scavenger. At times these reasons,
joy. It is always criminalises suicide larger questions in summation, are ponderous enough
an involuntary that demands for a mortals mind to digest them all. It
and reflexive
bid) may be constitutionally answering is: is may just swallow them and not chew;
action wherein sound, as declared in the Gian it humane too? and when it does swallow, they choke
the individual Kaur case, but a larger questions Also, we need him down to oblivion, thus devouring his
has the least demands an answer: is it humane to understand physical frame.
and often no that what is Even though the person concerned is
control over
too? For, what is constitutionally constitution- to be blamed, he is not to be prosecuted.
his mind. He is correct may not necessarily ally correct may The environment around and the norms
totally governed be morally and ethically not necessarily and perceptions of society do play a ma-
by the environ- correct as well. be morally and jor role in it they catalyse the act.
ment around and ethically correct as Lets hope that we will be able to repeal
the never-ending well. The law com- this section and combat this menace with
psychological webs. Let mission points out, a more mature, flexible, tolerant, and
us not analyse things from The supreme court in the productive approach. n
a second persons viewpoint case of Gian Kaur focused on
because then we cant really attach the constitutionality of section 309. It Rawat is a Political Science (Hons) student in
ourselves to the agony that the victim did not go into the wisdom of retaining Delhi College of Arts and Commerce; Univer-
suffers from. We need to approach it the or continuing the same in the statute. sity of Delhi. mukeshrawat705@gmail.com

www.GovernanceNow.com 31
Arun kumar

I N T E R V I E W

Blake C Clayton
New York-based energy expert

India doesnt
have robust
oil and gas
infrastructure

B
lake C Clayton, an energy ex-
pert with the New York-based
think tank Council on Foreign
Relations (CFR), says that the
challenge before India is not provid-
ing cheap energy to the wealthiest but
to those living in rural areas. Clayton,
who has a doctorate from Oxford Uni-
versity, says that if India is to become
self-sufficient in the energy sector, it
has to embrace new technologies.
In New Delhi to deliver a lecture,
Clayton spoke with Trithesh Nandan.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
What are your predictions for global
energy trends?
There are interesting trends. In many
ways, there will be more growth in
energy and power demands around
the world, especially in the develop-
ing world. India and China are at the
heart of that story. The energy compa-
ny BP came out with statistical projec-
tions a few months back, which show
that India and China alone will con-
tribute as much as 50 percent of the
power demand growth between now
and 2030. So, it is a very exciting time
for India simply because the decisions
made here by consumers, by business-
es and the power sector will have a
tremendous impact on energy trends.
India faces a shortage of energy. It is
even hurting economic growth. What
would be your prescription for India?
There are a few lessons for India. The
demand for energy or growth of ener-
gy is a good thing. When the economy
and the population are growing, de-
mands for energy grow. My hope is
that the kind of robust energy growth
that was seen in India in the last one
decade will continue to grow. It does
pose challenges, though.
Will you elaborate?
It poses challenges for people of India;
especially for the poor (and the) mid-
dle class (in terms of affordable en-
ergy). It is a challenge for policymak-
ers how to develop the right kind
of regulations that will allow energy
economy to grow in a responsible, af-
fordable and secure way. Energy ef-
ficiency and finding ways to embrace
modern technologies are the key ar-
eas. They are developed outside India:
bring them to the country and deploy
it on a large scale. The other important
component is trade. India like other
countries is dependent on imported
or exported goods. And when it comes
to energy, finding ways like bringing
natural gas (to the country) will be an
important part.
But I also think that too much reli-
ance on imported energy can be a bad
thing. One way of achieving energy se-
curity for the countries is to find what
they can produce domestically. So, the
challenge for India from the policy
perspective is how to create the level
of competition. When it comes to ex-
ploring and producing energy sources
like coal, natural gas and oil, enable
the market to help and provide.
But India doesnt have enough
oil reserves. How can it take up
exploration in a major way?
I think it is likely that India has much
greater natural gas resources than it
currently realises. However, there are
infrastructure issues in exploiting the
countrys energy resources.
New technologies should have been
developed and deployed on a large
scale. Hydraulic fracking* combined
with horizontal drilling have enabled
countries like the US, Canada, the UK,
Russia, Argentina and others to find
a vast quantity of oil and natural gas
from shale reserves that they did not
know existed before and to extract
profitably. When it comes to India, my
sense is that much of shale reserves
are relatively unexplored. That means
on a practical level in years and de-
cades to come, there is a good rea-
son to explore. The quantity of shale
resources may be estimated at much
higher than expected today. Thats the
trend happening in the UK, China and
other countries. Once companies go
outside and actually kick the tyres, ex-
plore well, they find it.
There are much more oil and gas in
different parts of the world than we
had realised. And, India is no excep-
tion to that trend.
The US and Canada have a vast oil
and gas infrastructure. It is more lim-
ited over here. Also, there are issues
regarding the pipeline infrastructure
and rail and road network connec-
tivity with the resources. The other
thing is that in the US, there are many
small-scale companies involved in oil
exploration, while in India only big
companies dominate this sector. The
Chinese are inviting big oil and gas
companies so that they (China) can
learn technologies from them. If oil
and gas production is not regulated
carefully, it will be dirty.
Given the great energy boom in
When it comes to
India, my sense is that
much of shale reserves are
relatively unexplored. That
means on a practical level
in years and decades to
come, there is a good
reason to explore.
the US in the last couple of years
after the new findings, do you see
cooperation between Washington
and New Delhi evolving in this area?
The cooperation is already under way.
Washington and New Delhi signed
an agreement in 2009 that called for
greater technological cooperation in
the area of shale exploration and pro-
duction, not to mention other critical
areas like development of renewable
energy and energy efficiency. So, the
North American gas boom is a good
thing for India. In the US and Canada,
in shale production, there are supply
side gains. That is a good thing for im-
porting countries in other parts of the
world. Since 2006, 3 million barrels a
day of oil imported by the US is being
circumscribed because the US is able
to provide for its own needs. India and
other countries are major importers of
oil. That means more energy leftover
for these countries, which means low-
er prices worldwide. Also, in future
the equation will change as there will
be more energy cooperation.
Do you think the discovery of shale
resources will take geopolitical focus
away from West Asia?
When it comes to geopolitics, the re-
lationship between the US and other
countries in the Middle East, many
analysts ask what is now in store for
the US. The US is much less reliant
on Middle Eastern oil imports than
it used to be. It is also much less reli-
ant on oil from the other parts of the
world. Policymakers, whether in Mos-
cow, New Delhi, Brussels or Washing-
ton, do tend to care about who they
trade energy with. It is a global mar-
ket and people are free to buy from
and sell to whoever they want. The
fact that the US is becoming more en-
ergy self-sufficient means that its tra-
ditional relationship with the Middle
East at least on energy perspective
is changing and it is changing very
dramatically.
Will this lead the US to reshape its
role in the Middle East? No, I dont
think it will happen. I think there are
many interests that will take Washing-
ton to that part of the world whether
it is nuclear proliferation, support for
Israel and other allies or for human-
itarian objectives. There are many
ways that the US would like to pitch in
the region.
How should India revamp its energy
governance?
Officials here at the highest level are
interested in that issue. What change
should India make in order to provide
more secure energy future? There are
a couple of lessons. Finding ways to
get energy to those who dont have it
or have very little of it; that is the key.
It is not just a question of energy ef-
ficiency for major cities or cheaper
energy for the wealthiest people but
for those people who are living in ru-
ral areas and providing energy to help
them. Embracing technologies and
best practices from all over the world
also matters.
I think leading energy companies
are bringing them to India. It also
matters to increase global competition
when it comes to production of vital
energy resources: oil and natural gas.
More bidding of these resources will
tend to produce more efficiency and
production gains are possible. n
*Fracking: Fracking refers to the
procedure of creating fractures in rocks
and rock formations by injecting fluid
into cracks to force them further open.
The larger fissures allow more oil and gas
to flow out of the formation and into the
wellbore, from where it can be extracted.
trithesh@governancenow.com
 people politics policy performance
Auditing Appointment
Trithesh Nandan
A
s he approaches his superan-
nuation in May, comptroller
and auditor general (CAG)
Vinod Rai knows it well that
he has been the chief tor-
menter of the UPA government. I can as-
sure you that the government, if they did
make a mistake appointing me as CAG,
will make the right choice next time, he
told a seminar organised by the Moneylife
Foundation in Mumbai in February.
We can be rest assured that the govern-
ment is currently busy making the right
choice. The question is how it is going to
select the next auditor in chief. And the
answer is, nobody has a clue. The names
of the recent occupants of this all-impor-
tant post were announced one fine day,
prompting many to allege arbitrariness.
In 1996, when the then CAG CG Somiah
was retiring, there was no announcement
of his replacement. The CAG office at
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg in Delhi was
in the dark for a few days as to who would
be their next boss. A week after Somiah
demitted office, the Narasimha Rao gov-
ernment approved VK Shunglus appoint-
ment. The orders came in the afternoon
and by evening he was administered the
oath of office by the president. Seventeen
years have passed since Somiah has re-
tired and we have had three CAGs, but
the same secrecy has been maintained in
the selection even though Dr BR Ambed-
kar described CAG as the most important
functionary under the constitution.
To rectify this, several retired officers
of the Indian Audit & Accounts Service
(IAAS) recently came together under the
aegis of the Forum of Retired Officers of
IAAS (FRO-IAAS), and sent a memoran-
dum to the president and the prime min-
ister on March 20 calling for transpar-
ency and procedural propriety in the
selection of the next CAG.
A selection committee be
constituted for the selection
of CAG which should consist
of the prime minister, the fi-
nance minister, the leader of u rea erna
B ov
opposition in the Lok Sabha,
&G
34 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
How not to
select Vinod
Rais successor
To ensure that the next CAG also keeps a
watchful eye on public coffers, we need
transparency in selection and a set of
eligibility criteria. Both have been missing
for a while
the speaker of the lower house, chairman
of the public accounts committee and
possibly the chief justice of India, it sug-
gested, thus calling for a collegium to ap-
point the next CAG.
There is a danger of some pliable per- randum. Only a phone call came from
son becoming the CAG to dilute the con-
stitutional authority. So it is necessary
that the PM and the president should be
coaxed to bring in a transparent selec-
tion process, says S Krishnan, president
of FRO-IAAS and former member-finance,
government of India.
He says that the formation of such a fo-
rum was necessary to remind the govern-
ment of its duty as even after 65 years of
Independence no norms have been laid
down for the selection of CAG.
The Forum has been active over the last
few years, as an informal body, defend-
ing CAG in the wake of reports that had
exposed numerous corruption scandals,
causing embarrassment to the UPA gov-
ernment. In January, when 50 re-
tired officers were discussing the
CAG report on the coal block al-
a c y location at the Institute of Pub-
u cr nce lic Auditors of India, the idea
of forming a formal body was
mooted. And one of the main
points discussed was the appointment of
Rais successor.
No response yet
The FRO-IAAS says that nobody from the
government has responded to its memo-
BJP parliamentary party chairman LK
Advanis office, says Krishnan.
Their suggestion of a collegium is not
new. Last year, Advani in a letter to the
PM had raised the issue of introducing a
broad-based collegium system to appoint
CAG. Gurudas Dasgupta, the CPI MP, also
wrote to the PM in November 2012 sug-
gesting a three-member collegium, com-
prising PM, the leader of the opposition in
the Lok Sabha and the chief justice of In-
dia. However, the Forum says Manmohan
Singh replied to him saying there was no
urgent need to consider changes in the
process of appointment of CAG.
Moreover, a similar system, of a high-
level broad-based committee, is followed
to select candidates for the statutory posts
like the chief vigilance commissioner
(CVC) and the chairman of the national
human rights commission (NHRC).
The Forum questions the PMs response.
The FRO-IAAS members have already met
the public accounts committee chairman,
 Murli Manohar Joshi, in this regard and submit-
ted the memorandum. They have also written to
Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and leader of
opposition Sushma Swaraj.
At this juncture, when the CAG office has come
under serious attack, we want a person of impec-
cable integrity and professional competence (in
the office). There is serious danger that a person
(holding the post) can toe the government line,
says BP Mathur, a former deputy CAG and a
member of FRO-IAAS.

Selection criteria
The 1971 Audit Act sets the parameters for CAG
appointment, talking about a person possessing
sound knowledge of auditing and accounting, but
it does not specify the background, competence,
qualification to the post.
Even as many countries have moved towards
ratification of their respective chief auditors ap-
pointment by parliament, India still chooses to
go a hush-hush in the appointment of CAG. It is
totally arbitrary and directly selected by the PM.
Nobody knows how it is selected. Technically, the
FM is to moot a proposal but for the last three
or four appointments, there was arbitrary selec-
tion, says Mathur.
The constitutional office should attract the best
talent available, says Kamal Kant Jaswal, direc-
tor of the NGO, Common Cause, and former sec-
retary to the government of India.

Cadre questions
Since 1978, only retiring IAS secretaries or those
Vinod Rai who are on the verge of retiring have become
CAG. The CAG office now has five deputies, all
of them in the secretary level, who are from the
CAGs since independence IAAS cadre; but they are not promoted to the top
post of the organisation.
Earlier as the deputy CAGs were not in the sec-
1948-54 1984-90 retary level, they did not fit into the governments
V Narhari Rao, IAAS TN Chaturvedi, IAS unwritten convention of CAG coming from the
secretaries. Now that the deputy CAGs are also
1954-60 1990-96 equivalent to a secretary, why should not they be
AK Chanda, IAAS CG Somiah, IAS tried for the post? says R Parmeshwar, a former
deputy CAG. He says the current practice makes
1960-66 1996-02 CAG the only department where the cadre (IAAS)
cannot aim for the top post.
AK Roy, IAAS VK Shunglu, IAS
The Forum also maintains that an IAS officer
1966- 72 2002-08 corners the post without any training or formal
experience of dealing with high standards of au-
S Ranganathan, ICS VN Kaul, IAS diting government transactions, whereas a dep-
1972-78 2008-13 uty CAG with the wealth of experience is denied
the top post. It is an unfortunate fact that the
A Baksi, IAAS Vinod Rai, IAS IAS has cornered this post for itself over several
decades, like it has cornered all other non-cadre
1978-84
posts for IAS. That should be corrected, says Am-
Gian Prakash, IAS itabh Mukhopadhyay, a former director general

www.GovernanceNow.com 35
 What they say
I think the
high offices
should not
be a political
gift from the
power... One
of the review
commissions
examined
lateral entry
and promotional avenue
for deputy CAGs. That is a
policy issue. That must also
be considered. Selection
must be made on a persons
integrity, competence and
independent thinking.
MN Venkatachaliah
Former chief justice of India
in the CAG office.
However, former CEC SY Quraishi
says that the system of CAG coming
from bureaucracy has worked very
well. Why do you want to tinker the
system, he asks, even as he favours
more transparency in the selection of
top constitutional posts including CAG.
Former deputy CAG Mathur coun-
ters Quraishis logic. He says that the
fundamental reforms in the office
have not taken place in CAG for a long
time and an IAAS officer is needed for
that. Since 1978 when an IAS officer
was appointed to the post, there has
not been internal churning in terms
of reforms. People like Vinod Rai and
TN Chaturvedi have put in great ef-
forts in exposing the government and
taken a lot of interest in the work, but
on the internal front there is not much
to cheer (in terms of reforms) as it is
a technical department, says Mathur.
The first three IAAS officers who
held the post of CAG were heavily in-
volved in improving the office of CAG.
The first CAG of the independent In-
dia, Narhari Rao oversaw reforms and
36 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
For all
constitutional
posts, there is a
suggestion that if
the appointment
is done through a
collegium, it carries
more credibility.
Sometimes a
constitutional
authority is targeted wrongly
for being an appointee of
the government of the day.
However, that person has no
role in his own appointment,
and allegations of being
partial compromises his
independence.
SY Quraishi
Former chief election commissioner
Conflict of interest
Gian Prakash, the first IAS officer to
hold the CAG office, was previously de-
fence secretary. During his tenure, the
defence audits were compromised to
a certain extent. The defence audit of-
ficer of the CAG office had a tough time
dealing with Prakash. (But) comments
on defence audits kept reducing during
his tenure, says a retired officer privy to
the matter speaking on the condition of
anonymity.
VK Shunglu was industry secretary when
he was appointed as CAG and his succes-
sor VN Kaul was holding the post of the
secretary in the ministry of petroleum.
Questions were raised at that time on
their appointments because of conflict of
interests, says the retired officer, add-
ing however that there was no clear-cut
proof of conflict of interest in these two
cases.
At this juncture,
when the CAG office
has come under
serious attacks, we
want a person of
impeccable integrity
and professional
competence. There
is a deep danger that
a person can toe
governments line... Unless you go
for a transparent process, how will
you have the public confidence in
the post? Everybody has a stake in
the institution.
BP Mathur
Former deputy CAG and member of
FRO-IAAS
integration of finances of the princely
states that merged into India. Ashok
Chanda helped induct financial advis-
ers in different departments and dur-
ing AK Roys time, there was improve-
ment in the tax collection.
However, the same zeal of improv-
ing the CAG is not seen in the last three
decades, says Krishnan. The Forum
memorandum said, A more credible
explanation is that there is a tacit pref-
erence for the IAS. For more than 30
years now, the Indian Audit Depart-
ment has been continuously under
CAGs coming from the IAS. From the
point of view of the IAAS this looks like
a systematic exclusion of their service
and now virtual absorption of the post
of CAG in the IAS cadre. Whether that
feeling is right or wrong, it exists; and
it has had a demoralising effect on the
IAAS.
Demand for transparency: a short
history
The FRO-IAAS move is not the first to
seek transparency in CAG appoint-
ment. Before Somiah retired in 1996,
 If you The Public Interest How can
appoint an Foundation has already the PM say that
officer who moved a proposal that the existing
was a defence, there should be a collegium arrangement
petroleum which should prepare a for the
or telecom panel of candidates for appointment of
secretary and formal consideration for the CAG is working
make him appointment of the CAG. smoothly?
CAG, he will What is the
have to review Nripendra Misra arrangement?
Former chairman, TRAI In my opinion, there is
his own actions. How would
you ensure objectivity when no arrangement. There
executive decisions taken should be a selection
during his own term are to There should be a process so that the best
be considered by him? transparent policy for gets selected.
selecting CAG. In this kind
Kamal Kant Jaswal of appointment, the leader S Krishnan
President, Common Cause, and of opposition should be Former member-finance
former secretary, government included to make the matter and president of FRO-IAAS
of India more transparent.
DP Tripathi, spokesperson, NCP

