For a better MGNREGA,for ias mains

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has a significant influence on agricultural operations and cultivation costs. If its present focus on community works can be reoriented to proactively promote improvements on the landholdings of small and marginal farmers through the creation of durable assets, it will be beneficial for agricultural productivity and incomes.

Critics say that the MGNREGS draws labour away from agricultural operations and hikes up costs through increased wages. They hold that leakages and corruption have vitiated rural work culture and the assets generated do not justify the huge expenditure (budget outlay of Rs 33,000 crore in 2013-14). Supporters see a model of inclusive development, creating durable assets. The scheme is credited for mitigating distress migration, improving household food security, enhancing the bargaining power of rural labour, generating “green employment” and fostering climate-resilient agriculture.

The linkage of the MGNREGS with agriculture is in-built in the legislation. Permissible works include land development and soil conservation, water harvesting, irrigation provisioning, drought proofing, horticulture, tree-plantation and afforestation. Works under the MGNREGS can be taken up on both community and private lands. Small and marginal farmers, SC/ST and Indira Awaas Yojana beneficiaries are eligible for taking up works on their own lands.

Some people think durable assets mean only brick and mortar structures. But a different school of thought recognises that a rejuvenated and replenished natural resource base — land, water, biodiversity — is an even more valuable asset. For the lives and livelihoods of millions of small holder farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, herders and fisher folk depend upon the productive capacity of these natural resources.

The thrust of the MGNREGS in the past eight years has been to open up works on community lands. The proportion, last year, of works taken up on private lands was a mere 11 per cent. This needs to be raised to at least 50 per cent. The impetus to agriculture will be triggered when there is greater asset creation on individual farms. Such a shift in emphasis would incentivise small holders to take up works leading to restoration and revitalisation of their own farmland, higher productivity and consequently more agricultural employment. Landless unskilled labour could benefit from the additional employment generated from small farms and also continue to supplement their income from the MGNREGS, albeit on a lesser scale.

The productive value of small landholdings could be enhanced further with material and technical inputs from effective convergence with other ongoing agricultural development programmes such as the National Food Security Mission, the horticulture mission, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and the National Agroforestry Policy. A study on the creation of assets on the lands of small and marginal farmers, SC/ST and Indira Awaas Yojana beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh has revealed that almost half the households studied that sought employment under the MGNREGS and on whose land work was undertaken, did not come back to work on the MGNREGS the following year. This suggests that an increase in cultivable land, irrigation and cropping intensity on private farmlands generated additional agricultural employment to keep them gainfully occupied on their own farms. This needs to be studied in greater detail.

Studies conducted by the Indian Institute of Science and other international institutions and NGOs find that: a portion of MGNREGS wages is ploughed into the cropland through purchased farm inputs; investments are made in small ruminants, poultry and pigs; there has been a shift towards diversified, high value and more remunerative crops from traditional staples; credit worthiness for agricultural loans has improved; and the premise of the MGNREGS crowding out other forms of employment is not sustained.

Empirical evidence also points towards a rise in water availability and the area under irrigated crop production from making water structures; a shift in cultivation pattern from mono-cropping to two-three crops a year; improvement in soil quality and increase in soil organic carbon, leading to improved fertility and crop yields; and a decline in the livelihood vulnerability index of households.

If the MGNREGS works on private land are to gain momentum for creation of durable assets, some clear work areas emerge.

One, dug wells, farm ponds, recharge structures and irrigation channels help improve productivity and efficiency of water use. Value enhancement of dug wells occurs when the farmer acquires a water-lifting device through convergence with other programmes. Madhya Pradesh, with the highest percentage of works on individual land, has emphasised the creation of irrigation potential.

Two, soil in farmers’ fields is the basic material asset. Centuries of use and abuse has led to erosion, degradation and depletion of this finite and fragile resource. Replenished and restored soil fertility needs to be recognised as a durable asset under the MGNREGS. Protocols will need to be developed to quantify and document soil fertility improvement before and after the interventions. The concept has within it the nucleus of a “land-care movement”, which could be spurred by convergence with the sustainable agriculture mission.

