Rangarajan’s Mission II
Can the latest initiative help create jobs in Kashmir?
Arjimand Hussain Talib
Dr C Rangarajan - one of India’s respected economists - is back to Kashmir on his Mission II. He was here in 2006 as well, as part of the Prime Minister’s five panels to recommend economic rejuvenation in Kashmir. His Mission I of 2006 is history. So seems the 61—page report he had submitted then.
Mission II of 2010 - conceived by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August this year - has a mandate similar to 2006. This time round the primary aim is suggesting ideas for creating more jobs. But does the outcome of Mission I leave enough room for optimism for Mission II?
The Mission I recommendations were important. But, sadly, very few were implemented. The most important recommendation was the transfer of the Dulhasti Hydel Power Project to J&K state from the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC). That never happened. Had that transfer happened, we would have already been on a track to generating jobs on our own.
There were other recommendations as well: like improving road and telecom connectivity, creating an IT city, vacating properties occupied by security forces, etc. Some of these recommendations were only partly implemented.
In April 2008, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Dul Hasti Power Project, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Dr Rangarajan’s recommendations “were under the active consideration of the central government.” Two years down the line today, there is no word on the follow up to that promise. Kashmir’s power situation is as bad as it was before.
The latest initiative includes members like Infosys Chairman N R Narayana Murthy; Tarun Das, former Chief Mentor, CII and Shakeel Qalander, President of FCIK.
Interestingly, Narayana Murthy has suggested to Dr Rangarajan to hold video conferences, rather than personal meetings in Kashmir. He is said to be bored with visiting this place again and again and doing the same job all over again. He too has done similar tasks before.
So what different is going to happen now?
Kashmir’s unemployment crisis has four fundamental problems: one is the political situation here, second is our pathetic work culture, third is our collective attitude towards the state and the fourth is our lack of economic direction.
It doesn’t make sense to re-emphasise that without an improvement in the political situation, things are not going to work well in Kashmir. If this state has the requisite political space necessary to generate economic activities, job creation will happen automatically in a sustainable manner.
One of the by-products of the political crisis is that these models of job creation assume New Delhi to be the primary propeller and sustainer of jobs in this state. And that is where the problem lies.
Now whatever good ideas and things happen here they get marred because of dismal governance, especially in Kashmir Valley.
Bad governance in Kashmir is a function of two things – political ad hocism and people’s attitudes of casualness and state dependency. There is a serious dearth of discipline in government functioning, which has a cascade effect: to administrative system and the society at large.
And when the society at large is affected, private enterprise and creativity are affected too. Despite excellent human resources, our bad work culture ensures failures.
Then is the question of direction. What is our niche area? Is it agriculture? Is it services or industry? Quite obviously, agriculture, including its value-addition activities, and services, mainly tourism, need to be our focus. We need to take policy decisions which serve to strengthen that.
The fundamental reason our agriculture is witnessing a decline is the loss of interest of the peasantry in agriculture. The reasons for that is the price escalation of land and the incentive of government jobs offered to rural vote banks.
It makes good economic sense for most farmers today to sell their land and invest the money in other activities. The returns far outweigh the returns a farmer would get from farming all his life.
The reason why land prices escalated in Kashmir abruptly is because of the railway project here. It created an economic bubble which is basically a problem. I was perhaps the only one to say publicly (Railway’s bad economics, GK, 12 Nov. 2006) that the railway project will destroy our agriculture and horticulture in the long term.
Say whatever, the fact is that horticulture and agriculture will be Kashmir’s primary job providers. There is a great scope for value-added agri products. But government of India and the state governments have certain policy responsibilities.
Let us take saffron sector, for instance. From 2.7 lakhs per kilo in 2008 to 1.10 lakhs per kilo since 2009, the very survival of saffron sector is in question today. That is primarily because there is a lack of policy direction with regard to illegal smuggling and custom duties on imports into India. The other day I heard a SKUAST scientist – Dr F A Nehvi – at a seminar saying that if we double productivity of saffron over the next three years, a project goal for the new saffron Mission, Kashmir will earn some Rs 4642.50 crore annually.
Then let us take apples. Our apple prices suffer because we flood markets in a month’s period. Government-created and maintained cold storage facilities are no solution. Private-owned cold storages hold the key to this challenge. So do private initiatives in value-added products in this sector.
Tourism too could be a great job provider. But that depends on how quickly a political solution will come and improve the security situation here. It also needs New Delhi’s honest facilitation. For instance, Srinagar International Airport continues to be a local airport despite being designated as ‘international.’
For knowledge-based jobs, there is a lot to be done – including creation of a conducive investment and business climate. Unfortunately, that looks improbable to happen without a political solution in Kashmir.
