From identity to economics: How the BJP is changing Indian politics

After tactically using caste arithmetic, the party has also consciously tried to undermine social justice as casteism and secularism as appeasement.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results are not a one-time anomaly. They are repeat of the 2014 Lok Sabha results. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party has improved on its performance in 2014. Because the party seems set to stay in Indian politics for a long innings, it is important to reflect on what its politics means and what it is doing or going to do once in power in such an overwhelming manner.

While the BJP has cynically employed the use of religious identity, it has also consciously sought to downplay identity politics or social justice on the basis of caste or community in the last decade, particularly in the last few years. This is clear from the way the party brought a non-Jat politician to lead Haryana and encouraged a counter-mobilisation against the Jat hegemony. It also appointed a non-tribal chief minister Jharkhand and has persisted with one in Chhatisgarh. The party does not even seem to mind a Gujarati hegemony.

Where the party excels at is to package and present itself as rising above caste and community, decrying social justice as casteism, and secularism as appeasement, as Vandita Mishra points out in the Indian Express, after having carefully and “astutely picking a large number of its candidates from the large scatter of non-Yadav OBC [Other Backward Classes] castes, for instance, to add them to its traditional upper caste Brahmin-Thakur mix”, even while making a pronounced bid for backward caste support.

In fact, the success of the party’s political vision is evident from the fact that what appeared earlier as impossible seems to be the new normal now. For example, in a state like Jharkhand, the party brought in fundamental change by amending the land tenancy laws so as to serve the corporate capital and yet there was hardly any effective resistance to the move.

Most of the BJP’s important leaders also happen to be well-honed cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The party seems to have made an effort to ensure that such candidates are given crucial postings, with a view to a more disciplined and ideologically committed leadership for the governments – at the Centre and in the states.

In other words, the BJP has sought to downplay one of the traditional basis of politics – that of social identities – because it hampers growth and expansion of capital.

The 2014 Lok Sabha results and now the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results have shown how the BJP has created an anti-local, anti-caste, anti-region political ambience by ensuring that a combination of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah become acceptable to people across regions.

The Manifesto of the party for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began by saying:

“The Party has begun the implementation of aims of social and economic justice through good governance (sushashan) under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi”.

Beyond this point the Manifesto talked in an idiom of class and professions, laying down how the party’s perspective on and vision of development has to reach the youth, poor, business community, women and others.

The party simply does not use the concept of social justice the way other political formations do.

Economic argument
It is in this sense that one can see how the BJP seeks to build a political agenda beyond the social identities. It tries to reach out to all of them through some economic argument or the other.

The party seems to know and understand that gradually it has to be a politics of class, which will allow it to expand because its historical legacy of being a brahmanical political force alienated it for quite some time from the Muslims and Dalits.

In the last three years or so, the party has amply shown how well religion and other social and cultural affiliations can only be used to ensure a very clearly defined rule of corporate capital. However, these affiliations along with that of nation, and other such are only instruments for mobilisation, if at all.

The violence in campuses could be seen as an example of how the party uses the instrument of lumpenism to ensure that voices of dissent can be suppressed by use of collective force.

Social justice is not a term often invoked by the Indian State after 2014. And yet the BJP cannot completely do away with the decades-long practices of positive discrimination in policy making because the move might invite strong counter mobilisation against it. Which is what explains the party’s conscious decision of going slow on its earlier discourse and policy programmes based on social identities. But the so-called slips of tongue on quotas and reservation and demonisation of Dalit activists is a clear indication of what many of the party’s leaders think on these questions.

In days to come, the BJP would rather focus on policy areas that would more proactively bring Dalits and tribals within the fold of the market. The policy decisions of the BJP are aimed at breaking the consensus on the need of taking affirmative action to remove social inequalities among groups.

Social reengineering
The BJP seeks to transform everybody into an individual, concerned only about their own self, while ironically seeking votes from them or expressing outrage in the name of Hinduism. The collective, as noted above, continues to be invoked when needed but only as a mere source of mobilisation to move towards a fragmented/individuated situation.

This thinking, while destroying their social and cultural allegiances, would transform each citizen into somebody who would cease to be concerned about the marginalised, oppressed or discriminated groups and communities. This would also lead to weakening of any opposition to whatever the state would do – from handing over the economy to corporate capital to making education institutions into skilling centres among other things.

​The BJP campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections mocked the gains that the Other Backward Classes and Dalit political mobilisations have made in these states. The party has routinely sought to underplay that there was any significant historic element of caste based discrimination. In Haryana, for instance, the party has come down heavily on unionisation of workers in the industrial belts of the state.

It has thus sought to delegitimise all movements that claim to represent social or economic justice. Which is why there is hardly any large scale resistance even when, for instance, the Haryana government unabashedly celebrates its foundation year using the symbol of a conch with a chariot embedded in it among other things. The party has thus got away by introducing overtly religious motifs in a secular country. Nor is there any public anger when workers are

The BJP represents a new moment in Indian politics. It understands and knows how to manipulate the social and cultural milieu much better than any other force towards making India fully compatible to the workings of corporate capital and seeking to break down the consensus on community and caste-based concepts of social justice.

If the political forces fail to understand this they would find it difficult to counter the BJP’s winning streak, even in 2019.

