Tribals oppose uranium mining
Villagers, students, welfare organisations and opposition parties have come together and formed a council to protest the proposed mining and processing of uranium in Meghalaya
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Spoke in the wheel
Poll move hits rickshaw pullers
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Bush fires spread very fast
It is the turn of the Indian energy establishment to be engulfed in the fire lit by President George Bush on nuclear energy. Bush says it is the safest, cleanest, cheapest option. So prime minister
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Expectations of the Left
Prasenjit Bose Since the Finance Minister would not have the opportunity to present a full Budget in 2009 because of impending Lok Sabha elections, Budget 2008-09 would be his last opportunity to fulfil the promises made in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP). The expenditure priorities have already been set forth by the Eleventh Plan. What is required is adequate budgetary support for the Plan, especially in priority areas like agriculture, PDS, education, health and employment generation. To meet the NCMP commitments, the gross budgetary support (GBS) for the Plan has to be stepped up. Budgets in 2006 and 2007 witnessed increases in GBS by around Rs 30,000 crore over previous years. It is evident that an increase of such magnitude, which amounts to less than 1% of current GDP, is inadequate for vital expenditure commitments. The increase in the GBS should be twice the amount seen in recent budgets. Agriculture, which was promised a new deal under the UPA, continues to languish. The advanced estimates for 2007-08 already show agricultural growth slipping to 2.6%, compared to 3.4% registered in 2006-07. To meet the Eleventh Plan target of 4% agriculture growth rate, the government needs to replace the half-hearted measures adopted so far with substantial allocations for debt relief, the Food Security Mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. The rise in prices of essential commodities over the last two years has underlined the importance of strengthening the PDS. Domestic food production and public procurement also needs to increase to avoid the embarrassment of high-cost wheat imports. India should increase the food subsidy, which currently stands only at around 1% of GDP. It is also time to consider doing away with the targeted PDS, which has turned out to be a failure, and introduce a revamped, more efficient and universal PDS. The ban on futures trading of wheat, rice and some pulses imposed last year should continue for the sake of stability in food prices. Education and health have been accorded high priority under the Eleventh Plan. Expenditure on the former, up five-fold over the Tenth Plan, is aimed at building 6,000 schools, funding the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to ensure the Right to Education, building new ITIs and vocational training institutes to bridge the skill deficit, and setting up 30 new central universities along with new IITs, IIMs and IISERs to expand the country's knowledge base. These laudable objectives have to be backed up by adequate outlays. Outlays on the rural health mission and more Aiims-type institutions also have to be increased. The universalisation of the ICDS is being impeded by inadequate funding, which needs to be addressed. The NREGA, despite problems, has succeeded in providing work to 27.7 million people this year. No doubt, its implementation needs to be streamlined and the monitoring mechanism improved. However, this should not come in the way of expanding the employment guarantee to all rural districts and also to urban areas. This is the single biggest welfare measure adopted by the UPA government, and has offered relief to the poorest and most vulnerable. This safety net must be strengthened under all circumstances. The revenue buoyancy seen over the past few years should help mobilise resources for increased welfare expenditure and public investments. Efforts to widen the tax base should continue. The last Budget contained a study of corporate tax, which showed that the effective tax rate for Companies in 2006-07 was 19.2% against the scheduled tax rate of 33.6%. Tax concessions to corporate taxpayers increased from Rs 34,618 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 50,075 crore in 2006-07. Budget 2008-09 should take steps to bring down these tax expenditures. The burgeoning foreign exchange reserves built up on the basis of FII inflows have turned into a liability. Rupee appreciation is hurting export sectors and efforts to buy up foreign exchange followed by sterilisation are also leading to additional fiscal costs. Reintroduction of long-term capital gains tax and increasing the rate of the short-term capital gains tax and the STT would help stanch the inflow of speculative capital, curb equity market volatility and raise resources. Budget 2008 also offers the opportunity to initiate the long pending restructuring of the indirect tax structure on petroleum products
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Farm loan waiver tops Budget agenda
