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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