Climate change: States must focus on risk management in agriculture

This year is turning out to be a milestone year for the world’s future: In September, 192 countries signed the Sustainable Development Goals and on November 30, delegates from 195 countries will converge in Paris for 12 days to hammer out a new global climate accord. There are several cross-cutting issues between the two mega meets, climate change and agriculture being the two big ones.

It is a no-brainer why the impact of climate change on agriculture is significant: While all economic activities experience hazards from nature, agriculture is one of the riskiest and climate change is becoming a source of significant additional risks for agriculture and food systems. In fact, in the last 40 years, the impact of climate change on agriculture has been significant and going forward, it will increasingly become tougher.

A World Bank paper says that each degree Celsius of global warming is projected to lead to an overall yield loss of about 5%. As climate change progresses, it is increasingly likely that current systems will no longer be viable in many locations. This is a serious warning for the world, particularly India, since figures show that the country will have 1.5 billion mouths to feed by 2030.

The World Bank paper rightly advises focusing more on risk management in agriculture. There are already examples of such work: The International Rice Research Institute in collaboration with advanced US research labs, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, state agricultural universities, and the ministry of science and technology’s department of biotechnology have spearheaded plant breeding to develop strains of rice that are resistant to effects of climate change, like flash flood, stagnant flooding, salinity, and drought.

Just think how much farmers in Bundelkhand and Maharashtra today would have benefited if they had access to drought-resistant crops. Investing in climate-resilient agriculture has several downstream effects: It can stem migration, improve rural demand and ensure food security. The farmers, however, not only need access to climate-resistant varieties across agrarian products, but such interventions have to reach them before a natural disaster actually strikes.

Source: Hindustan Times, 17-11-2015

Ungodly Activities In The Name Of God

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan





On November 13, 2015, six coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in and around Paris.Armed gunmen engaged in mass shooting and suicide bombing at several public places including a concert hall, cafés and restaurants.According to reports, a total of 129 people were killed and over 300 injured. The deadliest attack was at the Bataclan theatre, where about 90 people were shot at by men wielding AK-47 assault rifles. A witness to the shootings at the theatre said that the terrorists shouted `Allahu Akbar' (God is great) before opening fire.According to the Quran, killing of a human being is the worst act in God's eyes. The Quran states that killing one person is like killing all of humankind (5:32). Committing such an act in the name of God only aggravates the heinous nature of the crime. Those who perpetrate such acts have no relation whatsoever with Islam.
How could we banish violence and terror from our lives? Unesco has adopted the dictum: `Violence begins in the mind.' Therefore any effort to meet this challenge needs to begin in our minds. We have to dispel from the minds of terrorists, the ideology they have adopted.
The Quran gives us an example. Before the revelation of the Quran, Arabs were continually engaged in warfare. The Quran offered them a message of peace, which re-engineered their minds, and they became peaceful as a result. Reference to this incident has been given in a verse of the Quran (3:103).
In modern history , we find an example of this nature in Japan. Before the Second World War, the Japanese people had adopted the violent method to achieve their goal. One of the methods used was known as hara-kiri, a form of suicide attack. However, after the war educated people of Japan rose up to guide people towards the path of peace by giving up violent means. Thus Japan emerged as a peaceful country .This miracle occurred by way of dissemination of peaceful ideas through literature and several public speeches and broadcasts. It helped bring about a transformation in the mindset of the Japanese people, and as a result Japan became a peaceful nation.
This tested method has to be applied to those who have today taken to violence. God has blessed each one of us with the same nature. Just as it was possible to address the nature of the Japanese people, it is also possible to address the nature of present-day terrorists. We have to work for this cause at two levels: first, we have to condemn violence in unequivocal terms. We must tell the perpetrators of such acts that their actions go against both Islam and reason. No positive result is going to come out of it. On the other hand, we must present the peaceful teachings of the Quran to those who are under the influence of violence.For example, the Prophet once said: `God grants to peace what He does not grant to violence' (Sahih Muslim).Similarly, we must inform them of past events which clearly point out that violence has only carved out a history of death and destruction.
All relevant facts go to show that war and violence are not options before us. Any individual or group having a target can succeed in achieving it by only following the peaceful course of action. No positive goal has ever been attained through violence.