Barring Flag Hoisting, Yoga Day Seems At Par With Indian 'National Days'

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

The linking of International Yoga Day to Lord Shiva, who is said to have become the first yogi on June 21, is a reversal of the secularisation of yoga.

June’s scorching, sultry heat seems to get the worst out of those in power in Delhi. It is the month in which Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency and threatened to extinguish forever the flame of liberty.

The Dark & Horrifying Tale Of Delhi's 'Great Baby Bazaar'

A new industry is taking deep roots in the Delhi’s underbelly. This is the great baby bazaar where bidding for a newborn starts the day a hapless woman gets pregnant, while the kid is still in the womb. 

Girls and young women, mostly from Jharkhand, are fodder to this illicit business. They are brought to the national Capital on the pretext of being employed as helps, then raped and sexually assaulted by the unscrupulous owners and employees of placement agencies and forced to bear babies. But that’s not the end of their misery. 

Commentary: Capital Controversy, Hyderabad like Delhi

By Madabhushi Sridhar (Guest Writer)

Under the pressure of the Seemandhra Congress leaders the High Command announced a high level committee with four senior Congress leaders, Digvijay, Antony, Veerappa Moily and Ahmed Patel to remove their apprehensions about revenue, water and safety during division of state.

The seeds of uncertainty and doubts about Hyderabad are sown in the CWC resolution itself, though written with ‘skilful diplomatic efficiency’. Their hesitant assurance and doubtful commitment form part of their written statements, while congress leaders leak every thing ‘off the record’. Earlier when they had poll alliance with TRC in 2004 they just ‘referred’ to Telangana demand which later became controversial and revealed an escape route for them. Then election manifesto, Presidential Address and even the declaration on December 9, 2009 are drafted with great diplomacy which did not lead to any commitment. The latest example, is the resolution of CWC on 30th July 2013.

UPA-Nomics: How To Hoard Grain And Let Food Prices Soar

Over the last few days my mother and her sister have been complaining about how the price of a 10 kg bag of rice they buy has gone up by 17 percent in just over a couple of months.

Now contrast this with what Akhilesh Tilotia of Kotak Institutional Equities Research writes in the GameChanger Perspectives report titled Putting the mountain of grains to use (Released on 5 March 2013). “India can raise more than Rs 60,000 crore if it prunes its inventory of foodgrains: an excess 20 million tonnes of rice and 26 million tonnes of wheat (without accounting for procurements to be made this year),” writes Tilotia. 

As the table shows below, the government currently has an excess rice stock worth around Rs 25,400 crore and an excess wheat stock worth Rs 36,300 crore, or more than Rs 60,000 crore in total. These numbers have been arrived at by taking into account the minimum support price (MSP) of rice at Rs 12.5 per kg and the MSP of wheat at Rs 13.5 per kg and multiplying them with the excess stocks.

What the table also tells us is that the government currently has an excess rice stock of nearly two times the buffer and an excess wheat stock of nearly 2.7 times the buffer.

The government sets MSPs for wheat and rice every year and the Food Corporation of India (FCI), or a state agency acting on its behalf, purchases rice and wheat this price from farmers. The “supposed” idea behind setting the MSP much in advance is to give the farmer some idea of how much he should expect to earn when he sells his produce a few months later. The FCI typically purchases around 15-20 percent of India’s wheat output and 12-15 percent of its rice output, estimates suggest.

At least this is how things are supposed to work in theory. But most government motives have unintended consequences. With an assured price, more rice and wheat lands up with the government than it distributes through the public distribution system. Also, with FCI obligated to purchase what the farmers bring in, its godowns overflow and at times the wheat and rice are dumped in the open, leading to rodents feasting on the crop.

On the other hand, the way things currently are, it helps the farmer but it also results in pushing up market prices, since more of the grain lands up in the godowns of FCI and not in the open market.

The procurement also adds to the food subsidy. The government pays for all the rice and wheat and then lets a lot of it rot. The government currently has nearly 67million tonnes of rice and wheat in stock. Of this nearly 47 million tonnes is excess.

Tilotia expects the rice and wheat stock of the government to go up to 100 million tonnes by the time this harvest season gets over. As he writes, “After the current harvest season, Indian granaries will stock about 100 million tonnes of wheat and rice…A high inventory comes with a heavy carrying cost, which the FCI estimates at Rs 6.12 per kg for year-end September 2014: At 100 million tonnes, this will cost India Rs 60,000 crore a year (forming most of its food subsidy bill).”

A higher food subsidy bill adds to the fiscal deficit and which, as writers at Firstpost regularly keeps discussing, has huge consequences of its own. Fiscal deficit is the difference between what a government spends and what it earns.

In fact, the United States of America had a similar policy in place in the aftermath of The Great Depression of 1929 on a number of agri-commodities like wheat, tobacco, cotton, etc. The government offered a support price to farmers. This support price had unintended consequences over the years, especially in case of wheat.

As Bruce Gardner writes in the research paper “The Political Economy of US Export Subsidies for Wheat” (quoted by Tilotia): “The traditional means of price support is a governmental agreement, through its Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), to buy wheat at the support price. This programme periodically led to governmental acquisition of large stocks which were costly to store and for which markets did not exist at the support price level.”

