15-Dec-2018: Do away with farm loan waivers: Raghuram Rajan
Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan stressed on the need to do away with farm loan waivers citing “enormous” problems for state finances and investment.
Rajan said inequality in India is showing in agricultural distress, which has been highlighted by farmers and political parties, who are responding with a variety of measures such as loan waivers. The question is whether the flows to farmers are best affected by waiving loans. After all, there is only a subset of farmers who get those loans. So it often goes to the best connected rather than those who are most poorly off.
Rajan said he has written to the Election Commission that such issues be taken off the table. The report suggests increased investment in research into new seeds, latest farming and irrigation techniques and fixed cash subsidy per cultivated acre by digitising, identifying plots. For landless labourers, the best short term policy option is to strengthen National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
According to a 2017 report by the RBI, farm loan waiver amounting to Rs 88,000 crore likely to be
released in 2017-18 by seven states, including Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, may push inflation on permanent basis by 0.2%.
Agriculture currently contributes just about 15% to the national output and about 50% of the population directly or indirectly depends on it for employment.
Farmer distress is a real and pressing problem, as evidenced by the protests currently taking place in various parts of the country. In the recent past, widespread demands have been heard for farm loan waivers amid continuing agrarian distress.
Drawbacks of loan waivers:
- Firstly, it covers only a tiny fraction of farmers. The loan waiver as a concept excludes most of the farm households in dire need of relief and includes some who do not deserve such relief on economic grounds.
- Second, it provides only a partial relief to the indebted farmers as about half of the institutional
- borrowing of a cultivator is for non-farm purposes.
- Third, in many cases, one household has multiple loans either from different sources or in the name of different family members, which entitles it to multiple loan waiving.
- Fourth, loan waiving excludes agricultural labourers who are even weaker than cultivators in bearing the consequences of economic distress.
- Fifth, it severely erodes the credit culture, with dire long-run consequences to the banking business.
- Sixth, the scheme is prone to serious exclusion and inclusion errors, as evidenced by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) findings in the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008.
- Lastly, schemes have serious implications for other developmental expenditure, having a much larger multiplier effect on the economy.
What needs to be done?
- Proper identification: For providing immediate relief to the needy farmers, a more inclusive alternative approach is to identify the vulnerable farmers based on certain criteria and give an equal amount as financial relief to the vulnerable and distressed families.
- Enhance non- farm income: The sustainable solution to indebtedness and agrarian distress is to raise income from agricultural activities and enhance access to non-farm sources of income. The low scale of farms necessitates that some cultivators move from agriculture to non-farm jobs.
- Improved technology, expansion of irrigation coverage, and crop diversification towards high-value crops are appropriate measures for raising productivity and farmers’ income. All these require more public funding and support.
28-Dec-2018: Capacity Building Programme for Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayati Raj Institutions
The Government of India has initiated the Capacity Building Programme for Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayati Raj Institutions with an objective of empowering them by developing leadership capacities so that they serve as catalysts for social change and function as peer facilitators in the field, become vocal for their rights and participate effectively in the governance processes.
State Governments have been actively involved in imparting these trainings. Mainly, State Institute of Rural Developments (SIRDs) and State Resource Centres (SRCs) are actively collaborating with Ministry of Women and Child Development in conducting training programmes across the States. Convergence with various Departments at the district level is being sought while organizing the training programme. This involves collaborating with institutions of the Departments of Panchayati Raj, Agriculture, Women & Child Development, Rural Development, etc. In Phase-I of the programme (2017-18), a total 18,578 EWRs in 14 States were trained. In Phase-II, 18 States have been included for capacity building programmes for EWRs.
Details of States/UTs, No. of Districts, No. of Elected Women Representatives to be trained in Phase-II
|
Sl. No. |
States/UTs |
No. of Districts |
No. of EWRs to be trained |
|
1 |
Uttar Pradesh |
75 |
3375 |
|
2 |
Karnataka |
30 |
1350 |
|
3 |
Gujarat |
33 |
1485 |
|
4 |
Chhattisgarh |
27 |
1215 |
|
5 |
Himachal Pradesh |
12 |
540 |
|
6 |
Punjab |
22 |
990 |
|
7 |
Goa |
2 |
90 |
|
8 |
Sikkim |
4 |
180 |
|
9 |
Lakshadweep |
1 |
45 |
|
10 |
Assam |
33 |
1485 |
|
11 |
Manipur |
16 |
720 |
|
12 |
Tripura |
8 |
360 |
|
13 |
Daman & Diu |
2 |
90 |
|
14 |
Andaman &Nicobar |
3 |
135 |
|
15 |
Nagaland |
11 |
495 |
|
16 |
Maharashtra |
3 |
180 |
|
17 |
Madhya Pradesh |
51 |
2295 |
|
18 |
Rajasthan |
1 |
45 |
|
Total |
334 |
15030 |
The Capacity Building Programme undertaken by Ministry of Women and Child Development is a significant endeavour in creating a forum for EWRs to understand their roles and responsibilities in a more prolific manner. Although it is the first step towards harnessing the full potential of EWRs, but this is envisioned as a continuous process in order to instill confidence, courage, conviction, motivation and above all providing hand-holding support to EWRs for mainstreaming them in the governance process.
27-Nov-2017: Government launches programme to train Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayats
The Minister of Women and Child Development launched an intensive training program for Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayati Raj Institutions and Master Trainers. This capacity building program is being organized by National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) of the WCD Ministry which will ultimately train approximately twenty thousand EWRs covering nearly 50 EWRs from each district by March, 2018.