Indian students in US up record 29.4%

Yogita Rao

Mumbai





The number of Indian students going to the US has risen by 29.4% this year -a record high -according to the Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange released on Monday .From hosting around 1.02 lakh Indian students last year, the US has been the destination for 30,000 more students in 2014-15 -the largest growth from a single country . The single-year growth rate for India is the highest in the history of Open Doors since 1954-55, comparable only with the growth witnessed in 2000-01, when the jump was of 29.1%. Experts attribute the surge to a boom in international schools in India, making overseas education attractive for Indian students, and liberal economic policies. The number of Indian students going to the US has sharply gone up this year by 29.4%. In the same period last year, the growth rate was just about 6.11%.
This was after the enrolment of Indian students in US universities dipped for three consecutive years between 2010 and 2013. Over the last 10 years, the number of students in the US has gone up by 73.7%. Even as the number of Indian students pursing graduate studies went up by 39.3% in the last year adding to the overall growth, the influx of international schools in the country has led to a good jump of 30.3% among students pursuing undergraduate studies too.
Maximum numbers of Indians pursue graduate studies (64%) in the US, followed by optional practical training (22%) and undergraduate studies (12%). Texas emerged as the top study abroad destination for Indian students in the US, while California and New York are a close second and third.
The Open Doors report is an nually published by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the US department of state's bureau of education and cultural affairs.
While Open Doors does not compile region-wise data for their international students, Michael Evans, consular section chief, mentioned that Gujarat and Mah arashtra make up the biggest students' pool from the western region. “We have had the highest number of visa applications, including students' visas, from these two states in the western region,“ he said. The region also includes Chhattisgarh, Goa and MP.In the last one year, there has been a 56% rise in the students' visas issued in the country , when the western region saw a jump of 89%.
Science, technology , engineering, math (STEM) remained the most popular choice of study among Indian students. Of these, engineering was the top choice, with 37.5% students pursuing it, followed by mathcomputer with 31.4% students.

Spl UK visa only for Indian students?





UK may soon introduce a first-of-its-kind visa only for Indian students which will allow them to work for two years after passing out of a British university. London mayor Boris Johnson will propose introduction of a Commonwealth work visa.

Source: Times of India, 17-11-2015

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

A Room of One's Own

Vol - L No. 45, November 07, 2015 

• Editorials

The 2005 cut-off on Hindu women's claims to ancestral property restricts their rights further.

