Quote of the Day
“To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”‐ Buddha
“हमारा कर्तव्य है कि हम अपने शरीर को स्वस्थ रखें। अन्यथा हम अपने मन को सक्षम और शुद्ध नहीं रख पाएंगे।”‐ बुद्ध
Thursday, September 26, 2019
A rural stimulus: On MGNREGA wage hike
Putting more money in the hands of rural households will stir up the economy
The government’s statistical machinery has begun work on revising the indices that capture the trends in consumer prices experienced in rural India. This opens up the prospect for an upward revision in the wages paid out to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The current national average wage is just about ₹178 per day. The decision to finally embark on a long-overdue exercise is welcome, irrespective of the immediate trigger. The basket of items whose prices are tracked for constructing the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL), for instance, has not been updated for at least three decades. Apart from essential spending on food, rural expenditure patterns have altered significantly in the intervening period, making space for higher spending on services such as education, transport and, of course, telecom. But two-thirds of the dated inflation index is still driven by food prices, which may effectively end up understating the price pressures facing rural households. This depressant effect could be accentuated when low food inflation coincides with decelerating farm incomes that still drive India’s rural economy. Once a new basket is constructed, the Statistics Ministry, along with the Labour Bureau, plans to improve the currency of the CPI-AL (to which MGNREGA wages are linked) and CPI-Rural indices with annual reviews.
If the index revision concludes soon enough, the Centre is geared up to notify updated MGNREGA wages in the current fiscal year itself rather than wait for the onset of 2020-2021. This sense of urgency suggests the government views giving a fillip to the rural economy as a critical tool to combat the headwinds of the slowing economy. The slowdown narrative (and the Centre’s measures to address it) so far has been dominated by urban India’s consumption crimp and easing the corporate tax structure, but the distress in villages where incomes are more vulnerable is more disconcerting. The Reserve Bank of India, in its annual report, has pointed to weakening rural demand since the third quarter of 2018-19 as a serious concern and termed reviving consumption as its top policy priority. Reflecting rural distress, demand for work under the MGNREGA has been rising. With job creation in a flux and sentiment about the economy worsening, any move to put more money into rural households’ ‘sticky’ spending kitty would likely have a better pay-off towards stirring up the economy than shopping fests and tax sops for urban India.
Source: The Hindu, 21/09/2019
Imagining a new India
It’s a nation where all citizens have an equal shot at pursuit of their own happiness
Indulging one of my hobbies of listening to great speeches, I turned the other day to Martin Luther King’s immortal “I have a dream” speech, where he talked of the “fierce urgency of now” to address the tribulations suffered by the “negro seared in the flames of withering injustice”. I feel “the tranquilising drug of gradualism” is not good enough to allow Indians a fair chance if we do not address five major crises enveloping India. My own dream for India is one where it has addressed the crises in:
Water: The government has undertaken a multi-faceted mission mode approach that has three parts to it — revitalising rivers and fresh water lakes, harvesting rain water and changing the incentives in agriculture. A nationwide mission has been undertaken to restore our rivers ravaged by widespread encroachment and interference in their natural flows. Measures have been taken to address the colossal scale of sewage polluting the rivers. City sewage systems have been revamped and a big focus has been put on increasing the number and maintenance of sewage treatment plants in every city. At the same time, urgent measures have been taken to ensure rain water is better harvested during the monsoon so that ground water levels are managed up. Indian urban conglomerations that have become like plastic sheets and do not absorb rain water have taken firm steps to address this.
Finally, the plea of Ashok Gulati and others has been heard and agriculture has been freed from misdirected intervention. There has been a stop to the supply of free intermittent power that led to water pumps pulling out and wasting ground water and allowing for perverse cropping patterns to get established. Minimum support prices have been replaced by direct benefit transfers to farmers and the export of water (T N Ninan’s evocative phrase for rice and sugar exports from water-starved regions) has stopped. A more sustainable framework for water has led to a palpable increase in ground water and rivers have become cleaner and flow stronger.
Smart cities: One hundred smart cities have come up to absorb the out migration from the rural areas in UP and Bihar. These cities have affordable houses, piped water, power supply and toilets linked to the city sewage systems with well-developed waste sites. The cities minimise travel between residences and work places because work places are in close proximity to residential colonies. All work places have charging stations for electric vehicles and streets are lined with trees and broad walking pavements and cycle lanes. Taxes have been imposed on private car use in city centres to prevent congestion. Public toilets are plentiful as are trash bins so public areas stay clean. Training facilities have been established for training poorly educated people for low-skill service industries. The population of metros like Mumbai and Delhi are not growing. There are reports of out-migration from large metro aggregations to newer smart cities.
