EDITORIAL
Helping
thyself
Probably, healing
and self-help do not go together. Or, why else
should a Government that is all out to heal the
State feel helpless and cry for succor? But, the
best of healing is helping yourself. That is
called self sufficiency, the term that was much
in vogue in the country a couple of decades ago.
Then everybody was for
self-sufficiency---self-sufficiency in food,
healthcare, technology and the like. Of course,
none realized that the self-sufficiency that was
sought and achieved in almost all the fields was
ephemeral to say the least. Sustained with heavy
subsidies, what looked as self-sufficiency was
actually a free lunch being paid for by somebody
else. That is what this State is paying back
today in 'repayments' which, the Finance Minister
tells, take away three-fourths of the plan all
allocations. For its part the GOI also spends
half of its income repaying similar loans.
Because, everything that somebody 'gives away' is
paid for by somebody, who has to be repaid!
That is the
imperative of self sufficiency. The Governments
today have to get efficient or else to get out of
giving. For GOI Arun Shouri is doing the
job----privatizing and taking the Government out
of the supply business. That is also why NGOs are
being encouraged so that they take up some of the
welfare burden. On one hand the funding here is
much less. And then they, at least in theory, are
to find their own funds. That is also why
privatization of the main 'Government
enterprises' like power, transport etc. is taking
place. The Government wants---needs---to get out
of what have proven to be 'wasteful expenses'.
The encouragement of the private sector,
especially the markets are in conformity with
this thinking. That is self-sufficiency in true
sense, not the ephemeral one supported with
foreign or national loans. And, all the
Governments today have to become practical,
calculating and efficient. They have to be
self-sufficient. The nation is today trying to
introduce and encourage this economy. For the
free lunches are over, for all.
That is why
Chandrababu Naidu is taking those foreign trips
and why all countries, including China are
looking for FDIs. Over the past several years
Naidu has garnered more than 14,000 Crores in
foreign direct investment for his State and has a
commitment of over a million Crores. That makes
the State self-sufficient and viable. That makes
a State help itself and not to look to others to
save it, as the food minister recently cried out.
The trick here is simple. Cut your costs and lure
investments. But for the terrorism, this State is
ideally suited for investments of all kinds, from
all sources. From tourism to hydro-electricity to
horticulture and animal husbandry the State has a
potential that has lain essentially untapped. The
greatest hurdle here is the emotional barrier.
Then there is the waste and neglect. A private
member pointed out, in the State assembly, the
other day that the State is loosing nearly 10,000
of its 40,000 megawatt electricity capacity due
to Indus Waters Treaty. But, what of the 30,000
MW? Has that been utilized? Hardly, if at all.
The story in other sectors is little different.
And so, we are locked upon the begging bowl. But
the times have changed. Whatever assistance comes
will have to come in the production sector, not
the give-and-grant variety. Thus the major chunk
of the Prime Minister's allocation of 6,000
Crores would go to laying of railways. The State
has to adjust itself to this new mode. It,
advisedly, must.
All
in the game!
Gone are the mad
fans, of two weeks ago, who wanted to beat and
bury the cricketers. They are still mad, but now
they mad with love and veneration, mad with
admiration, mad with adulation. Two weeks ago
they took out mock funerals, today they want to
take off to South Africa to watch India play in
the semis and possibly in the finals. Indeed, so
high are the stocks of the cricketers gone that
everybody is betting upon the finals as if there
are to be no semis! And, among the people
readying for South Africa are the Lok Sabha
Speaker, hosts of MPs and possibly the Prime
Minister, too! The game is again at the zenith
and the whole India is in the game, unasked one
may say. In the eighty-three World Cup, as
India's hopes soared the then sports minister
decided to visit London, but did not get the
preferential ticket. Because, he had not thought
of it before; had not even envisaged Kapil's team
reaching there! Kapil got the Cup and the
minister, in vengeance, got the next cup hosted
by India. But that is vengeance not cricket, nor
any other sport.
