Rural Development in India

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 20 Feb 2011 01:02

FoodMin will find a middle path on subsidies: Thomas
http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... as/425820/

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 26 Feb 2011 01:49

Singh asserted that he expected inflation for March to ease to 7%
http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/Ne ... 5090855308

PM says committed to food security bill
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 561651.cms

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 26 Feb 2011 06:01

Welcome to Gujarat’s first Wi-Fi village, no thanks to govt

Eighteen kilometres from the nearest town of Valsad in south Gujarat sits Tighara, a village where locals communicate in real time with their relatives living on the other side of the world. Welcome to Gujarat’s first Wi-Fi village.

A few months ago, Tighara locals settled in Panama, London and Atlanta came home with their software and electronics expertise, organised a meeting with the youths of the village and set up a Wi-Fi system so they could easily talk to their family members back home.

Being professional techies, the NRI youths had brought along routers and special cameras and fixed it on the village streets.

“Our attempt was to bring those who are staying abroad closer to the village. We have installed around six cameras at different locations and they are connected with well-developed servers. We have also used local landline phones,” said Tejas Patel, a software engineer who lives in central London and is currently home on vacation.

There are laptops, computers in many of the houses here, explained Patel, adding the system was started just a few weeks ago.

The Wi-Fi service is welcome to Gujarat’s first Wi-Fi village, no thanks to govt available at nominal charges: 10 GB to 15 GB usage at only Rs. 300 per month or Rs. 7,000 per year. The charges taken from the villagers will be used to give more facility to the villagers, adds Tejas Patel.

The service has no doubt been delightful, especially for the old villagers.

“My son Deepak is in Atlanta now and we often see each other and chat online. Using a webcam, Deepak had seen our repainted house and new furniture and even his bedroom, which we have kept as it is since his memories are attached to it. During the festivals and marriage functions, Deepak could see the entire functions through cameras attached at various places,” said Bhagu Patel, a farmer.

“We have also started medical facility like a health centre wherein poor villagers are getting medicines for Rs. 5. We have not taken help from any of the government schemes. Everything has been done by villagers,” he said, adding the neighbouring villagers are keen to copy Tighara.

Link

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 26 Feb 2011 23:38

NAC won't go back on its food Bill
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 492811.ece

Thomas food bill push
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110214/j ... 579606.jsp

NAC pushing for its version of Food Security Bill
http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/20/stories ... 401200.htm

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 05 Mar 2011 19:38

Make food security a right
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/a ... 506207.ece

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 08 Mar 2011 22:50

A nice concept... hope it goes well..

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 10 Mar 2011 22:11

Make food security a right
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/03/06/sto ... 140400.htm

Cabinet okays RTS Act & food scheme
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 659839.cms

Yagnasri · Post by **Yagnasri** » 13 Mar 2011 17:33

call me facist why we need food security ? Why not do something more constructive with the same money liek improving agri infra or make sound food policy which alone will make food avliable to all people.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 14 Mar 2011 02:51

EGOM to discuss on proposed Food Bill, sugar exports on Mar 17
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 691364.cms

Food Security is not needed for those who earn a big salaries. It is for those who cannot afford to get food. In Amerthya Sen's words it is for those who are denied their freedom to earn their food - unfreedom. Right to food is to enable them to obtain this freedom to earn their food. This is an investment in people's workforce. If you give them food then you get work force, they work in the farm fields for a low pay and thus people in the urban set up get their rice for a reasonable price in the market. Why things are cheap in India because of low paid workers working for these things. So subsidising food for them means making an investment on these people's workforce.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 16 Mar 2011 20:51

24 amazing innovations from rural India.

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 16 Mar 2011 21:30

Narayana Rao wrote:call me facist why we need food security ? Why not do something more constructive with the same money liek improving agri infra or make sound food policy which alone will make food avliable to all people.

Congress party loots people's money using these schemes, helping the poor is presented as the objective so anybody opposing these schemes can be dubbed anti-poor and attacked. Congress will divert this money to its party funds and the status of poor will remain unchanged. Congress ka Haath, Aapki jeb kaatein ko tyaar

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 17 Mar 2011 08:48

^^^There are some useful links I posted in the "Economy" thread on the Food Security Act..Maybe you can critique the Act in terms of the substantive points, rather than just "Congress is chor"?

