dirayat

NOT SO SHINING INDIA

2009-12-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

India's poverty line is actually a Starvation line

by Devinder Sharma

There is something terribly wrong with growth economics. After all, 18 years after India ushered in economic liberalisation, the promise of high growth to reduce poverty and hunger, has not worked. In fact, it has gone the other way around: the more the economic growth, the higher is the resulting poverty. A report by an expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar, formerly chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, now estimates poverty at 37.2 per cent, an increase of roughly 10 per cent over the earlier estimates of 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. This means, an additional 110 million people have slipped below the poverty line in just four years. The number of poor is multiplying at a time when the number of billionaires has also increased. Economic growth however does not reflect the widening economic disparities. For instance, the economic wealth of mere 30-odd rich families in India is equivalent to one third of the country’s growth. The more the wealth accumulating in the hands of these 30 families, the more will be country’s economic growth. A handful of rich therefore hide the ugly face of growing poverty If these 30 families were to migrate to America and Europe, India’s GDP, which stands at 7.9 per cent at present, will slump to 6 per cent. And if you were to discount the economic growth resulting from the 6th pay commission, which is 1.9 per cent of the GDP, India’s actual economic growth will slump to 4 per cent. Anyway, the complicated arithmetic hides more than what it reveals. Poverty estimates were earlier based on nutritional criteria, which means based on the monthly income required to purchase 2,100 calories in the urban areas and 2,400 calories in the rural areas. Over the years, this measure came in for sharp criticism, and finally the Planning Commission suggested a new estimation methodology based on a new basket of goods that is required to survive – includes food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear. Accordingly, the Tendulkar committee has worked out that 41.8 per cent of the population or approximately 450 million people survive on a monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 447. In other words, if you break it down to a daily expenditure, it comes to bare Rs 14.50 paise. I wonder how can the rural population earning more than Rs 14 and less than say even Rs 25 a day be expected to be over the poverty line. It is quite obvious therefore that the entire effort is still to hide the poverty under a veil of complicating figures. India’s poverty line is actually a euphemism for a starvation line. The poverty line that is laid out actually becomes the upper limit the government must pledge to feed. People living below this line constitute the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category, for which the government has to provide a legal guarantee to provide food. It therefore spells out the government subsidy that is required to distribute food among the poor. More the poverty line more is the food subsidy. If the government accepts Tendulkar committee report, the food subsidy bill will swell to Rs 47,917.62-crore, a steep rise over the earlier subsidy of Rs 28,890.56-crore required to feed the BPL population with 25 kg of grains. This is primarily the reason why the government wants to keep the number of poor low. In other words, the poverty line reflects the number of people living in acute hunger. It should therefore be called as a starvation line. I remember a few years back, a group of charitable organisations in England presented a list of demands to the government for helping the poor. Unlike India, where BPL category only receives food rations, and that too severely short the minimum nutritional requirement for a human body, the first demand of the UK charities was to provide the poor in England with washing machines. India’s poverty estimates therefore are the most stringent in the world. I don’t know the economic justification of hiding the true figures, but politically it makes terrible sense. Each government therefore is happy to gloss over the starvation figures in the guise of poverty estimates. I wonder when India will include a basket of essential good like footwear, cycles, sewing machines, solar lamps, water purifiers etc for the poor. This is simple economics, and not political compulsion as the media will like us to believe. Going back to the poverty line arithmetic, the 2007 Arjun Sengupta committee report (officially the report of the National Commission on Enterprise in Unorganised Sector), which had estimated that 77 per cent of the population or 836 million people, were unable to spend more than Rs 20 a day, is probably a correct reflection of the extent of prevailing poverty. In addition to monthly income, poverty estimates must incorporate the human development index as prepared by the United Nations Development Programme. India should therefore have two ways to classify the poor. The Starvation line, needing direct cash transfers in addition to the basic requirement of food supplies. And a Poverty line, needing not only food (but in lesser quantities) but also other economic necessities like sewing machines, water-purifiers, pressure cookers etc

