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Mar 05, 2007

The Developer's Model of Development

Two competing notions of development are increasingly at war in the Indian economic landscape. One model is familiar to economists and policy-makers of an earlier era. We shall discuss that model later.

With changing times it would be folly to cling to outmoded concepts. One such concept, which wasted the nation's best resources during the days of the license-permit, Neta-Babu Raj, was the post-war notion of development. It sucked the human, capital and natural resources of the country for over four decades for which we have little to show.

There is thus urgent need to create and implement an entirely new model of development which answers Indian aspirations in a globalized world with far greater success. Here is what it looks like.

There will be world-class apartments in impressive high-rises touching the sky. Prospective residents will have choices ranging from compact studios to 6-bedroom dupleix flats designed for traditional Indian joint families. The apartments will be equipped with handsome, marble-topped bathrooms, studded with Jacuzzis and golden bidets imported from Europe. Every room will afford a commanding view of the golf course within whose precincts the skyscrapers will be located.

As you step out of the building you will find yourself before the 18th hole of the golf course nearest to you. If not in a golfing mood, you may choose to step out of the rear of your building: your eyes will alight upon an Olympic-sized swimming pool that has been built just for you. Look to your right and you will see Wimbledon-class tennis courts fully appointed with coaches and the latest equipment.

If you prefer independent accommodation we have for you a range of impressive townhouses and bungalows with sprawling lawns and their own private swimming pools. They come with all the facilities available for apartment-dwellers.

You will find your workplace within cycling distance of your residence. (100% safe biking tracks have been laid down on artificial turf to ensure your ease and comfort.) The building that houses your office is equipped with world-class business and communication facilities, including satellite links, global video conferencing facilities and broadband wireless internet connectivity.

Within your office building itself you will find a stress-busting massage parlor (offering a large variety of oriental massages), a mental health clinic (having world-class experienced professionals) and a beauty parlor (with some of the best herbalists in the world). There is also an in-house gym facility, a health club and an all-weather swimming pool.

For those of our customers connected to manufacturing, there are dozens of industrial parks within the city, properly zoned away from residential areas to minimize any of the negative effects of pollution (which itself is expected to be eliminated in the foreseeable future). These parks are fully provisioned with global quality infrastructure such as reliable, internally generated power facilities and ready and easy access to container and cargo terminals, making use of the latest international advances in efficient logistics.

SEZs (Special Economic Zones) are the latest innovation in Indian policy-making. They provide legal relief from archaic constitutional obstacles to rapid industrial growth: investors need no longer worry about paying taxes, minimum wages, health and pension benefits and environmental fines. We have several SEZs with irresistibly attractive terms of investment for both global and Indian players.

When you need to shop, you needn't drive far. We offer you tens of thousands of global brands not far from your doorstep. There are dozens of dazzling shopping malls excelling global standards, where you can find everything suited to your taste. There are supermarkets, garment, fashion and design stores, footwear stores, jewelry shops, electronics and IT bazaars, music shops, book stores, drug stores, hardware stores, home improvement outlets and even car dealerships. Now you need not lose time on your vacations to shop: even curios from all over the world have been gathered and assembled at our malls for your shopping pleasure.

When you have guests from out of town they can be accommodated at one of the many internationally networked luxury hotels. Our hotels offer all the facilities and amenities available to our residents, with attractive discounts available for our regular customers.

For your entertainment there are half a dozen multiplexes in the city, showing over three dozen films at a time. The film theatres are abutted by gaming parlors where young people can compete with their counterparts the world over.

Adjoining the hotels are amusement parks with childcare facilities on offer. Busy guests traveling with their children need not worry any more: we take full responsibility to entertain them on roller-coasters and waterslides. Our customers will find it assuring that we have won the highest international awards for excellence in providing hospitality to our guests.

We also have some of the most interesting theme parks in the world. There are stimulating interactive facilities to enable visitors to learn Hindu mythology and religion by signing up at the Panchatantra Park. You can even don the armour of a Pandava warrior at our Mahabharata Theme Park.

The city boasts of a number of helipads from where chartered flights can take you to the nearest international airports enabling smooth connections. Arrangements can also be made for chartering jets of all sizes from the nearest airports. Our travel agents will look after all your travel needs, both for business and pleasure, offering you some astounding discounts on vacations at virtually every beach or mountain resort anywhere in the world.

For your children we have some of the best schools in the world, offering the International Baccalaureate diploma in three different languages. Our teachers are trained in London and Geneva and are required to know at least three globally recognized languages well. They are also required to have spent at least half their working lives abroad.

Given the scrupulously clean and hygienic environment we maintain within the city sicknesses and poor health are rare. But should you ever feel the need there are world-class hospital facilities managed by the world's leading healthcare providers. You will be in the care of internationally reputed doctors and nurses.

Last, not least, every building and facility within the development is guarded by world-class surveillance equipment and security forces trained especially for you. You need never worry again for your safety once you entrust your security to us. Residents and visitors will especially appreciate the finesse with which our security personnel do their daily job without making themselves even remotely obtrusive or even visible.

Is it all only a fantasy?

The above is hardly a fantastic caricature of the promises made by India's leading builders and developers today. Indeed, one may observe that in some cases the promises are close to being met at the appropriate price.

Consider just a few promotional advertisements from some of India's leading builders and developers. Rahejas have already been quoted above. Unitech, whose profits this year are 3000% higher than last year, offers us "Shoppertainment for Indians." "Dreams are for achieving", they say, not merely to be savoured as fantasies. Ansals, with an international endorsement (Norsk Akkredit Ering EMS 006), offer a "futuristic SEZ in Greater Noida" which will become the "greentech IT hub" and "will usher in the new age of an IT-led economy". Parsvnath Parivar (with an ISO 9001/14001 certification) wish to invite us to join their family in order to enable them to create an "ever-enlarging footprint" across the length and breadth of the country. Any perceived irony is not intended.

