Dr. A. Prabaharan’s

Failing to store perishable goods like fruits and vegetables are costing millions of rupees daily. If there is adequate cold storage facilities and warehousing this can be easily avoided and maximum profit can be given to the producers.

The Times of India editorial writes (13 July 2009)

It’s estimated that nearly 40 per cent of the country’s fruits and vegetables are wasted while moving from farms to retail outlets. That a

developing nation grappling with poverty, hunger and malnutrition should waste so much fresh produce is obscene. Improved post-harvest technologies especially storage and transportation facilities are a must for a nation that’s the world’s second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and where agriculture and allied activities account for around 17 per cent of GDP.

It’s good that Budget 2009-10 promised investment-linked tax incentives in order to attract private funds in the cold chain and warehousing sector. More so, since existing profit-linked tax breaks to which investors are entitled don’t seem to have worked magic so far. In theory, sector-specific tax incentives risk distorting efficient resource use. But, given the woeful inadequacy of cold chain and storage infrastructure, public policy has to make some practical concessions to a critical sector of the economy.
Increasing the shelf life of perishables is key to supply mechanisms whether we talk of fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products, meat and meat products or processed foods. To create a cross-country network of godowns and integrated cold chains, capacity building is required in farms, food processing units, refrigerated storage and distribution hubs as well as retail outlets, apart from temperature-controlled transportation.

All of this represents capital-intensive infrastructure. However, while industry has welcomed the investment-linked tax sops, these may not be sufficient. There should be a multi-pronged strategy to raising resources, in light of the huge growth potential of organised retail in India. It would make sense to relax rules on FDI in multibrand retail. Along with big domestic firms, several multinationals are keen to enter the field. That supermarket chains, foreign or home-grown, can boost farmers’ income by eliminating middlemen isn’t their only advantage. Getting greater numbers of organised sector players into farm-to-fork retail would automatically boost business stakes in improving the infrastructural logistics of the rural farm and non-farm sectors.

We also need a holistic look at related infrastructural shortcomings. Investors may baulk at pouring money into a sector where returns could depend on factors beyond their control. Electricity, for instance, is the lifeline of cold storage. If ensuring uninterrupted supply meant resorting to power backups, it would hike operational costs. Movement of goods also demands good roads and highways. Finally, a common market as sought to be created by the goods and services tax regime would spur demand for cold chain and storage facilities. That, needless to say, would have to be combined with an overhaul of our creaking agricultural marketing infrastructure

Seventeen years is very high time for a judicial enquiry to get over. The Liberhan commission investigating the causes and people behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid had submitted its final report. But can one hope for the action against the culprits?

The Hindu editorial writes (2 July 2009)

It is impossible to feel elated by the completion of an inquiry nearly 17 years after the occurrence of the traumatic events it was meant to look into. In any civilised society, the deliberate vandalism wrought upon a centuries-old monument like the Babri Masjid and its destruction would have merited exemplary punishment for all those involved in the frenzied attack and in the conspiracy that preceded it. But then the exertions of Justice M.S. Liberhan are of a piece with the extraordinarily languorous ways of the Indian judicial system. If the criminal trial of policemen indicted for the 1987 massacre of innocent Muslims in Malliana and Hashimpura is still on 22 years later, why should there be any surprise over the fact that the Babri Masjid probe has taken so long? And tempting though it is to blame the hapless Mr. Liberhan for taking so long, it is not as if the Central Bureau of Investigation or successive governments at the Centre and in Lucknow have shown any urgency in prosecuting the criminal cases that flowed directly from the destruction of that 16th century mosque on December 6, 1992.