US COMPANIES BRIBED INDIAN GOVT AGENCIES

2009-12-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

US Companies Bribed Indian Govt Agencies
In a note acquired through RTI, the Indian Ambassador to US writes to the Principal Secretary in India about a list of companies that have paid bribes to the Indian bureaucracy.
RTI activist Ajay Marathe with the support of the network of RTI volunteers has uncovered and presented a letter from the Indian Ambassador listing major irregularities in the dealings of numerous multinationals in India. These companies have bribed Indian agencies to expedite or get around various checks and procedures to protect the Indian markets from sub-standard or dangerous products.
These include:Dow Chemicals US ---- India’s Central Insecticides Board / De-Nocil Crop protectionControl Companies INC USA ---- Maharashtra State Electricity BoardYork International Corp ---- Indian NavyWestinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp --- Indian railways.

CORPORATE ANDHRA - DO IT CLEAN AND FAST

2009-12-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

Well, Well, Well, Corporate Andhra is very sad about how things are turning out in Andhra over the Telanagana issue. No, No, they are not worried about the centre's decision to give Telangana a state hood, also not over the deteriorating situation in Andhra over it. Then what you may ask, well, all they are worried about is the `pace'. Speaking to DNA,
(http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=9&eddate=12%2f11%2f2009)
E Sudhir Reddy, chairman and managing director of Hyderabad-based infrastructure major IVRVL says, he is not an advocate of splintering states but it has to be done, ` do it quick and fast'. IS it, how sad,our Corporate Andhra, wants a quick decision on Telangana which, it feels, will have little impact on prospects for doing business in the new state if at all it does happen. Further, in the report, Corporate Andhra states, ` ` Moreover, there is an opinion that a new Telangana government may not focus on business and infrastructure development as its immediate plank would be on agrarian reform and poverty alleviation, felt some''.

IS CONGRESS CLEARING THE MINES / MINERS IN BELLARY

2009-12-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

It's showdown(http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/11/stories/2009121158590700.htm) at our mining kingdom, Bellary, with around 50 CBI officials rummaging the offices of the Reddy brothers, it seems the Reddy brothers are in for a big surprise. According to the report of the Hindu, the Reddy brothers claim, like the previous inquiries this time too, they will come out clean. Is it, since, insiders inside the Reddy camp have informed Dirayat that, it's not Yeddyurappa, not the BJP but the Congress who is behind the Reddy brothers. Otherwise, they say, how else would you explain the interest shown by Supreme Court in this matter and by the CBI. By the way, if you ask, why Congress??, well the sources informed me that, the BJP government is gotta go and once they are gone, the Congress dosen't want anyone to see anyone else dictating them, except Sonia Madam. Well, the coming weeks hold in lot of Surprises. Does it?

Doing Away With Commissions

2009-12-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Can the Indian government and politics do away with the business of commissions. Come on, in the past 50 years, how many commissions have we seen, and how many of their suggestions have been implemented. After all, it's the aam aadmi, who is paying for these commissions, which are literally good for nothing.
Does any body have an idea, now, what happened to the Jain Commission, Krishna Commission or the famous Sachar Commission reports. I guess they have all gone into the Congress party's strategic planning cu-board, only to be taken out, for a political or strategic gain.
So the next time, you hear of a leak of a commission report, i bet you know, who let the cat out and why??.

Kiaga - A Terrorist Of Another kind

2009-11-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

The recent kaiga epiosde has sent shivers down our spine, especially when it was reaslied that it was an inside job. well, is this episode has anything to say to us,no, no iam not saying that a MUSLIM or any of those mujahideen terrorist organizations were behind our nuclear installations, but strangely, the birth of a new terrorist kind, the disgruntled employees.

Yes, the government of India needs to seriously consider of spying on the probable disgruntled employees of all it's vital establishments. Since it looks like they pose a greater security risk than all the terrorist organizations put together. Did somebody mentioned my name to my higher officer.