The person who got
the 'cup' did little to bolster the game, or any
other game. It is the same story today. From
Manchester to Busan on to the South Africa, the
sports-administrators have been getting
enthusiastic about the tallies but forget the
thing the moment hype has died down. They may
stay late nights to welcome the 'medalists'
returning home as they did on Manchester, or may
actually go the grounds to watch the win, as they
are planning now, but they would not get real in
laying a wide base for the games or sports. A
stadium here or a pitch there is not encouraging
the game. In a country where the real talent
still lives in lanes, by lanes and the widespread
villages the net for sports has to be cast wide.
Arrangements are to be made for encouraging all
games, to provide the facilities, to spot the
talent without those trying 'recommendations' and
to groom it preferably at the national expense.
Boys and girls, who have it, must be caught early
and given all the facilities and support. A State
that spends thousands of Crores on subsidies can
easily spend a few Crores on a sports academy per
district, and free-ships for the talented
players. Then the country can come up on the
sports scene in its deserved colors, as a nation
of a billion souls must be there. We, in fact,
should be getting out of small mercies, and
fit-starts as, say, in cricket ?
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In-between
two evils
By J N
Raina
War on
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq is inevitable.
The defiant dictator has just few days at
his disposal to prove gullible. Feigning
guileless, the United States has made it
abundantly clear that it will even bypass
the Security Council and ignore global
anger against war-mongering of George W
Bush, to disarm Saddam, held culpable of
amassing weapons of mass destruction.
War could
have been justifiable had it remained
confined to crack down on AI Qaida an
offshoot of Pan Islamic terrorism and its
ring leader Osama bin Laden. No one would
have raised a finger had third war been
launched to crush terrorism in every
form. The U S could wage war on Iraq if
the ‘bully’ has sufficient
proof that Bhagdad supports international
terrorism. May be, AI Qaeda’s
biggest ammunition dump lies in Iraq or
that country is the supplier of chemical
and other obnoxious weapons to Osama the
fugitive.
But,
intriguingly enough, George Bush, who
attained the shape of a wounded lion in
the wake of his country’s national
disaster on 9\11, is imbued with
imperialistic designs. Imperialism now
seems to be the official national policy
of the US as never before. For Britain,
there is nothing new to adopt this
policy. Rather it has the past expertise
in plundering weak nations after making
them to surrender by divide-and- rule
policy. Bush and Britain’s Tony
Blair work in unison to dominate the
earth at any cost.
In real
terms, war against Islamic
terrorism— with its epicenter in
Pakistan-which had gained momentum
following the liquidation of
Talibans— has been hijacked by none
else than the Bush-Blair duo. Osama had
vanished in the thin air of Afghanistan.
Having resurfaced, he has vowed to commit
martyrdom "in one final act of
terror" aimed at the heart of
America.
Bush, in
his recent publication: "The
National Security of the United
States"— containing his policy
statement— has proclaimed a policy
of military supremacy over the entire
earth". He has also announced a
policy of "pre-emption",
envisaging the pre-emptive use of
military force against any country he
finds not to his liking. This is exactly
where Iraq fits in his scheme of
thinking. Others will roll on next; one
by one, depending on the circumstances.
This is why Pakistan has started
trembling, although it is a front-ranking
State, along with the US, fighting
terrorism; that is what the world is even
to believe.
Tony Blair
and his European Union compatriots had in
a similar vein brought out a policy
document last year (encouraged by the
fall of Kabul) favouring the comeback of
colonialism. Such a posturing by major
powers has started downgrading the United
Nations. It has also diluted the
international efforts to ferret out
rampant Islamic terrorism. The main issue
of terrorism has been forsaken.
Blair
would have committed no sin, had he waged
‘jihad’ on radical Islamists at
home, who want to establish Islamic
Republic in Britain. Blair’s action
would have been justified had he
concentrated his efforts on routing the
radicals, led by Christian-turned-Muslim
cleric, Shaikh Abdullah El-Faisal, linked
to AI Qaida. Has he not exhorted his
followers to kill Hindus, Jews and
westerners? He had been preaching this
kind of sermon during the past four years
in U K. Where was the British Government
then? Protecting its vote bank? It seems
so, as it is happening in India too.
