India's shameful paradox of plenty

It's a paradox of plenty. At a time when India ranks 67th among 81 countries in the 2011 Global Hunger Index prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute, mountains of grain continue to rot in godowns while more recently, irate farmers spilled tonnes of potatoes on the streets in Punjab. A few months ago, it was tomato farmers in Jharkhand, and then it was the turn of onion growers in Rajasthan. And if you think this is a recent phenomenon, you are mistaken. I have seen this happening for nearly 25 years now across the country at regular intervals.

Disgusting, isn’t it? Well, the visuals of food rotting speak volumes of the criminal apathy, neglect and callousness with which we, as a nation, have failed to address the shameful scourge of hunger. For a country that has the dubious distinction of having the largest population of hungry in the world — close to 320 million — and with 42 percent of children officially clubbed as malnourished, the spectacle of massive quantities of food being allowed to go waste is an unpardonable crime. What is still worse is that hunger proliferates in a country that claims to be the world’s largest democracy.

For nearly five years, procurement has hovered at 50-60 million tonnes. Someone had worked it out that if we keep a bag of grain over another, and stack 60 million tonnes in a vertical row, we could actually walk to the moon and back. With so much of surplus grain, and with unmanageable quantities of fruits and vegetables rotting by the roadside, there is no justification for growing hunger. At the same time, it is baffling to find staple food being exported while the population of the hungry and malnourished continues to multiply. No wonder, hunger continues to keep pace with economic growth.

Over the years, farming has become a big gamble. It is not only the worrisome vagaries of weather that more often than not plays havoc, farmers are also faced with a strange phenomenon — produce and perish. Take the case of Suryabhagwan, a farmer in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. This year, he voluntarily announced that he would rather work as a ‘coolie’ than undertake paddy cultivation. Already under heavy debt and knowing that another season of paddy cultivation will only add to his indebtedness, his call for a ‘crop holiday’ soon reverberated. Within weeks, the idea spread like wildfire, with the result that now more than 1 lakh hectares in the two irrigated districts of East and West Godavari lie barren.

AP is a paddy growing area. While production has been steadily on an upswing over the years, adequate market infrastructure for procurement has not been created. The result is that despite a very high production capacity, there is little space for storage. This is not only true of AP or for that matter Punjab and Haryana, the country’s food bowl, but extends to the whole country. The tragedy manifested after the initial years of the Green Revolution, when food became abundantly available. The focus then shifted away from agriculture. With public sector investment drastically falling over the past few decades, agriculture was left at the mercy of the rain gods. Protecting every single grain of food produced to feed the growing population of deprived sections never became a national priority.

While production increased, the accompanying market and storage infrastructure were not created. India does not even have the capacity to handle and absorb an excess production of 5 percent, whether it is of wheat, potato or cotton. Whatever the policymakers may say, the neglect of agriculture was deliberate. It is essentially designed to open up agriculture to private investment. Farmers have been the victims of a bigger and hidden design to push them out of agriculture. The more they produce, the more they suffer. Produce and perish, and thereby make way for corporate agriculture.

Source: Tehelka, Dec 31, 2011

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Op311211proscons.asp

Punjab makes an effort to bring environment in political discourse

The diatribe between the two major political opponents seems unending. In a build up to the impending Punjabelections, there is hardly a day when we don’t get swamped by charges and the counter-charges. While the underlying idea seems to settle political scores, there is hardly anything refreshing in the way charges are being traded.  

Claims and counter-claims notwithstanding, I came across an initiative taken by several social, religious and environmental activists and organisations, which comes as a whiff of fresh air in this murky political climate. On December 14, more than two dozen environmentally conscious groups and individuals have formed a Vatavaran ate Samaj Bachao Morcha (Save Environment and Society Morcha). So as to protect health, environment, agriculture and the society from any further deterioration, the Morcha aims at making it mandatory for the political parties to present a time bound programme to improve the state of polluted environment, water, deteriorating health and at the same time take appropriate steps to prevent farming from turning poisonous.

There couldn’t have been a better and timely initiative. Punjab being the seat of Green Revolution, excessive use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides all these years has turned the soil infertile and poisonous, and at the same time leaching of chemicals into the groundwater has contaminated the water source. Political parties however have remained insensitive to the destruction wrought on the environment as a result of which deadly diseases like cancer are proliferating. Indiscriminate use of drugs and intoxicants too has played havoc with human health. A recent UNDP study had shown that as much as 74 per cent of the youth in Punjabhad consumed drugs at one stage or the other. In other words, both the soil as well as the human population has been drugged.

The Morcha’s aim is reach out to all political parties and leaders and apprise them of the growing destruction of the natural environment. It will impress upon these parties to accord environment protection highest priority in their manifestoes and in their respective governance agenda. The task does not end here. Not only the Morcha, it is also the job of every conscious citizen and voter to raise these concerns whenever they get to meet the prospective candidates or raise their voice in political rallies and meetings. Remember, you cannot leave the task of environmental protection, which is so crucial for your future generations, into the hands of a few environmentally-conscious citizens. You too have a role to play.

This is where we need to draw some lessons from Anna Hazare’s campaign for removing corruption. When a few of us had sat down in October last year planning for raising the issue of a strong janlokpal, we did not leave the task to our elected representatives. As founding members of the India Against Corruption campaign, we took upon ourselves the responsibility to fight corruption. We were hardly ten people in the beginning. Since we were determined, we were able to galvanise the nation to stand and fight for ending corruption. Similarly, you too can make an effort and make a difference.

I don't know if there are such initiatives also in the other states which are ready to go for elections. I am talking of environmental protection here. Environmentally-conscious citizens must make an effort to bring together sensitive and caring people from different walks of life, build up a charter of expectations, and then create wider awareness so as to reach the political parties. Unless people exert more pressure, environmental and social problems cannot be addressed effectively.   

You can probably start by following the activities of the Vatavaran ate Samaj Bachao Morcha, which is headed by Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal. Some of the well-known personalities of the region form the advisory group, and it includes: Prof Jagmohan Singh, Dr Nirmal Singh Panjabi, Dr Bibi Inderjit Kaur, Balbir Singh Rajewal, Pishaura Singh Sidhupur, and Dr GPI Singh. The core committee comprises among others Umendra Dutt and Singh Sahib Giani Kewal Singh. This is your opportunity to save Punjab. 

Potato glut: Looking beyond the markets

The clock has turned full circle. Some 25 years ago, potato growers in Punjab were forced to plough back the standing potato crop since it was more expensive to pull out the tubers from the soil. To demonstrate their indignation, some farmers had even dumped hundreds of bags of potatoes on the streets. Such was the glut in the market, potato prices had tumbled leaving farmers in an unprecedented distress.

Potato growers in Punjabare not an isolated lot. Farmers in Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat are also faced with an unprecedented glut. Cold storages in the northern region are dumping potato by the roadside or in the nallahs to make way for fresh arrivals. The tragedy is that this year the national production is up by 27 lakh tonnes, which is an increase of 7 per cent over last years's production. In other words, it means that even a 7 per cent increase in production causes an unmanageable glut.  

The fate of potato growers is not much different from what is being felt by basmati and cotton farmers in Punjaband Haryana. In anticipation of a better price this year, based on the price realised last year, there has been a marked shift in acreage under rice to cotton, and basmati. While acreage under cotton had gone up by 19 per cent, the area under basmati increased by 15 per cent. Price of both the commodities has crashed as a result. Farmers are known to be withholding the produce waiting for the market rates to improve. This brings me to the central question. How long will farmers remain at the mercy of the markets?

