The politics of food for the hungry

"Policymakers talk of food security but are reluctant to give universal entitlements to eradicate hunger."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The politics of food for the hungry: The solution for hunger lies in proper distribution of grain, and not in bringing technology as the Prime Minster avers when talking of GM crops. If this government cannot prevent the huge stocks from rotting by distributing food grain adequately and equitably, other questions remain mere rhetoric.


On the Genetically Modified (GM) crops, it represents a paradigm shift in agriculture, with the potential to affect the consumers (food safety) and farmers (livelihood) security. Bt cotton, the only commercially approved GM crop in the country, should ring alarm bells for policymakers obsessed with the idea of increased food production through GM technology. Data analysis shows productivity has not significantly increased, nor has pesticide use markedly decreased. But the costs have increased due to the appearance of new pests and others developing Bt resistance, higher water and fertilizer requirements, and no major benefit in the output. The main beneficiaries of this transfer to Bt Cotton seem to be multinational seed companies like Monsanto which have profited through patents and royalty!

The debates around the National Food Security Bill reveal the lack of political intent to use food stocks to help remove malnutrition and address inequity. While talking of food security (a much larger right than just PDS), policymakers are reluctant to grant universal entitlements of even food grain to eradicate hunger.

Advance Indian Standard Time by half an hour

"It would help to reduce the evening peak energy deficit more effectively and without the difficulties of dividing the country into two time zones"

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Advance Indian Standard Time by half an hour

A father's long struggle for justice

"Shahnawaz Wagle died in the 1993 Mumbai riots. Was it an accidental death or cold-blooded murder?"

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A father's long struggle for justice: Tahir Wagle has fought a relentless battle over 18 years. His dreams of making his teenage son Shahnawaz a merchant navy officer ended in a pool of blood outside his modest home in Mazgaon in South Mumbai on January 10, 1993.

While the police claim Shahnawaz was shot while being part of a rioting mob that morning and that he died later, Mr. Wagle and his family maintain he was killed by the police after being dragged out of his house. Shahnawaz's sister Yasmin was eyewitness to the event but the police refused to register a case.

Why Balwant Singh Rajoana shouldn't be hanged

"The Centre has stayed the hanging. Now it must commute the sentence."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Why Balwant Singh Rajoana shouldn't be hanged: The State and Central governments have powers to commute death sentences after their final judicial confirmation. Issues often alien and irrelevant to legal adjudication — morality, public good, social and policy considerations — are intrinsically germane to the exercise of the government's powers. These powers exist because in appropriate cases the strict requirements of law need to be tempered and departed from to reach a truly just outcome in the widest sense of the word. The government's powers to commute a death sentence thus operate as a national conscience.

Budgeting for a new vision

"CM Jayalalithaa unveiled Vision Tamil Nadu 2023, a document that lays the roadmap for improving social indices, infrastructure, and income levels of the people within the next 11 years. It envisages Tamil Nadu as India's most prosperous and progressive State with no poverty, where people would enjoy all the basic services of a modern society. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Budgeting for a new vision: Tamil Nadu already has in place a strong universal Public Distribution System. With a stronger social safety net, the State might well be on the way towards the stated target of poverty elimination by 2023.

But good planning and efficient budgeting are only the first steps in bringing about the necessary changes in the lives and livelihoods of the people. The toughest part, as always, is from paper and drawing board to field and finished product.

The art of schooling

"Sri Sri Ravishankar has a bizarre logic for privatisation of education — that students from government schools become naxalites and take to violence. Foolish though they are, such assertions prop up the falsehood that government-funded education is a ghettoised ruin, while private sector institutions uniformly make the cut. Genuine thought leadership must dwell on questions such as improving the skills of teachers in public schools."

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : The art of schooling: Contrary to the pernicious logic advanced against public education, the beneficiaries of that system work harder to overcome their social disadvantages, compared with well-to-do counterparts in private institutions. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, elite education is oriented more towards preserving the status quo, which is antithetical to the concepts of freedom of thought, challenge and inquiry that are the core goals of education.

India's public education lacks adequate human resources and infrastructure, and it evidently needs supportive policies to achieve its potential. What it does not need is a sermon on things that it is not.

The public needs both gavel and pen

"The Supreme Court's proposal to impose guidelines on how to report cases will be harmful to press freedom and democracy, the bedrock of which is an informed public."

The Hindu : Columns / Siddharth Varadarajan : The public needs both gavel and pen: The Supreme Court has seen fit to specify that accredited correspondents must possess a law degree; it has also quantified the amount of reporting experience, at different levels of the judiciary, that these correspondents must have. Having raised the bar for entry, imposing further restrictions in the form of guidelines on these correspondents — all of whom have been allowed in precisely because of their knowledge of, and sensitivity towards, the functioning of the Court — seems especially superfluous.

Journalists and editors should be honest in accepting that the reason the Supreme Court — and the government — want to step in is because the media act as if they are not accountable to anyone. Aggrieved citizens have no forum they can approach for an effective and swift remedy in the event of being injured by misreporting. Unless newspapers and television stations get serious about self-regulation, the pressure of external regulation will always remain.

Authored by Siddharth Varadarajan

Halt all hangings

Mahatma Gandhi's India cannot afford to lag behind other countries in abolishing capital punishment.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Halt all hangings: "Abolitionists around the world argue against the death penalty mainly for two reasons: it has not been proved to be a deterrent and a flawed judicial process can wrongly, and irrevocably, send a person to his death. But over and above these reasoned considerations is the sheer barbarity of taking a human life even under the due process of law. Besides, there is no humane way of executing the death sentence. Death by hanging — the preferred method in India — is unspeakably cruel."

