Unholy row in India's election commission

By M H Ahssan

A bout of political gamesmanship in the run-up to elections would normally be seen as par for the course in India's raucous democracy.

But this time the controversy has tainted institutions hitherto deemed sacrosanct. With national polls just 10 or so weeks away, the Election Commission (EC) of India - the constitutional body mandated to conduct the mammoth exercise, spread across 26 states, in a free, fair and visibly non-partisan manner - has erupted in an ugly spat that has politics written all over it.

On the face of it, it's a simple issue. The EC is a three-member panel, on the neutrality and autonomy of which India's democratic process is anchored. In mid-January, the panel's chief, who functions on the principle of being "one among equals", cast doubt on the political impartiality of one of his junior colleagues, who is due to succeed him as chief during this summer's elections.

But why has this internecine war, in what should be a faceless quasi-judicial set-up, become a swirling controversy that has dragged in the high office of the Indian President, divided the entire polity, and even embroiled the legal fraternity? Why is the media so full of it, with arcane though vital questions of constitutional law being debated on front pages, faithfully reflecting the contradictory positions taken by legal eagles?

For one, it's unusual for a vital institution of the state to be in flux precisely at the time it's called into duty: an unprecedented situation, fraught with latent danger. Constitutional bodies are meant to have a sense of solidity, a weight of tradition and protocol that stabilizes the system. Anything that tips it beyond this delicate balance in the present context could potentially derail the upcoming national elections and India could be facing a constitutional logjam.

For another, it offers a fascinating picture of a law in evolution in a real, messy, practical context, being shaped by events and circumstances that it is actually meant to regulate. And lastly, this is also a play of personalities. The Election Commission is hardly the faceless legal bureaucracy you would expect it to be: over the last two decades, it has hosted a bunch of charismatic figures who, defying the collective might of the Indian political class, have played on popular yearnings and caught the public imagination.

The face-off
But first, the essential details of the present face-off. Although it had been simmering for almost three years, the whole thing hit page one with an exclusive by the editor of the southern newspaper, The Hindu. Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami had sent a suo motu - meaning on its own motion - report to President of India Pratibha Patil on January 16. In this 92-page report, shored up by reams of annexures, he had recommended the removal of fellow Election Commissioner Navin Chawla for consistently taking partisan positions favoring the ruling Congress party.

Gopalaswami cited 12 instances to prove his case. From the profane to the serious, these occurred over a period between 2006-09 - that is, since Chawla was appointed Election Commissioner by the Congress-led ruling coalition. The basic charge is that Chawla attempted to influence the timetable of assembly elections in states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka to suit the Congress's calculations. Three of these elections, however, were won by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). The bombshell of a report goes on to suggest that Chawla regularly leaked classified information to Congress bosses - often while the EC's closed-door internal meetings were in progress. Some of Gopalaswami's citings appear quite comic. For example, he alleges that Chawla used to frequent the washroom during crucial meetings to get feedback from his political bosses on what position to take.

Known for his long association with the Gandhi family - especially Sonia Gandhi, who had been befriended by his wife Rupika Chawla when they were both students of art restoration - Navin Chawla, Gopalaswami alleged, tried to protect Sonia at least twice. Once during what was known as the "office-of-profit" controversy, when members of Parliament holding even titular posts in government-sponsored bodies fell victim en masse to a witchhunt-gone-awry that threatened to consume all parties.

Much to the embarrassment of the ruling party, even Sonia had to resign and get re-elected to avoid disqualification from Parliament. At another time, Chawla prevaricated on a case filed by a lawyer seeking to disqualify the Italian-born Sonia for receiving the Order of Leopold honor from Belgium (thus, allegedly, demonstrating her "allegiance to foreign forces"). On a third occasion, he seems to have supported the move to send Sonia Gandhi a notice for making a "provocative" campaign speech - calling Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, a "peddler of death" - but wanted it to remain secret.

Why is this classified dossier being seen as part of a "proxy war"? Because its timing is itself not without political significance. Rather curiously, the report comes just prior to the fixing of the general election schedule. It is also bang in the middle of the election process - that is, on April 20 - that Gopalaswami will turn 65 years of age, the cut-off date of superannuation for a chief election commissioner. And, by way of past precedence, Chawla would take over from him as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). It is, of course, a constitutional position highly bound by rule of law and thus insulated from unilateral or arbitrary decision-making. But as the above allegations show, there are things a commission can do that go for or against political interests.

For this reason, in recent years, the EC has become subject to political appointments - career bureaucrats, tacitly loyal to one dispensation or the other, being rewarded with this high-profile posting and in return subtly guarding those interests while overall maintaining the poise and illusion of constitutional propriety. The present case has all the elements that illustrate this. The hostilities actually go back to 2006, right after Chawla came into the EC, when the Opposition BJP/ NDA petitioned then President APJ Abdul Kalam to remove him.

After this petered out, they moved court. In a judgement that left some loose ends, the Supreme Court told the petitioners to approach the CEC. It is this BJP petition, filed with Gopalaswami one year ago, that has now suddenly borne fruit. The key point of legal contention in all this revolved around whether the CEC has suo motu powers to investigate a fellow commissioner and have him removed.

Constitutional subtleties apart, there was some good, old-fashioned muck also flying around. The March 2006 petition was based on media reports - which, miraculously, surfaced around the same time - that a private trust run by Chawla's wife had been receiving discretionary donations from Congress legislators, out of public funds meant for development works. Also, that the trust got land near Jaipur, Rajasthan, at highly subsidized rates during the tenure of a Congress government. (A fresh court case was filed on it this week, signaling further bloodletting.)

That Chawla, a 63-year-old bureaucrat, had a controversial stint in Delhi during the infamous internal "emergency" of 1975, when a state of emergency was declared in India, and was seen to be close to Sanjay Gandhi was also a point of grouse. Many leaders of the opposition BJP spent time behind bars during the emergency.

Having made the decision to name Chawla to the EC, however, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet in 2006 decided to tough it out and rejected the petition - though filed with the President, it was the executive's call. The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) bought temporary peace by duly okaying, alongside, the elevation of Gopalaswami to the CEC post. This it did despite the fact that he was appointed to the EC during the previous BJP and National Defense Academy rule. It's less easy to make charges of bias stick on a rulebook-bound officer like Gopalaswami. But prior to his own entry into the Election Commission, the man - who is distinguished among other things by a red vermilion caste-mark on his forehead, a rare display these days of Brahmin conservatism - was the hand-picked home secretary of former deputy PM-cum-Home Minister LK Advani, the 'Iron Man' of the right-wing BJP.

It is for this reason that the Congress has found it possible now to allege "a deep congruence" between Gopalaswami's actions and the BJP's designs. Even respected constitutional experts like Fali S Nariman and former law minister Shanti Bhushan find the timing of the CEC report suspect and political in nature. Bhushan even demanded Gopalaswami's resignation for dragging the commission and the President's office into this controversy on election-eve. The BJP, on its part, is insisting that Chawla's continuation itself is untenable, leave alone his proposed elevation. It is even considering moving the Supreme Court on this.

As the temperatures go up, the political spectrum is also genuinely stricken by the prospect of a constitutional impasse. In the midst of all this, the third man on the commission, SY Quraishi, broke all protocol and jumped the gun to announce a tentative timeframe for the Indian general elections from faraway London. Under the circumstances, it could hardly be written off as a random indiscretion - and created the impression of a triangular split. Remember, this is harvest season at the commission: its daily work would include fixing the timetable for polls that would decide who rules India for the next five years. How would three warring commissioners actually work together? At an all-party meeting called by the EC two days ago, a few delegates openly expressed their doubts.