It is evidently the case that India is "poised" to become a "developed" superpower at the cutting edge of the global economy. Those of us who are skeptical of the promises and the developments are either naysayers, doomsdayers, wet blankets or simply ignoramuses.

Unanswered questions

But some thorny issues remain. What about the people laboring to create and maintain these lavish establishments? What is their share of the promised prosperity? And what of those who the "developments" have displaced without rehabilitation? And what sorts of inputs of energy, water and resources are involved in the implementation of this world-class model of development? Where are the air and water-borne effluents from the establishments going to be discharged? Finally, hardly inconsequentially, what are the implications of these developments for that neglected and forgotten sector of the Indian economy, agriculture, on which two-thirds of our people anywhere from 700 to 750 million are directly dependent? Will the gathering crisis in agriculture endanger food security and supply in times to come, reducing to naught the gains made in the direction of self-sufficiency in food, canceling one of India's great achievements since gaining independence from the British in 1947, and possibly reintroducing the era of famines in India?

Is there any reckoning of these questions in the meetings and discussions carried out in the boardrooms of our policy-making elites? One wonders.

Trickle-down or vacuum up?

The questions raised above can be answered optimistically only with some heroism. The only assumption under which the model of development outlined above can be of any tangible benefit to the teeming millions of impoverished Indians is that the growth induced by large investments in the real estate sector of the economy will bring benefits to the lower classes in the form of new opportunities of employment both directly and secondarily, through spin-offs. This is the familiar refrain of pious promises of eventual trickle-down, which have yet to materialize anywhere in the world.

The narrow base of economic growth in India focussed thus far in the IT-BPO sectors of the service economy has meant that trickle-down theories of the spread of prosperity have remained confined to the sphere of illusions. The persistence of widespread hunger, malnutrition, poverty and unemployment reminds one of the economist-diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith's acerbic observation that faith in trickle-down is a bit like feeding race horses superior oats so that starving sparrows can forage in their dung.

In fact, far from the benefits of growth trickling down to the downtrodden, the policies adopted since the mid-1980s and early 1990s have led to big losses of rural economies and livelihoods that are not reckoned on the negative side of the ledger (where they belong) in the growth calculations of government statisticians. Besides, the poor throughout the country are being rapidly dispossessed of the only real asset in a primarily agrarian economy: land.

What happened to the old idea of development?

One thing is clear. The paradigm of development that is in place bears a far closer resemblance to the developer's model of development, as outlined above, than to the developmental visions of the first generation of planners and economists under Nehru. It ignores the repeated recommendations of seasoned thinkers like Amartya Sen (who has warned that even a 100 Cyberabads and IT Parks will make no dent in long-standing challenges of reducing malnutrition, starvation and poverty). Needless to add, the de facto "developmental" vision of our policy-makers does arrogant violence to Gandhi's vision of village republics.

It appears that somewhere during the past decade the meaning of the term "development" has undergone a decisive mutation in the heads of our policy-making elite.

Is economic growth the same as development?

Every student of Development Economics learns on the first few pages of her textbook that economic growth does not translate directly into economic development. The two notions are in fact quite distinct. Though, typically, the two are seen to go together, up to a not insignificant degree development is possible without growth as growth is possible without development. Sri Lanka, for instance, while scarcely growing at all, raised its average life expectancy a crucial indicator of well-being by a dozen years during the first 7 years of its independence from Britain. Saudi Arabia, despite growing rapidly after the OPEC-led oil boom of the 1970s has failed to bring about a transformation in the lives of the bulk of its citizens. To see whether growth will lead to development, one has to scrutinize closely the content and pattern of growth. On this, more will be said presently.

The point is that aggregate figures like per capita income can be seen to rise rapidly with economic growth, but the inequalities of wealth and income might be such as to mask entirely the poor material condition of most people's lives.

Economic growth in India in the last decade or so has been the experience of a minority, reflecting huge and growing corporate remuneration and the bloated salaries of skilled and English-speaking urban professionals belonging to upper and middle classes. Growth in the organized sector (including both private and public) has been largely jobless. In many cases, like at the manufacturing plants of Tata and Bajaj in the Mumbai-Pune belt, production has shot up dramatically during the last decade while, in fact, cutting back significantly on the employment of workers. Jobless growth, thanks to the path of labor-saving technology from the West, is the norm.

Development, as conceived by economists, planners, policy-makers and political leaders after decolonization in the middle of the last century, was about the socio-economic and political transformation of the lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people. It was much more than just raising the real per capita income of the developing country. Importantly, it had nothing to with the fairy-tale dreams of builders and developers. For that matter, the Indian constitution does not even make a commitment to economic growth!

In addition to real per capita income (which in any case glosses over glaring and widening inequalities), by 1990 the pre-eminent international institution concerned with development issues, the World Bank, had learnt to include at least two other features in what began to be called "human development": average life expectancy as an indicator of health and the literacy rate as an indicator of education. When one observes trends in India's ranking among countries with respect to HDI, one sees that it has yet to fall below the 120s (China hovers between 70th and 75th). A per capita income of $2 a day at market exchange rates (China is $6-7 and the US is $100) is unbecoming of any country, let alone a purported or aspiring superpower.

Development with dignity?

How much dignity remains for those who are thrown off their farmlands in order to make way for the growth and progress of the nation in the form of a real-estate boom, the ultimate aim of property developments? And how much for those, sometimes the same people, who live "on the other side of the wall", so to speak, from the developments, and have to make do with open sewers, lack of drinking water, poor hutments, lack of hospitals and schools?

