Demonetisation: Economics and Politics of It

What are the most important reasons of the ‘demonetization’ – coming of big elections, initiative against the black money promised during the 2014 election, curbing the tax evasion or streamlining the market economy by cleaning the house itself? Let’s come to the populism of ‘demonetization’ which the vast educated lower middle class liking and perhaps not the general and upper middle population who are the mover of the market economy. The below poverty line and women in general will be the biggest sufferer. Many poor people do not even have identity cards as well as the account number where they can exchange their hard earns money. Those women who saves for precautionary measures do not have easy way out to this problem because large share of them are in the rural areas and do not even have the account number. And either way so far, financial inclusion dream has a very limited success in India. In fact, historically there is huge expenditure on elections in India. The government of India already cleared that, the maximum limit for the lok sabha election is from Rs. 40 to Rs.70 lakh for bigger states and from Rs. 22 to Rs. 54 lakh for the smaller states, none the less, large amount being spent in the elections by contestants which are not easily been accounted. In fact, Kapoor and Vaishnav (2011), on their paper, ‘Quid Pro Quo: Builders, Politicians, and Election Finance in India’ (http://www.cgdev.org/files/1425795_file_Kapur_Vaishnav_election_finance_India_FINAL.pdf) states that during the election, builders finance the election expenditure indirectly and in return they get the regulatory benefit once the preferred party comes in power. And this relationship is so powerful that real estate market goes down during the elections in India. Consequently, there will be momentarily effect on the already sluggish real estate market in general and the states going to have assembly elections; in particular. In a way, it’s good for the real estate investor that they face the demonetization now than facing the lower price of the estate in the coming future. So far, what we know is, UP has given the maximum number of prime ministers to India, as it has the highest number of lok sabha ( and vidhan sabha) seats. Also, winning UP election creates a good base to rule the country for long period and politically this seems to me as one of the reasons. The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) have ruled the state in recent times, and in most cases winning election is based on caste, religion, muscle power, money and sometimes by pre-election populist policies such as – bicycle and laptop distribution etc. Now, to make the BJP’s foundation strong in UP, hitting at the opponents root was very important that too when BSP supremo already had a history of income tax glitches in her part. Agony and anxiety has already been reacted as a ‘financial emergency’ by her without really inferring what exactly it can be? Economically it is a good move by the BJP in terms of sending the opponents in their own goal posts but politically huge cost attached to it. The Union government is creating its own economic base cleaning the predecessor’s decrepit and trying to know the size of the shadow/underground economy which is, in fact can be made inclusive to the mobile with the market economy. In consonance, the less informed UP voters will remember the pain and not the some positive consequences in the medium run. So, the idea of populism of ‘demonetization’ will cost incumbent at the centre, as the ‘median voters’ seems to me are the less informed middle most voters. Similarly, big shadow economy of Agriculture works with lot of backdoors in the Food Corporation of India (FCI). In fact, even in Punjab it is going to create shallow edge for the central incumbent which is not really winning the election. So, the case of Punjab is not exceptionally going to be different from UP. As most of the people including World Bank already said that the share of the black economy is 30% of the GDP, whose transactions are not really be accounted in country’s progress. In fact, the underground economy or black economy is one of the problems of the measurement of the GDP as its transactions are not recorded. It means, if the transactions are recorded in terms of proper transaction bills, cash memos then that can be one of the ways to dig out the black economy. In fact, if the economy moves all its transactions to the electronic system and no cash, the black economy can be dealt better as economists have already expressed their desire. However, the total stock of money as a black is very less in percentage so, the big total effect of ‘demonetization’ in the medium run