But will the Congress brazen it out once more, allowing someone clearly perceived as a loyalist to rise to high office? Its response could evolve: though only one commissioner is retiring in April, a senior central minister told this correspondent about "two fresh appointments" being on the cards, which could mean either a scripted resignation drama or even an expansion. For the record, however, law minister HR Bharadwaj did some tough talking through the media, asking Gopalaswami not to exceed his mandate or play "political boss''. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recuperating from a cardiac surgery, may not want to be seen on the side of constitutional impropriety, but the party seems to be sticking to its guns. That is, the succession can go on as scheduled; and the CEC's recommendation does not bind anyone to any course of action because the incumbent has no suo motu powers.

This moral/legal unease with the phrase suo motu, indeed, has a history that explains exactly why the Election Commission has the prestige and aura that it has in India. It goes back about two decades to the time it used to be a one-man commission. To the seminal but disturbing figure of TN Seshan, the 10th Chief Election Commissioner. A typical mandarin who rose to the very top of Indian officialdom in the 1980s doing nothing more than the servile bidding that his ilk was known for, he suddenly discovered a spine after being named the CEC. The results were nothing short of electrifying.

Those days, elections in India offered a spectacular theatre of democratic malpractice. Alcohol and money would flow in urban shanties in return for votes. And rigging in the vast rural swathes usually went beyond sophisticated sleights of hand accomplished through paperwork. With the tacit knowledge of all party bosses, political goon squads would roam the countryside and simply "capture" entire polling booths or shepherd entire villages by the truckload to vote at gunpoint. Violent clashes and killings were almost normal. Popular disenchantment with "corrupt" politicians was at an all-time high. In short, conditions were ripe for a saviour.

Enter 'Al-Seshan'
In walked Seshan, rulebook in tow, turning a position that was nothing more than a sinecure until then into the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He unilaterally ordered wall-to-wall army deployment in constituencies with a nose for trouble, countermanded elections if there was even a whiff of wrongdoing, and cracked down on parties that ignored the model code of conduct.

In short, he single-handedly took on the entire political class and, to those who questioned, all he did was refer them to the lawbook. He was an excellent scholar, and it turned out that for every sceptic he could quote a constitutional clause that protected his capacity to act. Thus, the Indian citizen began to see in him a personification of the rule of law; he had tapped into a latent desire for order.

Then hubris struck. Seshan's profile inevitably went through a sort of hyper-inflation, hasty biographies were written, and his actions started taking on a distinct dictatorial air, guided by his own vaulting ambition. After his term ended, his visions of presidential grandeur came a cropper in a disastrous bid for the country's highest office, backed, ironically, only by the extreme right-wing Shiv Sena.

But he had accomplished two things: scared witless by his runaway unilateralism, a nervous government in 1993 managed to convert the commission into a three-man panel, with the CEC merely the primus inter pares. Ever since, the precise degree to which the CEC has suzerainty over their two colleagues is a matter of high disputation - coming right down to the present fracas over suo motu powers.

He had also managed to convert the EC into quite the showpiece of Indian democracy, exporting its expertise to such nations as Afghanistan. In testing the boundaries of personal initiative in a judicial role, in exceeding and faltering, he ironically created the space for action that it now inhabits. He set off a bit of a trend, a me-too phenomenon of activist-bureaucrats even outside, behaving like sheriffs riding into a bad town, shooting straight from the lawbook. And in the EC, any number of dowdy bureaucrats who came in his wake have walked with an extra swagger and with the conviction that they sit on a huge deposit of popular trust.

In a political world awash in wavering certitudes, they still play to the perceptions of being objective umpires who refuse to kow-tow to a manipulative, self-serving political class. This aura the institution carries has been burnished anew ever so often, and frequently in very trying circumstances. Its visible neutrality also helps stabilize the polity.

The current controversy broke just days after the commission successfully conducted elections in Kashmir, where a record turnout of voters not only stunned domestic doomsayers and the international community but even shocked Kashmiri separatist leaders. Its regulatory presence and jurisprudence has also helped India manage the transition from being a single-party democracy for much of its 60 years to a multi-party coalition era where small regional parties with limited elected representatives call the shots. It's an increasingly fragmented polity, where two main national parties - the Congress and the BJP - have to depend on regional outfits to form a government or to play an effective opposition, and a non-partisan umpire provides a level playing ground.

It is this role of a neutral adjudicator that the present crop of commissioners must live up to. And the political class too would do well to realize the utility of a robust, autonomous institution goes well beyond the next election. To start with, everyone could mull over the suggestion put forward by TS Krishnamurthy, the former CEC, and the EC's ex-legal counsel KJ Rao, that the appointment of election commissioners be delinked from the executive. For it is clearly the political appointments, done by the government of the day, that has led to such unsavory episodes.

Poor Schools For India’s Poor?

As enrolments in schools rise, it is time for India to invest in quality public education. My work requires me to interact with some of the most dispossessed and impoverished communities in the country, and I consistently find that even as poor households battle hunger, debt, unemployment and social humiliation, most still send their children to school. They do this at enormous personal cost, and with great hope for what the schools have to offer. Rich or poor, most Indian parents now aspire to educate their children. An encouraging 96 percent of children aged 6-14 years are enrolled in schools today.

 But sadly, schools betray these aspirations, as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012 suggests. The report gathers compelling and disturbing evidence of abysmal learning outcomes in a majority of schools across India. More than half the children in Class V cannot read a Class II textbook, and three-quarters of children in Class III cannot read a Class I textbook.

 The wake-up call, which emerges from ASER 2012, is that the levels of reading and arithmetic in our schools are not only poor but also declining in many states. The situation is one of a “deepening crisis” in education, as Madhav Chavan, the author of the report notes. Only three states — Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala — have high learning levels on the ASER scale. Except Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where levels are low but not falling, other big states contribute heavily to the overall declining learning levels.

 The Right to Education Act (RTE) initially eliminated all forms of student evaluation, and laid down — for good reasons — that children will not be held back for poor performance. But this well-intentioned provision may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater, because it further reduced the accountability of the system for scholastic performance. Fortunately, this is now remedied because continuous and comprehensive evaluation is now a part of the law.

 What RTE promises is a publicly funded school in the neighbourhood of every child in the country. But as the ASER survey reminds us, the biggest challenge to the public education system is not only to expand the reach of government schools, but to improve their quality. RTE tends to equate quality education with the qualifications of teachers. It mandates formal training for every teacher, assuming that this will improve the quality of education. It fails to acknowledge that teachers will teach well in environments where they are valued, supported with imaginative teaching materials, their skills continuously upgraded, and robust systems of monitoring and accountability established.

Scholastic outcomes are poorer in government schools, compared to private ones. But as Chavan admits, “Private school education is not great and the socio-economic educational background of children’s families, parental aspirations and additional support for learning contribute majorly to their better performance. Yet, the fact remains that the learning gap between government and private school students is widening. This widening gap may make the private schools look better, but in an absolute sense it is important to note that as of 2012 less than 40 percent of Class V children in private schools could solve problems in division.”

 Parents are despairing of the public school system, and opt for lower-end private schools. The report estimates that 35 percent of children enrolled in schools study in private institutions. If the current trend sustains, more than half our children would be paying for their education by 2020.

 The solution is not to accept privatisation of education. Children studying in government schools will be the poorest, and if the quality of education continues to decline, it will confine the poor to the boundaries of socio-economic barriers established by their birth. The country needs to invest significantly more in government schools, in the salaries, and training of government teachers. India needs to show that it believes in securing equal chances for all children, regardless of the accident of where they are born. This is possible only with a dynamic and effective public school system.

