Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which began from the third week of February, shows no sign of ending. It has, in the meantime, led to a humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportions. The number of refugees streaming into countries adjoining Ukraine has revived memories and images of the vast numbers who sought refuge in Europe following the wars in Syria, Iraq and North Africa at the turn of the century. No one would have anticipated that a similar situation would arise just a few years later in Europe. The number of refugees has already approached, and possibly even crossed, the two million mark; and this is apart from the several thousands who have been killed inside Ukraine. It is a vivid demonstration of the callousness of human nature, more so considering the underlying cause of the conflict.
It is most surprising that nothing concrete is being done by powerful nations in Europe and across the world to try and end the conflict through a process of reconciliation and negotiation. What the conflict, though, has exposed is the irrelevance of the United Nations in dealing with situations of this kind — becoming in many ways a modern day variant of the ill-fated League of Nations created at the end of the First World War.
More an economic concern
The primary concern of European nations and the United States appears to be the economic impact of the conflict — rather than the human costs involved — consequent on the ongoing war in Ukraine. The International Monetary Fund has already issued a warning of the serious global impact of the war, which includes a surge in energy and commodity prices, and being taken seriously by the U.S., almost all European nations and many countries across the globe. Leading western economists have been pontificating on the economic consequences of the war, and the ways and the means to reduce its impact. Similar concerns about the human costs of this unnecessary war are nowhere to be found. Least of all to be found are suggestions on how best to end the conflict, or at least bring about a truce to reduce the human toll that keeps steadily rising.
Debating the sanctions route
It may appear tendentious to think that there are leading elements in the West who believe that by waging a prolonged ‘sanctions war’ against Russia of the kind currently being pursued — rather than seeking a compromise by which to end the genocide in Ukraine — an option had become available to checkmate Russia, which under Russian President Vladimir Putin was posing a threat to the West. Russia deserves to be rightfully condemned for being in violation of the United Nations Charter and invading Ukraine.
There are, however, far more efficacious means to checkmate Russian moves than persisting with a prolonged period of ever widening economic sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s economy. This may be an ideal way to achieve a ‘regime change’ in Moscow, getting citizens to rise against the regime due to the shortages and other restrictions imposed by a ‘sanctions’ regimen. It is, however, not the best way to end a conflict in the shortest possible time, and avert a greater human tragedy that a prolonged conflict entails. Sanctions, no doubt, do and will affect Russia and its economy, but it has had little impact on Russia’s war effort. Meanwhile, Ukraine, or more particularly the citizens and the residents of Ukraine, are innocent victims of the tussle between the West and Russia.
For the present, each new sanction only strengthens Russia’s determination to compel Ukraine to cut its links with the West. No country within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or even those outside it, is at present willing to send forces in support of Ukraine. Waiting for the eventual collapse of the Russian state while leaving Ukraine and its citizens to the not-so-tender mercies of the Russian juggernaut is tantamount to becoming an accessory to genocide. While concerns that the conflict in Ukraine may lead to a nuclear conflict do appear exaggerated, what is taking place is a tragedy of a kind that should not befall any nation.
Deconstructing Ukraine
The need to break the cycle of conflict and end the death of innocent civilians — as also the destruction of property — is the most vital issue at this juncture. There are, no doubt, certain special circumstances that make the problem inherently difficult and complicated. Ukraine, for instance, is not just another country as far as Russia is concerned. It was part of the erstwhile Soviet Union till 1991, and even at the time there were inherent tensions in the relationship. Ukraine in turn has long struggled with ethno-linguistic tensions encompassing western and central Ukraine and the Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine. Western Ukraine is also largely Catholic while the east is largely Russian Orthodox. Even after its split from Russia in 1991, Ukraine has had problems in maintaining a semblance of neutrality between Russia and the West.
Aggravating the situation is the fact that Ukraine was, in a sense, a child of a series of ‘Colour Revolutions’ that shook parts of the Russian Empire in 1991 — when Russian influence was at its lowest ebb after the Second World War. Matters got further aggravated when a pro-Russian President of Ukraine — who was elected in a relatively fair election — was ousted and had to flee the country. Following this, Russia intervened and annexed Crimea and took aggressive measures to reinforce Russian influence in Donetsk and Luhansk, regions of eastern Ukraine which have large Russian populations.
The ties between Russia and Ukraine are thus in a sense both historical and political. The declared ambition of NATO is to deter Soviet expansionism and, hence, any nation becoming a part of NATO is deemed by Russia to be anti-Russia. Russia has, from time to time, made it apparent that under no circumstances would it countenance NATO membership for Ukraine, and that this would be perceived as a hostile act towards Russia.
The politics of the war
As of now, Ukraine has become a pawn between Russia and the West. The war over Ukraine is, furthermore, a reflection of the prevailing myopia of current leaders who seem doomed to repeat past follies. An extension of NATO by the inclusion of Ukraine at this time — a country with a complex history and polyglot composition — was hardly a compelling necessity at this juncture, but badly misreading the situation (for even as far back as 2007 at the Munich Security Conference where I was the Indian delegate, Mr. Putin had made it amply clear that ‘NATO extension... represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust’). Since then, Mr. Putin has given no indication whatsoever of any change in his attitude on this issue.
This misreading of Mr. Putin’s personality has been a cardinal error, and Ukraine is paying a very heavy price. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who openly flaunts his pro-West inclination, is hardly a match for President Putin in terms of strategy and tactics.
While Mr. Zelensky employs grandstanding as a strategy, Mr. Putin is a born fighter. Anyone who has had an opportunity to interact closely with Mr. Putin would never have attempted to challenge him in the manner that Mr. Zelensky has been doing these past few weeks. Currently, an unlikely hero to his fellow countrymen, he could well go down in history as someone who has caused the ruin of Ukraine. Had he had played his cards properly, he could have prevented the situation from reaching the present impasse and still maintained Ukraine’s independence. To say the least, this is extremely unfortunate for Ukraine, and much of the world as well.
Press the pause button
A change of tack is clearly called for. At this time, the cardinal objective should be to save human lives and the existence of Ukraine. Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO, which are in any case a distant dream, need to be put on the back burner. For the present, any extension of NATO further to the east should be given up, and, instead, an effort made to rebuild some of the bridges that existed between Russia and the rest of Europe at the beginning of this century. Alongside this, the West should hit the ‘pause button’ on initiating ‘Colour Revolutions’ which have led to more conflicts than peace in Europe or elsewhere. More than anything else, leaders of nations and countries need to understand and assimilate the lessons of history, to avoid the kind of critical mistakes that have been evident during the current Russia-Ukraine crisis and war.
