Educate the girl child, empower India

It is heartening to see people in Sangrur district educating their daughters. I remember when I first visited the area 16 years ago, this issue was a concern to me. I am proud of these parents who are giving their daughter a chance to study and get not only educated, but achieve high levels of qualifications. May God bless them. 

I am happy that parents are slowly realising that by educating their daughters, they are gifting them with an opportunity to lead a healthier and happier life. An educated girl has the skills, information and confidence to be a better worker, citizen and parent. 

By educating girls, parents make them financially independent which helps supplement the household income.  After marriage, they can help educate their own children apart from helping  their husbands and in-laws.

I have a vision of an India where every girl child has access to education, reproductive health information and services, and where there is no place for discrimination on the basis of gender. But the change must happens at the grassroots.  And we must work together  to achieve this.

I wish that every household, every village and every district of Punjab to work towards this vision of socialempowerment in India. How? As parents and members of social communities, you must partner schools in their efforts to educate the girl child by ensuring that your daughters attend classes every day. Then only can we dream of a stronger and better Punjab.

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Public perception of politicians

I have always wondered why in today’s India does the average person look down at a politician.  Just try wearing a white Kurta and walk into an airport or a railway station , you will draw attention, you will get noticed . My initial thoughts were that it’s to do with the way politicians are shown in Indian cinema . But why does Indian cinema show politicians in the way it does. If you look at the Indian cinema of the 50′s the politicians were amongst the good guys , it was the business community and being rich that was portrayed as bad . Then came the late 70′s and early 80′s Indian cinema added the politician to the bad guys group . In 2001 a movie by the name Dil Chatha Hai was released, which in my view changed the face of India cinema and the way India would look at a person with money,  business or come from an affluent background . It was no longer wrong to have or make money. This still did not change the way a politician is looked at. I have wondered why. I have seen a number of politicians do some amazing work , making personal and family sacrifices , so why this “dirty” or “bad guys” tag .

Last week while watching the news I got the answer to why politicians are viewed in the way we are . A debate was to take place on a serious issue but instead of debating the issue at hand people on the debate stared accusing each other on personal issues. These had nothing to do with the particular issue or any policy matter which was to be discussed at all , it was plain personal mud slinging . I have never seen a business person or civil servant accuse another of any misdeed on a public platform , it’s only the politician who does this . We speak less about issues and policies and more about moral standings of the other . It is not time to change this?

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What are we Indians eating ?

By Arvind Khanna

We all remember the Amir Khan starrer Staya Meiv Jayate – where he talked extensively about the over use of chemicals and pesticides by farmers. Undoubtedly the issue is very real.

As a youngster I always believed that the closer we went to our villages, the greater the purity of the food and vegetables that we consume. We all believed grandma’s stories about how good the food tasted “back home in the villages”. Brought up on these stories , I seldom if ever questioned them. As a teenager studying in India and abroad, food was food, something joyous to be consumed.

In the age of 24X7 media, it became next to impossible not to become health conscious. So while I watched others exercise extensively, I safely watched from afar, I saw them agonize about calories and the fat content of various meats and vegetables. Strangely they never bothered about pesticide content and other harmful chemicals finding their way into the food chain. The “mad cow” disease was something that happened in the west because meat products were fed to the herbivorous cows!

Upon a closer examination, as I travelled to parts of rural India, I saw vegetables growing in untreated sewerage water. Am not sure about the cleaning processes that they are adopting, but I am most certain that I should be worried. The “wet chicken” market, is equally frightening. I am sure that as awareness grows about these issues, Indian consumers will want clean and fresh vegetables and meat. The farming communities will have to come together. Some start ups are trying their best, but as with anything we do, we need to create value for all stakeholder groups. Our urban and rural development is intertwined. 

While I am appreciative of organically grown produce, I am also equally aware of the price points that become the imperative of this industry. India continues to be an extremely price sensitive market, and I understand the fact that food needs to be reasonably priced and safe food should be available to all citizens and not just become the preserve of the rich. The answer, to my mind, is produce that is farmed in keeping with health guidelines and food safety standards. Surely as a nation, we deserve to be able to get safe and nutritious food at a reasonable price.

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A paradise on earth: My Maldives diary

Lounging on a beach with a good book, soaking up the sunshine in between swimming in the sea is my idea of an ideal holiday. And, that’s exactly what I did in Maldives. With its pristine, white-sand beaches and amazing underwater world, Maldives is a holiday of a lifetime.