Telangana Movement Gains Momentum

By M H Ahssan & Javed Hassan

With support for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh reaching a feverish pitch across the broad political spectrum, it is no longer a question of if but when the Telangana region would be carved out into a separate entity as the 29th state of the Indian Union. Forces led by the BJP, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and others have pulled the rug from under the Congress, which won the elections in 2004 by promising a separate state for the people of Telangana. Now that the opposition parties led by the BJP have jumped on the ‘separate Telangana’ bandwagon, the TDP has made a u-turn after opposing the movement all along, leaving the Congress party in the lurch.

Adding a new twist to the political dimensions of the Telangana movement, NRIs from Hyderabad working in Saudi Arabia) told HNN in an exclusive statement that the changing scenario in the state has placed Muslims on the horns of a dilemma. The worrisome factor, said Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, an NRI executive in Riyadh, is the future status of Hyderabad—whether it will be hived off from Andhra Pradesh as a union territory or made a joint capital of the two states.

Amid these twists and turns, the Nava Telangana Party (NTP), the brainchild of former TDP leader Devender Goud, has sought to hog the limelight through his ‘Telangana Yatra’, which he undertook last month to mobilize support for his party. He has also launched his own website in the Barrack Obama style, with news bulletins in English and Telugu. Video clips show Goud canvassing for his party among the scheduled castes, farmers and the Telangana Employees’ Association which, according to the NTP web news, has joined hands with the party.

Throughout his yatra which wended its way through the Telangana region, Goud harangued his audience, heaped abuses on the TDP and the Congress, while his party workers went about pasting “Telangana State” stickers on buses, buildings and other public places. There were pictures of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to reinforce NTP’s message as the party of the downtrodden.

Not to be outmaneuvered , even the left parties and those representing the OBCs (Other Backward Classes) have veered round to the ‘separate Telangana’ movement which, they hope, would augur well for the future of that region. The theme of their political rhetoric is the same: they all want an end to the exploitation by the state leadership on the economic, educational and employment fronts.

The shift in the political landscape of the state has upped the ante against the Congress, which finds itself in a bind. If it goes along with Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM), which wants the Congress to oppose the ‘separate Telangana’ campaign, it risks losing vote during next year’s elections. On the other hand, if it chooses to go with the flow, it could alienate the Muslims. Although the TDP has counseled its ally to back the Telangana movement, the Congress leadership continues to dither for the time being. However, according to all available indications, it is a matter of time before the Congress High Command could cave in, setting the stage for the next big move.

There is a rationale behind all this political drama that is being played out, .both at the Centre and in the state capital. Andhra Pradesh goes to the polls towards the middle of next year, at a time when the Rajasekhara Reddy government is hamstrung by an anti-incumbency factor. Briefing the Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation facing his party, the chief minister is said to have stressed that an assembly resolution endorsing the proposal for the creation of Telangana could help neutralise this anti-incumbency sentiment.

With the TDP’s about-turn on the Telangana issue, the Congress is wilting under enormous pressure to scuttle the move. On top of this, Chandrababu Naidu is seeking electoral alliance with K Chandrasekhara Rao of TRS in the Telangana region. The ruling party thus finds itself vulnerable to the ebb and flow of the political tide sweeping across the state.

TDP’s change in its political stance came about when Chandrasekhara Rao left the TDP in 2001 and spearheaded the movement for Telangana under the banner of his own political party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Secondly, both the leaders were facing serious threat to their political survival. While the TDP was plagued by defections to the new party of popular film star Chiranjeevi, Chandrasekhara Rao found himself on slippery ground in the wake of a serious threat posed by Goud’s NTP.

Explaining its aims and objectives, Goud said his party will strive for the formation of Telangana state, for which action will be taken both at the political and street levels through agitations. "The party will take up the problems and issues of all sections of society, including the Dalits, tribal and Muslims", he pointed out. Goud, who had resigned from TDP on June 23 this year, said he was forced to launch his new outfit as the Congress and TDP were stonewalling over support to Telangana and its people.

These developments forced the hands of TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu in reaching out to CPM, CPI and TRS leaders for their support to his party's decision to back the demand for a separate Telangana state. Naidu's move is politically significant as the CPM, the CPI and the TRS are in the process of forging an alliance against the Congress and the BJP in the Assembly elections likely to be held in February 2009. "I spoke to the CPI and the CPM leaders as also with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao. I briefed them about our five-member core committee's recommendations on Telangana and that we are favouring separate Telangana," Naidu said, unveiling his campaign strategy.

Against this background comes the statement of MIM president and other Hyderabad State Muslim leaders who feel that by agreeing to the creation of the new state of Telangana, the Congress would be playing into the hands of the BJP, which has been advocating the Telangana cause ardently.

As things stand, MIM has very little space for political maneuvering given the fact that the TRS, a one-time ally of the Congress, ordered four of its MPs to resign in an act of brinkmanship to keep the heat on the UPA. The move coincided with similar resignations tendered by 16 TRS MLAs and its three MLCs from the Andhra Legislative Assembly and Council respectively. TRS wants the Telangana region to be carved out into a separate state—a pledge to which the Congress had committed itself in the 2004state assembly elections.

It took this line of action when the Congress failed to heed its ultimatum given earlier setting March 6 this year as the deadline for the bifurcation of the state.TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao said the party will also launch a door- to- door campaign to explain the mass the betrayal by the Congress.

However, MIM, Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim organizations have distanced themselves from the Telangana movement due to their apprehension that Muslims may not get a fair deal under the new dispensation. They are also upset over being side-tracked during the ongoing political wheeling and dealing concerning the Telangana issue.

To quote MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi who spelled out his party’s stand on this issue, “It is not that we are opposed to Telangana per se. If a new state is formed, the tally of seats of our party in elections will go up. But we have to first ensure the safety and welfare of Muslims and other things such as the future of Urdu language. Whether these will be safe in Telangana is the issue.’’

As an indication of the shape of things to come, Owaisi cited the recent Vatoli incident when a family of six Muslims was hacked to death in a Telangana village. While MIM’s concern in this regard is understandable, the same factor had influenced their voting behaviour during the Legislative Assembly elections held in Karnataka in May this year. Although the BJP swept the polls and formed a government by engineering defections from the Congress, the status of Muslim representation in the BJP government remained unchanged—a Muslim minister in charge of Awqaf and minority affairs plus some political patronage here and there.

As a sop for the next year’s elections, they have been given some concessions in terms of education and employment opportunities. Furthermore, infrastructural facilities, such as laying new pipelines for water supply or replacing the leaky ones in some Muslim-dominated areas, were put in place with an eye on the upcoming elections. So the bottom line has remained the same. Whether it is the Congress or the BJP at the helm of affairs, some ad hoc cosmetic measures could always be expected as part of their strategy to tap into the Muslim vote bank.

Under these circumstances, continued Muslim opposition to the formation of a separate Telangana state would not be in the interest of Muslims, as it could provide ammunition to the BJP to further isolate the community. As the situation stands, almost all the political parties are now in favour of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, with the Congress expected to come on board anytime during the run-up to the elections. Surely, Muslims would not like to be seen as the lone dissenters under these circumstances.

As MP Asaduddin Owaisi put it, the BJP would emerge stronger if a separate Telangana State was created. “The so-called secular parties cannot match the BJP after creation of Telangana State. The future of Dalits, weaker sections and minorities would be bleak in separate Telangana,” he pointed out.

Yet, the fact remains that the conflict has assumed a caste dimension. Other backward classes (OBCs) are seeking to use the Telangana card to consolidate their political base across the state. This game of one-upmanship is part of their ploy to outmanoeuvre the politically powerful Reddys and Kammas who dominate the political apparatus of the state in spite of their small numbers.

