A greater focus on farmer welfare There is an emphasis on increasing farm productivity, but this might not always align with greater profitability

A greater focus on farmer welfare

There is an emphasis on increasing farm productivity, but this might not always align with greater profitability 

While inaugurating the Krishi Mela at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for a “three-pillared” approach to farming, which included crop farming, agro forestry—that is, planting timber trees along farm peripheries—and animal husbandry.
This is an important enunciation of how Indian agriculture works as an integrated system in which growing crops and rearing livestock coexist.
While over 57% of India’s population depends on agriculture for livelihood, close to 80% of India’s milk, for example, comes from such integrated, “mixed” farming systems. Most farmers in India diversify into different subsectors in an attempt to boost their incomes, and often to mitigate risk.
Indian agriculture has come a long way, with the country among the world’s top seven food exporters today. However, this positive headline obscures continuing challenges with farm productivity and incomes, particularly for small and marginal farmers. While agriculture has progressed significantly, most Indian farmers have not, a key issue being the lack of profitability in farming.
Farmers’ aim is to generate income and make profits to meet living expenses, cover social welfare needs and build assets for their families. Hence, for a farmer, what is significant is not just increased production but rather how much of the production translates into tangible profit.
Most agencies working for farmers focus on increasing farm productivity, but their efforts might not always be aligned with converting increased yield into greater profitability. This fundamental divergence in practical priorities needs to be plugged in order to bridge the gap between what research is keen to deliver and what the farmers are likely to adopt.
The recent rechristening of the ministry of agriculture as the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare can be realized when there is greater rigour and focus on farmer welfare by optimizing and helping farmers realize the true value of what they produce. The three-pillars message needs better adoption by public sector research, extension and development agencies—which often work in mutually exclusive silos of crops and livestock and typically reach out to farmers through independent, often uncoordinated channels.
This type of compartmentalization can probably end if agricultural universities also adopt a “farming systems” lens that is more aligned with the reality of farming households. The collective impact of India’s large-scale public sector infrastructure in agriculture is reflected in significant improvements in crop and livestock productivity, which is necessary but not sufficient to address the challenges faced by smallholder farmers. What is further required of such platforms and missions is a greater emphasis on an integrated approach and a sustained focus on market development.
The elements that can significantly enable agricultural development are technologies (including appropriate innovations in market systems); extension and dissemination of technologies to farmers; and access to financial services such as loans, savings, remittance and insurance—for achieving higher agricultural productivity, livelihood diversification and improved food security.
Successful implementation of the three-pillared approach will require integration at all levels. We need to balance the existing farming portfolio by increasing emphasis on priority commodities such as livestock and locally relevant legumes and vegetables, while simultaneously exploring the impact potential of new commodities like potatoes. Goods and services reach farmers through both public and private channels. We should leverage the strengths of both sectors—involving the existing community, government and for-profit companies—and streamline the delivery process.
From a financing systems perspective, the newly licensed payments banks can be used to test various digital services such as insurance, direct benefit transfer and savings for smallholders. Measures can include providing funding for proof-of-concept, for-profit goods and services and supporting digitization of financial transactions for key institutions to reduce transaction costs and systems’ leakage.
Providing this initiative with the needed visibility will require a coalition of champions to voice key issues. This can be done by convening a policy advisory group and by partnering with domestic institutions to study the impact of poor land titling and tenancy laws and its impact on smallholders and landless farmers, particularly women.
Our approach must take into account the importance of policy in driving change. For effective policy, we must gather data and analyse evidence on the impact of existing policies, and accordingly modify or revise policies to address constraints.
The latest Union budget offers hope for all three pillars referenced by the prime minister—the total outlay of Rs.35,958 crore is being distributed across important parameters including irrigation, seeds, crop production and livestock. Combined with robust reforms in market development, this could very well transform the lot of Indian farmers by making farming a viable source of livelihood. The ambitious plan of doubling farmers’ incomes in the next five years is not impossible, but will become a reality only when a thrust to markets and farmer incomes will be added to the focus on production. A key task will be to have public sector institutions deliver a “package” of services to farmers, not just for better agricultural output, but for the overall economic well-being of the farming community.