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 17 Mar 2011 09:04

^^ If you want a discussion post it here, meanwhile congress is rightly called chor for looting money from food for work program. Guess who said it first, not me, it was Jean dreze, congress birather sitting in NAC

Loot For Work Programme

The National Food For Work Programme (NFFWP) was launched in November 2004 in the country's poorest 150 districts. It is supposed to be an interim arrangement, to be phased out once the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act comes into force in the same districts. As the NFFWP guidelines put it, the programme "is an experiment, which if successfully carried out, will give the government the necessary confidence to take responsibility for providing wage employment guarantee".How is this "experiment" doing? It is a little early to draw firm conclusions, but some interesting insights emerge from a recent survey conducted by a team of students from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. The survey was undertaken in six districts: Badwani (Ma-dhya Pradesh), Dungarpur (Rajasthan), Palamau (Jharkhand), Purulia (West Bengal), Sonebhadra (Uttar Pradesh) and Surguja (Chhattisgarh). In each district, a team of investigators surveyed 10 randomly-selected worksites in one block. In addition, they attempted to perform a verification of muster rolls in one worksite.

The picture emerging from this survey is alarming. The NFFWP guidelines, weak as they are in the first place, are simply not being enforced.

The problem may be illustrated with reference to the maintenance of "muster rolls". These muster rolls are crucial documents, which contain (or are supposed to contain) detailed information on the number of days of work performed by, and wages paid to, each labourer. The NFFWP guidelines clearly state that muster rolls should be available for public scrutiny. This is very important since fudging of muster rolls is the principal method through which funds are siphoned off from public employment programmes.

However, muster rolls are virtually impossible to obtain. Even with a letter of introduction from NC Saxena, commissioner of the Supreme Court, the investigators faced difficulties in obtaining sample muster rolls for verification. And the verifications they were able to carry out showed that much of the information contained in muster rolls was fake.

In Sonebhadra district, it was found that there were two sets of muster rolls: "Kutcha" muster rolls, scribbled in a cheap notebook and kept at the worksite, and "pucca" muster rolls, maintained on the prescribed forms and hidden from public scrutiny. Actual wage payments are based on kutcha muster rolls which have authentic information on the number of days of work done by each labourer. But the financial allocations are based on pucca muster rolls. Pucca muster rolls are freely "manufactured", and bear no relation to kutcha muster rolls. Any amount of money can be siphoned off this way.

The situation was not very different in other districts. In Surguja, the investigators were made to run from pillar to post in search of muster rolls. It is only after the Rozgar Adhikar Yatra stormed the district headquarters of the irrigation department that a sample of muster rolls was obtained. A public verification uncovered massive discrepancies: Some labourers had worked for three days only, but 60 days of work had been entered against their names in the muster rolls. Out of 60 days of wages paid, three went to the labourers and the rest must have been siphoned off.

In Palamau, muster rolls were fudged with some sophistication. Some had names of labourers on the left-hand side, and their signatures (or thumbprints) on the right-hand side. The middle columns, with details of work done and wages due, were left blank, presumably to be filled at an appropriate time by enterprising officials.

The lack of transparency of muster rolls is only one illustration, among many, of the systematic failure to enforce the NFFWP guidelines. Another important example is the failure to pay minimum wages. The investigators did not find a single worksite where legal minimum wages had been paid as prescribed in the guidelines. Labourers are routinely paid as little as Rs 25 or Rs 30 per day—less than half the minimum wage. At some worksites in Badwani, labourers were told that if they asked for the minimum wage they would be dismissed. In Purulia, one poor woman who had worked for three days with her son and daughter earned as little as 13 kg of rice for these nine person-days of work.