It is now
that the White House has taken seriously
El-Faisal’s hate-filled ranks. The
British Government has given free room
for such utterances of El-Faisal, who has
been inciting young people in Britain and
abroad to wage "jihad’ against
infidels. He has also given his
‘blessings’ for dropping
nuclear bombs on
"non-believers’
countries".
Tow L
Clark, a psychotherapist from California,
has in an open letter to George Bush said
that his ‘vaunted war on terrorism
has become nothing less than a carte
blanche for the US to inflict its
aggressive economic and military agenda
on the rest of the world— with the
coming war against Iraq as the first step
in the plan to achieve global
hegemony."
Finsbury
Park mosque, one of London’s largest
was recently raided because it had become
a nerve centre for Islamic terrorists,
linked to Al Qaida. The historic mosque
was founded and funded by Indian Muslims.
The
massive mosque has now become the
stronghold of the fiery Egyptian preacher
Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masiri, who has
preached to Zacharias Moussawi, the 20th
Hijacker of the 9/11 planes, shoe bomber
Richard Reid and other Islamic
extremists.
Lakhs of
'jihadis' are being churned out every
year from a mushroom number of madrassas
in India and abroad, especially in
Pakistan. Interestingly, the source of
'jihadi' literature is Saudi Arabia, the
country which maintains warm relationship
with the US. But it is solely responsible
for sowing seeds of religious hatred.
Organisations
like Al Qaida are born because of the
official inaction either in India or
abroad. This has happened in the Kashmir
valley where hundreds of madrassas have
been in existence for the past 30 years
or more.
Before the
onset of war against Iraq, the US has
started dollar diplomacy, wooing various
countries to garner support for its
mission Iraq. India is also being lured
to side with the US. With all said and
done, India has to make a final choice of
choosing between the two evils.
(The
writer is a Mumbai based journalist).
Syndicate
Features
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Admen's
Hydra-headed women
By Sweta
Patwardhan
There are
only two kinds of visuals that always get
noticed: A calendar with a religious idol
on it, and a billboard with a life-side
woman cutout. This does not say much for
the Indian imagination, and though
religion has almost stayed clear of
advertising, the woman has been and
continues to be a powerful motif. She has
lent herself to suiting, detergents,
liquor, washing machines and public
issues, at time relevantly and at times
has done little more than prettify an ad.
But she has been there. Used or abused
but never ignored.
Every
trend has included her and advertising
has in fact creatively chronicled her
dynamism. Today a woman has shown that
she can be anything from a housewife to
an entrepreneur and even Miss Universe at
18. And advertising is reflecting this
changing image. The woman today has
broken every myth and both the consumer
and the advertising fraternity value her
as a human being and not just as a model.
So you have the real woman in reel life;
a Lalitaji type, the irritating,
aggressive know-it-all shopper with whom
many can identify. Even in classic
product categories, where she is in the
role of a daughter-in-law, the depiction
is sensitive to the woman’s changing
status and to her emergence as a thinking
person.
No
advertising agency worth its salt can use
a woman anymore out of context. Using her
just as a seductive symbol exposes a lack
of idea and client perspective. There was
a time when no ceiling fan or water
cooler was sold without the picture of a
woman, but today there is a shift and
many creative heads want to use the woman
motif only if there is an idea to back.
It is
easier to communicate grace though a
woman no doubt, but if the ad concept
does not demand her to be there it will
be nothing more than adhering to a safe
formula. Many advertisers do not want to
risk redefining the woman motif. They
feel secure in being literal and
clichéd. So we have a woman draped over
a car, clinging on to a man’s arm in
a suiting ad or alluring a man in a
liquor commercial. Her presence in a
suitings ad can be attributed to the fact
that she along with the vintage car is a
symbol of man’s aspirations. And she
is provocatively shown in a calendar
designed for a liquor brand because here
the target audience, the dealers, demand
it.
Advertising
portrays the woman in a myriad ways. If
she is changing so are her depictions.