M.K. Narayanan is a former Director, Intelligence Bureau, a former National Security Adviser and a former Governor of West Bengal
In the 2022 urban local body elections held after over 10 years in Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its allies won by a sweeping majority. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin attributed this resounding victory to the Dravidian model of governance, a relatively inclusive model that combines high economic growth with social development. While these results are rightfully celebrated, the newly elected representatives must reckon the stakes of this victory and the ongoing and imminent urban governance challenges.
A post-agrarian scenario
A significant factor that has fostered inclusive growth in the State is broad-based urbanisation that is driven not only by metropolitan cities, but also by localised economic processes. Although exact urban population numbers as of 2021 are still awaited, estimates suggest that more than half the State’s population now lives in urban areas. It is in recognition of this urban growth and corresponding land use transformations and development needs that Tamil Nadu recently decided to constitute new urban development authorities in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Hosur, along the lines of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. The proportion of the urban population is expected to increase to 67% by 2036, according to some estimates, given that the agricultural sector is shrinking and urban agglomerations are expanding.
Agriculture, considered the backbone of the Indian economy, is now only a residual sector in Tamil Nadu. According to the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households 2019, only 26% of rural households in the State directly depend on agriculture as the main source of livelihood. In contrast, in Kerala, 33% of rural households identify agriculture as their main source of livelihood, while 61% and 54% do so in “developed States” like Gujarat and Maharashtra, respectively. Therefore, if we conservatively assume that 50% of Tamil Nadu is urbanised, seven out of eight households rely on the non-farm sector in Tamil Nadu. In addition, the survey reveals that a majority of the households that reported agriculture as their main source of income also rely on wage labour to complement their household income. As much as 62% of farm household income comes from wage labour in Tamil Nadu, as against 43% in Gujarat and 45% in Maharashtra. This is perhaps an indicator of how much diversification has occurred even within farm households in the State.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is a critical source of livelihood, particularly for landless labourers and marginal landowners who together constitute over 92% of all rural households in the State. Therefore, when a village gets designated as urban, landless labourers suffer the most. Change of designation of land from rural to urban might benefit landowners from increased land values. However, this is not the case for those who are landless. Though the main reasons for urban growth in Tamil Nadu are the absorption of villages into the nearest urban jurisdictions and the designation of existing villages as census towns, there has been some resistance from village panchayat heads against classifying their villages as urban, simply so that they can continue to avail of the benefits from MGNREGS.
Labourers displaced from rural and agrarian sectors are not being adequately absorbed by urban sectors. The main driver of employment generation in urban areas is the low-end service sector and construction. The share of those employed in construction in the total workforce has more than doubled between 2005 and 2019, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2019-20; while the proportion of those in manufacturing has been stagnating around 20% for more than a decade. In comparison, Gujarat increased its share of the workforce in manufacturing to 20% in 2019 from 16% in 2004-05.
The quality of jobs available is also notable, given that 63% of all non-agricultural enterprises are informal. The pandemic has only further informalised the labour force and made it harder to access jobs. In other words, the dispossession rate from traditional occupations in the State is higher than the rate at which secure employment is generated in the urban sector. While this dispossession has weakened the caste basis of occupations, it has not ensured secure opportunities in modern sectors.
To its credit, the Tamil Nadu government has announced a pilot urban employment scheme inspired by the MGNREGS. However, this is set to cover select corporation zones, municipalities and town panchayats, and at a mere expense of Rs. 100 crore, without any support from the Union government. A demand-driven, guarantee-based approach to ensure urban employment is an immediate need for urban centers, especially given the adverse effects of the pandemic on employment.
With more and more people moving to urban centres in search of employment, we are likely to witness urbanisation of poverty as well. The State has to reckon with the need to provide affordable housing, health care, subsidised food and fuel through the public distribution system, among other necessary social measures. This will entail expanding and strengthening the capacities of urban governance structures which are less participatory compared to rural Panchayati Raj institutions. An urban grievance redress mechanism must be set up.
The Union government’s role
The Union government has been encroaching policy spaces where State-level protections have been ensured for citizens. For instance, Tamil Nadu has 34 welfare boards for informal workers across multiple sectors. These are the primary mechanisms through which workers receive formal benefits including pensions, maternity benefits, compensation in the event of an accident or death, educational scholarships for children of workers, and skills training. These boards, a vital aspect of the State’s inclusive development, are now under threat from the Union government’s new labour laws, which seek to “consolidate” and “universalise” provisions for all labourers.
In addition to the ideological biases and centralising tendencies of the Union government, many national policy interventions also suffer from a rural bias (the Jal Jeevan Mission, for instance), which Tamil Nadu’s majority urban population will not benefit from. The Union government’s aggressive one-size-fits-all strategy does not do justice to State-specific development patterns.
Even as it is losing potential funds from the Union government, the State has not been raising its own resources optimally, through property taxes, for instance. Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Chief Minister Arvind Subramanian pointed out that despite being the most urbanised State in India, Tamil Nadu’s property tax collection is only Rs. 2,500 crore, much lower than the earnings of less urbanised States like Maharashtra and Karnataka.
In sum, Tamil Nadu needs to take steps to keep up with the rate at which urbanisation is taking place, recalibrate its welfare architecture and strengthen urban governance, while collectively bargaining with the Union government to reclaim its rightful budget shares and policy priorities.
Kalaiyarasan A. is Research Affiliate at South Asia Institute, Harvard University, and Priti Narayan is faculty at the University of British Columbia
The Global Water System Project, which was launched in 2003 as a joint initiative of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme, epitomises global concern about the human-induced transformation of fresh water and its impact on the earth system and society. The fact is that freshwater resources are under stress, the principal driver being human activities in their various forms.
Fresh water, water valuation
In its fourth assessment report in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the link between societal vulnerability and modifications of water systems. It is globally estimated that the gap between demand for and supply of fresh water may reach up to 40% by 2030 if present practices continue.
The formation of the 2030 Water Resource Group in 2008, at the instance of the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank’s promotion of the group’s activity since 2018, is in recognition of this problem and to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on water availability and sanitation for all by 2030 (SDG 6). Formally, it is: “to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation for all, focusing on the sustainable management of water resources, wastewater and ecosystems....” The latest UN World Water Development Report, 2021, titled ‘Valuing Water’, has laid stress on the proper valuation of water by considering five interrelated perspectives: water sources; water infrastructure; water services; water as an input to production and socio-economic development, and sociocultural values of water.