Sonia Nudges Manmohan On Package For Farmers, Women And Tax Breaks Setting the agenda for the government, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked it to focus on farm loans, women-related schemes and income tax slabs in the Budget. During three rounds of deliberations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spread over the last week, the UPA chief, sources disclosed, sought to nudge her visitor on what she thinks should be the defining themes of the Budget in an election year. Sonia was keen on a package for farmers and there were already signs to suggest that the PM may have already heeded the advice. Addressing a group of farmers from Punjab asking for debt relief for small and marginal land owners, Singh said, "I would like to assure you that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, our government will pay attention to the demands listed in the memorandum submitted.' The Congress chief also made no bones of the fact that the package figures on the top of the "to do' list she has framed for the government. "We know farmers are facing difficult times. I hope, I know Manmohan Singh's government will give due attention to your demands,' Sonia said. Sources rated the chances of a waiver, at least on the interest component, for defaulters among small and marginal farmers as a certainty. As reported by TOI on December 31, the package could cover bad and doubtful loans worth at least Rs 30,000 crore. While the PM refused to get into details citing Budget confidentiality, the government's receptivity to suggestions from political leadership should be happy augury for those expecting a relook at income tax slabs. While the government was expected to push up the exemption limit to Rs 1.25 lakh from Rs 1.1 lakh at present, an upward revision in the tax slab was not being hotly pursued by the finance ministry. An increase in the basic slab of 10% from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh would cost the exchequer around Rs 5,000 crore and the tax department brass was not keen on foregoing easy money coming its way. Given the enhanced stakes for the party in wooing urban India, the party leadership is hoping that Sonia's prod might cause them to pull out their calculators once again. Delimitation has increased the number of urban constituencies where tax payers constitute a significant slice of the electorate while Delhi, which boasts of the largest number of salaried tax payers in the country, is scheduled to go to polls later this year. The party expects tax concession to help blunt BJP's attempt to reclaim its constituency among the urban middle class. Apart from the plight of farmers, Sonia has also asked the government to focus on schemes aimed at empowering women. She had made this priority plain while on a visit to her constituency last week, and the preference for "gender justice' was repeated during the interactions with Singh. Sources said that among other things, the Integrated Child Development Scheme was likely to be strengthened. sidhartha.kumar@timesgroup.com diwakar.asthana@timesgroup.com POPULAR TOUCH: Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi with a delegation of farmers from Punjab, in New Delhi on Monday
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Forex inflows still a 'challenge': Survey
Govt's annual report doubts ability to eliminate revenue deficit. Calling double-digit growth a tough task, the government today cited foreign capital inflow and inflation as the macroeconomic challenge to high sustained growth in its Economic Survey for 2007-08. "If you wish me to sum up in one phrase the outlook for 2008-09, I would say optimism but with caution is the watchword,' Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after presenting the Survey in Parliament. The annual report card on the economy also said the target of bringing the revenue deficit down to zero by 2008-09 would "remain a challenge,' pointing to a step-up in expenditure as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance prepares for general elections next year. Though bullish on growth, the Survey has sounded an unmistakable note of caution on the capital inflows that the country has seen in the last several months. As these inflows are substantially higher than what the country needs to cover its trade deficit, these funds threaten to raise prices, leading to a tighter monetary policy. This, in turn, is threatening to capital investments in the country. As the sub-prime crisis unfolds in the US and Europe, global investors are likely to be more risk-averse and are, therefore, likely to cut investments in emerging markets like India, the Survey says. However, this could be balanced out by the increased liquidity created by Western Central Banks to deal with the crisis. "On balance, the decline in capital inflows as a proportion of GDP in 2008 is likely to be modest,' the Survey notes. There could be a softening in global commodity prices because of the moderate slowdown in the world economy led by the sub-prime crisis in the US, the Survey says. However, the slowdown could hurt Indian exports, resulting in a modest increase in the country's deficit in trade of goods and services, unless the US slowdown turns into a severe recession, it adds. The Survey also lists radical policy reform options. These include allowing regulated private entry into coal mining, phasing out controls on sugar, fertiliser and drug industries, opening up all retail trade to foreign investment, raising foreign ownership of insurance companies from 26 per cent to 49 per cent (51 per cent for companies operating in the rural sector) and allowing foreign companies to set up fully-owned rural banks. Some of these options like opening retail and insurance sectors have been debated internally by the government in the past. However, opposition from its Communist allies has made it put these proposals on the backburner. The Survey does not mention how actively these options are being considered by the government. However, a finance ministry official told Business Standard that these are the policy reforms that need to be undertaken if the country wants to move to the high growth trajectory. "Hopefully, the inputs will be picked and debated for implementation. These are suggestions and not recommendations,' the official said. In addition, the Survey calls for amending the Factories Act that would allow companies to meet seasonal ups and downs in demand and new bankruptcy laws to facilitate the exit of old management as expeditiously as possible. It also lists an ambitious disinvestment programme of listing all closely-held public sector companies and auctioning all loss-making units that cannot be revived. For the first three years of its rule (2004-07), the government kept its word to the Left parties and did no disinvestment at all. It was only earlier this year that it decided to list all its power utilities.
