Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) 2014

India's retirement system continues to rank the lowest amongst the 25 countries, with less than 6 per cent of the working population in the country covered under private pension plans while Denmark tops the list with its well-funded plan, according to a recent report.
The country's score largely remained unchanged at a grade of 'D', which is between 35 and 50, indicating that it has some sound features but there are major omissions or weaknesses, according to 2014 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI).
The report also pointed out that the D-grade classification may also occur in the relatively early stages of the development of a particular country's retirement income system, like India, China, Indonesia and Korea.
The public sector in India has adequate retirement benefits through other additional retirement benefits provided, but they represent only a small fraction of the entire population of India, it explained.
Economic and regulatory changes have put a lot of pressure on the pension mechanism with less than 6 per cent of the working population in India covered under private pension plans (including pension plans for public sector employees and the military), while more than 75 per cent of the working age population in Chile, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden are covered under the private pension plans, it said.
The report said there is no pension or support for the poor and aged and what continues to hold India back is the lack of retirement coverage for the informal sector and less than adequate retirement income expected to be generated from contributions made to Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) and Gratuity benefits.
The Mercer Global Pension Index uses three sub-indices – adequacy, sustainability and integrity – to measure each country's retirement income system against more than 50 questions.
"India scored well in the integrity of their retirement system, which speaks to the strong regulations on governance and protection of employee benefits. However, improving the minimum level of support for the poor, improving the regulations of private pension plans and addressing issues on increasing life expectancy will help raise the score in the future," Mercer's India Retirement Business Leader Arvind Usretay said.
Denmark continued to hold onto the top position in 2014 with its well-funded pension system with its good coverage, high level of assets and contributions, the provision of adequate benefits and a private pension system with developed regulations are the primary reasons for its top spot.
The projected old age dependency ratio for 2035 range from 12 per cent in South Africa and 13 per cent in India to 55 per cent in Germany and 58 per cent in Japan, it said.
It further added that the ratio highlights the impact of the ageing population between now and 2035, and the likely effects on the funding requirements for pensions, health and aged care.

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

Rural poverty in parts of Asia could be exacerbated due to negative impacts from climate change on rice production, and a general increase in food prices and the cost of living, says the report of working group two of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.
Launched on Thursday, the report Climate Change 2014 Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability of the IPCC says rice is a key staple crop in Asia and 90 per cent or more of the world’s rice production is from Asia. The most vulnerable regions were western Japan, eastern China, the southern part of the Indochina peninsula, and the northern part of South Asia.
However, the report has some good news for Pakistan. In contrast, climate change may provide a windfall for wheat farmers in parts of Pakistan. Warming temperatures would make it possible to grow at least two crops (wheat and maize) a year in mountainous areas according to studies.
In the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia there could be a decrease of about 50 per cent in the most favourable and high-yielding wheat area as a result of heat stress.
The report says Asia experienced the highest number of weather and climate-related disasters in the world during the period 2000–2008 and suffered huge economic losses, accounting for the second highest proportion (27.5 per cent) of the total global economic loss. Flood mortality risk is heavily concentrated in Asia. Severe floods in Mumbai in 2005 have been attributed to both climatic factors and non-climatic factors.
Impacts of climate change on food production and food security in Asia will vary by region, with many regions to experience a decline in productivity. This is evident in the case of rice production. People living in low-lying coastal zones and flood plains are probably most at risk from climate change impacts in Asia. Half of Asia’s urban population lives in these areas. Compounding the risk for coastal communities, Asia has more than 90 per cent of the global population exposed to tropical cyclones, the report adds.

India’s new CEA

US-based economist Arvind Subramanian took charge as chief economic advisor (CEA) in the finance ministry.

He is a former International Monetary Fund economist. His key task will be to work out a new monetary policy framework in which the government will set the inflation target, to be implemented by a policy panel of the central bank.

He heads a team who are to bring out the government’s annual Economic Survey during the Budget session, and the Mid-Year Analysis of the economy in the Winter Session of Parliament in December. The challenge before him will be to defend policies and actions of the government, such as India’s stand at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Chief Economic Adviser heads the Economic Division of Government of India. The main functions of the Division are advisory in nature. The Division examines domestic and international economic trends and undertakes research studies having a bearing on economic policies and management of the economy and renders policy advice.