Designing a comprehensive mix of divergent views about water (along with ecological and environmental issues) held by stakeholder groups is necessary. In this context, a hydro-social cycle approach provides an appropriate framework. It repositions the natural hydrological cycle in a human-nature interactive structure and considers water and society as part of a historical and relational-dialectical process.
Inter-basin transfer projects
The anthropogenic factors directly influencing a freshwater system are the engineering of river channels, irrigation and other consumptive use of water, widespread land use/land cover change, change in an aquatic habitat, and point and non-point source pollution affecting water quality. The intra- and inter-basin transfer (IBT) of water is a major hydrological intervention to rectify the imbalance in water availability due to naturally prevailing unequal distribution of water resources within a given territory.
There are several IBT initiatives across the world. One recent document indicates that there are 110 water transfer mega projects that have either been executed (34 projects) or being planned/under construction (76 projects) across the world. The National River Linking Project of India is one of those under construction. These projects, if executed, will create artificial water courses that are more than twice the length of the earth’s equator and will transfer 1,910 km3 of water annually. They will reengineer the hydrological system with considerable local, regional and global ramifications. Based on a multi-country case study analysis, the World Wildlife Fund/World Wide Fund for Nature (2009) has suggested a cautious approach and the necessity to adhere to sustainability principles set out by the World Commission on Dams while taking up IBT projects.
Some of the key assumptions
Recently, inter-basin transfer of water drew attention in India due to a provision made in Budget 2022 for the Ken Betwa river link project which is a part of the National River Linking project (mooted in 1970 and revived in 1999). This decision raises larger questions about hydrological assumptions and the use and the management of freshwater resources in the country. We shall ponder over some of them.
First, the basic premise of IBT is to export water from the surplus basin to a deficit basin. However, there is contestation on the concept of the surplus and deficit basin itself as the exercise is substantially hydrological. Water demand within the donor basin by factoring present and future land use, especially cropping patterns, population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, socio-economic development and environmental flow are hardly worked out. Besides this, rainfall in many surplus basins has been reported as declining. The status of the surplus basin may alter if these issues are considered.
Second, there is concern about the present capacity utilisation of water resources created in the country. By 2016, India created an irrigation potential for 112 million hectares, but the gross irrigated area was 93 million hectares. There is a 19% gap, which is more in the case of canal irrigation. In 1950-51, canal irrigation used to contribute 40% of net irrigated area, but by 2014-15, the net irrigated area under canal irrigation came down to less than 24%. Ground water irrigation now covers 62.8% of net irrigated area. The average water use efficiency of irrigation projects in India is only 38% against 50%-60% in the case of developed countries.
Agriculture, grey water use
Even at the crop level we consume more water than the global average. Rice and wheat, the two principal crops accounting for more than 75% of agricultural production use 2,850 m3/tonnes and 1,654 m3/tonnes of water, respectively, against the global average of 2,291m3/tonnes and 1,334m3/ tonnes in the same order. The agriculture sector uses a little over 90% of total water use in India. And in industrial plants, consumption is 2 times to 3.5 times higher per unit of production of similar plants in other countries. Similarly, the domestic sector experiences a 30% to 40% loss of water due to leakage.
Third, grey water is hardly used in our country. It is estimated that 55% to 75% of domestic water use turns into grey water depending on its nature of use, people’s habits, climatic conditions, etc. At present, average water consumption in the domestic sector in urban areas is 135 litres to 196 litres a head a day. Given the size of India’s urban population (469 million estimated for 2021), the amount of grey water production can be well imagined. If grey water production in the rural areas is considered it will be a huge amount. The discharge of untreated grey water and industrial effluents into freshwater bodies is cause for concern. The situation will be further complicated if groundwater is affected.
Apart from the inefficient use of water in all sectors, there is also a reduction in natural storage capacity and deterioration in catchment efficiency. The issues are source sustainability, renovation and maintenance of traditional water harvesting structures, grey water management infrastructure, groundwater recharge, increasing water use efficiency, and reuse of water.
Planning ahead
Looking into these issues may not be adequate to address all the problems. Nevertheless, these measures will help to reduce demand supply gap in many places, and the remaining areas of scarcity can be catered to using small-scale projects. The axiom that today’s water system is co-evolving and the challenges are mainly management and governance has been globally well accepted. Water projects are politically charged and manifest an interplay of social relations, social power, and technology.
It is important to include less predictable variables, revise binary ways of thinking of ‘either or’, and involve non-state actors in decision-making processes. A hybrid water management system is necessary, where (along with professionals and policy makers) the individual, a community and society have definite roles in the value chain. The challenge is not to be techno-centric but anthropogenic.
Srikumar Chattopadhyay is ICSSR National Fellow, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, and former Scientist, National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram
As India becomes increasingly urbanised and families break up into smaller units, homes for the elderly have sprung up. The care of elderly people is managed by a set of professionals or voluntary organisations interested in geriatric services. The number of such care homes is rising rapidly in urban and semi-urban India. These homes are either paid for, or offer free or subsidised service. Typically, such homes are run by NGOs, religious or voluntary organisations with support from the government, or by local philanthropists. They provide accommodation, timely care, and a sense of security for their residents. However, the quality of service varies as these homes lack regulatory oversight. Many homes lack clearly established standard operating procedures, and their referral paths to health care are informal. There is an urgent need to understand the quality of life at such institutions, including the impact of these homes on the mental health of their residents.
A rapidly growing section
A formal approach to homes for the elderly is an important policy and planning issue for India. The UN World Population Ageing Report notes that India’s ageing population (those aged 60 and above) is projected to increase to nearly 20% by 2050 from about 8% now. By 2050, the percentage of elderly people will increase by 326%, with those aged 80 years and above set to increase by 700%, making them the fastest-growing age group in India. With this future in mind, it is essential that our policy framework and social responses are geared to meet this reality.
A recent set of research papers from Hyderabad focusing on the quality of health in homes for the elderly has some interesting insights. The papers highlight the fact that good intentions and a sense of charity are often inadequate when it comes to addressing the basic health needs of their elderly residents. These papers are outcomes of the Hyderabad Ocular Morbidity in Elderly Study (HOMES) by the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute that was primarily meant to understand the vision needs of elderly residents of such homes. About 30% of the residents who were part of the study (over 1,500 participants from 40 homes) had a vision impairment of some sort, but nearly 90% of this vision impairment could be addressed by simple, relatively low-cost health interventions: issuing better eye glasses or cataract surgery.
