India a major destination for global land sharks.

Following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invitation to China to set up special economic zones and industrial parks in India, a high-level official delegation from Haryana organised a seminar at the 5th China Overseas Investment Fair held in Beijing in early December, offering land, power and other necessary infrastructure for setting up industrial parks. 

While the prime minister is expecting Chinese foreign direct investment to boost manufacturing output, already sluggish because of surging cheaper imports from China, Haryana is going all out to woo Chinese companies to buy farmland. It has already taken around some potential Chinese investors and shown them sites extending to as much as 6,000 acres in Gohana. Not only Haryana, Chinese investors have also visited Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu looking for probable sites.

Haryana already has signed an agreement with the Japanese major Mitsui to set up an industrial park in the national capital region. Haryana is no exception. Foreign companies from Britain, US, Austria and Thailand have concluded 36 deals to buy agricultural land in India in the states of Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Seven of these deals have already been completed allowing 13,105 hectares to be acquired. This much land acquisition is only for seven deals. Imagine the extent of productive and fertile land that needs to be acquired for all the 36 deals in the pipeline.

These figures are based on an excellent detailed insight provided by the website, Land Matrix. Interestingly, the Chinese investors are being offered land for ‘purchase’ and they will have the right to re-sell the land. With more and more Chinese investments pouring in, it is time to also revisit strategic ties with China. After all, with lakhs of soldiers deployed in harsh terrain to guard the 3,380 km long Line of Control with China, of which Arunachal Pradesh alone has a common border extending to 1,463 km, the thrust is to protect every inch of land against Chinese intrusion. This policy of protecting national borders certainly needs a review considering that the Chinese are being allowed to purchase land within the country. But will Beijing ever allow Indian companies to buy such huge tracts of farmland in China?

Nevertheless, coming back to the contentious issue of farmland grab, I remember some years ago, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, had on a visit to Oman, invited Omani firms to farm in India to produce crops that can be exported. At a time when food prices have hit the roof and any measure to limit domestic production should raise concerns considering the growing food requirement for feeding the nation in the years to come, the public policy priorities seem out of tune.

So far you had read that Indian companies were buying land in Africa, Asia and South America. Of the 848 land grab deals concluded globally since 2008, 80 involve Indian companies that have invested in 65 deals to grow foodgrains, sugarcane, oilseeds, tea and flowers. And as a news report computed, India has already bought land abroad nine times the size of Delhi.

While Indian companies are buying land abroad, foreign companies are buying land in India. That India has now turned a major destination for global land sharks has to be viewed with concern. At this rate the day is not far off when increasingly more and more people will become landless in their own country. The US National Academy of Science calls it ‘a new form of colonialism’ while mainline economists term it as a model of economic growth. However, the fact remains that land grab has become a major investment activity over the past few years. This is frightening as it has grave human rights implications, and will impact global food security to say the least. It calls for a national debate. 

Source: Dangerous trend: India a major destination for global land sharks.        

Hindustan Times, Dec 23, 2013.  bit.ly/1dx6JGC 

Source

The algebra of poverty. Juggling statistics, India now claims reduction in poverty

There is excitement in the air. I mean in the air waves. For the past two days I have been hearing the TV anchors and the Congress spokespersons repeatedly emphasizing on the latest miracle that they claim has been achieved. Poverty has come down by 15 per cent between 2004-05 and 2011-12.

For a country which loves miracles, this is certainly big.

National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data shows that the percentage of population below the poverty line has come down from 37 per cent in 2004-05 to 22 per cent in 2011-12. Planning Commission has last year (in Mar 2012) announced that poverty percentage has come down by 7.3 per cent, which means from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent in 2009-2010. And now finally, the data for the eight years the UPA has remained in power shows a magical decline in poverty by 15 per cent.

Interestingly, the reduction in poverty is being flaunted at a time when the Planning Commission is still not sure about the new poverty line. Writing in the Hindustan Times, Chetan Chauhan says: "The politics of poverty is at play with the Planning Commission claiming that the number of poor came down from 29.8i per cent in 2004-05 to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12, but failed to specify the poverty line (No of poor dips, but who is poor remains unclear. Hindustan Times, July 19, 2013. http://bit.ly/15TFG6J)".

Isn't it therefore interesting as well as curious to know how did the Planning Commission arrive at this magical figure when it has junked its earlier methodology of computing poverty at Rs 32 for the urban and Rs 28 for the rural areas. There was a big uproar in the country when the Supreme Court had questioned a very low poverty line. But as the news report said: "The commission’s deputy chairperson Montek Singh on Thursday avoided queries on the new estimates. The poverty number would come down whatever methodology is employed,” he said. If this is the way poverty is calculated I am sure you will agree that we need to revisit the entire methodology and the claims being made on the reduction of poverty.

This reminds me of another interesting fact that I had shared at a number of platforms. Soon after the economic reforms were unleashed in 1991, the then deputy chairman of Planning Commission Pranab Mukherjee (who is now the President of India) had brought down poverty from 37 per cent to 19 per cent in one go. I don't know why the present deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has not tried to surpass his predecessor. Statistical jugglery could have helped him to reduce poverty not only by 15 per cent, but a more drastic 50 per cent. By doing that, he would have done the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a big service and at the same time justified the need to continue economic reforms.

In any case, poverty reduction is a miracle considering that inflation as measured through consumer price index (CPI) had remained in the vicinity of 10 per cent for several years now, and at a time when the UPA-II has launched a massive right-based Food Security programme to reach 67 per cent of the population. If only 22 per cent of the population is poor I see no reason why the government should be providing legal food entitlements to 67 per cent of the population.

India's poverty line is amongst the most stringent in the world. Planning Commission can certainly bring down poverty whenever it wishes by simply lowering the poverty line slab. This is what I had said earlier in one of my articles: The Algebra of Poverty (Hindu Business Line, Jan 2, 2002. http://bit.ly/1992e6w). You thought we have learnt something from the past? Well, you can see it for yourself.