Main activities of the Economic Division include:

• Monitoring of Prices and policies relating to price control.
• Monitoring of trends in Agricultural and Industrial Production and related policy issues.
• Monitoring of Production, Public Distribution and Stocks of food grains and related policy issues.
• Monitoring of Monetary and Credit Aggregates.
• Monitoring of Public Finance.
• Monitoring of Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.
• Monitoring of Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments.
• International Economic Institutions: World Bank and IMF, ADB and G-20 related issues.
• Preparation of Annual Economic Survey and Mid Year Review of the Economy.

World Food Prize

World Food Prize

Sanjaya Rajaram, an eminent Indian scientist, has been awarded the World Food Prize in recognition of his significant contributions to global wheat production.

Mr. Rajaram, currently a Senior Scientific Advisor at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), has developed some 480 wheat varieties that have been released in 51 countries across six continents and an estimated 58 million hectares. His wheat improvement research has helped secure a 1.3 per cent rise in global wheat production per annum in the last four decades.

About World Food Prize:

THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE is the foremost international award recognizing — without regard to race, religion, nationality, or political beliefs — the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

The Prize recognizes contributions in any field involved in the world food supply — food and agriculture science and technology, manufacturing, marketing, nutrition, economics, poverty alleviation, political leadership and the social sciences.

The World Food Prize emphasizes the importance of a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people. By honoring those who have worked successfully toward this goal, The Prize calls attention to what has been done to improve global food security and to what can be accomplished in the future

MIT questions feasibility of Mars One mission

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have questioned the technical feasibility of the ‘Mars One’ project that aims to establish the first human colony on the Red Planet by 2025.

‘Mars One’ is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands that has put forward conceptual plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars.

The mission plans to initially send four astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars where they would spend the rest of their lives building the first permanent human settlement.

The MIT researchers developed a detailed settlement-analysis tool to assess the feasibility of the ‘Mars One’ mission and found that new technologies will be needed to keep humans alive on Mars.

“We are not saying that ‘Mars One’ is infeasible but we do think it is not really feasible under the assumptions they have made. We are pointing to technologies that could be helpful to invest in, with high priority, to move them along the feasibility path,” explained Olivier de Weck, an MIT professor of aeronautics, astronautics and engineering systems.

For example, if all food is obtained from locally grown crops as ‘Mars One’ envisions, the vegetation would produce unsafe levels of oxygen that would set off a series of events that would eventually cause human inhabitants to suffocate.

“To avoid this scenario, a system to remove excess oxygen would have to be implemented — a technology that has not yet been developed for use in space,” he noted.

Similarly, the Mars Phoenix lander discovered evidence of ice on the Martian surface in 2008, suggesting that future settlers might be able to melt ice for drinking water — another ‘Mars One’ goal.

But according to the MIT analysis, current technologies designed to “bake” water from soil are not yet ready for deployment, particularly in space.

The team also performed an integrated analysis of spare parts re-supply — how many spare parts would have to be delivered to a Martian colony at each opportunity to keep it going.

The researchers found that as the colony grows, spare parts would quickly dominate future deliveries to Mars, making up as much as 62 percent of payloads from Earth.

According to the ‘Mars One’ plan, six Falcon Heavy rockets would be required to send up initial supplies before the astronauts’ arrival. — IANS

Standing up for children

I first met Kailash Satyarthi in 2005, when, while studying for a postgraduate degree in economics, I was planning to undertake a study of children working in gemstones polishing in Jaipur. I had contacted the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) for an internship to make my research project in Jaipur possible. Kailashji greeted me with an affectionate smile and we started discussing my research ideas.