• Read more
• 1 Comment

Comment India in the Madhesi Movement India's meddling has not helped the Madhesi cause, only stoked Nepali chauvinism. Read more	H T Parekh Finance Column Dampening the Global Risk Appetite Cycle Using Macro-prudential Tools Avinash Persaud International capital flows come in only two modes: feast or famine. The policy response to both situations has been primarily via exchange and capital controls--both have their consequences. Macro-prudential tools may represent a more flexible,... Read more
Margin Speak Shaming the Shameless Anand Teltumbde By returning their awards writers and artists have taken an important step to fight growing fascism in the country. The present regime does not know how to respond to it but beyond a point it is futile to try and shame the shameless. Read more	Commentary India and the Shadow of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Abhijit Das Using studies by influential think tanks in the US, commentators in India have sought to argue that India will face adverse consequences by staying out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the mega trade agreement concluded recently. While these... Read more
Commentary Nepal's Transit through India An Assessment Nisha Taneja, Samridhi Bimal, Isha Dayal There are a large number of inadequacies in the prevailing India-Nepal transit treaty. Issues with regard to documentation requirements, trans-shipment procedures, sensitive items, arbitrary bank guarantees, and poor infrastructure have resulted... Read more	Commentary Will the JAM Trinity Dismantle the PDS? Silvia Masiero The platform known as the JAM Trinity (an acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers) may enable a shift from the current Public Distribution System, based on price subsidies, to the direct transfer of benefits. However, it is... Read more
Commentary Myanmar's Elections Skewed Constitution and Its Conundrums Mohinder Pal Singh As Myanmar prepares for its third elections under its third constitution in 67 years, this article looks at the evolution of its electoral practices and its constitutions. The complex rules and seat allocation in parliament make it very difficult... Read more	Commentary My Market Value Shoaib Mohammad India has a rapidly expanding healthcare industry with private hospitals proliferating in every big city. The health industry is expected to reach nearly $200 billion by 2020. This article talks about the author's experience of working within... Read more
Book Reviews Development through Manufacturing Sunil Mani Pathways to Industrialization in the Twentyfirst Century: New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms edited by Adam Szirmai, Wim Naudé and Ludovico Alcorta, UNU-WIDER Studies in Development Economics, Oxford: Oxford University Press,... Read more	Book Reviews Towards Deciphering the Current Phase of Capitalism Raj Sahai The Hollow Colossus by Charles Andrews, Oakland: Needle Press, 2015; pp 210, Rs 742. Read more
Insight Once More Unto The Breach... The World Bank’s Latest ‘Assault’ on Global Poverty S Subramanian This article is a (less than comprehensive) critique of the World Bank's latest estimates of global poverty and projections thereof. It argues that the Bank's approach to poverty measurement is conceptually flawed, and that the results,... Read more	Special Articles Size and Structure of India's Private Corporate Sector Implications for the New GDP Series R Nagaraj In the new National Accounts Statistics, the absolute size of the gross domestic product for 2011-12 is smaller by 2.3% compared to the old series; but the private corporate sector's size is larger by 43%; and, its GDP share higher by 11... Read more
Special Articles Gender-based Crime and Gender Inequality in India A Subnational Analysis Paribhasha Sharma This study, using health, empowerment and labour market metrics, reviews gender inequality and gender-based crimes in India at the subnational level. The findings show that gender-based crime rates have grown while general crime rates have... Read more	Special Articles Commission Agent System Significance in Contemporary Agricultural Economy of Punjab Sukhpal Singh, Shruti Bhogal Despite favourable policy measures, growth of financial institutions and public interventions in the marketing of agricultural produce, the structure of Punjab's agricultural economy makes farmers dependent on commission agents. These agents trap... Read more
Discussion Raising the Bar or a Missed Opportunity Hira Singh The history of caste is not the history of saints and sinners. Rather, it is the history of particular social relations--of production and property--and the specific historical context that gave rise to caste and the caste system and reproduced... Read more	Postscript Wreaths of Laurels N S Gundur The recent tendency of writers and artists returning awards in protest against ideological attacks on thinkers and scholars derives from the tradition of symbolic dissent. Read more
Postscript Retrograde Custodians Raziuddin Aquil The attempt to ban the entry of women into the famous Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai is an irrationality shaped by regressive minds—and an insult to a liberating religious tradition. Read more	Postscript Elegy for the Slain Bloggers S ChandraMohan (Also for P Murugan) You see, some people are afraid of light (... Read more
Postscript The View from Above Toothcomber The Conjurer’s Revenge Redux (Following Stephen Leacock, Professor of Political Economy, late of McGill University, Canada) Note: This is Toothcomber’s valedictory piece: with this, the column winds up. Read more

India walks to work: Census

Over a fifth of non-agricultural workers in India commute to work on foot, followed by commutes by cycle, moped or motorcycle and bus, new data from the Census shows. Fewer than three per cent take cars or vans, and over half travel less than five kilometres.

On Thursday, the office of the Registrar General of India released data on commutes for the 200 million working Indians who are neither employed in agriculture nor in household industries. The data shows that nevertheless, nearly a third of these workers do not commute, meaning that they live in or adjacent to their workplaces. Commuting for work is even less common among women workers - 45 per cent of women do not commute for work - and higher in rural than in urban areas.

Among those 140 million workers who do commute for work, the distances tend to be quite small. A quarter of commuters travel less than 1 km to work, and another third travel between two and five km. Just 30 million people travel more than 10 km to work, and just 17 million of them have a commute over 20 km. Women commute shorter distances on average than men; the largest category of women commuters travels less than 1 km, while for men, the largest category travels two to five km.

In India, traditionally cities developed in ways that required small commutes. Transport is essentially a derived demand,” Amit Bhatt, strategy head - urban transport at EMBARQ India explained. However new towns and extensions are being built in the North American model, requiring long commutes which the poor struggle to afford, he said. "People, especially the poor, choose to live close to work because long-distance commuting is expensive and impacts their ability to earn. That is why attempts to shift the poor to the peripheries through slum rehabilitation schemes are so misguided," Shreya Gadepalli, India Regional Director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said.

A 2005 World Bank study of commuting in Mumbai found that the poor travelled shorter distances than the non-poor.

Planning in most cities does not take into account the realities of Indian commuting, the experts said. Among those who do have to travel for work, one-third commute on foot, the Census data shows. Another 10 per cent use bicycles and 16 per cent travel by bus, while 18 per cent use scooters or motorcycles. More people take autorickshaws or taxis to work than private cars. “Most planning reports don’t even account for pedestrian movement,” Mr. Bhatt said.

For commutes up to 10 km, walking is the most common means of transport, but as commutes grow in distance, people move from travelling on foot to taking buses and two-wheelers. This pattern is however significantly different for women; two-wheelers and cars are rare for women, who commute mainly on foot up to 10 km, followed by buses.