Indeed, so indifferent have all the dramatis personae been to the fate of the probe that it is hard to escape the conclusion that what is now unfolding is nothing other than the predictable ending of a farce. When the Liberhan report is finally made public, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leaders will seek to distance themselves from its implications while the Congress is bound to seek as much political mileage as it can wrest from this issue. Going by the record of the 1984 riot commissions as well as the Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry into the Bombay riots of 1992-93, few believe that the justice which ordinary Indians look for will actually be delivered. If the pervasive cynicism about the capacity of India’s institutional system to deliver justice is to be dissipated, it is important to see that the significance of exercises such as the Liberhan commission, however limited they be in scope, is not diminished. It is evident that the BJP still has to pay a political price for its implicit support of its extremist allies such as the Bajrang Dal which were at the forefront of the demolition of the masjid. If the Manmohan Singh government is serious about countering the politics of sectarian violence and hate, it must introduce and then implement a robust law to deal with communal crimes. The need for legislation which criminalises the kind of official and political complicity which was on display in Gujarat in 2002 or Delhi in 1984 or Ayodhya in 1992 remains as compelling as ever. Enacting such a law must be one of this government’s top priorities.

Good roads are the lifeline of a nation’s economy. With the horrible road network in the past fifty years now India is galloping in this front. The roads built through Pradhan Mantri Grama Sadhak Yojana and the national highways programme are paying rich dividends. I can say this is one of the splendid achievements of the NDA government half continued by the UPA I.

The Hindu editorial writes (1 July 2009)

Despite India’s strong economic growth in recent years, longstanding inadequacies persist. One such challenging area is poor rural road connectivity, with over 40 per cent of India’s rural population remaining outside the rural road network. The benefits of linking India’s villages with a good road network are enormous and substantial public investments are obviously worthwhile. In addition to employment generation, such a road link yields socio-economic benefits like reduction in prices of agricultural and consumer products, access to markets, public transport, employment opportunities, and better education and healthcare facilities. A study by the World Bank makes the point that the retail prices of low value/bulk commodities are generally 10 per cent higher in unconnected villages than in those with road access. The most important benefit, however, relates to poverty reduction. A 2007-study by the International Food Policy Research Institute found that investing in roads had the greatest impact on reducing rural poverty, performing consistently better than investments in agricultural research and development, and education. India’s efforts to improve rural road connectivity which gained a fresh impetus with the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) need to be substantially stepped up.

The task, however, is immense. According to the Planning Commission’s Working Group on Rural Roads for the Eleventh Plan, there are over 3.3 lakh rural habitations with no road connection. The PMGSY which is part of the Bharat Nirman programme aimed at improving rural infrastructure between 2005 and 2009. It initially proposed to give road connection to 66,802 eligible habitations and subsequently scaled down the target to 59,536 habitations. The achievement, however, has fallen short of the target, with the coverage limited to 35 per cent (up to 2008). The second component of the plan, which is to upgrade 1.9 lakh kilometres of rural roads, also fell short of the target. As financial resources are a major constraint, the Planning Commission’s suggestion to look for alternative financing models — including a public-private partnership at the local level, for instance, with sugar mills — merits serious consideration. However, the government should continue to play the lead role in improving rural connectivity, which is vital for the economic and social inclusion of a significant part of rural India.

The NDA governemnt proposed (UIC) unique identity card in 2003 for its own reasons. Now the UPA II had appointed corporate honcho Nandan Nilekani to stear head this project which is worth of Rs.1,50,000 crores. Unlikely other schemes this one should work timely so that all the social welfare schemes for the poor can reachout to the concerned people on time.

The Times of India writes (29 June 2009)

For a huge country with a 1.2 billion population, providing biometric unique ID cards to citizens would be a mammoth project. And much would depend
on who headed the assignment. With Nandan Nilekani’s appointment as chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, there’s comfort. Representing a potentially fruitful public-private partnership, the ex-Infosys co-chairman’s cabinet-level induction marks a welcome departure from the usual practice of keeping key national projects in political and bureaucratic hands. Picking the right brains was key to executing such a big-ticket reform.

Nilekani has reflected on the problem of the multiplicity of identity markers, as his book Imagining India shows. The Congress-led UPA, on its part, had made the single national ID a poll issue. This meeting of minds on the scheme’s transformational nature should help address the challenges ahead. And there are a few. The 2011 deadline for delivery is ambitious, for starters. A national population register needs to precede issuance of cards, providing error-proof citizenship data. There are also big technological challenges. Central and state government services would need to log into this mother of all e-governance initiatives.