As per the June 2010 figures, the total number of unemployed youth registered with the District Employment and Counseling Centres in J&K is 5,92,031. It is a gigantic number for a state like ours.
The government’s plan for providing capital for self-employment ventures seems almost a non starter. The Overseas Employment Corporation too seems not to have taken off as of now.
All of these are good ideas, which need action. The Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Policy for Youth (SKEWPY), we must remember, is only a short term measure.
In the final analysis, it will be a mix of politics and economics which can create more jobs in Kashmir. No single approach will do.
Feedback at Arjimand@greaterkashmir.com
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
J&K’s State of Environment Report
Going green, at last
DATELINE SRINAGAR
BY ARJIMAND HUSSAIN TALIB
Though late by eight years, it is fantastic news that Jammu & Kashmir will shortly have its first State of Environment (SoE) Report. We always needed such a report quite badly. The simple reason being that we are in a pathetic condition environmentally today. And, worse, that we are deteriorating quite fast.
Now that we are going to have such a report, our first aim must be a major policy overhaul, and not a mere research-based report. A policy overhaul must be followed up with verifiable action on implementation and enforcement.
For centuries, our state, especially the Kashmir and Ladakh regions, have attracted travelers from across the globe for relishing their special environment. We have ourselves always relished the quality of our life because of the special air, water and other elements of Kashmir’s physical environment. But what has heralded some sort of Armageddon is the rate of degradation of our environment. The dangers to our health and livelihoods are grave. Having travelled and studied environmental issues in more than 20 countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, I am yet to come across as high the rate of degradation as in Kashmir. We have a serious wake up call.
There are three unique set of environmental issues confronting our three regions of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.
The most serious environmental challenge is confronted by Kashmir region. It is the smallest of the three regions, but hosts the largest and the densest human population of the state. It is also the highest recipient of the migrant population, tourists and others. Naturally, the stress on its natural environment is the highest.
Another important aspect is that of governance quality, militarization and conflict. Kashmir region has the poorest governance. The intensity of conflict here is also the gravest. It, perhaps, also has the largest military concentration.
Although Ladakh too has problems, its advantage is that it has a tiny population spread over a vast geographical area. The stress on its physical environment is relatively less. Its second advantage is its quality of governance. It has a good culture of community-driven environmental protection and ecological conservation.
Some of Jammu’s problems are similar to Kashmir. Since it is the most industrialized region in the state, some of its problems are even graver.
What is very crucial for this report is the manner it is structured. If it is structured on the pattern of the government of India’s annual State of Environment Report it would do a good job only partly. For doing an excellent job it will have to structure the report based on this state’s unique conditions. And that will not be achieved by basing the report solely on government statistics and toeing only a state-centric line.
The Government of India’s State of Environment Report, 2009, is a case in point. It has focused on issues like climate change, food security, water security, energy security and urbanization. It is OK to focus on these issues in our report as well, but we must not copy-paste its structure and approach. This report seeks to assess initiatives to monitor further degradation of environment and also suggests policy options. That is something which our SoE must aim too.
It makes complete sense to have the Department of Environment, Ecology and Remote Sensing to do the leadership job on this report. In the preparation of the Government of India’s State of Environment Report 2009– Development Alternatives - a non government agency, acted an equal partner. That has brought in intense value to that report. Our report must also have some ideas from outside the government system. That will make it more credible.
The global Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which categorizes all countries based on their environmental performance, will be a good model also to keep in view for our report. EPI looks at things in two broad categories - environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Both are very critical to our state, and go beyond statistical indicators.
When it comes to environmental health, our SoE should not only look at the extent of pollution to our water bodies, it must look at the issues of access to sanitation and safe drinking water too. If we try to develop indices for our water quality, water stress, water scarcity, etc. we will be able to evaluate our deterioration or improvement on an annual basis. That will be important for course correction.
Similarly, when it comes to outdoor air pollution, an evaluation of the sources and impact of urban particulates is a must. Our report should highlight the policy corrections needed in the development of our roads, etc. We need to keep our local ozone also in view.
On other issues of eco system vitality we need to go beyond statistics as well. We not only need to understand the extent of sulfur dioxide emissions, we need to know their sources as well.
When it comes to agriculture, there are too many imperatives which we haven’t given too much of attention. For instance, we need to analyse the impact of growing stock, irrigation stress, pesticide use and excess-fertilizer use. We also need to talk about pesticide and chemical fertilizer regulation. Forest cover change and critical habitat protection need our focus too.