From a unidimensional, single-faceted
motif, the woman has evolved into a 3-D
symbol. Her meaningful presence in
advertisements mirrors her progression in
the family and society. She is a powerful
influence at home. Take a maternity
situation. While she is delivering the
child the man stands chewing his nails.
The woman
is imperative to a home. Because it is a
woman’s world. She is being
perceived as important to many products
and situations not just for her cosmetic
appeal but for her involvement and
contribution. Her domain is expanding.
She makes most of the buying decisions at
home.
Earlier,
for example, buying a fridge was a joint
family decision, even though the woman
used it the most. But today she has a
greater voice. Save a few product
categories like cars and newspapers, most
others are addressing a woman.
A
woman’s involvement with her home
and children is as intense today when she
has stepped out, as when her world was
restricted within the four walls. A woman
is fiercely protective about her domain.
Men do not have a primary role in the
household. An advertising agency made the
mistake of showing a couple discuss the
problems of upbringing in a milkfood
drink ad. The idea was to show equal
involvement of both parents. But the
feedback proved their assumption to be
wrong. There was resentment from the
woman as to why was the man included in
what was essentially their area of
decision-making.
While
advertising has kept a track of a
woman’s journey forward, has tried
to be alive to her advanced role, her
mass appeal and intrinsic beauty, there
has been little or no attempt to develop
the male motif. The man continues to be
single-dimensional and almost always
clichéd. The macho man thinks on his
feet. He is there as a prop and gets
noticed only if he is made to play the
comedian. All this while the woman needed
to assert herself—men never had to;
they were a non-issue. It is only when
they were pushed in a corner that they
indulged in some sort of introspection to
adjust to the new assertive woman. The
Raymonds campaign, with its depiction of
a man away from the macho mould, for the
first time has tried develop a male
motif.
A
man’s role in most product
categories is that of an on-looker, or of
one who does not know. The detergent ads,
for example, consciously keep the male
out of the main theme in order to assert
a woman’s competency and the idea
that all husbands are a bunch of fools
when it comes to matters of housekeeping.
A man’s involvement in the house is
much less. Even if he does go shopping
for groceries, he either does so with a
list from his wife or picks up whatever
is convenient without exercising any
brand preference. He has inspired little
invention among admen.
The two
ads that at present depict the man as a
sensitive and emotional being are Nivea
cream and Raymonds, but many say these
are attempts only to break the clutter
and need not be indicative of a future
trend. For motifs are chosen and reworked
largely with the intention of standing
out among the crowd.
Still the
best way of catching the eye is by using
the woman motif. A goodlooking man is
easily forgotten, while a beautiful woman
endures. Let’s face it, most people,
men or women, rather see a woman in an
ad. A woman’s beauty has been
celebrated over centuries and advertising
is just following a precedent set in the
past. The relevant use of the woman motif
notwithstanding, in a product category
where she can be alternated with a man,
the toss up is always in her favour, for
aesthetically there is no comparison.
The woman
continues to be important to advertising.
If earlier it was only because of her
sensuous appeal, today many dimensions
have been added to her persona. It is
more completely woman’s world.
But all
said and done, admen have created a myth,
in the process the fair sex is being used
unjustifiably in product promotions where
she need not be there. Greeks coined a
mythical character of a woman with four
legs, but tragically they forgot that
they created a hydra-headed demon out of
woman. Life with it, my friends! INAV
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Interlinking
rivers for optimal water use
By Dr
Navin Chandra Joshi
The Task
Force on interlinking of major rivers of
the country, headed by Suresh Prabhu, has
assured that people’s opinion will
not be ignored while chalking out a
strategy to link the rivers. A life-time
project of the nation, linking of major
rivers is likely to take off by the end
of the current year. According to Prabhu,
some links in parts of the country would
be taken up by December this year (2003).
The total
cost of the project would be of the order
of about Rs 560,000 crore and is planned
to complete the linking by the year 2016
as directed by the Supreme Court. The
details of the project would be known
only after the preparation of actual
project reports of various links.