In short, the NFFWP has been launched in haste, without much political will. Not only have the guidelines failed to build on insights that had emerged in the process of drafting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the government is not even making a serious attempt to enforce these guidelines.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... c-scrutiny

Congress ka haath, Corruption ke Saath

Gaali gaali mein shor hai, congress party chor hai

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 17 Mar 2011 16:10

India Journal: How to Achieve Food Security
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011 ... -security/

Please view this video on hunger in Tamil but with English subtitle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xitqp23fAVk

Ragavendra I cannot disagree with you in someways as the corruptive fellows make use of such systems and so abuse the whole programme in the name of the poverty. But you must see Gujarat, TN and Kerala who are reforming the systems to many extent though the corruptions are still out there.

We need to strongly recommend Lokpal bill. Also we need movements at grassroots to educate and work against the corruption regimes as well as the officialdoms.

Exposing is the best way to shame and bring these guys down. It is sad that even the supreme court judges (past) seem to have made money from their jobs though many of us believed that it was the only system that was uncorrupt.

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 18 Mar 2011 12:45

joshvajohn wrote:Ragavendra I cannot disagree with you in someways as the corruptive fellows make use of such systems and so abuse the whole programme in the name of the poverty. But you must see Gujarat, TN and Kerala who are reforming the systems to many extent though the corruptions are still out there.

Question : So what is the commonality between these 3 states?
Answer: All 3 states are governed by non congress parties.
Gujarat is governed by BJP
TN is governed by DMK
Kerala is governed by LDF

Question : So what is the first and foremost thing to be done to help the poor?
Answer: Kick congress party out of power

Question : What will happen if congress party is allowed to go ahead with FSA?
Answer : The poor will remain hungry while congress chors will get more fat after eating this stolen food. They have a track record of looting people's money from the past 60 years and there are no signs they will change. Placing sonia gandhi as their party president, who has 2 billions dollars of looted public money in her swiss bank account, proves only chors can lead congress party. Bigger the chor, bigger his stature in congress party.

joshvajohn wrote:We need to strongly recommend Lokpal bill. Also we need movements at grassroots to educate and work against the corruption regimes as well as the officialdoms.

More laws wont change the corrupt nature of congress party. There is a Prevention of Corruption Act which should have been used by now to prosecute Manmohan singh, Sonia Gandhi, Nachiket Kapur for bribing MP's to vote for them. Has that law been used? You know the answer.

Even if this lokpal bill is passed the govt wont file FIR and prosecute the guilty.

joshvajohn wrote:Exposing is the best way to shame and bring these guys down. It is sad that even the supreme court judges (past) seem to have made money from their jobs though many of us believed that it was the only system that was uncorrupt.

Some people dont have shame like manmohan who says corruption in 2G scam is like charity.

Thousands of crores of public money was looted right in front of his eyes and even thou he had legal power and responsibility to stop it, he did'nt. What do we do with such characters?

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 18 Mar 2011 15:29

Raghavendra
While I agree your concern for corruption in general, I think, you are too focussed on blaming Congress alone. All the politicos in India are corrupted. I do not think there is a special exception to any party. So our aim is to reduce the corruption to many extent not only in the political systems but also in other officialdom. This culture of corruption has grown like virus in our society. Unless this sickness is completed removed the social evils would always exist. A culture of hating corruption as a religious movement from all faith groups and also from other social reforming movements should spread and influence our society.

Corruption becoming threat to India's economic development: Survey
http://www.sify.com/news/corruption-bec ... hchjf.html

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 18 Mar 2011 16:45

joshvajohn wrote:Raghavendra
While I agree your concern for corruption in general, I think, you are too focussed on blaming Congress alone. All the politicos in India are corrupted. I do not think there is a special exception to any party.

No you are wrong, congress party is the source of most of the corruption, Even you agreed about non-congress parties governed states being better at delivering services to the poor and fighting corruption.

joshvajohn wrote:A culture of hating corruption as a religious movement from all faith groups and also from other social reforming movements should spread and influence our society.

All this is good to hear but wont happen, people fighting corruption are burnt alive by congress, see the sonawane case or the murder of RTI activist satish shetty. You are only putting people in danger with this bhashanbaazi.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 19 Mar 2011 00:44

For me the hungry person in India should have a right to access to food. once this bill is passed, we will find many govt officials being punished for any hunger related deaths or utter poverty in any part of India. First we need to do this. Secondly the pds needs to be reformed. This is where the corruption at small and large scale happens. At every level people need to check and fight for their rights and thus expose all corruptive evils even at the cost of their lives at least next generation lives with less corruption.