As is happening in India right now, the American government ended up buying more and more wheat, of which it had no use for, especially at the price it was paying for it. The farmers had an assured buyer in the government and they went around producing more wheat than before.  This resulted in excess stocks with the American government. Over the years this excess wheat was exported at subsidised rates.

As Gardner writes, “The subsidy ranged from 5 to 30 percent of the price of wheat, depending on world and US market conditions in each year.” A lot of wheat was also donated under the Agricultural Trade and Development Act of 1954 (better known as P.L. 480) of which India was a huge beneficiary in the late 50s and early 60s till Lal Bahadur Shastri initiated the agricultural revolution.

Gradually the wheat acreage, or the area over which wheat was planted, was also reduced in the United States. This meant that the farmers had to keep their land idle and not plant wheat on it. “Acreage allotments…were reintroduced in 1954 and reduced planted acreage by about 18 million acres (from 79 million in 1953 to an average of 61 million in 1954-56). Each producer had to stay under the farm’s allotment in order to be eligible for price support loans. In 1956 the Soil Bank program was introduced. It paid wheat growers about $20 per acre (roughly market rental rates) to idle an average of 12 million more acres (20 percent of preprogram acreage) in 1956-58,” writes Gardner.

India seems to be heading on the same path if the current policies don’t change. As Tilotia writes: “India’s inventory is concentrated in the north-western states of Punjab and Haryana, which store 36 million tonnes of its 66 million tonnes of stock. Given the large procurement expected from these states again this year (though Madhya Pradesh may better Haryana in wheat procurement this year, especially given state elections), this imbalance can worsen.”

Interestingly, the government can use this excess inventory of rice and wheat to control inflation and at the same time bring down its fiscal deficit. The government currently has rice and wheat worth in excess of Rs 60,000 crore. On the other hand it also has a disinvestment target of Rs 54,000 crore for the next financial year (2013-14). The government hopes to earn this amount by selling stakes it holds in public sector units to the public.

Along similar lines the government can try selling the excess rice and wheat that it currently holds in the open market. This will help control food inflation with the excess government stock hitting the market. Food forms around 43 percent of the consumer price inflation number and so if food inflation comes down, the consumer price inflation is also likely to come down.

The challenge in doing this is two-fold. The first is about moving grains from Punjab and Haryana, where more than half the inventory lies. The second is to ensure that the market prices of rice and wheat don’t collapse. That would ruin lakhs of traders and kirana merchants.

Also the current MSP system is not working. If the idea is to pay the citizens of this country to improve their living standards, the government may be better off paying them in cash, rather than paying them in this roundabout manner that creates inflation. This is simply because the current system drives up the price of food for everyone else and it doesn’t necessarily always benefit the farmers. The middleman continue to make the most money.

As Tilotia puts it, “If such a payment indeed needs to be made, there is no point in raising prices for all in the system by adding it to the price of the grain: Simply pay the farmer whatever support you want to pay him/her. India is reaching a situation where, by using UID it would be able to send payments to farmers directly. Maybe it is time to re-couple wheat and rice prices with global prices – that can meaningfully reduce inflation in India.”

Focus: The Contrasting Tale Of Two Indian 'Sons-In-Law'

By S Gurumurthy (Guest Writer)

Known as ‘Mappillai’ in Tamil and ‘Damad’ in Hindi, all sons-in-law have high standing in Indian families -- religion, caste, region and language regardless.

No surprise therefore that sons-in-law of wealthy, powerful families make news, mostly for wrong reasons. Some months ago, Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, was in the news for building, in just four years, real estate empire worth couple of billion Dollars [Rs 11,000 crore], according to California’s Celebritynetworth.com, which even the media that adores Sonia Gandhi had to confess as reeking of corruption.

Shocking Concern: 'The Forgotten Rape Stories Of India'

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

Although Nirbhaya’s rapists were sentenced to death, there are several other rape cases that grabbed national headlines where the victims still await justice.

Delhi | April 2013
‘Sheila Dikshit turned us away saying she gets 500 rape complaints every day, how many could she look into?’

Several politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, made big promises for Gudiya, but nothing happened. The five-year old is on her own now.

We’re in south-west Delhi’s Dwarka. After a little wait, Gudiya’s father arrives to meet us. Passing through a labyrinth of streets, we reach Gudiya’s home. With two tiny pony tails on her head and a slate in her hand, Gudiya is playing with her younger brother and mother. She was in the hospital for four months during which she underwent six major surgeries. 

Degrading Power Sector - Watts Not Happening

By M H Ahssan

With demand rising by the day, only a drastic restructuring will resolve India’s power problem.

Imagine this. It is 2029. Anil Ambani, 70, is headed for his office on the 100th floor of one of the world’s highest buildings in Navi Mumbai on a high-speed elevator. Ninety-five per cent of the cars in the country run on rechargeable batteries in an attempt to move towards greener living, so all fuel stations have been replaced by rechargeable battery stations. Meanwhile, a lot of people have abandoned personal transportation in favour of the metro rail, which now covers most cities.

Households have replaced their human help with robots (JustDoIts, manufactured by Nike, which has diversified its business) that do all the work with a smile on their faces. When they look exhausted, they are plugged to a recharge outlet, much like cellphones are today.

Parliament, tired of meeting in the dull round building that houses it several times a year, has reduced the actual physical meeting to once a year. Rest of the business is conducted via monthly virtual meetings through a state-of-the-art video conferencing network.