is also not going to be big, but there will definitely be some gain. The big ‘Jumla’ lecture of 15 lakh during the 2014 election campaign was quite a painful itching on the back of the incumbent’s as that also contributed in losing the battle of ‘Indraprastha’. The initiative can also be thought in the direction as – the social emancipation should start from home and not from the Swiss Bank but that seems fishy in citizen’s eyes. Anyway, so the surgical strike was not really on target but can strike back to the chest of striker because people have hoped that big fishes will be in the net and not really themselves. The outgoing governor of the RBI was quite adamant about the non performing assets (NPAs) of the borrower and perhaps that seems one of the differences between the fiscal and monetary decisions by two apexes which perhaps cost the governor by its chair. If action on big fishes have been taken that would have been more appreciable people at large would have been in peace than the current alternative which created havoc all over the country. But any way, black economy in terms of, money hidden in ceiling, sofa sets, money behind the walls with a hidden door or in the account in a Swiss Bank all are part of bad black economy and in fact the piggy bank money in the home is as bad too, because these quantity of money are remained idle for a long time without being part of transaction, no return on it except small precautionary use and do not contribute to the economy. The size of the piggy home bank will be bigger if coin will be of bigger denomination and can harm more to Keynes if such coins come in the future. One of the very important parts of the economy is to decide the optimal stock of money in the whole economy and at this moment largest share (approximately 86%) of the same is in the denomination of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000. Delegitimizing the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 would work like a speed breaker in the economy at the effect and the velocity of circulation will be less, particularly for these two currencies which cannot easily be compensated by the quantity of other denominated currencies. Hence, from the Quantity Theory of Money (QTM), MV=PY, where M is the stock of money, V is velocity of circulation (no. of times money being transacted in given time), P is the price level and Y is the total output of the economy. Less V will create less total income in the economy until the new denomination start functioning properly. Also, at the event output will be negatively affected but as the shadow economy fades (which in fact seems less likely), output growth will peak up in the medium run. The QTM in terms of growth rates can be expressed as, inflation rate=money growth-output growth + velocity of circulation (π=m-y+v). Inflation rate will not change at the event and not even in the near future unless there is some external shocks. Rather reduction in money growth at the effect can be higher than output growth and the situation of deflation or dis-inflation can arise, which rather gives very clear way for the already celebrated inflation targeting regime. This will also create the lower interest rate regime because of the lower money stock in the economy as our finance minister was desired for last one year to provide better investment opportunity for the entrepreneurs. The volatile economy at the event will also depreciate the currency at the event but stabilize the market in six to eight months since, the ripples are small. Hence the growth path of the economy has been well streamlined where market economy will play the stimulating role in the medium run. Finally, streamlining the economy has a huge cost. That is, at the event people at mass are facing the insolvency of their daily survival hard earns few yellows (Rs.500) and reds (Rs. 1000) but in the medium run it will be better. The incumbent at the centre can face counterproductive in the coming elections of UP and Punjab, because of the less informed citizen voters about the future prospects of the economy. The only point of worry is, whether everyone in the economy was uninformed or are there some privileged upper echelon people who have already parked their wealth at the safely? There were some suspicions on this as some banks are showing huge jump in the deposit growth rates in the last quarter. Also, the preparation for the ‘demonetization’ seems meager, as I heard the size of the Rs. 2000 notes are bigger and not fitting in current ATMs. So, the announcement has been done because of the Diwali rush. Finally, the government decision to catch small fishes can backfire and it is not going to give the big mango fruit. (Views are author’s personal)