Also we need to develop strategies for producing enough food or import food gains from outside to meet our requirements.

India Journal: How to Achieve Food Security
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011 ... -security/

If MMS cannot get this bill passed he should be replaced by someoneelse in Congress who would have courage to bring change in our country.

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 19 Mar 2011 10:02

^ Feels like I'm talking to a stone

When current laws are not being used to punish the corrupt, how will the proposed new law solve the problem of rampant corruption in public distribution system?

joshvajohn wrote:If MMS cannot get this bill passed he should be replaced by someoneelse in Congress who would have courage to bring change in our country.

Yes duffer gandhi has enough courage, give him a chance to loot people. His mother has shown her courage by stashing millions in her swiss bank accounts while acting like a martyr shunning power while using her puppet PM to hide her criminal deeds.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 19 Mar 2011 14:47

Food security: Govt finds lavish menus unsavourly
http://www.indiatoday.intoday.in/site/S ... dings.html

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 23 Mar 2011 03:43

India Can't Get the Food Right Wrong
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 29666.html

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 25 Mar 2011 02:31

NAC to push for inclusion of SC/ST in food security law
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/n ... 22457.html

Ministry rejects NAC methodology of identifying priority households
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 568876.ece

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 25 Mar 2011 03:19

^

So the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council comes out with a criteria to offer food security based on caste/tribe. Awesome. Combine this with converted Dalits should get SC/ST recognition we have a wonderful scheme to make India a super power.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 25 Mar 2011 05:03

joshvajohn wrote:All the politicos in India are corrupted..

Take it one step further. The people are corrupted too. They will say any lie for Rs 10. More educated may demand Rs 100 but will also say what you want. Verily Kaliyug.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 25 Mar 2011 06:35

RamaY wrote:^

So the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council comes out with a criteria to offer food security based on caste/tribe. Awesome. Combine this with converted Dalits should get SC/ST recognition we have a wonderful scheme to make India a super power.

RamaY-ji, why dont you read the full text?

The NAC had suggested inclusion of particularly vulnerable tribal groups' (PTGs), the Maha dalit groups, households headed by single women or disabled person or a minor, destitute households which are dependent predominantly on alms for survival, homeless and bonded labourers in the priority group. "After the inclusion of these categories, the highest priority should be given to the inclusion of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the identification of "Priority groups" under the National Food Security Bill

The caste-based identification is a second filter, the first filter is pretty unexceptionable...

But I am actually a bit confused...The Food Security Bill was supposed to be universal, so what is this categorisation into "priority" and "non priority"?

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 26 Mar 2011 21:33

Sonia backs food G8
- Nac proposal to put vulnerable groups on priority list gets a boost
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110325/j ... 763189.jsp

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 28 Mar 2011 13:59

http://www.sify.com/news/jeans-clad-ind ... fhhbj.html

United Nations: There was a sense of disbelief among ministers and ambassadors from diverse nations when the chairperson of the 11th Info-Poverty World Conference held at the United Nations introduced the jeans-clad Chhavi Rajawat as head of a village in India.

For, from a distance one could easily mistake Rajawat, an articulate, computer-savvy woman, for a frontline model or at least a Bollywood actress. But she is sarpanch of Soda village, 60 kilometres from Jaipur, in backward Rajasthan and the changing face of growing dynamic rural India.

30-year-old Rajawat, India's youngest and the only MBA to become a village head -- the position mostly occupied by elders, quit her senior management position with Bharti-Tele Ventures of Airtel Group to serve her beloved villagers as sarpanch.

Rajawat participated in a panel discussion at the two-day meet at the UN on March 24 and 25 on how civil society can implement its actions and spoke on the role of civil society in fighting poverty and promoting development.

It is necessary to re-think through various strategies of action that includes new technologies like e-services in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in an era where resources have become limited, she told the delegates of the international conference.

"If India continues to make progress at the same pace as it has for the past 65 years since independence, it just won't be good enough. We'll be failing people who dream about having water, electricity, toilets, schools and jobs. I am convinced we can do it differently and do it faster.

