Blogging about Society, individual and collective behaviour/herd mentality, nudges,economics,business,politics,sports and spirituality and on all the other subjects about which I know very little !!
Indian Central Govt. successfully pushed 3 Farm bills through both the Houses of Parliament last week. Since the ruling NDA led by BJP has a majority in the lower house i.e Lok Sabha the passage of these bills happened without any hiccup there. But when the same bills had to be passed by the higher house i.e Rajya Sabha, where NDA has a thin majority, pandemonium reigned and all hell broke loose. But the Chairman of the house went by voice vote amidst allegations that he chose to ignore the call for division of the house.
Now the opposition is upset not by the farm bills per see but the way it was carried by the Chairman by the Upper house by not allowing them to stall this reform in the garb of discussions et al. Several Agricultural Commissions and Committees incl the Sen Committee and Dr.Swaminathan Comittee over the last 30 years, have strongly suggested on this unshackling of Agri markets across the country. This reform is long overdue. Even Congress Govt. wanted to implement this and it is in their election manifesto. But due to the reversal of roles, now Congress does not want this to be passed by Modi in order to deny him the credit for this. It is nothing but opportunism and blinded by the hatred for Modi ,UPA wants Indian farmers to suffer.
The three reform bills passed and approved by the President are :
1)Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.:-This bill aims to promote barrier-free interstate and intra-state trade in agricultural produce;
2)Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:- This is for allowing farmers to engage with processors, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers and exporters directly;
3)Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020:-to generally liberalise the regulatory environment for the farmers and to free them from the clutches of middlemen.
The twist in the tale which adds spice to the whole drama has been clearly brought out in this article by Sanjay Jha(link) when he says Dr.Man Mohan Singh went on television when UPA was ruling, to assure the farmers that by a similar action of passing the farm bills their lives would be made better and he tried to assuage their hurt feelings. When the agri reforms ordinance was promulgated in May 2020, pl. note the tone and tenor of agri economists like Prof Ashok Gulati who backed these ordinances hailing this as "the 1991 moment "for agri reforms.(link)
People who are now opposing the momentous changes to be ushered through these far-reaching farm bills are those who have vested interests in the continuation of status quo. There are many middlemen who make money and lend/give easy money to politicians try to block these bills. Many of them do not pay income tax by showing that their income is agricultural income. Now this lot is in dire straits and does not want to let go off the golden goose from their hands. By supporting these elements the opposition is revealing their colours to the public scrutiny.
With many assemble elections around the corner, politicians are trying to portray themselves as the saviour of the farmers by misleading the gullible farmers against these reforms. By repeating a lie, that Govt will abolish MSP, they are stoking the farmers' fears and are trying to create panic and chaos among the farmers. This is despite PM Modi assuring on the floor of the Parliament that the MSP mechanism will not be revoked at any point in time in the future.
The farmers must see through these games played by the opposition parties, and understand that more choices for them to market their produce will not set them back both financially as well as socially. They should look at the stories of ITC eChoupal, Mahindra's, Amul's agri ventures, and emulate them by evolving their cooperative community farming to further their dreams in those lines.
When fruits, vegetables and milk are sold liberally without the MSP crutches, farmers must introspect and understand that MSPs help only 6% of the total agricultural output in the country.
Multiple avenues to market their farm output will only lead them to a better future!!
India's agriculture has hit a new high when the entire country is under lockdown and the industry has hit the rock bottom.Kharif sowing as on 5th Sep20 has reached 1095 lakh hectares which is 6% more than what was the sown area in kharif season 19-20.The acreage of paddy has grown by 8% to 396 lac hec.over previous year.The acreage under Oilseeds has grown by 12% to 195 LH; Pulses by 5% to 137 LH; Cotton by 3% to 129 LH and Coarse cereals by 2% to 179 LH.This has been facilitated by 9% increase in rainfall during June-Sep 20 to 795mm.
All five summer grown Oilseeds has seen higher than anticipated increase in their respective MSPs and better procurement during the initial months of Covid pandemic phase.The increase in Minimum Support Prices including that of Paddy announced at the beginning of Kharif season in june 20 has really helped in increasing the sowing area and in augmenting the revenue of the farmer.
That apart, India has witnessed a 23% increase in farm exports dominated by Rice and Sugar, in the Q1 of Fy 20-21. These are all heartening news from the agri sector.
However the worrying patches, in the otherwise bright outlook,are the outstanding dues of over Rs.14.2K Cr. of Sugar Mills in UP to the cane growers. The State Govt has raised the FRP(Fair & Remunerative Price) by Rs.10 on an average as a policy measure during this cane crushing season, starting Oct 1.Sugar Mills have approached the Govt for a subsidy to pay the farmers in order to tide over the Covid induced difficulties.
Modi Govt has also constituted a Agri Infra Fund of Rs.1 lac cr. The Infra Fund is for catalysing the Agri-infra development and help build pivotal infrastructures like warehouses, cold storage, and nurture farm assets. This will bring about a increase in Agri share of GDP in the economy from 15% approx and thus improve the livelihood of those dependant on agriculture.(link GDP).
Modi Govt has promised doubling of farmers' income by 2022 which is a daunting task ahead and Govt. is well focussed on this with far reaching structural changes made in the last few months by amending Essential Commodities Act and by liberalising farm trade , land leasing for agriculture across the country.
Now the country is looking forward to the Rabi season.