Life is progressing smoothly, until....
The country witnesses a sudden 48-hour power failure. The creaking machinery of the different state electricity boards (SEBs) has jointly broken down, after years of managing the crushing load on ever decrepit infrastructure.

Ambani is stuck for two days in his high-speed lift. Cars that have run out of battery grind to a halt. The metro trains, crammed with people, stop running.

Rahul Gandhi, India’s 59-year-old youngest-ever bachelor Prime Minister hurriedly summons an emergency cabinet meeting in the Parliament House because the video-conferencing facility cannot work sans power. But on arriving there, he finds himself alone. His cabinet colleagues are stuck at different locations because of the power failure.

This is a future that stares us in the face if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s new government cannot fix the power problem that has been getting worse each year for the past 10 years. Demand is rising as expected in a developing economy, but supply is falling far behind.

Without the ability to sell directly to consumers across the country — or Open Access, in the industry parlance — the private sector is still shying away from investing heavily in power projects. India’s peak power shortage was around 11 per cent a few years ago. It is estimated to go up to around 13 per cent currently — despite all the reforms that have taken place. And this 13 per cent refers to the gap between the peak power demand from consumers who have access to electricity and the generating capacity. It does reflect the fact that actual generation is often way lower than installed capacity for many reasons — fuel shortages, breakdowns in old plants, et al.

And it does not reflect the fact that a lot of the power generated also does not reach the real, paying consumer because it leaks away in the transmission and distribution (T&D) system. And it certainly does not account for the fact that peak demand would have been vastly higher if the entire country had access to electricity.

Despite 18 years of power reforms, over 40 per cent of the country’s population is without electricity, 60 per cent of Indian firms and a large percentage of homes rely on captive or back-up generation, according to a World Bank report. As former power secretary E.A.S. Sarma puts it: “In the perception of the consumer, power should be available cheap and the quality and customer service should improve whereas, in reality, it has been otherwise.”

And things — if experts are to be believed — may get a lot worse before they begin to get any better. In 2009-10 alone, the gap between the power demand and availability is forecast to be 14,978 MW against the actual deficit of 13,024 MW in 2008-09. This is despite an anticipated capacity addition in 2009 of 12,000 MW — the highest ever in a single year. (Slightly over 20,000 MW was added during the entire 10th Five-Year Plan). “So what is happening is that you are not improving, you are not even staying where you are but in fact you have deteriorated,” says Gajendra Haldea, advisor to the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

Many states are already in a crisis situation. Haryana, for instance — where the badly planned development of suburb Gurgaon has given rise to a never-anticipated power demand — has a 60 per cent shortage at peak time. States such as Uttar Pradesh (peak deficit 22 per cent) and Maharashtra (peak deficit 23 per cent) are not much better off. In fact, 10 out of 28 states are expected to have a deficit of over 20 per cent in their power needs in 2009-10.

But what is even more alarming is that if things continue the way they are, we will all be plunged into darkness by 2012 (ironically the year that Ministry of Power is aiming for “power for all”). According to the latest Electric Power Survey, India is expected to have a peak electricity demand of almost 50 per cent over what it did in 2008-09 (152,746 MW by 2011-12 against just over 100,000 MW in 2008-09). So what caused the crisis and what is the solution?

1970s and 1980s: The Genesis Of The Crisis
Way back in the 1970s, the governments in the states started offering free power to the agricultural sector and a few other consumers. Not only was the power given away free, no metering was done to keep track of power being given away. Lack of metering led to a situation where the SEBs lost track of how much power was being given away free and how much was being stolen.

Soon, the losses of the SEBs began to mount. Tariffs when charged were way below what was needed to cover costs. There was no need to meet the costs because the law, till the mid-1980s, did not require the boards to earn a minimum rate of return. Pilferage became rampant as the penalties were lax. As losses mounted, SEBs stopped investing in both generation, T&D capacities and modernisation.

1990s: A Serious But Badly Thought Out Attempt At Reform
In 1991, realising that the SEBs were not adding generating capacity, India opened up its power sector to private and foreign investment and invited independent power producers (IPPs) to come and set up generating units in the country. Close to 200 MOUs with proposed investors were signed to produce over 50,000 MW. Seven of these projects were backed by counter guarantees from the Centre. The SEBs had the primary responsibility to pay and if they did not, the Centre would pay. Despite this, nothing much happened.

Most of the projects failed to take off as producers of power realised that the buyers of power (the SEBs) were largely bankrupt and lacked the means to pay for what they would buy. Out of 50,000 MW, less than 4,000 MW actually materialised.

Late 1990s And Early 2000S — Reforms in Distribution
In the late 1990s, pushed by the World Bank and Department for International Development, four states — Orissa, Haryana, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh — tried various reform models. While some progress was made, none of the experiments could be called really successful. Andhra Pradesh separated its generation, transmission and distribution way back then, but did not privatise anything.

Orissa tried to privatise, but it made two mistakes. One, it replaced the public monopoly with private ones. Two, it handed over a system that was much worse than the private firms had bargained for. T&D losses in the state remain really high today (36-42 per cent) — one indication that matters have not improved.