The study also found some ‘unseen’ effects of vision impairment: many were prone to depression. In fact, those with both vision and hearing impairment had a rate of depression that was five times higher than those without. Our homes, buildings and social environment are not built keeping the elderly (or people with disabilities) in mind. As people age, and their motor skills weaken, they are at a greater risk of falling down and hurting themselves. Having an impairment increases this risk. Instead of planning for accessible and elderly-friendly structures that allow them to operate safely, we reduce their mobility. People with functional skills are asked to stay away from daily tasks like cooking, sewing, cleaning, or washing up. This reduces their sociability, their sense of independence and well-being — all leading up to mental health issues and depression.
The state of homes for the elderly today offers us some low-hanging fruit we can address easily: build formal pathways for basic health screening between such homes and public health facilities. This can include screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, periodic vision and hearing screening, and a simple questionnaire to assess mental health. Such interventions are inexpensive (think of all the motorcycle-operated screenings outside public grounds for morning-walkers) and could go a long way in identifying health issues and offering support. The next step would be to build formal pathways to address any health issues that such screenings identify. Many hospitals (public, NGO-run, and private care) can help.
Public policy support
Crucial though will be the need for robust public policy to support homes for the elderly. Health institutions will also need to offer a comprehensive set of packages that are tailored for the elderly — not piecemeal solutions for diabetes, cardiology or cancer, for example. What happens once care is provided? Homes for the elderly must be guided, again by policy, to make their facilities, buildings and social environment elderly- and disabled-friendly. Design, architecture and civic facilities must be thought from the ground up — and these innovations must be available for all residents, not just those living in expensive ones. There are lessons here for society as a whole, but, as they say, let’s take one step at a time.
Tejah Balantrapu is Associate Director, Science, Health Data, and Story-telling , L.V. Prasad Eye Institute; Srinivas Marmamula is Associate Director, Public Health Research and Training, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute
Even nearly five years after having lost the position of a pivot in the AIADMK, the sidelined former interim general secretary, V.K. Sasikala, continues to be a subject of major political discourse both within and outside the party. Though the Sasikala factor was a subject of discussion even during the lifetime of former Chief Minister Jayalalaithaa, who regarded her a confidante, it has acquired a new dimension ever since Ms. Sasikala returned to Chennai from Bengaluru in February 2021 after completing a four-year sentence in a disproportionate assets case.
Last week, the Theni district unit of the AIADMK adopted a resolution calling for the re-entry of Ms. Sasikala and her nephew and AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran into the organisation. The resolution is significant for a couple of reasons. Theni is the home district of AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam, who revolted against Ms. Sasikala in February 2017 before she went to the Bengaluru jail. The meeting was held at Mr. Panneerselvam’s farmhouse, although it was the district secretary of the party, S.P.M. Syed Khan, who presided over it. The development proves that despite Ms. Sasikala being declared persona non grata by former Chief Minister and party co-coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his supporters, there are still some sections in the party which want her back in the organisation.
Even before the excitement over the event could die down came the news that Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam had a telephone conversation in which the latter is said to have distanced himself from the Theni development. But that was not the end of the drama. The next day, Mr. Panneerselvam’s younger brother O. Raja, who is the chief of the Theni District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (Aavin), met Ms. Sasikala in Tiruchendur, one of the six abodes of Lord Muruga, although she was on a “pilgrimage”. This led to his expulsion from the party by Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami.
This is the second time in the past three years that Mr. Raja has been expelled from the party. In December 2018, hours after being elected chief of Madurai district’s Aavin, he was expelled only to be re-admitted a week later after he expressed regret. The reason for Mr. Raja’s expulsion at that time was that he had approached Mr. Dhinakaran for support without Mr. Panneerselvam’s “knowledge and approval”.
However, there are sceptics who doubt whether Mr. Panneerselvam will stick to the anti-Sasikala line permanently. For, in January 2021, one of his sons, V.P. Jaya Pradeep, wished Ms. Sasikala a speedy recovery when she was down with COVID-19. Eight months later, when Mr. Panneerselvam’s wife Vijayalakshmi died at a hospital in Chennai, Ms. Sasikala rushed to offer her condolences to the AIADMK’s coordinator.
In June last year, a large number of district units of the party adopted a resolution condemning Ms. Sasikala for seeking to “take over the party and create confusion among its cadre.” Yet, the units in Theni and Thanjavur, the home district of the party’s deputy coordinator, R. Vaithialingam, did not follow suit. What has not gone unnoticed is that Ms. Sasikala, Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Vaithialingam all belong to the Mukkolathor community.
Despite several attempts, Ms. Sasikala has not been able to wean away the rank and file of the party, which, in her own words, had “never seen such a spell of continuous electoral reverses” as it did since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. At present, a majority of the party’s office bearers, if not more, are behind Mr. Palaniswami, who does not seem to be toning down his strong anti-Sasikala line.
ramakrishnan.t@thehindu.co.in
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a Churchill-like speech at the British Parliament on Tuesday, vowing to fight to the end “in forests, fields and streets”. But hours before his speech, through video-conferencing, he sent the clearest signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin — in an interview — that he was ready to compromise on the most sensitive issues such as Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, and the status of Russian-controlled Crimea and the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk republics. He also called for “a collective security agreement” that would include Russia, the U.S. and Western European countries as part of a lasting solution. What makes his apparent concessions important is that he announced them a day after the Kremlin laid out three conditions to stop what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine: It wants Kyiv to accept Crimea as a Russian territory, recognise Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics and amend the country’s Constitution to drop attempts to join any bloc (NATO) and reinstate its neutrality. While Mr. Zelensky stopped short of offering recognition to the breakaway regions, his offer for compromise and dialogue opened a path towards a political settlement. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on Wednesday that its goals would be better achieved through talks also signals hope for a de-escalation.