Three, trees on farms are durable assets and need to be scientifically and rigorously promoted for their products — fruit, fodder, fuel, fibre, fertiliser and timber contribute to food and nutritional security, income generation and insurance against crop failure. Services provided by trees include nutrient recycling, carbon storage, biodiversity preservation, resilient cropping environments, prevention of deforestation, and enabling agricultural land to withstand extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, and climate change. MGNREGS convergence has been factored into the National Agroforestry Policy notified earlier this year. ]

Four, promoting asset creation on small holdings requires simpler methods of measurement and validation due to individual farmers finding it difficult to maintain records designed for large-scale community works, for example, elaborate muster rolls. An exemplar is the earlier Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme. This standardised the labour payment to bemade to farmers working on their own lands, which was based on measurable farm output. Such practices contributed significantly to the state’s horticulture revolution.

Five, the door should remain open for out-of-the-box initiatives. For instance, linking the MGNREGS with the system of rice intensification (SRI), a technology practice known to increase yields while affecting significant savings in water use, seed and agrochemicals. SRI is labour intensive and lends itself to the prospect of including SRI as a permissible item under MGNREGS.

NASA, Boeing to develop most powerful rocket for Mars

NASA and Boeing have inked a $2.8 billion deal to develop a giant rocket which is set to be the largest and most powerful ever built, paving the way for manned missions to Mars.

Boeing has finalised a contract with NASA to develop the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built.

In addition, Boeing has been tasked to study the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, which will further expand mission range and payload capabilities.

The agreement comes as NASA and the Boeing team complete the Critical Design Review (CDR) on the core stage — the last major review before full production begins.

“Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS — the largest ever — will be built safely, affordably and on time,” Virginia Barnes, Boeing SLS vice president and programme manager said in a statement.

“We are passionate about NASA’s mission to explore deep space. It’s a very personal mission, as well as a national mandate,” said Ms. Barnes.

During the CDR, which began last month, experts examined and confirmed the final design of the rocket’s cryogenic stages that will hold liquefied hydrogen and oxygen.

This milestone marks NASA’s first CDR on a deep-space human exploration launch vehicle since 1961, when the Saturn V rocket underwent a similar design review as the U.S. sought to land an astronaut on the Moon.

Scheduled for its initial test flight in 2017, the SLS is designed to be flexible and evolvable to meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs.

The initial flight-test configuration will provide a 77-tonne capacity, and the final evolved two-stage configuration will provide a lift capability of more than 143 tonnes.

Centring the Northeast

The Northeast needs a skilful person who can take the region out of its insurgency grip, mobilise leaders of substance and work out a decentralised multi-level development strategy

A vibrant Northeast? This is not Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s catch-all phrase for the seven northeastern States, though the region does figure in his list of priorities for economic rejuvenation, and strategic and infrastructural development.

I am not sure if General V.K. Singh’s choice as MoS (independent charge) for the development of the Northeast is right, even though he is knowledgeable about the region. He has the reputation of being straight-forward and a doer, but only in the realm of defence so far. The Northeast today needs a skilful politico-economic person who can take the region out of its insurgency grip, mobilise leaders of substance and work out a decentralised multi-level development strategy aimed at fostering the region’s growth.

The Look East Policy

The land-locked region continues to be stuck in politico-bureaucratic status quo, even after Prime Minister Narasimha Rao placed it under special focus as part of the Look East Policy in 1991. This has since become an integral part of India’s foreign policy rhetoric, which has already travelled from phase one to phase two under various Prime Ministers without addressing basic infrastructure and all-inclusive growth.

Each Prime Minister has reiterated the country’s commitment to take the Look East Policy forward, but this has been done somewhat half-heartedly in view of strategic and logistical problems emanating from sporadic bursts of violence by terrorist and insurgent groups operating on both sides of the border. Today, the situation on the insurgency front is somewhat easier, especially along the Myanmar and Bangladesh borders. Still, “caution” has to be the mantra.

The northeastern States account for about 8 per cent of the country’s geographical area. They share less than 2 per cent of their borders with other Indian States and share 98 per cent with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and the Tibetan region (of China). The challenge is to convert this location disadvantage into an opportunity. This can be done by opening up the seven-State gateway to more than millions of ASEAN consumers for trade, commerce and education. The Northeast requires proactive, bold policies. People are alienated because of lopsided economic growth stemming from a Delhi-centric approach to issues. The leaders in Delhi ought to understand the changing lives of the tribals who have adopted modern values, fashions and modes of living, and frame policies accordingly.

The Northeast can be rejuvenated by making the region a focal point for growth. Removing the Restricted Area Permit and Inner Line Permit would help to integrate the region with the rest of India. However, amid numerous misgivings about the existing institutional mechanism, what is reassuring is the concern among central and regional authorities and intellectuals about the future of the region and the alienation of its people.