History Matters- But For Whom

2009-11-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

Writing in Hindustan Times today(http://epaper.hindustantimes.com /ArticleImage.aspx?article=24_11_2009_010_016&mode=1), our own Historical Realist, Homegrown Sociologist Ramachandra Guha, makes a compelling appeal for the lost citizens of India, the Manipuris.
Irom Sharmila, the Iron Lady of Manipur and the draconian AFSPA ( Armed Forces Special Powers Act) being the background of his article, Guha goes for a toss, criticizing the act and showering praises on the efforts taken by the PM to repeal the act. Good job Guha, but at the hindsight, i feel that you are planning to replace Arundhati Roy, as the voice of justice in this country.
I know, how much you hate her, but i must point out, you don't even come close to her. Since, North East is ok but try speaking like her on the Kashmir issue.

Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai - Yeddy, Reddy and Chaddi Saga Continues

2009-11-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

BOy, here comes our Yeddy with his Chaddi. I hope this saga never ends, this time,however, Yeddy boy has definitely gone down well in the RSS Cheif Mohan Bagwat's books. Donning the chaddi, for the convened RSS rally in Bangalore, Yeddi definitely has won the hearts of the zealouts followers of this right wing organization. But for Reddy though, money power got him the MLA's, it seems, the way to win the heart of the RSS Chief is a Chaddi, which images shows, the Reedy brothers weren't donning it. HMm, this might have not gone downwell with the Pracharaks and Sarsangchalaks of the RSS Clan. Who cares, our Ananath Bai, Katta Bai and Suresh Bai, the trio fencesitters ( Iam being Politically Correct) were happily showing off their khaki chaddi's. Now that's a good boy, isn't it, Mr Bhagwat.

Green Hunt for a Red Enemy

2009-11-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Like every country ruled by exploiting classes, India is by no means unwilling to use its military against its own people. Indeed, throughout history that has always been one of the primary purposes of armies—to suppress uprisings by the masses.

In October 2009, the reactionary Indian government began another such military campaign, called “Operation Green Hunt”, aimed (it says) against a Maoist insurrection, but actually aimed against a growing popular revolt of the rural masses, and especially the adivasis, or tribal peoples, in the forested areas of east-central India. The CPI(Maoist), to be sure, is leading and organizing this mass rebellion, but it is a rebellion by the broad masses themselves involving tremendous numbers of people and enjoying very widespread mass support. The Maoists themselves are none other than a section of these masses. And it is against these masses as a whole that the vicious thrust of the looming military assault is about to land.

But who cares, as long as the media is there, to protect the state and project the adivasi as the state enemy. If not for the state, the media is always sucking up to the big corporate houses. However, did i, mentioned about the money given by the corporate houses to write editorials on the naxal menace or Mr. P. Chidambaram's directive to the media to keep the momento and, paint the people as naxals, so that in that garb, they can fix the deals and loot the natural resources of the people.

Well, if i haven't, then iam sorry for that.

If, i have, iam sorry for saying the truth.

AS TIMES FLY BY

2009-11-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

As times fly by,
i did not think how and why

now death hath striketh my door,
giving me my life's final push,

I thinketh now what I was
and what I did,

Every thing I had
was now dust indeed,

Now that ima going,
and gone to face my fate,

I must say, i wasted my life,
As times fly by.

Anatomy of Truth

2009-10-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

Truth and reality
There is no gravity

Truth and fiction
There is a contradiction

Truth and religion
it is a magician

Truth and politics
it is a lying commission

Truth and academics
it is an ideazation

Truth and activism
it can be fundization

Women,Tech Support and Love

2009-10-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

A woman writes to the IT Technical support Guy

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NEWS 5.0, MONEY 3.0 and CRICKET 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and House cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5..3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

______ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

Reply

DEAR Madam,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme. html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5..

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Silence 2.5 or Beer 6.1.
Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.
We recommend: Cooking 3.0 and Hot Looks 7.7.

Good Luck Madam!