How Indian universities perform compared with Asian peers

Here are six charts to understand the QS Asian University Rankings and how Indian institutions have performed on different parameters 

India has 17 institutions among the top 200 universities in Asia, led by the Indian Institute of Science or IISc in Bangalore (33rd rank), followed by IIT Bombay (35), IIT Delhi (36), IIT Madras (43), IIT Kanpur (48) and IIT Kharagpur (51), according to the QS Asian University Rankings. The rankings are limited in their impact and cannot be compared with the world university rankings, but they do give an indication of the competitiveness of these institutions in the region. Though IISc and IITs lead the pack of India in the Asian rankings published earlier this week by British ranking agency QS, they still lag behind their Singapore and Chinese counterparts.

However, there are several parameters within the rankings on which the Indian institutions have done exceedingly well, better than several top institutions in Asia. These parameters include the qualification of teachers and papers published per teacher. There are also parameters where the top performers of India like the IITs have fallen short not just before their Asian peers but also in front of less reputed private universities in India.
Here are six charts that go beyond the overall ranking to understand the QS Asian University Rankings and how Indian institutions have performed on different parameters.
1) Academic reputation
Though IISc is the best Indian institution as per the Asia rankings by QS, when it comes to academic reputation, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi have done better than IISc. Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi otherwise placed much lower in the overall rankings has done better than many, including the IITs.

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2) Employer reputation
IISc Bangalore may be the table-topper in India in overall rankings, but there are several others, including the less reputed Mumbai University or even less talked about Anna University in Tamil Nadu, which have done much better. Employer reputation findings of the QS Asian Rankings, in a way, point to the poor industry collaborations and placement of their graduates.

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3) Faculty-student ratio
The faculty-student ratio in Indian universities is often less talked about, but it forms a key parameter for international rankings. While the teaching community talks about the work load, the ratio at times is neglected. This segment of the rankings points to the huge shortage of faculty and vacant posts in Indian institutions in the range of 15-40%. In the faculty-student rankings, three out of the top five institutions are privately-run, pointing to the problem in our top government institutions.

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4) Faculty staff with PhDs
This is the sweet spot for Indian universities. Indian professors are considered well-educated and reputed world over, and it reflects in the qualification of the teaching staff parameter considered for preparing the overall rankings. In the top 10 Asian universities in the ‘Faculty staff with PhDs’ parameter, seven are Indian institutions, of which five are jointly in the third position. In the top 30, there are 12 Indian institutions.

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5) Citation per faculty
Research quality of an institution and its faculty is established on the basis of the citations or the number of times others refer to it. This reinforces the importance and quality of research and its relevance in the global marketplace. Citation is one area that Indian teachers need to look at and it depends on the kind of journal a paper is being published in, quality of work, word of mouth publicity and the network of a professor or researcher.

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6) In-bound exchange
Indian universities traditionally lag behind on internationalization parameters. International faculty, international students and exchange programmes have been poor. While traditional government institutions are yet to better the situation despite a clear demand from experts and industries, some of the private universities have started doing it. For example, Amrita University in Kerala promoted by spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi has done exceedingly well in all aspects of internationalization, much better than the elite IITs. Inbound exchange is the flow of foreign students to an institution for short durations of study, research or related academic activities.

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On the highway to a better trade regime

Along with GST, India needs infrastructure for easy movement of goods 

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 helped India participate in an expanding world economy. An industrial boom followed, albeit under conditions of unequal colonial trade. The broader lesson is clear. Interlinked trade routes—be it the Suez Canal or the Silk Route—have always been essential to the spread of economic prosperity.

The creation of a seamless internal market that promotes economic growth is an unfinished job in India. One part of the task is removing barriers to interstate trade through the goods and services tax (GST). The other task is to provide physical infrastructure that will allow goods to move across the country comfortably.

The Indian government plans to build a network of 27 road corridors that will bring various parts of the country together. The blueprint for the grid is reportedly ready. Such a proposal needs to be welcomed. It may seem ambitious to some, but it is useful to remember that the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South corridor projects were met with a lot of scepticism when they were first announced by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the turn of the century.

The proposed national highway grid will connect 12 major ports and cities with populations of more than 45 million and 26 state capitals, and ensure that highways are linked every 250km, conforming to the ambitions of Bharatmala—the government’s flagship project to “connect India like never before”.

Roads form vital links between markets that are not connected. They link producers to distant markets, promote economic specialization, provide linkages to other parts of the economy and generate positive externalities. But the greatest benefit of the proposed national highway grid would be for interstate trade. Interstate trade for India is less than 15% of gross domestic product, whereas the corresponding figures for the US and China are 40% and 35%, respectively. High transaction costs, which include physical and legal infrastructure problems, are among the primary reasons for the low level of such trade in the country.