In the last two weeks, Mr. Zelensky has emerged as the face of the Ukrainian resistance. But he is also in a difficult situation. The Russian advances are slow given Russia’s relative power, but in the last 13 days, Ukraine has lost sizeable territories, from its northern border with Belarus to its southwestern Black Sea coast. Russia has not taken any major Ukrainian city except Kherson in the south, but most cities, including Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the southeast, are being encircled. Kyiv, the capital city, is being enveloped from the east and west. Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly asked for military help from NATO. But his request for a no-fly zone was shot down. Even the Polish offer to send its fleet of MiG-29 fighters was dismissed by the U.S., which does not want any kind of military involvement in the conflict. So, the practical solution before Mr. Zelensky is to take advantage of Ukraine’s initial resistance and seek a solution through talks. Against this backdrop, his comment about Ukraine dropping its NATO bid is a welcome step. But the question is whether Mr. Putin would take this and be ready for de-escalation. If Russia had expected a quick collapse of the Ukrainian government, it has been proved wrong. Nearly a fortnight of conflict has taken a huge toll on Russia’s economy. Its ties with Europe have been set back by decades. Continuing this war endlessly does not serve anybody’s interest. If Mr. Putin’s primary concern is Russia’s security interests, he should pause the operation and start serious dialogue with the Ukrainians on Mr. Zelensky’s proposals.
Two contrasting issues concerning the legislature in two States appear to sum up the potential for political controversy when elected governments and Governors do not see eye to eye. In the West Bengal Assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and legislators of her party had to virtually plead with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to start reading his customary address amidst a prolonged uproar by the Opposition BJP MLAs. Mr. Dhankhar appeared ready to give in to the protesters, but was ultimately persuaded into reading the first and last lines. In Telangana, on the other hand, the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government seems to have decided not to have Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan address the legislature before it presented this year’s Budget. Instead, it is treating the current meeting of the legislature as a continuation of the last session. That the session, which last met some months ago, was not prorogued, has given scope for the government to contend that it is just a further meeting, and it is not necessary for the Governor to open it with an address. The ceremonial address is usually delivered in the first session of every year. Dr. Soundararajan has issued a rare statement to argue that the government’s position was technical, and it would not be proper to commence the Budget session without her address. The episode appears to arise from points of conflict between the government secretariat and Raj Bhavan, as the ruling TRS seems aggrieved that the Governor deviated from the text of her address last year and on some other issues too.
The Governor’s address is a constitutional formality, albeit a significant one, as it is essentially a statement of policy of the regime of the day. That the formal occasion is mired in political wrangling is a sign of institutional decay and unwarranted politicisation of constitutional norms. That Ms. Banerjee saw the incidents in the Assembly, which almost resulted in the abandonment of the Governor’s address, as “an attempt to create a constitutional crisis” shows that leaders still attach constitutional significance to the tradition. It will be desirable if the same recognition is seen in Telangana too. After all, if not now, the next session will have to open with the Governor’s address. It is true that there are sound arguments that question the need and the relevance of the office of Governor, or support the view that some incumbents are politically partisan. There may even be a case for doing away with the formality, or even arguing that the policy statement is better read out by the elected Chief Minister. However, as long as the current system is in vogue, there is a case for abiding by the norms. Politics notwithstanding, it is only in such formality that civility in public discourse is expressed.
Modern scientific farming and animal husbandry have no doubt made possible spectacular increases in food production to match the fast rising population. But they also pose grave hazards to the health and lives of the very humans they help to sustain. So serious and widespread is the new danger that the Agricultural Examination and Research Institute based in Kiel, West Germany, recently gave expression to its sense of alarm over this situation. According to the institute, it is practically impossible to find in West Germany to-day food products that do not have an element of residual and toxic wastes, though the use of pesticides and insecticides on growing crops. Flour, vegetables, milk and other animal products were all found contaminated with such poisonous impurities. While realiable data are not available regarding how harmful these toxic residues are to grown-ups, children are feared to be particularly susceptible. A tendency to cancer, cell damage and disorders in the biological regulatory systems are said to be among the hazards posed by these toxins.
What does it take to plaster a Tube station with advertisements seeking a bride? About £2,000, a healthy dose of hope and complete indifference to whether or not other people will treat the whole exercise as a massive joke (Warning: They will). Jeevan Bhachu, an Indian-origin marketing professional and part-time DJ from London, who has placed massive billboards on the platforms of the Central and Bakerloo lines at Oxford Circus, remains unfazed by the prospect of public ridicule. In an interview that appeared after his public appeal caught the eye of the local press, Jeevan stated that in his search for the right woman, he’s willing to expand coverage to even more Tube stations.
Jeevan’s humour-laced, but earnest, quest for a saathi — “Best Indian you’ll takeaway” — is inspired by another seeker with subcontinental roots, Muhammad Malik, who had unleashed a similar billboard campaign across major cities in the UK in January. It could be said that both campaigns operate in the hoary tradition of personal ads in newspapers and “matrimonial” websites in India — of course, on a much larger, far more creative scale. But the affinity shouldn’t be stretched. While there’s always been something cringe-worthy about matrimonial ads that demand “fair and lovely, convent educated, homely brides”, the grandness of gestures like those by Jeevan demands admiration. Lovers of yore scaled mountains and battled dragons to prove their earnestness; in the age of internet virality, Romeos (even if they’re only potentially so) splash out on meme-worthy ad campaigns.
To be so openly earnest about one’s quest for a life partner at a time when romance is reduced to the direction in which one swipes takes courage, especially as — thanks to social media — ridicule becomes very public very quickly now. Could it be that the barbs of the cynical don’t sting those who are waiting to be felled by cupid’s arrow of true love?
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘Jeevan seeks saathi’.
Classrooms across the country are coming to life as children return to schools and playgrounds. But, going by anecdotal accounts, teachers and schools are now confronted with a formidable challenge — nearly two years of school closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic have not only interrupted children’s learning but also eaten away at their foundational skills and abilities. This has been corroborated by field surveys carried out in Karnataka, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh by private agencies that show alarming regression in students’ abilities. This is a grim sign, as the weight of such learning deficits in reading, writing and comprehension in primary school is bound to stunt education at higher levels. And so, the Centre’s plan to carry out a national survey of Class III students to assess the extent of this learning loss is a welcome one. The “foundational learning study” will be carried out by the Ministry of Education in 22 languages; specially trained “field investigators” will carry out the assessments in schools; the focus will not be on intimidating tests, but on interactive, face-to-face assessments.
While the growth of educational opportunities in the previous decade is a result of an expanded primary education programme and the Right to Education legislation, concerns about the quality of education persisted. Several ASER reports carried out by the Pratham Foundation have consistently red-flagged the fact that children are going to school, but not learning to read, write or do simple sums. The Centre carries out its own assessments through the National Achievement Survey, but this is the first time it is paying attention to the challenges of foundational learning. It does so at a time when the pandemic has worsened this crisis.