As far back as in 1972, soon after Indira Gandhi launched her idea of Garibi Hatao, the economist C.T.Kurien had written thus in an article entitled "Strategy for Development": "The development process in India has not yet become a mass movement. The development process cannot become effective until it becomes a movement" ( Seminar, January 1972). It went on to say: "If development is for the people it has to be by the people also. Herein lies the connection between development and mass movement." The main policy recommendation of that piece was a public works programme by a district-level Land Army of those who were looking for work in the countryside, a proposal not dissimilar to the NREGS launched belatedly last year, so far with dubious success.

Amit Bhaduri's recent book Development with Dignity has argued forcefully the case for full employment in India. Here are his main observations:

1) "Our unforgivable failure has been the persistence of mass poverty and destitution. It is a matter of utter shame that nearly six decades after Independence, we have anywhere between one-third and one-fourth of our people desperately poor and denied the minimum conditions for human existence - the largest number of illiterates, millions of children crippled or blinded due to malnourishment."

2) India's continuing reliance on English has sustained a linguistic divide and inequality of opportunities between those who speak and those who do not speak English.

3) Agriculture is so overcrowded and devoid of earning opportunities, thanks to destructive trade and other agricultural policies of the governments after 1991, that in poor states like Bihar and MP, even selling peanuts on the streets brings more income. Disguised unemployment is extremely high.

4) "India's immense diversity creates a bewildering variety of identities, and politicians try to manipulate them to their advantage in the game for gathering votes at any cost."

5) "India has given its citizens political rights, but not economic rights to a decent livelihood, with or without economic liberalisation."

6) "Narrow minded policies focussing on 'cost' reduction fail to see that cost is a concept defined in a particular social context of contending economic interests.""The worker might think of profit as the 'cost' he has to bear for being employed, just as the employer thinks of wage as the 'cost' of employing the worker!"

Thus, Bhaduri proposes that "the developmental process that we must strive for is not simply a higher growth rate; nor should it mean simply an elaborate bureaucratic mechanism for income transfer to improve the distribution of income in favour of the poor. It has to be viewed from a different perspective altogether in which growth and distribution are integrated into the very same process, while breaking systematically the social barriers of discrimination and prejudices based on gender, caste, language, religion or ethnicity. This is what Development with Dignity must mean for us in India" (emphasis added). The author, one of India's well-known economists, adds with authority: "This is not a utopia. It is the only reasonable economics that this country can pursue with the support of the majority of its citizens who are poor to varying degrees."

So, importantly, Bhaduri proposes that redistribution of income and wealth and reduction of poverty and inequality happen through the growth process itself, not something that happens once growth has been achieved (by which time it is usually too late, since each growth strategy has a distributional strategy implicitly built into it).

For illustration, Bhaduri argues:

"Nowadays in big cities, and even in small towns, bottled drinking water is available at a price, which at most only the top 10 per cent of the income earners can afford. And yet, while the market naturally has no compulsion to make a basic good like safe drinking water available to the poor, it might produce more of bottled water and this could step up our statistic of the rate of growth!"

In an primarily market-driven economy the only reliable way of bringing most people to an acceptable standard of living is by creating employment opportunities which will put purchasing power into the hands of the hitherto poor, thereby altering in their favour (as also of aggregate growth data), the direction of market signals which determine what will be produced and in what quantities.

For instance, by putting the rural landless to work on infrastructure projects like road-building or environmental projects like watershed management, a demand for basic food, clothing and shelter will be created. The market mechanism will take over after that and supply the goods in the required amounts. This will tackle several challenges of the creation of infrastructure, the conservation/regeneration of the environment, the alleviation of poverty, the creation of employment, and the growth of the overall economy at one stroke. The same strategy could be applied equally well to infrastructure and environmental projects like watershed management or soil conservation to generate mass employment and income.

For a public spending of less than 4% of our GDP the families of some 40 million people (totalling about 200 million) could be lifted out of poverty. Taxation, public borrowing, or even printing the required currency are all viable options for financing such schemes if the economic activity undertaken is productive and generates income and demand in the economy.

Bhaduri is not unmindful of the staggering diversity of this country. So he wants such schemes to be administered not centrally by the state or central government but by local Panchayati Raj institutions.

Thus, like Kurien and many others, Bhaduri advocates a two-pronged economic strategy for a country like India. The rich and middle classes can hope to gain from the booms generated by a globalized market economy.

However, what's good for the goose is sometimes poison to the gander: countless millions can only expect disruption of their livelihoods and ways of life on account of the powerful interests operating in the country (and its countryside). For such people running into several hundred millions an altogether different strategy of development is called for. Bhaduri advocates an employment strategy much along the lines advocated by Kurien and already enacted in the NREGS regulation, though, as already mentioned, the attempt has been feeble and half-hearted.

In sum, recognizing the false promises of trickle-down Economics, Bhaduri advocates a strategy of "employment first, with growth as outcome" and not "growth first, and full employment later."

Needless to say the expenditures on health and education, long advocated by economists like Amartya Sen, are equally urgent if underprivileged India is to be lifted out of underdevelopment.

None of this is pie-in-the-sky daydreaming. On the contrary, to change the content and pattern of economic growth in the country is an imperative to sustain its level. When one considers, to take just one among many similar instances (the potential contribution made to effective aggregate demand by the poor being another), the shortage of skills being reported from all corners of Indian industry today, it becomes clear that in the future there will be no growth without development in the true sense of the word.