Digital apartheid: All Indians are provided with smartphones and cyber clinics have been funded to encourage ease with a digital environment. Citizen convenience has become a government mantra and most services can be accessed digitally. Services like police verification, getting an election card, obtaining a driving licence, making payments to government can be done remotely and all applications can be submitted through a digital interface. India has also joined the group of cyber-capable nations that can defend the country from cyber attacks and has the capability to inflict damage to other countries in the same way.
Health: All health records in India are digitised and are centrally stored. Privacy laws have been established and patient’s records can only be accessed with individual consent. People anywhere in India can call in to centres that deal with common concerns with ease. The primary health centres have all been transformed, digitised and linked to 30 specialist health centres for diagnosis and care. The PHCs are staffed by qualified nurses who engage with specialist’s centres by video and advise their patients. Patient visits have reduced and convenience has increased. The district hospitals are not crowded and it is easy to access the specialised hospitals in smart cities.
Education: The government has introduced a school voucher system where municipal schools are run by the private sector. All Indian children are enrolled in school. A strong accreditation council has been set up by government that maintains and publishes school outcomes widely. Parents can use their school vouchers to choose to send their children to schools within five km of their residences. Paid fully, private schools are fully residential and located out of the cities. Teacher training institutes have been set up and all teachers need to spend one week a year learning from each other on teaching methodologies and new course work. The ratio of teachers to students in primary schools has come down from 46 to 25. All schools are equipped with TVs, computers and phones and powered by renewable sources of energy. Digital penetration in education in India has taken off and a variety of models are being used — instructors joining over phone with the material presented via computer, over video conference or just by providing digital access on computers with drop down menus for further inquiry and more advanced learning. Teaching outcomes are better and the productivity of the Indian economy is showing improvement.
Yes, I have a dream that kids will be judged by the “content of their character”, not denied opportunities due to the lack of basic services. I dream that as a nation we have realised that “now is the time to make justice for all of God’s children” a reality. Yes, I have a dream that all Indians have an equal shot at pursuit of their own happiness.
The writer is chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India. Views are personal
Source: Indian Express, 26/09/2019
Researchers claim eye-tracking technology could help make driving safer
“Prior to a crash, drivers can be easily distracted by an alert from a collision avoidance warning -- a popular feature in new vehicles -- and we feel this could be a growing problem in distraction-related vehicle crashes,” said researcher Jung Hyup Kim, Assistant Professor Fom University of Missouri in the US.
Researchers have developed two new applications of eye-tracking technology which could help make driving safer.
“Prior to a crash, drivers can be easily distracted by an alert from a collision avoidance warning -- a popular feature in new vehicles -- and we feel this could be a growing problem in distraction-related vehicle crashes,” said researcher Jung Hyup Kim, Assistant Professor Fom University of Missouri in the US.
“Therefore, a two-way communication channel needs to exist between a driver and a vehicle. For instance, if a driver is aware of a possible crash, then the vehicle does not have to warn the driver as much,” Kim said.
However, if a vehicle provides an alert that, by itself, creates a distraction, it could also lead to a crash, said the researcher.
For the study, the researchers watched how people’s pupils changed in response to their physical reactions to a collision avoidance warning by a vehicle-assisted safety system.
Researchers believe they have enough data to begin the next step of developing a two-way communication model.
A person’s pupil could also help scientists find a way to decrease distracted driving crashes through a first-hand perspective into a driver’s behaviour, said the study.
Using a driving simulator, the researchers evaluated a driver’s physical behaviour in real-time by focusing on the driver’s eyes as the crash happened.
“We saw the size of a person’s pupil changed depending on the behavioural response to the severity of the accident,” Kim said.
The study was presented at 2019 International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics in Washington.
Source: Hindustan Times, 25/09/2019
It’s All About Daily Living
Unborn and indestructible, beyond time and space — both transmission and inheritance lie in the wonderful nature of the Dharmadhatu. When we take a bath or a shower, we can look at our body and see that it is a gift from our parents and their parents. As we wash each part of our body, we can meditate on the nature of the body and the nature of consciousness, asking ourselves, “To whom does this body belong? Who has transmitted this body to me? What has been transmitted?” If we meditate in this way, we will discover that there are three components: the transmitter, that which is transmitted, and the one who receives the transmission. The transmitter is our parents. We are the continuation of our parents and their ancestors. The object of transmission is our body itself, and the one who receives the transmission is us. As we continue to meditate on this, we see early that the transmitter, the object transmitted, and the receiver are one. All three are present in our body. When we are deeply in touch with the present moment, we can see that all our ancestors and all future generations are present in us. The Dharmadhatu is all that is manifested from the Dharmakaya, having Dharmakaya as its essence, just as all waves are manifestations of water. The Dharmadhatu is neither born nor destroyed. Its existence is beyond time and space. When we understand this truth of existence with our whole being, we will begin to transcend the fear of death, and we will not be disturbed by discriminations.
Economic Times, 26/09/2019
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