Although TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao is a higher caste Velama, the banner of Telangana across party lines has been hoisted both by OBCs and Scheduled Caste leaders. Even the Nizamabad Congress MP Madhu Yaski Goud, an OBC, blasted the AP government for its soft-pedaling over the formation of Telangana.

Sarvey Satyanarayana, Congress MP from Siddipet and an SC leader, also spoke in a similar vein, while. other OBC Congress MPs like Anjan Kumar Yadav from Secunderabad are orchestrating their move to jump on to the Telangana bandwagon. Andhra Congress chief Keshava Rao also seems ready to toe the same line.

Another point that should be noted is that .BJP has mobilized Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in its campaign for the creation of Telangana state. "The party is organising a massive rally of Narendra Modi in Telangana in December. Modi has already proved his mettle by winning the Nano small car project for his state amid fierce competition from Andhra Pradesh and other states after the Tatas decided to pull out of West Bengal last month in the wake of stiff opposition from Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

Already, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani sounded upbeat recently when he told a massive rally during an electioneering campaign in Hyderabad that the people were now looking forward to the BJP for the creation of the Telangana state. To this end, Modi has been roped in for his pro-development image. Advani also pledged on the same occasion that the saffron party, if voted to power, would expedite the formation of Telangana state within 100 days.

In this context, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi took the plunge with the launch of his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) that, he said, would support the formation of a separate Telangana State that existed from 1948 to 1956, when it was trifurcated by the States’ Reorganisation Commission along linguistic lines. "It is for the Central government to take a decision on creation of Telangana State. If it comes up with such a proposal, our party will not be an obstacle at any cost," he observed.

"I know the people of this region are overwhelmingly in favour of a separate state. I respect your feelings. If you are convinced that creation of a separate state will ensure rapid development, I am with you," Chiranjeevi said, emphasizing social justice as the main plank of his political platform.

Chirnjeevi observed: “It will be a party for backward classes, farmers, workers, women and youth. The party will work for development, modernisation and industrial revolution. Its goal will be 'santosh' and 'ananda' (contentment and happiness)," he said, adding: "I know your problems, pains and sufferings and will always stand by you. Let us strive for achieving it."

However, a cross-section of NRIs contacted by HNN in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, has dismissed these pledges as nothing more than a camouflage for masking their own high-voltage ambitions. Dr. Abid Moiz, a veteran NRI working as a nutritionist in the Saudi Ministry of Health in Riyadh, said: “In my opinion, no party is championing the cause of Telangana. Every party wants to gain political mileage by raising the Telangana issue.” Citing the case of Devender Goud who left the TDP to launch his own political outfit (TRS), he asked: “Why did they remain silent when they were in power? Why are they raising the Telangana issue now? Obviously, it is for personal benefit, the most important of which is becoming the CM.”

He also did not think that the separatist movement would serve the interests of the people, both economically and politically. “No. We live in a global village. We will not benefit from separating ourselves from others. Maybe, a separate Telangana will better serve government employees and, of course, politicians.”

On the question of MIM’s opposition to a separate Telangana since the 1960s, Dr. Moiz told HNN: “ They are of the opinion that the BJP's influence is widespread in the Telangana region, where the language widely spoken is Urdu. It is my personal opinion that when the states are carved out on linguistic basis, then this area should be made Hyderabad state with Urdu as its language. In the past Telangana was part of Hyderabad, whose official language was Urdu. Hyderabad was then split into three parts on the basis of language and these areas were merged with Kannada-, Marathi- and Telugu- speaking areas of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra, which subsequently became Andhra Pradesh. Then, what about Urdu?”

Urdu columnist-cum-photographer K.N.Wasif, who works for a Riyadh-based Saudi Arabic magazine, too, attributed the political fireworks to personal rivalries and high ambitions. He said Chandrashekhar Rao, founder of Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), left the TDP to form his own party following some differences with Chandrababu Naidu , the TDP supremo. Meanwhile, there are two new kids on political bloc— Praja Rajyam led by Chiranjeevi, mega star of the Telugu film industry with a big fan following, and Devender Goud who launched NTP after resigning from TDP.

“He also claims that he will fight against the injustice meted out to the people from Telangana. He was a minister in the TDP government and is considered to be the right hand man of Chandrababu Naidu. Anyhow, he is a small -time leader and doesn't have a large following like Chiranjeevi, who poses a serious challenge for TDP. The Congress has yet to spell out its stand on the separate Telangana movement.”

Making a swipe at the parties, Wasif said the Telangana movement has always been led “by politically unemployed persons who are not sincere in their support for the cause. If at all a separate Telangana state is formed, it will be beneficial for some politicians but it will not be in the greater interest of the people of Telangana, which was always a backward area. After it becomes a separate state, it will become more backward.”

He said MIM had always been against a separate Telangana state since 1969 when the late Dr. Chenna Reddy spearheaded the movement on a mass scale. “Why MIM is against the movement is a big debate which I cannot discuss here.”

According to Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, Executive Director of Al-Ma’awiya Group of Polyclinics, separate Telangana was a burning issue in the last election for almost all
the political parties. However, it was TRS which spearheaded the campaign.to upstage others who were also fighting for this cause.

Asked if the movement will safeguard the interests of the people , both economically and politically, Zia said: “I don't think so, because during the period of NTR many people from Andhra moved to the Telangana area. They are now holding top positions in the
government and business and controlling the economy of the state. Telangana is a very backward area with a poor educational background. They also don't have any resources, especially the Telangana Muslims, who are going to face a lot of challenges.”

Zia, who hails from Jangaon in Warangal district, said popular reaction there to the movement has been mixed, with mostly the Hindu electorate being in favour. However, some Muslims have also fallen in line without being aware of its future implications.

On the question of BJP’s support, he attributed it to the Hindu vote bank. “If they establish a separate Telangana, for sure they can form the government, as they do not have a substantial presence in the Andhra region.”

Zia observed that the separatist movement has always been opposed by MIM, “ because it is not in the interests of Muslims. Once they create a Telangana state, they will separate Hyderabad from Telangana like Delhi from UP. Alternatively, they could make Hyderabad the joint capital for Andhra and Telangana.”

The campaign for a separate Telangana state recalls a similar struggle during the 1990's when the late Chandulal Chadrakar set up a political forum, the Chhattisgarh Rajya Nirman Manch, to spearhead the drive for the formation of Chhattisgarh from 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The campaign, which was propped up by major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, gained momentum as it coincided with other separatist movements for Uttarkhand and Jharkhand during 1998-99.

During that year, the BJP-led Union Government drafted a bill for the constitution of a separate state of Chhattisgarh. The draft bill was sent to the Madhya Pradesh assembly, which unanimously approved it in 1998, with some modifications. Thus, Chhattisgarh came into being as the 26th state of the Indian Union on November 1, 2000 by the force of circumstances that also triggered the birth of Uttarkhand carved out of Himachal Pradesh as the 27th state on November 9 and Jharkhand out of southern Bihar as the 28th state on November 15 during the same year. The BJP, which has installed its own candidates in Uttarkhand and Chhattisgarh as chief ministers, sees in Telangana a similar opportunity to don the mantle of leadership. No wonder, it has mobilized its political heavy weights to improve its fortunes in the polls.

The Telangana movement shares with these three states a common factor—under-development resulting from the exploitation of its economic and natural resources. As P.L.Vishweshwer Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, notes in his article: “No movement, no struggle has ever started from the top: from intellectuals, thinkers, political and other leaders, elected representatives and so on. Inevitably, the struggles begin from people - the people give expression to their suffering because it is they who are victims of status quo. The long-dormant hope in the people of Telangana was awakened with the announcement as statehood for Uttarakhand by the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Within a year it has gathered so much strength that politicians, realizing its potential have jumped on to its bandwagon”.