Tribal Sub-plan and the Question of Education

I. Introduction Almost after 25 years since the India became independent, for the first time the government of India realized to give 7.5% of the total plan outlay in 5th Five Year Plan (1973-74 to 1978-79) under “Tribal Sub-plan” strategy. The Tribal Sub-plan is a strategic policy initiative by the government for the overall development of adivasis. The basic idea of Tribal sub-plan is- “allocating the amount for tribal from the total budget outlay at least proportionate to their population”. This strategy has been adopted to bring the adivasis at par with other sections of the society and to protect them from exploitation. The basic objective of the strategy was to initiatie a process of development broadly in egalitarian framework and the adivasi community to take advantage of the modern (neo-liberal) way of development. Some important features of the TSP are - reduction of poverty and unemployment, providing opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, upheaval of education and health status and providing social and financial security. After independence, one of the main plans under which various scheme of development work for adivasis was Integrated Tribal Development Plan (ITDP), however this plan was able to reach only up to 1/3rd of the population of tribal. It means only the dominant tribal groups somehow able to take the benefit out of this plan. Since, the performances of the development plan were not satisfactory, hence it has been decided to cover the entire population by the end of 6th Five Year Plan in 10 years. Hence within this framework following strategy has been adopted- i. Development plan has to be adopted based on tribal concentrated areas. These tribal communities comprised around 70% of the population of tribal. ii. Household (family based) development strategy has to be adopted for the dispersed tribal communities, which comprises around 25% of the tribal population. iii. The remaining special development plan was to be adopted for small and primitive tribal communities, which comprises 5% of the total tribal population Though, the identification of the tribal communities has already been done in 1974, but keeping dynamicity of the society in current context (for example the tea-migrants in North-East regions and migrants in Delhi etc.), the development strategies to be implemented, the identification and proper mapping of the tribal communities based on area and language is very important so as to ensure that all tribal communities are accessing the benefits within the TSP. Not the least, looking at the gender justice, one need further stratification of the development strategies based on the percentage of tribal women’s population. II. The Tribal Rights and Development The two most important tribal rights - protection and development has been put forth under 5th schedule and tribal sub-plan respectively. This, two provisions of the government which has to be implemented in a same area, the constitution of India has been amended for the 5th Schedule in 1976 to “ensure that effective simultaneous action could be taken throughout the tribal area for protection and development of the tribal people”. Later, in 1996 PESA and recently, the Forest Right Act (FRA) in 2006 have been added as another pillar for the development and protection of tribal people. Interestingly, all four plans and provisions are compact. One of the first initiatives, taken in 1974 under 5th Five Year Plan was the pooling of financial resources of sub-plan areas. The pooled resources constitutes of – expenditure from the state, outlay from the central government, supplementary outlays by the central government under article 275 of the constitution if the programme is very well performing and finally outlays of the other cooperative institutions working in the sub-plan areas. However, there are several provisions which have been included looking at the dynamic socio-economic activities in the sub-plan areas tribal communities. Recently, one of the major objectives of Tribal Sub-Plan in 11th Five Year Plan is “to reform tribal Sub-Plan and restore its dynamic character to make it an effective instrument for tribal development”. However, even in this high stage of information efficiency and resistance against the corruption, there is huge lapses and diversion of TSP funds. In fact, insufficient fund allocation and fund diversion were always the major issues in Tribal Sub-Plan. Table 1 shows the budget allocation to STs from 2007-08 to 2010-11. We see that proportion of total Plan Allocation for STs Percentage never went above 5% except in year 2012-13. Table 1: Plan Allocation for STs from the Union Budget Plan Allocation for STs from the Union Budget (Rs. in Crore) Year Total Union Budget Plan STP Allocation % Allocated in TSP Lost Amount 2007-08RE 158491 7447 4.69869 3.50131 2008-09RE 183528 8771 4.779107 3.420893 2009-10RE 233386 8600.6 3.68514 4.51486 2010-11BE 284284 10363.3 3.645404 4.554596 2011-12BE 327396 17959 5.485406 2.714594 2012-13BE 391027 21710.11 5.552074 2.647926 Total 11th FYP 1578112 74851.01 4.743073 3.456927 Source: Union Budget, BE-Budget Estimate, RE- Revised Estimate Similarly, Table 2 shows downward movement in percentage of expenditure over the estimated budget under TSP. Since there are lot of funds not at all allotted, getting diverted or unspent and hence huge funds got accumulated as inventory stock. Hence, union government further tried to reduce the allocation until the stock is being used in a better way. This further deteriorated the situation. Though, the constitutional provision of spending in education is 6% of the budget, so even within the TSP budget allocation, it should be same as the provision is. However, once this amount is already accumulated, the lapses amount must be invested in the most basic need of the adivasis - the protection and then education. For protection, government can create land bank from the already acquired and futile land, which is not used for any other purposes, can be distributed among the landless tribals. The government can also buy back the snatched land from the tribal by creating extra fund in addition to TSP, as supplementary scheme. Since, now most of the lapses TSP amount can be used in education by increasing the per capita spending on education at several