IT SUPPORT DESK

Religion, Inclusiveness and Sexuality

2009-09-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

With the judgement of the Delhi high court decriminalizing homosexuality, the issue of sexual minorities, and in particular homosexuality, has opened up to a plethora of public comments. The first to take a tirade against the issue of homosexuality and homosexuals, were the religious leaders and cultural chauvinists.
Arguing that homosexuality is against India Culture and a sinful, shameful act of perversion, deserving of the highest punishment and in fact the wrath of god, by `closing ranks’, religious leaders from various faiths have come together condemning the high court judgement and the sexual rights. Thus giving a picture that, religions and religious traditions are inherently conservative or even reactionary in their commitments to powerful patriarchal and pronatalist sexual norms and gender categories.
In the midst of these, there have also been voices that spoke differently and adopted a more middle way. These voices, however little they might have got the attention, are engaged in brining a diverse, complex and at times a fresh reading of religious texts, even bringing contradictory traditions and practices that could support a more broad understanding of religion.
Understanding that, `` religions have also been influenced by strong movements for rights and with texts and practices, constantly being reinterpreted by people coming from other perspectives and in the process having transformed religion,’’ a discourse on "Religion, Inclusiveness and Sexual Minorities'' was organized in Bangalore by Sangama and Aneka, two organisations fighting for the rights of sexual minorities.
According the organizers, it was an attempt (first of its kind) to give these sane voices, a platform to ire their thoughts and engage in a meaningful discourse on the religious inclusiveness of sexual minorities. They also highlighted that there are also sexual minorities who are people of faith; embracing both religion and their sexuality with joy, who are again invisible in the discourse. They have brought the basic tenets of religion that is love, compassion and benevolence, hence seeing a divine meaning in all beings.
Participating in the seminar, scholar and activist Swami Agnivesh said that, the "We want sexual minorities to be respected, not tolerated,’’. Agnivesh said, I hope that the Union government would not oppose the Delhi High Court order. Instead, the government should try to uphold constitutional morality by filing an affidavit taking a pro-sexual minority stand.
Swami Agnivesh, in particular attacked his co-religionist yoga guru Baba Ramdev for claiming to treat and change sexual minorities. Agnivesh said, homosexuality is an inherited sexual orientation that one cannot change forcibly. He particularly referred to the `` GAY GOD’’ Swami Aiyyappa, whom it has been believed was born out of a union between Shiva and Krishna (VISHNU).
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, an Islamic Scholar and activist, welcoming the Delhi High Judgement said that, `` homosexuality has always been part of the Islamic/Muslim societies’’. Referring to the sufi poetry and in particular the ghazal poetry, Asghar Ali said, the entire ghazal poetry is full of references to homosexuality and he said, even in Tuzak-Babri, Babur, one can see that of the Mughal king’s expression of love for his young boy friend.
Further Asghar Ali states, the only actual reference to homosexuality in the Qur'an and in all the Semitic faiths can be found in the sections about Sodom and Gomorrah. He maintains that, the incident referred to, wherein the harsh punishment inflicted on the people of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of the prophet Lot, was keeping in mind that the entire community had indulged in that practice, and hence defeating the purpose of procreation. However, if an individual or a minority section of the population indulges in it, there is no specific punishment prescribed in the sharia.
Father, K.C. Abraham from the Church of South India said that, the final goal of all religions was to move towards an inclusive society and not isolate anyone. He said, society and religions should be open to all people without discrimination. He appealed to sexual minorities to take forward their struggle for justice.

Bangalore's Results

2009-05-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

The recent Loksabha elections have brought up a pretty interesting results for the state, the country and especially for our Bengalooru city. Even though the minorities in India are delighted over the fact that Congress has won a landslide but the scene changes when looks at home turf.

Not only is the BJP has got itself into a easy position in the state, adding much woes to the minorities but with BJP winning all the three seats in Bengalooru central, south and North has left them without having a single minority or secular candidate in the city.

It is a disturbing news but indeed interesting. With heavyweight mUslim candidate Jaffer Sheriff loosing to the BJP, the muslim masses are left in the lurch to fend for themselves. People are already anticipating and speculating all kinds of imaginable things and events which could befall on them. God forbid!!! if any thing happens who is to be blamed.