the Common Cause under the direction of
late HD Shourie filed a writ petition in the
supreme court for transparency in CAG
appointment. Unfortunately the court in
a cryptic judgment said it had heard the
counsel and the petition was dismissed,
says Jaswal.
The then PAC chairman, Ram Naik, in
1996 took up the matter before the presi-
dent and the PM. He suggested, In the
context of Indian conditions, I feel that
recommendation for the appointment of
CAG to the president of India is made by
the prime minister acting with the agree-
ment of the leader of the opposition in
Lok Sabha. While making the recommen-
dations, guidelines and criteria for ap-
pointment of CAG may also be laid down
so that a healthy precedent is set for fu-
ture appointment to this office.
In 2000, the Vajpayee government set
up the national commission to review
the working of the constitution under
chairmanship of former chief Justice MN
Venkatachaliah. In one of its papers, the
panel laid down certain procedure of ap-
pointment to the CAG. The commission
favoured the appointment of CAG on
recommendation of a high-level indepen-
dent committee, which should include the
Lok Sabha speaker and the leader of the
opposition, besides the PM. When con-
tacted, justice Venkatachaliah said, The
CAG is a constitutional post and a very im-
portant institution. There must be some
objectivity to it, assessment of eligibility
and integrity to the post. His commission
apparently wanted only a person with ex-
tensive experience of government financ-
es, public audit and accounts system to be
eligible to hold the office.
In 2008, another civil society organisa-
tion, Public Cause Research Foundation
(PCRF) led by Arvind Kejriwal, filed a pe-
tition in the apex court when VN Kaul
was retiring as CAG, and Vinod Rai about
to be appointed. The Common Cause pro-
vided assistance to the PCRF in the mat-
ter. But the bench of chief justice KG
Balakrishnan and justice P Sathasivam
which heard the petition said, We will
not give any direction for the laying down
of guidelines for the appointment of CAG.
You have to find the guidelines in the con-
stitution. The petition was dismissed like
the earlier one in 1996.
The Common Cause has not given up.
On September 4, 2012, it wrote to the
PAC. There is no response from the PAC
office, Jaswal adds. But they are in no
mood to leave the field as FRO-IAAS and
Public Interest Foundation are also creat-
ing pressure on this issue.
We succeeded in challenging the ap-
pointment of PJ Thomas as the central vig-
ilance commissioner in 2011, for which
he had to resign, says Jaswal. While set-
ting aside the impugned appointment as
a nullity, the supreme court enunciated
a new jurisprudence of institutional in-
tegrity and held that, at the helm of the
countrys highest integrity institution, the
appointment of a person against whom a
charge of corruption was pending, under-
mined the effectiveness and integrity of
the institution, he says.
The Common Cause and FRO-IAAS will
extrapolate from that judgment if the gov-
ernment doesnt learn a lesson from the
Thomas affair and opts for anybody less
than the best candidate in the appoint-
ment of CAG. n
trithesh@governancenow.com

www.GovernanceNow.com 37
 people politics policy performance
Money Matters

Kajal Basu

I
t hasnt been a good year rather,
two years for West Bengal fi-
nance minister Amit Mitra. It was
only in August 30 last year that he
was assigned by Mamata Baner-
jee to head a group of ministers tasked
with putting Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd
back on its feet, but all his brainstorming
couldnt haul the long-troubled PSU out
of intensive care. An unflappable institu-
tion, the State Bank of India, did, after
installing its nominee on the HPL board
and, together with the Punjab National
Bank, superinfusing it with `116 crore.
And saving Mitras rep as a finance whiz.
But the West Bengal government still
means to dump its 40 percent stake in
HPL: Banerjees signature non-develop-
mental extravagances have forced it into
unexpected caution; and driven Mitra to
defend her impetuosity with a folderol
FY13 budget designed to maybe shock
and hopefully awe the rural electorate
whose block vote during the coming
panchayat elections is paramount to the
Trinamool.
The problem for Mitra is that he made
a bad job of it, possibly because he was

Budgeting for (and

caught between a rock (Banerjee) and
a hard place (zero finmin rollercoaster
experience). Although this former Ficci

secretary-general embraced Banerjees
hammy socialism seemingly without a
moment spent in resetting his ideological
GPS, it still fazed people that he began his
March 21 budget speech with an insup-
portable calculation using a version of
the Keynes multiplier formula whose
variables only he seems to know.
Mitra declared that the `22,000 crore
of interest and debt principal repaid to
the centre (FY11), on which Banerjee had
demanded a three-year running mora-
torium, if available for government
expenditure for developmental purpose
could have created as much as Rs. 88,000
crores of gross state domestic product
(GSDP) as per the Keynesian multiplier.
by) dummies
Is Amit Mitra the worst finance minister in West Bengals
troubled economic history?
The truth is, whatever version Mitra cut taxes, he has actually increased VAT
employed Keynes own Great Depres- across the board). The gently argumenta-
sion 1936 General Theory model, Paul tive CPM leader of the opposition, Surjya
Samuelsons influential 1939 reworking, Kanta Mishra, chose to not put it on re-
any post-2009 Great Recession model cord but Mitras Keynesian Kalkulation
not one increases `22,000 crore fourfold is bunk.
to add to the existing GSDP; and with no The applauding ghost of Keynes not-
help from a complementary tax cut mul- withstanding, in 2012-13, West Bengals
tiplier (because Mitra has not only not loan repayment will rocket to `25,195

38 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013


crore; and in 2013-14 to `28,318.68 crore,
with debt bloating to `2.47 lakh crore
up `49,000 crore from the `1.98 lakh
crore debt that Banerjee inherited in
FY11 from the previous Red government,
and up `38,620 crore from the FY12 debt
of `2,08,380 crore.
And these are just projections part
maths, part wishful thinking meant
to be revised and revision came swift
and fast: The states net revenue deficit
went berserk, surging from `6,976.01
crore in Mitras FY12 budget estimate to
`13,308.10 crore in this years revised
estimate. (Not in recent memory have re-
visions in national or state budgets any
state crossed 20 percent, leave aside
almost doubling.) Stranger still, Mitra
couldnt explain how he calculated an
FY14 revenue deficit of `3,488.49 crore
a quarter of the FY13 deficit despite expectedly, shredded the 57-page budget
the state governments ongoing splurge document and his 45-minute speech,
funded mostly by market borrowings. which was partly ad lib and had respect-
Some economists and senior finance ful obiter dicta to Rabindranath Tagore,
bureaucrats are quietly convinced Mirza Ghalib and Swami Vivekananda,
that Mitra has shown himself to be the none of who knew anything about eco-
least capable, most counterfactual and, nomics. And to Keynes, Paul Samuelson
potentially, the most ruinous finance and Milton Friedman, who did.
minister in the states history. He is not He was proud to say that undaunted
even a good accountant, said a Writers by debt repayment of `25,000 crore, the
Buildings Big Babu. Or he would at least state government had paid out `42,000
know how to fudge the figures without crore in salaries and pensions. It did
leaving a trail a first-year commerce stu- but by monthly market borrowings of
dent can follow. `1,000-1,500 crore and blowing through
An economist said, He has three more half its borrowing limit of `22,821 crore
budgets to prepare. Three. And he has by September 2012.
already lost the plot at number two. Meanwhile, the allocations to various
We all know the magnitude of upward departments seem like a bipolar opti-
revision that the 2013-14 deficit will callmists take on revenue collection: `90
for since it will be way greater than hiscrore to the tourism department, a 104
absurd projection and substantially more percent hike; `1,938.08 crore to the de-
than FY13s. What none of us knows is partments of irrigation & waterways and
water resources investigation
and development; `1,049 crore
Mitras numbers-challenged but to the health & family welfare
confidently-articulated budget, Mamata department; `2,713.05 crore to
Banerjees shob cholbe (everything the school education department;
`444.24 crore to the technical ed-
goes) impulse, and a cabinet packed ucation and training department;
with partymen scared to offer a word `1,015.32 crore to the department
of corrective criticism or opinion could of women & child development
add up to Mitra needing to do some and social welfare; `800.09 crore
to the public health engineering
extraordinarily creative accounting in department; `375 crore to the
the next budget. Bengal is in for grief if transport department...
he does, and grief if he doesnt. Its fairly cut and dry but even
cabinet colleagues are undecided
on the quality of number-crunch-
how Mitra will handle it with a straight ing. The cabinets contradictions came to
face. light when the Economic Review (ER),
A longstanding advocate of ruthless collated under the aegis of industries and
anti-deficit measures, Mitra seems to lack parliamentary affairs minister Partha
a nummermeisters basal understand- Chatterjee, openly contested Mitras stats:
ing: that finance ministers are for run- Mitra had claimed that since May 2011,
ning a state, and chief ministers are for 257 units had invested `1,12,769.36 crore
showboating. Its no secret that Bengals in the state; according to the ER, invest-
engine is running on fumes. But Mitra ment realisation in FY13 was `312.24
chose grandstanding over reflection crore, a microscopic speck 360 times
when he increased the plan outlay by smaller than Mitras figure. Chatterjee
14.12 percent to `26,674 crore, promis- finally apologised and upheld Mitras
ing to make it doable with a 22.8 percent numbers after Mamata Banerjee blew a
hike in own tax revenue never mind fuse and blamed the massive disparity
that the numbers dont mesh. on lack of interdepartmental coordina-
Then, again, he aimed his budget tion. But Writers scuttlebutt has it that
speech at rurals who his boss wants in given Chatterjees animus against Mitra,
the Trinamools electoral corral, not at who is frustratingly non-confrontational,
his political and intellectual peers who, this was a disaster waiting to happen.
www.GovernanceNow.com 39
 people politics policy performance
Money Matters
In the run-up to critical elections, nu-
merical gaffes the size of billboards are
an oppositions windfall. Surjya Kanta
Mishra, whom Mitra had derided after
his budget speech as a mere (medi-
cal) doctor who wouldnt understand
Keynesian economics, gleefully nagged
away when Chatterjee informed him that
in the 10 months of March 1-December
31, 2012, private investment propos-
als have amounted to `8,507.72 crore,
of which `2,108.14 crore have already
West Bengal finance minister being heckled by SFI supporters outside the Planning Commission
office during his visit to Delhi with Mamata Banerjee and other ministers of her cabinet on April 9.
been realised. In that case, Mishra told
Chatterjee, investment proposals over
the remaining 12 months of Trinamool
rule (of 22 months, to date) must amount
to `104,261.64 crore a preposterously
large monthly average of `8,688.47 crore.
Chatterjee wouldnt take the bait, but
Mishra had made his point: the budget
stats were fried.
This fiasco originated in Mamata Ba-
nerjees triumphal delirium in mid- to
end-2011, when she promised the stuff
of dreams to industry and mati-manush
alike, and tycoons from all over India
entered into industrial entrepreneur
memorandums (IEM) with the Trinamool
government of a staggering `3.03 lakh
40 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
crore. West Bengal hadnt received so
many proposals since 1992: If actualised,
they would have given employment to
about 43,500 people. As Banerjees ma-
mati-manush vision unfolded, however,
102 of the 135 IEMs were ditched; 33
IEMs were quietly absorbed.
That year, according to the union com-
merce ministrys department of indus-
trial policy and promotions 2012 report
on Indias industrial health, West Bengal
ended up with new investment of a pid-
arun kumar
dling `325 crore or 7 percent of the
proposals. It is likely that the stats in the
ER ran close to the truth: `312.24 crore
is a mere 4 percent less than `325 crore,
and mirrors the investment paralysis on
the ground, with industrial investment
limited to captive PSUs strong-armed
into expanding capacity.
But, said a state finance bigwig, Look
at it another way. If, in 2011, `3.03 lakh
crore of proposals came to a realised
`325 crore of investment, it would be
ungenerous of us to deny that `104 lakh
crore of proposals in FY12 could, theoret-
ically, lead to `312 crore being realised.
Its a 33 percent increase in success rate
over 2011.
Not that, he added, I would advise
building a castle based on this conjec-
ture. Conjecture? To be honest, yes.
How could anybody dig out the precise
figures? The minister [Partha Chatterjee]
has made the directorate of industries
[which collated the ER stats] off-bounds
for everybody.
Chatterjee wasnt the only Trinamool
senior who took issue with Mitras sub-
missions of horizon-to-horizon success.
State agricultural minister Arup Roy told
the assembly on March 19 that the gov-
ernment intended to issue fresh tenders,
because, Mitras claims notwithstanding,
work was still far from over on establish-
ing 95 krishak bazaars in 95 districts
(with a sanctioned amount of `536.60
crore): In fact, tenders for 45 krishak
bazaars had found no takers. Mitra had
also announced that construction of five
new ITIs was finished: state technical ed-
ucation minister Ujwal Biswas countered
crossly that while work on 13 ITIs was
ongoing, not one had been completed be-
tween June 1, 2011 and January 21, 2013.
Aside from the ignorance of the rural
voter, during his budget speech, Mitra
banked upon that age-old weapon of
mass distraction inessential scholar-
liness: he referred to the Keynesian mul-
tiplier effect to explain why his increase
of VAT by 1 percent wouldnt hurt the
manush of the mati, and to Paul Samu-
elson and Milton Friedman to explain
everything else. The name-dropping blitz
saw the opposition benches glazing over,
until Surjya Kanta Mishra snapped out of
catatonia and spent a few excitable min-
utes in a bhadralok intellectual gabfest
with Mitra after which Mitra, by then
singed by Mamata Banerjee and Partha
Chatterjees glowering disapproval from
the row behind, told Mishra that he was
out of his depth.
Blessed by St Keynes or no, Mitras
house of stats will stand or implode
depending on how long he is willing to
dissimulate in the service of the Mamata
Doctrine of Infallibility. A sign of his
tensile strength lies in a small statistical
twist. Last budget, he estimated own tax
revenue (OTR) collection at `31,222.25
crore; this budget, his revised estimates
came to `32,405.21 crore 30 percent
more than in 2011-12. But Mitra chose
caution over exhilaration and limited
the OTR estimate for next year at a sober
22.8 percent over this years.
Of course, no one knows better that a
chunk of FY13 revenue came from the
state governments reimposition of oc-
troi, a one-time hike in electricity duty,
an increase in coal cess, serial fuel price
hikes (which provided the state govern-
ment a tidy bit of tax), an alcohol price
increase (coupled with the governments
sly, unpublicised decision to allow some
liquor off-shops to operate as on-shops
and to expand bar timings, bringing
a windfall in one-time fees and more
tax), and stamp and registration fee on
real estate. These seven factors together
brought in `4,769 crore, or nearly a sev-
enth of revenue collected.
Another reality-check indicator is
that while the state ranked fourth in
revenue growth between 2006-07 and
2011-12, it has simultaneously topped
the revenue deficit graph since 2007.
The 13th finance commissions report
on projected OTR of the states during
2010-15 cautions that West Bengal will
slide to a ranking of 7 in a list topped
by Maharashtra, whose collection rate
the 13th FC projects as more than 2.5
times that of West Bengals. In 2011-12,
West Bengals GDP per capita was below
the national average, ranking it 14 in the
states list.
For all Mitras ambition to cut the FY14
revenue deficit by about `10,000 crore
compared to this year, there are global
institutions that see no marked upswing
in Kolkatas and, by extension, West
Bengals future. The November 2009
PricewaterhouseCoopers UKs Economic
Outlook report concluded that in the
global city GDP rankings 2025, Mumbai
would shoot up from 29th to 11th, Delhi
from 37th to 19th and Kolkata from
61st to 37th. Also, Kolkata, projected to
become the worlds eighth-largest mega-
lopolis in 2025, doesnt even make it to
the GDP Top 30, where both Mumbai and
Delhi find respectable rankings.
This stoic realism which isnt neces-
sarily cause for gloom has been lacking
in both of Mitras budgets, which is per-
plexing because nothing in his exalted
CV suggests anything other than the
priceless dispassion of the macroecono-
mist. While he admitted that industrys
contribution to the GSDP had slipped to
18.8 percent in FY12 from 19.1 percent
in FY11, he couldnt bring himself to con- duction centre) in each of Bengals 341
cede that West Bengal might need a firm
corrective hand. For instance, given in-
dustrys enduring investment wariness,
it seems hardly notable that industrial
manufacturing dropped one step from 56
percent to 55.3 percent but the disquiet be interfaces between farmers and the
lies in the detail: two-third of Bengals
GSDP is now a spreading monopoly
of the largely unpoliced, unlegislated
Some economists and senior finance
bureaucrats are quietly convinced that
Mitra has shown himself to be the
least capable, most counterfactual and,
potentially, the most ruinous finance
minister in the states history. He is not
even a good accountant, said a Writers
Buildings Big Babu. Or he would at least
know how to fudge the figures without
leaving a trail a first-year commerce
student can follow.
services sector, whose collateral victim
is not industry but agriculture, Baner-
jees pet mati-manush. At 16.9 percent,
Bengal agricultures contribution to the
GSDP FY13 is half its FY12 contribution
of 38.3 percent. Add to this the fact that But an ide fixe is at work here: with one
the state, along with the Andaman &
Nicobar Islands and Sikkim, attracted a
pathetic 1 percent of FDI between 2000
and 2012 - and its suddenly evident that now, over-empowering block develop-
the increasing fragility of agriculture, in ment officers by diktat, transferring the
the only state in the country that actu-
ally empowered marginal farmers and
sharecroppers through a radical land
redistribution programme, means big
trouble. Nor does Bengal have a safety
net for the tens of thousands certain
crumble before an expansionist services
sector: The states negligible per capita
social sector expenditure from 2007-08
to 2012-13 ranks it at third among the
Bottom 5 states; the SSE component of its
GSDP slumped from 7.1 percent (FY12 re-
vised estimates) 6.6 percent (FY13 budget
estimates).
All this is evidence of the hollowness
of what Banerjee considers among her
most progressive ideas: the setting up of
a krishi utpadan kendra (agriculture pro-
blocks. The main objective of the kendra:
to house the single-window system for
farmers proposed in September 2012
(and scheduled for kickoff in October
2012). Banerjee means the windows to
seven departments that handle, with no
particular coordination, the giant post-
Operation Barga agricultural mess. With
her usual disregard for struc-
tural coordination, Baner-
jee wants hundreds, maybe
thousands, of officials from
the marketing, horticulture,
food processing, water re-
sources, fisheries, animal re-
source development and ir-
rigation departments, banks
and insurance companies
providing rapid-fire informa-
tion to farmers on central
and state schemes, credit,
crop insurance, animal and
plant diseases, fertiliser, soil
health, agriculture infra-
structure and marketing.
No ones told Didi why this
scheme is almost six months behind
schedule that its a bureaucratic night-
mare and cash-suck, and could poten-
tially crash the system in the frenzied
run-up to the 2016 assembly elections.
eye on the panchayat polls and another
on cornering every last rural vote, Baner-
jee has been setting the stage for months
obstinately scrupulous ones on punish-
ment postings 19 BDOs as recently as
March 21, for raising procedural issues
relating to agricultural scheme beneficia-
ries cleared by her ministers.
Mitras numbers-challenged but confi-
dently-articulated budget, Mamata Ba-
nerjees shob cholbe (everything goes)
impulse, and a cabinet packed with par-
tymen scared to offer a word of correc-
tive criticism or opinion could add up to
Mitra needing to do some extraordinarily
creative accounting in the next budget.
Bengal is in for grief if he does, and grief
if he doesnt. n
Basu is a senior journalist based in Kolkata
www.GovernanceNow.com 41