Granular information on the shape of this learning loss will be useful for policymakers. But it is also important to remember that data — in itself — is not the solution. The immediate short-term step is to embark on a back-to-basics revision programme across schools and classes. That will imply freeing teachers from the tyranny of “completing the syllabus”, allowing them the autonomy to make unconventional teaching choices. In the long run, the government will also need to walk the talk on resources to tackle this crisis, which it seems reluctant to do so. Funds for training teachers, for instance, have been slashed in the current budget, which places misguided faith in e-learning and TV channels to reach children. The education crisis can snowball into one of equity, creating a new fault line between haves and have-nots, with alarming consequences for the future.
In a major outbreak of violence, anti-liquor agitators indulging in looting, clashed with the police in Anantnag town in Kashmir, leaving at least 65 people injured. The police fired several rounds in the air to disperse unruly supporters of the pro-Pakistan Peoples League who took to the streets for the second day and forced shopkeepers to close their shops. The police swung into action with firearms after lathi-charge and tear gas had little effect on the mob demanding a ban on the sale of liquor. Infuriated at the police action to re-open the closed shops, pickets of the Peoples League looted several wine shops, threw liquor bottles on the roadside and stoned police personnel.
Pakistan has acquired from the US and China fighter aircraft, guns, communication equipment and missiles besides other war equipment in the past one year, Defence Minister R Venkataraman told the Rajya Sabha. Answering questions on the Pakistani arms build-up, he said it would not be desirable to disclose all the information on the subject. He said it was not known whether all the arms for which Pakistan had signed agreements with the US up to December 1981 had been delivered.
A Tiruvalluvar Transport Corporation express bus was burnt down, window panes of 10 other buses were smashed and scores of persons, including 23 police personnel, were injured in repeated clashes between fans of matinee idol Sivaji Ganesan and the Tamil Nadu police at Meenambakkam airport. The police fired 23 rounds of tear-gas shells and resorted to lathi charges to disperse a 5,000-strong crowd of Ganesan’s fans and Congress-I workers who had come to the airport to greet him.
Among the many interesting observations that Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi made at a press conference in Beijing on Monday, one was particularly telling. Noting that China- European Union trade had exceeded $800 billion for the first time in 2021, Wang said the cooperation between China and Europe, “going through decades of ups and downs, is deeply rooted in solid public support, extensive common interests and similar strategic needs. Such cooperation… cannot be reversed by any force”. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Beijing has had to balance its “no limits” friendship with Moscow, its vital economic relationships with the US and Europe, and the need to be seen and accepted as a responsible power but without yielding on its core belief — that American unilateralism is the original sin. It has constantly finessed its statements on the conflict to reflect the fast-evolving ground situation. On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “maximum restraint to prevent a humanitarian crisis” in a conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, commended their mediation efforts, and said China would coordinate with France, Germany and the EU, and work actively with the international community. He referred to a six-point initiative that China has undertaken to ease the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. He also reiterated China’s neutral formulation that the UN Charter and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected, and that the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously.
It is clear that Russia’s actions in Ukraine have left Beijing in a difficult position, one that it may not have anticipated perhaps due to a belief, now misplaced, that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be able to pull of a surgical operation. The sanctions against Russia are going to hurt Beijing as well. But it appears that China also sees an opportunity in the present moment to project itself as a country that believes in de-escalation and conflict resolution and is prepared to work with other global powers to achieve this. It seeks to play down the image of a country that needles its neighbours and indulges in coercive Wolf Warrior diplomacy.
Beijing still considers the US as its primary rival in its quest for global supremacy. Wang’s deliberate casting of the Quad grouping as an “Asian NATO” may have been an attempt to draw a comparison between the Indo-Pacific and the conflict in Europe, but it contradicts its own position that the two are not comparable. If anything, in terms of security, China is a beneficiary of the war in Ukraine, with the US preoccupied in Europe. The 15th round of talks between the ground-level military commanders of India and China at the Line of Actual Control, scheduled for Friday, may provide more insight into the ripple effect, if any, the Ukraine conflict might have on tensions in Eastern Ladakh.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘Balancing act’.
One of the leading historians of our times, Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, died on March 3, barely three months before he was to retire from the department of history, University of Delhi. Sahu was known for his numerous works on early Indian history, as well as his commitment to teaching and mentoring students. The community of historians, his colleagues and students are shocked by the untimely demise of a scholar of his calibre and productivity.
An alumni of Delhi University, his doctoral research, later published as a monograph (1988), was in the field of archaeology, and focused on the faunal remains from the palaeolithic to the neolithic contexts in the Indian subcontinent. Scholars like Gordon Childe had proposed the idea of a neolithic “revolution”, suggesting a radical transformation in subsistence strategies for communities dependent on hunting and gathering, who had now turned to herding. Sahu broadly agreed with the view that a qualitative change in the life of people, related to the development of sedentism, private property and other social institutions, can be traced to the emergence of pastoralism in prehistoric times. In an article ‘Animal Use in Ancient India’ (1987), he turned his attention to the early historic period and discussed the plentiful availability of archaeological data on meat eating, and concluded that beef was an important part of the diet in several parts of ancient India. The implications of this work were significant, and in later years his teacher and then colleague D N Jha wrote a full monograph on the subject of beef-eating in ancient India, countering upfront the communal narrative of its association with Muslims (and Christians).
It seems that Sahu’s attention was drawn to the early history of Odisha (1984) even while he was completing his thesis. Critically examining the view that Ashoka’s Kalinga war had ramifications as far as the development of state society in the region was concerned, he went on to discuss the nature of the state as revealed through the epigraphic sources of the early historic and early medieval period. This was the beginning of an academic engagement that defined his oeuvre as a scholar. The seminal works of B D Chattopadhyaya and Hermann Kulke provided the blueprint for several historians unable to reconcile with the top-down approach of historical change that a previous generation of scholars such as D D Kosambi and R S Sharma had proffered.
While the latter were the harbingers of the study of socio-economic aspects instead of dynastic history, it was suggested that there were possibilities for understanding things differently if the local and the regional were brought into play. This model pioneered the understanding that historical regions can have different processes as well as pace of growth, leading to political, economic as well as social and cultural structures.
Sahu took these ideas forward in his evocatively titled collection of articles, Changing the Gaze: Regions and the Construction of Early India (2014). The work challenged the tendency to view regions as ossified, unchanging entities; advocating a focus that locates sub-regional as well as trans-regional connections. In The Making of Regions in Indian History: Society, State and Identity in Premodern Odisha (2020), he brought a sharper focus on the issue of integrative processes in Odisha’s history, from the time of Ashoka and Kharavela to the dynasties of the Bhaumakaras and Eastern Gangas. Chauvinistic claims of the present often get telescoped into the past when it comes to regional identity, and there is an insistence on seeing modern contours instead of historical regions. Sahu’s scholarship on premodern Odisha and on the evolution of regions has important implications for the way in which we understand history in general, and how it is taught at all levels.