In 2001, the Centre agreed to a one-time write-off of SEB dues to the tune of Rs 41,473 crore and also started telling the states to reform the boards or privatise them. Delhi tried out a privatisation experiment in 2002 with its distribution process. As in Orissa, instead of true competition, specific areas were carved out and handed over to private monopolies. Delhi is considered a partial success by some reformers because T&D losses have halved though power outages are still frequent in different areas. According to Lalit Jalan, chief executive officer and whole-time director, Reliance Infrastructure, which won two of the three distribution areas being privatised in Delhi, T&D losses have come down from 50-52 per cent at the time of taking over to 20-22 per cent currently. But consumers complain that power outages still happen frequently, despite over seven years of privatisation.

2003: The Electricity Act And The Main Culprits
As the situation went from bad to worse, the Centre realised that it needed to get the states to change their ways through legislation. The Electricity Act — drafted in 2000 and turned into a law in 2003 — mandated that the states introduce competition and allow consumers to choose their own supplier. This, it was felt, would help bring in enough private participation — into generation and distribution. However, none of the states have moved in this direction. Some of the states have — under pressure from the Centre — separated their generation, transmission and distribution in an attempt to move towards corporatisation, but no real reform has been done. T.L. Sankar, non-executive chairman of KSK Power Venture and former chairman of Andhra SEB, blames this on the failure to achieve quick results as a result of reforms. But he hits the nail on the head when he says “employee opposition” is one of the main problems. Harry Dhaul, director-general of IPPAI, says, “Vested interests in the states are trying to harness and capture resources in the garb of consumer interest.” Sarma says that the resistance is on account of “corruption on the distribution side, and as unbundling will permanently deprive some employees of their opportunity to work on the distribution side”. Even as this story was being written, Uttar Pradesh power employees were busy staging demonstrations to protest against the handing over of power distribution for the next 20 years in the urban areas of Agra and Kanpur to private sector Torrent Power.

Many states have outright refused to reform their SEBs. Despite the one-time write off, losses of the boards continue to gallop (see ‘Deteriorating Financials’). Power reaching the end user remains in the hands of the state-owned utilities; private producers, even if they generate, cannot get paid for the power they supply to SEBs and cannot access end users directly. B.K. Chaturvedi, member, Planning Commission, says the states are reluctant to privatise distribution because “power is a highly political matter in the states” (see interview on page 33).

2006: Ultra-Mega Power Projects
Aware of the crisis that was steadily brewing, the government in 2006 decided to set up ultra-mega power projects (projects with 4,000 MW capacity) and these were granted to the private sector through a competitive bidding process.

However, financing of the projects (cost of close to Rs 18,000 crore each) is proving to be a challenge. Moreover, the power from these projects is only likely to be available from 2011-12 onwards.

“We need to get over this infatuation with ultra mega power plants. Fix distribution today. Larger towns should be handed over to the private sector using some version of the Delhi model,” says Partha Mukhopadhyay, economist with Centre for Policy Research. Not everyone agrees that the Delhi model is the ideal way to go, but many agree that it is better than doing absolutely nothing. Raaj Kumar, chief executive officer, (Power) of the GMR group says they are “looking at appropriate opportunities to get into the distribution business”.

According to Haldea, while the mega power plants may alleviate the situation in a temporary manner, only a drastic restructuring of the power sector will resolve India’s problem.

2009: Where We Are Today And The Way Forward
States are not keen to allow consumers to choose their source of power. On paper, the states have agreed, but in practice they are using different ways to prevent consumers from breaking away. Surplus states are selling power to their state trading entities (who then auction the power in an open market) rather than offering it for open access. Some states — who do not have enough power — clearly do not want suppliers within their states to sell to anyone outside. And some states are charging absurd amounts as surcharge; so buying power from another supplier becomes unviable or too expensive.

Not only are the states not falling in line, some are actively blocking sale to other states. Haryana — an acutely power deficit state — has waived off surcharges on its consumers and allowed them to get power from outside the state, but the state government says that this has not helped. Haryana recently told the Centre that “some surplus states” are telling “their generators not to supply power directly to consumers in other states”.

As Raaj Kumar points out, without the private sector being able to freely use the open access, nothing much can progress. S.L. Rao, the first central power regulator, says, “Rules framed by the government must be free of uncertainty and arbitrariness.” After all, this is crucial for investors who have taken risks to invest in projects. This should not be compromised, he says.

The Centre is trying hard to convince the states to adopt open access. It is offering incentives — but progress is slow on that front as well. Chaturvedi, who headed a task force on open access, says the basic idea is to incentivise the states. A bit like a carrot-and-stick approach without a stick. If the Centre moves quickly, it could well convince the states to fall in line, especially the power deficit ones.

Some experts argue that more fundamental reforms are needed before power reforms actually move ahead. This is primarily because power remains a subject in the hands of the states and the Centre has limited jurisdiction over it.

Unless some of these drastic and not so drastic steps are taken, the day when life comes to a grinding halt may actually not be as far as you thi-nk. What we described when we started the story was just a figment of imagination. If it turns into reality, we will have only ourselves to blame.

When Aam 'Aadmi' Party Ruling What About Aam 'Aurat'?

By Jayati Ghosh (Star Guest Writer)

The support for the AAP has given way to wariness following evidence of patriarchal attitudes to women among the party’s leaders. In Indian politics, a month is clearly a very long time. 