Puja Bhattacharjee
A
kiosk set up on one side of
a busy road in south Delhis
Govindpuri was alive with
activity at 10 am on the morn-
ing of April 3. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
volunteers donning the now-famous I
Want Jan Lokpal and I Want Swaraj
caps were busy distributing leaflets to
passersby, urging them to support AAP in
their pro-common man and anti-corrup-
tion endeavours. Busy dashing towards
public transports, most people, though,
barely paid attention to contents of the
leaflets they grabbed before hastening
away.
This was the 12th day of the fast of
activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal
against inflated water and power bills
issued in Delhi.
To know how these signatures are tak-
en, Governance Now accompanied some
AAP volunteers to Sangam Vihar, where
they collected signatures of people pay-
ing inflated bills. According to AAP, these
signatures will be forwarded to Delhi
chief minister Sheila Dikshit to register
the collective public grievance.
42 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
A day with aam aadmi
Governance Now follows Kejriwals volunteers as
they move through lanes in a New Delhi locality,
collecting signatures for their campaign against
inflated power and water bills
Sinha said there are over 3,000 AAP
Who are these volunteers? members in three blocks of Durg district
Vishwaratna Sinha, the district coordina- alone, most of them salaried profes-
tor from Durg, said a team of AAP volun- sionals. According to an AAP function-
teers has come to Delhi for an indefinite ary, committees are being formed in all
period to support Kejriwal. A business- states, while district-level committees are
man by profession, Sinha said he felt active in almost all states.
inspired by Anna Hazares movement. I So, being office-goers, how do they
was always associated with movements manage work for a movement that has
against injustice and inequality. I had now turned political? We wrap up the
campaigned with people in my district days work by 5 pm and make it to the
for six months when private schools partys office, Sinha replied.
there had hiked fees by 110 percent, he Meherban Singh, the district secretary
said. When the anti-corruption move- of Durg, said he has been an RTI activist
ment began in 2011, I knew I had to for the last four years and runs a weekly
participate. So here I am, supporting newspaper, Chhattisgarh Times. I
Kejriwal. handed over my business to my brother
photos: Arun kumar
Water supply is extremely
irregular, though we pay
`400 in tariff each month.
For the rest of the month
we have to store water in
tanks. Storing water for
such long periods breeds
mosquitoes. (As a result) we
are fined when the municipal
corporation staff comes for
inspection.
Shahnaz
I am getting inflated
electricity bills for the last
10 months. But since my
daughter is in class X I pay
the bill so that she can carry
on with her studies.
Ramdass, 65, formerly a day
labourer
I have not perceived
any drastic change in my
electricity bills. I am not
aware what the bills should
be like (since) I am at work
all day. But people in my
colony regularly complain
about water and electricity.
I wholeheartedly support
Kejriwal and his movement.
Rajkumar Jha, priest
I have never seen these
people (volunteers) before
and do not know who
they are. I signed because
everyone else in the
neighbourhood did. I will
wait and watch.
Preeti Jha, uncertain whether to
boycott paying the bills
people politics policy performance
Grassroots Campaign
What do these
people do?
At Sangam Vihar, a motley
crowd of local and outstation
volunteers set out through
the maze of narrow lanes with
a loudspeaker playing a re-
corded voice, asking people
not to pay inflated bills and
requesting them to support
Arvind Kejriwals anti-corrup-
tion movement.
I always wanted to be a
part of change. So when I saw
AAP posters requesting vol-
unteers, I immediately signed
up, said Jeetu Singh, a BTech
student and a local resident.
I have to manage my stud-
ies by night. My parents are
sympathetic to my ideals but
repeatedly plead with me to
take care of my studies.
Singh believes the coun-
try will move in the right
direction only if politics is
cleansed.
According to AAP, some of
the volunteers from other
states have left and will re-
turn two or three months be-
fore the assembly elections,
likely to be held in October.
so that I can participate in anti-cor-
ruption activities, he said.
Both Sinha and Singh believe
Delhi is a model for other states,
and if it ushers in drastic changes
in governance the rest of the coun-
try will follow suit.
Besides Chhattisgarh, sources in
AAP said more than 500 volun-
teers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and
Haryana had come to Delhi to par-
ticipate in Kejriwals 14-day fast,
with many of them staying back to
work for the party as the Delhi as-
sembly elections draw closer. n
puja@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 43
 people politics policy performance
Diplomacy and Governance

Building it brick by BRICS

The BRICS Summit 2013 and the roadmap ahead

Deepshikha Kumari

T
he end of the cold war led
Francis Fukuyama to write
an essay The End of His-
tory? signalling the end of
a bipolar world and a move
towards the dominance of
western liberal democracy as the final
form of human government. While the
collapse of the Soviet Union also implied,
for some, the beginning of a unipolar
world, the reality in this day and age,
however is vastly different. Indeed, the
world has changed dramatically since
the end of the cold war moving towards
a multi-polar world with increased so-
cial, political and importantly financial
interdependence between nation-states.
Indeed, the construct of BRICS [Brazil,
Russia, India, China, South Africa] as an
entity in 2009 reflects that reality. It is an
expression of the shift that had already
begun to take place with the advent of So far, four BRICS summits have been Prime minister Manmohan Singh with Chinese
the financial meltdown in 2007 and the held: the first in Yekaterinburg, Russia, president Xi Jinping, Brazilian president Dilma
rise of the BRICS nations, their fast-grow- on June 16, 2009; second in Brasilia on Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin and
ing economies and increasing influence April 15, 2010, the third in Sanya (China) South Arican president Jacob Zuma, during the
in regional and global affairs. As of today, on April 14, 2011 and the fourth in New fifth BRICS Summit at Durban on March 27.
BRICS alone represents: Delhi on March 29, 2012. The most recent
25 percent of the worlds economy/ was the fifth BRICS summit hosted by Africa within the BRICS framework as
GDP; South Africa during March 26-27, 2013, fully as possible. While much was ex-
17 percent of global trade; completing the first cycle of BRICS sum- pected from the summit in the context
50 percent of global economic growth; mits. Moreover, the BRICS leaders have of the earlier efforts and discussion for
$200 billion trade value amongst them. also met on the sidelines of other multi- creating a BRICS Development Bank with
Moreover, the BRICS nations alone lateral meetings. a common currency pool to assist with
represents close to 3 billion people, thus This recent summit held in Durban and development and other loans as an alter-
accounting for almost 43% of the world the released summit declaration BRICS native to the IMF and other international
population, which itself is testimony to and Africa: Partnership for Development, financial institutions. However, there
the significant role that this social and Integration and Industrialisation itself remained a lack of consensus on such a
political entity can play in global affairs. exemplified the efforts to engage South BRICS Bank as the member-states are yet

44 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013


While the creation of the
BRICS Bank will remain a
challenge, concrete steps need
to be taken towards outlining
voting rights, contribution of
member-countries and selection
of heads on a rotational basis.
Overall, the primary goal of
creating this bank should be to
complement and not be seen
as a replacement of the current
financial institutions, as it is in
very early stages. Moreover, this
will garner support from the US
and European nations and at the
same time is likely to be more
transparent and democratic.
to clearly formulate a workable plan and
consensus on the headquarters of the
bank, the membership fees, voting rights,
and the nature of the projects to be fi-
nanced, that is, whether the funds will
remain exclusively for BRICS projects or
would extend to third-party projects as
well.
Other than this, the summit did make
progress on the concept of long-term eco-
nomic cooperation and areas of common
infrastructure projects. Another impor-
tant achievement by the five countries
has been the establishment of the BRICS
Business Council that will bring together
the leading business structures of the
five members.
Given this, it might be apt to say that a
huge responsibility rests on the shoul-
ders of the BRICS nations and their
leadership. From being termed develop-
ing economies to acquiring the status
of emerging markets, these nations
represent the future and will indeed
play an important role in spearhead-
ing the direction that the world moves
in and more importantly the degree of
success it can achieve in facing several
challenges in spheres of global (political
and economic) stability, finance, security,
energy, economic trade, health, science
and technology as well as global conflict
resolutions. Here are a few suggestions
for policy makers to set the agenda for
the second cycle of summits that will
take place in the future:
n While the creation of the BRICS Bank
will remain a challenge, concrete
steps need to be taken towards out-
lining voting rights, contribution of
member-countries and selection of
heads on a rotational basis. Overall,
the primary goal of creating this bank
should be to complement and not be
seen as a replacement of the cur-
rent financial institutions, as it is in
very early stages. Moreover, this will
garner support from the US and Eu-
ropean nations and at the same time
is likely to be more transparent and
democratic.
n The issue of nuclear security will be
crucial as nuclear energy will remain
an important component of the ener-
gy-mix in the BRICS nations and given
their enhanced bilateral nuclear trade
for peaceful purposes and the domes-
tic challenges in this context. This
needs to be addressed with greater
caution and effort.
n The non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons and pressing for a move
towards complete disarmament by
nuclear-weapons states should be
reaffirmed.
n Reaffirming commitment and making
a concrete plan to achieving the mil-
lennium development goals, domesti-
cally, so as to set the stage for BRICS to
address global issues.
n Increased engagement and coopera-
tion with and possible inclusion of
non-BRICS developing countries to
enhance social, political and economic
clout. Especially involving the CIVETS,
a term coined to describe the six fa-
voured emerging markets of Cambo-
dia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey
and South Africa.
n Continued international negotiations
and steps to enhance the legitimacy of
international organisations and finan-
cial institutions with China and Russia
playing the lead role as permanent
members of the UNSC.
n The BRICS nations will specifically
What future
summits can do
Setting up a BRICS Bank will be
challenging, but take concrete
steps towards outlining voting
rights, contribution of mem-
ber-countries and selection of
heads on a rotational basis.
Nuclear security will be crucial
as n-energy will be important
for the BRICS nations.
Reaffirm the non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons and press for
a move towards complete dis-
armament by nuclear-weapons
states.
Reaffirm commitment and make
a concrete plan to achieve the
UNs millennium development
goals.
Increase engagement and coop-
eration with and possible inclu-
sion of non-BRICS developing
countries to enhance social, po-
litical and economic clout.
Continue international negotia-
tions and steps to enhance the
legitimacy of international or-
ganisations and financial insti-
tutions with China and Russia
playing the lead role as perma-
nent members of the UNSC.
Address the challenges faced by
sub-Saharan Africa and engage
more inclusively with these na-
tions and make a difference be-
yond borders.
need to address the challenges faced
by Sub-Saharan Africa and engage
more inclusively with these African
nations and therefore use its resourc-
es more efficiently where they are
needed most so as to be seen as an
organisation that seeks to make a dif-
ference beyond its borders. n
Deepshikha is a DPhil (PhD) International
Relations candidate at University of Oxford,
United Kingdom.
www.GovernanceNow.com 45
 people politics policy performance
Primary Lessons
Know thy
neighbour
T R Jawahar
S
o, how will the youth of Tamil
Nadu spend the unexpected
holiday gifted to them by politics
thanks to the protests on the
Sri Lankan issue? Though cinema and
cricket are obvious choices, why dont
they also enlighten themselves on Cey-
lon? After all, some efforts to know thy
neighbour is certainly warranted, since
the student protest, though having its
locus here, has its focus there. Here are
some tid-bits gathered from secondary
sources; I request everyone to delve deep
on their own too.
Now, cut to pre-history, the period not
authenticated in writing. It is agreed (do
we have a choice?) that nature separated
Ceylon from south India some 7,000 (give
or take a 1,000) years ago. That makes
the original inhabitants of the island the
same stock as south Indians, commonly
referred to as Dravidian. The portion of
other ethnic groups from north India or
elsewhere is negligent if not nil. When
recorded history takes over around 400
BC, the kingdom of Anuradhapura was
thriving in central Ceylon. Ditto with
several kingdoms in the north, northwest
and east, which means all these must
have existed for long to reach that level
of civilisation.
Of the Dravidian tongues, Tamil was
predominant in all these places. There
is also enough archaeological evidence
littered across Lanka testifying to the
46 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
A primer on Sri
Lankan history and
the Tamil problem
sway of Shaivism since only Shiva
knows when. So it is a sound surmise
that Shaivism and Sangatamil were the
original religious and linguistic bedrock
of the entire Island. Ceylon was for long
a wholesome civilisation united under a
homogenous religion and lingo, derived
from the Tamil mainland. Period.
When Ashokas son landed in Apura
(Anuradhapura) around 250 BC, he con-
verted the reigning king from Shaivism
to Buddhism, and that religion stayed
put there. The rest of Ceylon, however,
remained steadfast with Shaivism.
Geography also went in sync with the
religious divide: the central, south and
southwest were Buddhist while the
Of the Dravidian tongues, Tamil
was predominant in all these
places. There is also enough
archaeological evidence littered
across Lanka testifying to the
sway of Shaivism since only
Shiva knows when. So it is a
sound surmise that Shaivism
and Sangatamil were the original
religious and linguistic bedrock
of the entire Island. Ceylon was
for long a wholesome civilisation
united under a homogenous
religion and lingo, derived from
the Tamil mainland. Period.
north, northwest and east were Shaivite.
The decay of Apura and the takeover of
its areas by thick forests pushed the Bud-
dhist kingdoms south, thus physically
alienating the two religious communities.
The advent of Sinhala language, which is
an amalgam of the Buddhist Pali, north
Indian Prakrit, some Tamil etc, cemented
the divide on linguistic lines too.
The point is, it was actually the Bud-
dhist-Sinhala populace that broke away
from what was wholly a Hindu-Tamil
land and eventually became the oppres-
sive majority of now. This travesty was
facilitated by several tragic develop-
ments, wrought by outsiders as well as
Tamils themselves, all through history
leading to the present plight of the Tamil
people. First, the Buddhists were good
at recording their history systematically
while the Hindus as usual lost out on this
count. For instance, the Mahavamsa,
a Pali chronicle and the cornerstone of
Buddhist chauvinism, depicts the history
of Ceylon, and Anuradhapura particular-
ly, exclusively in the Buddhist-Sinhalese
context, ignoring or belittling the earlier
and contemporary Tamil history.
So, when modern historians spawned
by 18th century colonialism and drunk
on evidence-based intellectualism landed
in Lanka, they had documented proof
of Buddhist-Sinhalese history, but the
Tamils had little more than unverifiable
myths and tales on offer as their ancient
history. While this lapse has marginally
been addressed by modern SL Tamil
scholars, the Sinhalese had already suc-
ceeded with their claims as the premier
ethnic group with a greater antiquity.
Even the most ardent of Tamil cham-
pions have now taken the Sinhaleses
superior status as a given.
Ashish asthana
The Tamils did have
a good run from 6th
century AD to the 16th.
The three hundred and fifty
years of Chola rule (that replaced the Pal-
lavas) from 9th century to the 12th par-
ticularly were ones of immense all round
glory. And this was followed by another
three centuries of the Jaffna kingdom
and during this entire stretch of history,
Shaivism and Tamil touched their zenith,
aided by interaction with Tamil Nadu.
Of course, Buddhist-Shaivism conflict
in TN also had its echoes there. But
the conquest of Ceylons Tamil regions
by the Portuguese in the 16th century
ended this high. A new creed, Catholic
Christianity, riding
on colonial greed, made
its fatal foray into this prosperous
and pious land. And with that started
the slow and painful annihilation of the
Sri Lankan Tamil race, its culture, its
religion and everything else that make a
people a nation.
The Portuguese zealots demolished
Shaivite temples, destroyed invaluable ar-
tefacts and literature, forcibly converted
scores of locals and obliterated whatever
cultural and religious evidence they could
lay their hands on, all in the name of some
true faith. They plundered the produce,
hijacked trade and politically subjugated
the Tamil populace through insidious
means. After about 150 years of this tor-
ment came the Protestant Dutch to scav-
enge on what was left. To quote a Western
historian: If the Portuguese sucked the
Tamils blood, the Dutch even ate their
flesh. And when, finally, the British took
over from the Dutch in the 18th century,
the Tamils were down to their raw bones.
The Sinhalese Buddhists, though losing
out politically to the Europeans, somehow
survived these cultural assaults, retaining
their cultivated edge over Tamil culture
which was actually the parent.
Brothers in alms, alas!
Heres a quote of 1796 vintage from a
British official that I lifted from a book
I have been reading: Two nations from
the very ancient period had divided be-
tween them the possessions of the land.
The Sinhalese inhabiting the southern
and western parts and the Tamils in the
northern and eastern districts. The two
nations differ entirely in their religion,
language and manners.
The British, relying on Sinhalese re-
cords, the only available ones, ignored
the greater antiquity of the Tamils, (Rav-
ana was a Shaivite ruler of all of Ceylon!)
but they did discern two distinct cultural
and geographic entities.
Though the British were witness to this
fact during their rule, they acted against
this wisdom. First, in 1833, through
the Colebroke Cameron reforms, they
merged the entire traditional Tamil
homelands with the rest in the name of
administrative convenience, instead of
governing them as a distinct unit. This
deprived the Tamils of their historical
identity and permanently queered the
pitch for a separate State. For, this im-
posed template, of a superficially sover-
eign Sri Lanka as against an intrinsically
dual nation, is what is still being ban-
died about in all global fora. Many such
colonial nails followed, all sealing this
non-existent unity, ending with the final
fatal one in the 1940s: the Soulbury Com-
mission, mandated to make recommen-
dations for the inevitable independence
and transfer of power.
To cut a sordid story short, this com-
mission ended up strengthening and
sanctioning the well-set stereotype of a
Sinhalese nation with a Tamil minority.
To be sure, there was lip service about
securing the interests and welfare of the
www.GovernanceNow.com 47
 people politics policy performance
Primary Lessons
Tamil minority but this was wholly at the
mercy and discretion of the Sinhalese! So
when Ceylon got Independence in Febru-
ary 1948, it had a typical British West-
minster constitution liberally littered
with federalism but absolutely no scope
of a separate homeland.
The political parleys and powerplays
indulged in by street-smart Sinhalese
politicos like Dissanayake, pre- and post-
independence, ensured that even the
50:50 formula was a non-starter. In this,
the Sinhalese were ably aided by many
self-seeking Tamil leaders who aban-
doned their core cause for a few posts in
the new federal government. This, when
they had the numerical leverage to get a
better bargain for their battered breth-
ren! The sellout of the original sons of
the soil was complete.
The ruling Sinhalese elite were quick to
consolidate their hold. Through a com-
bination of constitutional violations and
calculated violence, they enhanced their
stranglehold over Tamils. For instance,
the Indian Tamils, who were not original
inhabitants but plantation settlers of the
19th century, were stripped of citizenship
and disenfranchised. The loss of this vote
bank reduced Tamil representation in
Parliament. Then came the Sinhala-only
policy that overnight pushed Tamils to
economic misery and political isolation.
Through all this, the colonisation of
Tamil lands by Sinhalese people was also
rampant: after all, demography dictates
democracy. There were many a pact, and
tall leaders like Selva, but nary any relief
for the Tamils. And after 25 years of sus-
tained subjugation, came Sirimavo Ban-
daranaikes new constitution in 1972 that
put paid to all hopes of reconciliation or
redemption. Ceylon became Sri Lanka, a
name that had a distinct Sinhala ring to
Tamil ears. Buddhism was declared state
religion.
Many other monstrous provisions took
roots. So did the ideas of militancy in the
Tamil psyche, hitherto passive, as official
oppression touched a new high. And by
the late 70s, democratic resistance went
totally out of fashion as fiery youths took
over from feeble veterans. The bloody
die, cast then, lasts to this day.
Let me now take a tangent. Three-plus
centuries of colonial rule did yield a posi-
tive result. Incessant missionary mischief
48 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
and conversions kindled the Tamils
cultural pride and paranoia. Having lost
lands, lives and livelihoods to the white
men, the prospect of losing their long-
cherished Shaivite faith was a matter of
deep distress. The advent of Arumuga
Navalar and his likes in the 19th century
was a watershed. He used the mission-
aries very tools like schools, hospitals
and publications to revive and revitalise
Shaivism.
In fact, Tamil nationalism was born as
a Saivite response to the colonial rulers
and this character was evident even
in 1948. When the new flag was to be
hoisted on Independence Day, Tamils
insisted on having the image of Nandi on
it, but the Sinhalese got away with their
lonely lion. Post independence, owing
to various factors, Shaivism was gradu-
ally replaced by secular Tamil linguism
so much so that when in 1972 Bud-
dhism was made state religion, there was
hardly any clamour for such status for
Shaivism from the Tamils! One won-
ders what is meant by SL Tamil culture
if Shaivism is taken out of the equation!
In fact, Tamil nationalism was
born as a Shaivite response
to the colonial rulers and this
character was evident even in
1948. When the new flag was
to be hoisted on Independence
Day, Tamils insisted on
having the image of Nandi
on it, but the Sinhalese got
away with their lonely lion.
Post independence, owing to
various factors, Shaivism was
gradually replaced by secular
Tamil linguism so much so
that when in 1972 Buddhism
was made state religion, there
was hardly any clamour for
such status for Shaivism
Anyway, a religious response to Bud-
dhism, an oriental version of the classic
clash of civilizations, was ruled out.
The fate of SL Tamils is precariously
poised. All solutions seem sans sense as
sure dissolution stares at them this sec-
ond. Their cause has suffered much due
to blood-letting and betrayals by their
own brethren. Their core Shaivite faith,
though still of the majority and a unify-
ing foundation, has to give way to secular
or atheistic or other religious sponsors
who extract a cultural price. Leadership
is now extinct. Their genuine champions
are either dead or disparate. On the con-
trary, there are dubious ones, particular-
ly in TN, who have literally and politi-
cally encashed the Tamil cause. Though
sympathy and support here is sometimes
natural, often it is a simulated show.
Students particularly have to be wary of
many mercenary agent provocateurs on
a campus recruitment spree now.
To the media here, SL has been a
jolly venue for junket journalism: Many
scribes have their bread buttered by both
warring sides of the battered island. For
the scattered Tamil diaspora, distanced
by time, diverted by modern offerings
and diluted by exposure to different
cultures, the issue is no longer a life or
death obsession but a matter of occa-
sional guilt that can be addressed by a
few dollars more to whoever utters the
T word. The Tamils only source of suc-
cour, India, supervised their decimation
instead, for imagined geo-political gains,
not once but many times, in the very
company of the tormentors. To the global
community, SL Tamil issue is just a UN
resolution on a piece of paper, filed away
in the archives of formal, soul-less his-
tory. All these have left SL Tamils totally
at the mercy of a murderous State whose
gory, genocidal display of ahimsa will
certainly not make the Buddha smile !
Indeed, these unfortunate people,
cheated by history, geography and poli-
tics, and indeed by the whole of human-
ity, now have only one homogeneous
status:
Refugees. At their home, here and ev-
erywhere! n
Jawahar is editor of the News Today group of
publications and Talk Media group of publi-
cations. He is based in Chennai.
 photos: brajesh kumar