stages. Coincidentally, newspaper reporting states that, failure rate of the students at secondary level in Jharkhand is one of the highest in 2011, whereas in the year 2009-10 government is able to spend around 62% only. In Jharkhand, 72% fail Class 12 Science, even Minister’s children Manoj Prasad. Of the 2.93 lakh students who took the state intermediate examination (+2) conducted by the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) in 2011, less than 1.25 lakh have been successful. The failure rate is more than 55%. In Science, the pass percentage has been a dismal 28%. Among the students who failed-are the son and daughter of state Human Resource Minister Baidhnath Ram. (Indian Express, June 15, 2011) Table 2: Budget Allocation for Tribal (In Rs. Crore) Year Budget Estimates Revised Estimate Expenditure % of Spending over BE 2006-07 1656.90 1652.68 1647.37 99.42 2007-08 1791.71 1719.17 1524.32 88.63 2008-09 2121.00 1970.00 1805.91 85.17 2009-10 3205.50 2000.00 1996.79 62.35 2010-11 3206.50 Source: Planning commission Hence, there are problems of inadequate fund allocation, under utilization of funds, the diversion of funds and administrative issue are also been seen. Though, the initiatives under TSP deal with various development programme, but here we will emphasize the aspect of education at various levels. One of the very important aspects of policy enforcement is to ensure the fund under the Tribal Sub-Plan reaching the last person in the thread of government development plan. Also, since in a state like Jharkhand, the per capita expenditure on education is meager, so increasing the per capita expenditure through TSP can work like a catalyst for expanding the domain of learning for the tribal students. III. Basic Problem of Education and Recommendations “There are places on earth, in every country, where, for various reasons good schools cannot be built and good teachers cannot or do not want to go”- Sugata Mitra (A) Problems and Solutions in Primary and Secondary Education Problem 1: Why teachers do not go to school, particularly in the interior areas? Solution- Higher the distance of school from the district headquarters higher should be the salary. For this government can do some kind of radius and circumference mapping of the schools and can give more incentives to teachers, who is teaching in far distant schools from district headquarters. Problem 2: Students cannot be failed till class eight, monitoring and the efficiency of para-teacher. What is the Quality Check? Solution-After completing primary school at local levels, it should be compulsory that some percentage of students (category wise) must qualify for some of the best residential school for secondary and higher secondary level of schooling at district level. Similarly, some percentage of the Senior Secondary school students (category wise) must qualify for IIMs, IITs, NLSIUs and other disciplines. If students are not able to qualify teachers should be punished and if the students qualify teacher should be awarded. This way monitoring of the students can be ensured for quality of education. In case of para-teachers, competitive examination should be taken, if they qualify they will become the regular teacher otherwise, they will become the para-educators and get the same salary as they were getting earlier. Those who could not qualify will assist the regular teacher in report making, MDM and homework of the students as in western countries. Problem 3: Why education in the mother tongue or bilingual/multilingual education is important? Solution- there must be mapping of area wise language and the proper bilingual and multilingual education should be started rather than starting the basic education in alien language. Problem 4: What is the concept of we are strictly more than 5%? Solution-Once Rajiv Gandhi said that, out of one rupee he sends to the country, it is just the 15 paise that reach to the people. But for tribal, within the Tribal sub-plan there are under-allocation, under-spending and diversion of funds, so in the case of tribal it must be the spending between 1 paise to 5 paise out of one rupee under TSP. So, we are in the club of below 5% spending even though we are 8.2% of the total population. Some Initiatives that can be taken for Educational Development at primary and secondary level- (i) Scholarships to ST students in Class I to IV (ii) Scholarship for Technical and Professional Courses (iii) Merit Scholarship to Senior Secondary Students (iv) Free uniform to ST Children (v) Higher amount of Scholarship to girls’ students particularly those who are BPL. (vi) Special Scholarship to Primitive Tribal Groups (vii) Grant-in-aid to S.T. Hostels at every level (viii) Coaching Centers in Hostels (ix) Prizes to Students (x) Eklavya Model Residential Schools not exactly as it exist in some states (xi) Residential Schools for Talented Students (xii) Special Schools to be made for physically challenged students in every district (xiii) Promotion of the Scholarship for Sports at the primary level itself. (xiv) Separate Hostel for tribal girls and boys in capital, districts and block levels. (B) Problem and Solution at Higher Education Level Problem 1: Need of the Institution, which can create the quality research environment? Solution-In Central and Eastern Tribal India, there should be one center of excellence where the quality discussion and debate can be done and also it put some impacts on the state and central government mainly in the tribal issues. Initiatives for Higher Education for Tribal - (i) Overseas Scholarship and providing opportunities of coaching for IITs, managements and Civils Services? (ii) Providing the status to Agriculture and allied activities as an Industry? (iii) Various affirmative actions by the private sector, where CII can take initiatives. Taking all but education as a focus point following model can be used to deliver the fund in an efficient manner. There are various model exist in different states for implementation of TSP such as model by Chhatishgarh, Gujarat, Haryana etc. Similar, model can also be designed even for a state like Jharkhand giving importance to Gram Sabha with less political interference. I suggest, there should be TSP cell at all levels consists of tribal people at centere, state, district, block level, panchayat level and finally at Gram Sabha level.