In mid-December the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)—which as a fledgling political group had done remarkably well in the Delhi Assembly elections—created both excitement and optimism that it could provide a new, different way of doing politics, which would be accountable to the common people and would connect with their concerns. 

MANY CEOs WALK ON 'WORLD EARTH DAY' IN GURGAON

By Shruti Dhawan / Gurgaon

Over 500 senior company executives on Monday walked to their offices in Gurgaon in an initiative aimed at making the city free of congestion and pedestrian-friendly.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Regional Council for Haryana had organised the “CEOs Walk to Work” initiative. Fidelity & MakeMyTrip anchored the event at their respective locations to mark Earth Day with an aim to encourage greater adoption of public transport and inculcate a habit of walking.

The walk started at 8:45 a.m. and passed though four routes — Gateway Tower to Cybercity, Gateway Towers to Udyog Vihar, Huda City Centre Metro station to Unitech Cyber Park, and Moulsari Avenue metro station to Ambience complex.

Focus: Where Are The Free School Textbooks For Children?

By Rati Kumar in Bhopal

In August last year, the a vernacular newspaper reported from Varanasi, that none of the students of class I, II and III had school text books. The whole of July had gone by without anything being taught in schools and the students spent most of their time playing. Varanasi is just as an example; the situation across the country is equally disappointing.

According to the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, every child in a primary school should have text books available on time i.e. at the beginning of the academic year. But the reality is far from what the Act stipulates. In fact, most children do not receive school books and even those who do, don’t necessarily get all the books and rarely at the beginning of the academic year.

Naveen Jindal Or What The Heck Is In The Water Of Hisar?

If you pick up the new story on Naveen Jindal on the cover of a popular mag, looking for some damning new revelation in the Coalgate scam you will be disappointed.

Mehboob Jeelani’s portrait of  the 42-year-old Congressman and head of  Jindal Steel and Power Limited does all the careful homework of the well-rounded profile. He talks to the man himself, his mother, his college professor in the US, his main environmentalist adversary, an unnamed Coal India senior official. And it comes with colourful anecdotes – of coal towns covered with soot and polo matches of the rich and beautiful with “vintage handbags, tiny, fluffy dogs and big Cuban cigars.” And in a reporter’s dream moment different worlds collide when burly farmers in white dhotis and kurtas rush onto the polo field to meet Jindal, the polo player on his brown pony.

But more than the story of  the ups and downs of one politician-industrialist what jumps out in the story is that Jindal is an accidental Congressman. When the young Jindal scion was first thinking of dabbling in politics he wondered which party he should join and he turned to Sunil Kumar, a veteran journalist in Chaattisgarh for advice. Both the BJP and the Congress were offering him tickets. He didn’t know which to choose.

Jeelani takes up the story here in Kumar’s voice: He asked me, ‘Sunilji, which one should I choose?’ I told him that between the two, there was not a great choice. I said that I considered the BJP to be a communal party, so you should not go to BJP and you should go to Congress. He still asked me, ‘But Sunilji, which party is going to win the elections?’ I told him that I didn’t know the answer.” “He had a very open mind,” Kumar continued. “He wasn’t allergic to the BJP, and he had no great liking for the Congress.”

This is telling. It shows that for the very rich and powerful, the parties are not repositories of ideology but means to an end. He is wooed by both and ambivalent about both. And he knows as long as he backs the winning horse, he can make the system work in his favour. Now that Jindal is having to fend off accusations in the Coalgate scam, the BJP is surely thrilled he didn’t choose them. A veteran Congress leader in Haryana complains that Jindal will give the Congress a bad name while at the same time he cozies up to BJP chief ministers like Chhattisgarh’s Raman Singh to the point that they don’t know if he is an MP from Haryana or from Chattisgarh.

Ultimately it’s not about Congress or BJP, it’s about money and the Old Boys Network. So despite that high profile Zee TV sting and reverse sting when Jeelani meets Zee’s Subhash Chandra’s father, Nand Kishore Goenka he dismisses the whole controversy as a “silly fight between brothers.” After all, they are both old families from Hisar who have known each other for many years and part of the same temple trust. After the blow-up Jindal’s mother called Chandra’s father and that was that. “It’s like the way kids usually fight in their childhood,” Goenka said. “It’s the same thing.”

Except this isn’t about your turn at the sandbox or a slide in the playground. It’s about allocation of entire coal blocks. In a way it lends credence to Arvind Kejriwal’s rants about how one party is as compromised as another because each of them wants to woo the likes of Jindal.  Jindal is driven to one party, not because he cares about its ideology or opposes the other. He is just concerned about winning. And yes, at some level, even he carefully avoids all committees that deal with coal or iron ore, he cannot help but join the party who will be friendly to his business interests. And when he gets into trouble mommy falls back on the Hisar connection to smooth things over. So the entire Coalgate affair becomes reduced to a Hisar schoolboy hissy fit.

Kejriwal wants to be the alternative to this kind of power play that’s part an parcel of politics in India. The amusing irony is, he is also from Hisar himself. Someone should analyse what’s in the water there. Hisar could well be the Petri dish in which to study what Caravan calls in its headline The Price of Power.