In India and elsewhere, travel—both passenger and freight—involves costs in terms of money and time. The reduction of these costs requires the expansion of roadways as well as the simultaneous deployment of resources on alternative means of transport such as rails, inland waterways and air.

Though India has the second largest road transport network in the world, the growth rate of road development is slow compared to the growth of road freight and vehicle volume. The disproportionate burden of freight on roads does not help either. The current road to rail ratio of 70:30 is inadequate and inefficient for economic as well as environmental reasons.

If roadways form the physical foundation for uniting India’s markets into an integrated whole, reducing transaction costs and facilitating interstate trade, GST—now with the backing of most states—will form the legal and fiscal foundation. It will address the cascading effect of the present tax regime, broaden the tax base, increase compliance and reduce inter-state variations in taxes. The current tax regime also imposes significant time costs on interstate road freight via interstate checkpoints, and that translates to lower freight volumes moved.

India has one of the lowest average speeds for trucks and about 60% of their time is taken up at these checkpoints and tollgates. A joint study report by Transport Corporation of India and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta released last week estimates that India incurs costs of $14.7 billion and $6.6 billion annually due to additional fuel consumption costs and transportation delays, respectively. This makes producers less competitive despite having competitive input prices. According to a McKinsey estimate, around 13% of GDP is compromised by these logistical lacunae in India compared to 7-8% in developed economies.

Freight transport depends on the volume of goods produced, location of suppliers and consumers and efficient use of resources. But in India, infrastructure problems and red tape have compromised the manner in which these factors are balanced—and consequently, the demand-supply equation. The highway grid will not set it right by itself. But it could be a good start.

In what other ways can India resolve its logistics issues?

Nasa spots methane leak from space for the first time

The observation is an important breakthrough to measure, monitor methane emissions from space 

In a first, an instrument onboard an orbiting spacecraft has measured the methane emissions from a specific leaking facility on Earth’s surface.

The observation — by the Hyperion spectrometer on Nasa’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) — is an important breakthrough in our ability to eventually measure and monitor emissions of this potent greenhouse gas from space.
David R Thompson of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US said that the leak occurred over Aliso Canyon near Porter Ranch in California. The Hyperion instrument successfully detected the methane leak on three separate overpasses during the winter of 2015-16.
The research was part of an investigation of the large accidental Aliso Canyon methane release last fall and winter.
“This is the first time the methane emissions from a single facility have been observed from space,” said Thompson. “The percentage of atmospheric methane produced through human activities remains poorly understood,” he added. “Future instruments with much greater sensitivity on orbiting satellites can help resolve this question by surveying the biggest sources around the world, so that we can better understand and address this unknown factor in greenhouse gas emissions,” Thompson said.

Isro challenges Elon Musk with record satellite launch

The launch of 22 satellites next week is the biggest single launch by India 

India’s space agency, Isro, will launch a record 22 satellites on a single rocket as it tries to ease a global backlog and demonstrate the ability to compete with commercial space flight companies run by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Satellites from the US, India, Canada and Germany will enter orbit after a scheduled 20 June lift-off from the Sriharikota barrier island along the south-east coast, the agency’s chairman, A.S. Kiran Kumar, said in a 9 June interview in Bengaluru. Most of the machines will observe and measure the Earth’s atmosphere, with another from an Indian university helping provide service for amateur radio operators.
The business of putting satellites into space is surging as phone companies, Internet providers, airlines and even car makers seek bandwidth for communications. The resulting backlog is creating opportunities for Musk and Bezos, who are privatizing what was once a government-only industry by testing reusable rockets to help reduce costs. To keep pace, India is touting its traditionally low-cost programme along with achievements such as putting an orbiter around Mars and building a space-shuttle prototype.
“Unless you keep yourself abreast and look to the future on how to make things better, how to make it more cost-effective, you run the risk of becoming irrelevant,” said Kumar, 64, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). “So you have to take care of these threats.”
Weather, smartphones
The 22 machines being launched next week include an Earth observation satellite to capture light invisible to the naked eye. It is the biggest single launch by India, trailing Russia’s 33 in 2014 and NASA’s 29 the year before.
There were 208 satellites launched in 2014, almost double the amount the year before, as countries such as India and Indonesia try to bring phone services to most of their people for the first time. India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China, and that demand is helping fuel what may be a 30% increase in lift-offs globally during the next five years.
India has about 35 satellites in orbit for broadcasting, navigation, scientific exploration and weather monitoring, yet it needs double that amount, Kumar said.
“We need to make more launches and we have to build more satellites,” he said in an office dotted with scale models of Indian rockets and satellites. “So we are trying to make that happen. We’re reaching a stage where every month we are having a launch.”
Orbiting Mars
India last month successfully launched a scale model of a reusable spacecraft, a project that in time could pit the nation against Bezos and Musk in the race to make access to space cheaper and easier. The country also injected a probe into Mars’ atmosphere in 2014 for just $74 million, about 11% of the cost of the US’s Maven probe.
To meet the increasing competition from private industry and other nations, India needs to expand its space programme, said Ajey Lele, a New Delhi-based senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
“Right now, India has got only one launch site,” Lele said. “So, it needs to develop another site within India or maybe somewhere else.”
Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., after three successful landings of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket since April, plans to start reusing rockets as soon as September, the billionaire said. Blue Origin Llc has shot off and landed the same rocket three times, and Bezos said low-cost launches are the missing pieces for space travel.
India takes that as a challenge, said Kumar, who joined Isro in 1975 and has since helped design satellites and worked on the Mars mission. India is also collaborating with NASA for the 2020 launch of a radar system to detect small changes in the Earth’s surface, potentially benefiting climate-change studies and helping farmers with crop rotation and flood monitoring, Kumar said.
“If you don’t have a capability, you have to build that capability,” he said. “It is not trying to emulate, but you also have to be relevant.”

