Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

What’s behind Peshawar?

Vol - XLIX No. 52, December 27, 2014 

• Editorial

The inability of democratic forces to curtail the Pakistani military’s double-game continues to cost lives.

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Significant Steps

Vol - XLIX No. 52, December 27, 2014 

• Editorial

The end of the political blockade by the United States allows Cuba a rare opportunity to renew socialism.

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Comment Why Rape Victims Lose The culture of endless delays by trial courts leads to injustice for victims. Read more	Commentary With a Parent Like This Bhopal Disaster and Union of India C Sathyamala The story of "Bhopal" - of the 30 years of disaster - is not that of corporate crime alone but also that of the nexus between national governments and transnational corporations; of state and capital. And, irrespective of the government... Read more
Commentary Uniting to Reclaim Traditional Land and Livelihoods Swapna Majumdar In the decade since the 2004 tsunami, the affected fishing communities have battled dislocation, sea erosion and a fast depleting marine life. However, as one example from a fishing hamlet in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu shows, collective... Read more	Commentary Addressing the Emergent Disaster Riskscape in Urban India Jyotiraj Patra, Komal Kantariya Recent natural disasters in India highlight the extent to which urban systems, associated structures, and populations are at greater risk. Cyclone Hudhud and the floods in Srinagar are clear indications of an emergent disaster riskscape that is... Read more
Commentary Amendments by Stealth MCA Resurrects Henry VIII’s Legacy Pratik Datta The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in charge of implementation of the Companies Act, 2013, has overstepped its constitutional mandate by passing orders that amend the provisions of an Act of Parliament. The MCA can only formulate rules and... Read more	Commentary Bill for Compulsory Voting Bhanu Joshi This article argues that the Gujarat government's attempt to legislate compulsory voting in local body elections targets the wrong symptom and gives the wrong medicine. The dichotomy of not willing to constitute local governments on one hand... Read more
Book Reviews Political Narrative on the Electricity Sector by an Outsider Sreekumar N, Ashwini Chitnis Electrifying India - Regional Political Economies of Development by Sunila S Kale, Stanford University Press, 2014; pp 237, Rs 2,569. Read more	Book Reviews Interrogating the Debate on Islamic Reform Asiya Alam Islamic Reform in South Asia edited by Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2013; pp xii + 535; $110. Read more
Book Reviews Imagining a Casteless and Classless Society Yogesh Kumar Poet of the Revolution: The Memoirs and Poems of Lal Singh Dil translated by Nirupama Dutt (New Delhi: Viking /Penguin), 2012; pp 216, Rs 399. Read more	Perspectives Knowledge and the Politics of Education Yemuna Sunny In the wake of our national education policy again preparing for a political right swing, it is important to examine the implications of the Ministry of Human Resource Development's emphasis on ancient knowledge for contemporary education.... Read more
Review of Rural Affairs Food Subsidy Concept, Rationale, Implementation Design and Policy Reforms Bhupat M Desai, ERROL D'SOUZA, N V Namboodiri This paper counters negative advocacy about the food subsidy, the public distribution system, and farm price supports. It argues that the public food supply chain for market intervention has a favourable impact on the cost-benefit ratio, poverty... Read more	Review of Rural Affairs Economic Benefits of Futures Do Speculators Play Spoilsport in Agricultural Commodity Markets? K G Sahadevan This article examines the economic benefits of futures. Theoretically, futures are expected to aid price discovery and risk mitigation. But empirical analysis shows that speculators drive the markets and, by virtue of their domination, abduct the... Read more
Review of Rural Affairs Projected Effect of Droughts on Supply, Demand, and Prices of Crops in India Praduman Kumar, P K Joshi, Pramod Aggarwal This paper assesses the effect of monsoon droughts on the production, demand, and prices of seven major agricultural commodities - rice, sorghum, pearl millet, maize, pigeon pea, groundnut and cotton. A partial generalised equilibrium model is... Read more	Review of Rural Affairs Groundwater Irrigation-Electricity-Crop Diversification Nexus in Punjab Trends, Turning Points, and Policy Initiatives Anindita Sarkar, Arjit Das The present wheat-rice cropping pattern, groundwater irrigation, procurement policy, and electricity policy have bound farmers in Punjab into a convenient yet vicious relationship that is economically and ecologically unsustainable. The state... Read more
Review of Rural Affairs Agricultural Productivity Growth Is There Regional Convergence? Balaji S J, Suresh Pal This study examines the question of convergence in land and labour productivity in Indian agriculture between 1991 and 2011. The tendency of low-productivity states to catch up with high-productivity states is studied through the unconditional β-... Read more	Special Articles Factors behind the Performance of Pharmaceutical Industries in India Chiranjib Neogi, Atsuko Kamiike, Takahiro Sato Changes in various policies related to trade and entry of multinational companies in the Indian pharmaceutical industry were initiated in the early 1970s. However, the pace of growth of this industry has shown a remarkable upswing only after 1991... Read more
Special Articles Fallacies of a Supreme Court Judgment Section 498A and the Dynamics of Acquittals Prashant K Trivedi, Smriti Singh A higher proportion of acquittals is often put forward as evidence to suggest that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code has been continuously misused. This position appears to focus on interpersonal violence, overlooking the various subliminal... Read more	Special Articles The New and Changing Roles of Cold Storages in the Potato Supply Chain in Bihar Bart Minten, Thomas Reardon, K M Singh, Rajib Sutradhar There have been dramatic increases and rapid upscaling of modern cold storages in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India and an area where smallholders dominate. These investments have been triggered by market reform, investment subsidies, and... Read more
Notes NREGA in Kashmir Opportunity for Derailed Social Protection Mushtaq Ahmad Malla The research on the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act across India has bypassed Kashmir and what little analysis there is, is limited to official statistics. This article looks at how the official... Read more	Postscript Sahir in the 21st Century Mohammad Kamran Ahsan The economic exploitation of the underprivileged, gender oppression and the abuse of power are the eternal themes in the verse of the Marxist feminist poet, Sahir Ludhianvi. Read more
Postscript A Tale of Two Cities Madhumati Dutta Travelling through the Moroccan cities of Marrakech and Fez evoked a sense of eternal community and camaraderie, magic and nostalgia. Read more	Postscript Will the Postman Ring Twice? Vasant M Kelkar Crowded out by modern communications technology, the Indian postal service may well be headed for extinction.