Development according to developers must be restrained, while the old idea of development must be awakened from its slumber in the minds of the policy-making elite. A failure to achieve this is likely to prove economically costly, quite apart from generating a political derailment of the growth process, with worse outcomes to follow in the shape of rising social tensions, political violence and crime.

http://www.counterpunch.org/shrivastava02222007.html

MP killing: Jharkhand shuts down, Centre to help fight Maoists
By IANS, Ranchi, March 5 - Jharkhand observed a 12-hour shutdown Monday to protest the assassination of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha - MP Sunil Mahto Sunday while a concerned central government promised to extend all support to the state to fight Maoist rebels.

Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal, who visited steel city Jamshedpur to pay homage to the slain parliamentarian, said: 'The Indian government has taken the incident seriously. We will extend all kinds of support to the state government to fight the Maoist rebels.

'Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken the incident seriously. The state government should take suitable action to prevent such incidents in Jharkhand. We are hopeful that that situation will improve in the state,' he told reporters here.

Jaiswal, who was accompanied by Union Food Processing Minister and Congress MP from Ranchi Subodh Kant Sahay, met the aggrieved family members of Mahto and consoled them.

The state government has submitted a preliminary report to the union home ministry but Jaiswal refused to divulge its content. Asked about a Central Bureau of Investigation - inquiry in the assassination, he said: 'In a day or two, the Centre will decide about the CBI inquiry recommended by the state government.'

Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibte Razi also went to Jamshedpur to pay his last respects to the JMM leader.

Meanwhile, the 12-hour shutdown in Jharkhand evoked good response. Shops were closed and public transport was impacted.

Angry JMM workers hit the streets at different places in the state and burnt tyres in Jamshedpur, Giridih and other places.

Railway services were disrupted in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Giridih and other places.

JMM workers stopped trains at the Ranchi and Dhanbad railway stations demanding immediate arrest of the killers of the slain MP.

The JMM's statewide shutdown to protest the killing was supported by other political parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal -, Congress and the All Jharkhand Student Union -. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party - too extended moral support to the strike.

Emergency services and exams were kept out of the purview of the shutdown.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda met the governor to inform him about the incident Sunday evening when the 41-year-old MP was killed along with three of his bodyguards and a party worker by suspected Maoist rebels while watching a football match near Narsingh village of Jamshedpur district, about 140 km from here and only 15 km from the West Bengal border.

The assailants pumped seven bullets into his body.

'Paramilitary forces have been dispatched to Jamshedpur for combing operations. Our officials have spoken to their West Bengal counterparts to launch joint operations to arrest the Maoist rebels involved in the incident,' Koda said after meeting the governor, who also summoned the home secretary and the chief secretary for detailed reports.

Koda went to Jamshedpur to pay his last respects to Mahto, who was general secretary of the ruling party, at the Tata Main Hospital -.

The Jharkhand government has announced Rs.1 million in compensation to the police officials killed in the incident and a job to a family member of each of them. The bodies of the police officials were brought to Ranchi where they were given a guard of honour.

'We have launched a massive combing operation to nab the Maoist rebels. We have sealed the boarder with West Bengal. We are also trying to find the conspiracy angle,' said Jharkhand Director General of Police - J.B. Mahapatra.

Police were trying to find out if there was any other motive behind the killing.

A high alert has been sounded in the state following the killing and security of VIPs has been beefed up.

The killing shocked political leaders cutting across party lines.

'The incident is shocking. The government should show the willpower to fight the Maoists. Such incidents never occurred during my regime,' said former chief minister Arjun Munda, who also visited the Mahto family in Jamshedpur.

Mahto will be cremated Tuesday. JMM chief Shibu Soren, presently serving life imprisonment for his role in the murder of his personal secretary Shashinath Jha, might be given special permission to attend the funeral.

http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/MP-killing-Jharkhand-shuts-down-Centre-to-help-
fight-Maoists_18158.shtml

Naxals meet in public, govt red faced

New Delhi: In 2004 the Peoples War Group (PWG) and the MCC joined to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Recently this group held a meeting on the Bihar-Jharkhand border and distributed tapes of the proceedings to the government and to the press.

The fact that an outlawed organisation can meet in the full public view flies in the face of the Jharkand government, which has been claiming success in deal with Naxalites.

The Ninth Unity Congress of CPI (Maoists) was also a message to the Home Ministry that increased security presence didn't bother them and this cocky attitude was reflected in the murder of JMM MP Sunil Mahato.

The Union Home Ministry report says that more than 40 people were involved in the murder.

"We get on to this exercise of the areas which are hypersensitive and/or the persons who have taken sound positions. So, we will review," said Union Home Secretary V K Duggal.

This is not the first time that Jharkhand has been rapped by the Centre for its inability to deal with Naxalite terror.

Jharkhand has not being following the do's and don'ts laid down by the Centre for Naxalite-affected states.

Vacancies in police force were not being filled up

Central funds released for support to Naxalite states were not being utilised

The Central team that visited Jharkhand has put to rest that Mahato's murder was politically motivated.

It was known for some time that the village defence committees were on the hit list of the Maoists.

Better development activities would have helped curb Naxalism in the state but with a wafer thin majority it's clear that the Madu Koda government has its survival in mind before anything else.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/naxals-meet-in-public-govt-red-faced/35263-3.html

Naxalite attack sparks fresh fear

NEW DELHI: The killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sunil Mahto has shattered claims of Naxalism being on the wane in the state.

Initial speculation about the possibility of this being a revenge strike involving mafia was more or less discarded and the Home Ministry officials said it was a Maoist operation by all indications.

Maoists have not owned up the attack, however. What is bothering the authorities is the fact that the victim was a protected person provided with commandos for security, yet this did not prevent the assailants from attacking and killing him as well as the security personnel. The Home Ministry had sought a detailed report from the state government on the incident, which was despatched on Monday afternoon by the Jharkhand government.

The Maoists are believed to have acrossed over to West Bengal.

Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal rushed to spot to make an assessment accompanied by Union Minister of State for Food Processing, Subodh Kant Sahay. Till late evening, meetings were on between the Home Ministry officials to review the situation.

In a presentation made to the Home Ministry, security forces detailed the increasing capability of Maoists in terms of equipment, sophistication and expanding base. Basic to this is consolidating their hold in the compact revolutionary zone (CRZ) and extending their base to urban areas.

The Maoists have augmented their sources of finance through levies and have also set up a revenue system running parallel to government machinery. For their operations, they have built up a huge stock of explosives. They have also devised ways of mixing various explosives, chemicals and locally available material for the most deadly effect.

For triggering off mines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), they have graduated to using radio control remotes and mobile phones from using wires.

The attack was a reminder of the clout of Maoists in the dreaded CRZ that forms a "Red Corridor" running through Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, all the way to Andhra Pradesh and to the upper reaches of Maharashtra.

It was in this zone, somewhere near the Jharkhand-Bihar border, that the Maoists recently held their party congress after a gap of 36 years, reaffirming their pledge to wage a war against the state.

With their presence extending to a fourth of the country now, they aim to 'control' one-third by 2010.

They expressed their support for those fighting for their respective causes in Kashmir and Manipur, resolved to fight for Dalits and also swore to prevent any SEZs from coming up.

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1083176

Britain to explore opportunities in Bengal medical sector

Kolkata, March 5 (IANS) The British Healthcare Mission, a seven-member delegation visiting Kolkata, is exploring opportunities in the healthcare sector of West Bengal.

The team comprising five British medical service companies came here Monday for an interactive session with health sector players of West Bengal.

'The seminar was held for exploring opportunities of partnership between India and the UK healthcare sector. We are interested to invest in the healthcare services like medical equipment, in knowledge sharing of the recent development in the medical sector, genetic disorder services in Kolkata, medical software, training and overall into the public-private partnership (PPP) venture,' said Kevin McCole, deputy head of British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata.

He said Britain's National Health Service (NHS) with an annual budget of $100 billion is also interested to go for PPP ventures with the Indian healthcare system and talks were on with the Indian government and the Planning Commission.

Parminder Sunda, one of the members of the delegation, said that several healthcare organisations of Indian origin were also queuing up to set up hospitals in Britain.

'Almost 20 to 30 organisations have already approached us but nothing has been finalised so far,' said Sunda.

He stated that in Britain on an average every patient has to wait six to eight hours to get medical treatment but the target is to reduce the waiting period to two hours by 2010.

'Since we have limited resources we are welcoming other organisations to come and set up their medical units in the UK,' Sunda added.

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals has already been granted permission to establish its new hospital in Britain.

The five companies, which have come to Kolkata for exploring trade investment opportunities, are also going for joint ventures in India.

'We are looking for partnerships here. If anything active can be worked out we will definitely go for investment in West Bengal or we can also set up a manufacturing unit here,' said Rob Elles, a member of the team and an expert of genetic healthcare in Britain.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1273052.php/Britain_to_explore
_opportunities_in_Bengal_medical_sector

'Balanced growth of agri and industry must to defuse tension'

Kolkata, March 5. (PTI): A balanced growth of both industry and agriculture could create a conducive atmosphere for development of both the sectors and defuse tension among farmers, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said.

In an apparent reference to the acquisition of farmland in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, Mukherjee hoped that such a balance between the two sectors was an imperative for conducive atmosphere for development.

"Agriculture lags behind in proper growth following inadequate investment and development in the sector during the last three Plans.

"It needs another Green Revolution to bring in a balance of growth between agriculture and industry," Mukherjee said during the foundation stone laying ceremony of ECOSPACE, an innovative joint venture IT park, at Rajarhat.

Stressing the need for initiating proper steps in the 11th Plan to boost growth in agriculture and ensure a congenial atmosphere for both the sectors, Mukherjee said that the country's present growth rate in agriculture was at 2.2 per cent, which should be raised at least to four per cent to bring a parity between the two sectors and defuse tension.

Simultaneously the Governments should also require to convince people about the need for industrialisation, he said.

The technology park ECOSPACE, promoted jointly by the city-based Ambuja Realty Development Limited and Bangalore- based RMZ Corp and designed by RSP of Singapore would come up over 20 acre of land and be fully operative in two and half years at the cost of Rs 450 crore.

The real estate value would stand at nearly Rs 700 crore, Ambuja Realty Chairman Harshavardhan Neotia said.

Describing West Bengal as one of the leading IT destinations of the country, Mukherjee said development of the Information Technology sector in the State would boost the process of industrialisation.

Mukherjee also encouraged the role of a Joint Venture and private-public participation to boost the development process. "The Government can do many things but not everything," the Union Minister said.

Laying the foundation stone of the Ecospace, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, stressed the need for upholding the development process.

Chatterjee regretted the way development work was being opposed by some political functionaries without showing any alternative way.

"Some political functionaries are opposing the development move without showing any alternative path just to stall the development process," Chatterjee said.

West Bengal Housing Minister Goutam Deb said that the project would provide employment to 20,000 young talents, while over two lakh would be employed in the entire IT Hub at Rajarhat.

The RMZ Corp Managing Director, Raj Menda, said that having their presence in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad, the group was now set to develop projects in West Bengal.