NITI Aayog to organise Workshop on 16 & 17 June 2016 on Water, Wastewater and Solid Waste Management for Capacity Building in States and Urban Local Bodies

NITI Aayog15-June, 2016 12:39 IST

NITI Aayog to organise Workshop on 16 & 17 June 2016 on Water, Wastewater and Solid Waste Management for Capacity Building in States and Urban Local Bodies

NITI Aayog in collaboration with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) and Temasek Foundation, Singapore has developed an Urban Management Programme for Capacity Building of officials of State Governments and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in urban sector. The Programme was launched on 27 April, 2016 in New Delhi. The Programme focusses on Capacity Building of officials of State Governments and Urban Local Bodies in three critical areas of urban rejuvenation viz., (i) Urban Planning & Governance, (ii) Water, Wastewater & Solid Waste Management and (iii) Public Financing (PPP) of Urban Infrastructure. This unique initiative of NITI in partnership with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) and Temasek Foundation Singapore provides a platform to State Governments/ULBs to share the challenges being faced in urban transformation in these key areas and to evolve and design efficient solutions to some of these challenges through partnership with urban sector experts from Singapore. Seven states viz., Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi & Assam are participating in this Programme. The Singapore experts are from Surbana Jurong, CH2M Hill and PricewaterhouseCoopers. After the Programme Launch on 27 April 2016, the first workshop on Urban Planning & Governance was held on 28 & 29 April, 2016 in New Delhi. Now, the second workshop under this Urban Management Programme, on Water, Wastewater and Solid Waste Management is to be held in New Delhi on 16 & 17 June 2016.

The two day workshop on Water, Wastewater and Solid Waste Management on 16 & 17 June 2016 in New Delhi would focus on following areas -

(i) Integrated Urban Water Cycle Management for Sustainable and Resilient Water Infrastructure and Healthy Cities - Singapore's Success Story, Sustainable Water Management, Integrated Water Cycle Management, Efficient Water supply management, Used Water (Wastewater) Management, Evaluation of various technologies for Wastewater treatment, Alternate Source of water and Utility Financial Performance, Rain water harvesting, Public Education, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, implementation of Supply Chain of Water/Wastewater projects Water conservation, Demand management and Effective NRW Management, Emerging Trends and Future.

ii) Solid Waste Management – Introduction to Singapore's Solid Waste Management System, Best Practices in Integrated Solid Waste Management, Waste Minimisation & (3R’s) Reduce, Recycling & Reuse, Waste Disposal Systems, Evaluation of various technologies for Solid Waste Management, Waste-to-Energy (Incineration), Project Delivery Models and PPPs and implementation of Supply chain of Solid Waste projects.

The Workshop would be inaugurated by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog. The participants would include Secretaries, senior officials and Municipal Commissioners from State Governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, the Union Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Science and Technology, National Disaster Management Authority, NITI Aayog etc. Experts from institutions like National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi etc would also participate in the Workshop.