That's the tricky question. And that's where the Muslim voter and the Muslim parties who failed to mobilize or channelize the Muslim vote need to introspect. And they stand witness to the fact that for much of their apathy, they themselves are to be blamed. Truth is a hard nut, difficult to digest and even difficult to crack.

Did the News Media Die or Commit Suicide?

2009-05-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

Is it possible it wasn't new media that killed journalism? Is it possible that it actually just committed suicide by taking massive overdoses of happy-talk, gossip, and reality-TV sex-predator stings thus triggering the death of its intellectual curiosity and professionalism? This book will look at three massive failures of the media in the past several years. The failure to cover the Iraq war and its causes. The failure to cover the roots of the financial catastrophe. And the complete sell out of objectivity involved in its coverage of the 2008 elections. The book will ask the tough questions: Why did the media play along with the campaign of fear-mongering and faux-patriotism cooked up by the Bush administration after 9/11? What happened to old fashioned-style war correspondents who actually covered wars rather than allowing themselves to be the embedded puppets of military spin masters? What happened to investigative journalism? Was modern finance too complex and too hard to show on CNBC (especially if the facts would piss off the advertisers)? Why did the media decide to kill Hillary Clinton and lift up Barack Obama? The only problem with this idea of course, is that there is no one who could write it...given that we don't actually have journalists anymore. But I'm thinking if we could get the DNA of one...possibly from an old shot glass...maybe we could do one of those Jurassic Park cloning kinda deals.

Bangalore’s Anamolies with Transport

2009-03-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Successive governments often talk of developing Bangalore into a ‘world class city’ with 'world class infrastructure'. But, however obsessed they are about this dream (indeed), they are still grappling to solve our traffic and road problem. Which leaves much of the disgruntled citizens of the city, wondering, which world they are talking about: the first or the third.

We often associate, first world infrastructure is, for the people, with the environment as paramount, and nobody needs to fight to be included in civic plans.

However, when we see Bangalore, the epitome of thirdworld infrastructure, we see lopsided expenditure, three-fourths of the money being spent on one-fourth of the (wealthier) people, ugly elevated highways and flyovers, traffic jams, emphasis on motorized private transport, few or no facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. poor housing, lack of drinking water, poor medicare. high air pollution, high water pollution destruction of greenery, heritage buildings and history of places. lack of concern for the rights of the physically challenged, the elderly and children. Overall a zero town planning.

On the above, the government plans to widen 140 km. of roads involving the destruction of thousands of homes, businesses and heritage buildings, the livelihood of thousands of footpath vendors, and cutting down 70,000 trees (equivalent to 10 Cubbon parks). However, Instead of spending Rs. 25000 Cr. on roa ds, spending Rs. 5000 Cr. on a bus-based public transport system would seriously cut down the traffic and congestion. This is a simplistic suggestion, but you get the drift.

Box: Here are some instances of serious anomalies in transport:

Per passenger, cars are the most polluting form of transport, followed by 2-wheelers. Pollution per person in a bus is 1/6 that of a car. Road space occupied by a person in a bus is 1/30 of that in a car.

The person least responsible for the air pollution and traffic congestion is the person most affected by them, and the least able to afford their consequences:

- Respiratory diseases that cause poorer daily quality of life, loss of work pay caused by illness and hospitalization costs

- Loss of mobility on roads because pedestrian facilities like footpaths and pedestrian crossings are poor and even non-existent in most places. 7 people have died crossing the road to the new airport in just the past 1 month.

- Inability to use the cheapest mode of personal transport, the bicycle.

my blog

2009-02-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

After much dabbling, i have finally decided to have a blog of my own. What kept me away from it, is the thought that, since there are zillion of it, what purpose will it serve. However, off late people, my near and dear ones have expressed their desire to share my thoughts with them. Hence, this blog. And hence, You will see Me filling this space with my thoughts, views and perspectives, on the world in general and on the world around me.

in peace