Governance Today Magazine September 2014 by Governance Today

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` 100

October 2014, Vol.01, Issue 01

+ Reforming Healthcare A Challenge for PM

Stirrings in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Asian Relations

Smart Class a Far Cry for Schools in Villages

VERNANCE TODAY

Editor-in-Chief | Ajit Sinha Managing Editor | Ajay Kumar Consulting Editor | Anand Mishra Senior Copy Editor | Ramesh K Raja Reporting Team | Ekta Srivastava | Rahul Trivedi | Abu Zafar Art Director | Vivek Ojha Photo Library | Stuti Bhushan Web Architect | Farhan Khan Vol. 1, No. 1; Total No of pages 64 Editorial, subscriptions and advertisements: Odyssey Infomedia Pvt. Ltd. D-77, Lower Ground Floor, Sec-63, Noida U.P. 201301, Phone: +91-120-4234008, Email: edit@governancetoday.co.in Printed at Vinayak Print Media A-29, Sec-8, Noida, U.P.-201301, India and Published at 713, 3BA, River Heights, Rajnagar Extention, Ghaziabad, U.P.-201017.

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STIRRING IN INDIA’S ASIAN RELATIONS The Modi government has moved fast on engaging key Asian powers. Whereas Modi’s visit to Japan was heavy on strategic content, Xi Jinping’s visit to India was marred by border standoffs. In the rapidly changing Asian power game, India needs to play its cards carefully in order to defend its interests.

TIEING UP NEIGHBORHOOD

After the general elections, when the new government was being sworn in, heads of all SAARC countries were invited and most of them attended the ceremony. This move by the new government was taken very positively and gave a very strong signal in the world, especially in the neighbouring countries. Since then India has been very active as far as its foreign policy is concerned.

CONSERVE INDIA

Muck, especially plastics and polythene are strange objects. Strewn all over our urban landscape, in our neighborhood, fields, water bodies such as lakes and rivers, oceans and even in the stomachs of birds and cattle, they invariably evoke an irritation to our senses, but we are all part of the problem too as we don’t take initiatives to limit our usage of plastic.

RELATIONS 21

SMART CLASS, A FAR CRY FOR SCHOOLS IN VILLAGES

INDIAN REAL ESTATE IS UNDER TRANSFORMATION

REFORMING HEALTHCARE: A CHALLENGE FOR PM

UNIFIED AGENDA FOR FINANCIAL INCLUSION

BUILDER’S- BUYER’S BENEFIT

INTERVIEW: INDIAN REAL ESTATE IS UNDER TRANSFORMATION

CFP’S, LETS’ TAKE THE LEAD

SMART CLASS, A FAR CRY FOR SCHOOLS IN VILLAGES

INTERVIEW: NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME

Gujarat, under Narendra Modi’s chief ministership, saw significant improvement in the healthcare sector and, now, it’s the time for the whole country to see the vision of the PM as a game changer in providing healthcare to all.

TIEING UP NEIGHBOURHOOD

REFORMING HEALTHCARE: A CHALLENGE FOR PM

STIRRINGS IN INDIA’S ASIAN

WILL THE NEW PANEL END CORRUPTION IN JUDICIARY INNOCENCE AT THE GUNPOINT INDIANS OFFER AID TO FIGHT EBOLA IN LIBERIA

CONSERVE INDIA

CHALLENGE: ICE BUCKET VERSUS RICE BUCKET

RIDE OF THE LIFE

MADHUBANI PAINTING

From Editor’s Desk

WELCOME TO GOVERNANCE TODAY! But - a fair question - why yet another magazine? How will Governance Today be different? It is worthwhile to recall the Preamble to the Indian Constitution in its original form:

“

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute ‘adinistration versus management’, one India into a SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC that allows a more comprehensive and REPUBLIC, and to secure to all its citizens: integrated approach to the policy and practice. JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expres- This New Public Governance may sion, belief, faith and worship; well be the ‘Governance Today’! EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all; Whether in mythology or history, there is FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of always conflict between the two natures. the individual and the unity of the Nation: Unrighteous acts face off sattva-inspired virtuous people and create discord in Unfortunately, where we stand today is society. Puranas like the Ramayana and far from these lines of promises. There is a the Mahabharata depict in detail these mismatch that clearly exists today in the conflicts. The conflicts end invariably and perceptions of the people and the government rightly with the victory of divinity over the which is reflected in their credibility gap. unrighteous. It happens because, when chaos resulting from unrighteous actions What we see at the shadow of the Past are: reaches a critical point, a mechanism the dominance of the ‘rule of law’; a central emerges from within the system, which restores role for the bureaucracy in policy making and order. In science it is termed as self-organised implementation; the ‘politics-admin- criticality. Governance Today organises its istration’ split; the hegemony of the attention around this science of self-organised professional in the service delivery system; criticality while dealing with the conflicts and at times a commitment to incremental and chaos of government and governance. budgeting. We have even reached a stage We represent a country which makes today when people take with a pinch of salt annual addition of 15 million plus to its whatever the Government says or claims. population. Rising population throws up new Given such criticisms of many paradigms, challenges and problems of its own for the therefore, it is time to question whether country. But it is wisely said that “People are there is a pressing need now for a more an asset”. Yes, they are. But it is when we holistic theory of Governance – one that see them with the quality of the asset, and moves beyond the sterile dichotomy of

the characteristic and traits they have. Unfortunately, public aid and assistance, let’s treat them as a source of it seems as a bigger challenge to us that such ever-in- ideas, innovations, and institutional arrangements with creasing numbers can be fully utilised, can be properly which formal public and private institutions can engage. educated and trained, and can be really turned into an asset. Ideas are plenty; discussions are many; the Let’s make it possible through acquisition of launching issue of Governance Today has covered such better skills, better networking and greater varied ideas, discussions and topical issues, although opportunity for performance and professionalism. we are just born. Be it judiciary system making the Let’s give people Voice & Participation; let’s bring in rounds about judging the judges, or smart education Strategic vision- for people to have a broad and systems; financial inclusion trying to prepare an unified long-term perspective on good governance and human agenda with right incentives and adequate institutional development, and an understanding of the historical, structure or financial planning awareness; real estate cultural and social complexities of that perspective. Let’s transformation or joy ride to conquer Himalayas; make them Responsive, Accountable, Fair and Equal for looking at the huge opportunity coming in for the pension making the best use of processes and producing results business or looking into the healthcare policies; this issue that meet needs while making the best use of resources. will remain special for us in all times to come, for the wide coverage, connecting the emotional, social, financial, The concept of good governance is bound to and developmental aspects of people and governance. become a reality in the next decade if not earlier. Changing the approach comes vital at this point. The magazine, month on month, will aim to set the Let’s put it in the way the Prime Minister of the agenda in a whole new way, untethered from the country has put forth his vision recently, preferring constraints of old practices and fundamentals. We’ll ‘Delivery than Doles’. More than doles we need delivery. drive a vibrant, real-time conversation enriched by the Delivery and its rewards will be reflected in all country’s best writers and thinkers, authors and experts on the colours of the rainbow, when we pick the right the subjects that animate Governance in India and beyond. issue, at the right time and with right mind set; right issues of focus, be it family-based value We are confident that, with the active system, agriculture and villages, women empowerment, participation of all our well-wishers, Governance protection of resources-water, energy, land, youth, and Today, over the next few years, will provide an the likes or the grass root challenges of the society. effective and valued mechanism for professional information exchange in the field of good governance. One such segment, which Governance Today wants to be intimately associated with in times to come, and has initiated discussions around in this launch pad, is leveraging ‘grassroots enterprise’. A story that discusses around making the life of a rag-picker better is a thread to go a long way for bringing in an institutional revolution in the governance system. At a time when we are talking Ajit Sinha about people as an asset and about the science of selfEditor in chief organised criticality, let us provide an opportunity for governance communities to develop alternative approaches to meet the unmet needs of disadvantaged people who pose a complex challenge for development planners. Can we change the traditional top-down approach of helping disadvantages? Rag pickers and related segments belong to the service community today. Let’s help them build their service industry. Instead of treating them as a sink of

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BEST WISHES Look forward to the debut and success of your publication! It is heartening to note the commencement of your publication and I wish you and the entire team behind this endeavor the very best! I am hopeful and confident that you will succeed in sharing insightful stories on government and governance. I would like your publication to hold a mirror to the state of affairs in governance, disseminate exemplar cases of good governance, integrate islands of excellence in governance and highlight issues that are ripe and whose time has come to be addressed as a polity. Through your publication, I urge State and Central governments to: 1. Strengthen civil and criminal laws to align to current realities and revamp industrial policies to be frictionless 2. Create avenues of employments for masses and bring back focus on fostering a vibrant agriculture and manufacturing sector 3. Demonstrate fiscal discipline, transparency, equity, accountability and other good governance principles through a convergence of structure, systems and strategy Lastly, as per UN MDG Report-2014, India has the dubious distinction of having 1/3rd of worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poorest (~400 mn people); highest mortality of children before their 5th birthday (~1.4 mn per year); one of the highest maternal mortality rates and highest open defecation. For all these people, Achche Din has to come at a rapid pace. Hope your publication will highlight and champion such causes. All the best!

Sudhir Vijayakumar Madhugiri Practice Partner â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wipro Ltd.

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OCTOBER 2014

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Dr PM Nair Chair Professor, ISS (Retired IPS)

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May consider every issue of Governance Today, coming DG of NDRF, up with an article, (well researched and well balanced and objective) on a topic of crucial and national importance. For example, the issue of anti- human trafficking which I have been crusading for 36 years, needs to be brought up for discussion on the role of each one of us, as each one of us have a role. May consider such issues every time: Corruption and Good governance, Can Naxalism be fought without bullets? I chose these topics where I have worked so hard in CBI and later in CRPF and I know the answer is positive and my life shows that we could do so much and if the programmes continue, things will be remarkably different in a short time.

India is challenged by its disparity of healthcare services across urban and rural sector, still undergoing poor overall health indices. Technology, as an enabler, could be a critical factor in improving governance and delivery of Indrajit Bhattacharya healthcare services. Governance Today can be an ideal platform to showcase Consultant the best practices of technology implementations in India and abroad, imbiHealthcare IT bing healthcare providers and practitioners and alleviating health outcomes. My heartiest congratulations and best wishes for the publication!

Ramashish Roy Delivery Head â&#x20AC;&#x201C; eGovernance & onsulting, 3i Infotech Ltd.

Neelima Singh, Associate Professor

OCTOBER 2014

Recently, Prime Minister had announced the Digital India followed by Jan Dhan Yojana, which are mega initiatives in Indian e-governance. While Digital India is expected to reduce the digital divide drastically, it cannot be possible without awareness. It is possible, if the magazines like Governance Today come forward and take up such roles for the digital development of the country. For better governance and successful project implementation, it is important to have both, the success stories and the criticisms are communicated to stakeholders, be it from government, industry or society. I hope GovernanceToday will bring in such value additions for successful e-governance initiatives in the era of Digital India. I wish them all the good wishes for the initiative undertaken to enrich the society with both tangible andintangible value additions.

Wishing the entire team a great success! The concept is the need of the hour. With confidence, I say it is in safe and able hands.

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Deepinder Singh, Senior Consultant at National eGovernance Division

I leave for office in the morning; am there all day, and then I start driving back at around 6:30PM. To and fro is more or less a long-drawn, slow, energy-sapping affair. There’s hardly any social life or enrichment, and it seems daily life is boring history repeating itself, day in and day out. In the office, of course, one seeks all the thrill and contentment of a professional career, but that’s about it. Where is the time to think about or participate in general governance? The only part of government which ultimately matters is that concerned with daily lives. Where one sees accidents, negligence, brutalize or snuff out lives of our fellow citizens. These uncaring brutes – are these who our young sons gave up lives for on the border at LoC Kargil and in other battles? For a family which loses a dear one, the concept of a nation dies then and there. There is no CTRL+Z in real life, and day in day out, we, as a society and form of government, keep alienating citizen after citizen. It’s time for governance to clean up this mess and bring back a sense of true belonging. My wishes to the team at Governance Today. Step up! Take centrestage!

Pratap K. Mohanty, Former official, Ministry of HRD Bcause.in

Rohit Pande Classteacher Learning Systems

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An amazing institution that’s delving into governance issues. These are in abundances almost reflecting on policy paralysis and programme failures. Post mortem on these issues and giving a detailed reflection are responsibilities of every democratic institution, including Odyssey Infomedia. Congratulations!

The young demography of India is crying for good education. In spite of rampant privatization, we have not been able to meet the demands of the population. While some of the rights-based universalisation schemes and food have brought more children into schools, precious little progress has been made on what happens inside the four walls of the classroom. The need of the hour is to invigorate the teaching-learning process and feed the constant measurement of outcomes back into the process. The policymakers, curriculum designers, academic thinkers, classroom practitioners and state and non-state actors need to put their heads together to solve this one. Unlike many other aspects of our economy, this one cannot be left to the private sector alone. The private sector can have a creative role in developing working models, doing pilots, infusing technology and innovation as also in scaling specific interventions. But the larger framework, the centres of excellence as also the majority of the scaling fall in the ambit of the government. We hope through your columns to trigger a number of debates to be able to move forward and fulfill our promise of good education to our children.

OCTOBER 2014

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‘Governance Today’ has no history to look back. But looking at the nomenclature, the magazine is engaged in a broad range of special-interest publishing, relevant to ‘Today’, ultimately, making it a comprehensive and effective resource.

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Governance Watch

Noida takes No. 1 spot with 152 online services Even as the central government departments, under Narendra Modi regime, are gearing up to go online, the NCR town of Noida has taken a giant leap in offering a record number of online services to its citizens. The town, surpassing big cities such as Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore, offers 152 services. The entire business process re-engineering and implementation of these services were done in less than six months, which in itself is a kind of milestone for Noida. Satish Kumar, managing director of Suparna Systems, a software company engaged in the operation, said, As an orga nisation, we always wanted to be Apple of e-Governance. He said the entire vision was to make the electronic service delivery as good as New York and Chicago.

Andhra the first state to hold e-Cabinet meeting Setting a new trend in the power corridors of the country, Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to hold a paperless Cabinet meeting. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu happens to be the brain behind the idea, as ahead of the meeting on September 15 the progressive and tech-savvy CM had asked all his cabinet colleagues not to bring any papers or files but just come with an iPad. Many important decisions were taken and the performance of the government during the first hundred days was reviewed, at the first such e-Cabinet meeting that went on for four hours. The agenda of the Cabinet as well as the decisions taken will now be accessible to the ministers on their desktops, laptops and iPads. E-Cabinet is a self-managed file sharing system through a cloud tool, specially designed and built for the purpose and the ministers can access it through their passwords. The system can be accessible to 30 people only. The meeting evoked keen interest from the Central Government, as the Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office (PMO) has sought details from the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Nalanda University reopens Eight hundred years after it was razed to the ground by invading armies, Nalanda University threw open its doors to its first batch of students on September 1. The university began its first academic session with 15 students, including five women, and 10 faculty members. It had attracted over 1,000 applications from around the world. The selection process of more students is still underway. Those selected ones will be housed in Hotel Tathagat, owned by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) in Rajgir. The classes will be held in the nearby convention hall of the state government. The fully-residential university, to be completed by 2020, will eventually have seven schools, all for post-graduate and doctoral students, offering courses in science, philosophy and spirituality and social sciences. The largest university of the ancient world, NU was a renowned centre of learning which provided understanding of Buddhist teachings, astronomy, architecture, the arts, metallurgy, etc.