But difficulties in implementation are worth facing considering the gains. The security benefits are obvious, given the terror threats India faces. The problem of illegal migration can be better tackled. There are huge social and economic benefits as well. Poverty alleviation will get a fillip with proper identification of the beneficiaries of, say, job guarantee or food security programmes. Governments can get to save money by plugging leakages and targeting subsidies efficiently, a fiscal gain. Besides, business transactions would improve in general in myriad time and cost-saving ways.

Likewise, ordinary people’s lives will be made easier. Right now, people have to furnish any and everything from birth certificates to ration cards and PAN numbers for getting things done with different organisations, whether passport issuers, tax authorities or banks. We can also expect more accountable government, with networks of political patronage and corruption being dealt a blow. Another political dividend: poll-managers would better counter misuse of the electoral process. It remains for the authorities to ensure that the process of building an identification database is transparent. The glitches and complaints of ‘identity theft’ that have marred, say, BPL or voter ID card disbursal can’t afford to be repeated here, since we’re talking citizenship stakes.

The Union Government has duty to get rid of povery, illiteracy and other social evils. Although it spends a huge amount of its budget for the social welfare schemes, the fund pipe from Delhi to the receipent is full of loopholes. To plug this it may be wise to use the Unique Identification Card (UIC) to trace out the real poor people and transact cash through their bank accounts. Pessimists may say that there 200 blocks in the country which do not have nationalised banks. We must start thinking in this line so that sooner or later the welfare schemes reach out to the real people.

Gurucharan Das writes in The Times of India (28 June 2009)

When Polonius said in Hamlet, ‘to thine own self be true’, he was not thinking of Part I of the UPA government’s forthcoming budget on July 6.
Polonius was saying that integrity and success lie in being true to oneself.

This budget is expected to announce a massive give-away of rice and wheat at Rs 3 per kilo, and the scheme is likely to fail because it fails Polonius’ test. Eighteen years of slow, incremental economic reforms have fashioned a certain kind of nation which was captured brilliantly in the film, Slumdog Millionaire.

If the movie caught the character of the nation’s poor, the Indian Premier League (IPL) of cricket mirrors it for the middle class. The character quite simply is of a vibrant and energetic private sector that is hemmed in by an arid eco-system of weak governance. As if to underline this, our bureaucracy has recently been rated the worst in Asia in a survey of 12 countries.

While we deeply admire the UPA’s commitment to the poor, we are repelled by its inability to understand our state’s limitations. As it is, there is huge corruption in the public food distribution system and it would be far better to make cash transfers to the poor via smart cards. It will not harm the poor farmer either, as selling grains at Rs 3, which will inevitably end up in the black market. Smart cards are being successfully used in the national health insurance scheme or Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna.

Millions of Indians are stuck between the factory and the farm but they do not sit around and complain. Each morning they pull themselves up and go out and create a livelihood in the informal sector. Our regulations, alas, do not make it easy — hence, India is rated 128th in the ease of doing business. In a massive new study, ‘Moving out of Poverty’, people claim that they have risen out of poverty through their own initiative, and not through hand-outs.

The poor prefer an enabling environment that lets them work with dignity. Our advantage over China is that we respect property titles and Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are showing that when secure titles are on-line, the poor capitalize on them to start businesses in the informal economy.

Unlike the statists behind the Rs 3 scheme, many UPA ministers are refreshing in seeking to create enabling conditions for the poor. The new minister of HRD, Kapil Sibal, understands that teacher absenteeism is forcing even the poor to desert state schools and he is focused on better delivery through public-private partnerships.

The energetic Kamal Nath has begun to cut red tape and remove bottlenecks in pursuit of an ambitious target to build roads, putting greater onus on the private sector. M M Kharge plans to spend Rs 30,000 crores to develop skills, and knows that the only way to impart vocational education is with the involvement of companies.

Sivaprakash Jaiswal has announced the end of state monopoly in the corrupt coal mining sector, and it raises the hope of finally bringing efficiency to a sector that accounts for 55% of India’s energy basket. Veerappan Moily has promised ‘‘sweeping, holistic judicial reform’’ that will tackle the backlog of 30 million pending court cases among other reforms. All these five ministers are following Polonius’s advice.