The race against time

Producing quality work within a stipulated time calls for motivation, swiftness and a practical approach.

The night before the submission date, you find yourself struggling hard to keep awake through the night, trying to put your assignment in shape, hoping frenziedly for an extension and cursing yourself for landing in this mess. Does this sound familiar? If yes, then perhaps, it is time you took stock of your time management skills.

All your keenness and efforts to turn out good work would come to naught if you fail to meet the deadline. The result: loss of marks and a sense of inadequacy. While in college, one gets away with a reprimand or a few marks less; in work situations, much more is at stake.

Get over inertia

Procrastination, the most common deterrent to time management, should be feared like the plague. Once this enters the psyche of an individual, it is difficult to shed it. Starting early is indispensable to the successful completion of one’s work within a given timeframe. Almost always, things go wrong at the last minute, and your ability to manage the glitches gets diminished by a flustered state of mind. You are left with no contingency time to set things right. Pressure mounts up at the end, and there is both physical and mental stress. The sense of guilt over not having utilised your time adds to the misery.

“Building motivation is the way to counter procrastination. It is important to value what you do and be passionate about it in order to work hard at it and avoid delays,” says Mitesh Khatri, leadership trainer and author. So, how does one deal with mental blocks that don’t allow one to get to the heart of the task? “The numero uno principle of time management is to be in the right state of mind. Sweating over a task even when one is not quite feeling up to it leads to more wastage of time. The best way to deal with this is to take a break and engage in some positive energising activities such as listening to motivational songs in order to regain the flow,” explains Khatri.

Practical approach

It is important to estimate exactly how much time it would take to complete a piece of work. “Often students fail to take into account the demands of the task ahead and tend to put things off for another time. Understanding the length of the project and then planning accordingly is necessary. Create a timetable for academic activities and then diligently stick to it,” says Mithun Pillai, Assistant Professor and course co-ordinator, Department of Mass Media, SIES (Nerul) College of Arts, Science and Commerce. Bringing about regularity in one’s work pattern is essential. Sporadic bursts of productivity may not help as much as consistent use of time.