This concern was expressed in an international conference organised by Chandigarh’s Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development in Shillong on June 6-7 in collaboration with the North-Eastern Hill University. The Shillong conclave had a number of prominent persons and experts drawn from different disciplines and nationalities to deliberate on India’s Northeast and southeast Asia. This initiative had the support of the External Affairs Ministry since it has stakes in opening up the region to Southeast Asia. While there was an overwhelming view in favour of preserving the distinct identity of northeastern people, there was also regret that the bureaucracy “has been indifferent to understanding tribal communities” since its stress “is on mainstreaming of culture.” A healthy economy, innovative tourism-oriented packaging of rich tribal heritage, and projecting modern facets of society are the keys to solving this problem. The success of Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival is one example of how the region can add to India’s cultural richness.

The Northeast has higher standards of living and literacy, but it also has an unbalanced economy and suffers from a terrible industrial sickness. Except Meghalaya, all the States in the region face a power shortage, despite the fact that the Northeast has a huge reserve of hydroelectric potential (30,000 to 40,000 MW). Power apart, the region needs special efforts for the development of world-class infrastructural network of roads and railways, for strengthening the telecom sector, healthcare services, and tapping into the agricultural industry and the region’s rich biodiversity. It can also emerge as a hub for higher education for the entire Southeast Asian belt.

There has also been concern over the involvement of non-regional entrepreneurs. We need to examine ways and means of creating a unified common market of nearly 40 million people which will provide a big boost to the economy of the region. We also have to ensure a massive investment flow for infrastructural development on both sides of the border in order to improve connectivity for trade and commerce. This will help the emergence of local entrepreneurs. As it is, the Delhi-Hanoi rail link, trilateral highway project between India, Myanmar and Thailand, and some other initiatives have got bogged down by red tapism and a lack of political will.

I would like to draw from the study of a northeast magazine that spoke of regional entrepreneurship. It said: “India needs entrepreneurs for two reasons — to capitalise on new opportunities and to create wealth and new jobs.” Compared to the rest of India, the level of start-ups in the Northeast “is much lower” because of “major bottlenecks and barriers to entrepreneurship like know-how, finance, administrative burden and cultural and social factors.” A few professionals, who tried to start initiatives on their own, did not get support, but this is changing.

Bridging the gulf

At the human level, there exists a big gulf between people from the hills and people from the plains. This has resulted in creating a trust deficit. Recent ugly incidents in Delhi have only reaffirmed the distance that separates the Northeast from mainstream India. Promoting understanding at the human level apart, it is also essential to bridge the chasm in the areas of communication, information and culture. We have to provide people from the Northeast opportunities as well as honour, dignity and equality. The North-East Region Vision 2020 document states: “It is in Northeast India that Southeast Asia begins and as such, it is for the Northeast to play the arrow-head role in the further evolution of this policy. This requires a redefining of the ‘Look East Policy’ to resolve outstanding issues of trade, transit and investment with countries neighbouring the region. It also involves promoting Indian investment infrastructure in partner countries, especially Myanmar, particularly in respect of ports such as Sittwe and international highways to connect the Northeast Region with ASEAN.”

In the long run, the Northeast, as an expert put it, can become a partner in “a wider Brahmaputra-Yangtze-Mekong quadrant.” Let us hope for the best. Over to Prime Minister Modi.

Empowerment without well-being

Caste-based political parties failed to secure a victory as they continued to use the politics of difference as an end rather than as a means to graduate to the politics of redistribution

First generation leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and eminent modernist Indian sociologists expected that the institution of caste will dissolve under the spell of modernity. However, social realities proved to be far more complex and caste continued to reinvent itself, changing its form but not content and influencing much of socio-economic life. This debate has taken a new turn with the recent decisive electoral victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

Caste-based political parties in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who had galvanised the Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) towards a democratic revolution, experienced their worst electoral defeat. Election surveys conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies inform that the BJP not only drew massive support from its traditional constituency — upper castes and trading communities — but also attracted a critical number of Dalits and OBCs. One in four Dalits voted for the BJP. The Muslim vote did not make any impact because either their votes got divided between ‘secular’ parties or the addition of their votes to the non-BJP parties was not sufficient in a first-past-the-post system. The shift of a section of Dalits and OBCs towards the BJP was small, but very critical for the party to emerge victorious. It is also significant because ideologically the BJP believes in carving out an organic unity between different Hindu social groups and preserving social hierarchy between different castes. Why did this section of Dalits and OBCs vote for an ideologically incompatible political formation at the expense of parties that had laboured hard for their political empowerment?