What do we know about EIA draft 2020? But even before we read it, we want to register our opposition to the draft. Does this attitude not reek of cynicism.
Former UPA minister Mr.jairam Ramesh shot out a letter to Minister for Environment in Central govt,Mr.Prakash Javadekar saying that draft EIA allows post facto approvals going against the principle of assessment before projects are put up.
There are some fundamental flaws in the assumptions behind the accusations against the draft.
1)Under the current EIA everything is hunky dory and the revised draft now is going to spell doom to the environment. For that, they are side by side quoting that LG Polymers gas leak disaster saying that this project has not obtained EIA clearances for the project still. These people, conveniently forgetting that this project has been put up as per current guidelines and not under the draft now presented, quote LG Polymer as an example of a violation of Environment Act. If the project had come up under the current guidelines it shows that the present system is far from perfect and not the draft EIA which is yet to be implemented.
2)The current regime encourages a lot of bureaucratic hurdles and "environment tax" on industry due to discretionary powers wielded by the govt agencies, NGOs and other vested interests. The influential private citizens hold the industry to ransom raising any number of objections and many a time it becomes a political battle using the corporate turf. The victims are corporate and the employed and finally the country.
3)Are we going by unbiased third party audits for EIA compliance before approving any mega projects. Whenever people's opinions are called for, most of the time the opposition parties jump in to settle their petty disputes and for scoring some political brownie points.Even after the matter is heard and resolved by NGT, and PCBs , local people are fed concocted news by urban naxals in the garb of NGOs through carefully planted stories in the gullible media inorder to arouse their passions and to rake up riots against the projects.In all this, the central point of Environment Impact assessment is the casualty. There are impartial National and International agencies who can give unbiased assessment reports and the country should make engaging them for assessment necessary, if not madatory.
4) Are we not unwittingly not believing any Govt agency even if the truth is told- immediately jumping to conclusion that the Corporates have bribed these Govt. agencies to talk in favour of them. We have become totally cynical of this system and we want to throw the baby with the bathwater.
5)Any development can happen only in the existing land.People must understand where they live today as their house and apartments all stand on land which was once thriving agricultural fields. Britishers pushed the development agenda by forcibly taking up the land and today our own Govt acquires these lands by paying up the agreed market price.Why are we then raising our hands against our own development. Is there any gain without pain?
6) People must understand, if they raise objections to any of these acquisitions, then where new roads, railroads etc can be laid?If our grandparents had raised such objections , whether today's existing Indian railways or National highways would have come up? or whether we could have enjoyed criss crossing the country happily riding on these infra facilities?
7) All those who raise these objections are still at liberty to approach the Courts seeking justice. Nothing or nobody is stopping them from reaching to the Courts.Instead if they want to do road roko or rail roko or cause obstruction to others in general, then their actions are anti social and anti national only. Such people are hell bent on scuttling India's development and prosperity and are playing into the hands of India's enemies.
My appeal to the common man is not to fall for the words of those who want to subvert India's growth using sophisticated wordplay and methods, as part of their selfish partisan and hidden agenda at the behest of our enemy nations.
Central Govt announced Rs.90K cr rescue package for power gencos through PFC and REC.But PRAAPTI ( Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators) website shows that the total overdue amount to be paid to Gencos stood at Rs.113.8K cr at the end of May 2020 continuously going up for the last 18 to 24 months. The total outstandings were Rs.125.6K cr.link.
Apart from this, there is renewable energy generation pending to be adjusted against captive consumption of factories which is not yet visible.This may be another iceberg submerged.
After clearing Rs.90K cr.as per GOI plan stated above, how the state discoms are going to manage their future liabilities.
With a negative gap between Average Cost of Supply(ACS) and Average Revenue Realised at Re.0.41 per unit on an All India basis, it is a losing game. AT & C loss is also still very high at 18.72%link.UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) commitments lie in tatters.
All the UDAY Targets remain unfulfilled. The website says there are no newsletter releases after Jan 2019 and that sums up the state of affairs under UDAY. UDAY is now Asthamana.It looks like an orphan.
Feeder Metering 30th June 2016
DT Metering 30th June 2017
AT&C Losses 15% by FY 2019
Consumer Indexing & GIS Mapping 30th Sep 2018
Upgradation of DT,Meters etc. 31st Dec 2017
Smart meter for Consumers >500 units by Dec 2017;>200 units by Dec 2019
Elimination of ACS-ARR gap FY 2019
Smart metering completion is at 6% - 7% on All India basis as per the website UDAY.in whereas , it should have been completed 100% by Dec 2019 according to the Targets set.
Are there methods amidst madness to come out of this mess?. There are practical methods to bring down AT &C loss by upgrading the cable quality.adoption of smart metering etc. But the easiest way to do is by horizontal deployment across states. State of Himachal Pradesh has the lowest AT &C at 5.62%. There are great lessons for other states to learn from them. The lowest gap between ACS and ARR is in Gujarat at just 4 paise. This will open the eyes of other States.This cross fertilisation of ideas is the way forward to healthy federal competition.
Many political parties give electoral promises of free electricity to farmers to win elections and in the guise of farmers many use free electricity even for their farm houses. This misuse is rampant across India.
The best way to counter this is to transfer subsidy given to marginal farmers to their Jan dhan account and charge uniformly for agri sector. Another method could be charge 10 paise for a unit for agri activity instead of calling it free and increase this tariff every year by indexing it to CPInflation for those agriculturists consuming more than 1000 units per annum.