Faced with a similar situation, and with no potential buyers for even last year’s harvest of paddy, farmers in East Godawari and West Godawari districts in Andhra Pradesh had gone on a crop holiday. Uncertainty of the markets has forced 90 farmers to take their own lives in the past one and a half months in Andhra Pradesh. Over-production of cotton and resulting low market prices has seen over a dozen suicides in the suicide-prone region of Vidharbha in Maharashtrain the past fortnight. Every now and then we hear reports of tomato farmers, onion growers and even mustard farmers dumping their crop by roadside somewhere or the other. 

Returning back to potato in Punjab, in the past few days, newspapers are again full of reports of the massive potato glut that is forcing farmers to dump the harvested crop on roads. Saddled with 2.5 lakh tonnes of unsold harvest from the previous season, and in anticipation of a bumper crop this fortnight, the market has slumped. Against Rs 800 per quintal last year, farmers are able to realise merely Rs 100-150 this year. Such steep fall in prices has brought gloom in the potato belt.  

Twenty-five years, and nothing seems to have changed for farmers. I still recall the then Chief Minister Darbara Singh providing Rs 5-crore for setting up cold storages. Over the years, with steady investment the number of cold storages has increased to 500 plus. If cold storages alone could have addressed the problem, potato growers would have been a happy lot all these years. On the contrary, farmers are reluctant to lift the stored potatoes from the cold storages because of the highly uneconomical prices prevailing in the market.

Nearly 20 lakh quintals of potatoes are lying in cold storages. 

Following the newspapers over the years, I find quite a large number of editorials suggesting the way out from an unmanageable glut. Invariably, all editorials make three suggestions: provide additional cold storage space; encourage public/private investment for processing potatoes into chips and French fries; and finally some setting up plants for manufacturing vodka. I don’t blame the editorial writers alone, agricultural economists too haven’t looked beyond. They would obfuscate the issue by throwing in economic vocabulary that practically means little new.

Let us analyse these suggestions. Cold storages have been set up not only in Punjab but across the potato belt in northern India. Setting up more cold storages would certainly not help the farmers realise a better price at a time of glut. I have seen farmers being served legal notices by the owners of cold storages to lift the stored potatoes. A number of times I find farmers prefer to let the stored harvest lie in the stores than to sell it knowing well that it is not worth it.  

Increase processing facilities for making chips and French fries is a suggestion that finds many takers. Not many realise that the market for potato chips is already over-saturated and many popular brands have vowed out. Market for French fries is also limited because many big retail chains actually have been importing frozen potato fries, whose import is allowed as per the WTO norms. Setting up a few vodka plants however seems to a suggestion made more out of jest than any seriousness. In any case, a vodka manufacturing plant would not require any big quantity that can make a significant difference to the production.

When the going gets tough, irate farmers invariably fall back upon the government for help. Potato farmers for instance have time and again met the Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and have been asking for government’s help in selling 20 lakh tonnes of potatoes lying in cold storage. Cotton farmers on the other hand are demanding a higher procurement price. Surprisingly, no one has demanded big retail companies like Reliance Fresh and Bharti to purchase the surplus potato. Probably farmers are aware that big retail is only a fair weather friend. The question therefore is there any way to ensure that farmers remain insulated from the vagaries of the markets?

I have three suggestions to make. First and foremost, there is an urgent need to strengthen market intelligence. It is time to prepare a crop map for the country. It has to be based on the nation’s requirements as to how much of a particular crop is what the country needs. Department of Agriculture, State marketing agencies and the Growers Association must collaborate to go into mapping the production potential and monitor the area sown under the crops based on the production potential and what can be handled. An alarm needs to be sounded when the area sown exceeds the permissible limit thereby ensuring farmers do not bring any more area under the same crop. This must be accompanied by a vigorous campaign to educate farmers not to go in for monocultures. Multiple cropping must be encouraged so that farmers are able to reduce dependence on one crop, and thereby reduce risk. 

And finally, each state must set up a State Farmers’ Income Commission, which works out the monthly assured income package a farmer must receive based on production and irrespective of whether he is able to find a market or not. 

Foreign capital based economy does not translate into more welfare for the people

Chakravarthi Raghvan drew my attention to a very important issue that most of us find it very difficult to decipher. We therefore tend to accept what is being told to us. I am talking of the relationship (or difference) between GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and GNP (Gross National Product). Many of us use the acronyms inter-changeably or as if they are synonyms. He wrote: "Those moaning and bemoaning failure of the government to push through 100 percent FDI in retail trade, equating more FDI with more growth and 'welfare' (Financial Times has both a news report and comment), might look at the Paul Krugman blog on difference between GDP and GNP in such cases as the Irish example, where Foreign investor based economic growth (GDP) actually did not translate into welfare for ordinary Irish (GNP)." 

I was curious to know how is he substantiating his statement. I looked at Paul Krugman's blog and found it very fascinating. Under the caption Irish Pfizer Smiling, he writes: "Ireland, you see, is a country with an extraordinary amount of foreign-owned capital; this means that gross national product, the income of Irish residents, is substantially smaller than gross domestic product, the income generated in the country. We normally focus on GDP, because it’s easier to measure accurately, but in Ireland’s case this can be misleading — because the gap between GDP and GNP has been widening." It means that the more foreign capital flowing into your country does not translate into welfare of the people, as measured by GNP. In other words, what Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister, Kaushik Basu, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and a horde of other neoliberal economists are saying in support of FDI in multi-brand retail, as if it is going to be the panacea for all economic ills, is simply incorrect. 

Krugman illustrates with a diagram that tells us how the Irish GDP has been steadily going up in 2011, but the GNP is not keeping pace. He says: "The slump has been deeper, and the recovery even less apparent, when you look at GNP -- which is what matters to the Irish -- rather than GDP. What's going on here? As I understand it, the recent rise in Irish exports is largely a matter of capital-intensive multinationals -- especially pharma -- ramping up Irish production. This is good for GDP, but generates very little income for Irish residents, so that GN doesn' gain." Thank you Krugman for explaining it so simply and clearly (for those who would like to look at the blog post, here is the link: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/irish-pfizer-smiling/).

To know how does GDP compare with GNP, I tried searching on the net. Here is what I found: GDP vs GNP http://www.diffen.com/difference/GDP_vs_GNP I will try to decipher the complex web in one of my future blog posts. 

Corporate lobbying gaining strength in India

Some days back, Dainik Bhaskar published one of my tweets. I wrote: “Wal-Mart has spent Rs 52-crore between 2007 and 2009 on lobbying. Will Wal-Mart tell us how much it spent on the Prime Minister’s office?” A few days later, I noticed the BJP leader Shanta Kumar asking the same question.

Crores of rupees have been spent over the past few years by some of the big multinational corporations to seek an entry into India. What may appear to be economic decisions taken by the government often turn out to be the result of intense lobbying by foreign companies. Besides Wal-Mart Stores, the coffee shop giant Starbucks, which runs a global chain of coffee shops, has been lobbying in Indiaseeking 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail. As per a disclosure statement it made before the American Senate, the company had spent more than Rs 1-crore in the first 6 months of 2011, for “market opening initiatives in India.”

Starbucks efforts have borne fruits. Finally, the govt has approved 100% FDI in single-brand retail.

Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest multi-brand retail chain, had told the US Senate that it had lobbied for “discussions related to India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).” In addition to Rs 52-crore spent between 2007-1009, the company had also incurred Rs 6-crore in the first 3 months of 2010 for the same purpose. In other words, crores of rupees are being spent by foreign companies to influence public policy and the decision making process. Not many of us know that the debate we see on the television or the articles we see in support of the foreign companies are often supported with lobbying money.