Resource Curse vis-a-vis thought for Alternative Approach of Development

दुनिया के अर्थव्यवस्थाओं में जब पुनर्निर्माण हो रहा था और नए अर्थव्यवस्थाओं का उद्भव हो रहा था, इसी दौर में लम्बे संघर्षों के बाद भारत के रूर कहे जाने वाले पठारी प्रदेश झारखण्ड का जन्म हुआI हममे से हरेक कोई अगर प्रत्यक्ष या परोक्ष रूप से इस प्रदेश से सम्बंधित हैं तो हमने झारखण्ड बनने की घटना को जरूर देखा या पढ़ा होगाI ज्यादा वक़्त न लेते हुए हम ये कहना चाहते हैं कि-चलो भूतकाल की भूलों को भूलें, मगर भविष्य कि योजना के लिए सीख जरूर लें ताकि वर्तमान के साथ-साथ हम अपना भविष्य भी सुनिश्चित कर सकेंI

क्योंकि, झारखण्ड को भारत का रूर कहा जाता है, इसलिए इसे सोने कि चिड़िया कि तरह देखा जा रहा हैI ये पिछले दस सालों में स्वयंसिद्ध हैI जिस प्रकार भारत अंग्रेजों के गुलाम सोने की चिड़िया थी उसी प्रकार झारखण्ड देश के आतंरिक आर्थिक गुलामी झेल रहा है और सभी तथकथित प्रदेश के पुरोधा कहे जाने वाले लोग सोने के अंडे पाने की आड़ में आने वाले संतति के भविष्य के साथ खिलवाड़ कर रही हैI मेरा सबसे अहम् सवाल है कि आर्थिक विकास की परिभाषा क्या है? क्या आर्थिक विकास के कारक जैसे सकल घरेलू उत्पाद, प्रति व्यक्ति आय, साक्षरता दर और प्रत्याशित उम्र इत्यादि वास्तव में हमारे कल्याण में सहायक हैंI 2010-11 के अनुसार झारखण्ड का विकास दर 6% है जो कि बिहार के विकास दर के आधे से भी कम हैI झारखण्ड अलग राज्य कि मांग पूरी होने के बाद तो इसकी कल्पना किसी ने न कि होगीI वस्स्तव में झारखण्ड का सकल राज्य घरेलू उत्पाद 2001-02 मे 9.10% तथा 2006-07 में 11% थाI आंकड़ा के अनुसार आप बता सकते हैं हम किधर जा रहे हैंI वैसे हमे इन आंकड़ों में बहुत ज्यादा विश्वास करने की भी जरूरते नहीं हैI अगर आंकड़ों में इतना दम होता तो दुनिया के सबसे गरीब प्रदेशों में गिने जाने वाले अफ़्रीकी देशों से भी नीचे हमें न गिना जाताI ठीक इसी तरह वर्तमान में अपनी किरकिरी करा चुके योजना आयोग के एक अध्यादेश जिसमे क्रमशः शहर में ३२ रुपये तथा गाँव में २६ रुपये कमाने वाला गरीब नहीं हैI चलिए हम सब इनसे पूछते हैं कि एक महीने के लिए आयोग वाले झारखण्ड के किसी गाँव में रहें, फिर इस तरह की आंकड़ों का खेल दिखाएँI वास्तव में इस दर से तो देश का हरेक भिखारी अमीर हो जायेगाI