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OCTOBER 2014

Governance Watch

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University Ranking – Indian Universities still far behind In the list of global university ranking released by The Quacquarelli Symonds (SQ) World University Rankings, Indian universities are still not able to make it to top 200. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been placed at the number one position for the third consecutive time. Imperial and Cambridge have come as second equal, while Harvard dropped from second to fourth overall. A total of 31 countries are represented in the top 200 in which the US is the dominant nation, with 51 institutions, ahead of the UK (29), Germany (13), the Netherlands (11), Canada (10), Japan (10) and Australia (8). The top-placed Indian institution, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is ranked 222nd in the world, followed by IIT-Delhi at 235th, IIT-Kanpur at 300th, IIT-Madras at 322nd and IIT-Kharagpur at 324th position. However, the number of Indian institutions in the rankings has grown to 12 from 11.

NE Capitals to be linked with rail After reviewing the progress of 34 ongoing railway projects which include 11 national projects of the North-East Frontier Railway, Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda recently announced that all the north-eastern State capitals will be connected to the rail network within the next five years. At present, only the capitals of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are connected to the rail network. The total anticipated cost of the projects was Rs. 5,35,22 crore, of which Rs. 1,99,05 crore had been spent as on March 31, 2014. The projects included laying new lines, gauge conversion and track doubling. Gowda said he had already announced a budgetary grant of Rs 5,742 crore for the current financial year, which was 54 per cent more than the previous year’s allocation. All chief ministers of the region were extending full cooperation in executing the projects, and providing the required security for train services as well.

‘Give Way for Ambulance’ Drive Launched Mumbai Police recently launched a campaign to raise awareness among people about allowing rapid plying of ambulances through traffic jams so that they proceed to hospital without any difficulties and patients promptly get medical aid. The drive titled ‘Make Way for Ambulance’ saw presence of Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee as the chief guest. Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria described the initiative as one of the most ambitious and prestigious programmes undertaken by cops. He made an appeal to the citizens to be a part of the drive. "Let’s take a pledge that we will clear our way for an ambulance whenever we hear the siren so that the emergency vehicle reaches the hospital faster," he said. Mukherjee echoed his view. Banners, posters and hoardings near hospitals and petrol pumps as well as important traffic junctions would be displayed as part of the campaign to educate how to make way for ambulances.

OCTOBER 2014

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Governance Watch

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is new Afghan President The election commission of Afghanistan has named Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the winner of the country’s presidential poll. The panel, however, did not release final vote figures. The commission’s announcement came hours after Ghani Ahmadzai signed a power sharing agreement with opponent Abdullah Abdullah, who will fill the newly-created position of government chief executive. The decision underscores the fear of potential violence despite the deal. Ahmadzai and Abdullah Abdullah earlier signed the national unity government deal as President Hamid Karzai — in power since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban — looked on. The deal creates the new role of chief executive for Abdullah following weeks of negotiations on a power-sharing arrangement after accusations of fraud in the June run-off vote.

Scholarship for poor students in professional courses Delhi government has announced scholarship and reimbursement of half of the tuition fee for socially and economically backward students in non-technical professional courses in universities of Delhi for the current academic year. The Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust of Directorate of Higher Education has asked the eligible socially and economically backward students studying in different varsities of the capital to apply for the scholarship under the "Yuva Nirman Scheme". In 2009-10, an amount of Rs 3,36,750 was disbursed to 15 students, in 2010-11, Rs 1,72,250 to 8 students, in 2011-12 Rs 2,02,400 to 7 students and in 2012-13 Rs 6,97,450 to 27 students as a part of the scheme. The concerned university or institute have been directed to constitute a committee of at least three officers at their own level to scrutinize the applications and to forward the same with their recommendation to the Director, Directorate of Higher Education along with the requisite attested documents.

Farmers to be realty project partner Uttar Pradesh government has included certain provisions to its Integrated Township Scheme which are expected to benefit both developers and farmers, at a time when issues over land acquisition have stalled several infrastructure projects across India. The real estate companies can now partner farmers to develop projects under this scheme. They can sign mutually beneficial agreements that fix ratios of their partnership in projects, according to the new policy. The proposal had been sent by Ghaziabad Development Authority to the state government as part of suggestions for changes to be made in the Integrated Township Scheme of 2005. Though existing projects that are in advanced stages of development will not immediately benefit from the changes, new projects to be undertaken under the scheme are expected to avoid legal hurdles over land acquisition, if farmers partner realtors. The registration process for obtaining licences to develop projects has been done away with completely. Developers can now directly apply for licences after submitting proof of their financial and technical strengths.

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Lead Story

STIRRINGS IN INDIA’S ASIAN RELATIONS The Modi government has moved fast on engaging key Asian powers. Whereas Modi’s visit to Japan was heavy on strategic content, Xi Jinping’s visit to India was marred by border standoffs. In the rapidly changing Asian power game, India needs to play its cards carefully in order to defend its interests.

Economically, each country is at a unique point of its evolution. India is home to the largest number of poor people in the world, whereas Japan was the first developed Asian country

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Lead Story

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| Anand Mishra

HE MONTH of September

has been quite significant for Indian foreign policy as the new government has reset the equations with key Asian states of Japan and China and with Australia. Needless to say, Japan and China are key elements to Indian interests in Asia, because of historical reasons. Japan has been India’s closest friend in East Asia,

OCTOBER 2014

whereas China has been a complex issue for India’s foreign policy, thanks to hostile border problem and yet, very high and lopsided trade. And since Japan and China are not best of neighbours among themselves, India’s relation with each has an impact on its relation with the other. As such, Modi’s visit to Japan and Xi Jinping’s visit to India present a complex foreign policy landscape which needs careful calibration in Indian overtures to both these

Asian powers..

THE CONTEXT OF VISITS These visits have taken place in an emergent and uneasy East Asian environment. China has territorial disputes with many countries in the region and these disputes are get ting increasing hostile as militaries are coming ever closer to blows. Domestically, each of these countries has got new leadership and is still crystallizing

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Lead Story increase the economic relation with India to such an extent that a strategic angle to the relation could emerge in future. However, its border dispute is a deterrent which throws a spanner in any such effort.

MONEY TALKS

its foreign policy in light of domestic realities. Economically, each country is at a unique point of its evolution. India is home to the largest number of poor people in the world, whereas Japan was the first developed Asian country. China, on the other hand, has taken long strides economically and militarily over last three decades and is itching to regain its lost glory, which explains its new found assertiveness. As for Japan and India, both Abe and Modi have come to power with a mandate to fight the economic morass that these countries were facing. Both countries were finding their prestige dwindling in global affairs. Finally, both countries are locked in bitter territorial tussle with a rising China; India has a festering border dispute with China in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, whereas Senkaku has led to many near skirmishes between Japanese

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China has also expressed interest in India’s rail projects and is expected to bid aggressively for other infrastructure projects such as DelhiMumbai corridor and smart city projects which India is contemplating.

Self Defense Forces and Chinese PLA over last year or so. So, a distressful domestic environment and troublesome neighborhood encourages Abe and Modi to see strategic partnership as logical extension of relationship. China, on the other hand, is interested in keeping India out of Japan’s and US’ influence. It would wants to

It is a well known fact that Indian growth story is withering, to a large part, because of lack of proper infrastructure and that India needs multi-billion dollar investments to sustainably grow at a decent rate. This explains why PM Modi hard sold India as an investment destination during his Japan visit. For all the policy flip flops and lethargy of last half decade, this was a tough task indeed to lure Japanese who are known to be very cautious investors. By promising a special cell in his PMO to look after Japanese investment issues, he tried to underscore that India would lay out a ‘red carpet’ instead of ‘red tape’ for Japanese investment. On its part, Japan promised to double Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) and the number of Japanese companies operating in India over the next five years. It also assured to invest $35 billion investment during this time period. As India prepares to launch rapid transit systems in over a couple dozen cities, long-distance Japanese shinkansen technology would be a front runner to construct those systems. China has also expressed interest in India’s rail projects and is expected to bid aggressively for other infrastructure projects such as Delhi-Mumbai corridor and smart city projects which India is contemplating. Not to be left behind in Indian infrastructure business race, it has committed investment worth $20 billion over next five years. It has also agreed to set up industrial parks in Gujarat and Maharashtra and give more market access to India. Japanese on the other hand, have

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Lead Story

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expressed interest in areas of clean energy, roads and highways and healthcare. Over last few years, as China has allowed protestors to become more vocal and threatening to Japanese business interests in that country, Japan has been looking to diversify its export basket. Considering the fact that exports to India is a tiny 1.2 per cent of total Japanese exports while China accounts for 20 per cent, the potential of Indian market is not lost on Japanese government and this explains the urgency to court India aggressively.

DEFENSE AND TRADE WITH JAPAN

NUCLEAR

Japan under Abe has been inching towards being a normal country, shedding its pacifist shackles which were imposed by the American drafted constitution after World War II. A clear example of this move is the gradual beefing up Japanese Self Defense Forces. In fact, this process of “normalization” which means a more robust military stance has been the cornerstone of Abe’s leadership. Keeping in tune with this stance, Japan has indicated to sell US-2 amphibian aircrafts to India, which could be Japan’s first military export in about half a century. As India is looking to boost its defense after years of moribund stasis, Japan would be naturally seen as a source of advanced defense equipment and technology. The two countries have also decided for Japan to continue participating in the annual USIndia drills off the coast of Malabar, in which Japan has been participating for last three years. As for civil nuclear trade, even though Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had made much effort to push for a deal during PM Modi’s Japan visit, it could not come through during the visit. Considering the sensitivity of Japan on this issue, it would be safe to expect that the progress on this front would be slow. The kind of guarantee that Japan seeks from India on nuclear testing front would be too tough for India to com-

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mit. Further, nuclear equipment manufacturers such as Toshiba and Hitachi are not buying into the tough Indian nuclear liability clauses. Finally, Japanese reluctance to grant India the right to reprocess spent fuel is hard for India to agree upon. As such, a nuclear deal still remains a work in progress

BEYOND BUSINESS While business is the overt interest that makes for good pictures in media, at a deeper level, all of these countries are recalibrating their stance in the great Asian power game which is evolving fast. Over last one decade, as the US, the paramount guarantor of stability in Asia, is seen to be gradually receding despite its “Pivot to Asia” policy and as China is looking increasingly aggressive, there is stirring for geopolitical realignment in the region. The bonhomie between India, Japan and Australia and the explicit US blessing for this closeness indicate how the military equations in the region are slowly shaping up. On the other hand, the successful Silk Route initiative of China with Sri Lanka and Maldives has also generated substantial interest in strategic circles. The increasingly alignment of Indian stance with that of Japan was displayed when Modi opined against the efficacy of “expansionist” designs of the 18th century during his visit to Japan. It was largely seen as a reference to China’s dispute with Japan over the Senkaku Islands. On its part, Japan elevated the relationship to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership, which though falls short of an alliance, but underscores increasing cooperation on strategic and defense issues. The rising China factor has been a big variable in Asian strategic calculus for some time now. The Indo-Japanese defence cooperation is also being seen in this light. With Japan gradually emerging from its pacifist mores and taking greater responsibility of its security, any military cooperation would inevitably

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be seen as a counter to China. The American efforts to engineer newer coalitions in Asia are also seen in the same light. By deciding to continue with Japan’s involvement in annual IndoUS naval exercise, India and Japan have attempted to forge an even closer trilateral collaboration with the US. This confirms to the new trend in American security architecture in Asia wherein trilateral agreements with Asian countries underpin the “hub and spokes” model of security alliance. Further, many experts feel that after the civil nuclear agreement between India and Australia, the decade old QSD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) initiative, a brainchild of Japanese PM Abe and which has been in embryonic stage for long, could gain traction. The strategic angle of Indo-China relations is more delicate. Because of the festering border dispute, India has little trust on China. On the other hand, China sees India inclined towards forging an alliance with Japan and the US to “contain” it. Another disturbing aspect of relationship was seen when during President Jinping’s visit, the standoffs in Ladakh region did not improve indicating that Chinese are willing to allow border problems to continue regardless of its impact on relationship. This can, however, allow relationship to grow only to a level and not beyond. In international relations, there are multiple dimensions of relationships, and often

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Lead Story

Many experts feel that after the civil nuclear agreement between India and Australia, the decade old QSD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) initiative, a brainchild of Japanese PM Abe and which has been in embryonic stage for long, could gain traction.

up unique challenges for each country. As far as India is concerned, it has played its cards well by moving closer to Japan on strategic plane, but making sure that it is not antagonizing China. As for India-China relations, the multiple economic agreements during Xi Jinping’s visit show that the two sides have managed to isolate the border issue for the time being. But the two countries would not have a peaceful relation till the time a credible solution to the border issue is reached. Moving forward, the challenge for Indian government would be to enhance the strategic cooperation with Japan and Australia on one hand and to send China clear signal that increasing trade would not prevent it from defending its territory. On a broader level, the Asian century is unfolding in a complex game of economic and geopolitical nature. India needs to play its cards carefully. |

their dynamics are at odds with each other. India, Japan and China understand the importance of each other in economic sphere, but at strategic level, all of them are not on the same plane as all dyadic relations are not aligned. This conflicting interest paradigm throws

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Lead Story

Go v e r na nc e

T o d ay

TIEING UP NEIGHBORHOOD Abu Zafar |

FTER THE GENERAL elections, when the new government was being sworn in, heads of all SAARC countries were invited and most of them attended the ceremony. This move by the new government was taken very positively and gave a very strong signal in the world, especially in the neighbouring countries. Since then India has been very active as far as its foreign policy is concerned. Modi mantra for the foreign policy started from his oath taking ceremony with a tag line “neighbours first” and since then the three-month-old government tried to reach not only nearer neighbours but far-reaching neighbours as well. In the oath ceremony, heads of all SAARC nations, which include Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, Tshering Tobgay, President of Bhutan, Abdulla Yameen, President of Maldives, Sushil

Koirala, President of Nepal, Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka were present. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was travelling and hence, speaker of Bangladesh Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury attended the ceremony on her behalf. Navin Ramgoolam, President of Mauritius, was also present as Mauritius is an observer in SAARC. In all these months, Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Shushma Swaraj have been very active in foreign trips. Modi himself started his tours with Bhutan and then Nepal, Japan and United States. Swaraj also visited Bangladesh, Nepal, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Tajiskistan in these months. Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee too visited Vietnam for his four-day official trip.