The country has nearly 1,200 islands and while I visited only a few, I was told they all have powdery white-sand beaches and luminous cyan blue water that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. I have heard that the Andamans has similar pristine beaches and clear blue-green water.

Maldives has some of the best diving and snorkelling in the world. The ocean is home to several ecosystems, but is best known for its variety of colourful coral reefs, which house countless species of fish, sea turtles, whales and dolphins. I have always been interested in marine life and had heard a lot about Vattaru Kandu, known to be a snorkeler’s paradise.

Around the entrance to the reef are caves and overhangs with soft corals, which make for a breathtaking sight. The reef has an abundant fish life – barracuda, fusilier and white-tip reef sharks. I was lucky to see a few manta rays too - large eagle rays. You will know what I am talking of if you have seen the movie, Finding Nemo. Remember Mr Ray? Manta Rays are a larger version of that.

But what really struck me was the cleanliness of the place. A small nation island, with a population that is largely of Indian origin. Why cant we learn to keep our country clean – looking at both urban and rural development.

I am a believer in impromptu travelling. I don’t like to plan my holidays. My motto is to take it as it comes. I was itching to do more. A casual conversation with some foreign tourists at the resort where I was staying resulted in a trip to Manta Reef.  

Needless to say, Maldives is a sea-food connoisseurs’ paradise. So, from coconut chilli crab and baked mussels to red cuttlefish curry, you name it and I tried them all.  A few of my friends were vegetarians. But, Maldives has enough and more veggie dishes to offer. A particular vegetarian curry made with barabo (pumpkin) and green unripe bananas caught my fancy too.

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Unlocking India's demographic dividend

India is at a crucial moment in history. With over half the population under 25 years of age, it has potential to emerge as the world’s next superpower. The demographic dividend brings opportunity for huge pay-offs.

However, it also brings along potential disaster if lingering demands for quality education, jobs, infrastructure and overall development are not met. I believe millions of workers will be redirected to farms for work if the current economic slowdown compounds job creation problem in the industry and services sector.

Some estimates suggest that 12 million people will join the agriculture workforce by 2018-19 compared with a decline of 37 million in agriculture employment between 2004-05 and 2011-12. This should be accompanied with rural development projects.

As India grows below potential, those looking for non-farm work will also be left to contend with fewer jobs. Employment outside agriculture will increase by only 38 million between 2011-12 and 2018-19 compared with 52 million between 2004-05 and 2011-12.

While tottering GDP growth rate of about five per cent is partly to blame, the country’s inability to create labour-intensive manufacturing jobs that propelled growth in economies like China and southeast Asian countries could cost heavily in coming years.

The real estate sector – which employs a large bulk of construction labour – has already reported 18 to 20 per cent job losses over the past one year. Meanwhile, manufacturing added one to two million jobs a year since 1970s but has lost seven million jobs between 2005 and 2010. The services sector accounting for 60 per cent of GDP is unlikely to employ more than 20 to 30 per cent of the incoming labour. 

It may be trendy to talk about demographic dividend but India could well be staring at a massive demographic liability as 51 million people seek work with not enough jobs to absorb them.

Unemployment and underemployment statistics also show an ominous reality. If India's youth are not given opportunities for a meaningful future, they could become an economic burden rather than an asset.

A focus on manufacturing, skills development and acceleration of infrastructure creation are some of the solutions to arrest this crisis. But all these are dependent on a rigorous policy approach by those in the government and consist of tough decisions like undertaking dramatic labour reforms, easing the climate for doing business and quicker decision making.

And, of course, a harmonious mechanism for land distribution is must so that equitable growth can take place in agriculture, industry and services sector.

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Punjab needs incentives to rejuvenate its industrial sector

Punjab’s economy & business needs to get a push. We have seen dark days in 80’s & 90’s and the economy was really not given the required attention. In the aftermath of those dark days a lot of industries had left Punjab because of the problems and the ones that stayed suffered because of state apathy. The time has come to grow the environment that will attract industrial actors back to the state. The Progressive Punjab Investors Summit held in December last year, successfully firmed up investment commitments worth more than Rs 65,000 crore, but now it is time to follow through. Giving incentives to other states and not to Punjab will only be counterproductive. The extend tax and other special incentives given to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand must be extended to Punjab as well. 