Playing dig-dug on times, incurring an expenditure of `40

lakh on it, admitted Lakma Ram, the

same ditches
Since pucca work would not meet the 60:40
(labour:material) ratio, panchayats resort to digging
the same ditches year after year
Brajesh Kumar out but they are following it with minor
Sirohi, Abu Road variations here. In Sirohi, the officials
pay crores to the unemployed to dig the
same ditches again and again, and year
after year.
In Chandela panchayat, for instance, an
irrigation ditch/pond has been dug four
sarpanch of Chandela panchayat, point-
ing at a large pond that remains dry dur-
ing most of the year.
The story is similar for every panchayat
in this block.
Each of the 25 panchayats has five
ditches on an average, and an annual
allocation of `10 lakh is made to dig (and
re-dig) each ditch, as they get covered
up every monsoon. With 125 ditches in
the entire panchayat, the administra-
tion spends a whopping `12.5 crore (125
ditches multiplied by `10 lakh) every
year.
And here we are talking about just one
of the five blocks in Sirohi district.
So, why this colossal waste of public
money on digging ditches, and not on

G
overnment officials in Sirohi
districts Abu Road block may
not have heard of Keynes-
ian theory about the gov-
ernment paying millions of
unemployed people to dig ditches and
then paying them again to fill up the
same ditches in order to keep recession
times; another one in Amthala panchayat something that lasts and is real asset for
thrice; while a third in Moongthala pan- a panchayat?
chayat has been dug up twice so far. And Reports The answer lies in
all this non-durable asset-building, yet from the rules of MN-
unproductive, work is being carried out The Other REGS, which say `60
under the UPA governments much-tout- India out of every `100
ed Mahatma Gandhi national rural em- Read more: spent on any project
ployment guarantee scheme (MNREGS). http://governan- has to go toward
cenow.com/media-
The ditch you see has been dug up four accountability/ labour wages.

www.GovernanceNow.com 49
 people politics policy performance
Grassroots Governance
This ditch in Karauli village was dug up only
last year and is being dug up again this year
at an approximate cost of `9 lakh.
The remaining `40, the rules say, is
meant to procure material.
Over to para 9, schedule-I of NREG Act-
2005, The cost of material component
of projects including the wages of the
skilled and semi-skilled workers taken up
under the scheme shall not exceed forty
percent. Hence, in the selection of works
60:40 wage-material ratio has to be main-
tained at gram panchayat level.
This was done primarily to keep con-
tractors, and machines they would have
brought in, out of the labour-intensive
scheme.
This ratio rule, though, disqualifies any
pucca work for the panchayat.
Playing dig-dug on repeat mode
Though sarpanches know that digging
a ditch again and again in no way helps
panchayats create durable assets, which
incidentally is another important objec-
tive of the scheme, they expressed their
helplessness.
What do we do? asked Lakma Ram,
the sarpanch of Chandela panchayat,
throwing up his hands in frustration.
The administration does not allow us to
carry out pucca work, so we have to get
sanctions to dig the same ditch year after
year.
In Chandela panchayat, there are eight
ditches that are dug every year.
According to Lakma Ram, important
works, which would be durable asset
for the panchayat, cannot be taken up as
part of this because they would not meet
the mandatory 60:40 ratio. We are in
dire need of a minor irrigation canal in
the panchayat. But there is no way this
can be built under the prevailing 60:40
ratio. The material cost (to make the ca-
nal) will be much more than the labour
component, he said.
Several important works have not been
sanctioned similarly in Amthala pan-
chayat. The reason remains the same: the
labour-ratio clause in MNREGS.
One village in Amthala needs walls
alongside the nallah abutting agricul-
tural land, as the flooded drain wreaks
havoc on the fields each year during the
monsoon months. Another village in the
same panchayat needs to make concrete
a patch of kutcha road that turns muddy
50 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
Whats it all about?
The ACT: Mahatma Gandhi Nation-
al Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA) was notified on 7 Sep-
tember 2005.
Its mandate is to provide 100 days of
guaranteed wage employment in a fi-
nancial year to every rural household
whose adult members volunteer to
do unskilled manual work.
The labour-material ratio: Accord-
ing to para 9 of schedule-I of NREGA
2005, The cost of material compo-
nent of projects including the wages
of the skilled and semi-skilled work-
ers taken up under the scheme shall
not exceed forty percent. Hence, in
the selection of works 60:40 wage-
material ratio has to be maintained
at gram panchayat level.
The snag, however, is that though
the ratio rule, aimed at keeping the
contractor system and heavy ma-
chinery out of the scheme, is noble,
it is too restrictive and bars essential
works, contend panchayat officials.
How much labour will you
do? How many ditches will you
dig? How many ponds will you
reconstruct? How much forestation
will you do? There has to be a
limit. I do not believe that digging
a ditch and taking out soil can be
dubbed as employment. Putting
soil back into the ditch is also
employment but do we need such
labour?
Jairam Ramesh, rural development
minister, in interview to Yuvadesh, the
online magazine of Indian Youth Congress
in June 2012
during monsoon, thereby cutting off one
part of the village from another.
However, because of the ratio rule,
these works are not even included
during annual MNREGS plan that the
panchayat prepares. We do not include
such works in the annual plan because
we know the block development officer
(BDO) will not even consider it, said
Soma Ram, sarpanch of Amthala.
And since MNREGS is a demand-driven
scheme providing workers legal entitle-
ment for a job (work cannot be denied
to anyone demanding it), the panchayats
take the easy way out by getting sanction
for the ditch that was dug only the year
before.
As sarpanch, I cannot deny work to
my people. And since they are solely de-
pendent on MNREG work, I get the same
ditches sanctioned for work year after
year, said Soma Ram.
He said a ditch in Krauli village under
his panchayat was sanctioned in 2011 for
`9 lakh, and re-sanctioned last year for a
similar figure.
Wastage of money
This digging of ditches, sarpanches
pointed out, deprives panchayats of
valuable assets that the scheme could
have created. Incidentally, at the time of
its conceptualization MNREGS had also
envisioned creation of durable and long-
lasting assets in rural India.
Creation of durable assets and
strengthening the livelihood resource
base of the rural poor shall be an impor-
tant objective of the Scheme, says sched-
ule 1, section 4 (3) of the Act.
Along with sarpanches, the admin-
istration is also aware of the wastage
of money on digging ditches but seeks
refuge behind the law. Thats what the
law says and I have no authority to do
anything about it. I have to stick to the
mandatory 60:40 ratio, Abu Roads BDO,
Kundan Mal Dave, said when told about
complaints by the sarpanches.
The earth-digging phenomenon is not
typical to the Abu Road block. It has been
reported about from various parts of the
country and faced flak from various quar-
ters. In fact, so widespread is the malaise
that even rural development minister
Jairam Ramesh has questioned its utility,
saying the scheme should look beyond
digging ditches and building roads.
How much labour will you do? How
 As sarpanch, I cannot deny
work to my people. And since they
are solely dependent on MNREGS
work, I get the same ditches
sanctioned for work year after
year.
Soma Ram, sarpanch, Amthala village
Thats what the law says and I
have no authority to do anything.
I have to stick to the mandatory
60:40 ratio.
Kundan Mal Dave, block development
officer, Abu Road
many ditches will you dig? How many
ponds will you reconstruct? How much
forestation will you do? There has to be
a limit, Ramesh said in an interview
to Yuvadesh, the online magazine of
Indian Youth Congress, the partys youth
wing, in June last year.
I do not believe that digging a ditch
and taking out soil can be dubbed as em-
ployment. Putting soil back into the ditch
is also employment but do we need such
labour? he had asked.
Rameshs disapproval notwithstanding,
the Mihir Shah committee, appointed
The ditch you see has been dug up four times, incurring an expenditure of `40 lakh on it, says
Lakma Ram, the sarpanch of Chandela panchayat.
by the minister last year, stuck to the
same labour material ratio of 60:40. The
committee was formed to look at ways to
revise operational guidelines of MNREGS
so that several concerns, including the
criticism about creation of non-durable
assets, could be addressed.
The committee recommended: The
labour:material ratio specified for each
work must be strictly adhered to. It
must also be ensured that the overall
labour:material ratio in each gram pan-
chayat is maintained at 60:40.
Logic behind the perceived illogic
In May 2010, the central employment
guarantee council, the monitoring
agency formed by the government, had
ruled out any changes while examin-
ing the contention from panchayats that
this 60:40 condition is too restrictive and
rules out certain essential works in spe-
cific areas.
The working group is of the view that
this ratio has been stipulated to check the
tendency to adopt works with a high ma-
terial component. Such works invariably
brings in the contractor system. Hence,
the working group feels that the stipu-
lated ratio should be adhered to except in
some specific circumstances (for instance,
for works in the hill states like Himachal
Pradesh), the recommendation of the
working group on planning and execu-
tion chaired by Rangu Rao had said.
Acknowledging the noble intent of not
letting in the contractor system and em-
phasis on kutcha work in a panchayat
behind the ratio rule, Lakma Ram, the
sarpanch of Chandela panchayat and
also president of the sarpanch associa-
tion in the block, said all kutcha work
that the panchayats could have done was
done within the first six years of imple-
mentation of the Act. There is no such
work left now, he said.
We have done kutcha works pre-
scribed under the Act such as water
conservation, water harvesting, drought-
proofing, land development in these
years, Lakme Ram said. But since hard-
ly any such work is left now, the ratio
rule needs a relook to allow us to build
useful asset for the panchayat.
Quite a compelling argument it is, and
one hopes when the rural development
minister Jairam Ramesh takes a relook at
the scheme two years from now, as he
promised in his interview to Yuvadesh,
he would take into account the argu-
ments made by Lakma Ram and compa-
ny from Abu Road. n
Brajesh was stationed in Sirohi for six
months, till March 31, as part of a Gover-
nance Now-ANSA-SAR project
www.GovernanceNow.com 51
 people politics policy performance
Green Governance
Gandhi
returns to
Dandi, for
good
A comprehensive plan for ecological
development of that tiny but world-
famous Gujarat village gets underway
Ashish Mehta
D
andi saw Mahatma Gandhi arrive
one fine day in April 1930 and leave
ten days later. Dandi remained
where it was. Not that a few days of
stay by a Mahatma and the resulting world-
wide fame would change the look and feel of
the place forever.
But the tiny south Gujarat village is set for
some change finally, thanks to Gandhi which
stands for a creatively named government
scheme: Green Action for National Dandi
Heritage Initiative (GANDHI). It is described
as a project for the overall development and
conservation of the environment of Dandi and
its surrounding villages based on Gandhian
teachings.
And Dandi needs GANDHI, the scheme, badly.
52 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
photos: ashish mehta Photos: chinky shukla
Dayaljibhai Patel, a former village panchayat
chief who remains active in village administra-
tion despite his 81 years, says the village has a
peculiar geography. It used to be surrounded
by seawater from three sides. We used to go to
school (within the village) in boats. Given the
constraints, there is little scope for agriculture
or industry here, and most people who could go
abroad for livelihood did so. Today, the village
sports many bungalows that would put their
Ahmedabad counterparts to shame, with its
owners spending half the year abroad.
Fifty years ago, people came together and
contributed money to build a bandh (a retain-
ing wall). The government also gave a grant of
`70,000, recalls Patel.
That saved the village from the incoming sea-
water. But the cooperative society formed later
to make the land fertile again did not deliver,
says Patel, blaming it on politics.
During my lifetime I have seen the sea reced-
ing by 1 to 1.5 km and in recent years, I have
seen it coming closer and closer, he says.
Blame it on climate change or the local topog-
raphy, but Dandi needs to be saved. The centre
Green Action for
National Dandi
Heritage Initiative
(GANDHI)
Aim: the overall develop-
ment and conservation of
the environment of Dan-
di and its surrounding vil-
lages based on Gandhian
teachings.
An environment and for-
ests ministry project im-
plemented by Society for
Integrated Coastal Zone
Management (SICOM) in
collaboration with the Gu-
jarat Ecology Commission
(GEC) and the panchayats
of the villages of the area.
Gujarat Vidyapith,
Ahmedabad-based uni-
versity established by
Gandhiji, will assist in the
project.
Initial outlay for the proj-
ect is `25 crore. It is fund-
ed by the World bank-as-
sisted Integrated Coastal
Zone Management (ICZM)
project implemented by
SICOM.
Project components
(1) Conservation of the coast
and coastal resources
-- Mangrove afforestation
and bio-shield
-- Conservation of coastal
features and wetlands
(2) Adopting nature-based
development of resources
--Promoting non-conven-
tional energy sources
-- Water conservation
-- Waste management
(3) Promoting integrated
village and community
development
-- Carbon-neutral villages
-- Livelihood
improvement
(4) Promoting eco-tourism
and environment-posi-
tive branding of Dandi
-- Village development
-- Promoting eco-tour-
ism to promote Gandhian
values

www.GovernanceNow.com 53
 (From left) As part of the initiative, Dandi and five neighbouring villages have got solar streetlights, including one in the Dandi memorial itself.
Focus is also on clean-up drives and construction of toilets.

and the state must save Dandi. Dandi or participatory rural assessment. They there are 301 tribal families in the six
is not just ours, it belongs to the whole did a street-to-street survey of what villages, mostly daily wagers. The com-
world. If you want to develop the village, people found wanting. For example, they mittee went to every tribal household to
you will have to give priority to stopping found that the primary requirement of find out if they had a toilet in home or
salinity ingress, he adds. the village is water, so existing ponds not, and toilets were built for those who
That happens to be one of the many were deepened to store more water, didnt.
objectives of the GANDHI project of explains Sanjay Bariya, the project The initiative thus got underway. In
the environment and forests ministry, coordinator from GEC. For example, about two years since, the six villages
implemented by the Society for
Integrated Coastal Zone Man-
agement (SICOM) in collabora-
tion with the Gujarat Ecology
Commission (GEC) and the
panchayats of the six villages
of the area: Dandi, Samapar,
Matawad, Aat, Onjal and Sul-
tanpur of Navasari district.
Under this initiative, the
onus is on people themselves
to plan the works necessary.
So, as peoples representative,
the Dandi gram sabha passed
a resolution on November 22,
2010, to form a Gandhi Harit
Smarak Vikas Samiti, with
Dayaljibhai Patel as president Two of the many green
and Babubhai Sukhabhai Patel warriors: (Above)
Lomesh Brahmabhatt,
as secretary. This committee manager (field), GEC,
receives funds as well as sup- What is mangrove? and Sanjay Bariya,
port from the GEC which has project coordinator.
stationed filed officers in the Mangrove (locally known as cher) does not mean one particu-
village for the purpose. The lar kind of tree, the term applies to about 110 species of trees.
committee enlisted each fam- What is common to them all is they grow to medium height
ily as a member, with a token in saline coastal regions. Mangrove plantations are found to
membership fee of `11. be among the most beneficial ecosystems. They form a salt-
Along with this develop-
tolerant forest ecosystem that provides a wide range of eco-
ment committee, there is also
logical and economic benefits. They are also instrumental in
a five-member investigation
supporting flora and fauna in coastal regions. Their intangi-
committee which monitors the
work and releases payments
ble benefits include coastal protection against wave and cur-
to contractors only after a rent abrasions, protection of the shore area against coast-
ground check. line erosion and salinity ingress, and shelter and habitat for
It is the committee that wildlife. Tangible benefits include availability of firewood,
plans activities through PRA, charcoal, herbal medicine, honey and improved fishery.