At a time when the American and European economies are faced with a recession, at least a dozen Corporate giants are lobbying hard to seek an entry into India. These include Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and financial services major Morgan Stanley, New York Life Insurance and Prudential Financial. The financial services companies have already gained with the approval granted to 100 % FDI in single-brand retail. In addition, technology companies Intel, chemical giant Dow Chemical, pharmaceutical major Pfizer, telecom companies AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent are also engaged in intense lobbying.

Lobbying is a legal activity in America. The companies are therefore required to inform the US Senate about such activities by submitting quarterly disclosure reports. In India, where lobbying is so far not legally recognised, but the industry and business houses have formed association and federations which primarily are engaged in lobbying with the government. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Punjab, Haryana, Delhi Chamber of Commerc are basically lobbying groups. You would have noticed that the CII and FICCI have also been actively supporting the entry of Big box retail into India.

Internationally, lobbying is a major activity. According to Wikipedia, currently around 15,000 Brussels-based lobbyists (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc.) seek to influence the European Union’s legislative process. Some 2,600 special interest groups have a permanent office in Brussels. In America, lobbyists target the US Senate, US House of Representative and the State legislatures. There were some 17,000 lobbyists registered in Washington DCalone in 2007. This clearly tells us how corporate lobbying is writing the economic policies of the American and European governments. The economic decisions are in reality not based on what the people require, but how much the business houses can invest in influencing policy decisions.

It is therefore important for us to also know how much money has been spent by companies on influencing the Prime Minister’s office and also on parliamentarians. After all, it is our future that is at stake. #   

Read also: The world of lobbyists, Deccan Herald.
http://bit.ly/rA4o95                                                                          

The Slap that failed to shake the nation

The day Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar received ‘the slap’ I and Sharad Joshi were speaking at a national conference of farmers in Haridwar. A little after lunch, Swami Ramdev walked in to take his seat on the dais and expressed his apologies for being late. He said he was late because he had got busy responding to media questioning on the thappad.

The moment he gave out the news of the ‘the slap’ there was a round of applause. I think the clapping and cheering that followed was louder than the applause any one of us had received during and after our presentations. Meanwhile, the stream of messages on my mobile seemed never ending. My twitter too was flooded with congratulatory messages. I am aware that howsoever we may strongly condemn the incident, which was the politically correct thing to do, the fact remains that there was a sense of jubilation all around.

For a country reeling under an unprecedented price rise, corruption and economic policies that benefit only 1 per cent of the population, ‘the slap’ was an expression of the simmering anger and increasing frustration. While the more daring have picked up the gun (in the Maoist-affected areas) against the inequalities being continuously perpetuated with impunity, the liberal and the educated in the urban centres too are getting restless. I agree with Shobha De when she says ‘this is not about Sharad Pawar. He just happened to be the man at the receiving end of the most recent slap’.

It certainly could have happened to anyone, including the Prime Minister.

Blame for being politically incorrect, but the self-righteousness and ‘we know what we are doing’ kind of approach that ruling party politician exhibit day in and day out smacks of arrogance. The tu-tu-main-mainthat follows daily on the TV shows have turned into the biggest soap operas where the spokesperson of all political parties simply try to outwit the other to establish his/her shirt is cleaner than the other’s. Not realising that every prime time TV show actually helps build up the disgust and anger against the political class.

Not only the politicians, even the economists and the specialists who are regulars on the TV shows behave like the committed voters like the people political parties bring in to listen to leaders at political rallies. They know what is expected of them, and they deliver it faithfully. I am sure if they were to be ferried to a Congress rally, they would shout Congress Zindabad.  The next time, if the BJP is in power, you can expect them to shift gears and not shy from raising BJP Zindabad slogans. Similarly, in the studio they know what is expected from them, and deliver it faithfully to get their fifteen seconds of fame. It is very rare to see an expert on a TV show who speaks from conviction and is basing his analysis on ground realities.   

Nevertheless, returning back to food inflation, for several years now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Food & Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar have been setting fresh deadlines for bringing down inflation. Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr Kaushik Basu too has been making statements which have little relevance to the realities and which clearly show that his finger is not on the right nerve. Certainly people are fed up and except for the media no one takes these deadlines seriously. They know that the leaders are hiding their inability to stem the rot in the system and are refraining from a crackdown against the stockist, black marketers and speculators.

Roughly a year back, I remember when I was asked by the media to respond to the UPA government's latest claim that food prices will ease by April. Although food inflation has risen to 17.87 per cent for the week ending Feb 20, 2010, Kaushik Basu was quoted as saying that the food price have come down, and the high inflation is because of the base effect. Analysts said that the April harvest would be crucial, and the pressure on inflation will ease after the new crop flows into the markets. 

I made it clear that food inflation will not ebb after April. In fact, I went a step ahead and said that any strong government, if it wasn't faced with the compulsions of coalition politics, would have removed the Food & Agriculture Minister by now. He deliberately makes statements that have helped raise the prices of sugar and made India pay through its nose for wheat imports. The UPA therefore cannot wait any longer. It must get rid of Sharad Pawar, and you will see the prices coming down. I wasn’t wrong. Even Sonia Gandhi had reportedly told a group of visiting farmers and activists that she is helpless when it comes to agriculture.   

However, a few days after the thappad incident, I was expecting some visible changes in the way Agriculture Minister has been operating. But nothing seems to have changed. It is business as usual for Sharad Pawar. In the midst of the logjam over FDI in retail, he said: “The critics are overlooking the fact that the policy’s main objective is to enhance the financial ability of the farmers who are responsible for the produce. If the farmers’ produce is directly lifted from the fields, with them receiving higher remuneration for it, why should there be any objections?” he asked. “It has always been my endeavour to address farmers’ interests.”

This is simply untrue. There is no empirical study that details the benefits that have accrued to farmers from big retail. Nor did Sharad Pawar or for that matter his Cabinet colleague Anand Sharma has held any wider public discussions on the subject. Somehow, ministers have increasingly begun to believe that once they have elected they have the right to do anything in the name of ‘inclusive growth’. The problem is that if the people protest outside parliament, the media chastises them saying street protests cause inconvenience. If parliamentarians protest inside, it is the wastage of public money. How and where people express their dissent?     

            

And this brings me to another burning issue that many felt was an ‘unhealthy' and 'undemocratic' trend. I am talking of the spate of editorials on Jarnail Singh's bold initiative a few years back of hurling his shoe at Mr P Chidambaram, the Home Minister. I am aware that it will be politically incorrect to admire the trajectory the shoe took. But notwithstanding what our political leaders (and the so called enlightened media) believe, the fact remains that the nation is finding it a simple way to express their anger. After all there has to be an outlet for a deep-rooted anger and disgust. If democracy provides no avenues for people to voice their concern, people will eventually find other ways to make their voice heard.     

If shoe hurling and ‘the slap’ is undemocratic, is committing suicide democratic? In the 2004 general elections (correct me if I am wrong), the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Mr Chandrababu Naidu witnessed a piquant situation when a farmer stood up in a political rally being addressed by him and drank pesticide. He died before he could reach the hospital. Imagine, if he had instead thrown his chappal at Mr Naidu. It would have caused commotion in the crowd, and more attention to the cause for which he eventually died.

Not only in Andhra Pradesh, farmers all over the country have tried to send a strong political signal by taking their own lives. Over the years, when all democratic norms failed to draw attention, they took their own lives. By committing suicide they actually delivered what should be seen as a powerful statement. They failed here too. The world's largest democracy did not take notice. Since 1997, the National Crime Records Bureau tells us that over 2.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide.

I always thought that suicide was an undemocratic tool being used by the voiceless to make their voice heard. But what puzzles me is that why none of the political parties are taking it up as if it was a question of life and death (which you will agree, it is). After all, people are taking the extreme fatal step as an expression of their anger. I always wondered why the enlightened media, which can depute some 450 journalists to cover the Lakme Fashion show, or send an army of reporters and cameramen to cover the IPL cricket in South Africa (as if it is a Mahabharata battle), are not even moved to take up the issue of farmers committing suicide. 