The RMZ is set to commit a massive $2.5 billion to develop 40 million sq ft of corporate, residential, retail and hospitality spaces countrywide over the next five years, Menda said.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/015200703050312.htm

Sikkim on study tour in Orissa

BALASORE, March 4: Sikkim is one of the best tourist destination best-owed with all natural beauties. It is a beggar, drugs and polythene-free state. And while the main source of revenue of the government is floriculture, besides tourism, it is also a power surplus state, the members of a Press team, on the occasion of get-together here with the members of Balasore Press Forum, said.
The team of seven members, including two editors, headed by Mr RN Chettri and Mr D Nayak, officer of information and public relations department and representative of Press Information Bureau respectively, has been in Orissa for studying the successful implementation of government-sponsored schemes for poverty eradication and rural sectors' performance in Mayurbhanj.
Nine members had been deputed by the government of Skkim to see how the public-oriented welfare schemes were being successfully implemented in the tribal-dominated district of Mayurbhanj. The district was adjudged best by the Central team and the district collector had been felicitated by the President, APJ Kalam, recently.
The team, besides seeing the mode of implementation of schemes, acclimatised with the flora and fauna of Simlipal sanctuary, they said. While they appreciated the works of the district administration in the implementation front, particularly in SHG and utilisation of forest produces, they observed that there were still lot of rooms for improvement in drinking water, road communication, electricity and literacy in the tribal pockets.
The economic standard of common men in Sikkim, they maintained, has improved after the merger of the state with Indian Union in 1975. The economy of the state found new direction after the reopening of Nathula Pass after over three decades of gap ~ letting direct trading access with the Asian giant, China. The state has lot of scope in hydro electricity sector, they said.
The team said that their government wanted to convert the state as a model one by eliminating poverty by 2015. They claimed that several welfare measures had been undertaken in this direction. The state is green, peaceful and peaceful.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=148790

'India Independent: Economics, Politics and Culture'

2007 is a year of many commemorations for India – it is celebrating 150 years since 1857 and 60 years of its independence. However, both 1857 and 1947 need to be taken off the pedestal of mere landmarks in the history of the Indian nation and revisited for their significance in the Indian people's struggle against imperialism and colonialism. Recognising this significance of 2007 as an important milestone in the nation's history, Social Scientist in association with SAHMAT organised a three day conference between February 22 – 24, 2007 titled 'India Independent: Economics, Politics and Culture'.

The aim of the conference was to examine aspects of India's struggle for political freedom, the strengths and weaknesses of the post-Independence nation-state, the post-independence outcomes in terms of economic, political and social development prior to and especially after the 1990s, and to define the challenges facing India as a sovereign nation. Spanning three days, the conference saw intense debates on the growing imperialist intervention in the Indian polity, prevailing political challenges, the different trajectories of development, issues of nationalism, communalism and the resistance to these.

The immediate context of the debates within the seminar was set by the developments in India in the light of the general elections of 2004. The Seminar highlighted the fact that while the defeat of the NDA and the formation of the UPA government was a significant break in the politics of our country, the three years of UPA rule have also seen a large degree of continuity with the policies of the earlier government and in the assaults from multiple sources on the lives and livelihoods of the Indian people and the secular and democratic character of the republic.

MULTIPLE ATTACKS

Sovereignty: The discussion on the issue of sovereignty of the modern Indian republic was taken up mainly by Prof Aijaz Ahmad and Sitaram Yechury. In the early years of the Indian republic, structures were established to bolster the newly won independence – a secular and democratic constitution set on pillars of federalism, economic self-reliance, pursuit of non-alignment, goals of intellectual self reliance, encouragement to technological independence etc. However, there is a significant shift today in the character of the Indian ruling classes which show an increasing tendency of forming an alliance with the neo-colonial forces and of collaboration with imperialism. This is reflected in the striking continuities between the pro-imperialist policies of the NDA and those of the Congress-led government. Rather than trying to work for a multipolar world and forming alliances with other developing countries, the Congress-led government has taken a deliberate decision to become a junior partner of US imperialism. This is reflected in the increasing military and strategic ties with the US pursued by this government and its stand on issues like the Indo-US nuclear treaty and the vote on Iran in the IAEA. There is a process of the co-option of the personnel of the state by imperialist forces and even organs of the state such as the armed forces which had hitherto been relatively independent of imperialist influence are being penetrated by imperialism. The subservience to imperialist interests has taken away India's ability to strike a broad range of alliances to serve national interests. The penetration of imperialism is such that even our vocabulary on issues like communalism is borrowed from them. Hence, the wide use of the term 'terrorists', in the context of Muslims and Muslims alone. The subservience to imperialism has pervaded all spheres of the Indian polity and is resulting in an erosion of the very structures which formed the basis of our independent republic.

Economic Policy: There is a duality of Indias today. On the one hand, there is the shining India and on the other a suffering India. The discussion on the economic issues stressed the exclusivist character of the pattern of economic development in the country. While the government claims success for its policies on the basis of the high growth rates of the past few years, the fact on the ground remains that this growth is skewed, accompanied by rising inequality and completely bypasses the agricultural sector on which a majority of Indians are still dependent.

The UPA government, despite some measures like the NREGA, is on the whole committed to the pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies. In her presentation, Prof. Utsa Patnaik pointed out how the agricultural crisis brought on by cuts in government investment and organised credit and the fall in the prices of primary commodities continues to levy a huge toll of immiserisation on the peasantry. While the proportion of the population dependent on agriculture remains more-or-less the same, agriculture's share in GDP has been sharply falling, creating a situation where 60 percent of the population contributes only 21 percent of the GDP. Agrarian depression and income crisis is not addressed by government policy, indebtedness continues to drive large segments of the poorer peasantry into landlessness, and the food security situation has become even more alarming.

Prof. C.P. Chandrashekhar's presentation on the linkages between the agricultural sector and the rest of the Indian economy discussed how the high income inequalities in the sectors of the economy which are growing rapidly, particularly the services sector, means that the effects of this growth do not 'trickle-down' to the agricultural sector and conversely that the ongoing agricultural crisis does not pose any obstacle to this unequal growth trajectory. Moreover, as Prof. Prabhat Patnaik argued, there are good theoretical reasons why an economy whose integration into the imperialist economic order does not allow it to follow an independent technological trajectory must be condemned to increasing unemployment even if it enjoys high growth.