I wanted to compare home- and factory-based child labour in gemstones polishing and study what determined the choice of where children work. Not convinced by the relevance or perhaps viability of my project, he suggested I focus on the ways in which employers recruit and treat children, and the problems children face. I pushed back, making a case for studying market failures that cause child labour. He agreed that that was important but added that child labour was not only an economic problem but a social ill, even a crime against god, because children, he said, “are a form of god”. Who could disagree? He suggested I focus on generating recommendations that the BBA could act on. I asked him about its approach, even suggesting that its focus on raid-and-rescue missions seemed to constitute only a partial response. He smiled again and patiently explained that raid-and-rescue was the first step and that the BBA coordinated closely with the district administration to reunite abducted children with their families. The BBA also runs care homes for rescued children and drives media campaigns to highlight the problem.

He then confirmed my internship and asked his staff in Delhi and Jaipur to help with my work.

I read up on child labour. Kaushik Basu and P.H. Van’s famous paper on multiple equilibria was instructive, invoking action to move from a bad equilibrium marked by low adult wages and high child labour to a good equilibrium with high adult wages and low child labour. Child labour is not a manifestation of low parental concern, but of poverty. The economics of child labour is critical. Ignoring it can lead to idealistic but flawed responses. I recall reading of an instance when a ban, in the West, on carpets made by children in Nepal led many of the girls working in the industry to enter prostitution. Prashant Bharadwaj and his collaborators show that the ban on child labour in India actually reduced children’s wages, causing longer work hours and reduced school enrolment. In my own recent research on child labour in the garments factories of Tiruppur, a group of working children coolly recounted how they hid behind bales of cloth when labour inspectors visited.

The existence of child labour also, of course, marks a deep social failure. In India, in particular, the social consciousness against child labour is weakWhile the labelling of child labour-free products, such as the BBA’s Rugmark initiative, have resonated in the West, the absence of any such mechanism for products in India is stark. Retailers don’t always know whether the carpets, pottery or firecrackers they sell are free of child labour. Perhaps few consumers care enough for labelling or certification to be viable. Observed reductions in the employment of children in homes or shops are perhaps driven by expanding education and its rising returns, not matched by any compunction many of us feel in employing children. Even as we must recognise poverty as giving rise to the need for children to work, a progressive social consensus cannot dismiss child trafficking, hazardous child labour or child illiteracy as teething trouble during the transition from bad to good equilibria. This I recognised most clearly in my interactions with BBA volunteers and staff, each driven by idealism to change the prevailing social consciousness. Kailashji’s struggles and his grit and commitment in the face of threats formed the heady folklore that sustained the spirit of the BBA office. Occasionally there was talk of the Nobel Peace Prize, but my impression was that no one in the office thought it a real or near-possibility then. In Jaipur, I found most working children based at home, often combining schooling with some gemstones polishing. The failings of the schools in my field sites were evident — from teacher absenteeism and poor teaching quality to the stigma attached to repeating a class, at every step there was compelling reason to encourage dropping out. Faced with only a bleak chance that their children would complete enough school to secure a livelihood, many parents fell back on the family-based and skill-imparting trade for the occupational security of gem-polishing. In such a setting, distinct from carpet factories or brick kilns, the BBA and its partners focused on bridge schooling and delaying children’s entry into the workforce rather than raid-and-rescue. Towards the end of my internship, Kailashji asked how my research was progressing and what I had learned. I told him that the poor quality of schooling was a bigger problem than children working. He stared at me and said, “Write that in your report”. I sent the BBA a version of my dissertation, which was immediately acknowledged and, I believe, kept in their records. I feel fortunate to have known Kailashji and the BBA long before the Nobel Peace Prize. His relative inconspicuousness in Indian public life thus far is yet another facet of the social failure he and his team have been working to overcome. In this moment of recognition, there may also lie an opening for remedy. -

Good cities are safe cities

Unprecedented disasters are, ironically, becoming frequent phenomena. The Mumbai floods of 2005, Barmer floods of 2006, Leh floods of 2010 and Uttarakhand floods of 2013 are some of the “never-before” kind of events in recent years. Many of them also had a significant urban impact. Then, the Jammu and Kashmir floods occurred, and people woke up to friends and family stuck on their rooftops in Srinagar. Cities will be hit increasingly harder in the times to come. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has identified floods as the singlemost widespread disaster risk to urban settlements globally. The poor undoubtedly will be the hardest hit, as always.