Come to think of it. Wasn't it undemocratic on the part of the politicians as well as the media (which never tires of telling us that it is the Fouth Estate) to ignore human suffering in the crop fields? Media has no regrets when the farmer took their own lives but it certainly would have been furious and "want these perpetrators to be booted out of society" if they had instead thrown shoes. Imagine if the 2.5 lakh farmers had not died but instead flung their chappals/jutis, wouldn't it have been a more civilised form of angst?

Please do not get me wrong. I am not advocating throwing shoes to be a democratic form of dissent. But at the same time, I want you to think, and think deeply, as to why this democracy finds nothing disturbing when farmers kill themselves in order to draw the attention of powers that be to their plight. Such arrogance and indifference in a people’s democracy can’t go on for long. “The slap’ and the chappalcannot be simply dismissed as the work of a mentally unstable person. It is an expression of growing anger among the masses. Let us not wait for an Arab spring to force the Indian democracy to truly respond and represent the people. It is a question of the forgotten 99 per cent. #

An edited version of this article appeared in Tehelka magazine, Dec 10, 2011.
Slaps, shoes and suicides http://bit.ly/tu7vOH

Allowing Retail FDI in India: lies, lies and damn lies

At a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is refusing to rollback the decision to open the retail sector to foreign direct investment saying it will benefit our country, the American President Obama thinks otherwise. In a tweet on Saturday (Nov 26), President Obama wrote: “support small businesses in your community by shopping at your favourite local store.”

While President Obama is talking of what is good for America, Manmohan Singh too is adamant on protecting American interests. It is primarily for this reason that Manmohan Singh’s assertion that retail FDI will benefit our country and ‘improve rural infrastructure, reduce wastage of agricultural produce and enable our farmers to get better prices for their crops’ is not borne on facts. In the midst of the rhetorical contests in the TV studios, the real facts have been sacrificed for the sake of political partisanship.

A lot has been said and written about the virtues of allowing FDI in retail into India. Let me make an attempt to answer some of the bigger claims that Commerce Minister Anand Sharma as well as the Prime Minister have repeatedly made. Frankly, their arguments seem to be driven more by political expediency rather than any economic understanding, and that is more worrying. It only shows how economic facts can be twisted, tailored and manipulated to justify the political agenda of the ruling party. There can be nothing more damaging for the future of a country.

First, the biggest argument in favour of multi-brand retail is that it will create 10 million jobs by the year 2010. There is no justification for this claim. In the United States, Wal-Mart dominates big retail. It has a turnover of US $ 400 billion, and employs 2.1 million people. Ironically, the Indian retail sector too has a turnover of US $ 400 billion, but has 12 million shops and employs 44 million people. It is the Indian retail which is a much-bigger employer, and any effort to allow retail FDI will only destroy millions of livelihoods.

Take the case of England. The two big retail giants are Tesco and Sainsbury. Both had committed to create 24,000 jobs between them, in the past two years. A British government enquiry found out that instead of creating any additional job, these two big retail companies had actually thrown out 850 people from existing jobs. The big retail units which failed to create jobs in their own countries cannot be expected to create additional employment in India.

Second, Anand Sharma says that retail FDI will provide 30 per cent more income to farmers. There can be no bigger lie than this. In the US, for instance, if Wal-Mart was able to enhance farm incomes there was no reason why the America government would dole out a massive subsidy of US $ 307 billion under the US Farm Bill 2008, which basically makes a budgetary subsidy provision for the next five years. Most of these subsidies are clubbed in the category of Green Box under the WTO. And as per an UNCTAD-India study, if the Green Box subsidies are withdrawn, American agriculture faces a collapse.

Agriculture in America is therefore sustained with agricultural subsidies. In OECD countries, a group comprising 30 riches countries, the situation is no different. A latest 2010 report states explicitly that farm subsidies rose by 22 per cent in 2009, up from 21 per cent in 2008. In just one year in 2009, these industrialised countries provided a subsidy of Rs 12.60 lakh crore to agriculture. Despite this, every minute one farmer quits agriculture in Europe. This is happening at a time when farmer’s incomes are dwindling. In France alone, farmer’s income has fallen by 39 per cent in 2009.

Third, big retail helps remove the middlemen and therefore provides a better price to farmers. Again, it is a flawed argument and is not borne on any evidence. Studies show that in Americain the first half of 20^th century, for every dollar worth of produce a farmer sold, 70 cents was his income. In 2005, farmer’s income had fallen to 4 per cent. This is despite the presence of Wal-mart and other big retailers in America.

In other words, the middlemen are not squeezed out as is the general understanding but in reality their number actually increases. A new battery of middlemen – quality controller, standardiser, certification agency, processor, packaging consultant etc – now operate under the same retail hub and have been walking away with farmer’s income. Moreover, due to the sheer size and buying power, big retail generally depresses producer prices. In England, Tesco for example paid 4 per cent less to producers. Low supermarket prices in Scotland have forced irate farmers to form a coalition called ‘Fair Deal Food’ to seek better price for their farm produce.

Fourth, retail FDI will source 30 per cent from the small and medium enterprises and therefore will benefit Indian manufacturers. This is an afterthought, especially after a section of the media highlighted the discrepancy. Even though Anand Sharma says 30 per cent products would be sources from within the country, the facts remains that under the WTO agreements, India cannot limit the big retail from outsourcing its products from anywhere in the world. This is against the WTO norms, wherein no member country can apply any investment restriction that is inconsistent with the provisions of Article III or Article XI of GATT 1994.

Using the WTO provisions, multi-brand retail will flood the Indian market with cheaper Chinese manufactured goods thereby wiping out the domestic SME sector. At the same time, the ‘Indian Stamp’ on multi-brand retail that Anand Sharma claims will have at least 60 per cent investment on ‘back end’ systems is also not based on facts. As per the definition of ‘back-end’, anything that is not ‘front-end’ becomes ‘back-end’ and has to be self-certified. Which means even the expenses on the corporate headquarter becomes ‘back-end’ investment. In any case, 51 per cent FDI in cold storages etc is already provided and yet no investment has come. Let us be very clear, big retail is not coming to Indiato provide a network of food storage silos and cold chains.  

Fifth, more importantly, in an eye-opening study entitled “Wal-Mart and Poverty”, Pennsylvania StateUniversity in the United Stateshas clearly brought out that those American states that had more Wal-Mart stores in 1987, had higher poverty rates by 1999 than the states where fewer stores were set up. This is something that the government is not talking about but should ring an alarm bell for a country which is reeling in poverty, hunger and squalor. 

World produces enough food for the year 2050. The problem is access and distribution.

With the world population crosses 7 billion, feeding the teeming population is becoming a major concern. At times of diminishing land resources, and in an era of climate change, ensuring food security is the biggest challenge.

All efforts are aimed at increasing food production. Somehow an impression has been created that the world needs to increase crop production manifold if it has to meet the food requirement for the year 2050. The global population would then be 9 billion. What is however deliberately being glossed over is that there is at present no shortage of food. It is not production, but access and distribution that need immediate attention.

At present, the total quantity of food that is produced globally is good enough to meet the daily needs of 11.5 billion people. If every individual were to get his daily food requirement as per the WHO norms, there would be abundant food supplies. In terms of calories, against the average per capita requirement of 2,300, what is available is a little more than 4,500 calories. In other words, the world is already producing more food than what would be required in 2050. So where is the need to panic?