54 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013

people politics policy performance
Green Governance
This
should have
happened
right after
independence.
It has
happened
62 years
later. Gandhi followers from
Australia and Germany come
here walking and when they
see what they see, imagine
what would have been their
first impression of Dandi?
Dayaljibhai Patel, one of the leaders of Dandi
have been undergoing a sea change. Ac-
cording to Lomesh Brahmabhatt, manager
(field) with GEC, the achievements are
many:
n Mangrove plantation has been taken
up in a big way along the coastline (see
box for the benefits of mangroves).
n A shelter belt to shield the coastal
land from salty seawater has been
developed, by planting vegetation that
blocks salinity.
n The ponds one each in every village
are being renovated. Matawad has got a
120-metre pipeline from its pond too.
n Solar lights have reached most streets
24 in Dandi and 12 each in the other
villages. People have been trained in
the day-to-day usage and maintenance
of these lights.
n A total of 990 toilets have been built.
n The beach, a weekend attraction for
families from nearby cities like Nava-
sari, has been cleaned up. A plan has
been drafted for solid waste manage-
ment, and permission has been sought
for it from the Gujarat pollution control
board.
And all this is part of the preparatory
work. Once a masterplan is conceived
(see interview with AK Verma, member-
secretary, GEC) much more is envisaged.
Moreover, the project is to complement
INTERVIEW A K V e r m a , I F S , m e m b e r - s e c y , G u j E c o l o g y C o m m issi o n
Peoples response is very enthusiastic
The Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC)
has taken up mangrove plantations in a
big way, in Dandi and elsewhere. Why?
For coastal area conservation, mangrove
is a must. Fish production goes up. You
cant apply it everywhere. It needs cer-
tain conditions right, like there should
be only a certain degree of salinity.
We have organised several awareness
programmes, called mangrove yatras,
in coastal areas. With awareness drives,
we can show models to people, so that
people can replicate them. We also learn
from people during such programmes.
Traditional knowledge is also important.
Post-tsunami, the world has become
sensitive to mangroves. Since 2004,
mangroves have risen four times (across
Gujarat). But the growth is not uniform.
Only some pockets have done well.
Do mangroves help fight climate
change?
There is no cause-and-effect relation-
ship between climate change and man-
groves, no foolproof system, but the im-
pact of climate change can be reduced.
These are the issues even the scientific
community does not know for sure, so
people may not know.
Mangroves are part of the new GANDHI
project too.
GANDHI is a different initiative. It needs
much more than mangroves. Gandhiji
believed in organic life. So, this initiative
has mangroves plus much more. Its aims
include an environmentally sustain-
able way of living; waste management,
the state governments efforts to develop
Dandi as a tourist attraction as well as
the central governments project of de-
veloping the village as part of the larger
project of maintaining and enriching the
Gandhi heritage sites.
Dayaljibhai Patel is all praise for the
GANDHI project. This should have hap-
pened right after independence. It has
happened 62 years later. Gandhi follow-
ers from Australia and Germany come
here walking and when they see what
non-conventional energy sources... All
these should go together with local peo-
ples livelihood and lifestyle.
Is Gandhi too a part of the project?
That is why Gujarat Vidyapith (the
Ahmedabad-based university estab-
lished by the Mahatma) is also involved.
They have expertise in the subject. Their
teams in Dandi go to people and tell
them about the Gandhian way of life. We
are looking to develop the tourism po-
tential of the place too.
How is people participation so far?
Peoples response is very good. There is
a lot of enthusiasm. It is important that
the masterplan is okayed soon. Once
you launch a project, once you mobilise
people, you need to sustain peoples en-
thusiasm. Mangrove plantations, waste
management etc are such activities.
They aim for skill development.
they see, imagine what would have been
their first impression of Dandi?
His only grouse is that the project is not
progressing as fast as it should. Coor-
dination is an issue possibly because
different parties rule the state and the
centre. We must become aggressive in
speeding up the work in a manner that
would make the country proud, he
says.n
ashishm@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 55
C
areer diplomat Dr Arvind Gupta
who is the director-general of Arun kumar
Delhi-based think tank, Institute
for Defence Studies and Analy-
ses (IDSA), is a man of ideas. He wants
to take the institute, which is in its 49th
year of existence, to new heights of excel-
lence. Parachuted from the ministry of
external affairs (MEA) where he contin-
ues to serve as additional secretary to
head IDSA, he is trying to breathe new
energy into the institute at this critical
juncture when Indias visibility in the
world affairs grows. In an interaction
with Trithesh Nandan, he says that
there needs to be more interaction be-
tween the government and think tanks.
He also shared his insights on the lat-
est University of Pennsylvania survey on
global think tanks.
As a diplomat who has served at Indian
missions abroad and handled a number
of assignments at the MEA in different
capacities, Gupta feels that policymakers
have to take the initiative in having regu-
lar interactions with the think tanks.

Indias role in world affairs has been

projected as high-impact by global
strategic thinkers. Evident from some
of the global reports, the Indian think
tanks are not placed in the same
league. What ails our think thanks?
The new report by the University of
Pennsylvania, which got attention, has INTERVIEW D r A r vi n d G u p t a , D i r e c t o r G e n e r a l , I D S A
problems with its methodology. As far
as the rankings are concerned, one
has to take them with a pinch of salt.
We have seen that some obscure think
tanks are ranked very high. As per the Govt engagement
with think tanks not
University of Pennsylvanias 2012 Glob-
al Go to Think Tanks Report, the IDSAs
ranking is 11th in Top 45 Think Tanks
in China, India, Japan and RoK (South

Korea); 54th in Top 100 Non-US Think
Tanks worldwide and 105th in Top 150
US & Non-US Think Tanks. IDSA has also
been ranked as 16th in Best 40 Govern-
ment Affiliated Think Tanks; 23rd in
Best 40 Policy Study/Report produced by
a Think Tank in 2011-12 and 29th in the
List of 35 Think Tanks with the Best Use
of Media (Print or Electronics).
To the second part of your question
as to what ails them; yes, in terms of
rigour, resource and outreach, more
work needs to be done. Also, the cumu-
lative impact of the report on public
policy has to be seen. The Indian think
tanks still have some way to go before
they become as important as leading
think tanks of the world. I would like
enough
to emphasise that we lack in inter-dis-
ciplinary approach. A think tank needs
four major things: ideas, human re-
sources, funding, communication and
outreach.
A US intelligence report released on
December 10 said America will no
longer be the worlds sole superpower
by 2030. Asia will surpass the US. Do
you think that Indian think tanks are
ready to compete on the global stage?
On the global stage, India is the flavour
of the day. People see India as a rising
power and are keen to understand its
world view, strategies, approaches and
policies, etc. We have been asked ques-
tions like what Indias grand strategy is,
where India is headed and how serious
India is about itself. Think tanks can
be good interlocutors with the external
world. IDSA is regularly sought out by
foreign scholars for interaction, joint re-
search and bilateral seminars.
 The number of think tanks and
think tank culture is growing in In-
dia. The role that the think tanks play is
to critique government policy, look to-
wards the future and generate alterna-
tive policy options. Indian think tanks
will have to come up with some kind of
assessment on how India sees the new
world order.
You sound optimistic about the
growing number of think tanks in the
country. But does the government take
such institutes seriously?
The government has not interacted with
the think tank community extensively
so far. But that mindset is changing. I
think they are beginning to engage with
us through participation in our semi-
nars, roundtables and conferences.
They are beginning to give us studies
which are relevant to them. They also
read our policy analyses. But I would
not say that whatever we suggest is im-
mediately taken up by the policymak-
ers. We also have to make our research
policy relevant. I think it is an evolving
process. The need for having a think
tank was realised in the wake of 1962
and 1965 wars. Thats how the IDSA
came into existence. The government
has now taken a number of steps to-
wards enhancing its engagement with
think tanks. Such engagement is never
enough. I would like to see deeper en-
gagements because think tanks are fac-
tories of ideas.
There are two levels of engagement
bureaucratic and parliamentary. At the
bureaucratic level, it seems that the
process is on. What about the level of
discussion with the parliamentarians?
Does the interaction happen?
In India, this practice has not evolved to
the extent as in the United States where
engagement between think tanks and
the government is very robust. Occa-
sionally, our scholars have been invited
by the parliamentary standing commit-
tees. Recently, one of our scholars wrote
a backgrounder on the nuclear liabil-
ity bill and was invited by the stand-
ing committee. Many parliamentarians
know about the IDSA.
You mentioned that Indian think tanks
lack rigour and influence.
It is true that we have to continuous-
ly improve the quality of our reports
and study materials. If you see think
tank reports of some other countries,
Autonomy, independent
research and objectivity
these are like oxygen
for a good think tank to
function. Independent
research is necessary
for the credibility of a
think tank.
these are rigorous and based on a huge
amount of research. Their researchers
go all over the world to collect material
and interview people of highest esteem.
They also get access to government ar-
chives. Then they write their reports.
The fault necessarily is not of Indian
scholars. We cant provide such facili-
ties to our scholars. So we are at a dis-
advantage. The funding and resources
are always a problem. This gets in our
way sometimes. But things are begin-
ning to change. I would say rigour in re-
search has to improve.
Think tanks largely thrive on generous
funding. But there is hardly any culture
of funding from the Indian corporate?
This is relatively an underdeveloped
area. Very few corporate have set up
serious think tanks in India barring ex-
ceptions. Funding is a big problem for
Indian think tanks. This gap is normal-
ly filled by some foreign foundations in
the form of projects or reports. There is
a debate whether you should have for-
eign funding or not. These are legiti-
mate concerns that need to be debated.
As far as IDSA is concerned, we have
taken conscious decision not to take for-
eign funding or even corporate funding.
We get all our funding from the govern-
ment. We have collaboration with our
counterpart research institutes.
As the IDSA is completely dependent
on government funding, do you get
the same degree of freedom to debate,
analyse, criticise and publish issues
of strategic importance in a frank and
forthright manner?
Autonomy, independent research and
objectivity are like oxygen for a good
think tank to function. Independent re-
search is necessary for the credibility
of a think tank. Though the IDSA gets
funding from the government, it has
maintained the autonomy in terms of
independent research. We are free to
choose our own research agenda. Even
policymakers ask us to generate out-of-
the-box thinking.
Are colleges and universities sources
for think tanks?
You are right. Think tanks depend upon
students from the universities. The
quality of teaching and research that
the universities do is reflected in what
we do. If a researcher comes to a think
tank like ours, he or she has a huge plat-
form to improve on research methodol-
ogy. Here the exposure is fantastic. You
meet the worlds best researchers; poli-
cymakers have access to worlds best
research materials. The writings are
peer reviewed by worlds best academ-
ics. So, in few years, you gain hands-on
experience.
There is a perception that India should
think from a home-grown perspective
to solve its problems and not take cues
from research ideas emanating from
abroad. What do you think?
There is an ongoing debate in the strate-
gic community on how we can develop
an Indian point of view on critical is-
sues. In fact, people want to know the
Indian perspective and not how Indians
react to western views. How to do so
is a very big challenge. I think it must
start with the universities. We must
teach students our strategic culture and
thought.
Our research is heavily influenced by
western thoughts and English language.
In IDSA, we are adopting a new way to
relook at our past thinkers. Recently, we
organised a workshop on Arthashas-
tra where several scholars came and
discussed how it is applicable to the
contemporary world. People talk about
western thinkers like Machiavelli, but
why dont people talk in the same way
about Kautilya? Framing a proper Indi-
an perspective, understanding, and in-
terpretation and redressing the knowl-
edge gaps is one primary objective of
our projects. We always stumble against
the barrier of language. We dont know
our own languages. Few people know
Sanskrit, for example. They cannot ac-
cess the classical texts in original. Uni-
versities are not picking up serious re-
search topics. We are hoping that we
will be able to build a strategic vocabu-
lary, which is Indian. n

Puja Bhattacharjee
O
n a balmy late-March morn-
ing, tens of people stood in a
line outside a ration shop in
Benachapra village, under
Bakibandh gram panchayat in Salboni
block of West Medinipur, to collect their
quota of weekly ration. It would have
been a nice opportunity for the people to
catch up with each other while waiting
for their turn but for a miserable downer:
none of the villagers in that queue knew
what their weekly entitlement was.
So little wonder, then, none received it.
We are uneducated. We dont keep
track of these things, said the man at the
head of the queue. We get what we are
given; we believe in our ration dealer.
Sanjay Ray, the dealer, said families be-
low the poverty line (BPL) get whatever
they are entitled, barring sugar. We are
not receiving any shipment of sugar for
the last four months, Ray said.
58 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
photo: Puja Bhattacharjee
Rice for a price,
sugar for big dad
In a quaint village in Bengals Medinipur district, the scene of
people lining up outside a ration shop tells a pan-India tale
of corruption and irregularities at all levels and proper
administration at none
Ray could well have found a long- to families that actually need it since
lost brother in Bhaktipada Mahato, the subsidised ration is anyway not reaching
dealer of the ration shop at Dhanyasol, most, this is a problem of a bigger magni-
who said, The kerosene allotted does not tude. It is one of corruption and irregu-
come on time. People have to come here larities at all levels, and proper adminis-
two or three times to buy their quota. tration at none.
The food inspector of Salboni block, Ta- In that sense, the snag does not end at the
pan Kumar Senapati, acknowledged that boundaries of Benachapra, Salboni, Me-
claims about kerosene and sugar short- dinipur or Bengal it is a pan-India crisis.
age are genuine, but failed to explain the According to rules, each adult mem-
shortages. Instead, he put the onus on ber in a BPL family in Maoist-affected
the state and district administration. Jangalmahal area is entitled to 2 kg of
While a case could be made out for the subsidised rice per week, while those
direct cash transfer, and its benefits in below 18 are to get 1 kg. But the ration
reaching out at least the cash component shop in Bhadutala was found giving 1.5
 Reports from The Other India
Read more: http://governancenow.com/media-accountability/
kg rice to adult members and 500 grams
to children of BPL families.
Asked why the people were being
given 500 grams less than their entitle-
ment, a ration shop employee said that
once you factor in loading expenses and
labour charges, there is very little profit
remaining.
And Bhadutala, by the way, is no
exception.
Explaining an art called cheating
While Governance Nows visit and
subsequent probing about PDS created
a stir of sorts, Ray, the ration dealer at
Benachapra, said MLAs routinely make
rounds of his shop alluding to his politi-
cal connections.
This correspondent subsequently got
a call from a dealer, who said the visits
had ruffled some feathers, and that deal-
ers and officers at the food distribution
officers were worried. Inviting this cor-
respondent to give his side of the story,
the dealer, who spoke on conditions of
anonymity, alleged that the distributor
forces them to leave some ration behind.
The ration delivered to our shops is
less than the amount officially allotted.
But we cannot protest. If we do, we are
harassed in the name of inspections and
punishments, he claimed.
Besides, he added, I alone cannot pro-
test when everybody else has given in.
Calling inspections further harass-
ment, and in an effort to justify cheating
the uneducated and gullible villagers, the
dealer alleged: We have to bribe the offi-
cials. But we, the dealers, are helpless. We
are entitled to monetary compensation in
case food grains fall short, but are never
given the money. We have to hire labour-
ers to operate and distribute the ration,
but we do not get any additional funds to
run the shop. Thats why we are forced to
give about 500 grams of ration less to the
people.
I pay my workers with the ration that
remains uncollected for the week, hence
the shortage.
Few checks, little balance
But rejecting all these allegations, food
inspector (Salboni block) Tapan Kumar
Senapati said ration is allotted on the
first working day of each month. The
distributors are monitored by inspector,
chief inspector at the district level and
people politics policy performance
Grassroots Governance
Rate Allocation Frequency
APL (Families Above Poverty Line)
Rice Rs 9/kg Adult 500 gm, minor 250 gm Once a month
Wheat Rs 6.65/kg Adult 600 gm, minor 300 gm Once a week for 4 weeks
Kerosene Rs 15.93/litre Once a week for 4 weeks
(Price of kerosene includes commission, which varies according to distance from the storehouse in Medinipur.
Maximum price including commission cannot be more than `15.99 per litre)
BPL (Families Below Poverty Line): Jangalmahal areas
Rice Rs 2/kg Adult 2 kg, minor 1 kg Once a week
Wheat Rs 6.66/kg Adult 750 gm, minor 375 gm Once a week for 4 weeks
Sugar Rs13.50/kg Per week 250 gm per unit Once a week for 4 weeks
Kerosene Rs 15.93/litre Per unit 200 ml Once a week for 4 weeks
Other areas
Rice Rs 2/kg Adult 1 kg, minor 500 gm Once a week
Adult 1.5 kg for 1st & 3rd
week. 750 gm for 2nd & 4th
Flour Rs 6.66/kg Once a week for four weeks
week. Minors get half of
adult entitlement
Sugar Rs13.50/kg Per week 250 gm per unit Once a week for 4 weeks
Kerosene Rs 15.93/litre Per unit 200 ml Once a week for 4 weeks
sub divisional controller, he said. This committee is meant to oversee
Stressing that surprise checks are con- whether foodgrain under PDS is distrib-
ducted on dealers, Senapati said errant uted properly to both the dealer and to
ones are punished as per the rulebook. the people. The food supply department
The food office at the block level is au- sends a list of ration allotted, and their
thorised to give only APL (above poverty job is to tally that list, Biswas said.
line) ration cards. BPL ration cards are The gram pradhan is supposed to
given after a claimant is identified by the oversee the committees functioning and
block development office as belonging to report to the BDO, she added.
the BPL category, he said. But asked whether the committee is
As a further level of check to ensure making any difference, Biswas replied:
ration is given properly to people, a shop The committee is not functioning,
level monitoring committee is selected And why is that? The members are
from the gram panchayat, the food in- under a lot of political pressure. Since
spector said. the panchayats are still under the CPI(M),
Bakibandh gram panchayat, for in- the ruling party (Trinamool Congress)
stance, has seven ration shops, each does not allow the committee to function
monitored by a committee. A monitor- properly, she alleged.
ing committee was formed this January In the interim, she added, the BDO has
after we received orders from the block, asked the food supply officer to oversee
executive assistant of the panchayat, Su- the monitoring committee. n
jata Biswas, said. The committee, she said,
comprises headmaster of a local school, Puja was stationed in Salboni for six months,
members of a local government club, re- till March 31, as part of a Governance Now-
tired government employees, a panchayat ANSA SAR project.
member and a member of the opposition. puja@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 59
 people politics policy performance
Rain Men