Balwant Singh Rajoana admitted his part in the suicide bombing of Punjab CM Beant Singh, rejected counsel, and accepted the death penalty, arguing that he would not ask for mercy from a government that called him a terrorist but was unconscionably insensitive towards the victims of state-sponsored communal pogroms. He must live if only for the state to demolish his belief that it is a “monster” ready to turn on its own people.

India is yet to abolish capital punishment even as 96 countries around the world have done away with the practice with another 34 countries observing unofficial moratoria on executions.

Shifting sands in Mali

"Apart from bringing an abrupt end to two decades of elected government, the recent coup in Mali could exacerbate problems extending far beyond the region. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Shifting sands in Mali: Given the decidedly mixed results that ECOWAS military interventions elsewhere in the region have produced, it is important that West African states do not precipitate an armed showdown with the putschists. The goal has to be early presidential elections, a return to constitutional order and a peaceful resolution of the Tuareg issue.

Mali is one of the world's poorest countries and can ill afford conflict. More than anything, its people deserve their democracy back.

‘The U.S. has a dominant position in quota calculations'

"An interview with Kalpana Kocchar, Chief Economist, World Bank, South Asia Region."

The Hindu : Opinion / Interview : ‘The U.S. has a dominant position in quota calculations'

The fossil foot made for climbing trees

"Bones from a foot of a pre-human ancestor that walked the Earth 3.4m years ago suggest the creature was also at home in trees."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : The fossil foot made for climbing trees: A fossilised foot discovered in eastern Africa belonged to a pre-human ancestor that was adapted to life in the trees. The foot is unusual for the positioning of its big toe, which juts out to the side like those in gorillas or chimpanzees. The orientation of the toe enables the foot to grasp branches, suggesting its owner was a creature at home in the forest canopy.

It's an important species because it opens up a window into our past on how our foot evolved.

It's about a town called Kawhmu

"For Aung San Suu Kyi, next week's by-election is an attempt to reach out to the people and affirm her credentials as a unifier of Myanmar."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : It's about a town called Kawhmu: The political fortunes of Myanmar's famous dissident rest in the hands of an impoverished community, many of whose members come from the country's Karen ethnic minority.

For Suu Kyi, there are political stakes to consider in her role as a new parliamentarian. There is, after all, a halo around her after over 20 years of struggle against military dictatorships. Will the rough and tumble of daily politics diminish her defining qualities — as a symbol of hope and righteousness in her troubled country?

A time for India to stand up and be counted

"The two-cornered contest for the top job in the World Bank is an opportunity for India to objectively assess which person is the right choice."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A time for India to stand up and be counted: The World Bank is at a turning point, and India has a major voice in deciding its future. The serious candidates (Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Dr. Jim Yong Kim of the United States) present the 180 countries who sit on the Board of the World Bank with a clear choice between visions of the World Bank.

Minister Ngozi, has deep experience throughout the developing world, widely respected for her courage and demonstrated capability in diplomacy, strategy and management. U.S. nominee, Dr. Kim has no experience either in development issues in developing countries or in finance, economics, business, regulation, and has a world view that economic growth leads to more poverty.

 If India is to be true to its claimed and proper role in the world, it will (a) define the qualifications it sees as necessary for the job (b) objectively assess Minister Ngozi and Dr Kim against these qualifications. If this process is followed, the outcome is obvious.

There is no doubt that the Obama administration, which will not want the embarrassment of facing accusations of “who lost the World Bank?” in an election year, will strong-arm countries into acquiescing with its frivolous choice. This is a time for India to stand up and be counted.

A Saudi Spring waits to arrive

"The decades-old winter of frozen and fossilised structures and systems in the Arab world are thawing. And Saudi Arabia is no exception."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : A Saudi Spring waits to arrive: The institution of monarchy does provide a buffer between the monarch and his subjects in the form of a government structure. The king has the privilege of sacking a besieged government and still remaining in power. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the oil-wealth, a small population, huge government patronage, welfare economy, etc., provide additional immunity.

On the other hand, an ageing leadership, internet-savvy and educated youth, assertive women, sectarian divisions, and a contagious “Arab Spring” all around in the neighbourhood indicate a partial and potential vulnerability of the Saudi King.

Tunisia, Libya and Egypt in North Africa have been the harbingers of the Arab Spring. All three of them have witnessed regime changes and are in the process of taking stock and moving forward at their own individual pace. Whether the Spring will spread eastward in a typical domino fashion to the rest of the Arab world remains to be seen. Whether it eventually brings about a comprehensive reshaping of the region is uncertain at best.

Perils of short-termism

"The infrastructure deficit has been widening year after year and is one of the principal reasons holding back economic growth. Finding money for infrastructure projects, which have long gestation periods, has been an especially challenging task. The Finance Minister has proposed strengthening financial institutions dedicated to infrastructure. The pool of tax free infrastructure bonds for domestic investors is being expanded."

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Perils of short-termism: Less useful and inherently more controversial initiatives have been the relaxations in the rules pertaining to external commercial borrowings (ECBs). The new policy is not the panacea that it is claimed to be. On the contrary, it is a reversal of past policies that sought to restrain such borrowings.

Typically of a short duration, such ECB borrowings carry a huge exchange rate risk, which is magnified by the recent volatility in the foreign exchange markets. A steep increase in short-term external debt is something that needs to be avoided.

The clear message is that short-termism does not pay, not even in the limited context of infrastructure finance.