2007-08 के अनुसार झारखण्ड का प्रति व्यक्ति आय 21,465 रुपये और साक्षरता दर 62% हैI अगर हम कहें राज्य के 90% सम्पति 10% नेताओं और कॉपोरेट घरानों में है, तो इसमें कोई अतिशयोक्ति नहीं होगी, अब आप समझ गए होंगे कि प्रतिव्यक्ति आय इतना ज्यादा क्यों है और उसका फायदा आम आदमी को क्यों नहीं मिलता हैI जब मंत्री बनने के तुरंत बाद कोई नेता अगर दिल्ली और गुडगाँव जैसे महंगे जगहों पे प्रोपर्टी ख़रीदे तो आप क्या समझेंगे,कि इनकी आय दिन दूनी रात चौगुनी कैसे हो जाती हैI अगर इंडेक्स मूल्य थोडा अधिक भी हो, तो ये Human Development Index(HDI) झारखण्ड के नेताओं और कॉर्पोरेट घरानों का है न कि आम जनता काI
शिक्षा के बारे में अगर मैं कुछ बोलूं तो सबसे पहले ये कि-सबों को दसवीं क्लास तक पास करने कि नीती को जितना जल्दी हो सके -पहले जैसा कर दें और जो छात्र, छात्रा को पढाई करने में कठिनाई या तनाव वो रहा है उसका हल खोजा जायेI मैं उन छात्रों को बताना चाहता हूँ जो अभी पहली से दसवीं के बीच में पढ़ रहें हैं कि आपको क्लेरिकल से बड़ी नौकरी के लिए नहीं तैयार किया जा रहा हैI वैसे तो मिशनरियों ने जितना शिक्षा और स्वास्थ्य में आदिवासियों के लिए जितना योगदान दिया है, उससे हमें कोई शिकायत नहीं है शिवाय उनके सिर्फ एक मंशा के/ वो हमें सिर्फ उतना ही शिक्षा देना चाहते थे /जितना से कि हम उनके बही खाते के ठीक ठाक लेखा जोखा कर सकें/ इसका मूल्यांकन आप रांची जैसे मुख्य शहर में कॉलेज क़ी स्थापना में लगा समय से अनुमान लगा सकते हैं/ और यही शिक्षा नीति हमारे लिए बदस्तूर जारी है/ बड़े लोगों और नेताओं को इससे क्या लेना देना, इनके बेटे बेटियाँ तो अछे प्राइवेट विद्यालय में पढ़ रहे हैं/ तो बाकी बचे लोग आपलोग क्लर्क बनते रहिये.......या वो भी नसीब न हो/

आगे झारखण्ड में अचानक बने अमीरों की कहानी है जिसमे मैं आपको आगाह करना चाहता हूँ कि झारखण्ड कि विनाश लीला चल रही है और उसपे हमें ब्रेक लगानी हैI आपको पता होगा कि हमारे नेताओं ने 104 कॉपोरेट घरानों से औद्योगिक समझौते किये हैं जिसमे इन्हें बिजली, पानी, जमीन और विद्युत् चाहिएI हमें मालूम है कि झारखण्ड का क्षेत्रफल 79, 714 वर्ग किलोमीटर है, सरकार के इन कारनामों को देखकर हमें नहीं लगता हमारे क़दमों के लिए कुछ जमीन बचेगी, पानी और जंगल तो भूल ही जाएँI हमारी सरकार वामनावतार के रूप में आयी हुई कॉर्पोरेट के दलाली कर रही हैI