Reforms, Inflation Cheer But Growth, Deficits Cause Worry

2015 is to be the time of hope. More so in India where everyone believes that a new era has begun. We have come to believe that the sloth and the ‘chalta hai’ culture that has become part of our work-style will now be buried and that not only would the new India be assertive of its rights and proud of its achievements but also take decisive steps in becoming an economic power.

Much of the credit for this hope has to go to Narendra Modi who not only shrugged off the 2002 Gujarat riots taint but also inspired people from all walks of life to dream, work hard and achieve their desired goals.

Film Review: ‘Sultan’ Is A Biopic Of Salman Khan, The Man Conquered All Odds

By RAMAN KAPOOR | INNLIVE

Director Ali Abbas Zafar’s sports drama is a thinly veiled study of the dark star’s triumph over his off-screen troubles.

Mixed martial arts league promoter Akash (Amit Sadh) needs a star fighter, preferably an Indian, to boost the prospects of his upcoming tournament. His father advises him to go see what Sultan Ali Khan is upto these days.

Foreign Companies Hone New Strategies for Indian Manufacturing Operations

Indian companies aren’t investing. The cost of money is too high; in its latest policy announcement on December 18, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained its benchmark repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends to banks) at 8%. This was despite the official GDP forecast for 2012-2013 falling to 5.7%-5.9%, the lowest in a decade. Lower interest rates are necessary to induce companies to borrow money for investment purposes.

Big ticket foreign investments like Walmart and IKEA are still waiting for clearer rules. Besides, though foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and aviation has been approved by both houses of Parliament, there is still considerable local opposition. No company wants to enter the country to find its stores attacked by political parties, as happened earlier with KFC.

So is the India manufacturing story – described by McKinsey & Co as a US$1 trillion opportunity by 2025 – running out of steam? Not really. While the big companies are putting projects on hold, smaller players are filling the gap.

There has been a subtle change in the purpose of these projects, however. Until recently, India was looked upon as an outsourcing base for items as diverse as auto components and fabrics. Today, the focus is more on the domestic market.

“Local manufacturing and local services are the best way to cater to the Indian market,” says Piyush Shah, managing director of Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics. Hitachi, a Japanese global electronics major, has opened a new factory in Gujarat at an investment of US$11 million. This is part of Hitachi’s US$1 billion investment plan in India.

The URB Group, one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers of bearings, has announced its first manufacturing foray in India (in Rajasthan) at an investment of US$66 million. This will be its first factory outside Europe (the others are in Romania, 

Turkey and Hungary). URB has had a marketing presence in India since 1982. “We will be able to sell our bearings at much lower prices to manufacturing companies in several sectors,” says Harun Adiguzel, president of URB India.

Amway India, a direct-selling FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company, plans to set up its first manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu at a cost of US$100 million. The company has been sourcing some 97% of its needs from third party contract manufacturers until now.

Focusing on the domestic market means that products have to be localized. To use a very basic example, electrical devices have to be configured to a 220 volt input instead of the 110 volts that is the norm in some other countries. When the Indian market wasn’t very important, foreign companies expected consumers to buy a step down adapter to be able to use the foreign model in India. Now products are being made specifically for India.

This is the other big driver in the invest-in-India movement. “India is a very diverse market in terms of consumer choices and preferences,” says Krishan Sachdev, managing director of Carrier Midea India. “This makes product localization an integral part for a consumer brand like ours. A local manufacturing facility gives us the flexibility for new product development and to quickly respond to the market dynamics. Besides, localization also helps with cost economies and reduces exposure to [foreign exchange] fluctuations.” Carrier Media is a joint venture between U.S.-based Carrier Corp. and the China-based Midea Group. It recently inaugurated a new manufacturing facility in Haryana with an investment of around US$100 million over a five- to six-year period.

Panasonic India has a similar focus on localization. “[We want to integrate] Indian expertise into our product design and manufacturing processes,” said Daizo Ito, president of the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese MNC, in a recent press statement. Panasonic has opened a technopark in Haryana to manufacture air-conditioners, washing machines and certain industrial products. The investment planned in this facility is around US$200 million.

Export remains a long-term ambition, however. At URB, 70% of the production will be for domestic use and the remaining 30% for export. The target is to take this to 50:50. Panasonic is looking at exporting 5% of its production by 2013 and 20% by 2015. “Lower cost of production and the ability to provide best-in-class quality is also putting India in the forefront of export markets,” notes Shah of Hitachi.

The export strategy comes in a new form. India is being regarded as a local manufacturing hub. Panasonic India will target the Middle East and Africa. Shah is looking at Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. URB is a little more ambitious: It is eyeing the European and the U.S. markets as well. (The others already have bases in the West.)

Export is the icing on the cake. The domestic market remains the key driver for the foreign investments in manufacturing. 

“With the emerging middle class, increased disposable incomes and low level of product penetration, India holds very strong growth prospects,” says Sachdev of Carrier.

Kumar Kandaswami, senior director at Deloitte India, gives a macro view. “The per capita consumption in India is low,” he says. “There is a lot of headroom for growth. For instance, while India has about 10 cars per 1,000 [people], China has over 50. As increasing numbers of people come into the zone of employment and consumption, demand will be further fuelled. Going [forward], consumption-driven manufacturing looks strong. In Europe, demand is dwindling, and in the West there’s a slowdown. Companies are now focusing on regions where demand exists; they want to localize and make themselves responsive and relevant by setting up manufacturing units to cater to these regions.”