Foreign leaders’ visit to New Delhi. Not only Indian leaders visited foreign countries, but a number of official envoys from different countries visited India too. Within two weeks of government formation Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited New Delhi for bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. Soon after Russian Deputy Chiarman Dmitri Rogozin visited India. During his visit, cooperation in joint defence production was discussed. After that K. Shanmugam, minister for foreign affairs & minister for law of the Republic of Singapore, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague and the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda Sam Kutesa,

OCTOBER 2014

Secretary of State of the United States of America, John Kerry, Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott, Foreign Minister of Germany Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping visited India. President Xi visited India at the time when India has been accusing Chinese troops of incursion in border areas. Xi visited Gujarat first and then he came to Delhi. Addressing a joint press conference on September 19, Prime Minister Modi said, “I attach great importance and priority to our relations with China. We are two ancient civilizations with a long history of engagement. China is our largest neighbour, and India`s neighbourhood occupies a special place in my national development plans and foreign policy. Today, we are the world`s two most populous countries and its two largest emerging economies. We are both undergoing economic transformation on an unprecedented scale and speed.” During President Xi’s visit, both India and China signed 15 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and agreed to open new route through Nathu-La to Kailash Mansarovar. This new route will cut time and travel cost of pilgri mages to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet, autonomous region under People’s Republic of China. Modi thanked Xi, telling there are lots of benefits as this route opens. “On behalf of the people of India, I thank President Xi for opening a new route through NathuLa to Kailash Mansarovar. This will be in addition to the existing route through Uttarakhand. The new route offers many benefits. It makes Kailash Mansarovar accessible by a motorable road, which is especially beneficial to the older pilgrims. It

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T oday

offers a safer alternative in the rainy season, makes the pilgrimage shorter in duration, and will enable a much higher number of pilgrims to go there,” Modi said. Both countries also signed an MoU to strengthen cooperation in railways and decided to set an action plan between them. Both the nations have agreed to cooperate each other in speed-raising of trains, studying feasibility of cooperation in HighSpeed Railways, heavy-haul transportation training of Indian Railway personnel, redevelopment of railway stations and setting up of a Railway University in India. Commerce and Industry of India and China also signed a five-year trade and economic development plan. “We agreed that our economic relations do not do justice to our potential. I expressed concern at the slowdown in trade and the worsening trade imbalance. I sought his partnership in improving market access and investment opportunities for Indian companies in China. President Xi assured me of his commitment to take concrete steps to address our concerns,” Modi said. He announced that China will set up two industrial parks in India and agreed to invest 20 billion US dollars in the next five years. “I am pleased with the agreements on two Chinese industrial parks in India and a commitment to realize about 20 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese investments in the next five years. This opens a new chap-

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Lead Story ter in our economic relations. We have also agreed on specific steps to enhance cooperation in upgrading India`s railways sector. We will begin the process of discussions on civil nuclear energy cooperation that will bolster our broader cooperation on energy security,” Modi explained. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also signed an agree ment with State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of The People’s Republic of China on audiovisual co-production. The neighbours agreed to build a sister relationship between two top business cities of each; Mumbai and Shanghai. Ahmadabad and Guangzhou cities will also build a sister relationship with each other. Other agreements are in the fields of custom matters, space research and drug administration.

India-US relation India-US relation witnessed bitterness when Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was charged and arrested for allegedly giving false statements on a visa application for her housekeeper in US last year. But since then new government formed in New Delhi, US President Barack Obama telephoned Narendra Modi and congratulated him for his victory and invited him to visit Washington. In the month of July, Secretary of State John

F. Kerry visited New Delhi with a delegation to attend the fifth annual India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue. Soon after US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel also visited New Delhi and held a talk with Indian Defense Minister Arun Jaitley and also met Prime Miister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s Japan visit Modi visited Japan and spent five days there from August 30 to September 3. Japanese Prime Minister visited India in January this year and after that it was the first visit of top Indian leader to Tokyo. A delegation of Indian businessmen also accompanied Modi during his visit to Tokyo and several MoUs were signed between both the countries in the fields of investment and technology. The new government was praised for inviting SAARC leaders, including Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in its swearing-in ceremony, but after Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit met Hurriyat leaders in August, a week ahead of secretary-level talks between the two neighbouring countries, which led to suspension of the progressive dialogue. External Ministry Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin termed the development as “Pakistan’s continued efforts to interfere in India’s internal affairs” and said it is unacceptable to India.

OCTOBER 2014

Education Go v e r na nc e

T o d ay

SMART CLASS A FAR CRY FOR SCHOOLS IN VILLAGES Abu Zafar |

When one hears about the introduction of smart classes in the high-price schools, the first thought which arises in the mind: will there be a day when these smart classes will reach the rural areas of the country? Will the teachers who themselves are trained through traditional way of teaching (via black board and chalk) be able to adjust and accept the latest technologydriven education??? Many questions, hypothetical answers, reality far-fetched from the groundâ&#x20AC;Ś OCTOBER 2014

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Education Go v e r n an ce

T oday

EARLY TWO -THREE decades ago, students in rural areas were dependant on wooden slates and bamboo made pen. The sitting arrangements used to be bizarre. Students had to clean the dust of the classroom and then sat on the sackcloth or homemade mats. Teachers depended on the wooden black boards and dusty chalks. If we check now, there is no much difference. Most of the rural schools are having the same status where they used to be 20 years back. Thanks to information technology, most of the Indian villages are equipped with mobile phones but no modern standard elementary education. Call it a dubious distinction of the country that boasts of information technology. Forget the air-conditioned school buses in metropolis, most of the students have to walk on dusty, muddy or broken roads in order to reach their institutions in villages. The story of smart classes and classrooms of rural India are like comparing multi-storey buildings or shopping malls to juggis or slums made up of grass and soil. India, the world’s largest democracy, took around 63 years to ensure education for all up to the age of 14 by passing the Right to Education Bill in 2009. Poverty is a reason which creates hurdle in this “learning and teaching business” in rural India. Government also introduced a scheme called Midday Meal for primary schools across the country, which still falls between fine line of failure and success.

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Though this programme provides a meaningful help to attract poor children to school, there are various issues related to its quality. Incidents of food poisoning is one such issue. Death of 23 students following consumption of midday meal in Saran district of Bihar in July 2013 is an alarming reminder in this regard. There are other serious issues. Several times poor parents don’t afford education of their children and they are forced into child labour, a bitter reality defying the law. Poor children are pushed to factories in urban and semi-urban areas and their childhood are being lost. According to a government report, there is a shortage of about seven lakh primary school teachers in India. As per RTE, the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) should be 1:30 but in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand the ratio is far behind the national average. Most of the government school teachers do not focus on students as they treat their jobs as ‘permanent’ and they have no fear of losing it. Due to several reasons, drop out ratio among rural children is still higher than the urban India. Most of villages have one government-run primary school up to fifth class, but they are lagging behind in basic facilities like clean drinking water, toilet etc. In case, if a school has such facilities, they are mostly no more in use. According to a UNICEF report, out of 200 million enrolled children in India about 80 million leave the school before completing their elementary education.

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Education Go v e r na nc e

T o d ay

There is a shortage of about seven lakh primary school teachers in India. As per RTE, the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) should be 1:30 but in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand the ratio is far behind the national average.

As per report ‘Flash Statistics: Elementary Education in India: Progress towards UEE for the year 2013-14’, there are 11.46 per cent primary schools in India which have only one teacher in entire school. About six per cent primary schools still don’t have drinking water facility and about eight per cent schools have either no toilets or is dysfunctional. About 20 per cent primary schools don’t have toilets for girls. More than 90 per cent primary and about 40 per cent upper primary schools don’t have computer facility and more than 48 per cent schools don’t have electricity connection.

to India’s Marginalized,” documented cases of discrimination against Dalit, tribes and Muslims in four states- Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Delhi. The unwelcoming behaviour from schools’ authorities often leads to drop out. Having all these issues and challenges, can the education system of rural India go the urban way? This is a big question which needs to be answered as it’s directly related to the future of the country. Apart from better government schools in urban areas and metro cities, there are a large number of private schools which have developed as an industry selling elementary education at exorbitant prices. Imposing limited restrictions, the government seems to have given free hand to private schools to adopt various measures and fee. Can’t we pressurise the government to compel these school companies to impart education in remote areas as well for the benefit of village students.

There are also such schools in rural areas which are overpacked and the pupils-teacher ratio is much disturbed. The ratio of students in such schools could be 80-100. One can easily imagine, how can a teacher handle and pay attention to more than 80 students in a class in primary level. It’s definitely a daunting task. The RTE rule says that primary schools must be within walking distance from students’ homes. The law says, “Provide a school within one km for children in classes first to fifth standard, and three km for children in classes sixth to eighth standard.” But still there are villages which don’t have schools and the children have the only option to go to schools of nearby villages, which leads to several problems related to their safety. The girl students usually suffer most. Discrimination among children of different castes and communities is also a problem in village schools. A report prepared by Human Rights Watch, a US based international human rights body, reveals that students from marganilised communities such as Dalit, tribes and minorities persistently face discrimination from school authorities and fellow classmates. A report titled “They Say We’re Dirty’: Denying an Education

OCTOBER 2014

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Health Go v e r n an ce

T oday

REFORMING HEALTHCARE

CHALLENGE FOR PM

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OCTOBER 2014

Health Go v e r na nc e

| Ekta Srivastava

ORE THAN 100 days of power and one of the biggest newsmakers, Narendra Modi as Prime Minister has set lots of hopes to common people. He knows well the language of general masses and the audience to whom he is speaking. For the party, it was a significant victory in three decades, and for the nation, it is a harbinger of good things to come. Now, the time has come when the PM and his Cabinet have started facing the challenges of expectations that were set by the media and his supporters. Considering the mandate the BJP received, it becomes imperative for the new government to deliver on its promises. The expectations are high from the new regime as the saffron poster-boy has taken charge of the country at a very challenging time. With many challenges in the row, a key one this government will be facing is: Healthcare. While World Health Organisation’s 2000 World Health Report ranked India 112 out of 190 countries, the key questions in Modi’s mind would be like: How to provide healthcare to all? What can be done to balance the reach of healthcare to rural and urban masses? What will be the major roadblocks in achieving this? And many more. As far as the healthcare sector is concerned, the condition is really worrisome and here are some concerned areas, where the government has to look up.

T o d ay

Challanges Ahead

With many challenges in the rowa key one this government will be facing is: Healthcare. While World Health Organisation’s 2000 World Health Report ranked India 112 out of 190 countries, the key questions in Modi’s mind would be like: How to provide healthcare to all? What can be done to balance the reach of healthcare to rural and urban masses? What will be the major roadblocks in achieving this?

INDIA

Urban versus Rural Today, the urban health sector has seen an enormous growth in private hospitals giving multi-specialty facilities. It has welltrained medical professionals and proper and easy access to preventive medicines, diagnostics and technology, which are a result of better profitability for investors. In contrast, the situation is entirely different in rural areas. Almost two-thirds of the babies in India’s villages are born without the help of skilled health personnel. Rural population, which comprises almost 70 per cent of the populace, mostly relies on alternative med-

OCTOBER 2014

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Health Go v e r n an ce

T oday

Primary Healthcare and Infrastructure

India though, having enormous growth in private hospitals, lack in providing basic facilities to the areas of HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrhoea. Still, children are born malnourished and mortality rate is high. Unfortunately, even today the population in rural areas has lesser access to sanitation and drinking water. Hygiene is one of the major concerns. For primary healthcare, the Indian government spends only about 30 per cent of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total healthcare budget. As said by the experts, this problem can be addressed by taking care of the infrastructure, standardising diagnostic procedures, building rural clinics, and developing streamlined health IT systems, and themost important-- bringing more skilled professionals into primary set-ups.

icines and government programmes in health clinics, as they have no or limited access to hospitals and clinics. The government may not be able to immediately construct health facilities in rural areas, but they can partner with several private healthcare providers and non-governmental organizations working in the rural areas, in order to bridge some gap in healthcare accessibility between rural and urban areas. Moreover, there are multiple schemes addressing the same problems. The Janani Suraksha Yojna ( JSY), Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram ( JSSK) and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna (IGMSY), all cater to the needs of the same group of beneficiaries. It is important that such multiple schemes are identified and consolidated into one. This would lead to reduced financial burden on the government, and also benefit the intended beneficiaries.

Lack of Health Policies: While there is a huge gap between the urban and rural health sector, out-of-pocket expenditure is around 70 per cent, leaving many to sell their property and lands and bringing others under huge debt.

Indian populace has no proper payment arrangements and the hospital and medication charges go straight through cash flow. Over the last few years this market has emerged as one of the fastest growing business segments in India. Most of the health insurance market cater to the high income, middle and urban population and according to the World Bank and National Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report on Macroeconomics, only five per cent of Indians are covered by health insurance policies. The gap between healthcare expenditure and that covered by health insurance in India is huge, up to USD 57 billion. This is projected to exceed up to USD 200 billion by 2020, which presents a huge opportunity for health insurance to emerge as a viable financing mechanism for growing healthcare sector. However, despite the best efforts by the regulator, the government and industry stakeholders, the health insurance sector is gripped by a couple of challenges; primary among them being high incidents of fraud claims, lack of standard practices across the industry and long turnaround times for claim settlements, hence keeping The gap between healthcare expenditure and that covered by health insurance in India is huge, up to

$57 bn.

This is projected to exceed up to USD

$200 bn. by 2020

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OCTOBER 2014

Health Go v e r na nc e

the policy holder waiting and dissatisfied. Besides, lack of understanding of product features and perceived apprehensions in claim procedures and settlement further demotivate consumers from buying a health cover.

Growing Pharmaceutical Sector The Indian pharma industry has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 15 per cent and has significant growth opportunities. However, for the industry to sustain this robust growth rate till 2020, companies will have to rethink their business strategies. They will have to adopt new business models and think of innovative ideas to service their evolving customers faster and better. Given that corruption and mismanagement is endemic and all pervasive, it is very tough to say that how effectively the government will be able to enforce the new drug programme. Instead of dealing on a case-to-case basis, India needs to have a policy that will bring more and more people under medical cover. Though generic drugs are the answer to better healthcare for many, it needs an efficient procurement, distribution and tracking systems to ensure that drugs reach the people who need them and are not stolen by officials and sold outside.

