The Congress party, and its
president in particular, are persistently alleging that there is some
impropriety in the Rafael jet deal signed by the government with French jet
maker. The government has forcefully denied all allegations and held that the
deal is beyond any suspicion.
One fails to understand why can't
the government share details of the deal with the president of the largest
opposition party in Lok Sabha, who is bound by the constitutional oath of
secrecy, or with the Standing Committee on Defense, that has at least three
members from INC, who are considered close to the Congress President, and shut
their mouth.
Clearly, both parties lack
sincerity in their stance and maligning the reputation of the country to
promote their vested political interests.
Thought for the day
"The butterfly counts
not months but moments, and has time enough."
—Rabindranath Tagore
(Indian, 1861-1941)
Word for the day
Leonine (adj)
Malice towards none
As per the official data,
during FY17 a total of 45,444 patent applications were filed in India. Out of
which only 29% were filed by Indians.
Premier institutions - IITs, NITs, IIsc, ISRO, DRDO and CSIR all
together accounted for a measly 781 or 1.7% of all patent applications!
Whereas one US company,
Qualcomm, alone filed 1840 patent applications!!
Farm level reforms
As I mentioned yesterday, the problems of the farmers need to be
tackled at three levels, viz., (1) Farm Level; (2) Policy Level and (3) Social
Level. To have any meaningful impact, the initiatives at all three levels need
to be pursued urgently, vigorously, simultaneously and in a fully integrated fashion.
My suggestions on these initiatives are as follows:
Farm level reforms
At farm level farmers are struggling with a multitude of problems.
The most prominent being:
(a) Uneconomical land
holdings (fragmented holdings, unclear land titles)
(b) Low productivity
(c) Vagaries of nature
(frequent droughts & floods)
(d) Poor price realization
(e) Poor market access
The measures initiated so far, e.g., higher support prices,
cheaper credit, crop insurance, improved irrigation, cash fertilizer subsidy,
better market access (eNAM, roads etc.) have positive impact on the state of
agriculture in the country. But this may not be sufficient, as it will have
only some incremental impact on the sector. What we need is a set of radical
reforms that would break the linearity and provide much greater impetus to
growth.
For example, the following steps may be taken at the farm level:
- Enforce land consolidation by linking subsidies and facilities to a minimum holding size to encourage collective and cooperative farming.
- Digitize all land titles within 2years. Enforce time bound Panchayat level resolution of all title disputes.
- Change government procurement system. Government should provide all farm inputs (seeds, fertilizer, insecticide, water, electricity etc) and technical guidance to the participating cooperatives, and take 50% of the crop in lieu of this. The balance crop should pay for the labor cost and profit. This shall ensure: (1) Guaranteed timely supply of quality inputs; (2) No debt burden on farmer in case of crop failure. The government can take adequate insurance for recovery of its costs; and (3) Adequate profit to the farmers.
- The landowners who have never engaged in farming activity in past two decades should be forced to give away their landholdings to cooperatives at 50% discount. Anyways these landowners let out their land on crop sharing basis or nominal lease rental.
- Make sure not a single drop of river water flows into the ocean from India. Develop river linking and water distribution on the models of roads.
- Allow corporates to develop waste and barren land for farming purposes. For example, many corporates from India and Arab world may be interested in developing Rajasthan and Gujarat desert and barren lands for growing dates, palm, aloe etc.
- Set up a price equalization mechanism through participation of private corporate sector. Encourage building large scale modern storage capacities for farm produce. Assure a regulated annuity return to warehouses, that may be equivalent to say 110% of the bench-mark 10yr G Sec yields, and allow bonds issued by warehouses as SLR securities and PSL assets.
- Take factories to farms. Encourage industry to partner with farm cooperatives to set up food processing units at the farms. The farmers' cooperative allots land and provides farm produce, whereas the entrepreneurs contribute capital and undertake marketing and sales responsibilities. Both share the profit in pre-agreed ratio. This could maximize profit of both the industrial enterprise as well farmers, in my view.
...to continue tomorrow
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