Answer
in the
rain
Its raining hope for the
water woes of coastal
Maharashtras Karjat tribal
region. Rainwater harvesting
is yielding a good crop of
benefits here

Geetanjali Minhas

O
nly a couple of years ago,
women from Khanand Pada, a
hamlet of barely 10-15 houses,
in Karjat taluka in western Ma-
harashtras Raigad district had to walk
for miles to fetch drinkable water. But
not anymore, says 22-year-old Harish
Nirgude, a resident who not only learnt
the technique, as he saw a 10,000-litre
rainwater storage tank being set up in
his hamlet, but also helps others in the
vicinity set up such tanks.
The tank was constructed by Jalvardhi-
ni Pratishthan, a voluntary organisation
working to support and help rural and
tribal population on rainwater harvest-
ing and management by providing tech-
nical assistance and resources.
Three kilometres away on Pinglus
crossroads, Kisan Sivram Bhoir, a mason,
is very satisfied with the rainwater stor-
age tank he has just finished construct- to dry up and settle down. more than 1,000 chlorine bottles to tribal
ing. It is a boon for the villagers basic A kilometre further at Phanuswadi, a families at the onset of the monsoon to
water needs, he stresses. 10,000-litre water tank helps meet water enable them to purify drinking water.
To conserve and add more rainwater in requirements of its 100 inhabitants dur- Alum is added to the rainwater tanks so
the tank, Bhoir has made a plastic slope ing monsoon. When there is no water that impurities settle down.
tied on bamboo sticks so that water fall- from April to June, we write to the Karjat At Gavandwadi, a tribal village of about
ing on the adjacent roof also flows into panchayat samiti to send us water which 800 people lying at a distance of 28 km
the tank. Constructing the tank was not we store in this tank, says Janardhan from Karjat, work is on to connect three
a hassle; Bhoir says the 1,200-litre tank Sopan Bhagat, a resident. rainwater tanks of 10,000 litre capac-
took him only one and half hours spread As a precaution against waterborne dis- ity each to a river barely 3.5 km away
over three days because concrete has eases, Jalvardhini Pratishthan distributes through pipes. We have spotted a point

60 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013


(Top left) Ulhas Paranjpe, a civil engineer and
the founder-trustee of Jalvardhini Pratishthan,
a voluntary organisation working to support
and help rural and tribal population on rainwa-
ter harvesting and management by providing
technical assistance and resources; and some
of his tanks in villages of Karjat
in the river where groundwater collects.
This is an excellent source of water for
potable water needs of these people,
says Hrishikesh Davalbhakt, a Brihan-
mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
engineer who is assisting the Jalvardhini
Pratishthan team.
Funding and technological knowledge
for this project is being provided by a
group of IIT-Bombay students.
Founded in early 2003 to support the
rural and tribal population in rainwater
harvesting and management, Jalvardhini
Pratishthan has set up several low-cost
storage tanks in different districts of Ma-
harashtra. After finding that some areas
face acute shortage of water during non-
monsoon months despite high rainfall,
experts from the organisation concluded
that rainwater is not canalised. As a re-
sult, it drains off and gets wasted.
Ulhas Paranjpe, a civil engineer and the
founder-trustee of Jalvardhini Pratish-
than, says, We found that even if the
running gutters in the monsoon are
blocked by simple check dams, which
can be constructed even by gunny bags
Paranjpes USP lies in the
use of organic material like
coconut coir, flax (ambadi),
banana and jute fibre as crack
controlling (bonding) materials
in ferrocement tanks. Easy to
develop, construct and expand
quantity, these options are
affordable.
or loose stones, it helps water percolation
and raises the level of underground wa-
ter-table. So, after much experimenting,
Paranjpe and his team started building
storage tanks in rural Maharashtra.
Jalvardhini experts identified the places
first and then tried to educate the locals
about the necessity of storage tanks.
Farmers gradually became aware of the
need for assured water the trust only
gives them the technological support;
they build their own storage tanks. The
projects cost between 75 paise per litre
and `3 per litre, Paranjpe says.
Only 18-20 percent of our water prob-
lems have been solved even 60 years
after independence and despite so much
urbanisation, he says. Eighty percent
people live in villages and need to have
a sustainable life. Tribal people depend
on assured water supply for their cattle,
food and sustainable life. While 82
photos: geetanjali minhas
percent land in Maharashtra is rain-fed,
barely 18 percent is irrigated land.
Despite having the required workforce
for agriculture activities, irregular pat-
tern of rainfall compels them to grow
only one crop even kharif crops do not
give 100 percent yield.
Further, as land is arid, it cannot be
used for other purpose, Paranjpe says.
Just as we have provided water to
the cities, it is important to have water
management in villages. That will also
address the issue of their migration to
urban areas, which puts pressure on de-
pleting groundwater resources.
However, Paranjpes USP lies in the use
of organic material like coconut coir, flax
(ambadi), banana and jute fibre as crack
controlling (bonding) materials in ferro-
cement tanks. Easy to develop, construct
and expand quantity, these options are
affordable.
Compare this with plastic Sintex tank
that costs `9 per litre. A 1,000-litre tank
will cost `9,000. Laying its foundation
will cost another `2,000 to `3,000. But a
similar tank made of organic material at
a total cost of `2,000 will last a lifetime.
Maximum expertise required for stor-
ing rainwater is a mason who is avail-
able at every pada or village and added
materials like stone, sand and empty
cement sacks are available in plenty and
free of cost at every taluka, says Vijay
Khare, Paranjpes associate who does the
groundwork for implementation.
As for maintenance, he says, Just as
we paint our houses every three or four
years, similarly every year before rains,
we empty out these water tanks, coat
them with white cement so that if there
are any cracks, they are filled up. And it
costs only `100 to `200.
According to Paranjpe, rainwater har-
vesting is the most reliable solution for
increasing the groundwater level and
achieve self-sufficiency in public distri-
bution of water. In coastal areas, over-
extraction of groundwater leads to saline
water intrusion and helps avoid floods
and water stagnation. Canalising rain-
water, instead of wasting it and letting it
go down the drain, will go a long way in
removing hardships of farmers and rural
people, he says. n
geetanjali@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 61
 people politics policy performance
Ashish asthana
Digital Native

R Swaminathan

A blueprint to
evaluate digital
B
aijnath Yadav was filled with
hope when he heard about the
kisan call centre a few years ago.
The 40-something farmer had
spent his entire life tilling a small piece
of land in Sikandarpur Karan in Unnao,
governance
Uttar Pradesh. Recently he had faced a
barrage of pests that would leave much of Interactivity, intuitiveness, information flow and ease
his vegetable garden in a gooey mush. The
usually trustworthy local methods made
of transaction should be the parameters for evaluating
little impact. The advertisement for the e-governance projects
kisan call centre pasted on his village pan-
chayats office promised a direct connec-
tion to an agricultural scientist. Used to the
ways of the mobile phone, Yadav thought
it would be easy. But it was a nightmare
for him. Faced with multiple automated
response options in the interactive voice
response system (IVRS), Yadav gave up. He
wasnt the only one. The call flow of the
IVRS was a tried-and-tested one and had
worked for a variety of other schemes.
Something just wasnt right this time.
Telecommunications Consultants of
India Limited (TCIL) got back to the draw-
ing board. After extensive rounds of user at the same time give better e-governance initiatives emerge.
testing, called user acceptance test (UAT) mileage (read efficiency). But to E-governance is based on two
in the digital world, across the country envisage e-governance as mere- fundamental pillars. The first is
they figured out that there was nothing ly governance in an electronic free flow of relevant informa-
wrong with the idea. The problem was or digital format is fraught with tion. The second, and a related
in the call flow of the IVRS, which the en- danger. pillar, is the capability to use
gineers had borrowed directly from the Governance in real world in- that information for a seam-
successful projects that they had imple- volves a face-to-face interaction,
Control less transaction leading to the
mented in urban areas. TCIL soon rolled
out a new three-level knowledge man-
informal negotiations, subjec-
tive judgements and innovative
panel delivery of a service. These two
pillars hold up the structure of
agement system (KMS), with level one solutions. There is another side any successful digital private or
consisting of local language proficient to this coin. The same flexibility also al- public enterprise; right from searching
agriculture graduate, level two having lows for arbitrage opportunities leading for information on Google and picking up
subject matter specialists on crops and to corruption and a higher cost of public the best deals on Amazon to the booking
enterprises and level three having a man- service. In short, a successful e-gover- of railway tickets on IRCTCs site. India
agement group to answer questions not nance service has to provide for the infor- is moving, almost inexorably, towards
resolved at the earlier levels. mality of a face-to-face interaction, while becoming an advanced digital society. As
Today, Yadav is an active and regular eliminating arbitrage opportunities. the country transforms, digital gover-
user of the KCC. Thats why electronic, or digital, cannot nance will increasingly play a more criti-
Hidden in this success story of the KCC just be an additive. cal role. In light of this looming reality, its
lies the fundamental blueprint of how a Marshall McLuhans much abused and time we seriously consider the param-
good e-governance project needs to be debated statement still holds a kernel of eters of successful electronic governance.
implemented and executed at the ground truth. The medium is the message Broadly, there are four such parameters.
level. The electronic in governance is sometimes in the real world and often
mostly seen as an additive; a sort of a enough in the digital world. Its from Information Architecture
propellant thats going to speed up and this over 60-year-old statement that the The first is information architecture (IA).
smoothen the engine of governance and parameters of how to define successful In the field of digital product design, the