Conclusion It’s not too long when the country was abuzz with the fascinating tales of India becoming the superpower. Though it’s a reality for urban people who believe growth means development of corporates and infrastructure, the health is on backburner. They argue that the country faces bigger challenges such as economic development, infrastructure, jobs and border disputes. Whilst, a country which cannot ensure basic healthcare, education, housing and food to its citizenry it cannot be called a developed nation. In all the Union cabinet meetings, Modi

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T o d ay

DISTURBED MEDICAL DEVICES ACT The medical devices market is one of the most un-regulated markets in the country. There are no prescribed “gold standards” for manufacturing, no data on Indian studies for “safety standards”, no studies showing efficacy and even indications of use in India, no MRP is ever fixed and even the variations in cost prices is very wide. This scenario is made worse by unscrupulous vendors and manufacturers offering incentives to doctors for use of their products. Therefore, it is in the larger public interest that the Parliament, under the new government, enact a law to bring under its control the safety and performance of all medical devices which will be administered through the regulatory body.

discussed the top priorities of the new government. The top priorities included development of education, health, water, energy and road infrastructure and one can easily browse through the PM’s website which has a section on his achievements in these sectors. Our health sector is beleaguered with multitude of problems. Reducing corruption in the healthcare should be the first priority of the government, because no schemes or reform measures will work un-

til the corruption is stamped out of the system. The Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, needs to take all these into consideration. So, the focus, now, is on the PM and the Health Minister. A medical professional himself, Dr Vardhan shot to fame after undertaking the most popular “pulse polio drive” when he was the health minister in Delhi government.

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Interview

NPS Go v e r n an ce

T oday

...TO BE A BIG BUSINESS IN COMING TIMES

Alankit Assignments Ltd. is a prominent financial service player and is involved in various intermediary and advisory services. The company has recently embarked on pension business through National Pension Scheme and considers this business to be a huge opportunity for the company. Rahul Trivedi, Correspondent, Governance Today spoke to Ankit Agarwal, the Director of the company, to find out Alankitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plans in the pension business. Excerpts:

What are the new areas on which you are working and how would these help Indian investors and corporate?

Could you throw light on the Alankitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pension plan initiative in association with NSDL? What are the services you intend to provide through this initiative?

The new area that we are focusing on is pension which is yet to pick up in the market. There are roughly six million subscribers of the pension scheme today. Once the new scheme comes into the picture, corporates would need to restructure their salary component on the basis of which their employees can save additional amount on the new pension system. Then there is the investor class. Earlier the foreign investors had to come via the promissory note route or through FII to invest in India, but now they can come directly into the market and trade in like a normal investor and invest into specified equity stocks as QFIs (qualified foreign investors) through QDPs (qualified depository participants). We are hopeful that we will get a large number of accounts for QDPs and QFIs.

With the pension plan we get associated with NSDL, we want to have maximum number of corporate accounts so that the employees can get the tax benefits. Apart from that there are companies which already have superannuation system in place. For those companies retirement benefits are not particularly important, but they need tax benefits. So, we are looking at both investors - who want to save and who want to derive pension. This is the only product that has such a long duration of investment of say more than 30 years or 45 years depending on the age of the subscriber. Generally, all your insurance products are based on odds of your death, whereas this product works on odds of your survival. So, we have high hopes from this segment of business.

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OCTOBER 2014

Interview Go v e r na nc e

How do you intend to popularise the NPS among corporates? Among the corporates we are planning to host more of subscriber awareness programs so that they can actually look at the tax benefits of their employees. This is not a particular scheme where all the employees of the corporates have to join, so even if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one employee they can also join in the scheme and avail its benefits. We will be doing subscriber awareness programs in the offices of the corporates wishing to join the scheme. For this, we have tried to partner with the pay-roll management companies. Because these pay-roll management companies manage the pay rolls of a large number of companies. Their suggestions would be of great use to convert the maximum number of accounts into pension fund account. It is also possible that if the subscriber has opened the individual account, they can migrate this account to Alankit and have the tax benefits.

What are the major roadblocks in popularising the NPS in the country? The major roadblock in popularising the NPS is the lack of awareness among the people. If there is proper communication, the scheme can become more popular and the pension fund would pick up well. As of now, there are close to 1500 corporates who have joined the scheme. Through these 1500 corporates, six million employees have already joined the scheme. But, a much larger number needs to be associated with this plan.

What are the main ingredients of a right retirement plan and how does NPS address them? Major ingredients of a right retirement plan are that you should get a regular source of income throughout your life. So, this particular product has been built up with the expectation that an individu-

OCTOBER 2014

T o d ay

away the nominee gets the entire amount.

The NPS addresses this issue as it has been designed with a life expectancy of 70 years. So, with this product, the regular source of income to maintain the household expense can be taken care of. This scheme also gives you leverage of withdrawing 60 per cent of amount at the age of 60 years. When the subscriber passes away the nominee gets the entire amount. al would survive until 70. The current generation would not want to work till 60; they would like to work till 50 or 55. So, ideally a product should be wherein you can contribute till the time you are earning. So, the most important ingredient is the right age to enter. So, if you enter at the right age, interest on investment would give you the remarkable result and would beat any other factor, be it inflation or currency pricing. So, probably a six lakhs rupees invested at the age of 30 years would be Rs 1.80 crores at the time of retirement. This can then be broken into monthly annuities or certain amount can be drawn. So, in the old age you would see the reverse mortgage trend being there. A right ingredient should give you continued source of income until you survive. The NPS addresses this issue as it has been designed with a life expectancy of 70 years. So, with this product, the regular source of income to maintain the household expense can be taken care of. This scheme also gives you leverage of withdrawing 60 per cent of amount at the age of 60 years. When the subscriber passes

There is a common allegation that NPS is too complex and not flexible. What is your comment on this? NPS is not at all complex, it is a very simple scheme with very low cost. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a no brainer scheme as you need not divide yourself into selecting the right mix of equity, corporate debt and government securities. There is a built in life-cycle in the fund as the age changes. Until the age of 35, you get 50 per cent of your investment in equity, 30 per cent in corporate debt and 20 per cent in government securities. With every passing year, two per cent is reduced from equity and one per cent is reduced from corporate debt and three per cent is parked in to the government securities. So, by the time you are 55 years old most of your investment is in the government securities which gives you a good return over a period of time.

Why should one go for NPS instead of pension plans or retirement plans of mutual funds such as UTI or Franklin Templeton? See, NPS is a government-sponsored product. When you talk about other mutual fund or pension products, these are primarily market-linked. NPS is partially linked with market wherein at no point of time more than 50 per cent of your money goes into the equity. It is always better to go with NPS as other retirement plans, it is completely invested in the market. No other plan offers flexible investment plan which changes with age. In them, your investment faces same risk despite the changing age but with NPS, you have the age life-cycle and you can manage the retirement and every other planning perspective.

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Go v e r n an ce

T oday

Financial Policy

UNIFIED AGENDA FOR

FINANCIAL INCLUSION The recently announced Jan Dhan policy of the government of India is a laudable effort in bringing large unbanked population under banking umbrella. But to ensure effective financial inclusion, the government would have to think on ways in which a bucket of financial services is provided instead of a vanilla bank account.

Open Bank Account in one day

1.5, cr

| Anand Mishra

FEW DAYS AGO, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi launched Jan Dhan Yojana, opening a whopping 15 million bank accounts in a single day. The figure is expected to swell to 75 million by Jan 26 of next year. An accident cover of Rs 100,000 has been loaded on each of these accounts. This underscored the importance that the government accords to financial inclusion and to bring unbanked people in banking ambit. The effort is commendable, indeed. A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study showed a few years ago that of the 40 per cent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population which lived on less than $2 a day, less than 10 per cent had access to formal banking. Situation is no different in India. According to a World Bank Findex Survey, conducted in 2012, almost 65 per cent of adult Indian population did not have access to a formal bank account; and less than 10 per cent borrowed from formal lending agencies. The poor section of the population is especially lacking in access to formal banking. No wonder most poor people pre-

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fer to maintain their savings in the form of hard cash and jewelry, assets that generate no return. There is no gainsaying that the huge unbanked population needs to be brought under banking umbrella. But financial inclusion is more than simply affording a bank account to unbanked. Surely, a bank account is the first and foremost step, but it is only one part. There are other financial products and services that need to be provided to large section of populations which are either completely out of banking arena, or have inadequate access to financial services. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defines Financial Inclusion as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of the society in general and vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups in particular, at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by regulated, mainstream institutional players.â&#x20AC;? Two important thoughts emerge from this. First, financial inclusion means access to suitable financial products and services. Second, it envisages the delivery of financial inclusion by

OCTOBER 2014

Financial Policy

mainstream institutional players. It needs to be more innoative than that.

FAILED LEGACY OF PRIORITY SECTOR LENDING

The initial push for financial inclusion in the country was not through pushing the banking network to hinterlands which is the current paradigm. It was for providing sufficient financing to agriculture and small entrepreneurs in form of priority sector lending from commercial banks. These norms were strengthened from time to time. However, decades after this program, most of priority sector loans are below standard grade, deserving but unconnected applicants are going unfunded and banks are frequently failing to disburse required quantum of loans to priority sectors.

OCTOBER 2014

The lack of funding at micro level can be imagined by the very fact that less than 20 million of the over 110 million low income Indian households have access to microcredit. Because of the unavailability, very commonly, villagers borrow from private lenders at exorbitant rates, sometimes at over 100 per cent a year. Surely, the noble push for an ideal financial inclusion endeavor has gone awry. The situation is even starker on other financial products. Estimates show that less than one in twenty low-income households have access to health insurance. A World Bank study a few years ago found that about one in every four patients in India falls below poverty line because of hospitalization and about 40 per cent of hospitalized patients need to sell off some asset to foot the medical bill.

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PLANNING FOR FINANCI AL ACTIVITIES

So, what transpires is that financial inclusion is basically a framework; a structure through which people are able to avail financial services which could improve their lives and business. As such, financial inclusion needs to have both social and commercial dimensions. From social perspective, financial inclusion needs to be geared to protect the person and act as a basic tool for social security by covering death, illnesses and accident. Here, besides cheap life insurance, it is necessary for creating micro insurance products with which person can foot the hospital bills without selling their assets. On commercial front, the sore point of grassroots businesses is the lack of affordable loans or credit. It has been the general experience in developing countries that because

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While successive governments have attempted financial inclusion, their best efforts have borne little fruits because of lack of proper incentives for stakeholders, poor product design and compartmentalized planning.

Financial Policy

of poor quality of credit related products and lack of effective monitoring mechanisms, micro credit has proved loss making business for state institutions. However, community based and private players in microfinance have done well, which proves that the problem lies in the loan giving institutions rather than the borrowers. Second aspect of commercial financial inclusion is the micro insurance. Insurance products are required for crop and equipment protection which are the most fundamental business tools for marginal people. Finally, the money flow between business owners, customers and financial services providers need to be brought on banking platform as much as possible, as cash transactions do not allow either creation of track record for insurance seekers, nor do they allow informed state intervention.

BRINGING ALL STAKEHOLDER ON BOARD

Broadly, micro credit, micro insurance and micro saving form the pillars on which a credible structure for financial inclusion stands. Therefore, any mechanism or model has to incorporate all the three in a seamless manner to make an impact on the ground. What is crucial here is to identify the players and leverage their respective strengths. Besides government, there are micro finance institutions (MFIs), insurers and community groups such as NGOs and self help groups who mostly interact with

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low income people. Each of these has its own strengths which can be tapped into. Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strength lies in providing administrative and legislative support. Further, it can act as a platform to bring together all stakeholders and provide guarantee of returns to private players as poor people cannot provide market linked premiums. This means it would have to chip in with some money also which is not tough considering its push for direct transfer of benefit. Besides, there are already many public sector institutions such as Post Offices which can act as delivery points of basic financial products. As for micro finance institutions, they enjoy reliable and extensive networks besides knowing the creditworthiness of a large number of low income people as they are already offering financial services to them. Insurance companies have products but are constrained in assessing risks associated with the target population. Finally, NGOs and self help groups, because of their credibility at community level, can work as a publicity platform for bringing on targeted population on board.

SEARCHING FOR A READY MADE SOLUTION !

There is no readymade solution or model. A lot depends on the existing institutional framework and their respective stages of development. Different countries have experimented

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Financial Policy with different models to provide different financial products. For instance, MFI institution FINCA of Uganda has partnered with American International Group (AIG) to provide insurance whereas in Tanzania, in a community owned program, the policyholders own and manage the health insurance program. In India, Rabobank promoted Interpolis Re, leveraged the local reach of a local NGO to help low-income households organize into community groups for risk management purposes and then negotiated with insurers to come up with group policies for such low income groups. The good point about this experiment is that because of large number of clients, insurers were able to provide low premium product and yet be profitable. Such experiments need to be promoted by the state at larger level. The state also needs to promote NGOs to provide financial literacy among low income groups to strengthen demand side of the financial inclusion products. As for micro credit, the biggest impediment to providing loan to low income people is the poor credit quality. This is why established players such as banks and NBFCs donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t loan them. To assist these borrowers in creating a loan service track record, the government can encourage banks to offer no frill accounts with small overdraft facilities. Another sound proposal that has done rounds is to create rural credit information bureaus which banks can look at before sanctioning loans. Even postal banks can act as repository of such credit information. Further, the government needs to come up with clear guidelines on writing off loans in case of business or crop fail-

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ures. On the other hand, to encourage banks to extend loans to low income category, foreclosure norms should be made transparent and efficient. Finally, micro saving and micro remittance remain huge hurdles on road to credible financial inclusion. Here, MFIs can be tapped who can act as saving collection points. Numerous non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) have proven that it is very much possible to create network of individuals who can collect money on regular basis from marginal businesses. Banks in under-banked states such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the North-East can use MFIs to do the same and pay a certain fee in return. Certain MFIs are already doing this work; these need to be standardized as a model and scaled up.

INNOVATING MICRO REMITTANCE

The unavailability of formal banking network in rural areas compounds the problem of micro remittances. The government of India has made lots of efforts in this direction. For instance, it has facilitated transfer of money through cell phones between two parties using simple apps which is a remarkable progress, but it still requires a bank or ATM to physically get the money. Since banks need to have a minimum business to sustain a branch, they shun rural and remote branches very often. It is, therefore, important to rope in other players in facilitating micro remittance. Towards this end, Latin American countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience with Agent Banking is worth taking a look. By leveraging mobile communication technology, a large

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number of banks in these countries are using thousands of agents to provide full spectrum banking services to remote customers. The RBIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initiative on appointing banking agents can be boosted for this purpose. While according to RBI, there are about a quarter million banking correspondents including PCO operators and grocery stores, not much difference had been seen on ground. But experiments such as Eko India Financial Services, which offers multiple financial services to remote customers, show that there is a potential in this business. However, even if all institutional networks and incentive structures are put in place, the actual impact could still elude if the demand side is not strengthened. And in this regard, major challenge remains in form of lack of meaningful financial literacy that prevents people from demanding financial products and services. Even today, banking correspondents say that more than four fifth of their accounts are dormant. As such, all stakeholders, especially the NGOs need to spread financial literacy to create effective demand. While successive governments have attempted financial inclusion, their best efforts have borne little fruits because of lack of proper incentives for stakeholders, poor product design and compartmentalized planning. The need is to integrate right incentives and adequate institutional structure with concerted planning that leverages the respective strengths of all stakeholders. The government needs to come up with products which makes formal players such as banks and insurance companies see money at the bottom of pyramid. Simultaneously, it should use the human resource and network of MFIs and NGOs. Only then the remotest person of the land can have access to the right financial products and services when he needs them most.