Addressing the participants at the inauguration of the program, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that this is an historic step since for the first time ever an initiative of this scale has been taken up to train EWRs who will go out and administer the villages professionally. It is regrettable that not many women sarpanches and EWRs come forward to take up their responsibilities and mostly allow their husbands to take the lead. So, they remain ‘sarpanchanis’ in name only.
Training two lakh women sarpanches across the country will help bring following important changes; it will help to create model villages and prepare women as political leaders of the future.
The training program will include simple engineering skills will give them an insight into women’s issues as well as focus on education and financial matters. Awards will be given to the Master Trainers to those who have succeeded in empowering EWRs of their areas. The Minister also appreciated the initiatives taken by some states to specify certain minimum education level for sarpanches and panchayat members.
The Capacity building of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) is critical to empower women to participate effectively in the governance processes. This will help them assume the leadership roles expected of them and guide their villages towards a more prosperous future.
25-Sep-2018: wo-day National Orientation workshop on National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) concludes
Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Vijay Goel presided over the Valedictory Session of the two-day National Orientation workshop on National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA), organized by Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. This was the first workshop amongst a series of workshops planned by Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for effective roll-out of NeVA.
NeVA, an initiative by Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, aims to make all the Legislatures of the country paperless by making the proceedings of the Houses digital. It is an attempt to provide the information about the functioning of House to the common citizen at the click of a button. The iOS and Google app of NeVA along with the NeVA Website, will act as a repository of data related to the business of all Legislatures in the country in a uniform manner.
The NeVA aims to live up-to its potential of being ‘One Nation, One Application’. This uniformity of database will lead to easy and effective engagement of citizens with the Government, which will lead to efficient delivery of services and ensure reliability, efficiency, transparency and accountability of all the stakeholders. NeVA will bring Legislatures closer to citizens, thereby taking a decisive step in achievement of substantive democracy.
Once the programme is operational, details of 5,379 Members from the 40 Legislatures will be uploaded on the portal. A total of 1,13,337 questions, 25,662 notices, 1,708 Bills, 515 committee reports and 10,043 papers from the Legislatures will become available in public domain on NeVA app and website.
Addressing the gathering of over 200 delegates from 29 States and Union Territories, representing 36 legislatures across country including Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Shri Vijay Goel congratulated the team of Union Ministry of Parliamentary affairs for spearheading the NeVA initiative as well as the Assembly of Himachal Pradesh for taking the lead in adopting digitalization. The Minister said that cooperation from States is of utmost importance in making this step a success. He assured full cooperation from the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to the State Legislatures in this direction.
Shri Goel emphasized on the need for reforms in functioning of Legislatures, including Parliament, with changing times for increasing the productivity of the Houses and efficiency of the respective members. He stressed upon the importance of imbibing suggestions from Members of Parliament and State Legislatures and make this digital initiative more lively and user friendly.
Shri Goel praised the benefits of digitalization and making Legislatures paperless, yet he firmly expressed his desire that there has to be a balance between technology, consumption of information digitally and the traditional form of functioning of Legislatures. He laid stress on the importance of intellectual debates and interpersonal relations among Members of the Houses. Adoption of technology is inevitable, yet, it should not overpower the human element in the Legislatures in the country, Shri Goel added.
Addressing the gathering, CEO, NITI AAYOG, Shri Amitabh Kant noted that with the world becoming increasingly complex with overload of information, the NeVA initiative promises to ensure ease of access of important information about functioning of Legislatures in a simplified format to everyone. He encouraged the delegates from States to adopt this revolutionary tool with open arms in respective State legislatures and ensure that information regarding functioning of Houses reaches the fingertips to all citizens.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, Shri S.N. Tripathi informed that there are over 4000 applications already running in the Parliament and State Legislatures on different subjects. He said that huge volume of information is being managed by these applications, which makes accessing the relevant information instantly very difficult. NeVA is an effort to integrate this information on one platform and giving anytime anywhere access to everyone at a click of a button, he informed.
Over the course of two days, a series of lectures/interactive sessions were delivered by dignitaries and experts on important features of NeVA. Technical sessions were also conducted, including a live, hands-on demonstration of the application. Session by experts from NIC explained the cloud first and mobile first architecture of NeVA application. An experience sharing session with Himachal Pradesh Assembly was also conducted where the team responsible for the implementation of the project discussed the challenges as well as the benefits of implementing the project. Through group discussions an attempt was made to answer all the queries of the participants. A consensus emerged for speedy implementation of NeVA. During the valedictory session, Shri Goel felicitated Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka for their outstanding work in early adoption of the project.
20-Apr-2018: e-Vidhan mission mode project to make functioning of State Legislatures in India paperless
Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Vijay Goel inaugurated the new office of Central Project Monitoring Unit for the e-Vidhan project of the Government at the Parliament House Annexe. This was done as a part of Swachhata Pakhwada being observed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs from 16th to 30th April, 2018.
e-Vidhan is a mission mode project to digitize and make the functioning of State Legislatures in India paperless. It is a part of the broader Digital India Programme of the Government and is likely to contribute to the cleanliness & environment by reducing the use of papers to a great extent.
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the Nodal Ministry for the project. It is taking all the necessary steps for rolling out the Project in all the States at an early date. One of the key component of the strategy devised for implementation of the project is to create Project Monitoring Units both at Central as well as State levels.