Shocking: Dead Lizard Served With Food At Palwal School

INN News Desk

In another shocking case of mid day meal horror, a dead lizard was found in the meal served to students at a school in Palwal in Haryana. The lizard was found in the rice. The parents of the children have held protests. Children have also complained that the food served to them is of very poor quality and they have found insects in their food on a regular basis.

Local administration has promised strong action against the organisation that supplies the mid day meals. "We demand strong action against those who supply the mid-day meal. The entire village has decided that the mid day meal won't be supplied to our schools anymore," said village sarpanch Charan Singh.

This comes days after 23 children died after eating the mid day meal at a school in Chhapra in Bihar. The police, after the forensic tests, found that the food had a pesticide mixed in it. Not just Bihar and Haryana, the mid day meal horror has surfaced in other states too. Earlier, 16 students in Tamil Nadu too had fallen sick after eating the mid day meal in school.

Troubled Telengana

By Rajinder Puri

The demand for Telengana state is perhaps the oldest protest movement in India. Political opportunism and lack of vision have prolonged the agony of the Telengana people .

A few months ago union cabinet minister Chandrashekhar Rao quit the UPA alliance on the issue of creating Telengana state. A few days ago Devender Goud, number two to Chandrababu Naidu in TDP, and Peddi Reddy split their party on the Telengana issue. Telengana is Andhra’s perennial dispute. The demand for Telengana state is perhaps the oldest protest movement in India. Political opportunism and lack of vision have prolonged the agony of the Telengana people.

In 1947 Telengana was the princely Hyderabad state. The Nizam of Hyderabad wanted independence. Sardar Patel forcibly prevented that. Telugu speaking people were spread in 22 districts. Nine were in Hyderabad, twelve in the Madras Presidency. In 1953 all Telegu districts of Madras were separated to form a new Andhra state. It was the first Indian state formed on a purely linguistic basis. Later Andhra was merged with the Telugu speaking area of Hyderabad to become present day Andhra Pradesh.

However, common language is not the only criterion for identity. From its birth Andhra Pradesh was harassed by the demand of a separate Telengana state. The shared history of Telengana people united them culturally. Pandit Nehru appointed the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) to create linguistic states. It was against merging Telengana with Andhra. The 1955 SRC report said: “We have come to the conclusion that it will be in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana area to constitute a separate state, which may be known as the Hyderabad state…”

The central government ignored the SRC recommendation. It established unified Andhra Pradesh in 1956. The government reassured the Telangana people that their concerns would be met. Telengana people continued to complain. After 52 years the complaints persist, the assurances continue. How and why did this happen?

Telengana leaders were opportunists. From the days of Chenna Reddy, an army of leaders rose to power on the support of the Telengana movement. After assuming office each leader merged with Congress to betray Telengana. National leaders were shortsighted. Language cannot be the sole criterion for statehood. If it were, Goa would be part of Maharashtra. UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana would be one state.

Andhra politicians resist creating Telengana state because they oppose shrinking Andhra. Their fear is understandable. It could be removed if all large states were divided into smaller states. Such demands with varying intensity exist in almost all of them. Maharashtra can be divided in four, UP in 4 more after Uttarakhand. Regional parties do not want to reduce their turf. But why should they? Why cannot a Telegu party hold power in three states as well as it does in one?

Small states mean faster progress. Haryana and Himachal proved that. Cultural identity and administrative convenience should be the criteria for carving new states out of even one linguistic group. It should be done systematically. It can be done with minimum discord if new states are within the boundaries of the large state to be divided. Parliament should appoint a second commission to reorganize states. Creating new states ad hoc by responding to violent protest after hundreds are killed is a stupid way to introduce change.

Stop This “Braveheart” Nonsense: Give Rohtak Sisters All Awards But Not For Bravery

When the two sisters in the Rohtak (Haryana) bus were being attacked on Sunday, the obvious thing the bus driver and attendant should have done was to drive the bus to the nearest police station and hand over the molesters to law officers. There were several eye-witnesses, the assaulter/abusers as well as their victims were present in the same spot at the same time and it would have saved the girls the trauma of recounting their story to the police. The problem would then have been appropriately framed and shifted to the state authorities whose job it is to protect citizens. 

No Happy 'Lohri Or Diwali' When Delhi Chokes For Air

Contrary to popular belief, cars and other automobiles are not the top polluter in the NCR's battle against air pollution. They are only one of the main culprits. Here is a list of the main contenders and some possible solutions to help decrease air pollution in the NCR region.

1) The cold: Yes, winter is one of the main reasons why NCR gets so polluted. The reality is that we live in a third world country and people burn anything (including rubber tyres) to keep their hands warm.

Jamiat Demands Ban On RSS For 'Provoking Communal Activities', RSS Stressed The Need Of Casteless Society

Launching a broadside against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindutva organisations, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind has demanded that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) be banned for its alleged involvement in several communal activities, including demolition of Babri Masjid, ghar wapsi and campaign for a Hindu Rashtra. 

At Jamiat’s general body meeting held at Lucknow in UP, it was stated the prime minister’s “tacit support to such hate-mongers of the right-wing organisations associated with the RSS” indicated that he was pampering them to continue terrorise one particular community.