Rivers have attracted settlements since ancient times. What is new is the aggressiveness of these settlements. What used to be riverfront development earlier has now degenerated into “river-bed development”. Rivers, more so the monsoon-fed ones, have two distinct channels — one where the water flows during “normal” times, and the other that it spreads into during peak flow in the rainy season. In most riverfront cities, urban development has gradually crept into this second channel, belabouring under a perceived protection of embankments or the ignorant comfort of the fact that a big flood hasn’t happened in the last few years. Such lands are being encroached upon by squatters or sold to unsuspecting buyers by unscrupulous developers.

Besides river beds, urban lakes, wetlands and drainage channels are being encroached upon in similar fashion. Humayun Rashid and Gowhar Naseem of the Jammu and Kashmir State Remote Sensing Centre presented facts to this effect at the World Lake Conference in 2007 in Jaipur, where they used satellite imagery to trace the physical growth of Srinagar between 1911 and 2004. The statistics and maps show a phenomenal increase of built-up space from a mere 3 per cent to 15 per cent of the city area. Of this additional 12 per cent land that the growing city gobbled up, 10 per cent came from low-lying wetlands and marshes while 2 per cent came from open water surfaces, meaning lakes and water channels. The study concluded that over 9,100 hectares of open water surface and wetlands have been totally lost to other land uses during the period. That equals 18,000 football fields. In the process, more than 50 per cent of the lakes and wetlands of Srinagar have been lost. No wonder then that nature decided to reclaim them, at least for some time.

Let not the urban growth story fool us into believing that newly developed city areas will necessarily lead to a good, safe life. Whether heritage town, slum new urban development, if there is a city in a flood plain or on reclaimed low lying land, water will always find its way in one day. Climate change may make sure that that day comes sooner than later. High population densities, concrete surfaces and poorly maintained drainage, sanitation and solid waste infrastructure make urban areas more prone to floods as the water is not able to drain quickly. Srinagar, where parts of the city remained inundated for three weeks, is the latest reminder of this water-trap phenomenon. Much of this developmental mess takes place because our cities are growing untamed. Of over 6,000 cities in India, only about 2,000 have proper master plans, while the bulk, mostly small and medium towns, is growing with lax or no regulations. By the time plans are put in place, much of the area would already have been poorly developed and the damage irreversible. Considering that 25,000 people are added to Indian cities each day, time is running out.

A handful of developed cities are attracting suburban dwellers with their modern apartments, expressways and malls. Let not these embellishments lead one to ignore the underlying risk in these cities. You don’t have to go far from the national capital to see a prime example of a ticking time-bomb. Noida came up as a suburb in violation of the National Capital Region concept that had originally advocated against congesting the periphery of Delhi. The location was too attractive for the home state to let go of the opportunities it offered due to its proximity to Delhi. Successive changes during and after the initial urban planning processes have ensured that high-density and high-worth development has taken place in what used to be the Yamuna’s playground. Jamal Ansari, former director of the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and a lead planner for Noida’s master plan, rues that political and popular pressure distorts urban plans and increases disaster risks exponentially. He underscores the fact that the embankments that protect Delhi and Noida from the Yamuna are not infallible.

While it is easy to blame bad urban development and governance for the state of affairs, it needs to be acknowledged that good citizenry is as much a requirement for safe and sustainable cities as good governments. International good practices of liveable and healthy cities are backed with grassroot action plans, citizens’ engagement and participatory planning and action. To understand our cities better and to play a positive role in their future, it is important to understand the origins of urban planning. Clarence Perry, a pioneer of city planning, had established the neighbourhood as a basic unit for a city. He defined the neighbourhood as that space wherein a child could walk to the local elementary school within 10 minutes, without having to cross a major road. This translated into neighbourhoods of one-fourth of a mile radius, with the elementary school and conveniences at the centre, houses linked with connecting greens and no major roads crisscrossing them. EbenezerBritish urban planner, put forth the idea of garden cities. Our very own Bhubaneswar was planned on similar green principles by German Otto Königsberger, with wide roads and many gardens and parks, remnants of which are visible even today behind the humdrum of the new-age congestion. Good cities, through fundamental principles and friendly planning, were safe cities. “Smart cities” must bring them back. -