62 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013

 Gov NEXT A Click Into
Digital Governance
layering of information is an integral
part of design. When a person visits a
website, a mobile site or calls an IVR
system the manner in which information
is served determines the route (called
navigation in the digital world) the per-
son takes. IA is a science that identifies
and understands the psychology of the
target audience and tailors the informa-
tion around that psychology to derive
desired responses. Think of a website as
a mall where the displays are structured
and positioned across the vast expanse
in such a manner that the customer is at-
tracted to the specific products.
It usually isnt an accident that custom-
ers end up making buying decisions that
are intuitive to their mind, but is actually
well-thought out by the mall manage-
ment. A website is exactly like the
mall, where a well-thought out IA will
make the visitor complete his or her
decision loop.
User Interface
The second is user interface (UI). Its easy
to confuse UI with the aesthetic aspect
of design, but nothing could be further
ashish asthana
from the truth. A UI is the real estate of a
digital property and constructing a UI is
an extremely scientific process and flows
from the IA. Yet again, think of UI as
the vast space of a mall. The manner in
which the mall is designed and demar-
cated ensures that every inch of the real
estate is visited by the customer, leading
to a buying decision. The entry and exit
points, position of the signboards and
benches, the design of the pathways and
even location of the toilets are designed
to elicit a certain behavioural response.
User Interface does the same for the
digital product through the position of
navigation buttons, fonts and its size, co-
lour, space, bullets and images within the
digital real estate to derive the appropri-
ate customer response.
User Experience
The third is user experience (UX). The
crux of a good UX is to ensure that the
human-machine interaction is as intui-
tive as possible. The moment a person
starts feeling lost in the digital land-
scape it means that the intuitive nature
of the interaction has been lost and the
connection between the person and ma-
chine interface has been disrupted.
UX is also critical in refining the digital
product on offer. Just as TCIL went back
to the drawing board, understood its tar-
get audience better and evolved a more
appropriate IA and UI, ultimately leading
to a better experience for the end user.
Think of the UX as the overall ambience
that one encounters at a mall.
The more intuitive and integrated the
ambience, the better is the experience of
the customer.
Technology
The fourth is technology. IA, UI and UX
cannot exist in isolation. An appropriate
technology platform is a critical factor
to a persons overall interaction with a
digital product. In the case of e-gover-
nance, technology solutions have to be
open source, based on open standards,
non-proprietary, scalable and robust.
Appropriate data storage and retrieval
infrastructure is also critical in provid-
ing in-time service to the customers. Fi-
nally, only the right technology mix will
allow for e-governance solutions to be
made available across multiple digital
platforms and devices. Think of tech-
nology as the logistics and distribution
network of a mall, its heart. Without this
network, even the most well-designed
and structured mall will soon find its
shelves empty and customers unhappy.
Similarly, without the right technological
platform, a customer cannot be served in
a timely and efficient manner.
Sooner than later, India will have
to start evaluating its e-governance
projects. Currently the focus, and quite
rightly so, is on rolling out the infrastruc-
ture, hardware and the backbone for
large-scale e-governance. But in the near
future, the focus will shift to the out-
comes of e-governance initiatives. These
four principles must, then, be used for
evaluating the quality and impact of each
e-governance project. n
Swaminathan is a National Internet Ex-
change of India (NIXI) Fellow. He is also a Se-
nior Fellow in Observer Research Foundation
(ORF). A dyed-in-wool digital native, he is
one of the few surviving members of the orig-
inal tribe of internet crazies who used floppy
diskettes, DOS prompts and WordStar
www.GovernanceNow.com 63
S
ubhash Bhatnagar, a re-
nowned authority on e-
governance, has worked
with the World Bank in
Washington DC (2000 to
2006) as a consultant ad-
visor on e-Government. At the Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
(IIM-A), where he is an honorary ad-
junct professor, Bhatnagar leads the
team which oversees the department
of electronics and information technol-
ogy impact assessment programme for
e-governance projects. He is current-
ly a member of the National Advisory
Council on e-government and an em-
powered committee on capacity build-
ing for the national e-governance plan
(NeGP). In conversation with Pratap
Vikram Singh and Shivangi Naray-
an, he highlights the problems in the
larger vision on electronic governance
in India.
Can you comment on the buzz that
has been created around Aadhaar-
enabled service delivery and direct
benefits transfer scheme?
Unique identification (UID) number is
an enabler. UID in itself is not e-gover-
nance. Unless there is comprehensive
coverage first, nothing can happen. In
India, so far we didnt have apps built
around UID and other e-governance
initiatives. We are still struggling to
get the UID programme going.
First UID needs to have reasonably
good coverage and then you can think
about integrating it with service deliv-
ery. It is premature to talk about what
benefits UID will deliver.
It is a very challenging and
ambitious task.
When it finally starts happening, its
smooth functioning will depend on
the working of handheld devices.
Transactions, using handheld devic-
es, are going to happen at a fair price
shop, in colleges, schools. How will
that work, how will it be maintained?
We are not very sure.
We are very naive in terms of tech-
nology. I wish the unique identifica-
tion authority of India (UIDAI) had
actually gone ahead with enrolling
a complete district and then rolled
out services and see what the results
are. But UIDAI is doing it now. Why
couldnt you pilot it before? They
I N T E R V I E W
Subhash Bhatnagar, e-governance expert
Unless we use
data, there is no
open government
should have done this in the very
beginning.
Why are we so convoluted?
In UIDAI, getting a complete outsid-
er (UIDAI chairman Nandan Nile-
kani) who really had no first-hand ex-
perience of how things work on the
ground is one reason. He did not have
the first-hand experience of working
on the ground. Selling services while
being in Infosys is one thing, while
implementing UID scheme is another.
Probably, he was not prepared to han-
dle so many challenges.
Though projects are usually driv-
en by a champion, there are projects
which are demand-driven and are im-
plemented with the participation of
all stakeholders. Perhaps, there could
have been ground-level consultations
at the time of the formulation of the
programme. They would have con-
sulted, but it was not adequate.
What are the issues with NeGP?
I would like to preface my comment,
saying that reasonable amount of
work has been done. A number of
states have their data centres, wide
area networks. In terms of concep-
tualising, DeitY has done a good job.
I think the problem has been largely
that DeitY needed to work through
a single point of contact in the state.
And that was state IT secretary. And
I think for a time when they were
building the infrastructure the mod-
el was fine. Infrastructure should be
the responsibility of the IT depart-
ment. But when it comes to actually
developing applications using this in-
frastructure, then the IT secretary is
not the right person. His writ does not
work on other departments. Given the
competition in the higher bureaucra-
cy, nobody is going to listen to the IT
secretary.
The implementation has been really
captive with IT department, and the
ownership was not taken by the line
departments.
There are a few states, which have
proactive IT secretaries. But those are
aberrations.
They tried to work through making
the prime minister as chairman of the
apex council (of NeGP). However, one
needs to realise that PM is chairman
of hundred committees. The band-
width is not available at the PMO to
handle everything.
Another thing we did not realise is
that already reasonable amount of
computerisation has begun in many
states. States are at variable levels of
e-readiness and e-governance. Look
at PDS. Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand
and Gujarat are at different levels of
computerisation. To conceive a proj-
ect for pan-India is a difficult task.
Had it been state e-governance plan,
instead of a national plan, it would
have worked better.
Can you comment on electronic
service delivery bill?
As nudging device for states lacking in
e-governance, it is a good tool. But can
somebody define what constitutes e-
delivery? Applying online, submitting
all documents online, paying online
or final electronic delivery? Unless we
are clear about what defines electron-
ic delivery, the Act will not have teeth.
Fundamentally, the capability to
build these applications has to be
there.
On electronic service delivery bill,
the World Bank gave me the draft copy
seeking comments. So I gave my com-
ments then. I stated clearly that you
have to define what constitutes deliv-
ery. I made several comments. Some
of comments were included by the
government.
But for me, if the states are not ready,
the legislation is just a nudging device.
If you have passed RTE Act, it does
not mean education disparity will just
vanish.
The theme of the 16th NCEG
conference was open government.
Why were you critical of it?
For Scandinavian countries, open
government means opening up data
to the public. The industrialised
countries had done what we are do-
ing today about 20 years ago. The way
I got my driving licence in the US 20
years ago is the way I get it here now.
So my argument is when we talk about
integration, somewhere we have to be
patient about it.
If you have a new type of accounting
information, can department monitor
the data, let alone citizens (using this
information)?
Let us not get lost. We have another
objective implementation of e-gov-
ernance for electronic delivery of ser-
vices. This should have been done in
the past seven years (of NeGP).
To think that citizens will engage, ad-
vise and be involved in the policymak-
ing is a far-fetched dream. First pro-
vide immediate relief to citizens in
terms of transacting business with the
government.
If NeGP could have facilitated imple-
mentation of e-district in five years
then 60 percent of the work would
have been completed. [e-District proj-
ect aims at digitising back-end of the
district administration and putting key
government to citizen services online.]
This should have been the first work
To
me, open govt
is successful when we
see six articles in newspapers
using that data demanding
accountability, questioning why
the govt is not functioning well,
the slow speed of implementation,
govt spending. Unless we use
data, discuss it and bring in
accountability, there is no
point in adopting open
government.
to be implemented the back-end
computerisation.
They have put faucet but there is no
water. So is the case with common
services centres (CSCs).
There is no business process
reengineering?
That certainly is a week area. Putting
technology is easy. e-Government is
about transforming the way govern-
ment works. That change has not hap-
pened. Even basic procedures have to
be looked and modified.
Why should the citizen even note
what has happened? He should get
his service. If citizen notices that there
is improvement in service, we will
achieve our objectives.
You have also talked about the
impact of making information public?
Unless data is used, people will not
keep it updated. They will not keep
quality data. So usage is the key. To
me, open government is successful
when we see six articles in newspaper
using that data demanding account-
ability, questioning why the govern-
ment is not functioning well, the slow
speed of implementation, government
spending. Unless we use data, discuss
it and bring in accountability, there
is no point in adopting open govern-
ment. Publishing a nice website is not
the end objective. The outcome for
open government has to be seen in the
context of public engagement.
While living in the US, I saw people
sending 150 emails to the city admin-
istration suggesting the height of the
road bumps. They discussed it, met
and influenced the process. That is to
me is real open government.
Here citizens are not ready for the
same. And it is fine. Lets not make that
objective. We can start that in a few ar-
eas, where the citizens are ready.
Is social media an answer?
When we talk about social media,
we talk about yuppie class in urban
areas. We should profit and exploit
from it as much as possible. We saw
Hazare led protest and Nirbhaya pro-
test, it played an important role. How-
ever, it is not popular in rural areas. It
is not a panacea.
The fundamental problem is we do
not accept criticism. Can you improve
if you do not accept criticism. That
is the fundamental character of our
society.
You are also chairing a committee on
capacity building.
I am chairing a committee which is
preparing a roadmap for capacity
building for NeGP in future. We are
looking at state e-mission team (SeMT).
How effectively is it being utilised? We
keep talking about capacity building,
but when it comes to putting trained
manpower in the right position, it is
disappointing. I do not see problem
with training module and quality. But
the problem is that states do not send
the right people for training. They are
not deployed at the right position. n
pratap@governancenow.com
 people politics policy performance
e-Gov Notes
Farmers set to sail on web, sell online
F
armers from 25,000 villages
across Maharashtra would
soon be able to sell their goods
online through computer kiosks
installed in panchayat offices in the
state. The computer infrastructure
has been created under e-panchay-
at a nationwide IT programme
by union ministry of panchayati
raj. In Maharashtra, the pro-
gramme is being implemented as
Government launches
e-pass
K apil Sibal, union
communications
minister, launched the
electronic payment and
application system for
scholarships (e-Pass) for
Himachal Pradesh and
Tripura on March 25, 2013
in Delhi. e-Pass, developed
by Hyderabad-based Centre
for Good Governance is an
application created to help
the students in all steps of
availing their scholarships.
It helps them right from
registration of application for
scholarship to the transfer
of money to their bank
accounts.
National GIS soon to get cabinet nod
T he department of science
and technology (DST) is
awaiting an approval on the ex-
penditure finance committee
note on National
GIS from the fi-
nance ministry
for the Nation-
al GIS platform.
The cabinet note
on the project
is expected in
three months
time. The ambi-
tious project, to
be implemented over a period
of five years, will map resources
66 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
Ashish asthana
Sanganakiya Grameen Maharash-
tra, a project of the state rural
development department. On the
webpage of each panchayat, infor-
mation on the village, along with
available inventory of agricultural
produce, would be updated regu-
larly. The information, collated with
a software, will help customers buy
from the farmers directly, eliminat-
ing middlemen.
Aadhaar cards to have Post offices to aid of DBT
date of birth too beneficiaries
Aadhaar will now also have date
of birth (DoB) information on the
card for a wider coverage of ser-
I n order to make the direct
benefits transfer (DBT) scheme
more accessible to people, the
vices. Aadhaar was previously government has announced that
not acceptable as identity proof applicants can now make
for many services, like banks and money transactions from post
offices as well. This comes into
mobile phone companies, because
it did not have DoB, though it did effect after complaints were
mention age of the person. The received about the delay in
residents then needed to produce opening bank accounts, especially
other documentary proofs, such zero-balance accounts. The
as PAN card and electricity bills. It scheme will come into effect from
defeated the very purpose of the October 1, 2013.
Aadhaar card which was to be a
single document for all purposes
of identification.
2017: cyber security mkt
(natural and brick-and-mortar,
both), support spatial planning
to be worth $870mn
G
and assist in quick and reliable lobal market for cyber se-
monitoring of implementation curity solutions may grow
of various devel- to $ 870 million by 2017, says a
opmental works report by research firm IDC. Cy-
undertaken by gov- ber criminals use thousands of
ernment agencies. networked computers to `jam
The project will a website by directing exces-
also enable putting sive traffic to it, causing it to
non-classified data crash. Such attacks are termed
in public domain as Distributed Denial of Service
and empowering (DDoS). According to IDC, there
citizens by provid- has been a sharp increase in
ing status and de- frequency, volume and orienta-
tails of projects undertaken by tion of such attacks on financal
the government. websites .
Web portal for NIELIT
launched
The government recently
launched web portal
for national institute of
electronics and information
technology (NIELIT). The
web portal www.nielit.
in has been designed
according to the guidelines
for Indian government
websites and has several
new features to enhance
the Common Service
Centre scheme. It will
also provide placement-
related information for
NIELIT students and will
also provide them free
online employability test in
association with Wheelbox.
Delhi div of railways
back on Facebook
Having left Facebook due
to negative publicity, the
Delhi division of Indian
Railways is back on the
social networking site to
help provide information to
people. The page, restricted
to three stations in the
capital (Old Delhi, Hazrat
Nizamuddin and New
Delhi), will upload details
like arrival and departure
timings of trains, platform
numbers and daily
availability of seats.
Online FIR facility
against power thefts
The vigilance wing of the
Haryana Power Utilities
has started an online
system for submitting
complaints. The facility is
being called as Criminal
Investigation Management
System, through which
one can register a first
information report (FIR).
The government has
directed field officials to
file all FIRs for electricity
theft online within 24
hours of detection of theft.
All concerned field officials
have already been trained
to use the online system.
 Gov NEXT A Click Into
Digital Governance
Cloud computing will facilitate collaboration
in government
This new technology will not only save money on resources and infrastructure but also
facilitate higher-level integration of disparate systems
Sameer Batra
D
riving change in the govern-
ment sector, compared to a
commercial enterprise, is far
more complex and challenging
as it often has wider consequences. Any
change in the technical standards will
act as a catalyst for broader transforma-
tions. This is perhaps an important rea-
son for the comparatively low adoption
of cloud computing in the government
sector all over the world.
However, this scenario is changing
slowly but gradually, and cloud comput-
ing is increasingly coming up on the
radar of governments.
We find that quite a few government
agencies have taken the first step of host-
ing their projects at hosted data centres;
for example, NIC data centre, state data
centre or other private data centres. This
step taken by the government has gone
a long way in helping projects roll out
faster and extend them with an ability
to demand higher flexibility on network
bandwidth and space optimisation. The
use of IAAS (infrastructure as a service)
and PAAS (platform as a service) for de-
ploying their applications in the private
data centres seems to be gaining interest
among several agencies.
Cloud computing provides governments
in emerging countries like India with
the ability to share computing resources,
cutting the cost of providing various
services to citizens, like enabling them
to pay their bills online. For example,
each district in India provides the same
set of services. Individually, the districts
are too small to benefit from the rollout
of new technology services but under
a cloud computing arrangement, many
agencies can share the same infrastruc-
ture at a lower cost.
If implemented properly, cloud com-
puting eliminates the risk of becoming
locked into an IT system that is difficult
and costly to reshape when technological
change and new administrative require-
ments force systems to evolve in both
design and implementation.
Environments in cloud computing are
adaptable and shared. They have an elas-
ticity that is built in their architecture.
And in todays hyper-complex, hyper-
speed IT universe, they are typically pay-
as-you-go. If you dont use it, you dont
pay for it.
Perhaps most interestingly, a cloud
computing architecture can be designed
to share a common operating environ-
ment across many mission processes,
Cloud computing eliminates
the risk of becoming locked
into an IT system that is
difficult and costly to reshape
when technological change
and new administrative
requirements force systems
to evolve in both design and
implementation.
allowing that environment to be built in
a way that is more secure, scalable and
robust than the hundreds or thousands
of one-off operating environments that
have been deployed in the past.
While cost reduction is a compelling
reason to consider moving to a cloud com-
puting model, other benefits are also sig-
nificant and must not be ignored. Cloud
computing has tremendous potential to
open the door to better decision-making
based on real-time data and lay a strong
foundation for greater focus on innova-
tion at every level of the government.
The cloud computing approach to re-
source sharing saves money, and also fa-
cilitates higher-level integration of dispa-
rate systems, making it much simpler to
achieve complex mission requirements.
Harnessing the scale, flexibility and
computing power of cloud comput-
ing will enable government agencies to
rapidly access and analyse large vol-
umes of data, and quickly implement
new analytics. Insights from this big
data will enable breakthrough abilities
in areas such as identifying waste, fraud
and abuse in government programmes,
conducting more comprehensive health-
care outcome research, running military
simulations, constructing global climate
models, or even predicting and manag-
ing real-time traffic patterns.
Cloud computing, over a period of time,
has evolved into a robust system with
significant benefits. An increasing inte-
gration of cloud computing into central,
state and local IT can help change the
way the government works by bringing
better collaboration and driving innova-
tion. n
Batra is director, public sector, IBM India/
South Asia
www.GovernanceNow.com 67
 people politics policy performance
Ashish asthana
Policing and Us
Big brother is reading
your tweets
Mumbai police wants to keep a tab on social media. Delhi
already does that. But will someone tell the poor citizen what
is happening with this information?
media and be better prepared to meet
any untoweard turn of events in case
people want to use their democratic right
to gather in large numbers and protest
against something they feel is wrong.
The word monitor is again tricky,
because even after several reports of
how Mumbai police is going to monitor
peoples Facebook and Twitter activity,
additional commissioner of police (pro-
tection) Nawal Bajaj denied that that was
the motive of the lab.
Monitoring is a bad word; it means
that we are keeping an eye on what
people are saying. We are essentially
keeping a tab on the pulse of the pub-
lic what they think, want and expect
from the police for managing situa-
tions better, Bajaj told Governance Now.
We are trying to tailor our responses
according to the expectations of the
people, he said.
A software, developed in-house, will
help keep a tab on what people are think-
ing and talking about in the city and the
subject attracting the most chatter on
social media, he explained.
Apart from that, Bajaj said, the lab will
Shivangi Narayan also check tweets and Facebook posts
T
(and other online content) of important
political leaders, opinion leaders and
he line that divides religious leaders. We will use (software)
surveillance and in- packages that can collect information on
trusion is thin and certain topics. We will also use various
blurring by the day. other programmes, including search
At least in the social engines, for (gathering) information, he
media sphere. Take, said.
for example, Mumbai He did not divulge more information
polices social media on the working of the lab citing security
lab launched on March 17 to, what they reasons.
call, monitor what is happening on social Bajaj said that incidents such as the
68 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
mass protests in New Delhi after the
December 16 gangrape caught the police
off guard. He said the administration
is now aiming to find out what people
were thinking about administration,
governance and policing, and what they
expected from the government. If I had
known about the numbers, I would have
deployed more policemen in the area to
better manage the protests, Bajaj said.
While there is logic for the administra-
tion to believe that the protests could
have been better managed, or respond-
ed to, if the police knew about the num-
bers beforehand, opening a social media
lab to go through Facebook, Twitter and
other online content without proper safe-
guards for data protection and privacy
may raise questions.
The issue of procedural safeguards is
an important one, said Chinmayi Arun,
assistant professor at the National Law
University, Delhi. She said if a lot of infor-
mation is at the disposal of the Mumbai
police in the lab, it may be misused.
What happens if someone uses access to
this information for personal purposes
or nefarious purposes? Do we have any
safeguards in place against that? Arun
asked.
Mumbai police is yet to consult people
or inform them how the department
would go about working in a lab like
that. There is no information in the
public domain about safeguards taken
to protect information and privacy of
citizens in such a lab. An average Mum-
baikar does not know what is happening
in the lab.
Of course what he does not know he
cannot complain against, but is this igno-
rance a matter of bliss?
And it is not just Mumbai police; a quick
check with its Delhi counterpart revealed
that it has been doing the same thing for
the last five years.
We have two cells the cyber cell,
which looks into the criminal issues
relating to IT Act, and the special branch
that looks into social media (and other
online content) and lets us know if there
is a need for deployment of extra force,
said Dharmendra Kumar, special com-
missioner of police (law and order).
Ironically, Kumar denied that the Delhi
gangrape protests were not properly
responded to due to lack of information
about the number of protesters. People
 Gov NEXT A Click Into
Digital Governance
The issue of procedural
safeguards is an important
one. If a lot of information
is at the disposal of the
Mumbai police in the lab,
it may be misused. What
happens if someone uses
access to this information
for personal purposes or
nefarious purposes? Do
we have any safeguards
in place against that?
Chinmayi Arun, assistant
professor at the National
Law University, Delhi.
took less than an hour there to col-
lect (assemble), which took us by sur-
prise, he said. He maintained that
social media wasnt responsible for
the turnout of such a large number
of people.
Increased monitoring and surveil-
lance in everyday life might now be
an accepted mode of living, but it is
surely going to make people more
careful about how they interact on
the internet, defeating the very pur-
pose of the space.
This lack of transparency regard-
ing the policies and safeguards that
govern the lab and how it functions
might inhibit people from using the
internet, especially social media, to
interact freely with each other. The
Occupy Wall Street movement illus-
trated how the state can inhibit free-
dom of expression and association
through surveillance. This is awful
for democracy said Arun. n
sivangi@governancenow.com
Hackathon planning
Plan panel brings students together to develop apps
Pratap Vikram Singh
C
rowdsourcing seems to have
found takers in the government.
The planning commission organ-
ised an app programming and visualisa-
tion event, commonly known as hack-
athon, on April 6-7. Programmers from
over 10 premier institutes, including the
IITs and IISc, came together to develop
web and mobile applications which
could support the initiatives outlined in
the plan or educate about the focus area
of the plan.
Out of the total 217 submissions across
three categories app development,
short film and data visualisation the
government shortlisted and awarded 40
winners. This fisrt-ever hackathon for
any government department was facili-
tated by the office of Sam Pitroda, advi-
sor to the prime minister on public infor-
mation infrastructure and innovations.
A group of three students from NIET,
Greater Noida, was awarded for devel-
oping an app helpmycity (http://www.
helpmycity.in/) through which citizens
can register grievances related to several
issues and get it resolved by authorities,
and even civil society organisations. Is-
sues that can be reported include safety,
transport, water, environment, infra-
structure and education.
Complaint or comment posted on web
app can be liked and supported by other
citizens and thus it could become a mass
petition, compelling authorities to act.
Yeoman Group from IIT-Chennai was
awarded for developing a web/mobile
app for containing the spread of com-
municable diseases and preventing out-
breaks. The app provides a data feeding
mechanism which can be used by NGOs
and health authorities to report about
diseases and the number and details of
people affected. The app also provides
for viewing the disease trend over a geo-
spatial map.
The district health system must be
strengthened and links established with
non-governmental healthcare providers
to develop a reliable and accurate re-
porting network for infectious diseases
and risk factors of non-communicable
diseases. Without such information,
policy and programme planning will be
enfeebled and impact evaluation will be
difficult to undertake. Thus, there is a
need to build a vibrant health informa-
tion system for monitoring and evalua-
tion, the group said in its submission to
the plan panel.
Even those apps and illustrations,
which could not make it to the final
shortlist, were interesting. A group of
young researchers and students devel-
oped a web app for having national
electronic health record system, where
in medical history of citizens could be
linked to Aadhaar and saved centrally.
The national health database system
was the second attempt by the same
group. Initially, they almost developed
an android app for getting blood dona-
tion during emergency. An alert would
go to all mobile users having that app
within a radius of 5 km, informing
them about the urgency. They couldnt
complete as it is difficult to ascertain the
geo reference (exact location) of mobile
phone users.
The inaugural session also saw acade-
micians and students from the institutes
putting questions to commission deputy
chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia
through video conferencing. n
pratap@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 69
 people politics policy performance
Text and Context
-Governance is no longer a buzzword confined to hoary
e circles of policy making and academia. In the last decade
or so it has not only entered the Indian public conscious-
ness as a concrete lexicon, but has shown its potential through
real initiatives at the ground level like the land record digitisa-
tion projects in several states and the efficient passport seva
kendras (PSK). Today, the socio-economic potential of digital
governance in transforming India and provisioning better and
targeted services for the disempowered sections cannot be dis-
puted. Yet for all its proliferation in various avatars, there is still
no professional course or curriculum for people to get trained
in e-governance in a formal manner.
Jaijit Bhattarcharyas book, e-Gov 2.0: Policies, Processes and
Technologies, is probably the first effort in India at congregating
all the strands that constitute e-governance, and putting them
together in one place. It is to Bhattacharyas credit that the book
does not for once feel like a mash-up of various ideas, tech-
nologies, processes and case studies. The book is thematically
organised and progresses in a linear and methodical manner,
not only displaying Bhattacharyas command over the broad
subject and diverse themes but also his conscious attempt to
simplify complex issues to the average reader. Practitioners and
long-time advocates of e-governance and those who are already
in the deep end of the digital technology pool, however, may
find the workbook approach of Bhattacharya a tad tiresome.
But those who are looking to understand and imbibe the phi-
losophy, logic and practice of e-governance in a formal manner
will find Bhattacharyas approach readily agreeable. The book
thoughtfully provides a summary, key terms, case studies and
concept review questions at the end of each chapter.
Unlike a standard textbook, however, Bhattacharya does not
shy away from complicated and controversial issues of e-gov-
ernance. His chapters dealing with public-private partnership
(PPP) for e-Governance, policies and approaches for the adop-
tion of appropriate information communication technologies
(ICT) and the presence of multiples standards in ICT are as lucid
as they are accurate in highlighting the various dimensions of
the debate bedevilling the digital governance policy circles. He
has used several case studies and examples, like the Phillips pat-
ent case, the tussles between Cisco and Huawei Corporation and
the implication of Microsofts dominance of the Indian word-
processing software market of how the issue
of Open Standards is not just, pun unintended,
an open and shut case. He also brings into the
mix a nuanced description of the experience
of e-governance in countries like China, Japan,
Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia as well as the
European Union.
The book also goes into the hot and dusty
engine room of digital governance, which is
rare for a book of this nature. More often than
not, books dealing with technology, especially e-Gov 2.0: Policies, Processes
technology for society, do not delve into the or- and Technologies
ganisations and bodies dealing with standards Tata McGraw Hill, 604 pages, price ing change management as the indispensable
and policies. But Bhattacharya gives a well- not mentioned
articulated insight into organisations like the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
70 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
R Swaminathan
The future of
governance is
electronic
Book Review Jaijit Bhattacharyas
book e-Gov 2.0 breaks new ground
in bringing together different
pieces of digital governance
charting out the possible course of
a future India
(IEEE), International Standards Organisation (ISO), Internation-
al Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Joint Technical Committee
(JTC) and Advanced Television Systems (Committee), and the
critical role played by each one of them. He also goes into what
might be considered peripheral areas by strict practitioners of
digital governance, like digital television formats, to explain the
increasing interconnectedness of technologies and the manner
in which they are converging into what a lot of futurists call
singularity.
Despite the nice, nutritious and healthy mix, I would have
preferred if Bhattacharya had spiced up the concoction more by
adding his definitive positions on the issues. Bhattacharya has
been working in the field of digital technology for over 15 years
and as an expert his positions would have added more value
and weight to the book.
Bhattacharyas focus on change management is a breath of
fresh air. Positioning change management, ahead of software,
hardware and departmental implementation challenges, is his
way of saying that technology can only help
those who want to help themselves. In my
experience of understanding and document-
ing the impact of technology on daily life, the
biggest challenge, especially at the level of
providing service-oriented governance, comes
from bureaucrats and officials who are reluc-
tant to use technology due to reasons ranging
from fear of losing their turf to a fear of the
technology itself.
Bhattacharya focuses on concrete models
to overcome these challenges. By establish-
bedrock of e-governance, Bhattacharyas sub-
sequent and detailed exposition of a concrete
e-governance framework through a Secured
Bhattacharya has expounded
the need for formalisation
and institutionalisation of
e-governance in India. In
his own subtle way, he has
brought out the need for
a dedicated and formally
trained cadre of people who
understand the nuances of
digital governance.
Government Information System Architecture,
telecentres and open source software, and
solutions like Secure Transactions Infrastruc-
ture, Integrated Government Financial System
(IGFS), Urban Development Management Sys-
tem and e-Agriculture acquire a rare credibility.
While the scope and scale of the potential
of e-governance is clearly established in the
book, its pressing need for a country like India,
where social and economic inequalities not
only accentuate existing social divisions but
also create new ones, leading to asymmetries
of power, could have been articulated better.
Personally, I would have preferred one more
chapter, preferably the last one, detailing the
transformative and empowering potential of
e-governance, and how the India of the future
could become a role model for sustainable and
equitable growth on the backbone of a digital
governance framework. But thats just a minor
quibble. Bhattacharya has broken new ground
by expounding the need for a formalisation
and institutionalisation of e-governance in In-
dia. In his own subtle way, he has brought out
the need for a dedicated and formally trained
cadre of people who understand the nuances of
digital governance. In that foresight itself, Bhat-
tacharya has painted a future of India that will
be increasingly digital and hopefully equitable.
This book is a must read. n
Swaminathan is a National Internet Exchange of In-
dia (NIXI) Fellow. He is also a Senior Fellow in Ob-
server Research Foundation (ORF). A dyed-in-wool
digital native, he is one of the few surviving mem-
bers of the original tribe of Internet crazies who
used floppy diskettes, DOS prompts and WordStar
Briefly noted
Here is an attempt to estab-
Beyond Gandhian
Economic: lish that Gandhian Eco-
nomics is not neoclassical
Towards a Creative in essence and that it goes
Deconstruction
beyond the defined domain
BN Ghosh of economics in analysing
Sage Publications, social, political and ethical
implications of econom-
pp 224, ` 650 ics actions or policies.
What goes by the name of
Gandhian Economics are
some of Gandhis personal
views on different topi-
cal questions related to a
broader spectrum of issues encompassing moral philosophy, politics and society.
The book aims to fill the knowledge gap existing in the ontology of Gandhian
Economics. It goes beyond the narrow precinct of this field and proclaims that
many useful issues that Gandhi dealt with do not belong to the domain of pure
economics. The book also provides a trajectory towards a more sensible but
hitherto unexplored area of Gandhian political economy.
Ghosh, visiting professor at Leeds College of Management and Technology,
UK, has also worked in the same capacity at Eastern Mediterranean University,
Cyprus, University of Science, Penang (Malaysia), and Zhejiang Gongshang Uni-
versity, China. n
This work posits a world order
marked less by univocal glo-
Toward a Geopolitics
balisation than by a grating of Hope
geopolitics of rival capital- By William H.
isms. Now that China, Russia, Thornton and Songok
and much of the undemo- Han Thornton
cratic developing world have
embraced capitalism, this new
Sage Publications,
Second World can no longer be pp 262, ` 750
regarded as a fleeting phenom-
enon. Globalisation turns out to
be anything but the steadfast ally of democratization it purports to be. Indeed,
the western democratic experiment of the last two centuries is starting to look
very tentative and parochial.
For this the west has nothing to blame but itself. In many respects the new
Second World was spawned by First World neoliberal engagement. The Wash-
ington Consensus has not only brought the world to the brink of an intractable
economic depression, but has also played midwife to a chronic geopolitical
crisis. This book, however, is anything but defeatist in the face of this globalist
impasse. It draws upon a host of non-western reformisms with special at-
tention to those of India, Burma, and the Arab Spring to forge a Global Third
Way. Likewise its moral realism bridges the classic imperatives of Third World
social justice and First World security. Its paramount goal is not just a new soft
power politics, but a post-globalist geopolitics of hope. n
feedback@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 71
 people politics policy performance Illustration: ashish asthana