He elaborates that the Telangana region has the lowest literacy rate and minimal educational infrastructure in the state. As many as eight districts of Telangana out of 10 (including Hyderabad) figure among the most backward educationally. “Mahbubnagar has the lowest literacy rate, both among males (40.8 per cent) and females(18 percent). The entire Telangana, except Hyderabad city and Ranga Reddy Urban areas which are in Hyderabad, has lagged behind educationally. Not a single mandal of Telangana has the national literacy rate of 52.19 percent.”

It is against this background that that a move is under way to prevent the exploitation of Telangana-based college managements by their counterparts from coastal districts. Hundreds of colleges belonging to Telangana managements have reportedly crashed in the competition. For this reason, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has warned that colleges run by non-Telangana managements would be banned in separate Telangana.

In fact, the birth of Maoism in Telangana, is said to be partly an offshoot of exploitation by people from the Andhra region, some of whom obtained fake degree certificates to corner jobs in Hyderabad. They also used these tricks to remain entrenched in government positions which, in turn, armed them with decision making powers.

On the economic front, they exploited its rich mineral resources as well as the Krishna and Godavari rivers that are the major sources of irrigation for the entire state. Andhra farmers reportedly went even further by cultivating water-intensive crops depleting its water resources. They also preferred cash to food crops to boost their own income while jacking up food prices as a result of these misplaced priorities.

For these reasons, Telangana has been ranked among the most under-developed regions in the country with all its nine districts, excluding Hyderabad, designated “backward” by the Centre. These districts now receive special assistance from the Central government’s Backward Regions Grant Fund. Under these circumstances, the people of Telangana and its parties see statehood as the only viable route to development. Whether their bread will be evenly buttered for everyone remains a matter of speculation at this stage.

One of the strong points of Telangana , however, is its IT industry which gained prominence during the tenure of the former TDP Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu. Thanks to its highly skilled manpower base, Hyderabad carved out a niche for itself as India’s second Silicon Valley after Bangalore with its IT and IT- enabled services, pharmaceuticals and entertainment industries. It should leverage its strength in these sectors to create more job opportunities for the people and stimulate economic development to a new pitch.

It is a tribute to Telangana that IT bellwether Infosys of Bangalore has embarked on the construction of its second campus, spread over 447 acres, at Pocharam, near Hyderabad, with a total investment of Rs 1,250 crores. The ground -breaking ceremony of the Infosys SEZ campus was held at Pocharam village in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd. N R Narayana Murthy has said that their decision to locate the project in that village was taken in view of the high infrastructure facilities in Hyderabad to make it a premier IT destination.

The Infosys campus at Pocharam is expected to accommodate over 25,000 employees and will be completed over a period of 10 years under a three-phase plan. Work is in progress on the first phase, scheduled to be completed in a three-year period, with a seating capacity of 10,000 employees. The initial investment will amount to Rs 600 crore. Telangana can be justifiably proud of its track record in the IT sector as it looks forward to its future as a separate state.

COALGATE: WHY TRYING TO SHIELD THE ISSUE?

By Kajol Singh / New Delhi

Two topmost law officers of the country—Attorney General GE Vahanvati and his former deputy Harin Raval—lied before the Supreme Court that they had not gone through the CBI’s status report on Coalgate.

CHANDIGARH - INDIA’S ONLY GLOBAL CITY

By M H Ahssan

High income levels and great civic amenities make Chandigarh a dream destination for marketers

In the past five years, Chandigarh has done well in several fields such as software, real estate, luxury goods and automobiles. The city is now home to most luxury brands and some of the largest retail chains . It has also emerged as a huge market for the FMCG and consumer durable industries.

Chandigarh is now aspiring to become a hub of economic activity, propelled by the services sector and its allied investments in retail and real estate. This has brought brands like Tag Heuer, Rado, Ferragamo Salvatore, Ecco, Tommy Hilfiger to Chandigarh while others like Mango, Louis Vuitton and Chanel are vying for space. The land availability isn’t a deterrent for Big Bazaar, Shoppers Stop, Vishal Megamart, Reliance Retail, and dealerships for luxury cars that have made base in the city’s Industrial and Business Park.

Major hotel chains such as The Lalit, The Oberoi’s and Taj GVK are making their way to Chandigarh, while international chains like Accor’s Novotel and Ibis, Emaar’s Formula 1 and New York’s Berggruen Hotel’s Keys are awaiting the good times to return to begin work on their property.

An international airport will be operational this year and a metro rail project (in collaboration with the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) is being put in place. A bullet train service to New Delhi, cutting travel time to nearly an hour, will help the city attract businesses and traders to the city.

Radio taxis with electronic metres, GPS, low-floor bus services on a grid system and a fleet of 100 AC and non-AC buses under the JNNURM scheme are expected to make the city a better place to live. In terms of living standards, Chandigarh is the first ‘smoke free’ and ‘plastic free’ city. Now the efforts of the city government are on to make it slum free. More than 25,000 small flats are being constructed to rehabilitate slum dwellers in a Rs 1,300-crore housing project.

The city offers the highest living standards in the country. Some of the civic amenities and infrastructure facilities are among the best in the country. Within a radius of 10 km, the city offers everything including a horse-riding club, tennis and cricket academies, police station, recreational green spaces and an array of eating joints like Pizza Hut, Dominoes and bistros Barista, Café Coffee Day and Costa Coffee.

An education city has been envisaged to enhance the supply of human resources especially financial service professionals, hospitality managers and skilled technicians to reduce talent-drain to other cities. A cyber security research centre (first of its kind in the country) has been set up in collaboration with NASSCOM and Punjab Engineering College for conducting high quality research on cyber security issues involving the academia, IT industry and government security agencies. A Medi-City has been planned on an area of 100 acres which will have state-of-the-art super specialty hospitals, providing quality health care as well as promoting medical tourism. This will be in addition to two government-run multi-specialty hospitals.

A botanical garden is being developed on 178 acres in Sarangpur, a village on the outskirts of the city, which consists of 15 botanical sections and other features to promote eco-tourism. Besides stretches of green spaces that divide housing sections (sectors), there are a number of gardens like Rose Garden which is Asia’s largest garden of roses. A bamboo valley is being established in the heart of city to add to the green cover. Add to this three lakes that are being constructed by the city administration.

Chandigarh is also one of the few cities in India where equal thrust is given on power conservation and more use of renewable energy. An Energy Park is being set up with the support of Union ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which will go a long way in educating the residents about the uses of renewable energy. Tata BP Solar Ltd is helping the city to realise its dreams and to develop Chandigarh as a Solar City for which The Energy Research Institute (TERI) has been asked to prepare a master plan.

Long term tie-ups have been made with all the power corporations to ensure regular power supply but the stress is being laid on reducing T&D losses to the bare minimum. The target is to bring it down to 16% which presently hovers at around 19%.

To encourage industrial growth, the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park (RGCTP) has been set up. Companies like Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra, besides 20 others, have already employed around 9,000 professionals there. In 2007-08 fiscal, the total software exports from RGCTP alone were Rs 390 crore out of Rs 500 crore for Chandigarh and Rs 820 crore for the tri-city (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali). Up to December 2008, the software exports from RGCTP have touched Rs 436 crore and is likely to cross Rs 550 crore by the year end. Once completed, with a total area of 650 acres, it will provide direct employment to more than 60,000 professionals. Accordingly, the total investment in RGCTP will cross Rs 6,000 crore and the software exports from RGCTP will cross Rs 4,500 crore by the end of 2012.