"In the past year alone, I and the villagers in Soda have brought about a radical change in the village purely through our own efforts. We have had no outside support - no NGO help, no public, nor private sector help," she said.

On achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Rajawat said she sought full support from outside agencies and the corporate world. "I thank United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) which had deputed its senior adviser in India Mr Babu Lal Jain to visit Soda and extend all support in the opening of the first bank in the village. That made all the difference."

"In three years I will transform my village. I don't want money. I want people and organisations to adopt projects in my village as often projects fail owing to lack of a local connect and that is what I am here to provide by bridging that gap.

"I want the conference to help bring about faster change so that this generation can enjoy that kind of life that I - and you in this audience - take for granted," she said to thunderous cheers from the delegates.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 31 Mar 2011 14:15

Problems of abundance
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editori ... 585504.ece

Plan panel member makes a case for universalization of PDS
http://www.livemint.com/2011/03/2320515 ... l?atype=tp

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 05 Apr 2011 15:13

Securing food for an emerging India
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ind ... 596896.ece

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 12 Apr 2011 02:57

FoodMin mulls direct ethanol manufacture
http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... re/431381/

EGoM to finalise food security bill on April 25
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 932320.cms

Food Security Act - Virgin Deal Territory
by Irfan Khan | April 08,2011 - 03:08 PM
http://www.dealcurry.com/2011048-Food-S ... ritory.htm

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 12 Apr 2011 23:38

India food security bill remains shelved
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Ind ... 5-3-1.html

India to pass new bill in battle against mass hunger
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174482.html

India's battle against hunger
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-develo ... nst-hunger

Manmohan Singh, Ahulwalia and Sharad Pawar are against this act. They are dragging it and holding a cold war against Sonia and NAC. The present government is having a war against Aam Admi in Bharat.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 18 Apr 2011 01:04

'Food Security Act will help 90% rural population'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 000286.cms

Survey in Delhi shows slum women prefer ration to cash transfers
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 702254.ece

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 19 Apr 2011 04:04

Govt looking at Guest Control Order to avoid ‘ostentatious behaviour'
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ind ... epage=true

Virupaksha · Post by **Virupaksha** » 19 Apr 2011 10:39

joshvajohn wrote:Govt looking at Guest Control Order to avoid ‘ostentatious behaviour'
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ind ... epage=true

one middle finger to the Gandhis on this.

They have no locus standi on how the common man should use his money.

UBanerjee · Post by **UBanerjee** » 19 Apr 2011 14:27

GoI (more like INC really) never grasped the moral of the "teach a man to fish" phrase...

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 20 Apr 2011 04:27

GoM may moot dual system of food subsidy
Sanjeeb Mukherjee / New Delhi April 20, 2011, 0:34 IST
http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... dy/432880/

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 21 Apr 2011 14:33

Why are there starvation deaths, asks Supreme Court
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_wh ... rt_1534258

Court on starvation deaths: ‘there cannot be two Indias'
http://www.thehindu.com/health/policy-a ... 712967.ece

Supreme Court slams Centre, Planning Commission over criteria for BPL population
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supre ... ion-100058

When there's no will, there's no way
http://www.dailypioneer.com/332145/When ... o-way.html

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 23 Apr 2011 22:45

Ethanol from sweet sorghum does not compromise food security
http://test1.icrisat.org/Media/2007/media9.htm

Crushing of Sweet Sorghum Cane
http://www.icar.org.in/node/1318

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 28 Apr 2011 10:52

MSP for Minor Forest Produce (MFP)

http://www.fra.org.in/FRA%2011.04.11%20 ... %20MFP.pdf

http://www.fra.org.in/Forest%20Produce% ... 0cover.pdf

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 04 May 2011 02:36

EGoM defers decision on Food Security Bill
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/EG ... ll/784689/

Last month, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had said the government should allow exports of wheat and rice as the country had huge stocks of grain and global prices were favourable. But officials said the EGoM has decided to wait one month, until the end of the current wheat procurement season, before taking a call on exports.

EGoM undecided on food safety bill, import of wheat; to consult PM, Sonia
http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews. ... ectionid=1