Why then is the world faced with hunger? Simply put, one part of the world is eating more and the other is left to starve. Hunger has grown over the years because of gross food mismanagement. Let me explain. At the 1996 World Food Summit, political leaders had pledged to pull out half the world's hungry (at that time the figure was somewhere around 840 million) by the years 2015. In other words, by 2010, the world should have removed at least 300 million people from the hunger list.

Instead it has added another 85 million to raise the hunger tally to 925 million. In my understanding, this too is a gross understatement. The horrendous face of hunger is being kept deliberately hidden. But nevertheless, let’s again go back to the question we posed earlier: If there is no shortage of food than why the growing pangs of hunger?

Consider this. An average American consumes about 125 kg of meat, including 46 kg of poultry meat. While the Indians are still lagging behind, the Chinese are fast catching up with the American lifestyle. The Chinese consume about 70 kg of meat on average each year, inclusive of 8.7 kg of poultry meat. The Indian average is around 3.5 kg of meat, much of it (2.1 kg) coming from poultry. If you put all this together, the Chinese are the biggest meat eaters, and for obvious reasons - devouring close to 100 million tonnes every year. Americais not far behind, consuming about 35 million tonnes of meat in a year.

When I said earlier that one part of the world is eating more, this is what I meant. Six times more grain is required to provide the proteins that are consumed by the meat-eaters. Changing the dietary habits therefore assumes importance. But still worse, Americans throw away as much as 30 percent of their food, worth $ 48.3 billion. Why only blame the Americans, walk into any marriage ceremony in Indiaand you would be aghast to see the quantity of food that goes waste.

Food wastage has therefore become our right.

Considering FAO's projections of the number of people succumbing to hunger and malnutrition at around 24,000 a day, I had calculated that by the year 2015, the 20 years time limit that World Food Summit had decided to work on to pull out half the hungry, 172 million people would die of hunger. These people are succumbing to hunger because both at the household and at the national level, we have allowed food to go waste.

In America, for instance, hunger has broken a 14-year record and one in every ten Americans lives in hunger. In Europe, 40 million people are hungry, almost equivalent to the population of Spain. In India, nearly 320 million people live in hunger. The International Institute for Food Policy’s Global Hunger Index 2011 ranks India 67^th among 81 countries. While India ranks lower than Rwanda, what is still more shocking is that Punjab – the food bowl – ranks below Sudan and Honduras in ensuring food security.  

Is it so difficult to remove hunger? The answer is No. 

A simple act of saving and sharing food is the best way to fight hunger. It can begin at the household level, at the community level and of course at the regional and national levels. If every household were to ensure that no food is wasted, and then organise the left over to be delivered to the poor and needy, much of the hunger that we see around can be taken care of. A small initiative in Rewari town in Haryana has galvanised the township into saving and sharing food. If it can happen in Rewari, it can happen in your neighbourhood too. Try it, and you will see you too can make a difference. #

Turmeric can heal but only if you get it pure

Some years back, I remember listening to Bhagat Singh’s nephew, Dr Jagmohan Singh. He was addressing a public meeting at Bhagat Singh’s native village. I still recall him speaking passionately about the need to use haldi (turmeric) in our daily preparations, and what continued to linger in my mind was his suggestion to procure pure haldi at any cost. “If a family can consume one kilo of pure haldi in a month, believe me most of the family’s health problems would be taken care of.”

I knew that haldibeing sold in the market was contaminated with horse dung and various other impurities. But with more and more packaged and branded haldi coming into the market I thought the problem with contamination had been taken care of. But I now realise I was wrong.

Last week, I travelled to Hoshiarpur in Punjab to visit a small farmer’s cooperative by the name FAPRO (Farm Produce Promotion Society). Comprising 300 members, the main activity of this society which is based in village Ghugial, centres on processing of haldi and honey. I was told that haldi is cultivated in 23 acres, and the farmers are paid 20-25 per cent higher price than the average prevailing market price. The entire crop is grown under natural farming conditions.

Going around the processing plant and talking to the officials and farmers present, what I learnt was certainly eye-opening. I was told that generally the haldi that is sold in the urban areas contains roughly 40 per cent of filler. Normally, the filler is of rice powder made from broken rice grains that do not fetch a high price in the market. The more you go into the countryside, the percentage of rice powder filler increases. In rural areas, it is not unusual to find 60 per cent of rice powder mixed in haldi. No wonder, you must be wondering why haldiis not that effective anymore.

Although rice powder is not damaging to human health, but mixed with haldi it certainly reduces the medicinal efficiency of haldi powder. Now I know why the haldi powder that I have been consuming is not as effective in healing as it is generally known to be. A hot glass of milk with haldiis supposed to be strong antidote for most sorts of trauma and cough. Turmeric has antioxidants which help purify the blood, protect the liver and remove toxins from the body. Regular consumption of haldi, and when combined with a dose of honey, helps ease pain that originates with ageing of bones. When consumed with raw garlic it is effective against bronchitis.

The list of its healing properties is endless. Haldi is know to be of immense medicinal use and that is why some years back there was an effort to draw a patent on its healing properties by an American institute. After public outcry, the government had successfully managed to fight the patent and get it revoked. But what is the use of singing all praises for haldiwhen consumers can’t get pure and good quality haldi in the market. At least two sources of pure haldi I can suggest. The next time you are looking for haldi, you can search for FAPRO haldi in Hoshiarpur, and also from Markfed outlets across Punjab. Another source for pure haldi is Swami Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogapeeth outlets which exist in every town.                

  

Debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines to get a bailout package; indebted farmers are left to die.

Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya is in trouble. His airline awaits an emergency rescue. Kingfisher Airline suffered a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010-11 and has a mounting debt of Rs 7,057.08 crores. With banks reluctant to give more cash to Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya has turned to the government.

Civil Aviation minister Vayalar Ravi has been quick to make a public pitch to bailout the debt-ridden company. "I will meet the Prime Minister on his return to the country," he told the Indian Express. "I will also talk to the Finance Minister so that some assistance from the lead banks is granted. Closing down the flights affects the travelling public".

Ironically, in the past one month more than a hundred farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh, Vidharba and Kerala. All these farmers took the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes along with mounting indebtedness. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 15,964 farmers committed suicide in 2010 alone. Put together, more than 250,000 farmers have taken their own lives during the past 15 years. Growing indebtedness had pushed them to the brink.

I haven't seen any urgency on the part of the successive governments or the policy planners and mainline economists to provide a bailout package to the beleaguered farmers. I don't understand why the serial death dance in the countryside does not evoke any reaction while all hell breaks loose when a big company goes bankrupt. Aren't the poor farmers human beings? Why is that they don't need even a word of sympathy whereas all aviation experts/planners and economists are making a strong pitch for bailing out a debt-ridden airline?

Well, George Orwell was dead right. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

This brings me to the fundamental question. Economic reforms have been built on the need to privatise the industry. The economic justification for privatisation is that it ushers in efficiency. The underlying principle is that while efficiency has to be appreciated, the inefficient ones are left behind and need to be dumped. The rules of the game are clearly laid out. In a competitive environment, inefficient firms bow out. Agreed, than why do we want to change the rules of the game? Why do we want to bailout a bankrupt company? Why shouldn't it be allowed to die?

I see a number of experts on the TV channels making a strong plea to bailout the company. These experts of course are all beneficiary of a system that keeps inefficient industries floating with the help of public money. This is what happened when the world witnessed economic collapse in 2009. The inefficient and corrupt banks were rewarded with bailout packages, and the top executives who should have gone to the jail instead received bountiful bonuses. Market economy was made to survive with public money.