To keep the spark of entrepreneurship alive, a state of the art entrepreneur’s development centre is being established by the administration. A business-friendly conversion policy allows the owners of plots in the industrial area to convert them into commercial projects, paving the way for modern shopping malls, hotels and commercial centres.

Poor Schools For India’s Poor?

As enrolments in schools rise, it is time for India to invest in quality public education.

My work requires me to interact with some of the most dispossessed and impoverished communities in the country, and I consistently find that even as poor households battle hunger, debt, unemployment and social humiliation, most still send their children to school. They do this at enormous personal cost, and with great hope for what the schools have to offer. Rich or poor, most Indian parents now aspire to educate their children. An encouraging 96 percent of children aged 6-14 years are enrolled in schools today.

 But sadly, schools betray these aspirations, as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012 suggests. The report gathers compelling and disturbing evidence of abysmal learning outcomes in a majority of schools across India. More than half the children in Class V cannot read a Class II textbook, and three-quarters of children in Class III cannot read a Class I textbook.

 The wake-up call, which emerges from ASER 2012, is that the levels of reading and arithmetic in our schools are not only poor but also declining in many states. The situation is one of a “deepening crisis” in education, as Madhav Chavan, the author of the report notes. Only three states — Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala — have high learning levels on the ASER scale. Except Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where levels are low but not falling, other big states contribute heavily to the overall declining learning levels.

 The Right to Education Act (RTE) initially eliminated all forms of student evaluation, and laid down — for good reasons — that children will not be held back for poor performance. But this well-intentioned provision may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater, because it further reduced the accountability of the system for scholastic performance. Fortunately, this is now remedied because continuous and comprehensive evaluation is now a part of the law.

 What RTE promises is a publicly funded school in the neighbourhood of every child in the country. But as the ASER survey reminds us, the biggest challenge to the public education system is not only to expand the reach of government schools, but to improve their quality. RTE tends to equate quality education with the qualifications of teachers. It mandates formal training for every teacher, assuming that this will improve the quality of education. It fails to acknowledge that teachers will teach well in environments where they are valued, supported with imaginative teaching materials, their skills continuously upgraded, and robust systems of monitoring and accountability established.

 Scholastic outcomes are poorer in government schools, compared to private ones. But as Chavan admits, “Private school education is not great and the socio-economic educational background of children’s families, parental aspirations and additional support for learning contribute majorly to their better performance. Yet, the fact remains that the learning gap between government and private school students is widening. This widening gap may make the private schools look better, but in an absolute sense it is important to note that as of 2012 less than 40 percent of Class V children in private schools could solve problems in division.”

 Parents are despairing of the public school system, and opt for lower-end private schools. The report estimates that 35 percent of children enrolled in schools study in private institutions. If the current trend sustains, more than half our children would be paying for their education by 2020.

 The solution is not to accept privatisation of education. Children studying in government schools will be the poorest, and if the quality of education continues to decline, it will confine the poor to the boundaries of socio-economic barriers established by their birth. The country needs to invest significantly more in government schools, in the salaries, and training of government teachers. India needs to show that it believes in securing equal chances for all children, regardless of the accident of where they are born. This is possible only with a dynamic and effective public school system.

Breathless in the city

By M H Ahssan

The market for respiratory products is on an upswing, with younger age groups showing an alarming rise in the incidence of such ailments.

The news of a school girl in Delhi succumbing to an asthma attack not only threw up questions about schools being ill equipped to handle medical emergencies but also the growing incidence of respiratory ailments. Besides hereditary reasons, growing industrialisation is one of the main reason for this situation. In the quest to become a developed nation, unchecked industrialisation, with a scant regard for pollution control norms might have paved the way for more such dreaded diseases in India.

Growing figures
Respiratory diseases can be divided into two subtypes, communicable and non communicable of which the former has been proved to be more fatal. According to statistics provided by Murlidharan Nair, Partner, Advisory Services, Ernst & Young, communicable respiratory diseases accounted for maximum deaths amongst communicable diseases. Statistics reveal that nearly 67 percent of the reported deaths in top 13 communicable diseases were attributable to respiratory infections in 2007.

Nair says, "Communicable respiratory diseases (acute respiratory infections, pulmonary tuberculosis and pneumonia) have the maximum incidence across all communicable diseases in the country. In 2007, approximately 23.3 million cases of acute respiratory infections were reported followed by other communicable diseases like acute diarrhoeal cases (9 million), malaria cases (1.3 million) 0.72 million cases of pulmonary tuberculosis and 0.66 million cases of pneumonia were also reported in the said period."

Acute respiratory diseases, non communicable/ chronic diseases are not far behind communicable diseases in terms of nuisance value. Not only the growth rate but also the market share is a 'point to be noted' thing for medical fraternities. Negative predictions about the growth rate of asthma will only add to their woes. "Acute respiratory diseases also have reported one of the fastest growths with morbidity having grown by 33 percent during 2000-2006 which is a significantly higher growth compared to other communicable diseases. Non-communicable/ chronic respiratory ailments like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma also account for nearly 1.5 percent of total disease burden in the country. There are currently 15 million cases of COPD and 25 million cases of asthma which are expected to grow by 50 percent by 2015. Six states (Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal) account for more than 68 percent of the acute respiratory burden with Kerala topping the list," informs Nair.

Many reasons
Not surprisingly, respiratory ailments are dominant in urban areas, thanks to man made environmental changes. One of the leading respiratory product manufacturers in India, Lupin has a wide range of oral and inhalation medications for the treatment of all types of airway disorders (asthma and COPD). The inhalation product range consists of Dry Powder Inhalers as well as Metered Dose Inhalers. They also have a dry powder device which is used with their dry powder capsules. The oral anti-asthma medications help complete the treatment options across the respiratory treatment value chain in order to treat the different kinds of respiratory ailments prevalent today.

Shakti Chakraborty, President - India Region Formulations, Lupin, opines, "Respiratory diseases are one of the most common forms of ill-health plaguing the Indian population today. They are also a leading cause of hospitalisation and death. Allergic respiratory disorders, in particular asthma, have recorded abnormally high levels, and this is not an India-specific, but in fact, a global phenomenon. Even though genetic predisposition is one of the factors in children for the increased prevalence, urbanisation, air pollution and environmental tobacco smoke contribute more significantly."

He adds, "Over the years, the most prominent trend that has emerged in India in the area of respiratory ailments is its increased incidence in children. While asthma and bronchitis were ailments largely restricted to the elderly, over the years, research has shown that more and more children are being affected. A lot of this is correlated to demographic changes in Indian cities, like the increase in the number of industries, density of population in migration from rural areas in search of jobs, and increased number of carbon-emitting automobiles on Indian roads."

According to Chakraborty, recent reports say that, there has been a 30 percent increase in asthma and congestion cases last year due to smog. Also, infections, genetic factors, and anything else that affects lung development, either directly or indirectly, can cause respiratory symptoms. The increase in population and widespread use of vaccines has also given rise to different varieties of the TB virus, most notably - Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB and the extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB. The next challenge for the pharma industry is to combat these newly developed strains of the bacterium. The industry is sure to see development on this front in a short time.

Nair puts his point of view. He says, "Acute respiratory ailments rank the highest with 23.3 million cases of reported ailments. These are followed by chronic conditions like asthma which account for approximately 25 million cases and COPD with 15 million cases. The key reasons for high incidence of respiratory diseases include seasonal/weather variations, growing air pollution, family history (for eg. incidence of asthma is 19 percent if one parent has asthma), allergens, malnutrition and poor living conditions, occupational hazards, limited primary and preventive healthcare facilities. And most importantly a rising number of active and passive smokers with India estimated to have 120 million smokers (nearly 40 percent of Indian males smoke)."