Prof. Jayati Ghosh argued that the failures in the economy take the form of absence of food security for a significant proportion of the population; the inability to ensure basic needs of housing, sanitation, adequate health care to the population as a whole; the continuing inability to ensure universal education; the sluggish enlargement of access to education and employment across different social groups and women in particular. In addition there are problems caused by the very pattern of growth: aggravated regional imbalances; greater inequalities in the control over assets and in access to incomes; dispossession and displacement without adequate compensation and rehabilitation. The pattern of economic development has become exclusivist in character and it goes hand in hand with the emergence of a more centralised and authoritarian polity.

The discussion on the neo-colonial policies was preceded by a discussion by Professors Amiya Bagchi, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Irfan Habib on colonial economy. Professor Amiya Bagchi contested the arguments of the neo-colonial historians, who according to him are sheltered by neo liberal economists, to argue that the colonial economy was marked by a regression, fall in agricultural productivity and demographic stagnation in the 19th century. Prof Sabyasachi Bhattacharya in his presentation examined the debates centred on poverty and Poor Laws in 18th - 19th century England and Famine Codes of the colonial state in 19th century India. It is ironical that the definitions set by the colonial state in its approach to famines find a contemporary resonance in the way poverty alleviating measures are discussed. Prof Irfan Habib examined the practical conditions and debates which determined the directions that the National movement for independence took.

The threat posed by the internalisation of the neo-liberal ideology by the different organs of the state, particularly the higher judiciary, was also discussed by the conference.

Secularism: While the attacks on secular fabric of India were a central concern for the participants in the seminar, this focus was put by Teesta Setalvad and Prof Zoya Hasan. Though the 2004 general elections saw the NDA defeated, this defeat was not a reflection of any sharp reduction in the vote share of the BJP. Since then the BJP has been able to come to power in Bihar and is part of a government in Karnataka—the first time that the BJP has been part of the government in a southern state. Moreover, the penetration of the state apparatus by communal personnel and ideology has not been reversed and as a result even where the BJP is not in power the bureaucracy and the internal security apparatus exhibits a communal outlook and Muslims continue to live in an environment of terror and insecurity.

The threat of communalism is potent not just because of its divisive character. The operation of the communal agenda is also about the attack on fundamental rights, freedom, security and the democratic character of our polity. The agenda, again, is exclusivist in character, leaving out of its ambit the tribals, dalits, women, minorities, and the poor. Part of the agenda is the denial of access to resources, employment and opportunities for self-improvement to the minority communities and targeted violence and a creation of hysteria against them. Even though it is out of power at the centre, the ideology of the Sangh Parivar continues to erode the fundamental structures of the modern Indian republic.

While the Congress is not programmatically committed to communalism, it is comfortable with a state apparatus which has been deeply communalised and shows a reluctance to take on the communal infiltration of administrative structures, educational institutions and curricula, intelligence agencies etc.

The Sachar committee report has brought out the extreme deprivations faced by the Muslims over the last 60 years. The discrimination faced by the Muslim community is both at the level of institutional discrimination as well as discrimination at the level of policy. While deprivation of different social groups like SC, STs, OBCs have sought to be addressed at the level of policy making, allocation of funds, specific measures, schemes were not undertaken to address the deprivation within the Muslims. Institutional discrimination has meant an exclusion of Muslims from other categories of deprivation like the SC or OBC and the failure to take affirmative action in terms of education, political representation, employment etc. While the tabling of Sachar committee report in itself is a positive step, the report highlights the problems but offers no solutions. Affirmative action is required to alleviate the position of Muslims in society.

Federalism: While the Indian constitution itself provides for only some federal features rather than a thoroughly federal state, the recent period has seen a further erosion of the federal character of our polity. On one hand, the limited resources available to state governments have further been squeezed by neo-liberal policies and the trend of making transfer of resources to state governments conditional on their adoption of neo-liberal policies. At the same time, the central policy of encouraging competition between the states for resources and private investment has also restricted the possibilities of united action by the states on the issues like federalism, centre-state relations and economic policies. This has been compounded by the change in the character of the regional parties themselves, with their social support bases in the regional bourgeoisie and landlords now desiring a greater integration into the process of neo-liberal globalisation. The conference also discussed the demands for imposition of Article 356 in UP by certain sections of the Congress as another example of both its disregard for the federal principle as well as its underestimation of the communal threat.

Culture: The discussion on National Culture vs. Cultural Nationalism involved both cultural activists as well as critics. Sadanand Menon, Prasanna, Kumar Sahani, Geeta Kapur, Ram Rehman and MK Raina formed the discussants on the issue. The cultural activists and critics who spoke at the seminar were overwhelming in their consensus that culture is politics. Since the independence struggle, culture has been an area of activism against imperialism, an articulation of the aspirations of the people. In the current situation, this is the role that needs to be resurrected. The need is to recreate the track of resistance, the reinvention of tradition. During the freedom struggle and in the early decades of independence, cultural movements like Progressive Writers' Association, Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) reflected the people's aspirations, responded to the creativity of the people, articulated social protest and became a medium of mobilisation in struggles. The vibrancy of the cultural movement and its concurrence with the post-independence Indian state also saw the establishment of a large number of institutions – the academies, museums, theatres, libraries, institutes etc.

Over the last few decades, these institutions have also been the focus of attack from communal, fundamentalist forces. The impact of imperialism is felt in the sphere of culture – from the withdrawal of the state as a source of patronage to a redefinition of 'culture' and 'Indian culture' in ways that negate the legacy of the freedom struggle.