The
results would be phenomenal as it would
create huge employment opportunities in
rural areas. The link would bring
thousands of waste and fallow land under
irrigation which would improve livelihood
of rural people. The annual food
production would increase by at least 450
million tonnes every year. The link would
also help produce 35,000 MW of hydel
power, besides creating national
waterways in the country.
Regarding
funding of the project, the Government
has not yet finalised any financial model
though it has appointed KV Kamath of
ICICI as the resource person for the
project. State would not be burdened as
many international funding organisations,
NRIs and NGOs and private individuals are
likely to come forward to finance the
project.
The
country accounts for two per cent of the
world’s geographical area and four
per cent of its fresh water which
supports 17 per cent of the world’s
population and 15 per cent of its
livestocks. Improvement of water use
efficiently, both in irrigation and
drinking water sectors, would have to be
a part of short and medium-term strategy.
Demand management through mass awareness,
recycling of water and optimal crop
pattern are as important as supply
augmentation in a country like India with
limited fresh water resources. The
consequences of climatic changes should
also be taken into account while
formulating strategies, as the frequency
of droughts, cyclones and floods has gone
up over the years.
As for the
consent of various States, experts say if
a legislation under the Entry 56 of List
I of the Constitution is made, the need
for consent would not arise and the
Centre would be in a position to
undertake and complete the project. Entry
56 says, "Regulation and development
of Inter-State rivers and river Valleys
to the extent to which such regulation
and development under the control of the
Union is declared by Parliament by law to
be expedient in the public
interest."
The
revised draft of the National Water
Policy, 2002 of the Union Government
gives enough thrust on development and
management of water resources, effective
settlement of disputes and time-bound
implementation of projects. In keeping
with modern day requirements, the revised
draft for the first time, calls for
integration of quantity, quality and
environmental aspects of water resources
management and proper resettlement and
rehabilitation of persons displaced by
projects.
Infact,
national management of water resources
appears to be the key word in the draft
policy. The Centre is yet to get
endorsement of the states of this revised
policy, while the ticklish issue of water
allocation among the states has been kept
out so that the policy is not bogged down
by controversies.
States
have now to formulate their own State
Water Policy, backed by an operational
Action Plan within two years. The State
policy will have to take into account
community participation and evolve its
own detailed resettlement and
rehabilitation policies for people
displaced by dams. The Union Ministry of
Water Resources will prepare an Action
Plan to support the States in the
implementation of the policy. With the
passage of the Inter-State Water Disputes
(Amendment) Act by Parliament, it will
now be possible to settle the inter-state
water disputes in a time-bound manner as
the tribunals have to give their final
decision within a maximum of six years.
Blessed
with large river systems, both rainfed
and seasonal, the annual water
precipitation of India is estimated to be
4,000 cubic km, including snowfall.
However, the average annual natural flow
available works out to be about 1,800
cubic km. Out of this, only 1,140 cubic
km can be put to beneficial use by
conventional methods of development due
to topographical, hydrological and other
constraints. Presently, utilisation of
water is 552 cubic km -- 362 cubic km of
surface water and 190 cubic km of ground
water.
Demand for
water for diverse purposes such as
domestic, municipal, agricultural,
navigational and power generation has
been constantly increasing over the years
-- a natural outcome of the nation’s
economic growth process.
The total
demand has been projected to grow from
750 cubic km at present to 1050 cubic km
by 2025. The demand by the industrial
sector is to go up from four per cent in
2002 to 11.5 per cent in 2025. The share
of irrigation demand is projected to
decline from 84 per cent in 2002 to 73
per cent in 2025.
Thus, a
doubling of the demand for water in the
next 22 years or so is going to add
tremendous pressure on the water supply
systems in the country. Moreover, the
accelerated increase in the demand for
industrial water use is going to pose
innumerable problems as water use in the
industrial sector unlike in the domestic
and irrigation fronts, has serious
implications in terms of quality and
pollution.