More than US $ 20 trillion of public money was pumped in to keep economic liberalisation alive. And this tells us that market reforms or market economy cannot sustain without public money. All it does, and that too very cleverly, is to hoodwink us to believe that capitalism is the sure path to economic growth. In reality, all it does is to allow for 'privatisation of profits, and socialisation of costs'. The rich become richer, and the poor are left to pick up the socio-economic as well as the environmental costs.

Aren't mainline economists therefore liars? They go on singing virtues of a failed and flawed economic model? Why don't they muster courage to accept the underlying principles of economic reforms? Well, the answer is obvious. They too are beneficiaries of the same flawed economic model.

Kingfisher Airline should be allowed to die a natural death. Unless we do so we will never be able to clean the rot in the system. We will go on supporting inefficiency with bailouts. What we need, and need desperately, is to send a strong message that inefficiency can NEVER be appreciated. Otherwise, we will continue to ensure that the big companies never collapse. The bigger the company the bigger would be the tax-payers support in the form of a bailout package.

The government cannot be allowed to run a charitable hospital for the ailing private companies. Let them strictly follow the rules of the game. Only the fittest survives, and the rest need to be dumped in the dustbin.

Food inflation: Groping in the dark

Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh considers rising food inflation to be a sign of growing prosperity, the reality is very harsh and painful. Rising food inflation, which continues for the 4^thsuccessive year now, has hit the aam aadmi like never before. Adding fuel to fire is the frequent raise in petrol prices. 

Every time food inflation crosses the double-digit barrier, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, have been quick to set a deadline some three to six months ahead during which period they promise to bring down the prices. While the failure to stem the price rise is written large, what is more worrying is the complete inability of the government to comprehend the reasons behind it. Economists and policy makers appear clueless and therefore continue to grope in the dark.

For over 4 years now, in every media discussion that I am invited to, I am appalled at the economic ignorance that prevails. They go on harping again and again on what the economic textbooks would prescribe as the plausible reasons behind any runaway inflation. Whether it is any member of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council or the Planning Commission or one of the senior officials of the Reserve Bank of India, the answers you get are all the same: food inflation is because of low production; with rising incomes there is a shift in demand towards nutritious foods thereby increasing the prices of fruits, vegetables and milk products; and because the farmers are being paid a higher procurement price, the consumers have to pay more.

Now let us look at the each of the argument separately. The common refrain that one hears is that food prices are on an upswing because production is unable to match the growing demand. For several months now, you have watched with concern news reports of foodgrains rotting in godowns. While lakhs of tonnes of wheat and paddy are allowed to rot, we are being told that there is a need to increase crop production. Ever since the TV channels began highlighting the grain wastage, except for lip-sympathy, the government has not made any significant allocation for creating additional storage space. In such a depressing scenario, how will more production help? Where will the government store the additional produce? Will it too not go waste?

Every year, as per official figures more than 16 lakh tonnes of foodgrains rot in godowns. The quantity of wheat and rice that becomes sub-standard and unfit for human consumption and which has to be sold for manufacturing alcohol and goes as cattle feed is several times more.

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh equated inflation with prosperity, he was trying to say that with more income in hand people have shifted to nutritious diets. The demand for fruits, vegetables and milk products has shot up as a result. This too is untrue, and has no scientific basis. Since this is a frequently asked question, I did some computation of the production estimates. The per capita daily availability of fruits and vegetables is 480 grams. The per capita requirement for a balanced diet is roughly 80 grams, against which the actual consumption is much low. Therefore it becomes apparent that there is at least six times more availability of fruits and vegetables in this country than what is required. So where is the shortfall? Why are the prices of fruits and vegetables sky-rocketing when the availability is in abundance?

In any case, the argument that with rising incomes the intake of nutritious food products in the food basket expands is also not based on any empirical evidence. The 2007 National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) tells us that cereal consumption has been on a steady decline, with no corresponding increase in the intake of more nutritious eggs, vegetables, fruits and milk. It means hunger has been on a rise and is now more widespread and well-entrenched. The feeling was that with the changing food habits, people have shifted from cereals to nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables and milk. This assumption too does not hold true anymore.

The decline in cereal consumption has more or less followed a steady pattern in the rural and urban areas, of course much faster in the rural areas. Per capita cereal consumption per month in the rural areas across the country has fallen from 13.4 kg in 1993-94 to 11.7 kg in 2006-07. The decline has been sharper between the period 2004 and 2007 when just in three years, cereals consumption fell from 12.1 kg to 11.7 kg. In the urban centres the decline was from 10.6 kg in 1993-94 to 9.6 kg in 2006-07. In a largely vegetarian society, cereals constitute the single important source of nutrition and therefore its importance in the Indian context is well established.  

Moreover, if it was true, India’s ranking in the 2010 Global Hunger Index prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute should have improved. India continues to rank 67^th among 81 countries, faring much lower then Pakistan, Sudanand Rwanda. If people had started eating more, I see no reason why India should be ranked so low in the hunger index.

And finally how true is the argument that food prices are going up because farmers have been paid a higher procurement price. Wheat, rice and sugarcane are essentially the three major crops where farmers have received a higher procurement price. Interestingly, wheat and rice are not the crops where food inflation is hurting the poor. In case of sugarcane, after a hike in prices in 2009, sugar prices have stabilised even though the growers are getting a higher price. It is in case of fruits and vegetables, which do not receive any benefit of procurement prices, where the market prices have made a hole in the pocket of average consumers.

Economists need to understand that it is not the farmer who gains from food inflation. He never gets a high price for his produce even when market prices touch the roof. For sake of illustration, let us look at a banana grower. All he earns is between Rs 8-9 per dozen where as the prevailing market price hovers between Rs 50-60. The real problem therefore lies in the mandis. It is the wholesale and retail trade, which in the absence of any tough regulation, is exploiting the consumers by raising the prices by anything between 100 to 300 per cent. In the absence of any crackdown, the trade is having a free run.

The government doesn’t want to check the traders because as the Prime Minister said the other day he wants more and more commodity prices to be deregulated. He wants market to decide the final price of the farm produce. In other words, we are paying through our nose to keep alive market reforms. #

Occupy Wall Street and India's struggle against corruption have much in common, but Occupy goes much beyond ..

The screaming headlines provide insight into the dichotomy that prevails in our society. This newspaper reported that in Chandigarh alone (in northwest India) Rs 80-crore worth of gold ornaments and nearly 800 cars were sold on the occasion of Dhanteras. Far away in Patna, Rs 400-crore were withdrawn on the same day from ATMs. It seems buying metals on this auspicious occasion had beaten all records.    

Most families consider Dhanterasto be an auspicious occasion to buy gold and silver. Unfortunately for them, the prices of these precious metals have gone through the roof in the last few months, making it difficult for many to buy even a coin of few grams. Completely unable to comprehend the reasons behind such high price-rise, many of them can be heard asking, “Why have gold prices increased so much”?

Little do they know that the unprecedented escalation in gold prices is only because of speculation in which just one per cent of the investors are raking in huge profits while 99 per cent end up paying through the nose. This in short is the essence of the slogan, ‘We are the 99 per cent’, that is sweeping across the continents. More than 950 cities in 82 countries have seen thousands of people streaming in to the roads, squares and the parks to protest against economic inequalities. What began as a silent sit-in by a handful of protesters in the Wall Street -- the financial capital of the world -- New York a month back, has now spread like a wildfire.

In Indiatoo, some groups, including the Communist Party, have launched of the Indian version ‘Occupy Dalal Street’ from Nov 4.

Well, before we follow the global trends let me take you back to the days when petrol price internationally had shot up to $ 140 a barrel. This was barely two years back in 2009, just before the world witnessed an economic meltdown. I remember even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that he wasn’t sure whether it was because of a slump in production or rise in demand. The fact is the stupendous rise in oil prices was not because of supply-demand constraints. It was simply because of speculation in trading. The companies which have invested in its stocks on the Wall Street try best to garner more profits.