हमारे राज्य का विकास हमारे जल जंगल और जमीन में ही निहित है, ये हमारे पूर्वज बहुत पहले कह गए है लेकिन हमें झारखण्ड के विकास का वैकल्पिक सिद्धांत नए तरीके से ढूँढना पड़ेगा जिससे कि राज्य का सर्वांगीन विकास हो, न कि पश्चिम के देखा देखी विकासI आपको शायद मालूम ही होगा कि यू. एस. में और इसके वाल-स्ट्रीट में अभी क्या चल रहा हैI न यू.एस. में और न ही यूरोप के कुछ देशों में जनता के लिए खर्च करने तक के लिए पैसे नहीं बचे हैंI हम झारखण्ड के विकास की परिकल्पना को भूल गए हैं जो हमारे पूर्वजों ने देखा थाI यहाँ पे हमारे पूर्वजों ने ग्राम स्वराज के नमूने का सपना देखा था जहाँ सभी वर्ग के लोग शांति पूर्वक जीवन निर्वाह कर सकें और भविष्य के लिए भी संसाधनों को संजोये रख सकेंI लोग महुआ और केंदु के पेड़ नहीं काटते थे और विपद्दा के दिनों के लिए हर गाँव में अन्नाकोश होता थाI पाढ़ा और पंचा कि परंपरा हमें हमारे पूर्वजों ने ही विरासत में दी हैI सत्तर के दशक में जंगल कटाई आन्दोलन को रोकने के लिए सिंहभूम में आदिवासी निकल पड़े थेI हमारे पूर्वजों ने प्रकृति को हमारे लिए संजो के रखा कि हम स्वत्छ हवा में जी सकें, और हम इससे अंधाधुंध औद्योगीकरण में बदल देना चाहते हैंI हम ये नहीं कह रहें हैं कि हमें उद्योग धंधों कि जरूरत नहीं है, बल्कि हम ये कहना चाह रहें हैं कि हमें, संतुलित विकास कि जरूरते है न कि अंधाधुंध MoU हस्ताक्षर करने सेI
विश्व के इतिहास के पन्नों को अगर आप पलट कर द्खेंगे तो पता चलेगा कि जहाँ प्राकृतिक संसाधनों कि प्रचुरता है वहां कभी शांति नहीं रही, चाहे हो मध्य पूर्व हो या केंद्रीय एशियाI विश्व के महान अर्थशास्त्रियों और अन्तराष्ट्रीय मौद्रिक संस्थान का भी मानना है कि जब तक हम योजना बद्ध तरीके से संसाधनों का प्रबंधन और दोहन नहीं करते है, तब तक ये संशाधन हमारे लिए शापित ही रहेंगे और एक सवाल उत्पन्न होगा-झारखण्ड में संशाधनों कि प्रचुरता है, लेकिन झारखंडी शापित कैसे? “THIS IS CALLED RESOUCE CURSE (आर्थिक संशाधनों का शाप)” हमें झारखण्ड के वैकल्पिक एवं आधुनिक आर्थिक विकास के सिद्धांत के लिए मिलकर काम करने कि जरूरत हैI

Making Research more Visible

Today, most of the research work/outputs are gathering dust in libraries.The government and policy makers don't have concern about the research outcome of the universities. We need to rethink about the effective usefulness of research outcome. If we talk more and debate and manage to have one intergovernmental policy debates about the research outcome once in a year with the researchers, policy makers and those who will implement it. We can have a open discussion about the usefulness of the research in policy arena to be implemented in various sectors.

The 2008 Research Strategy of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) states that the ‘critical issue for the future is how to improve researchers’ effectiveness in producing outputs that directly and indirectly change
both policy and practice, are truly relevant to poor people’s needs, and
are effectively taken up.

Now, most of the works are gathering the dust in libraries as archives and researchers are using that as the achievement or getting new papers published. Can we ask ourselves, do we have some more responsibilities than just publishing. I think UGC should also step in thin issue. Common people don't know...What is Monetary Policy is and Fiscal Policy is...that's why they believe in herd race and Government don't need more intelligent animals than hurd racer otherwise they can't make fools to the people for more than 60years.