The completion of any assignment or project, especially one that requires some creativity or analytical thinking on the part of the student, happens in stages. Starting with the ideation stage, it goes through a process of information gathering to analysing and ends with bringing the project to a presentable form. Getting stuck at one stage can be disastrous. A student, for instance, may keep waiting for the perfect brainwave and lose out on precious time. Also, digressions can delay the process further. Determining the focus of the task and not wading in unknown waters for too long helps save a lot of time.

Finally, wrap up when it’s time to do so. Even when there is a feeling that the work can be improved, clinging to it can make you miss your deadline. Most experts agree that when it comes to perfection versus punctuality, the latter wins hands down. Punctuality brings reliability and is valued most in any organisation. Like the winner of a marathon, it’s important to gather pace in the final laps. “For finishing well, bring about agility in your methods. Besides, it does good to remember that growth should be the ultimate aim and not perfection,” says Khatri.

College projects and assignments can be seen as opportunities not only for skill development in a particular area but also as grounds for conditioning oneself to racing against time while not compromising on quality. This could help one ready oneself for the demands of the industry.

Dec 29 2014 : Mirror (Mumbai)

2014 CAT RESULTS - Topper from IIT-B to shun cushy job, become teacher

Vikrant Dadawala TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror





Harshveer Jain, 22, who currently works with a realty search portal, says he wants to follow footsteps of his mother who teaches in a college in Indore

Two students from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay are among 16 management aspirants who have achieved a 100 percentile score in the Common Admission Test (CAT).One of them, Harshveer Jain, who cracked CAT without attending a coaching class, plans to follow his mother’s footsteps and become a teacher in future.
The 22-year-old graduated from IIT-B with a B Tech in engineering physics this year and currently works with real estate search portal housing.com.
“I want to teach and write — I want to do something for my country. I may pursue a PhD and teach marketing in a college or join a school,” he said, adding that he would love to work in his school in Indore.
Harshveer inherited the love for academics from his mother, who teaches electronics and communication in a college in Indore. Apart from teaching, he is also passionate about books and intends to write a fantasy novel series.
Anuraag Reddy, a fourth-year electrical engineering student at IIT-B, also cracked the test conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management. He said that he wanted to join a finance firm after completing his MBA.
More than 1.65 lakh students across the country appeared for CAT in November. The results were announced on Saturday.
Harshveer said that he found it diffi cult to study while working full time.
“I had only two spare months before I took up my current job. After being hired, I studied only during the weekend. I did not attend any classes, though I did use a package of online tests from a coaching centre,” he said.
The young techie took around 60 mock tests in the months leading up to CAT.
Anuraag studied for only three months and took 10 mock tests. “I did not prepare for maths because I have been good at it since my school days. However, I took English very seriously and spent a lot of time reading articles in the New York Times and the Economist,” he said.
The two candidates had similar advice for CAT aspirants: focus on speed and accuracy.
A student from IIT-Delhi, Aashish Chhiller, is also among the 16 candidates with a 100 percentile score this year. The 21-year-old, who is the fourth year of production and industrial engineering hopes to make a career in the field of data analytics. But he is also interested in photography and graphic design.

Dec 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Make the Land Loser a Stakeholder