Oil prices subsequently slumped to a low of $ 40 a barrel. From $ 140 a barrel to $ 40 a barrel certainly proves that demand had nothing to do with prices. It was all in the game of speculation.    

In lot many ways Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption looked similar. But while, Team Anna is crusading for the removal of graft from public life, Occupy movement goes much beyond and hits at the very foundations of the growing inequalities. Removing corruption will make available more resources for development activities, and as Swami Ramdev has been saying bringing back Rs 400 lakh crore of black money stacked abroad will make available abundant resources that can be ploughed back to fight poverty and hunger.   

Removing corruption is certainly the crying need. But what makes Swami Ramdev and Anna Hazare’s struggle against corruption and black money different from Occupy campaign is that while you may not have to pay underhand for getting admission for you child in a school or a university but you will still end up pay exorbitantly for the gold ornaments that you need to buy for your daughter’s marriage. You will still continue to pay dearly and periodically for hike in petrol and diesel prices. You will end up paying more not because of supply demand constraints, but because some people are raking in more money through speculations in trading. You and I eventually pay for the greed of one per cent people. 

Occupy movement is a global struggle for a decent living. It hits at the very fundamental of the growing economic disparities, the inequalities and injustice that prevails. 

For more on Occupy Wall Street, read what Noam Chomsky has to say: http://bit.ly/rYxgK4

विषमता के खिलाफ लामबंदी

These are the 1318 transnational corporations that dominate the global economy. Of these, 147 are tightly-knit companies which control almost 40 per cent of the global network. This study is published in New Scientist (and I got it from Duncan Green's blog post: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=7368)

दुबली कद-काठी की एक युवा लड़की नई दिल्ली में स्वर्णाभूषणों की एक दुकान से कुछ आभूषण खरीदने गई। आभूषण खरीदने की उसकी मंशा भी थी। उसने कीमत पर नजर दौड़ाई। वह यह भी जानती थी कि वह एक छोटी सी अंगूठी खरीदने में सक्षम है। उसने दुकानदार पर नजरें उठाते हुए पूछा, 'सोने के दाम आकाश पर क्यों पहुंचते जा रहे हैं।' दुकानदार उत्तर देता, इसके पहले ही मैंने अपना सर घुमाया और धीरे से कहा, 'महोदया, इसकी वजह सट्टेबाजी है या इस पर केवल अनुमान लगाया जा सकता है।' 

वह सोने की कीमतों के तेजी से उछलने के कारणों से नावाकिफ थी। वजह यह है कि बमुश्किल एक फीसदी निवेशकों को बड़ा लाभ कमाने वालों की श््रेणी में रखा जा सकता है, जबकि 99 प्रतिशत लोग गुजर-बसर करने को मजबूर हैं। इसके सार तत्व को संक्षेप में इस प्रकार कहा जा सकता है, 'हम उन 99 प्रतिशत लोगों में शामिल हैं,' जो पूरे महाद्वीप में फैले हुए हैं। 82 देशों के 1500 शहरों में रहने वाले हजारों-लाखों लोग आर्थिक असमानता के खिलाफ सड़कों पर उतर आए हैं, मुख्य चौराहों और सेन्ट्रल पार्क में प्रदर्शन कर रहे हैं। न्यू यॉर्क से यह मुहिम एक माह पहले शुरू हुई थी। विश्व की वित्तीय राजधानी से शुरू इस मूक प्रदर्शन की मुहिम देखते ही देखते जंगल की आग की तरह अब हर जगह फैल गई है।

आर्थिक असमानता के खिलाफ 'आक्यूपॉय वॉल स्ट्रीट' अभियान को हर जगह समर्थन मिला है। अमरीकी इसलिए नाराज हैं क्योंकि वर्ष 2009 की आर्थिक गिरावट के बाद बेल आउट पैकेज दिए गए थे, बैंकों को अब उससे भारी लाभ कमाने की अनुमति दे दी गई है। जबकि एक औसत अमरीकी का वित्तीय संकट से जूझना जारी है। अपनी अर्थव्यवस्था को धराशायी होने से बचाने के लिए विभिन्न देशों की सरकारों ने, इसमें भारत भी शामिल है, ने लगभग 20 ट्रिलियन डॉलर की सहायता उड़ेली थी। इस वित्तीय संकट के लिए जो देश प्रारम्भिक रूप से जिम्मेदार थे, उन्हें बोनस की मोटी राशि के चेकों से नवाजा गया। मैं पहले भी कह चुका हूं कि आर्थिक ढांचे के तंत्र को इस तरह डिजायन किया गया है कि लाभ के निजीकरण को बढ़ावा मिलता रहे और कीमतों का समाजीकरण होता रहे। 

जरा, इस ओर गौर फरमाइए, अमरीका में धनाढय वर्ग और औसत नगारिक के बीच का फर्क राष्ट्रपति रोनाल्ड रीगन के काल से गहराता जा रहा है। रोनाल्ड रीगन ने टैक्स कटौती शुरू की थी। इसे रीगन टैक्स कटौती कहा गया। इस नीति में घर लेने के वास्ते लोगों को सक्षम बनाना था। कहना न होगा कि अधिकतम टैक्स दर घटकर काफी नीचे तक आ गई थी।

 कोई आश्चर्य नहीं, एक फीसदी अमरीकी 42 प्रतिशत सम्पदा पर कब्जा किए बैठे हैं, जबकि 80 फीसदी आबादी सिर्फ सात प्रतिशत धन-दौलत पर निर्भर रहने को मजबूर है। दूसरे शब्दों में कहा जाए तो 20 फीसदी अमरीकियों ने 93 प्रतिशत सम्पदा हथिया ली है। विडम्बना तो यह है कि अमरीका विश्व का सबसे धनी देश है। यहां गरीबी ने 52 साल का रिकॉर्ड तोड़ दिया है, 15.1 प्रतिशत आबादी गरीबी में जीवन-यापन करने को मजबूर है। भूख ने सभी रेखाएं पार कर दी हैं। छह में से एक व्यक्ति खाद्य आपूर्ति के लिए कतार में खड़ा है। 

2009 की आर्थिक गिरावट और 1930 के दशक की महामंदी में सुस्पष्ट समानताएं दिखती हैं। 1929 में अमरीका के एक फीसदी शीर्षस्थ लोग 60 फीसद राष्ट्रीय आय पर कब्जा जमाए बैठे थे। अस्सी साल बाद हमें आय में असमानता साफ तौर पर दृष्टिगोचर होती है। आज शीर्ष पर बैठे दस फीसदी अमरीकी आय के 90 फीसदी हिस्से पर नियंत्रण रखे हुए हैं। अब यह समय सोचने-समझने का है कि हमारी आर्थिक नीतियों में दुखांतिक रूप से कुछ गलत हो रहा है। लेकिन यह एक ऎसा विस्तार है और नीति-निर्माताओं, शिक्षाविद्ों और मीडिया पर कॉरपोरेट ताकतों का ऎसा नियंत्रण कि बदलाव की कोई भी आवाज या चिल्लाहट परिहास में बदल जाती है। 

भारत में तो गरीब और अमीर के बीच का अंतर 90,000 गुना से भी अधिक हो गया है। विश्वास किया जाता है कि शीर्षस्थ 50 परिवार आर्थिक सम्पदा पर नियंत्रण जमाए बैठे हैं जो देश के एक ट्रिलियन डॉलर का एक तिहाई, साथ में जीडीपी के बराबर है। यदि ये परिवार दूसरे देशों में जाकर बस जाते हैं तो भारत की आर्थिक सम्पन्नता तेजी से ढह जाएगी। एक व्याख्या के अनुसार जिनके पास एक मिलियन डॉलर या अधिक की विनिवेश करने योग्य सम्पत्ति है, उनकी धन-दौलत 2009 में 1,26,700 मिलियन डॉलर के मुकाबले वर्ष 2010 में 20.8 प्रतिशत तक की वृद्धि होकर 1,53,000 मिलियन डॉलर हो गई है। 