Sahu served as the joint secretary (1999-2002) and secretary of the Indian History Congress (2006-2009), as well as a member of its executive committee on several occasions. A regular at the annual sessions of the IHC since his student days in the University of Delhi, he presented numerous papers and was committed to the strengthening of this body of professional historians. The responsibility of carrying forward the ideals and vision of the founding members of the IHC of encouraging scientific temper and rigorously researched history has fallen on successive generations of scholars since the time of its inception in 1935. BP Sahu stands tall among them. The history fraternity will miss him, but his scholarship will remain relevant for our times.
This column first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘A clearer gaze’. The writer is professor of history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and secretary, Indian History Congress.
It is with genuine astonishment that I read the conversation the German Ambassador to India, Walter Lindner had in the ‘Idea Exchange’ hosted by Shubhajit Roy, Deputy Chief of National Bureau of The Indian Express (March 7).
I have just arrived in New Delhi and am yet to present my credentials to the President of India. Protocol and ethics require me to refrain from making public appearances. However, I cannot but respond, since the German Ambassador to India took the liberty to publicly stigmatise Russia, its president and its policies.
Lindner seems to be a fine man, and like many from the generation of “flower children”, he sincerely believes in his ideals. However, a politician should be a realist, for the world we all live in is far from ideal. However, it looks as though realism is not the strongest trait of the German ambassador.
The point I am trying to make is that it doesn’t take a great degree of intelligence or courage to blame President Vladimir Putin for all the deadly sins that afflict the world. What is much harder is to accept that you too bear responsibility for the tragedy in Ukraine. All the more so, if you’re driven only by one side of the truth. And, if you had turned a blind eye towards the eight long years of torture, humiliation and mass killings in Donbas.
You had failed to listen to Russia’s consistent requests and even pleas since the mid-2000s — we don’t want confrontation, we want equal security for all.
You don’t seem to grasp that it’s not Ukraine that is fighting for freedom and independence. It’s Russia that’s doing so. Russia is not there to occupy or enslave, unlike Nazi Germany in the not-so-distant past.
Lindner says that Russia is “bending” history. Well, it’s high time you open your eyes, Mr Ambassador, for the US has been doing precisely that for the past 20 years, obsessed with the notion of unrivalled global dominance and feeding you and the world the very same fake narrative of which you accuse Russia.
It is true that Russia is a young and imperfect democracy. Our many shortcomings make us appear an autocracy to some. But, tell me, which country is perfect in this world? Our only desire is to freely evolve at our own pace without interference. Russia’s core foreign policy objective is to preserve the international laws agreed to by all instead of following a “rules-based order” advocated by a few. There cannot be one ultimate truth in international relations, it is always a compromise. The very compromise Russia was so highhandedly denied and in which Germany didn’t seem to have much say.
Perhaps, the German Ambassador has a different viewpoint but that doesn’t mean I should agree with him. And maybe he would agree with me that had Germany had a more independent foreign policy, it would have succeeded in respecting the interests of Russia and Europe at large, and wouldn’t have allowed a situation when we were left with no other choice but to use force to make Ukraine listen to us. It was not our choice alone, Germany too bears responsibility for the current situation.
That’s the realpolitik and it is much more grim than what the German Ambassador thinks. The people “across the pond” who call the shots are much more cynical than him. I’m happy that the German Ambassador can afford the luxury to theorise about ideals. Unfortunately, we have to deal with harsh reality.
This column first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘We didn’t start the fire’. The writer is Russia’s Ambassador-Designate to India.
India’s medical education system has attracted a lot of adverse attention due to the crisis in Ukraine and the resultant need for evacuating medical students, delay in post-graduate counselling because of reservation-related litigation and Tamil Nadu legislating to opt out of NEET. I take a look at what ails the system based on my close encounters with it, as a member of the faculty at a medical college and as a father whose daughters went through this process in the last decade.
There is a serious demand-supply mismatch as well as inadequate seats in terms of population norms. In private colleges, these seats are priced between Rs 15-30 lakh per year (not including hostel expenses and study material). This is way more than what most Indians can afford. It is difficult to comment on quality as nobody measures it. However, from personal experience, I can say that it is highly variable and poor in most medical colleges, irrespective of the private-public divide.
The MBBS degree continues to be an attractive option. However, unlike in the past, a substantial section of the middle class no longer feels that this is a good return of investment. Students opting for a medical career, with some exceptions, are of two types: Those who see this as a path to social and economic mobility. The second category is that of children of doctors, especially in the private sector, whose parents want them to continue their legacy. The first group is highly price-sensitive while the second is not.
The government’s initiative to open new medical colleges has run into a serious faculty crunch. Except at the lowest level, where new entrants come, all that the new colleges have done is poach faculty from a current medical college. Academic quality continues to be a serious concern. The Medical Council of India (MCI) did try to address many of the earlier loopholes of ghost faculty and corruption. It introduced the requirement of publications for promotions to improve the academic rigour of faculty. But this has resulted in the mushrooming of journals of dubious quality. The point is that the faculty and medical colleges will learn to game the system. Faculty salaries in many state government-run and private colleges are low and private practice is common. This ruins the academic atmosphere.
Another distinct feature of the medical education system in India is its complete disregard for students’ welfare. Only the top 0.25 per cent of the applicants get a seat in a decent government medical college. In times of scarcity, social justice takes a backseat. Most parents simply lack the wherewithal to weigh the pros and cons of individual medical colleges. The counselling process is very complicated to negotiate, even for a person like me. After my experience of reporting to a college at 9 am and leaving at 5 am the next day with scarcely any arrangement or hospitality in peak summer, I vowed not to send my daughter to an institution that has scant respect for its future students and their parents. The system is designed for non-resident and other wealthy Indians to capture the seats left unfilled due to their high prices. This is engineered by using a percentile system for defining eligibility — and not per cent — so that students with money and low scores can get through.
What do you do if you and your family have invested money and emotion in making you a doctor and you do not get enough marks to qualify for a government medical college? Many such students used to settle for a Bachelor in Dental Surgery degree. This led to a mushrooming of dental colleges of dubious quality and India produced far more dental surgeons than were in demand. Subsequently, several of these colleges shut down. The only option then is to do MBBS in a country that one can afford.