Projects must be sustainable for society at large

The Narendra Modi government is planning to change land acquisition laws, amended in 2013, through an Ordinance, preferably before January 1, 2015. At least 13 sectors will be exempt from the strictures governing land acquisition, including mining, railways, roads and even urban metro rail networks, ostensibly in the interest of promoting faster growth. Why not also include real estate developers, mall builders, land speculators and their myriad agents, subagents, brokers and dalals in the ambit of this Ordinance? The main problem with the original, colonial land acquisition rules of 1893 was that the state was supposed to be the ultimate owner of all land.Everybody , including those with pattas -or written land rights -amounted to nothing, if the state invoked its suzerainty over land.This is what led to Singur, Nandigram and Bhatta Parsaul, where farmers resisted the state's occupation of `their' land and the toppling of the regimes of the Left in Bengal and Mayawati in Uttar Prade sh. Industry cribs that it is impossible to get the sanction of 80% of landown ers to dispossess them, while govern ment projects like road building are stuck for a 70% clearance from the owners of land under the 2013 law. Un der the colonial law, once the state decided to acquire land, it would give a one-time compensation to the victim, who would henceforth vacate their farm, vegetables, betel vines, poultry and fish ponds for the public weal -whatever it was supposed to be.
This model can't work in the 21st century . Anybody who has to give up land or livelihood has to be compensated for its growing valuation over time. This can be done through leasing, where the owner lends her land to the government for a steadily-increasing rent, or through an annuity-based system as practised in Haryana and Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The days of forcible acquisition through diktats from the state are long gone: people need a stake, ever-growing, in the land they give up. This Ordinance is misconceived. Incorporate stakeholdership for the land loser instead.

Dec 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

The Mahatma Versus Nathuram Godse





Seeking a structural readjustment of history is a hallmark of most social, religious and political movements. In India, this often means reinterpreting figures. The Dalit movement, for example, tries this with its construction of statues and monuments, arguing that upper class and caste history have sought to erase those of marginalised sections. So, now, is also the Hindu Mahasabha (HM), among other sections of the Sangh Parivar. After a BJP MP called Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's murderer, a patriot, the HM has raised another controversy by demanding that Godse's statues should be put up in public places. What is the difference between these two examples? And should the HM be allowed to put up the statues of the killer of the father of the nation?
The key difference is violence, and the idea of embedding that violence within the polity while seeking that readjustme nt of history . In principle, thus, given the fact that we are a democracy , there can be no objection to a body , even if it be called a fascist organisation, voicing such a demand. But what we are treading here is the fine line between freedom of speech and expression and hate speech or acts designed to, again, embed violence.Gandhi represented a vision, of minorities being an organic part of India, for which he was killed. And if and when free speech or ostensibly democratic demands veer into eulogising violence indirectly or offer an incitement to strife and violence, which we can call `hate speech', then the notion of `public order' comes into play against it. The fight is as much about preserving democracy , and the rights of even extreme bodies to make demands, as it is about preserving the idea of a secular India, and of politically fighting off challenges to it. A sensitised polity, not bans, is the solution.

Dec 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

IITian brain drain declines due to emergence of IIMs

Ramya M

Chennai





For decades, IITians have been faulted for leaving the country in search of greener pastures. But now, contrary to public perception, the brain drain from the premier technical institutions to foreign shores is declining.According to faculty members, the number of students from IIT-Madras S going overseas for higher studies and jobs has dropped from around 50% in the t 1980s to around 15% in the last couple of years. Of the Y 800 BTech and dual degree students graduating from IIT-Madras in 2015, only 2 10% are likely to leave the country , said placement advisor Babu Viswanathan. 2 Of the 661 BTech and dual degree candidates who passed out in 2013-14, 100 left for foreign shores, including 88 to the US and two to Canada. In the 2012-13 academic year, only 40 of the 640 graduates went overseas for jobs or higher studies. “The number of students going overseas for higher edu cation is declining. The brain r drain has almost stopped.
This year, around 10% have , signed up to go abroad, but , note that an equal number is staying back to start their o own ventures. It's a positive trend because we can retain t talent,“ said dean, internag tional and alumni relations, IIT-Madras, R Nagarajan. c “There is a bigger drain of students from core branches r to non-core companies during placements,“ he added. He said this was one area that the IITs were seen as lacking when compared to foreign universities. But, with support for entrepreneurship in the institute -ranging from minors courses, an MS in Entrepreneurship, deferred placements, and offers to incubate startups with poten ate startups with poten tial -students are reth inking their plans.
Professor Viswa nathan said the emer gence of institutes such as the Indian Institute of Management within the country contributed to the decrease in num bers. “In recent years, 50% of those who go for higher studies choose the IIMs. They have seen that there is good value in doing an MBA here af ter IIT,“ he said.Faculty members, howev er, added that a little overseas experience was not a bad thing. For international exposure, students find the institute's many MoUs with foreign institutions come in handy .