Caste-based parties in U.P. and Bihar represent Dalits, OBCs and Muslims. Dalits and OBCs share an antagonistic relationship, but we are clubbing them to highlight a few analytical points that we believe explain the current electoral failure of caste-based political parties.

Political powerlessness

Caste-based parties acquired their political and electoral strength by opposing the ‘politics of equal recognition.’ Politics of equal recognition promised equal rights and equality between citizens. It was rejected by Dalits and OBCs in favour of the ‘politics of difference.’ The politics of equal recognition was seen as being ‘difference blind’ and attesting one hegemonic culture whereas the politics of difference recognised the particularities of each social group and the non-assimilation of group identity. The politics of difference practised by political parties drawing their support from the Dalits and OBCs gave them huge political dividends for almost two decades. However, the politics of difference, argues Nancy Fraser, is not sufficient and has to be complimented by the ‘politics of redistribution’, that is, policy initiatives for redistributing income, reorganising the division of labour, subjecting investment to democratic decision-making and transforming other basic economic structures. This is where caste-based political parties failed and they continued to use the politics of difference as an end rather than as a means to graduate to the politics of redistribution. Dalits and OBCs are caught between political assertion and belief in the domain of culture and electoral politics, and a sense of disappointment that their socio-political empowerment did not translate into economic well-being. This disappointment provided the BJP the space to craft a ‘politics around disillusionment’, which feeds on the collective estrangement of social groups from their original political choices due to their prevailing economic conditions. It is shaped by two inter-related elements: political rudderlessness and political powerlessness.

Political rudderlessness implies a deficit of political vision and acumen in caste-based political parties for ushering in fundamental change. Caste-based political parties eked out opportunistic political alliances to acquire political power and compromised on the emancipatory potential embedded in their original political vision. This not only disillusioned Dalits and OBCs but also led them to experience a certain kind of political powerlessness.

Political powerlessness develops when social groups seem to know the appropriate action for achieving their political goals, but are ineffective in practice. The failure of caste-based politics and political parties to usher in what Fraser calls ‘transformative recognition [politics of difference] and redistribution’ translated into a critical section of Dalits and OBCs shifting their political allegiance to an ideologically contradictory political formation upholding social hierarchy — the BJP — in a classic case of political powerlessness.

Reinventing vision

What does this entail for the future of caste-based parties? Caste-based parties have still not lost their core support. They need to reinvent their vision and demonstrate a road map for implementing a transformative politics of recognition/difference and redistribution. The former is already in play. However, what is lacking is a genuine politics of redistribution. One framework for operationalising the politics of redistribution is to politically support the principle of economic citizenship — a thesis put forth by Barbara Harriss-White and her colleagues in the context of India’s market society in which the informal sector contributes 60 and 93 per cent of the GDP and employment respectively. A majority of Dalits and OBCs toil in this sector as casual workers or are self-employed, earning a bare minimum and are denied any social security benefits. Thus, beyond the state, markets are the major providers of employment and livelihood opportunities. However, markets while rewarding cannot guarantee employment or ensure distributive justice. Instead, markets can generate oppressive wage conditions, displace labour, discriminate and adversely include ‘less privileged’ social groups.

The state alone can set the parameters for economic participation, including taking responsibility for the limits of its own control and for the conditions under which political citizens are economically active. Unless the Indian state sets a framework of rights where each able citizen is able to participate in the market and earn, the politics around disillusionment will continue to persist, albeit taking newer forms and content.

The politics of redistribution is not only crucial for caste-based parties but also for the BJP, if it has to consolidate the impressive electoral gains that it has made in the current election.

(Aseem Prakash is associate professor and Suraj Gogoi is research associate at the

PM inaugurates Uri-II hydroelectric project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the 240-Megawatt Uri-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP) located near the Line of Control (LoC) in Baramulla district of Kashmir.

The Prime Minister dedicated the power project to the nation in presence of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and top officials of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).

This is the second power project on the Jhelum river in Uri area and is located downstream of 480-MW Uri-I HEP, which is already operational.

The Uri-II HEP has a concrete gravity dam which is 52-metre high and 157-metre long with four spillways of nine metres each.

The 4.23 km head race tunnel carries water from the dam to the powerhouse, which has four units of 60 MW each designed to generate 1,124 million units of electricity in a year.

The work on the power project was completed in time despite a massive earthquake striking the area on October 8, 2005 — two weeks after Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) started work on it.