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I thought of staying away from climate change completely. I thought any sort of engagement with climate change negotiation was nothing but lending my support to a corrupt process. But a few incidents at home just before the ‘epic’ meeting at Copenhagen forced me to say something.
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Fisheries: Shrimp Cultivation
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Fisheries - Shrimp Cultivation</strong></span></p> <p><img alt="Fisheries" src="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/country/bangladesh/fisheries_hl.jpg" style="width: 530px; height: 300px;" /></p> <p>Shrimp cultivation began in Bangladesh in the mid-1970s when exports totaled 4.7 million dollars a year.</p> <p>Until the global economic crisis, it was a 534-million-dollar-a-year business, with 42,000 tons of exports, mainly to the United States and Europe. After the garment industry, shrimp production ranks second in Bangladesh in terms of the sector’s ability to earn foreign exchange. Not only does this crop earn valuable foreign exchange, but the sector also employs significant numbers of rural workers and provides a livelihood for households throughout much of Bangladesh. A study by USAID estimates that as many as 1.2 million people may be directly involved in shrimp production with an additional 4.8 million household members supported by the industry.</p>
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Sethusamudram ship canal project
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Sethusamudram ship canal project</strong></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/country/srilanka/sethusamudaram_hl.jpg" style="border-width: 2px; border-style: solid;" /></p> <p><span class="bodytext">Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project started by the government of India has many adverse effects on Sri Lanka . It is already proved that both India and Sri Lanka will undergo massive environmental damage as a direct result of this project. </span></p>
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The other course
Traditional curative systems like ayurveda, homoeopathy, acupuncture… are being revived as alternative medicine. But in India and the Orient, the original homes of some of the most effective alternative medical systems in the world, these are reduced to
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Green justice: up in smoke?
<p>Aided by officialdom and politicos, polluting industries seem well cushioned against thunderous court orders</p>
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Power struggle
Nepal's controversial Arun III dam becomes the first World Bank bankrolled project taken up for re scrutiny by the Bank's new Inspection Panel an ombudsman body with teeth
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Gatt's new avatar is a demon
An extraordinary session of the US Congress meets in December to approve the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade amidst fears that its new incarnation will undermine US sovereignty.
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A plague on this country
The plague today holds the same threshold of dread that it did in the 14th century. So when the Black Death struck India late last month, the administration and the country's health system collapsed under the power of both
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A question of harvesting water
The only way to prevent traditional water tanks from self-destruction is to hand over their maintenance to the people
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Death by starvation
About 11 million people in Orissa and Bihar have become victims of a famine that has occurred despite adequate food stocks in the country.
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A world of double standards
VIRTUALLY routed in the 1984 parliamentarry electionsthe BharatiyaJanata Party (Bip) made a remarkable comeback in the 1989 and1991polls. The party also came topower in four states in the
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No truck with green
WE HAVE a perspectivebut nopolicieson environmentdeclares Sitarain Yechury, the suave Communist Party of India-Marxist (cpi-m) politburo member. Green causes, till now, have lain low on the
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Don't bite that apple!
The government"s plans for boosting horticulture to earn foreign exchange do not take into account the hidden costs of deforestation, fertiliser and pesticide use and heavy water consumption. Keeping in mind this and the fact that the poor can seldom affo
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Foetal tissue can cure terminal diseases
Tissue taken from aborted foetuses and implanted into the bodies of patients suffering from several incurable diseases has shown encouraging results