In the past one year, both China and India held a sports event. The magnificent Beijing Olympics last year were a tribute to the efficiency of the Chinese state. The Indian Premier League (IPL) this year is a testimonial to our private sector.

When the timing of the IPL clashed with the elections, the IPL did not give up. It played off the English and South African boards to get the best deal and the result was an amazing sight — Delhi playing Hyderabad in Cape Town and Mumbai playing Chennai in Johannesburg. With bold ambition, quick thinking, meticulous planning and brilliant execution — all the skills that are making Indian companies successful on the world stage — the IPL filled stadiums, shuttled thousands of Indians to South Africa, and enticed millions to their TVs back home.

It took a hundred years for Major League Baseball in America to hold its first game outside the US and 50 for the American Football League to play outside. The IPL has gone global in its second year.

The two sports events are metaphors for two models of development. The Chinese state can deliver rice and wheat at Rs 3 to the poor. But India cannot. The UPA government would do well to remember Polonius’ advice and be true to our nation’s character.

Civil Services is the backbone of any country. In India this core pillar of the governance has been going from bad to worst. It needs to revamped and rejunvenated to serve the public. Although some of the successful civil servants are keen to solve people’s problems political interference is frustrating them. I suggest come autonomy for the system with adequate protection incase of attacks from the political figures and parties. 

Shailaja Chandra writes in The Times of India (23 June 2009)

The final touches are being given to a civil services Bill, which represents an improvement over the 2007 public service draft. People are 
alternately euphoric or cynical about the move. There is a need to analyse the ambit of the proposed law in terms of what is good about it and also highlight why this law cannot become a panacea for all the ills that beset the civil service, particularly in its interface with the public.

First, a civil service or public services law is not a new idea. It has already been introduced in Australia, New Zealand and several other countries. But in these places it was primarily aimed at orienting lateral entrants into the civil service towards understanding concepts like allegiance to the Constitution, law, democracy and the neutrality of civil servants. By contrast, members of the organised services in India are well-versed in such issues right from the beginning, although some choose to disregard the wisdom wilfully.
This is partly attributable to increasing the age of entry into the civil service, multiplying the number of attempts to get in, introducing an Indian language (read: the mother tongue) as an examination paper and holding interviews in regional languages, all of which have slashed the chances of finding young officers who can think beyond regional mindsets, whether nationally or globally. To expect such civil servants to become instruments of change is like asking for the moon.

Where the idea of a civil service law would definitely score is by the establishment of a Central Public Service Authority (CPSA). The CPSA will have the overarching responsibility to oversee the management of the civil service and, if media reports are to be believed, its role would not be merely recommendatory. There would be time and opportunity to look at suitability and experience of entrants. More important, the tendency of officers to brazenly curry favour with prospective secretaries and ministers to find a ‘good berth’ in a central ministry might end.

Another plus point is that independent scrutinies of key appointments such as that of the cabinet secretary and hopefully even the information commissioner’s and regulatory authorities’ might be subjected to bi-partisan scrutiny. This might also end the practice of making controversial appointments, which have discredited different governments and created immense resentment within the bureaucratic system.

At the state level, there could still be a snag. The proposed law would most certainly have to be individually accepted by each state. It has to be seen whether key states like Uttar Pradesh would play ball. Should they do so, it would free appointments and transfers from the ‘off with his head’ syndrome and rescue some innocent officers from the ignominy of public disgrace often prompted by whimsical politics. Nonetheless, at the state level, everything will depend on who heads the state PSA. A smooth operator can still fix things, and selections at the state level can be manipulated with little ingenuity. The central government is lightyears ahead in terms of its selection and transfer processes. The real need to rein in transfers is in the states where loss of morale and resentment is at a peak.

Finally, the problem with the public service law is that it can only encompass the organised services. It will, therefore, not impact on an exasperated public seeking assistance in accessing health care, electricity and water, food rations, traversable roads, unadulterated food and crime prevention. Indeed, it is the bureaucracy that comes into public contact that desperately needs a facelift if the label of India having “Asia’s worst civil service” is to be altered.