Enterprising Punjabi entrepreneurs have scripted great success stories in the past – within the state, across India and even overseas. The state must continue to grow this spirit and not let it slip across to nearby towns such as Baddi in Himachal Pradesh or Kathua in J&K which are quite close to Punjab. Punjab needs fresh investments to create thousands of new jobs and boost industrial output. In fact, it deserves a special industrial package which is crucial for the state’s rural developmentprogrammes and overall economic prosperity.

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Need to fix agri infrastructure, improve post-harvest linkages

Punjab needs to address yawning gaps in infrastructure supporting the agricultural sector. Improving post-harvest and marketing infrastructure is critical to unlock the potential of various segments in the agri-business supply chain.

While India is set to harvest a record food grain production of 260 million tonnes due to good monsoons and achieve five per cent growth, it is ironic that 17 per cent of the people are still under-nourished while 40 per cent of agriculture produce is wasted for want of storage facilities.

On the other hand, Parliament in September last year passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) which is the world’s largest social welfare scheme. It guarantees access to subsidised food to 70 per cent of the 1.2 billion population.

The central government is now legally bound to provide each of 800 million people – nearly the combined populations of the United States and the European Union – with five kg of subsidised food grains every month.

I believe the landmark initiative should be led by strong domestic production. Besides being dependent on vagaries of the monsoon, agriculture in our country faces serious issues of food security and wastage in the supply chain.

There have been some encouraging developments in the recent past like public private partnerships in contract farming, drip irrigation projects and terminal markets. These can be extended to other areas like logistics, cold storage and warehousing. This is crucial for agriculture development in India.

Conducive government policies are required to attract private equity capital also. At the same time, successful large-scale replication of innovative models in agri-infrastructure will lead to evolution of organised, high-tech, demand-led and high-value orientation. These innovations could have significant advantages  if identified, localised and scaled up as part of rural developmentprogrammes.   

The agriculture sector accounts for 14 per cent of the country's total GDP. Some two-third of India’s people depend on rural employment for a living.

High levels of wastage, low productivity levels, falling private and public investments, scarcity of land, water and labour are some issues that have led to supply constraints. The mismatch between demand and supply has been further exacerbated by the rapid increase in food consumption on account of demographic changes.

The public private partnership route presents an excellent opportunity that has already had some success in states like Punjab and will need to be implemented systematically across the country. However, the long-term solution to correcting these supply deficiencies lies in drastic improvement in farm level productivity.

This can be achieved through investments in research and development in agri-sciences and subsequent information systems required to transfer this knowledge and monitor progress with farmers.

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Women’s safety

By Arvind Khanna

The recent death of an acid attack victim from Barnala in a Mumbai hospital has once again raised concerns among people about the safety of women in India, particularly young girls. While any attack on a woman is tragic, the tragedy in the Barnala girl’s case was more extreme than anyone one could imagine. The girl was getting ready in a Ludhiana beauty parlour for her wedding the same night. That fate would take such a devastatingly tragic turn, nobody would have imagined, much less her parents who have been left traumatised and grieving.

Only last year the entire nation rose against the brutal gangrape and murder of Nirbhaya, the Delhi medico, which led to the question, is Delhi safe for women? Stringent rape law was enacted. But that did not stop the incidents of rapes and attacks on women. This has only established that merely enacting laws, howsoever stringent these might be, does not serve any purpose as long as these are not implemented strictly to deter and discourage others from resorting to such dastardly acts.

We need to think that a girl or a lady is a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife and a friend to somebody. We need to change our attitudes toward women. As a parent myself I feel shocked and shaken at the daily reports that appear with alarming regularity about the atrocities against  women. The latest being the gangrape and setting on fire of a girl in West Bengal. These are too heart wrenching. When will the day come when this all will be a thing of the past?

There is no reason why technological advances should not be used in facilitating women’s security. There can be specially devised safety devices for women, besides emergency helplines especially dedicated to women. So far there is no emergency response system for women’s security in India, anywhere which needs to be set up at the earliest. While we have made a small start in New Delhi, Punjab must also make a beginning.

It is sad that we have not been able to set a common SOS helpline number which a woman can dial in distress and receive the appropriate support. We need to make our towns and villages safer and secure for women. We need to create an atmosphere where a girl should feel free to move anytime and anywhere she wants and likes. We need to do this together and not leave it to some social workers across India. When we call for empowerment of women in India it cannot be possible without ensuring the safety and security of women in India.

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