On climate change we cannot afford to remain indifferent and see it as a global problem. This report must seek to look into the issue of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, carbon dioxide emissions per electricity unit generation and industrial greenhouse gas emission intensity in all of our regions.
SoE for J&K has a big burden of expectations. The problem is that the way we all live and demolish our environment makes one feel as if there is no tomorrow for us. This report must seek to rekindle hopes for a tomorrow. A better tomorrow.
DATELINE SRINAGAR
BY ARJIMAND HUSSAIN TALIB
Though late by eight years, it is fantastic news that Jammu & Kashmir will shortly have its first State of Environment (SoE) Report. We always needed such a report quite badly. The simple reason being that we are in a pathetic condition environmentally today. And, worse, that we are deteriorating quite fast.
Now that we are going to have such a report, our first aim must be a major policy overhaul, and not a mere research-based report. A policy overhaul must be followed up with verifiable action on implementation and enforcement.
For centuries, our state, especially the Kashmir and Ladakh regions, have attracted travelers from across the globe for relishing their special environment. We have ourselves always relished the quality of our life because of the special air, water and other elements of Kashmir’s physical environment. But what has heralded some sort of Armageddon is the rate of degradation of our environment. The dangers to our health and livelihoods are grave. Having travelled and studied environmental issues in more than 20 countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, I am yet to come across as high the rate of degradation as in Kashmir. We have a serious wake up call.
There are three unique set of environmental issues confronting our three regions of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.
The most serious environmental challenge is confronted by Kashmir region. It is the smallest of the three regions, but hosts the largest and the densest human population of the state. It is also the highest recipient of the migrant population, tourists and others. Naturally, the stress on its natural environment is the highest.
Another important aspect is that of governance quality, militarization and conflict. Kashmir region has the poorest governance. The intensity of conflict here is also the gravest. It, perhaps, also has the largest military concentration.
Although Ladakh too has problems, its advantage is that it has a tiny population spread over a vast geographical area. The stress on its physical environment is relatively less. Its second advantage is its quality of governance. It has a good culture of community-driven environmental protection and ecological conservation.
Some of Jammu’s problems are similar to Kashmir. Since it is the most industrialized region in the state, some of its problems are even graver.
What is very crucial for this report is the manner it is structured. If it is structured on the pattern of the government of India’s annual State of Environment Report it would do a good job only partly. For doing an excellent job it will have to structure the report based on this state’s unique conditions. And that will not be achieved by basing the report solely on government statistics and toeing only a state-centric line.
The Government of India’s State of Environment Report, 2009, is a case in point. It has focused on issues like climate change, food security, water security, energy security and urbanization. It is OK to focus on these issues in our report as well, but we must not copy-paste its structure and approach. This report seeks to assess initiatives to monitor further degradation of environment and also suggests policy options. That is something which our SoE must aim too.
It makes complete sense to have the Department of Environment, Ecology and Remote Sensing to do the leadership job on this report. In the preparation of the Government of India’s State of Environment Report 2009– Development Alternatives - a non government agency, acted an equal partner. That has brought in intense value to that report. Our report must also have some ideas from outside the government system. That will make it more credible.
The global Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which categorizes all countries based on their environmental performance, will be a good model also to keep in view for our report. EPI looks at things in two broad categories - environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Both are very critical to our state, and go beyond statistical indicators.
When it comes to environmental health, our SoE should not only look at the extent of pollution to our water bodies, it must look at the issues of access to sanitation and safe drinking water too. If we try to develop indices for our water quality, water stress, water scarcity, etc. we will be able to evaluate our deterioration or improvement on an annual basis. That will be important for course correction.
Similarly, when it comes to outdoor air pollution, an evaluation of the sources and impact of urban particulates is a must. Our report should highlight the policy corrections needed in the development of our roads, etc. We need to keep our local ozone also in view.
On other issues of eco system vitality we need to go beyond statistics as well. We not only need to understand the extent of sulfur dioxide emissions, we need to know their sources as well.
When it comes to agriculture, there are too many imperatives which we haven’t given too much of attention. For instance, we need to analyse the impact of growing stock, irrigation stress, pesticide use and excess-fertilizer use. We also need to talk about pesticide and chemical fertilizer regulation. Forest cover change and critical habitat protection need our focus too.
On climate change we cannot afford to remain indifferent and see it as a global problem. This report must seek to look into the issue of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, carbon dioxide emissions per electricity unit generation and industrial greenhouse gas emission intensity in all of our regions.
SoE for J&K has a big burden of expectations. The problem is that the way we all live and demolish our environment makes one feel as if there is no tomorrow for us. This report must seek to rekindle hopes for a tomorrow. A better tomorrow.
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