Background: 

Urbanisation offers an opportunity to India to achieve higher economic growth as cities provide economies of agglomeration. Urbanisation level in India, which was around 31 per cent in census 2011 is estimated to increase and reach 40 per cent by 2030 in percentage terms, the urbanisation level may appear to be modest, however in absolute numbers it is very large. Urban population of India is more than the entire population of United States of America or Brazil. The urban economy has also witnessed significant growth and is contributing to around 60 per cent of GDP. However, to reap the full benefits of urbanisation, it is important that it is efficient and sustainable.

Rapid urbanisation is increasing the pressure on provision of basic services to citizens like water, sanitation and mobility in the urban areas in the country. Infrastructure deficit is increasing the coping costs as well as leading to loss of productivity in the cities. It is also adversely affecting the ability of cities in attracting investment in this globalized world. Governance in urban centres is also emerging as a major challenge particularly with the increasing number of census towns. Further, with the increasing pressure on natural resources, sustainability of cities is emerging as a major concern. A deficiency in processing and scientific disposal of urban waste is resulting in a situation where Indian cities are polluting water bodies, degrading soil and environment at a much larger scale than they use these resources. Environmental sustainability of Indian cities is therefore becoming a major imperative for guiding efficient urbanisation.

Therefore it is necessary to take measures to ensure that the urbanisation is efficient. It is imperative to improve the provisioning of basic infrastructure and governance in our cities so that the cities enable better living and drive economic growth and emerge as ‘Engines of Economic Growth’ and moreover do so in a sustainable manner. The urban centres have to become areas of intense mobility, socio-economic activity and hope for a large number of population. To transform the urban landscape in the country, the Government has recently launched the Urban Rejuvenation Mission (URM) comprising of Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission and Housing for All.

The 74th Constitutional Amendment accorded constitutional status to the municipal bodies by initiating a process of democratic decentralisation with the objective of making urban governance more responsive. In order to meet the growing aspirations and expectations of people, and to meet the challenges of urbanisation, governance in the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) needs to become more efficient, effective, responsive, citizen friendly, transparent and accountable. Currently, many Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) do not have sufficient capacity to plan, finance and implement efficient, smart and sustainable solutions for urban problems.

In order to effectively realise the vision of urban transformation, one of the key objectives is to build sufficient capacities in the Urban Local Bodies and State Government in urban management and provide greater financial and functional autonomy to the ULBs. In this backdrop, NITI Aayog has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) to tap the expertise of Singapore in urban sector to build capacities in State Governments and ULBs to facilitate in implementation of the Urban Rejuvenation Mission. 

Government Launches Scheme for setting up 1000 MW CTU- connected Wind Power Project

Government Launches Scheme for setting up 1000 MW CTU- connected Wind Power Project

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched Scheme for setting up of 1000 MW Wind Power Project connected to transmission network of Central Transmission Utility (CTU) with an objective to facilitate supply of wind power to the non-windy states at a price discovered through transparent bidding process. Ministry has designated Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) as nodal agency for implementation of the scheme.

The Scheme will encourage competitiveness through scaling up of project sizes and introduction of efficient and transparent e-bidding and e-auctioning processes. It will also facilitate fulfilment of Non-Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) requirement of non-windy states.

The Government of India has set an ambitious target of achieving 175 GW power capacity from renewable energy resources by 2022 and out of this 60 GW has to come from wind power. The Scheme will be implemented for setting up 1000 MW capacity of CTU connected Wind Power Projects by Wind Project Developers on build, own and operate basis. However, the capacity may go higher than 1000 MW, if there is higher demand from Discoms of non-windy states.

MNRE has also issued Draft guidelines for implementation of scheme for setting up of 1000 MW CTU connected wind power projects issued by MNRE for stakeholders’ consultation. Details available at http://mnre.gov.in/file-manager/UserFiles/Draft-Wind-1000MW-Guidelines.pdf

BACKGROUND

The wind power deployment in the country started in early 90s. With the conductive policy environment provided at Central and State level, this segment has achieved highest growth amongst the other renewable energy technologies. The present wind power installed capacity in the country is nearly 26.7 GW sharing around 9% of total installed capacity. Globally, India is at 4^th position in term of wind power installed capacity after China, USA and Germany.

The Wind power potential in the country is assessed by the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) at 100 meter above ground level, which is estimated to be over 302 GW. Most of this potential exists in 8 windy states namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

In order to facilitate transmission of wind power from these windy states to non-windy states provisions have been made in the Tariff Policy to waive the inter-state transmission charges and losses for wind power projects.