“Overcoming challenges has always been a speciality of our engineers. We triumphed over every obstacle posed by difficult geographical conditions and freezing temperatures,” Chief Operating Officer of HCC Ambuj Jain said.

Plastic waste costs $13 billion worth of damages a year to marine ecosystems

Every year plastic waste costs marine ecosystems $13 billion in damages, says a report released recently by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The estimated 10-20 million tonnes of plastic waste that finds its way into oceans, smothers coral reefs, routinely entangles marine wildlife, and more insidiously, degrades into ‘microplastics’ that transfer toxins into the food chain.

Microplastics (or plastic particles of 5mm diameter or less) are ingested by creatures ranging from sea birds to mussels, said marine biologist and UNEP chief scientist Jacqueline McGlade at a press conference at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi.

Microplastics form “plastispheres” that harbour thriving communities of dangerous microbes and also absorb and transfer heavy metals such as mercury across vast distances through the ocean.

The report titled ‘Valuing Plastic’ presents a “business case” for plastic-intensive companies, and recommends that companies monitor plastic use, disclose their results and increase resource efficiency and recycling.

Plastic toys, athletic goods, and household durable goods sectors use the largest amount of plastic in their products while food companies, soft drinks and the pharmaceutical industry are the biggest users of plastic in their packaging.

A growing source of microplastics is the cosmetic and personal care industry that has introduced plastic particles of 5mm diameter or less in products such as toothpastes and showergels, says the report.

Asia faces the highest environmental costs from plastic pollution because of the higher pollution intensity levels of manufacturing and a lack of adequate waste management facilities.

“Companies must consider their plastic footprint just as they do their carbon footprint,” said Andrew Russell, director of Plastic Disclosure Project that was part of the research.

However, consumer goods companies have a poor track record of disclosing their plastic use, the report finds. Of 100 companies assessed, less than half reported any data relevant to plastic.

Zoonotic diseases ignored in developing world

Decades of neglect have allowed infectious diseases to devastate the lives of thousands of people in the developing world, a new study has revealed. Researchers say three diseases in particular — anthrax, brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis — have failed to receive the official recognition and funding needed to combat them effectively. All three impact greatly on human and animal health in developing nations, posing a major threat to safe and plentiful food supplies.

The disorders — known as zoonotic diseases — are spread between animals and humans, and are common in societies where poverty is widespread, and where people depend on animals for their livelihood. A researcher at the University of Edinburgh reviewed every meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body since its formation in 1948, to conclude that zoonotic diseases were almost totally ignored.

Their findings reveal that the diseases have been neglected because they mostly arise in developing countries. Scientists say the diseases have been eliminated or brought under control in more developed countries, as simple and effective controls are available.

The resolutions from all 66 World Health Assembly meetings held between 1948 and 2013 were examined to determine how many contain a specific focus on any of the following neglected zoonotic diseases as defined by the WHO — anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, Taenia solium cycticercosis, cystic echinococcosis, leishmaniasis rabies, and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT or sleeping sickness). Twenty one resolutions adopted in all the 16 assemblies between 1948 and 2013 targeted one or more of these diseases, representing 4 per cent of the total resolutions on infectious diseases passed up to now. The 2013 adoption of Resolution WHA66.12 targeting all 17 neglected tropical diseases marked a change in approach by the WHA. Earlier resolutions targeted each disease individually.

Poor healthcare infrastructure in affected countries can often mean that thousands of sufferers are left un-diagnosed. This presents huge challenges to health professionals, policy makers and researchers in their efforts to combat the diseases

Findings from the study, funded by the European Commission, are published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Professor Sue Welburn, Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy, who led the study, said: “It is extraordinary that in the 21st century we are failing to manage brucellosis and the other neglected zoonotic diseases that impact so severely on rural communities in developing economies when, for many of these diseases, the tools to manage them are well developed.’’

Chikungunya, dengue, Avian influenza, plague, SARS and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) are some of the zoonotic diseases that have and continue to take a heavy toll of human life in India. Japanese encephalitis and AES kills hundreds of children in the eastern parts of the country every year and results in high morbidity. Reports of deaths due to Chikungunya, dengue and highly infectious Congo Haemorrhagic Fever are also not uncommon in the country, particularly during monsoon.

Salmonella, mycobacterium, E.coli and Brucellosis are some commonly found bacteria in India which cause highly infectious diseases like cholera and are often transmitted through unhygienic food and impure drinking water.