That would mean that a civil service law in a country like India also needs a supplementary law or regulation to deal with recalcitrant public functionaries that citizens confront everyday. The people need a forum to vent their grievances before an authority that can summarily deal with cases of harassment and corruption. The departmental system is too long drawn out and clumsy to get anyone punished in a way that sets an example.

In 1997, the Delhi government had set up a public grievance commission to hear complaints against any official of the government. The commission still exists. Summary proceedings are held and the commission can take suo motu cognizance of any issue that comes up during a hearing or even otherwise. As a result, any member of the public can bring a grievance before the commission which listens to complainants (minus lawyers), and makes recommendations by scrutinising the files and listening to what the department has to say. The Administrative Reforms Commission had recommended that a public grievance commission could be set up by all state governments.

Along with a civil service law, there is every need to introduce a fast-track mechanism to hear people’s grievances publicly and act on them promptly. While officers need protection, the legislation should also benefit the public for whose good all laws are made.
Sumit K Majumdar writes in The Business Line (23 December 2005)

A 21ST CENTURY Indian economy, on the fast growth track, needs a forward-looking administrative organisation, and the creation of a second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC-2) is an excellent opportunity to bring about substantial organisational discontinuities that will support the institutional discontinuities put in place by the 1991 reforms.

If the reform pace is perceived to be slow, it is because the implementation of the broad framework of objectives leaves much to be desired. The substantial institutional change of mind was not accompanied by the required organisational restructuring. Now, if ever, is the time to set that right.

One of the most important aspects the ARC-2 should deal with is restructuring the civil services. Since Independence there has been a mushrooming of services, and it is worth examining if any purpose is to be served by continuing with them in their present form.

There are the three All-India Services: The Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Forest Service and the Indian Police Service. To complement these, there are several Central Services, both technical and non-technical. The list is, indeed, long.

These include the complicatedly named Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa and Mizoram Police Service (DANIGMPS) and the Indian Post and Telegraphs Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TA&FS). I would like to come across individuals with these letters after their names, not because they do anything less valuable, but because their tasks are so specialised. It would take someone quite well trained to be a policeman simultaneously in Delhi, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa and Mizoram.

Outsourcing begins at home
The question is: Do all the individuals belonging to these various services have to carry out their tasks within the government framework or can their tasks be outsourced and the services abolished? A serious assessment of the feasibility of abolishing a number of these Central Services must be carried out, and its results will be insightful indeed.

Many of these services, while relevant in their day, no longer have economic legitimacy. New business models have emerged. Many tasks that, of necessity, had to be carried out by the state, are being carried out efficiently by private entrepreneurs.

Thus, the concept of outsourcing and privatisation can be applied, not just to the public sector enterprises but also to many government activities carried out departmentally and in whose support the services exist.

Many of the services can be abolished. Let me start with the various accounts services. There are: the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS), the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS), the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) and the Indian Post and Telegraphs Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TA&FS). Except for the IA&AS, all the other services — ICAS, IDAS, IRAS and IP&TA&FS — can be disbanded.

The question is: Who will carry out their tasks? India has thousands of qualified chartered accountants, cost accountants and financial analysts who have been successfully running accountancy practices and consultancies for decades.

All the book-keeping and accounting activities can be outsourced to private bodies. After all, Indian professionals are now at the forefront of outsourced accounting and taxation activities. Should not these lessons be applied at home?

The next question is: What does one do with the members of all these services. The answer, on paper at least, is simple. Every divestment decision is also an investment decision. It takes money to divest. The VRS sums paid to these members to compensate the loss of their careers will provide them the capital to become the entrepreneurs that supply many of these services to government bodies.

It is then up to the government to initially provide contracts for the supply of these services. And what about policy and control? The IA&AS then remains the only service that deals with development of accounting issues, standards and as the monitoring agency that undertakes the quality control of the entire accounting process for government.