A national
perspective for water resources
development was prepared by the
Government sometime back to optimally
utilise the available water resources by
storage and inter-basin transfer of water
from surplus to deficient areas. It has
two components, the Himalayan Rivers
Development component and the Peninsular
Rivers Development component.
The
former, apart from linking the main
Brahamputra with the Ganga, envisaged
construction of storage reservoirs on the
Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their
tributaries in India and Nepal along with
inter-linking canal systems to transfer
surplus flows of eastern tributaries of
the Ganga to the West. In the case of
peninsular rivers, the proposal was to
transfer surplus water of Mahanadi and
Godavari to the States within these
basins.
A National
Water Development Agency was registered
under the Societies Act in 1982 to take
up surveys investigation and studies for
the above purposes. Its primary
assessment showed that about 224 cubic km
of additional water can be put to use
with this programme after meeting the
water requirements of the surplus basins.
However, it is necessary for the State
Governments with surplus water basins to
agree to such transfer of water in the
national interest. With implementation of
the proposals for inter-basin transfer,
it would be possible to cover additional
350 lakh hectares under irrigation
facilities over and above 1,130 lakh
hectares which can be covered through
conventional means.
Water
Users’ Associations and local bodies
in various states can usefully be
involved in the operation, maintenance
and management of water
infrastructure/facilities at appropriate
levels progressively for transferring
eventually the management of such
facilities to them. The rationale behind
private sector participation in the water
sector is that it may lead to
introduction of innovative ideas,
generation of financial resources and
adoption of corporate management in
improving service efficiency and
accountability to users. The private
sector can be involved in planning,
development and management of the water
resources projects as well.
The
undisputed fact is that water is
increasingly becoming a scarce resource
in the country. With limited stock and
ever-increasing demand for this
invaluable natural resource, surely the
era of sweet, free water is gone, and
that of polluted, priced water is in.
However, people and policy-makers are yet
to visualise the full impact of this
impending threat which is a writing on
the wall. Indeed, the possibility of a
‘water shock’ (similar to the
oil shock) continues to loom large when
water no longer can be treated as a
relatively free good.
Dr MS
Swaminathan has noted that in a
democracy, unless water becomes
everybody’s business, it will remain
a source of conflict. In his view, given
the necessary political will and
consensus, the linking of the rivers of
Peninsular India and the equitable and
efficient use of this gigantic water grid
will help to create a ‘win-win’
situation for all the states involved. If
there are winners and losers, there will
be only conflict and confrontation, as is
happening now.
In sum,
looking at the impact on environment,
desertification, deforestation,
increasing salinity and lowering ground
water levels, one can see that the water
scenario in the country is likely to be
grim in future. One major reason for the
impending crisis is the economics (rather
than lack of it) of water consumption. In
1990, the Vaidyanathan Committee had
recommended a phased full-cost pricing of
water even for the purpose of irrigation
(and immediate full-cost pricing for
other sectors) which is considered a
sacred cow, given the socio-political
scenario in the country. This and other
recommendations have, unfortunately,
remained only on paper. The consequence
is that the water use, particularly for
irrigation, continues to be almost free
everywhere in the country. This, coupled
with the availability of free electricity
in some states for irrigation purposes is
leading to enormous wastage of both the
scarce resources.
Given this
free good syndrome, it will not be
surprising if the growing water shortage
will result in ‘water wars’.
Cauvery is just not an isolated instance
of a local shortage scenario and the
consequent discomfort of a localised
populace. It could very well be a
chronicle of water war to be repeated
elsewhere.The country may soon have
similar wars on the Mahanadis, the
Ganges, the Narmadas and so on. The
policy prescription generally is found in
prescribing quotas which again is not a
satisfactory way.
The need
of the hour is a scientific management
policy of water resources with a rational
pricing policy as it fulcrum. We have not
yet given any thought to the issue as to
how a capital poor country like India
could afford to spend billions of rupees
without any return on the same? In the
process, even this huge investment is
suffering due to under-utilisation and
lack of maintenance. Therefore, the
proposed interlinking of major rivers
will have to reckon with all these
aspects if the programme is to take care
of optimal utilisation of our resources.
PTI
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