Pradeep Rane, President (formulation business), Alembic Pharmaceuticals mentions that disorders like bacterial and viral infections of the respiratory systems, respiratory allergic disorders and tuberculosis have shown a steady increase over the last few years. Environmental pollution, rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, increasing prevalence of smoking in the younger generation, unhealthy food habits and stress of urban life decreases the body immunity. Also, AIDS patients are highly susceptible to develop TB.

Medical practitioners, with their regular direct contact with patients are best positioned to forecast and track incidence levels of ailments they commonly see in patient populations and their observations too support this trend. Dr. Zarir Udwadia, Consultant, Pulmonary Department, Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai opines, "Asthma prevalence has increased globally and in India. People are exposed to more allergens indoors and outdoor pollution also contributes. Inhaled steroids remain the cornerstone of treatment of asthma. A new molecule useful in resistant asthma is OMALIZUMAB (an IgE monoclonal antibody)."

Flourishing market
A densely populated country like India is the natural breeding ground for respiratory infections. This huge patient pool has already lured many pharma companies to establish product lines in this particular category. No wonder, a large chunk of total pharma products market in India is dedicated to respiratory products. "The total drug spend on respiratory disease in India is approximately $600-625 million accounting for nearly 9-10 percent of the total drug market. If we split this into chronic and acute segments, the chronic respiratory segment accounts for three percent of the total drug market and acute respiratory segment accounts for nearly six-seven percent of the total drug market. The market is dominated by domestic players who hold nearly 80 percent of the market share. Cipla, Piramal Healthcare, Pfizer, GSK, Zydus Cadila and Alembic are the leading players in this segment. With rising incidence of chronic respiratory ailments - for example, COPD and asthma are expected to grow by 50 percent by 2015 and ever increasing incidence of acute ailments, the respiratory drugs market is expected to show robust growth of 12-14 percent over the next four-five years,"opines Nair

According to Chakraborty, the market for respiratory products is huge. That, combined with India being the TB capital of the world makes the potential of market enormous. As of February 2009, the asthma inhalation market stood at Rs 510 crores, showing a growth of 13 percent. (Data IMS MAT Feb 2009). On the other hand, the anti-TB market is at Rs 300 crores. Currently, this market is showing a negative growth of 5.6 percent, (Data IMS MAT Feb 2009) mainly due to the government's programme on tuberculosis, which gives free medicines to all patients. Lupin has dominant 48.2 percent market share , in the anti TB segment in the South Asia region.

Trends
Every new product comes into the market with some new features embedded into it.

Pharma companies, researchers/inventors look into the minute details in order to make medicine more patient friendly and 'more than just a tablet'. Chakraborty opines, "The industry is seeing new trends in the drug delivery system of the TB drug. The industry is now moving focus to developing new ways in which a drug can be delivered. While the oral method is the preferred method, companies are now focusing on delivering dry powder capsule and oral metered dose inhalers. We may later witness this trend moving to skin patches and use of magnets to deliver drugs, but that is very nascent and predicting at this stage would be very difficult."

He adds, "Lupin leads this development and with our strong focus on innovation, we already have drugs and dosage delivery systems consisting of dry powder capsules along with a dry powder device that administers this dose to patients. Apart from these, we also provide metered dose inhalers that help administer the requisite quantity of dosage for maximum impact."

According to Rane new trends in the treatment of respiratory ailments will include increasing usage of anti-bacterials, anti-allergics, cough suppressants, bronchodilators etc, development of newer medications such as antibiotics, antihistamines etc, which are even safer and more effective against drug-resistant bacteria, development of newer vaccines for prevention of bacterial and viral respiratory infections and development of newer methods such as immunotherapy for the treatment of respiratory allergies.

Nair states that according to World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, there are 300 million asthma patients and 210 million COPD patients world over. Estimates indicate that India accounts for 25 million asthma and 15 million COPD patients which means that India accounts for eight-nine percent of total global asthma and COPD burden. The respiratory drugs segment accounts for four-five percent of the $750 billion pharma market which implies a market size of approximately $ 35 billion. India's respiratory drug market size is approximately $ 600 million implying a miniscule 1.7 percent share of the global respiratory drug market. These figures may not look that alarming but predictions about increasing incidence of diseases like COPD and asthma could well change this scenario. Though the slowly growing incidence of respiratory ailments is not a healthy sign, it is also an opportunity for pharma companies to add more effective remedies to their kitty.

Focus: On VHP’s Yatra Eve, Uneasy Calm Engulfs Ayodhya

By Akhilesh Kapoor / Ayodhya

There is an unsettling calm in the lanes and bylanes of Ayodhya. Less than twenty four hours before the chaurasi kos yatra – the religious procession which has pitched the state government against the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) – the holy town is far emptier than expected on a Saturday.

Netas' Sons, Daughters Contesting Above 50 Seat In India

By M H Ahssan | INNLIVE

ELECTIONS 2014 At least 50 parliamentary constituencies will be contested by 'sons and daughters' of politicians. From President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit to Rahul and Varun Gandhi, at least 50 parliamentary constituencies will be contested by ‘sons and daughters’ of politicians of various parties during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Of these, a majority of candidates have been fielded from the ruling Congress party.

Abhijit Mukherjee, a sitting MP, is contesting on a Congress ticket from his present Jangipur (West Bengal) constituency while Rahul Gandhi and Varun Gandhi are fighting from Amethi and Pilibhit constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

Why Amartya Sen Is Right On India’s Education System?

By Vivek Kaul / Delhi

It has become fashionable these days to criticise Noble prize winning economist Amartya Sen. But there is nothing wrong with the points that Sen makes on the Indian education system and its weaknesses, in his new book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, which he has co-authored with his long time collaborator Jean Drèze.

Several surveys conducted over the years have clearly shown the low level of learning among a wide number of students that prevails across the length and breadth of India. Drèze and Sen cite a few such surveys in their book.

Selling India To The World, The Great Indian Travel Crisis

By M H Ahssan & Kajol Singh

Home is not where the travel heartland is this summer. Footloose but pennywise, Indian travellers are packing their bags for overseas destinations, shunning domestic attractions. Flying abroad has always held more spell over travelling within India, but over the last decade, Indian tourism had been attracting visitors with well marketed heritage hotels, beaches and experience destinations like Kumarakom in Kerala and the more exotic North-East route. But an unhealthy combination of exploitative airfares and steep hotel tariffs is dissuading Indian tourists from travelling within the country. It is also stopping foreign tourists from flocking in. It’s less expensive for the Indian middle class traveller to fly to Dubai or even London than to fly to Kochi or the Andamans. England, Singapore, Dubai, Germany, Croatia, Spain, France and Thailand are the new hotspots where it is easier to bump into someone from India than in Leh.

Commentary: Modi: Neither Monster, Nor Messiah!

By Rajinder Puri / Delhi

Within a couple of days by the end of the BJP national executive meeting in Goa starting on June 7, 2013  Narendra Modi may be declared as chairman of the party’s election campaign committee or perhaps even as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. In either event it will be perceived with near certainty that he will become eventually the BJP prime ministerial candidate. This prospect fills his supporters with glee and his detractors with alarm. One section thinks that his ascent to the post will bring deliverance. The other section believes it denotes disaster. Who is right? Seldom has an individual polarized public opinion thus.

The Disaster In The Making: 'Too Many Cooks Spoils The....'

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday refused to accept veteran leader L.K. Advani's resignation from various posts in the party. Minutes after Advani handed over his resignation to Rajnath, the latter replied to his resignation letter stating that he was rejecting it.