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Real Estate Go v e r n an ce

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BUILDER’S-BUYER’S BENEFIT We often hear about the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model in different sectors. The realty segment is set to witness somewhat similar situation. However, it’s not exactly PPP but is BBB i.e. Builder’s-Buyer’s Benefit. With a couple of good news and festive season round the corner, developers are quite hopeful to gain the momentum which it lost in past few months. Not only the developers, but the buyers will also reap huge benefits as there are lucrative offers for them by the former

| Rahul Trivedi

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Ahead of the festive season, the RBI eased the lending norms and SEBI approved the establishment of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) Regulation 2014. This move will provide a framework for registration and regulation for setting up and listing of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) in India.

As per a recent study,

Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2013’ by Urban Land Institute and Price Waterhouse Coopers, it shows a dismal picture, pointing out that top cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru have slipped badly as real estate investment destinations

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Real Estate Go v e r na nc e

ITH FEW of the

recent developments which seem to be pro industry, the realty players are quite hopeful that the sector would be on the recovery path after facing a long dark phase. The sector was reeling under the liquidity crunch, low demand and slothful sales. Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India, says, “If we closely monitor the situation of the economy in the country, this year began with a lot of focus on the political scenario due to elections. The already decreasing demand in the last year got stretched with the election season. However, the new government has come out very positive and has been doing quite a lot of things to ease the pressure of potential property buyers by decreasing home loan rates, introducing new DDA scheme and much more. And now with the final festive season of the year round the corner, the demand has started to show signs of moving north.” Kumar Bharat, director, BCC Infrastructures, says, “Pressures of unsold inventory and liquidity constraints are one of biggest reasons behind the slow market, though the sentiment has improved post the elections. We are expecting the festive season will bring the sector back on track.”

LENDING NORMS EASED The easing up of the lending norms would provide a big boost to the real estate developers as well as buyers. It came days after the Union Budget. This also paved the path for increasing the liquidity for banks. It would exempt the longterm bonds from the mandatory regulatory norms such as Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) and Priority Sector lending (PSL). RBI said in its notification that banks can issue long-term bonds with a minimum maturity of seven years to raise resources for lending to long-term projects in infrastructure sub-sectors, and affordable housing. The central bank notified to consider the home loan up to Rs 50 lakh

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(i.e. a property value up to 65 lakh) in metropolitan city and Rs 40 lakh (i.e. a property value up to 50 lakh) in all other locations to be considered as affordable housing. To create liquidity for providing such loans, now banks can issue infrastructure bonds up to 7 years tenure. Such bonds will not be subject to any CRR or SLR requirement. This decision by the RBI will provide ample liquidity to the banks for providing home loans to the newly-defined affordable home segment. Most of the affordable segment customers are also first time home buyers and therefore fund sourcing from home loan becomes very important to them to manage the deficit. RBI’s step will turn the developer’s focus more on the affordable home segment and it will improve the supply of affordable homes. This is expected to create more and better choices for home purchase. RBI would also regularly review the affordable home definition to counter the inflation effect. Vikas Bhagat, director, Airwil Group, says, “As the RBI has eased lending norms, now the process of procuring home loans will become easier, hence there will be a healthy competition among the banks to attract new customers. Moreover, the real estate sector is expected to see entry of a large number of first time buyers, due to easy understanding of the home loan process and quick and easy loan disbursals.” After the RBI’s announcement about several measures in favour of the affordable home segment, the interest rate on home loan for affordable home would shrink close to base lending rate. Already some leading banks are offering a home loan closer to base rate for affordable homes. Prevailing home loan interest rate for affordable home is around 10 to 11per cent but now, there is a chance of rate cut by the banks. The infrastructure bonds, to be issued by banks for funding the affordable homes, will be eligible to get exemption while calculating the priority sector lending. Therefore, sufficient fund will be available to the banks for funding the affordable home segment and it would also start a competition among the banks to attract new customers by rate cuts, discount

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in processing charges and other attractive offers. Arjunpreet Singh Sahni, executive director, Solitaire Group, says, “The process of procuring a home loan has become easier ever since the RBI has eased the lending norms. Now end users are expected to throng the realty market in large numbers.” Sushant Muttreja, CMD, Cosmic Group, says, “The RBI has done away with some of the stringent norms to incentivize banks to lend for affordable housing and infrastructure development. This will allow developers to build more affordable housing units which are in high demand in our country. Presently, most developed regions become out of range for most buyers, this change in policy will greatly benefit the developers and buyers.” Vikas Gupta, JMD, Earth Group, says, “A major impact will be that the process of procuring a home loan will become easier, especially in affordable home segment. The step is to boost real estate activities and also to benefit buyers of affordable homes who are basically end-users. In broader sense, the overall economy is likely to get a move with this step.” It’s a win-win situation for both developers and investors. With bank credit not easy to come and interest rate on credit from other sources being high, developers are able to boost their initial cash flows with pre-launch bookings. Investors, on the other hand, have an advantage that they need to make a low investment of Rs 10-20 lakh.

FESTIVE SEASON-ANOTHER HOPE As the festive season knocks the door, not only developers but also the buyers are looking forward to it. While developers are hopeful that the sales would increase, buyers are looking forward to the lucrative offers. Anil Mithas, CMD, Unnati Fortune Group, says, “Since time immemorial, most Indians tend to link property acquisition with auspicious dates. The time of Navratra is believed to be the most pro-

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After the RBI’s announcement about several measures in favour of the affordable home segment, the interest rate on home loan for affordable home would shrink close to base lending rate.

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Real Estate pitious to invest in property. We generally find that during this time of the year, the atmosphere and mood of the public is positive and outlook is happy. To enhance their experience, we are offering gold coin on booking in all product verticals and special payment plan 40:30:30 in which buyer can pay 40 per cent now, 30 per cent af- offerings may include heavy ter the completion of struc- discounts, even between 8 to ture and the rest on posses- 15 per cent, depending on sitsion in our exclusive project uation of location. Discounts The Aranya located in Sector were not given in the last fes119, Noida.” tive season due to weak marDeepak Kapoor, director, ket sentiments.” Gulshan Homz, says, “It has Bhagat says, “The recent been usually observed that policy decisions by the centhere is a fixed pattern of de- tral government are acting as mand that persists in the real a catalyst for the market senestate sector where timent and there first half of the year is widespread opis usually quiet and timism among the buyers. It is theresees normal demand graph; whereas the fore, we expect real second half of the Festive season estate business to year catches demand of 2014 is pick-up this festive due to long festive approaching. season.” He further season, beginning Most says, “Developers with Independence developers usually wait for this Day and goes on till are already period and curDiwali. During these gearing up for rently the season is months, developers new launches well timed in terms launch new projects and offerings of policy decisions along with various in the market by the central and offers and schemes state governments. to lure the buyers. The market senBuyers on the othtiment is positive currently. As aler hand, have sentiments attached to the auspi- ways, developers have lined cious time period during this up various offers to sweeten time and invest in property. the deal for buyers. It can also Therefore, almost every fes- work like catalyst for some tive season of a year notices buyers to rethink about their very positive market senti- decision. But we are expectments.” ing good response from the Gupta says, “Festive season end-users.” of 2014 is approaching. Most developers are already gear- Demands Yet to Meet ing up for new launches and offerings in the market. The Notwithstanding the cou-

ple of steps to boost the sector, there are still many demands which the realty players have from the government. The most common being the single window clearance system. MK Gupta, chairman, KPDK Buildtech, says, “The current government has started very well and there are a number of things that they are doing for this sector and the society. The best thing that the government can do soon is to provide a regulator so as to curb the mis-happenings and fraud faced by the buyers along with continued monitoring and supervision of the ongoing transactions. Apart from this, a single window clearance system is need of the hour as most projects get adversely affected because of delay in approvals and licenses. AK Tulsaini, CMD, Tulsaini Constructions and Developers, says, “The developers are still looking better norms in the industry with easy norms, single window clearances, training institutions for skill labour and manpower, development of infrastructure and norms.” Kumar Bharat of BCC Infrastructures says, “Developers are waiting for the policies like – establishing a single window clear-

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Real Estate ance system, evolving a rational structure on payment of stamp duties for sale and purchase of land and properties, etc. These activities are time-consuming and sometimes hamper the construction or supply of the units.” Gaba says that as the industry is a huge employment generator, the government must give real estate an industry status and the challenges faced by developers must

The approval to establish the REITs and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will also boost the sector. This move has come at the time when the sector is cash-strapped. Though the REITs will be allowed to invest only in commercial properties, it will surely encourage the sector. The regulator also approved allowing infrastructure investment trusts -- A REITlike structure that would allow developers to monetize their infrastructure assets through a stock exchange listing. Once registered, the REIT will raise funds through an initial offer. Subsequent raising of funds would be through followon offer, rights issue and qualified institutional placement. The minimum subscription size for units of REIT will be Rs 2 lakh. The units offered to the public in initial offer will not be less than 25 per cent of the number of units of the REIT on post-issue basis. Units of REITs will be mandatorily listed on a recognised Stock Exchange. Kushagr Ansal, director, Ansal Housing, says, “It is very imperative to understand that REITs are advantageous for both- the real estate sector as well as investors. It helps

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be seen through the spectrum of growth possibilities. Establishing a single window clearance system, evolving a rational structure on payment of stamp duties for sale and purchase of land and properties are some much-needed initiatives by the new government. With few policy changes and positive moves, the sector is hopeful that it can move on the recovery path which could be

REITS APPROVED in providing a secure, sound and good investment opportunity for the HNI investors in especially commercial properties and also offers an exit route for the developers. It permits the sponsors a much required liquidity by shifting the ownership to the shareholders. It’s good news for the Indian real estate as it will not only promote liquidity but also shrink the debt of the companies that are in the business of lending. Hence, approval of REITs by SEBI will have a very significant impact on the sector.” Dhirender Gaba, CMD, Fairwealth Group, says, “The reduction of the minimum asset size for a REIT should ease entry requirements for a lot of developers with smaller assets who would be interested in obtaining liquidity through the medium of a REIT. There is little doubt that for both small and large real estate investors, REITs presents a great exposure opportu-

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made much better if regulator comes into place and a liberalization of FSI norms is done besides progressive land acquisition policy and incentivized policies to boost affordable and rental housing.

nity in different areas of commercial real estate development and also a diversified portfolio with liquidity, transparency and relatively low leverage.” Gupta feels that the step will bring better and faster funding into Indian real estate. The most encouraging part is that reducing the minimum requirement for commercial real estate asset sizes, permitted to be listed across country REITs from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 500 crore, is likely to generate more income through this new funding channel. The step is supposed to encourage many mid-sized development firms to consider this avenue. “Allowing REITs will be a sign of the maturity of the Indian real estate market. REITs reduce individual speculation in real estate assets and allow more professional investment and management in the sector,” says Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate consultancy. REITs are expected to bring in globally-accepted practices to real estate funding and revive the interest of both global and domestic investors in the sector.

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Go v e r n an ce

T oday

Interview

Indian Real Estate is under

Transformation What is the prevailing situation in realty?

With recent policy changes in money lending norms and real estate investment trusts (REITs), the realty sector is hoping to get back on track after reeling for a long time. Sushant Muttreja, Chairman and Managing Director, Cosmic Group speaks about various issues in an inter| Rahul Trivedi action with Rahul Trivedi, Correspondent,Governance Today EDITED EXCERPTS

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At present, the Indian real estate sector is getting largely influenced by the western culture as we see a lot of stress is on modern and conceptual living. As a result, luxurious projects/ offerings, along with seven-star facilities, concepts of green living, smart city, etc., have come up and started transforming the Indian real estate greatly. As the demand for real estate has increased, people have started investing more and more into it which didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen earlier.

There is a fear of meltdown in real estate like that of gold. How do you subscribe to this view? The Indian real estate is in a phase of transformation which will witness a few hiccups initially. Most of people view this as a falling demand, but this is actually a new beginning. With the demand to move north, even the government has started providing various incentives to help the people have their own homes. Thus, with the customer sentiments becoming positive and the demand increasing along with opportunities, the real estate sector is shining like gold.

sector has been infamous for quite some time due to certain cases of fraud with buyers. With a regulator on board, there will be continuous monitoring and supervision on the transactions and activities of this sector. It is important for this sector to be organized, as it is one of the largest contributors to the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP and employment.

The monetary easing has not been as good as it was expected. Has it any impact on the realty sector? The new government has just settled in and the performance has been quite good till now and this was pretty much anticipated. By easing FDI norms, decreasing home loan rates and introducing few incentives for the sector, the sentiments have drastically improved over the last quarter. With the final festive season of the year around the corner, things will get even better as the demand will start moving upward. As the time progresses, there will be new policies and norms which will be introduced to ease the sector further.which will be introduced to ease the sector further.

Is there the need of a real estate regulator?

How do you ensure that your brand is not diluted by the channel partners?

There is and has always been a need of a regulator in this sector. The

The purpose of having channel partners is to push the sales and it has

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Interview nothing to do with the branding activities. A good channel partner will always have a positive impact on the brand value of the company, as quick and higher sales mean that the company is developing good quality products and the sales partners will never have to manipulate anything, rather become motivated to it. Also, we make sure to have a collective channel partner meeting each week with the management, in order to keep them updated.

Is there any surveillance mechanism to prevent fraud? We have our own legal team working for this cause. Fraud will only occur when there is any wrongdoing from the customer’s end or the company’s end. In either case, our legal team continuously monitors the activities and transactions of both parties and hence, chances of any fraud are eradicated.

Many a people feel that No EMI scheme or 80:20 scheme is trap. What is your take on the issue? Any scheme introduced by a developer is a way to make payment easier for the customers, as affordability has become very difficult nowadays. Speaking of this scheme, No EMI allows the customers to sit peacefully till the offer of possession as only the initial booking payment is done and rest is taken care off by the developer. After the possession is offered, the customer starts paying. Also, there is a bank guar-

OCTOBER 2014

antee attached to these schemes which make them valid.

How should an investor crosscheck the claims made by the builder? Every honest developer begins the construction work after attaining the due approvals, licenses and permissions from the respective authorities. Once these documents are received, the developer maintains a complete record of it. Any investor/buyer who visits the developer can view these documents to verify the claims. Speaking of construction quality and promises, most developers keep a sample unit ready for the quality proof.

What are the new projects in the offing? We have recently launched quite a few projects in NCR. Cosmic Cruise located at Greater Noida, Cosmic Masterpiece at sector 154, Noida expressway and Urban Young at Yamuna expressway are our latest offerings. We already have a few projects under construction. All our projects are unique with respect to amenities, location, connectivity and offerings along with very competitive pricing.

