Recently Indias perfomance in the global market has been pretty impressive! the Tatas buy corus!Reliance on the verge of creating a walmart in india, with the left closlely monitoring every move. FDIs just flooding Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu!Vilasrao Deshmukh "SEZ" it all.The GDP growin at an exponential rate, reaching 4 trillion dollars placing us at the 4th place!
Lately we have also gained the status of a powerful nation which was evident from the fact of Russia n China joining us for discussin economics n trade in New Delhi.Be it Iran or India, Vladimir Putin is all set to help the world with the nuclear plants for energy!With China aiming at rail routes in Nigeria and gaining some oil resources we definitely see an emerging asia.If India, Russia and China form something like the OPEC we could definitely put the US on the backseat and stop the Texas kings from their "crude" penertation into the Middle East!
But I think the light of India shinig has casted a very long shadow.What we fail to realize is that India is primarily an agricultural country with around half the population working on land. The new India shining ideology has impacted the farmers in almost all the states, especially the Vidarbha district towards the northeast of Maharashtra! The US subsidy of cotton has jeopardized the Indian farmers and made their produce worthless.Ironically the CM of Maharashtra is interested in FDIs n converting Mumbai into Shangai.
A record high number of 1200 farmers committed suicides in 2006.The Deputy CM RR Patil says- the illegal money lenders are to be blamed.The stats show that it was the government showin a lack of interest.Imgine the farmers killed themselves to gain compensation tat could be used to clear debts!Undisputedly deplorable!
Community Action for development(CAD) an NGO took the intiative to train the local gond tribes by implementing major watershed programmes. The tribes are now self reliant, open to criticism and self sufficient.After the pressure from the UPA President, Dr.manmohan Singh has released a relief package for the farmers.
Does it mean that it takes 10000 lives for the center to realize an issue? If the SEZ are introduced in Maharashtra the state should be courteous enough to susidize the farmers effort! The WTO agreement could be negotiated and duty on imported cotton can be increased. I hope Mr.Chindambaram allocates atleast 1% of GDP on agricultural research.
No more loan or credit for the farmers.Let them have the 3Is(Income,Insurance n Investment).If we are developing at the cost of farmers life,we would call it negligence!Lets have humanity towards the poeple who contribute 70% of India's income each year.
11 comments:
Sunder a very intellectual blog...it's really unfortunate that the center realises the gravity of the issue only after poeple die.
the blog is very nice...on one hand India "shining" and on the other hand poor farmers commiting suicide.
SUNDAR RULES! this blog RULES!!
aight man, i commented.
ya owe me a beer. lemme knw when..
thanks
good article . but stereotypical . it would be better if you can come up with a sustainable & realistic plan .
most of this 70% you talk abt are into farming only cos they have no other option and mostly lack of education . thas s'thing to think about .
good thought provoking article though.
Nice blog Sunder
It gives present scenario of watz going on.
carry on the gud work
You are amazing! Good work for shedding light on this topic and not allowing it to be hidden and forgotten in the shadows…. I want to hear more. Keep writing.
Two observations – Considering the steps taken towards globalization (read: SEZ, FDI etc) in isolation, it is obvious that they have served their purpose at least satisfactorily, if not successfully. The urban / semi-urban salaried class, a significant chunk of the populace, has reaped the benefits of these reforms and encourages more such positive initiatives. While it is unfortunate that the government chose to remain ignorant about the plight of the farmers in Vidarbha till the number of fatalities rose to an abhorrent figure, I think maybe it's a little unfair to blame the concentrated efforts on economic reforms for this criminal negligence. I am probably the most politically neutral Indian you know, and so I bring this point up, not in an attempt to defend the UPA or any such political innuendo, but because I don't think the sarcasm against these initiatives is justified – as if you are mocking at these reforms (India Shining) to point out a paradox in the situation. Maybe there was no sarcasm. You tell me. However, if you feel otherwise, my stand on this is that the two events are mutually exclusive. One is not the cause of other. We will be washed out if we do not compete with our global counterparts like China and hence the need to beat Shanghai. For which we need foreign investments. Agreed India is predominantly an agriculture-based country. Doesn't mean we shouldn't harp on our intellectual talent pool or low cost infrastructure to attract FDI. Where else would the big bucks come from? Not by selling shipload of rice to Brazil. Good idea for barter? Yes. Exchange mangoes for nuclear weapons! The US subsidy for cotton had to happen someday. The idea is to find alternatives. Solutions. Putting restriction on FDI does not seem like a long-term solution. Indian GDP continued to grow at a rate of 9 % in the third quarter as well. Services & Infrastructure remained at 10+ % while the Manufacturing sector witnessed an unprecedented 15 % growth in Q2. Evening Mining grew at a modest 5.7 %. The fall in Farming/Agriculture sector revenue is not because the other sectors witnessed a growth. What could perhaps work is a system where a percentage of the total revenue is dedicated to providing the 3 Is ( Income, Insurance n Investment) to the farmers.
Actually – you can suggest a better revenue model.
Maybe my argument is absolutely crap. I have very limited knowledge in this respect. Need to involve papad in the discussion….
oh - yeah - and the other observation - u sound like a professional journalist - ( CM 'SEZ' it all ....etc etc) good writing buddy..
nalla irke machchi
This post though well written failed to look into the crux of the farmer suicide issue.. THe farmer suicide is happening not just because of the government total lack of apathy.. Its farmers foolishness in handling credit.. What these farmers need most is finance education and basic knowledge of return on investment and risk analysis.. ha ha .. people wonder what will a semi literate person do with all this info.. its not like he is going to play the stock market.. The main reason for the farmers death is mounting debt burden caused due to irrational borrowing at high interest rates .. soo much rural development programmes named after every gandhi family member is not reaching out to the people who require it the most.. WHere is the crores of tax payers money going.. why is the humble farmer borrowing at 48-52% interest rate ( worst than what our credit card companies charge us) ..
Micro finance is the buzz word.. where is it being implemented in India.. Bangladesh our poor country cousin can do it.. why not us.. Rather than blaming the set up of sez which is going to generate massive employment in those areas.. we the so called intellectuals writing fancy blogs need to train our guns at the pathetic administrative set up and spare the poor private sector who scrape a living ..
Hope i added a new dimension to the group discussion.. what say ajith..
papad rules man
i guess u r wrong sundar
government has been doing and will be doing the services to all
its not partial or not blindfolded
ok
its not a like giving a farmer (who is about to die) a blank check and tell him to fill the figure u want??
that is not possible anywhere
don't blame everything on government
u r also talking like opposition and the left parties dude
they also have the same problem in there respective states
its not the responsibilty of government of India or maharastra
u should also lend a helping hand
IS there any hardcore rule that government of India must only protect people???? tell me dude
instead of pointing the fingure to the government tell me what u have done
is it not ur responsibilty to help our fellow citizens
Sunder u comments are comendable and are a point of concern as we being a AGRI backed country Farmers have to be given importance and the Motive INDIA SHINING can be complete only and only after this society grows and have a gud financial Stability and we the Future of the country have to do something by doing something not by just putting a Blog on site and askin for comments if u r showin concern for this society dont run away from reailty and do the first step Sayin is Easir than actually doin it so u have written and kno whts required so why dont u start
SiD
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