Apparently upset over the elevation of his one-time protege - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi - as election campaign committee chief, the 85-year-old founder member of the BJP resigned from the Parliamentary Board, National Executive and the Election Committee.

The Indian dogs that are dying out because everyone wants a Labrado

It’s easy to identify what a German Shepherd, Labrador, and Saint Bernard have in common: they’re furry, adorable canine companions with massive fan bases all over the world. But what about the Chippiparai, Jonangi, and Kombai?

Even ardent animal lovers might stumble a bit here, but these too are dog breeds which have another thing in common—they’re all Indian. Skilled, sturdy, and well adapted to the country’s tropical climate, these dogs are great workers and excellent companions. Unfortunately, the other characteristic Indian breeds share is that they’re disappearing.

Analysis: BJP, Congress Political 'Mirror Masks' Unveiled

By M H Ahssan | INN Live

Economic policies. Corruption. Civil liberties. Public Discourse. There is nothing to distinguish the two national parties. Growth junkies. US-friendly. Anti-labour and pro-business. Anti-poor but pro-subsidy. Is there a choice between the economic policies of the Congress and the BJP?

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s Rs 100-crore Bharat Nirman campaign ran into trouble this September. One of its print advertisements featured the same women models in an almost identical frame that was used in the Antyodaya Yojana campaign launched by the BJP-led NDA back in 2000. The two parties apparently hired the same agency. But then, fittingly, the NDA’s Antyodaya scheme was the precursor to the UPA’s Food Security Act too.

The Minimum Leader: The Unravelling Of Arvind Kejriwal

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Two years on, it is becoming apparent that Arvind Kejriwal is no breakaway from the typical mould of the politician as deception artist.

Arvind Kejriwal’s resume could be kept concise and hilarious: Underdog Extraordinaire. Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, is a politician with an obvious appetite for theatrics, and he deserves admiration for his knack for blurring the line between the reality of his problems with the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre and the tricks of his own house of mirrors in the capital that cast him as a superhero who champions the rights of the common man. What has helped so far, in no small measure, is his projection of himself as the ultimate victim-hero.

Where Are The 'Missing Girls' Of Lakhimpur In Assam?

By M H Ahssan / INN Live

On an average, 40 girls disappear from this district in Assam every month. INN tracks how it has emerged as the new hub of human trafficking.

With its tea gardens and paddy fields, Assam’s Lakhimpur district, located between the Brahmaputra and Subansiri rivers, is a picturesque place. But this pleasant picture hides a chilling reality.

How TN is Demolishing the Centre’s Cash Transfer Argument?

Tamil Nadu’s message to union finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday that cash transfers instead of PDS amount to escaping from public responsibility is a line that all chief ministers, including from the Congress ruled states, should take. Not based on populism or vote-bank politics, but evidence from the field.

Tamil Nadu’s finance minister O Panneerselvam had adequate reasons for his reservations. His state has a universal PDS system and doesn’t categorise people into BPL (below poverty line) and APL (above poverty line) when it comes to food security and hunger, as against the policy of the Centre.

Its PDS, despite all the inherent ills such as corruption, diversion and inefficiency, is a working model. The crowd at its shops ahead of this year’s Pongal festival was a testament of its utility to people.

Tamil Nadu has been a leader in universalising food distribution. Now, at least three other states are moving towards universal PDS, while three others want to make it more inclusive. Recently, Chattisgarh government passed its own right-to-food bill that in effect universalises its PDS. The Centre, given a chance, wants to do away with it and dole out cash.

This is where the Centre’s policy is at variance with what the states want or what the people want. 

Despite the initial hawkishness on cash transfer as the all encompassing panacea, the UPA government has gone more or less silent on the issue when it comes to PDS. However, if the states do not exert pressure, it might still take the trick out of its neo-liberal bag.

One of the key arguments for cash transfer instead of PDS is the reportedly limited use of the system by poor people and other defects such as pilferage, poor quality and services that deter the beneficiaries. The logic of supplies falling in to the wrong hands was used for targeting the beneficiaries — the introduction of APL and BPL categories — and restricting their entitlements.

Stating that half of the PDS-grains between 1971 and 2001 had been diverted and there were systemic problems with the system, the Planning Commission sounded absolutely certain that the PDS wouldn’t work.

The states, as well as advocates of universal PDS, in fact, have sufficient reasons to prove the Planning Commission and the Centre wrong.

Writing in People’s Democracy (the mouthpiece of the CPM), Archana Prasad presents evidence to show that coverage and efficiency improve as the system moves towards universaliation.

Based on a 2011 survey by economist Reetika Khera, she says that the expanded coverage in some states “has increased the efficiency of the PDS as it has reduced the diversion of PDS stocks.” Based on the national sample survey data, she says that “the diversion went down from 52 per cent in 2004-2005 to 11 per cent in 2009-2010, whereas in Orissa it went down from 70 to 30 per cent in the same period.”

Interestingly, the supporters of the cash-for-food, particularly Congress states such as Delhi, quote national sample survey data that suit them such as the incomplete coverage of the system. Instead of expanding the system to reach all the needy, when it actually starts working dramatically better, the Congress wants to abandon it altogether.

The biggest problem that deters the PDS is corruption, pilferage, diversion, poor weighing systems, irregular timings etc. What the system needs is reforms and not abandonment. Studies have shown that wherever the PDS is working well, people prefer food grains to cash. Contrary to what Sheila Dixit tells us, majority don’t want cash, but a reformed and better PDS.

The Wadhwa Committee, as mandated by the Supreme Court, recommends strong state intervention in running the PDS shops and weeding out corruption to make it efficient and more useful to people. A glance of its reports on different states shows that the biggest challenge is the corrupt and inefficient way the PDS systems are run. The way to move forward is to reform.

The data is clear on the correlation between universalisation and efficiency. When it reaches more people, there will be increased public pressure for efficiency and accountability, and it starts working better.

Here are two relevant summaries of the Wadhwa Committee reports on Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which offer an interesting contrast between reality and myth. Tamil Nadu has a state-run universal PDS and Kerala, which seems to be pilot testing most of the central government policies, has a targeted scheme wherein the fair price shops are run by private entities.

On Tamil Nadu:
“The State Government of Tamil Nadu follows Universal Public Distribution System in place of Targeted Public Distribution System envisaged by the Government of India. The State Government has done away with the identification of APL and BPL families to avoid errors of exclusion of eligible and vulnerable families. However, State has identified AAY beneficiaries. The Universal Public Distribution System ensures food security to every family cooking separately. It is left to the choice of the families to opt for the type of cards they can hold based on their need and preferences.”

On Kerala:
“That PDS in Kerala is best in the country is a myth. The system is as corrupt as in any other States which the Committee visited and submitted reports. It was however, stated before the Committee that the State was best when there was distribution of PDS on Universal Rationing System basis. It must however be noted that Kerala is deficit State in terms of production of foodgrain. PDS is of great relevance and importance in the State. It is thus, all the more necessary that PDS in the State is strengthened. Committee has suggested that in order to combat corruption and for strengthening PDS there has to be zero tolerance approach. Everything appears to be fine on paper but its implementation is faulty. The whole system has to be revamped.”

There is overwhelming evidence universalisation is one of the ways to make the PDS work. More over, poverty is dynamic and there is a no guarantee that a person who is APL today doesn’t slip into BPL. 

Hence this categorisation is against the logic of social protection.

Tamil Nadu has shown the way with a universal system followed by Himachal where APL groups pay a slightly higher price. Andhra Pradesh has 80 percent coverage, while Orissa, Rajasthan and Jharkhand want to make it more inclusive.

And the Centre has its own logic. Its pundits should realise that mathematical models and skewed reading of data often don’t tell the complete story. The real story is with the millions of people in the field.