A situation of high demand coupled with a student-unfriendly system is designed for the entry of middlemen. As soon as you register with a coaching agency or the NEET results are out, you are bombarded with offers from agencies ensuring seats in Nepal, Mauritius, Ukraine, Russia, China and so on. Parents are lured into spending their hard-earned savings by middlemen who paint a rosy picture of the scenario in these countries. Even after this, these students often fail to clear the foreign medical graduate examination — this has a pass rate of 15 per cent. Caught between parental pressure and an unfriendly system, the students have nowhere to go.
We cannot discount the impact of the corporatisation of the health sector and the increasing need for specialisation in medical education. If the health sector is treated like a service industry with a profit motive, medical education provides human resources — like business managers. Universal need and information asymmetry are among the many reasons often cited to make the case for the exclusion of market forces in health services and medical education. The increasing need for specialisation, with students having to prove their worth at every level or pay through their noses, is becoming a scourge for the new entrants to the system. This explains the decline in attraction for the MBBS among a section of students.
So, what needs to be done? There are many who propose a rapid scale-up of seats by converting district hospitals into medical colleges using a private-public partnership model. The NITI Aayog seems to be moving in this direction. This is a dangerous idea without the government putting in place two things — a functional regulatory framework, and a good public-private model that serves the needs of the private sector as well as the country. We have so far failed miserably in both, largely due to the political-private sector nexus. Recent efforts by the National Medical Council (NMC) to regulate college fees are being resisted by medical colleges. The government should seriously consider subsidising medical education, even in the private sector, or look at alternative ways of financing medical education for disadvantaged students. Quality assessments of medical colleges should be regularly conducted, and reports should be available in the public domain. The NMC is proposing a common exit exam for all medical undergraduates as a quality control measure. This is loaded against students. I hope that the current scaling up efforts, which are most welcome, are re-envisaged to focus on quality and societal needs along with commercial viability.
This column first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘After the evacuation’. The writer is Professor, Centre for Community Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Views are personal
Uttar Pradesh is often in the news, even when there are no elections. It is a large state, with a large population. It has a large economy and India’s growth and development trajectory are dependent on what happens to UP. UP’s districts are heterogeneous and a shade over 10 per cent of UP’s GSDP (gross state domestic product) originates from the Gautam Buddha Nagar district, which includes Noida, Greater Noida, Dadri, Jewar and Dankaur.
UP is a state with extremes, understandable for a large state. At one end, there are districts like Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow, Agra and Prayagraj. At the other end, there are districts like Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Shravasti and Balrampur. However, visibility-wise (depending certainly on who is viewing), Noida gets some extra prominence, and now, so does Greater Noida. The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority is a “planned city”, as is Greater Noida, the extension.
Noida was set up on April 17, 1976 and April 17 is “Noida Day”. Section 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act 1976 provided for the notification of a Noida Authority and the 1976 legislation was “for the constitution of an Authority for the development of certain areas in the State into industrial and urban township”. Noida has won several awards.
But there is one aspect on which Noida has won no awards. I am referring to the CAG’s Performance Audit Report on “Land Acquisition and Allotment of Properties in NOIDA” in Uttar Pradesh. This is Report No. 6 of 2021, tabled on December 17, 2021. “This report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) contains significant observations arising out of ‘Performance Audit of Land Acquisition and Allotment of Properties in New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA)’ during the period 2005-06 to 2017-18 of the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP). The report emanates from the scrutiny of files and documents pertaining to NOIDA and collection of data from other government departments and agencies viz. Registrar of Companies (RoC), Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UPRERA), Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) etc., and its cross verification with the data of NOIDA. In July 2017 ,GoUP entrusted the audit of NOIDA, and three other Industrial Development Authorities (IDAs) to the CAG.” This is the first report of the kind and the objective sounds reasonable. In the interests of transparency and accountability, there should be many more of the kind. But the Noida report belies such hopes.
To quote again, “The audit of ‘Land Acquisition and Allotment of Properties in NOIDA’ has raised serious questions of propriety and pointed to governance failure at every level. In the course of acquisition of land, the rights of farmers were side-stepped through misuse of statutory provisions. The allotment of properties was replete with instances of lack of due diligence, contravention of rules and orders, misrepresentation and wilful concealment of facts. In numerous cases, allotment has been made to entities who did not meet the essential criteria laid down in the brochures resulting in allotment to entities without financial capacity for executing such projects. This has caused severe distress to home buyers on account of incomplete projects and a huge amount of outstandings remaining overdue to NOIDA. The milieu created by NOIDA and in several instances endorsed by the Board with respect to selective changes in brochure conditions, under-pricing of certain categories of plots and allotment in categories at lower rates along with reduction of allotment money, mortgage, sub-division, permission to exit and transfer clearly suggest that officials in NOIDA had acted in clear breach of public trust and in complete disregard to the interest of NOIDA and the home buyers. The creation of third-party rights in the allotted properties has put the interests of stakeholders in further peril. In spite of the clear evidence of breaches, the Authority failed to act against builders/allottees and take action against its own officials for their dereliction of duty and role in permitting/abetting the continuing infractions. These issues bring out serious lapses of probity, integrity and ethics in governance of the Authority.”
I have merely quoted from the preface. The 425 pages in the report should scandalise all of us. Let me leave aside land acquisition issues and give a sample of what occurred once land had been acquired. “Consequently, land use conversions were regularised by introducing various activities viz. sports city and mixed land use, schemes not interrelated with the core objective of NOIDA were launched and various activities not permitted in agriculture use, institutional use and industrial use were allowed causing loss to NOIDA.” Or, “NOIDA allotted 67 group housing plots measuring 71.03 lakh sqm which were sub-divided into 113 plots by the allottees. Audit observed that out of the 113 projects, 71 projects were either incomplete or partially completed, which constituted 63 per cent of the total projects. Out of the 1,30,005 flats sanctioned, occupancy certificate was not issued for 44 per cent of flats, due to which home-buyers who have invested their lives’ savings and hard-earned money in the purchase of flats still remained deprived of possession of their flats. Though the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development (UPIAD) Act, 1976 has prescribed penal measures for defaulters, NOIDA had failed to take action for huge dues against the builders even after lapse of the tenure for payment.” There is much more. How did this go on with impunity and who is culpable? In fairness, many recommendations made by CAG have been accepted.
This column first appeared in the print edition on March 10, 2022 under the title ‘The NOIDA that failed people’. The writer is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM. Views are personal