Even in India’s megacities, walking is the most common mode of commuting. In Mumbai, an equal proportion (31 per cent) take the train, while in all other cities buses come next. Chennai and Bengaluru have a high proportion of two-wheeler users.

Given the length of the average commute, transport priorities are skewed, say experts. “"The metro is no doubt an important mode, but buses are even more important. They provide cheap and flexible services that require shorter walk connections. They are more efficient for short and medium distance trips that constitute the majority of urban trips, even in large cities,” Ms. Gadepalli said. “Metros make sense only on very high demand corridors and to serve long distance trips—a small proportion of all trips even in megacities. They are expensive to build and operate. They lose their utility when it comes to Tier II cities which typically have shorter trips. Even in a city like Delhi, which requires a 600-800 km rapid transit network, metro doesn't make sense on more than a fifth of the network. The rest should be developed as a high-quality Bus Rapid Transit. And then, don't forget the city bus," she added.

Keywords: Census, commuting, transportation

Source: The Hindu, 16-11-2015

Why the craze for government jobs?

Job security, several benefits and not so demanding…really? Get the true picture.

The Uttar Pradesh government secretariat recently received applications from postgraduates and Ph.D holders in response to a notification of vacancies of peon. This was even before the criticism evoked by the news of B.Techs and MBAs applying for the post of security guards died. Why is there so much craze for government jobs?

A few days ago, I was talking to a group of fresh graduates — engineers and MBAs. I asked them about their dream job and was surprised when they said that they prefer any government job, especially a in a State government organisation. They would settle for a private job only if they don’t get through the recruitment process for government organisations and PSUs!

That set me thinking about job preferences some 20 years ago. Those days, job-seekers were desperate to join large private corporations and MNCs. With so many young talented professionals eager to work with them, many pharma, retail, IT and ITeS companies, met their expansion goals and are still flourishing. But now, the scenario in the job market seems to have reversed completely.

The reason behind this new-found craze for government jobs is a misconception in the minds of today’s youth. They are under a false impression that a government job is ‘not demanding’, ‘has no targets’ and ‘provides a lot of benefits’. Most of all, it comes with ‘job security’, even though the pay is low compared to a job in the private sector.

Well, the reality is different. Let us see how.

Myth 1: The pay and benefits of a government job always score over those of private jobs.

At entry-level, State government jobs pay the best salaries, not the lowest. Recently, we did a project with the Department of Post on recruitment for the positions of postman and mail guard. Minimum education criterion for the posts was Class X or XII. The salary was up to Rs. 20,000!

When it comes to ‘other benefits’, like a maternity benefit or a medical benefit, government organisations clearly score over the private sector. This is absolutely true.

Now, let us look at the downside of the government job in terms of salary and other benefits.

Salaries in government organisations are attractive only at the entry-level. As years roll, what a government employee earns along with the ‘benefits’ he enjoys, is far less than what his private counterpart gets.

A competent employee, working in a private company, can move up to the level of AVP or VP within 15 years. However, an employee in a government organisation, in 15 years, may become a senior clerk or superintendent, earning just one-third of what an employee in a private organisation earns. So, a job that provides attractive salary today will become a liability within 10- 15 years. Competent employees get frustrated when their merit is not recognised and duly rewarded.

A career in the private sector may be tough in the initials stages, but over a period, it earns good rewards for those who are worth it.

Myth 2 – Government jobs are less demanding, have no targets and are ‘permanent’.

Government jobs are no longer cushy as they used to be once. The government is working on deliberate policies to deal with non-performers. In fact, following instructions from Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha that called for a review of non-performing officers, the Department of Personnel and Training has already come up with detailed guidelines to deal with non-performers and officers of doubtful integrity. This means, now, government employees not performing their duties duly, misbehaving and taking work casually can no longer hold on to their jobs.

On the other hand, unlike earlier, the government is creating contractual roles, based on human resource necessary for a specific project. For example, the Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society hired personnel for positions ranging from social worker to a director on contract basis. So, not all government jobs will be ‘permanent’ anymore. In addition, the government is considering outsourcing some of the jobs to the private sector.

Jobs in government and private sectors come with their advantages and disadvantages. Job seekers must choose based on their risk-appetite.

The writer is chairman of TMI group.

Keywords: government jobs, perceptions about government jobs, job awareness, human resource

Source: The Hindu, 16-11-2015