ठीक इसी दौरान, संयुक्त राष्ट्र के आकलन के अनुसार भारत में 456 मिलियन लोग रोजाना 1.25 डॉलर से भी कम पर जीवन-यापन करने को मजबूर हैं। इंटरनेशनल फूड पॉलिसी रिसर्च इंस्टीट्यूट के ग्लोबल हंगर इंडैक्स-2010 के अनुसार भारत को विश्व के 81 देशों में 67वें स्थान पर रखा गया है। 

वर्ष 2004 के बाद के सालों में सरकार ने 22 लाख करोड़ रूपए से अधिक कॉरपोरेट और व्यापारिक घरानों को कर माफी के जरिए बांटे हैं। यह राशि लगभग दो सालाना बजटों के प्रावधानों के बराबर है।

 इतनी उदारता से तो नागरिकों, उद्योगों को नीचे से उठाकर ऊपर लाया जा सकता था, लोगों की धन-दौलत बढ़ाने में मदद की जा सकती थी। 'आक्यूपॉय वाल स्ट्रीट' अभियान जन नीतियों के खिलाफ अभिव्यक्ति है, उन धनियों के खिलाफ भी जो लोकतंत्र को निजी क्लब की तरह चलाते हैं। कई अर्थो में यह अभियान महात्मा गांधी के नमक सत्याग्रह की तरह है। मुठ्ठीभर समर्थकों द्वारा शुरू यह अभियान आज तूफान हो चला है और अरब सागर के तट तक पहुंच रहा है। 

Source: Rajasthan Patrika, Nov 1, 2011. http://www.rajasthanpatrika.com/article/opinion/1112011/editorial-special-article/242200

The hidden nexus: food, health and insurance industry

The other day, travelling from Chandigarhto New Delhi I stopped to meet some farmers on the way. Sitting under a mango tree a little outside Ambala, I heard Rajender Dahiya, a small farmer; tell me proudly of his visit to an upstream coffee house. “I spent Rs 160 for a cup of coffee. I really enjoyed it.” He didn’t stop here. “I intend to take my wife also to the coffee shop one of these days,” he said, adding ‘I love the taste.”

I can understand how difficult it must be for Rajender Dahiya to shell out Rs 160 for a cup of coffee, which at home may not cost him more than Rs 10. But then, such is the power of marketing blitz that none of us can escape its fury. Agribusiness knows how to tickle our taste buds, and thereby turn us into addicts: beautiful packaging and aggressive marketing skills dictating new developing food habits; ending up by literally force feeding us with what the industry wants us to be fed with; and by the time we realise it our traditional local and nutritious foods are out of our plate.   

Changing food habits have brought the entire food system – from farm to the fork – under a monopolistic industrial food system.

I am therefore not surprised to find food movement in the United States – comprising NGOs, community groups and family farmers – joining the non-violent Occupy Wall Street protesters. As the American activist Eric Holt Gimenez says in his essay ‘Occupy the Food system’ the relationship between hunger, lifestyle diseases and the unchecked power of the Wall Street investors and corporations runs deep and strong. The urgent need is to connect the dots. Let me try.

The connection is however clearly visible. “Big US companies lobbying hard to enter India,” screams a headline. The large US-based multinationals queuing up to grab a pie of India’s robust economic growth includes Wal-Mart Stores, Starbucks and financial services majors Morgan Stanley. Some other technology giants like Pfizer, Dow Chemicals, and telecom major AT&T are seeking support to further strengthen their Indian businesses. Already some food majors, being driven out of America because of the campaign launched against growing obesity among children by the US first lady Michelle Obama, have recently made massive investments in food business in India.   

All this is happening at a time when India had laid out a red carpet for food processing. Planning Commission had provided for Rs 1.50 lakh crore for the food processing industry in the 10th and 11th Plan periods. Massive subsidy is being doled out for setting up food processing units. If you have Rs 50,000 in your pocket and don’t know what to do with it, says a radio advertisement, just meet your banker and explore the possibility of setting up a processing unit.

The backward linkages do not end here. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has been facilitating the process by amending and suitably modifying the national policies to suit industry interests. Massive subsidy is being poured in for the supply of hybrid seeds, farm equipment, chemical inputs and farm credit. This in reality is the ‘farm to the fork model’ wherein the government extends all help in rooting the industrial food systems. The banks, seed technology firms, manufacturing units, and the retail sector join in to propose cropping patterns, which the farmers are expected to adopt. Scientists also step in by repeatedly bemoaning that only 2 per cent of Indian foods are processed. Not telling that in the US, from where the industrial push comes from, ‘junk foods’ are being blamed for turning food into a killer. More than 4 lakh people die every year in America alone from obesity and its related ailments.

It all began with the advent of Green Revolution some 4 decades back. Agricultural research, farm policies, credit supply, subsidies and technology was woven in to promote high-yielding crop varieties which responded well to chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Since then, technology has come along with a financial package that lures farmers to shift to newer cropping patterns. Over the years, huge subsidy has been doled out to make chemical fertilisers more popular. But no subsidy has been given to organic manures, composting and green manure crops thereby making them economically redundant.

I have always wondered why the banks provided easy credit for exotic and cross-bred cattle breeds whereas no support came for the desi cows. More than 40 years after the White Revolution was ushered in, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has now realised the potential of the desibreeds of cows. It is now planning for a massive investment in developing improved pedigree bulls of desibreeds so as to shift the cattle breeding focus to improving the performance of native breeds. If only a corresponding subsidy and financial support was provided for building and improving the native breeds, millions of cows would not have been roaming on the streets. 

Similarly, the food processing industry banking on some of the big players has through a sustained campaign shifted the food habits to meet the industrial needs. White polished rice for instance replaced the highly nutritious red and parboiled rice. White sugar replaced brown sugar. Both these industrial products are now being faulted for the growing incidence of diabetes and other lifestyle diseases. But with the entry of big US food giants into India, the effort will be to wean away gullible consumers to more delectable food choices. In the US for instance, an average Wal-Mart store stocks more than 40,000 food products on its shelves, and no wonder the country is faced with a health epidemic.

The more the sale of unhealthy processed foods, the more is the gain to the economy. The more the processed and nutritionally poor products are sold, the more is the growth of medicines, wellness and thereby an upswing in the visits to hospitals. In other words, the growth of pharmaceutical industry is directly dependent upon the performance of the food industry. And more the pharmaceutical industry grows; the bigger is the share of health insurance industry in the economic pie. The future of food, health and insurance industry therefore are interlinked. Not surprising therefore to find the insurance sector in the USinvesting $ 2 billion every year in the food sector. The reason is obvious. The more the contaminated food, more is the gain for the insurance sector.

The rules and institutions governing food supply favour its monopoly control by corporations. World Bank/IMF, World Trade Organisation, Free Trade Agreements, and Wall Street define the regulations. The challenge is to delink food from the Wall Street. This can be achieved by building up sustainable alternatives, and also by reverting back to daily cooking and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. At a time when the world is once again at the doorstep of an impending food crisis, and with lifestyle diseases growing out of proportion, the time is ripe to bring about a change in food habits and more importantly the thinking that goes in restoring the pride in traditional foods and the natural farming system. The 99 per cent must wake up to the threat to their food. #