Lets ask the government to open one section of the media as research media,where researcher will tell the people openly about their research. Some of the Key Findings of PANOS LONDON ILLUMINATING VOICE report are as follows-

Drawing on available research and evidence from the field, this briefing
finds that the political and institutional context, including the degree
of representativeness of government and the vibrancy of civil society, is important to understanding the capacity of the media to generate public debate around research and evidence, and to influence policy outcomes. The following factors strengthen the capacity of the media to do so:
$$ the capacity of journalists to use research to create stories that
capture the public’s interest and are related to existing and emerging policy-making agendas
$$ the capacity of researchers to produce policy-relevant research and
to work with intermediaries to present such research in a way that the media can use
$$ the capacity of civil society activists to pick up policy-related research
and drive public debate around it
$$ the strength of the relationships among these actors – journalists,civil society activists and researchers – and their associated
organisations, and the degree of openness and trust among them.

Wild Thoughts

One of the early economists Alfred Marshall stated that-rising industrial productivity could create higher standard of living. “I say that this industrial productivity itself will destroy the quality of life, that we are living in”. That is in today’s context, It could create the lower standard of life and increase in the cases of divorce and finally unhappiness and then the chaos in the country against system. In fact, the probability of having lower standard of life increase, when we over exploit the pre-existing natural resources. This becomes more particular, when these resources propel the wellbeing of manufacturing companies together with the countries in terms of credit rating. However, the over dependency in the market forces and so called rational agent (Lehman Brothers) in the market, who might create the repackaging of credit as they have done in the recent financial crisis, then the problems become serious.
The credit rating might be inflationary credit rating and because of political cycles of credit rating by the dominant so called industrial countries. As it is evidently true, when Deven Sharma had to step down from the prestigious post of Standard & Poor, because of downgrading the US credit rating from “AAA” to “AA+”. However, triumph of Evil Politics can keep on working till the morons kept sleeping.
Though, dragon is the only challenging obstacle for US on the Earth, but the monsters of unemployment and debt crisis are coming in the form of recession very soon. In fact, US is very much into the recession says one of the most reliable recession predictor (prognostication) of recent times (last 15 years) Economic Cycle Research Institute (ICRI). The tumultuous Federal Reserve and the government broke the debt ceiling and also stepped in towards expenditure cut so that they can mitigate mounting interest on debt “almost like ponzy game” situation. Now, people have started giving the slogan- “There is Error in the system of Capitalism-install new system”. Today, the most important question is what will be the new system…………
I think we need to relook the system with new age philanthropy minus business. We really need to educate and train the lower middle class for better world without re-packing the third grade credit into further three top credits. We need to respect the resources to be used in a balanced way wherever it exist in the world, and together face the challenge posed by nature. Otherwise, once these depressions will be supported by the natural calamities then neither fiscal nor monetary is going to work……thanks to China that has reduced the speed of its Bullet train and also reduces the speed of some its project being done. Be stick to 8% growth rate, which is I say the upper bound for sustainable growth for India.

"100% INFLATIONARY LITERACY RATE TARGET"

Hi Friends,
One of the worst education policy has been already implemented.....lets say something about it. Now teachers don't have to fail students in government schools, but private schools are going with their own pace. They don't even have to beat the students', not to take exams. It's ok that I am not in favor of beating the students, but for remaining reasons, you can imagine the kids studying in village schools. All the officers and teachers send their kids to private schools and this education system does not affect these kids......however what will happen to those kids who doesn't even have the access to basic facilities like electricity etc. How can they imagine to compete with the mainstream cities officers kids. There will not be any pressure from the school side and they will keep on passing the exams....but what will happen after 10th standard. So in my view this is one of the worst education policy of the government, which will dig up the gulf more wider between......you know.........!!! Can we shout some way about it or is it just fine? I SAY THIS SYSTEM AS "100% INFLATIONARY LITERACY TARGET"......I think education policy should be based on broader perspective rather than just....know how to write your name

Chinese Food in Indian Village

Hi Friends,

I don't know whether, any of our food can be find in Chinese villages, but we do find Chinese food in Indian Villages as the picture depicts. We have various nutritious food available in village areas. In fact, food grown in village areas are the most nutritious now a days, as villages don't grow and eat the injected foods. Can we say this that, we are increasing food dependency to other countries or it's just the effect of globalization.
Recent research also depicts that, as the income of the Indians increasing they spend less in food items such as pulses, and nutritious foods than the clothes and other luxury items. However, their dependency has increased in Mcdonald and other YO China items. It seems that, our slavery, somehow increasing towards the junk food.