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struction targets for ourselves. Our thoroughly experienced and talented construction team ensures that these targets are met each month. We do keep a time buffer for every construction and use latest quality tools to maintain efficiency and effectiveness.

How do you maintain the quality of construction? For the record, our project “Cosmic Corporate Park” has been certified as India’s first absolute Green building with LEED gold certification. In most of our projects, we have installed solar panels in order to better utilize electricity. Apart from that we have a specialized drainage system in most of our projects in order to promote rain water harvesting. One of the most important aspects of a green building is the design and architecture. We keep in mind the ventilation across the flats, proper air sealing, window sealing, etc. All these things help in making a project of supreme quality and sustainable. Apart from these measures, we hire professional staff for construction purposes and there is a separate quality check team to ensure the quality of work.

What efforts you make to complete projects in time? Presently, all our projects are running as per the schedule. In order to maintain the process smooth, we set monthly con-

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Advisory Go v e r n an ce

T oday

CFPs, You have done your CFP certification. Fantastic! You have also started your practice? Even better! If you are working in the financial planning/advisory area after the certification, that’s fine. I have a question for all of you. You are all stakeholders in the financial planning industry. Each one of us are working in our own way and are contributing to the financial planning movement that is slowly gaining momentum. We will all do well if financial planning awareness increases in the country, more people want to seek professional advice and financial planning profession joins the mainstream, isn’t it? It is then strange to see the amazing reluctance of those in our FP community to participate wholeheartedly and evangelize the merits of the profession and communicate the benefits to the public at large. What are we waiting for? Do we want someone else to do this job for us?

Let’s Stop The Blamegame

It is easy to blame but tough to galvanise into action. So, most take the easy route - blame FPSB India for not creating awareness of CFP certification and the profession, blame the media for talking to only a few planners, blame the public for their lack of foresight in not approaching hotshot financial planners ( like all of us! ) before investing, the lack of financial awareness among the investing public and their aversion to pay fees. Who will be one of the biggest beneficiaries when the profession takes off? The Regulators, Media, FPSBI ? The regulators may get bragging rights for laying the foundations and engendering a financial planning industry. Media might take credit for spread of financial planning. FPSBI could thump it’s chest for bringing CFP certification, the golden standard for the FP profession into India and there-

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There is a fair presence of Financial Planners in the media, the blogosphere has been ceded to others. Hence, you have sundry people, most of them not CFPs and non-practitioners, talking on Financial Planning, how to choose a financial planner etc.

by kick-starting the profession itself. The biggest beneficiaries in all this however would be the Clients and the Financial Planners. If we are one of the

| Suresh Sadagopan

biggest beneficiaries when the FP profession starts taking off, should we not catalyse and facilitate that change. Do we not need to take necessary action to make this happen?

A Nonstarter Attitude At an intuitive level, we even understand that we need to work towards making financial planning & advisory desirable and sought after. But, is it not the job of others? Why me? What will I get if I do something that is good for the profession? Will I get some clients for my effort? We will know only when we do put in the efforts. It is true that if one conducts a workshop today, the participants may not approach immediately for advice. They may approach later or they may even approach some other advisor, in future. But, this kind of a market seeding operation is sorely required now for es-

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Interview Go v e r na nc e

tablishing the profession. Also, at least some of them would become clients. A more expansive attitude would work well for everyone. A polish proverb comes to mind If you chop your own firewood, it will warm you twice!

RECLAIM THE HIGH GROUND It is a pity that financial planning space is not fully dominated by financial planners. While there is a fair presence of Financial Planners in the media, the blogosphere has been ceded to others. Hence, you have sundry people, most of them not CFPs and nonpractitioners, talking on Financial Planning, how to choose a financial planner etc. Is it not an irony that someone else is writing about us and our industry? To rub salt in the wound, these guys have shown CFP Certificants in poor light, question our knowledge on even elementary things (like what is Fiduciary and difference between fee-based and feeonly model) and try to claim moral high ground with clients. What they are doing is building a second business in our area, while holding day jobs. While we do not have a problem with that, we cannot be mute spectators while someone else is chipping away at the edifice we are trying to build. What is even more sad is that some CFP Certificants themselves have allied with them for perceived immediate gains. Not everyone is playing such black roles though. Jagoinvestor is an exception, which is doing wonderful work with the public and is at the forefront of spreading financial literacy and engaging with others in a dignified way. We need to identify and work

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with those who further our cause. There are others as well. What needs to be done is to fully reclaim the financial planning landscape and clear it of squatters and pretenders. For that, the real planners need to start communicating, be it with their blogs, seminars, articles, social media engagements, newsletters, columns in publications etc

CONCLUSION We need to establish the profession. Like honeybees, let us build the honeycomb and build our colony. There would be honey for all. Honeybees had long realized that one honey bee cannot survive alone. They need to work in unison. Like them, we need to work in amity. We need to work together to expand the reach of financial planning to the public. Only then, we will get to enjoy the benefits. We are reaching critical mass now. We need to steer in the right direction and establish a trunk line with our clients. Reclaim the territory that truly belongs to us. Let us put down the flagpoles and let our banners flutter, establishing our suzerainty over this territory. Rest is easy. We have work to do. We have wood to chop - it will warm us twice! “The writer is the President of The Financial Planners’ Guild, India”

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THE ANGEL’S SHARE Coca Cola famously had said that they don’t compete with Pepsi in India - as the consumption of colas themselves is so low. They said they compete with other mainstream contenders like Nimbu-pani & tea! It is that daring attitude that is missing with us. We are so concerned that someone else will benefit that we don’t want to do anything at all! Also, such effort is daunting.Who will start contacting the corporates or various associations? It will take so much time and effort. Why not do it as a group and split what comes out of the efforts? Why can’t 4-5 planners come together and keep doing this for a year, say, instead of carping that there are no clients? Best of all, there are enough people to support such efforts financially, as long as one is genuinely doing financial literacy work. Mutual funds, FP software vendors and platform providers are already offering support to those who are doing such work. You have to let go of something to get something (kuch pane ke liye, kuch khona padta hai ). In wine making (as well as for whiskeys) a certain percentage of the spirit is lost due to evaporation during the ageing process, which is called The Angel’s share. Upto 30 per cent is lost by the time the spirit is ready for bottling. But that is what imparts colour, fragrance and it’s individual personality. Without it, the spirit will be soulless. The industry pays obeisance to mother nature by surrendering The Angel’s share and gets rewarded richly for what is left! Without a second thought, don’t we pluck the fruits from the trees planted by someone else, from the distant past? Why not plant the saplings today for others to benefit? Why are we not ready to do our bit and allow others also to profit from our efforts?

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Third Pillar

T oday

WILL THE NEW PANEL END

CORRUPTION Abu Zafar |

The process to appoint two eminent persons on the panel is not clear and involving the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also make it political which is dangerous for judiciary. Even the term ‘eminent’ is very loose and flexible and there are wider chances of misusing it. There is no definition of ‘eminent’.

HO WILL JUDGE THE JUDGES’ is a phrase commonly used to question “transparency” in appointment of judges in the higher courts and corruption in the Indian judicial system. Though allegations of corruption and misconduct within the judiciary is not new, after the recent revelations of Justice Markandey Katju about a judge in Madras High Court and the then Chief Justice of India the debate whether the judges are gods or devils caught major hype, which led the already-in-the-mood Central Government to pass the longstanding bill clearing the way for a National Judicial Appointment Commission in the country. Politicians, cutting across the party lines, welcomed this move and congratulated Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for the important development. But the

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IN JUDICIARY

most important and valid question arises that is passing this bill or constituting the JAC is a solution to corruption in our judicial system? Since Independence India witnessed two systems of appointing judges. The Collegium system worked since 1993 and before that the government had been playing a significant role to appoint judges in higher courts. The whole debate depends on the fact that which system was more transparent and healthy for a democracy like India.

Logic and counter-logic The logics which were being given against the Collegium system were that it had a lack of transparency and operated in a very opaque and secretive manner. It was also said that in the Collegium system “judges appoint judges”, which is not right and unprofessional. While hearing a PIL against the Collegium system, Chief Justice of India RM Lodha termed it an attempt to defame judiciary. “There is a misleading campaign to defame the judiciary and repeated attempts have been made to spread incorrect information. If there is a campaign to defame the judiciary in the eye of the public, you are doing great damage to a very important organ of the democracy. Don’t shake people’s confidence in the judiciary. For God’s sake, don’t try to defame the judiciary,” said the CJI, presiding over a three-judge bench which was hearing the PIL. Though it is right that the Collegium

system has its own positive and negative aspects and it was not the only ideal system to appoint judges and still had a wider scope of reforms, the new system, which replaces the Collegium, is more dangerous as far as the transparency, accountability and independence of the world’s largest democracy’s judiciary is concerned. The new system, which was created by passing the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, has a mix of the judiciary, the executive and the socalled civil society. Now, the Chief Justice of India, two senior most judges of the Supreme Court, the Law Minister and two eminent persons will appoint judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The two eminent persons will be chosen by the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

What is wrong with the new system? The main question arises about the independence of the judiciary. Ideally in a democracy like India, executive and judiciary should be separate and they were but now, there are lots of scopes of intervention in judiciary from executive. It should also be noted that the government is the largest litigant in high courts and Supreme Court. If the top brass of the government like Prime Minister and Law Minister will involve in appointing a judge then there is a serious question on independence of the judiciary. Besides, the process to appoint two eminent persons on the panel is not clear and involving the Prime Minister and the

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Third Pillar Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also make it political which is dangerous for judiciary. Even the term ‘eminent’ is very loose and flexible and there are wider chances of misusing it. There is no definition of ‘eminent’. Even if it is defined, then also there are chances that these two persons may not be within the judiciary. It should be clear that through these lines, one should not rush to the conclusion that there is any unnecessary attempt to defend the Collegium system but, in my opinion the new system which was supported by major political parties in both houses of the parliament is more harmful than the previous one. It is true that there were several accusation and cases of malpractices in judiciary and appointment and transfer of judges in higher courts which operates under the Collegium. Some of these cases also captured national and international headlines like the recent accusations of former Supreme Court judge Markande Katju on a former Chief Justice of India for favouring a judge to Supreme Court in 2004 or the cases of the current chairman of the Law Commission of India Justice AP Shah, who retired as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in 2010. It is reported that a member of the then Collegium didn’t like Shah to evaluate as judge in apex court that’s why his name was dropped. The case of Justice Sumitra Sen of Kolkata High Court is also well known. Justice Sen was charged for misappropriating Rs 33.23 lakh in 1993. It is the only case in history of Indian judiciary when a judge was impeached by Rajya Sabha in 2011. There are several other examples of corrupt judges like the case of Justice Nirmal Yadav, Justice PD Dinakaran or controversy over the appointment of Shukla Kabir Sinha, sister of former CJI Altamas Kabir, as judge of Calcutta High Court or the recent case of Justice Manjunath in which he is being accused of having lots of properties in the name of his daughter, wife and mother-in-law. But after all, it is not true that all judges who were appointed by the Collegium system were corrupt and the JAC will not

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have any. The logic which is given is that judges should not select judges and how they can do all themselves is very childish. In the democratic system like India, most of selections are made by the same department in which a person has to be employed. Prime Minister and Chief Ministers are selected by the politicians, by the members of the concerned house. Government chooses government servants and several posts in the army are recruited by the army only, and not any other department. Even it is not true that the government had no role in appointing a judge under the collegiums. It had, and the recent example is that of Gopal Subramanium when the government refused to clear his name as Supreme Court judge even as the collegium had recommended the same. It also should be noted that to appoint a judge after getting the nod of the collegium the Prime Minister sent a letter to the President with his/her signature for the approval. The former Union Law Minister and senior advocate of Supreme Court, Ram Jethmalani pointed out another important issue that questions the role of the law minister in appointing a judge in higher courts. He said that the law minister should not be a member of the JAC because he may have to practice in the same court (s) after the government changes or he leaves the job. It is also said that hundreds of posts of judges are vacant in High Courts and Supreme Court and the collegium failed to recruit on them. But the question is that how the JAC will do it. It is true that some 266 posts are vacant in higher courts, but the proportion of vacant posts in the executive is much higher than the judiciary. Why executive failed to fill all these posts?

Sensitive chapter

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are fears that through this they can influence in some decisions. The BJP and the Congress are rival parties, but there were several occasions when they were blamed by other political outfits for match-fixing, both inside and outside the parliament. If so, then through the appointment of a particular judge the outcome in certain court verdicts can be compromised. Government and political parties should have understood that this is not a marginal change, but a major one with a larger impact. Judges are one who deals with several highly sensitive issues, including life and death. They should have understood that political loyalties keep changing, but once politics gets involved in the process, chances to question every verdict would increase rampantly. There are also serious questions of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion and ideology of the ruling party which are “very visible in the whole process of the governance”. If so, then there are chances of its reflection in the process of judicial appointment. Still, it is not clear why the government and political parties were in a hurry to pass this legislation and unlike several previous bills they didn’t put it in a public domain seeking comments and suggestions from the vast civil society. Why there was no word taken by the jurists and the judiciary itself? Why the government didn’t go to them to whom they would consult as ‘eminent’ in future? Still there is a wide scope to reform the Collegium system. Government can make a detailed process and guidelines in the consultation with the apex court to appoint a judge. But without knocking every possible door, going for a remarkable change in the system raises many questions, not only about the ruling BJP but the entire political class.

The judiciary is a very sensitive chapter of Indian democracy and if it fails to function independently, it itself will be in danger. Major political parties supported the legislation in the parliament because they wanted their say in the judiciary, but there

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INNOCENCE

AT THE GUN-POINT

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Think again before dropping a bomb in the civil areas, before killing the innocence of the children and brutally murdering them and before plotting the mines in the civilian areas, because they don’t deserve to end their life like this…

| Ekta Srivastava

VER 11.000 SYRIAN CHILDREN were killed in war, other raped... The United Nation expects another two million Syrians to become refugees in 2014, and said more than 2.25 million Syrians will be displaced within the country’s borders. Israeli assault leaves 500 kids dead, 3,000 injured, 373,000 traumatized. Four little Palestinian boys from the same family playing on a Gaza beach were killed by an Israeli missile. After reading and watching such crisis around the world targeting children, who will think of giving a birth to a place, which now can only give sufferings, create fear and poverty.