Revisiting history
Similarly, there is no need for an Indian Salt Service (ISaS), the Indian Supply Service (ISuS) or the Indian Trade Service (ITS). Yes, these do exist. They are anachronisms of a distant past, when the activities of the government, at least in the revenue sphere, revolved around a set of activities that have disappeared.

Take the Indian Salt Service. Around the time of the India’s first struggle for Independence, salt was one of the principal sources of government revenue. Remember, too, the symbolism of the Dandi Salt March. In fact, the Salt Agent to the government, based at Contai, now a little sub-divisional town in West Bengal, was a very senior personage, being paid a salary of Rs 4,000 per month, the amount paid to ICS officers who were the Secretaries to the Government.

As late as Independence, there was a Commissioner of Northern India Salt Revenue, again a relatively senior person. From these foundations arose the Indian Salt Service.

But are some of the services still relevant today? Or do we let go of path dependencies and create a new history based on today’s necessities? Thus, are the Indian Supply Service (ISupS) and the India Trade Service (ITS) also needed? After all, government purchasing has shrunk substantially, the DGS&D being no longer the commercial force it once was. And the Indian entrepreneur is himself highly motivated to conquer global markets and does not need to be told `export or perish’ by an Indian Trade Promotion Organisation.

Take, next, the impact of technological change in information and communications technologies. As a result, the role of private sector firms has become significant and the vibrancy of the Indian broadcasting and telecommunications sectors is testimony to this. Is an Indian Broadcasting Service (IBS) really needed now?

Again, does the Indian Postal Service (IPoS) have contemporary relevance? After all, postal activities have shrunk , given the huge drop in the price of telephone calls. Postal activities are, also, nothing but the undertaking of retail and distribution tasks. Can not every little shop sell stamps if need be?

Institution building
On the other hand, there is actually a strong need for services in other domains to be strengthened, even resurrected. Take the cavalier and step-motherly treatment given to the Indian Economic Service (IEconS) and the Indian Statistical Service (IStatS).

It can be argued that, in contemporary India, the tasks of these two services have become extraordinarily complex, given the numerous economic issues, related to relatively new topics such as globalisation, the role of the WTO, IPRs, economics of energy and renewable resources, environmental regulations and network economics, which need continuous analysis, both analytical and empirical.

A truly substantial enhancing of these services will serve India well. The enhancing of the status of the IEconS and the ISS to that enjoyed, implicitly, by the IAS and the IPS will go a long way in augmenting the capabilities, motivation and quality of the Indian policy-making establishment. What have been the unkindest cuts of all? Three critical nation-building services were disbanded at Independence. These were the Indian Education Service (IEdS), the Indian Medical Service (IMS) and the Imperial Service of Engineers (ISE). If anything, not only do these services have to be resurrected but have to be made principal services that enhance the quality of life for India’s population, and propel the development of the nation. In a sense, these are the critical institution-building services.

The IEdS, which had manned the most prestigious academic positions in places such as Elphinstone College, Bombay, and the Presidency Colleges at Calcutta and Madras, and stalwarts such as P. C. Mahalanobis and A. C. Banerjee, a Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, as members is, alas, no more.

Nevertheless, the IEdS has to be revived if India is to be at the forefront of the global knowledge revolution. Otherwise, the educational sector will continue to be at the mercy of charlatans.

So should be the case with the IMS and ISE. A national service that enhances the physical health and well-being of the population, and whose member Sir Ronald Ross won the Nobel Prize, is of far more relevance than services such as the ICAS, IRAS, IDAS and the IP&TA&FS!

A national service that builds infrastructure, as did the ISE in building the numerous roads, dams and canal systems that the British created in India, and gave to India individuals such as Sir M. Visvesvarayya, or the trio who created the Bhakra Dam, is perhaps more important than services such as the IBS or the ITS!

Therefore, a revival of the IEdS, the IMS and the ISE (though Indian, not Imperial), will mean that implicitly a cadre of Indian Institution Building Services (IIBS) is being created. It will not be difficult to create these services either.

Competencies exist within the States of the Indian union as well as with the Central Government, and it will be an administrative exercise to band these individuals together into the national All-India services that the IEdS, the IMS and the ISE should be, as indeed they once were.