Random Notes

For your
eyes only
Regularly visit an
ophthalmologist who
regularly visits a dentist

K Balakumar

I
f I have to give you a medical advice
with regard to your eyes, this is the
one: regularly visit an ophthalmolo-
gist who regularly visits a dentist.
No, seriously. Vision-screening involves
a procedure wherein the oculist has to
peer into your eye in a position, which,
outside of a mouth-to-mouth resuscita-
tion situation, can be deemed a bit kinky.
Basically when he is looking deep into
your eyes you will be performing an im-
promptu manual breath-analyser test on
him. Suffice to say, it is never a good idea
to visit an ophthalmologist just after his/
her lunch hour (unless otherwise your in-
tention is to the test the efficacy of garlic-
fumes as clinical anaesthesia).
Another piece of information that I
would like to share with you in this re-
gard is: you must also avoid going to the
ophthalmologist in the evenings because
your eyes have to undergo something
called dilation. I suspect dilation is the
medical term for temporary blindness.
OK, when dilated your eyes lose their
ability to focus, and everything gets all
fuzzy and you basically see the world
like Kamal Haasan did in that song Vaa-
nam Kizhe Vandhal Enna in the film
Thoongaathe Thambi Thoongathe.
Once the dilation drops are administered
into your eyes you are not supposed to
open your eyes, and when you are taken
into the doctors chamber later and asked
to read the letters on the screen, you are
supposed to open your eyes.
This might seem elementary to many
but when I went for my eye screening last
week, it did not occur to me at all:
Doctor: Sit in a comfortable position and
read the letters on the screen.
Me: (In a panic-filled voice) Ayyo doc-
tor, onnume theriyala (Doctor, I cant see
a thing).
Doctor: (Testily looking at me and point-
ing to the screen which alone was illumi-
nated in the room) I said read the letters.
Which means you have to open your eyes.
Can anyone read with his eyes closed?
Me: But the nurse told me not to open
my eyes at all when they are dilated.
Doctor: OK, open your eyes, see the
screen. Can you see the screen? Now
read. (If sarcasm had a font the previous
sentences will be all in it).
Me: (Hurriedly looking at the letter E
which was the size of Bappi Lahiri) Yes,
doctor I can read it. No problems. It is all
very clear.
Doctor: No, wait. Why are you in a hurry?
I want you to have a look at this (pointing to
a line that had letters in a size clearly meant
to prevent anyone from reading them.
This is exactly the point-size that banks use
in their documents listing out important
terms and conditions, which can be basi-
cally summed up thus: In the event of any
problem, you can go bang your head on a
wall).
Me: Doctor, all I see is a full stop-like
smudge. Is this an early symptom of

72 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013


cataract?
Doctor: (Probably wanting to smack
his forehead in desperation) Leave all
those things to me. Just do what I tell
you to. Now read this. (Hands me a
small leaflet kind of thing.)
Me: Ayyo doctor, cant see a thing
and I can confirm that my eyes are
fully open.
Doctor: Oh sorry. Completely forgot
that. (Sheepishly switches on the light)
(Surely my effect was rubbing on to
him.)
After continuing with this, and later
examining my eyes further, the doctor
finally told me that I had hypermetro-
pia, which suspiciously sounds like an
eye affliction specific to those living in
(hyper-metro cities) Chennai or Mum-
bai. But I didnt say that to him be-
cause I also realised that would have
been a pretty weak joke even by my
standards.
Dont worry, the doctor told me,
hypermetropia is inevitable for a
middle-aged man like you. We can fix
this with a new pair of spectacles.
Neither the fact that he called me a
middle-aged man nor the fact that I
had hypermetropia seemed to worry
me at that moment. But the thought
that I had to go in for a new pair of
glasses did put me off. Because, in my
reckoning, all those who had planned
a career in highway robbery had put
their plans on hold and become in-
vestment bankers? No, they all seem
to have started optical shops. Because:
1. It is not all that different. 2. It is ac-
tually far more lucrative. 3. It is worth
telling that it is far, far more lucrative
than any of you believe.
You want to try out the spectacles in
our shop? the doctors assistant later
asked me as he made out the prescrip-
tion for me. We can give you some
good deals.
No, thanks, I said.
But anyway have this. You may need
it in the future, the assistant said and
handed me the shops visiting card.
But anyway, you have this. Your
doctor sure needs it, I said while
handing a small piece of paper to him.
In it written was, well, the phone num-
ber of my dentist. n
balakumarkb@gmail.com
Pee Pawar apologises,
but to whom?
Ajit Pawar tells Maharashtra assembly that his comment
on urinating to raise water levels for supply was not
intended for drought-affected people. So who does he now
propose his comments were meant for?
Shantanu Datta
M
y comments on Saturday were
not directed towards drought-
affected people and I had no
intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments...
I hope my comments will not affect
drought relief measures which will con-
tinue vigorously... Also, it was never my
intention to hurt anybody's sentiments...
It is true that I should have spoken re-
sponsibly. I apologise to all."
Thats Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief
minister of Maharashtra, on Monday,
two days after his callous remarks on the
drought and power situation in the state
caused an uproar.
On Saturday, according to reports in
different media outlets, including PTI,
Pawar, a nephew of union agriculture
minister and Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) honcho Sharad Pawar, said, What
can we do if there is no water in the dams
of Maharashtra? Should we urinate?
The first part of Pawars apology
says the comments were not directed
towards drought-affected people. So
who were they directed toward? People
enjoying ample water supply? But, then,
why and how would they be interested
in the water levels of the dams? Either
way, it matters little since the suggestion
to urinate would have made it deplorable
even if the comment was directed toward
non-drought-affected people either in
Maharashtra or outside.
The second part of the statement I
had no intentions to hurt anybody's
sentiments is weirder. So what was
Pawars intention in suggesting that he
could, and should, urinate in order to
raise the water levels? Was it a joke? Or a
matter-of-fact statement of purpose with
para-scientific implications? If he meant
he urinates quite a lot, is that a cause of
concern or apprehension for the people
both in drought-prone areas and
outside, and in Maharashtra and outside.
Either way, it matters little since the sug-
gestion to urinate would make it deplor-
able even if the comment was made not
to hurt public sentiment.
The third part I hope my comments
will not affect drought relief measures
which will continue vigorously is even
more bizarre. So how exactly does he
want the relief measures to continue?
Will he, or wont he (urinate, that is)? How
does Pawar, who held the states irrigation
portfolio for nearly a decade, propose to
address the issue? Neither his intended-
or-otherwise suggestion to urinate
nor his apology to both houses of the state
assembly holds an answer to that.
The fourth part of the apology It
is true that I should have spoken respon-
sibly is the only one that makes any
sense. And in it Pawar, intentionally or
otherwise, hits the nail on its head for
the whole political class. Responsibil-
ity is a noun that is fast dying out from
the lexicon of most Indian politicians. So
when Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress MP
from Jangipur in West Bengal but more
famous as president Pranabs son, tags
women protesting after the December 16
gangrape-turned-murder in Delhi as be-
ing part of the dented-painted brigade
or home minister Sushilkumar Shinde
says people will forget, over time, the coal
block allocation scam like they forgot the
Bofors rip-off, one knows exactly what
the problem is. Responsibility went for a
toss. And in came the casual joke.
But since being a public representative,
let alone a ministers job, entails 24x7
responsibility, maybe people with a bent
to make casual jokes joker, is that the
word for such characters? in public
should also go for a toss. And without
apology this time. n
shantanu@governancenow.com
www.GovernanceNow.com 73
 Last Word
The battle for my
surname
Why is retaining my surname after
marriage such a constant fight?
Tara Kaushal
I
am fiercely protective of my name, and would not change
it for the world. (Thanks to a bullying ex-husband, Ive
been there, done that, got the passport, thank you very
much.) Nothing but Tara Kaushal feels like my name
not then, and even not now in a very happy second marriage.
Besides, I have a strong feminist agenda, and a whole score of
reasons why I believe it was a mistake of youth to hyphenate the
first time around and why I wont do it again. Anyway, the issue
here is not why I want to retain my surname after marriage, but
the fact that I do. I have realised just how ingrained the patriar-
chal assumption of an automatic name-change is in our society
and government systems.
My passport was a whole different level of complication. Well
after my divorce and even a few months in to my second mar-
riage, for want of a permanent address, my passport stayed
unupdated and said I was still married to
my first husband, hyphenated surname et
al. Now, in Maharashtra, marrying a Sahil
Mane automatically makes me a Mrs Tara
Sahil Mane, adding the insult of his first
name as my middle name to the injury of
his surname automatically replacing mine.
So when it came time to update my pass-
port, I visited the passport office to figure
out how I could bypass this. The blank
stares that greeted my preposterous request
led me into the arms of an agent.
Much research later, he said I would
need an affidavit that went: I, Tara <insert
hyphenated surname>, upon divorce and
remarriage, would not like to change my
name to Tara Sahil Mane but would like to
revert to my maiden name.
I bullied and blustered my way through
the first few stages of the passport
74 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2013
interviews, flashing my affidavit at confused officials. The last
lady asked for a copy of the ad I should have placed in a national
newspaper declaring my changed name, but accepted my pro-
tests that I was just choosing to retain the name on my birth cer-
tificate: why would I need an ad? It must have been a confusing
case, because my passport came four months later.
Armed with this passport, getting my lost PAN card reis-
sued was simpler. A friendly, gentle Mr Deshpande with a foot
in the retirement door asked if I was one of those crusader
types. Though I dont know the language, he even showed me a
Marathi newspaper with an article about some feminist cam-
paign, and insisted I take a photocopy to keep up with the ac-
tions of my comrades in arms.
The effort towards a married-with-my-original-name passport
has made life infinitely easier. Now, every time I have to insist
on the use of my name, I simply have to whip out my passport.
Whats scary is how often Ive had to use this tactic. Adding my
name on to Sahils membership at a local gymkhana is a fight
Im still fighting. Apparently, its systems are not built to accept
different surnames for married couples with the same member-
ship number. Aapko feminism karna hai toh dono naam kyon
nahi rakh lete? It will be easier, advised a helpful clerk.
Then, there are social reactions that I and other women who
have different surnames from their husbands encounter. When
booking tickets on a sleeper bus to Goa, I told the agent Id like
the seats together as I would be travelling with my husband.
He filled in my name, then assumed my husbands name was
Kaushal. When I said it wasnt, his snigger said it all. (And when
he realised that we dont share a surname and he is younger,
thats it, his image of me as a lying woman of questionable char-
acter was complete.) I also deal with sniggering clerks when we
try to check in to smaller hotels. The social censure doesnt faze
me; Sahil and I lived together for years before we married, and
one develops a bit of a thick skin. Fortunately, he laughs off the
mail addressed to Mr & Mrs Kaushal that occasionally lands up
in our letterbox, as he does when friends teasingly call him Mr
Kaushal when Im hogging the limelight.
These may not be easy things for a less secure man to accept.
The sign of a mature democracy is the way
it treats its women. Are we cattle, to be pos-
sessed and passed on from one male to an-
other, ensconced in a patriarchal cultural and
governance system? Or are we to be treated
as individuals entitled to make our own
choices? That the default is patriarchal is bad
enough, it is infinitely worse that one has to
struggle against so much to make customised
choices against the norm. I always choose to
wear the name I grew up with Except when
dealing with traffic cops, where I allow myself
the small luxury of donning Sahils Maharash-
trian surname!
The battle wages. Because, for a long time to
come, you will find the type of man who as-
sumes his wifes surname upon marriage only
in Havel fans ads! n
Tara is a Mumbai-based writer.