New victim of wars Wars are not new in this world, but the way they are fought today is new. Over the last fifty years, these conflicts have their worst developments by specifically targeting children. According to the U.N, during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, roughly half of all deaths in conflicts zones were of civilians. By the end of twentieth century, almost 90 per cent were civilians. And children accounted for the increasingly large chunks of the deaths. Today, violence against children are emerging as an epidemic, amplified in conflict situations.Family and children are not just being caught in the crossfire but they are specifically targeted. As UNICEF’s chief of child protection, Susan Bissell said,“One billion children are today living in countries and territories affected by war or conflict -- and it’s fair to conclude that large numbers suffer violent injuries and death.” With reference to many reports and data, at least two million children have died in the past decade, many targeted as non-combatants or killed in action as soldiers. And well, these are the wars which are waged by the adults for their benefits in terms of power and politics. While increasing death toll is one of the major concerns for many, three times that number were disabled or seriously injured, with many more suffering

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According to UNICEF report 1996, recent developments in warfare have significantly heightened the dangers for children. Child victims included 2 million killed

4-5 million Disabled

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from disease, malnutrition, sexual violence, and the hardships of forced plight. Nevertheless, thousands are struggling to find their homes, with anguish and damaged psychological balance, which is incalculable in such conflicts. Injuries and brutality caused in these zones to the children can be imagined by listening to the stories of those kids who have either seen their friends and relatives suffering or who themselves have suffered. The brutalisation and death of children is not just limited to one place but have its wings spread in Syria,Ghaza, Palestine, Israel, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Such is the depravity of the conflict that chopping of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s limb and abduction of thousands of Ugandan children as guerrilla fighters and sexual slaves are considered as a part of every armed conflict. While most causalities are civilians, the most deplora-

ble development in recent years is using children as soldiers. Besides being able to use lethal weapons, which are very light weighted, children have other advantages as soldiers. They are easier to intimidate and they do as they are told. They are also less likely than adults to run away and they do not demand salaries. At a more basic level, joining an army may also be the only way to survive. Many children joined armed groups in Cambodia in the 1980s as the best way to secure food and protection. Similarly, in Liberia in 1990, children as young as seven were seen in combat because, according to the Director of the Liberian Red Cross, â&#x20AC;&#x153;those with guns could survive.â&#x20AC;? Technology, ranging from nuclear weapons to small cluster bombs, has made non-combatants, especially the young, particularly vulnerable. After the Israeli invasion in the nineteeneighties, dozens of Lebanese kids were killed by cluster bombs, either in direct hits or by stepping on them

12 million Left Homeless

Over One million orphaned or separated from their parents

10 million Psychologically traumatized.

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Perspective

n 1994, on the eve of Rwanda’s genocide, Radio Mille Collines, in Kigali, incited listeners with a venomous message: ‘‘To kill the big rats, you have to kill the little rats.’’It was a veiled command to murder the youngest generation of Tutsis, the country’s minority tribe. In less than four months, an estimated three hundred thousand children were slashed, hacked, gunned, or burned to death, according to the United Nations. Among the dead were newborns. GraCaMachel, the SecretaryGeneral’s Special Representative, declared in the first U.N. ‘CHILDREN IN WAR’ report, in 1996. She went on;When ethnic loyalties prevail, a perilous logic clicks in. The escalation from ethnic superiority to ethnic cleansing to genocide, as we have seen, can become an irresistible process. Killing adults is then not enough; future generations of the enemy—their children— must also be eliminated.

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or after mistaking them for toys. In Afghanistan, at least 35 thousand children have been victims of land mines since 1979, according to the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. In Bosnia, more than a thousand children are reportedly missing from a war that ended a generation ago.

Impact of war on children Murdering and exploiting children in conflicts is not only a stab on their rights of living fearless, but is also imposing a threat to the international peace and security. The moment they are denied of getting an opportunity to grow up in an atmosphere of love, trust, law and justice, their prospects of becoming violent and getting a belief that violence is an acceptable way of resolving disputes becomes stronger. GracaMachel,in her latest study (The Impact of War on Children: A review of progress since the 1996 United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, UNICEF, 2001), points up a new horror: how armed conflict and HIV/ AIDS are propagating each other in a monstrous symbiosis, spreading destruction and eroding child rights on an ever-wider scale as each reinforces the conditions that fuel the spread of the other. According to UNICEF, in these violent circumstances, women and girls in particular suffer the added trauma of sexual abuse and rape, which psychologists identify as the most intrusive of traumatic events. Without help, girls will carry the long-term effects of such abuse into their adult lives. Sexual violence is particularly common in ethnic conflicts. In fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, it has been a deliberate policy to rape teenage girls and force

them to bear ‘the enemy’s’ child. A European community fact-finding team estimated that more than 20,000 Muslim women have been raped in Bosnia since fighting broke out in April 1992. In Rwanda, rape has been systematically used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing to destroy community ties. In some raids, virtually every adolescent girl who survived an attack by the militia was subsequently raped. Many of those who became pregnant were then ostracized by their families and community; some abandoned their babies, others committed suicide. In the Renamo camps in Mozambique, young boys, who themselves had been traumatized by violence, frequently inflicted sexual violence on young girls—threatening to kill or starve them if they resisted. Even women and girls who are not physically forced to have sex may still be obliged to trade sexual favours for food, shelter or physical protection for themselves or their children. The rise of sexually-transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, is therefore inevitable. One factor contributing to the high rate of AIDS in Uganda could be that some women had to trade sex for security during the country’s civil war. As a result, the

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next generation is at an even greater disadvantage, as more children are born with AIDS or are orphaned.

At the End The air of violence that has flown across the world has uprooted massive number of people- of which at least half are children. Total number of uprooted or displaced people is currently around 53 million. Some have moved elsewhere within their own country and are classified as ‘displaced’, other are ‘refugees’ who have crossed borders into neighbouring countries.Since three quarters of refugees have fled from one developing country to another, this places an enormous strain on countries that already have problems caring for their own populations So may be after knowing such facts, first reaction of every couple in and around the world could be like, whether we should bring our child into a world, where little boys playing soccer get blown up by the Israeli army…Or a world where a Ukrainian rebel with a poor eyesight shoots down a Malaysian Airlines passen-

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ger flight with a Soviet-era war relic, killing 295 people aboard who have nothing to do with a lingering conflict over territory. How can they even think of bringing a daughter, where a video of a girl’s rape go viral, administrators and police turn a blind eye to sexual assaults;or where a religious institution that has, for 1500 years, harboured paedophiles. It’s just that within the last 15 years or so, we’ve been more aware of the bad than ever before. There are days when life feels like the best gift one could possibly give to another person. And then there are days like today, when it seems like it might be best for humanity to pack it up and call the game.

UN first report on Syrian Children According to the first UN report on children in Syria’s civil war, covering the period from 1 March 2011 to 15 November 2013, Syrian children have been subjected to "unspeakable" suffering in the nearly three years of civil war, with the Government and allied militia responsible for countless killings, maiming and torture, and the opposition for recruiting youngsters for combat and using terror tactics in civilian areas. “Ill treatment and acts tantamount to torture reportedly included beatings with metal cables, whips and wooden and metal batons; electric shock, including to the genitals; the ripping out of fingernails and toenails; sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape; mock executions; cigarette burns; sleep deprivation; solitary confinement; and exposure to the torture of relatives,” the report says. Reports indicate that children were also suspended from walls or ceilings by their wrists or other limbs, were forced to put their head, neck and legs through a tire while being beaten, and were tied to a board and beaten. The report cites a 16-year-old boy as saying he witnessed his 14-year-old male friend being sexually assaulted and then killed, and notes other allegations that boys and in a few instances girls were raped. The 16-year-old said children and adults were beaten with metal bars, their fingernails pulled out, their fingers cut. “Or they were beaten with a hammer in the back, sometimes until death,” he added.

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Fighting Crisis

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Indians Offer Aid Ebola In Liberia To

XTENDING ING hand, community has donated US$200,000

A HELPthe Indian in Liberia aid of over to the on-

going anti-Ebola campaign in the African nation. The donation was done through India’s Consul General to Liberia Upjit Singh Sachdeva on August 28. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who received the aid, praised the Indians for “standing with Liberia in difficult times.”The endowment comprises wide-range of items including two ambulances, and other assorted goods including 2000 bags of rice, hospital beds, 24,000 bottles of water, household utensils, among several other items, in 22 trucks.

| Alaskai Moore Johnson Act Editor , Daily Observer, Liberia

OCTOBER 2014

Before he handed the items over to the President, Consul General Sachdeva commended Sirleaf for her “extraordinary leadership in effectively and urgently responding to the outbreak and spread of the dreadful Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).” Sachdeva, who is famous as Mr Jeety, in Liberia , said that the enormity of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and three other West African countries, including Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, has made fighting the epidemic a global challenge, requiring an effective global response; adding: “The response by the international community, so far to combat the disease is very encouraging.” He told President Sirleaf that the current outbreak of the disease is affecting the country in many ways. “It is affecting the people; it is affecting all communities in the country; it is affecting the nation, and it is also affecting neighbouring nations. Neighbouring states have unfortunately closed the air and land borders severe-

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ly hampering intra-sub-regional trade on which Liberia depends largely for the importation of some essential food items,” Sachdeva said. Mr Jeety further told the audience that the Association of Indian Community in Liberia (AICL) sees itself as an important stakeholder in the Liberian society. He said they, too, are affected by the disease; adding, however, they see it as a part of their bounding duty and responsibility to contribute their quota to the fight to eliminate the disease in their second home, Liberia. He assured the Liberian leader and other people of the country that despite the economic consequences the disease outbreak is having on the business community, he and other leaders of the Indian community have advised all their members involved in economic ac-

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tivities not to exploit this situation by unnecessarily hiking prices. Lauding the continuous Indian support in the time of crisis, President Sirleaf thanked the Indian community for their immense contributions to the commercial sector of the country, as well as for venturing into the industrial sector where, she said, more jobs will be created for many young Liberians to be employed.

Statistics:

There have been more than 4,400 confirmed human cases and more than 2,500 deaths since the discovery of Ebola.

Timeline:

Facts

According to the World Health Organization, “there is no specific treatment or vaccine,” and the fatality rate can be up to 90%. Patients are given supportive care, which includes providing fluids and electrolytes and food. There are five subspecies of the Ebola virus: Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV), Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV), Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV), Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV) and Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)

Includes outbreaks resulting in more than 100 deaths or special cases.

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Enabler

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CONSERVE INDIA UPCYCLING WASTES TO BETTER LIFE OF RAG-PICKERS

| Ramesh Kumar Raja

ANITA AHUJA Founder of Conserve India, a social enterprise

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especially plastics and polythene are strange objects. Strewn all over our urban landscape, in our neighborhood, fields, water bodies such as lakes and rivers, oceans and even in the stomachs of birds and cattle, they invariably evoke an irritation to our senses, but we are all part of the problem too as we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take initiatives to limit our usage of plastic. They are not only hazardous, but also pose a great challenge to the concerned authority because of their nonbiodegradable properties. While most of us donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do anything except for complaining, Conserve India, a social enterprise founded by Delhi-based couple Anita and Shalabh Ahuja, has come up as a sort of help for authorities dealing with disposal of municipality wastes and UCK,

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About a ton of wastes are upcycled each month at Conserve’s factory in the NCR town of Bahadurgarh, around 55 km from Delhi.

The community from poorest of poor extracting useful materials from the landfills.

rag-pickers whose livelihood depend on the same.

THE IDEA The social enterprise, unlike the authorities, is in the business of upcycling non-biodegradable wastes. The organization, for over a decade and half, has been helping the poorest of poor community, mostly rag-pickers, to extract useful materials from the landfills, turning them into high-end fashion and homeware items. Later, the funds incurred - via sales – are channeled into the health and education programs for these rag-pickers. Says Anita, 54, creative director of Conserve India, “My inspiration comes from surroundings as we do not see natural green spaces and blooming flowers around us. We live in a concrete jungle with large de-

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posits of waste. This sad reality created a desire in me to reduce India’s mountain of waste, improve energy efficiency, and help some of poorest out of the slums.” Speaking about the action with which Conserve India makes an impact, she says, “We achieve all this by turning plastic bags into high fashion products like bags, wallets, folders, footwear, day totes etc. I am acutely conscious of this garbage and also concerned about a community of people who are the weakest, the poorest and the out caste ones, who try to clear filthy garbage for their livelihood.” The idea of upcycling wastes happens to be a brainchild of Anita, who

with the help from her engineer husband Shalabh, began to recycle plastic into thin layers of plastic sheet, through a patented technology, and then turned them into high-end fashionable items.

THE JOURNEY It has been a journey of self discovery for the couple, which began in 1998. “We started as a fledgling recycling project but quickly adapted to confront the biggest challenge - what to do with the thousands of plastic bags that could not be composted or recycled locally. After much testing, we hit upon the idea of not recycling, but upcycling by washing, drying, and pressing the

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Enabler

bags into sheets. Hence, Handmade Recycled Plastic (HRP) was born as a subsidiary of Conserve India and is involved in designing for handbags, wallets, shoes, belts etc. The challenge was evident: Use high fashion to support better lives for the poorest and a cleaner environment for all,” she recalls. The social enterprise, via its business arm Conserve HRP, markets its products to Europe and the United States as well. Currently, there are 40 retail shops across 15 countries that sell Conserve-made products. “While marketing our products in foreign countries, we realised that buyers were more comfortable dealing with a company rather than an NGO. So, in 2004 we created a proprietary company that focused on manufacturing and sale of waste-based products,” says Anita, a Delhi University post-graduate. Over the years, Conserve India has expanded its raw material portfolio, and now uses tyres, tubes, car seatbelt, industrial belts, denim, advertising banners, juice cartons, etc, to make fashion accessories and home interior decoration items. Upon seeing Anita’s expertise in unique area, the Indian arm of an international sports shoe brand had sent her sacks full of used shoes, and wanted her to do “something” with them which were correctly exploited in making of utility goods.

THE BUSINESS MODEL Nearly 70 per cent of Conserve HRP production is outsourced to self-help groups of rag-pickers and artisans. Manual labour is given preference over machine-led production at every step. A workforce of nearly 300 people is employed with the Conserve India and its subsidiary,

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Conserve HRP, directly and indirectly. “We employ and train hundreds of these folk to clear their streets rampant with plastic wastes. Later, we make them our factory workers with healthcare and insurance benefits,” she says. About a ton of wastes are upcycled each month at Conserve’s factory in the NCR town of Bahadurgarh, around 55 km from Delhi. The organization came into prominence in 2010 when it bagged the opportunity to recycle the waste materials of Delhi Commonwealth Games. The project, named Conserve Delhi 2010, was aimed at raising the benefits of upc y-

cling and cleaner environment. The challenge of creating a new industry from an easily-available resource happens to be a heart-wrenching reason for Anita that drove her to work massively for the cause never attempted before in India. “What we have created, if properly handled can grow into an industry, creating jobs for thousands of rag-pickers and taking care of the waste,” she states.

GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY The rag-picking community is unorganized and it’s hard for them to protect their rights. In such a situation, she says, the NGO facilitates them for this cause and has even appealed to the Delhi government on

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several occasions. “By giving them ‘Conserve Employee Cards’, we help them have a voice in the society. We have also started a campaign called ‘Recognition for Rag-pickers’. As part of this, we are trying to persuade the Delhi government to create an official register so as to recognise Delhi’s 150,000 rag-pickers and give them their right to a fair wage,” she emphasizes. The lifestyle product which Anita, who should aptare made by used ly be called a social entreplastics bags preneur, has a message for those who believe recycling to be the end of plastic, polythene etc. She says the process of reviving a non-biodegradable waste offers only a motivation to dispose it off correctly. It’s not a complete solution and should not be accepted as an endorsement for continued use, she adds. “Plastic bags undoubtedly offer convenience but are an unnecessary environmental nuisance and have a gloomy record of causing suffering both to humans and animals. Hopefully, one day, the need for these bags will no longer be felt. But, until then, all efforts have to be made to ensure that these visual eyesores are collected from the garbage dumps and recycled appropriately,” she concludes. |

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Opinion

CHALLENGE Ice Bucket vs Rice Bucket

| Ekta Srivastava

CE BUCKET for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, and Rice bucket for poor. Sometimes it really felt as world has changed more dramatically rather than in realistic way. When there is so much hue and cry about saving water, (some even quoted, ‘save water drink bear’), we are having this ice bucket challenge blasting its way all through the world. However, as this ice bucket touched the Indian grounds engaging Bollywood icons, CEOs and students, it got its very Indian twist in Hyderabad. Though the bucket stayed, ice has been replaced with rice. While Ice Bucket challenge involves icy cold water (which sometimes I doubt) to be poured on one’s head to raise the awareness about disease ALS, participants of the rice bucket don’t need to dump rice over heads. Instead, they are asked to buy or cook a bucket of rice and give it to someone in need.

Make-up

The challenge has started from US to

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promote awareness about ALS and the endeavour is to encourage donations for medical research. During July-August, it went viral via videos being posted on social sites all around the world with India too being no exception to this. Though origins of the idea of dumping cold water on one’s head to raise money for charity are still unclear and so it has been attributed to multiple sources. Restoring our faith to humanity, many people all over the globe, including film stars, sportspersons, CEOs and even our friends, relatives or say everyone around us have joined in enthusiastically. According to the challenge, within 24 hours of being challenged, participants have to record a video of them in continuous footage. First, they are to announce their acceptance of the challenge followed by pouring ice into a bucket of water. Then, the bucket is to be lifted and poured over the participant’s head. Then the participant can call out a challenge to other people. Whether people choose to donate, perform the challenge, or do both varies. In one account of the challenge, the partic-

ipant is expected to donate $10 if they have poured the ice water over their head or donate $100 if refuse to take the challenge. More than a million people worldwide have poured buckets of ice water over their heads as part of a fund-raising campaign for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Break-up

Here comes the twist. It will not be wrong to say that Indians prefer everything in their own style, so how can this ice bucket be left. With adding ‘R’, we converted this ‘ICE’ into ‘RICE’ and spread across the nation as ‘Rice Bucket challenge’ in a bid to help the country’s huge population of poor and hungry people. The project is the brainchild of Indian journalist Manju Latha Kalanidhi, who was seeking “a local, practical and tangible” response to the Ice Bucket challenge, according to a news site. Fortunately, the movement has taken around the country very fast and receives more than 22,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook a week. Yes, may be if we ask someone whether ‘R-factor’ has really added any value to

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a nervous system disease that attacks nerve cells called neurons in your brain and spinal cord. These neurons transmit messages from your brain and spinal cord to your voluntary muscles - the ones you can control, like in your arms and legs. At first, this causes mild muscle problems. Some people notice

TROUBLE WALKING RUNNING TROUBLE WRITING SPEECH PROBLEMS

the bucket challenge? The answer from many will be ‘yes’, as there is always a great need to store the resources which are limited and valuable and donating very small part of your kitchen grocery is an easy and proud task with better usage. Despite the India’s economic progress, the country suffers from “alarming” levels of hunger. The prevalence of underweight children under five is among the highest in the world, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. In the 2013 Global Hunger Index, the India ranked 63 out of 120 countries, lagging even behind neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. That’s why Manju Latha has challenged people to give a bucket of rice, cooked or uncooked, to a person in need. Unlike video in ice bucket, in rice bucket snap a photo; share it online in the social media and, just as the Ice Bucket challenge, propose friends to take part in this noble idea.

Irony

Of the numerous videos posted on

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social networking sites, it is surprising to see that very few have been sympathetic to have an attempt to save the water which is being poured. As we look into the origin of the ALS-driven challenge, the practice was started from the location where the temperature is less than 10 degree Celsius, not to a place which is having 40 degree Celsius. This challenge has accelerated another problem of water, especially in places like India where, in certain parts, even getting drinking water is a painful task. During the peak of the Ice Bucket challenge, I tried to find out with one of my nominated friend who has posted his video on Facebook, does he really know what is it’s all about? What is the purpose behind this whole chain? And to my surprise, he negligently replied that this is for some kind of fund raising programme. But he didn’t give a thought on how pouring icy water over your head can raise funds. Maybe I am wrong but I think there is a long list of such adventurous people outside, who would have accepted this challenge or nominated someone else but hardly be aware of the motivation or force behind

Eventually, you lose your strength and cannot move. When muscles in your chest fail, you cannot breathe. A breathing machine can help, but most people with ALS die from respiratory failure. The disease usually strikes between age 40 and 60. More men than women get it. No one knows what causes ALS. It can run in families, but usually it strikes at random. There is no cure. Medicines can relieve symptoms and, sometimes, prolong survival.

the cause. Now, it doesn’t mean that I am criticizing the trend which is raising such a huge amount for needy, but my concern is against those, who for the sake of getting ‘ Likes’ in the social networking sites, are causing more harm in hunt of something good. There is an increasing need of serious awareness for many issues around the world and the true challenge lies in understanding the ideals, and the causes behind the issue, irrespective of the ‘views’ or the ‘likes’ or the ‘shares’ that happen on the social network.

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Travelogue Go v e r n an ce

T oday

It’s a dream of every biker to conquer the Himalayas.

By Ajay Kumar

RID E of the

LIFE

TS SCENIC BEAUTY, which spread across the road from Manali to Leh, speaks for itself. Snow-covered mountains, dense vegetation, rocky stretch and vast plain land are the best part of the journey. It is amazing to see blue colour lakes at the height of 3000 meters above the sea level with no air pollution. It’s, in fact, a paradise on the earth which one should surely visit once in a life. This travel just doesn’t require an adventurous and risk taking attitude but it also includes a lot of rational planning, like getting saddle bags stitched from the local tailor. Branded ones are actually quite expensive these days and I didn’t get any positive reviews too. We learnt to fix a puncture, as there will be nobody at the 300 km long stretch to fix it. We took some spare tubes along with bulb clutch wires and a standby battery before setting to burn the roads. My dream journey finally came true on 19 July 2014. I had been planning it for many years, as it requires first convincing friends to be part of my dream ride and then making adjustment and coordination with them and among them. The biggest challenge, however, was approval from my wife which I managed to get but don’t know how. Applied for the leaves from the office and luckily managed to get them and fixed all the household stuff at my best. Finally here comes, the most awaited D-Day, where at 2 AM along with my five close friend’s we hit the road. Since its rainy season in eastern part of India, we had decid-

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ed to carry waterproof raincoats and not to stop, even if it’s raining. We planned to reach Manali, our first night stay, on the trip by 7:00 PM the same day. I had recommended all to bring waterproof raincoats, two of them turned out to be just an ordinary raincoats and the water spoiled our skin along with some expensive stuff like currency and camera. Well, applaud to my two friends who even after getting completely wet, didn’t give up and continued the journey as was planned. I, being a son of an Army man, very rigid about plans and punctuality, as my father always taught me the importance of time and I love to follow that. It was quite cold in Manali, tired but excited we speedily find a hotel with two room available and check in. We were in bed within an hour of having few pegs of ‘alcohol’, thankfully, it’s a painkiller. And coincidently, none of us refused to have it. We planned to move the next morning at 7:00 AM along with all stuff to reach our next point of stay, Jispa, around 140 km from Manali. On the very first day we had covered around 600 km and covering 140 km looked like a child’s play but to our surprise, it took us the whole day to cover just 140 km. The condition of the roads were too bad after Rothang Pass and due to lack of oxygen our bikes were a bit slow in climbing the altitude. As a precaution, we had ‘Diamox’ tablet to overcome Acute Mountain Sickness (AMC), which were very helpful in two days of our trip. Without getting any obstacle we reached Tandi and filled our petrol tanks along with extra cans, two with each bike, as availability of fuel at the

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Travelogue Go v e r na nc e

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stretch of 375 km will be an uneven task. On the second day, when we were about to reach our second night destination, saw a car accident which was shocking and it shook us all. A Maruti Alto car had actually gone out of control killing itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all pas-

reached Leh by afternoon and check- in the hotel to rest for the day. Early morning, the next day, we went to visit TSO Pangong Lake, which is around 150 km from Leh and situated at a height of 3450 meters and 134 km long and extend-

even tried to hit one of our riders from their bike. We avoided any sort of nuisance and decided not to stop. We continued our journey to Srinagar and took a nice houseboat in Dal Lake for rest of our trip. We stayed for three days in houseboat and

sengers 300 meters downhill. When we reached the spot, Army and local people were pulling up the bodies. We became speechless for some time, prayed for their souls and with wet eyes, we moved forward to our camps in Jispa. We got up early on the third day. All set to go with a new sprit to conquer Himalayas, we planned to reach Sokar lake by the evening. That was our final destination before reaching Leh. We reached there as planned and took tents for our night stay. It was, however, not a good idea of staying there, our stop is at high altitude and we all suffered from AMC. It was almost unbearable till morning. Few of us could not sleep the whole night and we decided to ride further as early as possible. We started at 5:00 AM towards Leh. As altitude meter started coming down after few kilometers, came a situation when one of our Bullets got flat tyre. Due to lack of oxygen it took us a little more time to fix it, but we enjoyed that moment. After 30-35 km, we were coming closer to Leh, we were back again to life and our trip. Finally, we

ed from India to Tibet. We stayed there for around two hours and returned back the same day. It was a tiring time, but the memory of the lake is making us lively and fresh. The next day we tied all our stuff to Royal Enfields and headed towards Kargil. We planned to stay there but due to Kargil Memorial Day on the 26th July, we could not get any accommodation, so stretched our ride till Sonmarg. The whole day we were riding our bikes and felt tired but the beauty of nature swept our tiredness and we safely reached Sonmarg by 8:00 PM. We quickly discovered a good hotel by river side and went to bed after dinner. The next day we were out to a glacier on horses and that was actually a lot of fun. It was around an hour and half ride to glacier, where we enjoyed whole day. That was the first day during our journey when we did not ride our Bullets and we really missed them. We moved forward the next day and planned to reach Srinagar by afternoon. We had a little disturbance from local guys on the way who tried to bully us and

visited Gulmarg and few other local places. As planned before our trip, we got booking done in flight from Srinagar to Delhi to avoid riding in hot plains. We packed our bikes on the last day of trip and handed them over to a transporter to be shipped to Delhi and we returned via flight. It was a wonderful and astonishing journey and I would like to visit it again in a 4X4 SUV for which I have started collecting the money. Your contribution would be highly appreciated.

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Art Go v e r n an ce

T oday

Madhubani Painting

A D H U B A N I PAINTINGS, adhubani Painting, as the name suggests, gets its derivation from Mithila region of northern Bihar. This art is mostly practiced by women folk. The history of Madhubani or Mithila painting goes back to the time of Ramayna, a mythology, when King Janak commissioned artists to do paintings at the time of marriage of his daughter, Sita, to Lord Rama. The paintings were originally done on freshly-plastered mud wall of huts in villages. But now it is also done on cloth, handmade paper, canvas, wooden material, jewelry and moveable objects, to name a few. The paintings mostly depict natural and Hindu religious figures and their themes are generally associated with Hindu deities such as Sun, Moon etc. and natural objects like flowers, leaves etc. Its theme is mostly based on royal court, social events such as marriage, Mundan,

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Kohbar etc, and Hindu epics like RadhaKrishana raas leela, Samudra Manthan, Ram Sita swayamvar etc. The painting has two varieties: Bhitichitra and Aripana. Bhitichitra is done on the mud-walls of houses, particularly at three places: room of the family god/ goddess, room of the newly-wedded couple and the drawing room. The painting is done on the outer and inner walls of these rooms. Aripana or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Alpanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stands for line drawings on the floor of the house. The purpose of Aripana was originally to make the cultivated land fertile and fruitful by magical performances. The colours mostly used in these paintings are deep ones like red, green, blue and black. Other colours like yellow, pink, and lemon are also used. All these colours are prepared indigenously from household products such as flowers, turmeric, banana leaves, milk, onion, vermilion, orange, coal, cow-dung etc. The Bihar as well as the central government have taken many encouraging steps towards preservation of this diminishing

art. Though they are doing their part to promote the art internationally, a special policy and governance is required to take this art to the international platform. Sita Devi, Jagdamba Devi, Jamuna Devi and Ganga Devi are some of the illustrious names in this art of painting.

The paintings mostly depict natural and Hindu religious figures and their themes are generally associated with Hindu deities such as Sun, Moon etc. and natural objects like flowers, leaves etc.

| Stuti Bhushan

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T oday

Citylights

South African Food & Wine Tasting Event

N THE OCCASION of the Indo-South African Week, France Morule, High Commissioner of South Africa to India, hosted the South African Food & Wine Tasting Event at The Wine Company, a restaurant in cyberhub Gurgaon.

The event was graced by Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Government of South Africa and the accompanying delegates. Some of the esteemed guests spotted at The Wine Company were designers Charu Parashar, Joydeep Singh, Shalini Arora Kochchar, chef Saabby, Qanisha Mehta, Lalit Dalmia, artist Anjanna Kuthiala, beauty expert Suparna Trikha and entrepreneur Sonal Jindal, to name a few Premium South African wines were paired with a four-course meal prepared by Xoliswa Ndoyiya, the famed and influential chef who has personally served Nelson Mandela’s family for over two decades. Guests at The Wine Company were privileged to sample a collection of Mandela’s favourite recipes. Alan Nelson, winemaker and owner of the famous Nelson Estates, spoke on the tasting notes of each wine to the guests at the event.

A New Food Destination

FRIENDLY, CONTEMPORARY MEDITERRANEAN and Greek Cuisine

Bistro by people who love food, for people who love food, MQ – Med Quarters was launched recently. It is located at M – 51, Greater Kailash II, New Delhi. It is comfortable, but exciting at the same time, it’s the sort of place to go with friends when you’re looking for heady cocktails, hearty meals and a variety of entertainment. MQ welcomed its first wave of party lovers with hosts Rajat Dogra, Amit Chawla, Manuj Khurana and Mohit Lugani celebrating with their friends. The glittering crowd danced to DJ’s music. The guests present at the event were designers Gaurav Jagtiani, Joy Mitra, Siddharth Tytler, Nidhi Chawla, Amit Chawla, Niyati Dhir and many more.

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