It is in the field of culture that one can see the most visible concurrence of the imperialist and communal agenda – the desire to create a homogeneous cultural identity. For the imperialist forces this would take the shape of a homogeneous market and for the communal forces a monolithic identity.

Today, the field of culture is being laid open to the operation of market forces. There is an abdication by the state of its role of promoting the arts and culture. The academies and institutes set up after independence face both a lack of material infrastructure as well as an absence of creative vibrancy. Cultural activists are being asked to turn to the private sector for sponsorships. As a result, if a cultural form or expression is not commercially viable, it is also not visible.

Today more than before, cultural activists are subjected to victimisation, gagged in the name of morality, sentiments of different religious communities, decency etc. Litigation, attacks on theatre performances, exhibitions, art galleries, burning of books – the cultural activists are sought to be muzzled by violence.

The two examples that demonstrate this – the Dramatic Performance Act (instituted by the British in 1876 in response to Neel Darpan), which requires prior police permission for the exhibition of a play, is being used to prevent the staging of a number of plays across the country. The prosecution of MF Hussain, who has been under a consistent attack by the reactionary right for a long time, also shows both the extent to which communalism has become ingrained in our state structures and the failure of the Congress to stand up against communal campaigns. These draconian measures which are an attack on fundamental right to the freedom of expression must be consistently opposed.

However, within the field of culture there are dichotomies. The people in the villages, fighting for their language or even religion are also fighting for their culture. These local forms have to be accommodated in the discourses in culture. The people's movement needs to use culture as a weapon. Even though the culture of resistance may not be high art or sophisticated as a means of expression, it still has to be respected for the protest it embodies.

As the global capital becomes all pervasive, cultural activists also need to find a global language and form of protest.

Media: The discussion on Media of the Public Sphere vs. the Media of the Market Place involved Sashi Kumar, Siddharth Vardarajan, Rammanohar Reddy, Sohini Ghosh, Manini Chatterjee and Sukumar Muralidharan. The 1990s have seen a sharp change in the character of the Indian media. The earlier equation of a state controlled television, radio and independent newspapers no longer binds the media. The entry of cable TV, a large number of private channels, technological advances, the shift from the analogue to the digital are linked to a change in both the economy and the scale of the media. These changes in the character of the media cannot be understood unless placed in the context of the neo-liberal economic policies.

The media now neither claims nor fulfils the role of the Fourth Estate. It has become an industry, with news as the commodity to be produced and consumed. The media has undergone a process of corporatisation and its main aim now is greater profitability. The circulation or the reach among the people now provides only a negligible part of media income--the bulk is made up by advertising revenues.

Far from occupying the role of watchdog of democracy, the media propagates an undemocratic perspective – reflected in a demonisation of both politicians and politics, focus on glamour and infotainment, the projection of the 'page 3' life as an aspirational revolution -- at the cost of the real issues of the people.

The echelons of the media remain very much the domain of the privileged classes and caste. There has been a shift in the sensibility of the media which reflects a growing distance between the middle class and the rest of the country. The distance was clearly visible in the media coverage of the General Elections of the 2004, where the media was complicit in the NDA campaign of 'India Shining' and failed to gauge the resentment among the people.

The positive development has been that the media is finally able to establish a distance from the political establishment. However, it is unable to maintain a similar distance from the corporate establishment.

The way forward in the current situation is the emergence of a critical audience which would force the media houses to revise the contents of their coverage and a revival of the Public Service Broadcasting.

MECHANISMS OF IMPERIALIST DOMINATION

Seeking to understand the deeper social processes underlying these multiple attacks, the conference considered a number of factors. One of these was the inability of the bourgeoisie to complete the tasks of democratic transformation because of its historic compromise with feudalism. But it was pointed out that this cannot be a complete explanation because countries like China which had completed a thoroughgoing anti-feudal democratic transformation were also experiencing the inroads of neo-liberalism. Hence, there was also a need to understand the mechanisms through which imperialism exercised its ideological hegemony.

Note was also taken of the increasing size and strength of the middle-classes because of the process of unequal growth and the moral dissociation of this middle-class with the poor and its desire to emulate the lifestyles of the North. This transformation in the sensibilities of the middle classes, along with the greater corporatisation of the media, was seen as an important cause of the shrinking for the public space for dissent against neo-liberalism.

ROLE OF THE LEFT AND ITS TASKS

Prakash Karat maintained that the experience of the three years of the UPA government, particularly its complete commitment to neo-liberal policies, vindicated the Left's decision of not joining the government. Rather, by learning self-critically from the experience of the United Front government, the Left had this time succeeded in effectively expressing its opposition to the policies of the government within and outside parliament. This has to a large extent denied the BJP-RSS an opportunity so far to cash in on the resentment against the government's policies. Through its pressure the Left was able to ensure some measures of relief such as defeating the attempts to dilute the NREGA, blocking all pro-liberalisation economic legislations, stopping the process of disinvestment and ensuring that the government modify its completely pro-US position on the Iran issue.

But the conference also noted the severe constraints imposed on the Left by the possibility of the BJP's coming back to power were the UPA government to fall and the use made by the Congress of this constraint to deny the demands of the Left. Given the current political situation, particularly the vacillation and opportunism of the regional parties, it was felt that the only way out of this situation was through an increase in the independent strength of the Left. At the level of strategy the most important task was the better integration of the struggles against imperialism and neo-liberal policies with the struggles for social emancipation. There was also a need to wage intense ideological struggles against tendencies of the Left being co-opted, a danger that has only become more serious in this period of imperialist domination. Cultural activists stressed on the need for the Left to adopt creative forms of cultural expression and modes of organisation to fight the cultural onslaught of the RSS-BJP.

http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0304/03112007_sahmat%20seminar.htm

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