Special: Ashis Nandy at 80 looks back on a life of ideas and ideals >> p. 08

May 31, 2018 | Vol. 09 Issue 08 | ` 30 RNI No. UPENG/2010/33798 www.governancenow.com

ROBO-VOTER With Karnataka polls, Indian democracy enters the age of Big Data and micro-targeting. Aided by moneybags, the new paradigm reduces the voter to a puppet

p.16

Yet again, a Why hasty Engagement with dry run in ordinance on Africa is moving Bundelkhand rape of minors from the political to region is populist the strategic p.30 p.11 p.38

Founders Team Gautam Adhikari Markand Adhikari Anurag Batra managing Director Kailashnath Adhikari Contents editorial Director ashish asthana Ajay Singh

Editor Ashish Mehta Rise of the robots Executive Editor SB Easwaran With Karnataka polls, Indian Deputy Editor Pankaj Kumar democracy enters the age of Big Assistant Editor Ridhima Kumar Data and micro-targeting. Aided by

Special Correspondent moneybags, the new paradigm reduce Geetanjali Minhas (Mumbai), Praggya Guptaa (Special Projects) the voter to a puppet

Principal Correspondent Vishwas Dass p.16 Sub-Editor Swati Chandra

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Sales Prem Kumar 09711888860 Vaishali Gupta 08851228362 08 “Clear decline in the softer side of life” 11 Circulation & Distribution Eminent political psychologist Devendra Kumar (Senior Manager) Ashis Nandy at 80 looks back Why hasty ordinance on rape of 09999140365 Rahanuramin Lashkar on a life of ideas and ideals minors needs gender balance 08879639953 IT 26 Santosh Gupta (Manager) Alok Mishra (Website Developer) 14 our jobs, their jobs Some govt-affiliated Database Cell & Operations In pictures: Election fever Srikant Kukreti economists are trying to in Bengaluru browbeat the data, but what Manager HR Rekha Rajpoot about the obvious indicators of rising unemployment? 35

Printed & Published by Markand Adhikari on 30 A dry run in Bundelkhand Electrification: Will there be behalf of the Owner, SAB Events & Governance light at end of tunnel? Now Media Limited. Printed at Amar Ujala Yet again, a region synonymous Publications Ltd, C21,22 Sector 59, Noida, with hardship and farm distress Distt Gautam Buddha Nagar, 201301 (UP), and faces up to the tragedy of farmer 50 published at 24A Mindmill Corporate Tower, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida 201301 (UP). suicides Ph. 0120 4577999, Editor: Ashish Upendra Mehta (responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act.) 38 An African salient

Volume 09 Issue 08 India’s engagement with Published for the fortnight May 16-31, 2018. Released on African nations is steadily May 16, 2018. moving from the political to Total number of pages: 52 including covers. the strategic Actor Denzil Smith talks about RNI No. UPENG/2010/33798 www.governancenow.com his love for stage and more

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Capital to face severe water crisis soon

There has been a mindless and uncon- the level of 0-5 metres in 2010 but in 17 trolled digging or borewells in the na- years this has shrunk to 11 percent. Al- tional capital in last two decades. Pre- most all of Delhi is placed in semi-criti- senting a dismal picture of Delhi’s water cal and critical zones. scenario to the supreme court, the Cen- In pockets of East and South Del- tral Ground Water Board revealed that hi the water level is insignificant and the captial’s water table is decreasing remains uncharged for years. “Only from 0.5 metre to over 2 metres every some pockets in West and Central dis- year at various places. The reckless ex- trict appear to be safe as of now,” the ploitation of water can lead to a severe board said in its report. While con- crisis if the issue remains unaddressed. struction work might be one reason As per the board’s report, in 2000, the why groundwater is being mindlessly ground water was available at 40 metres, exploited, the other reason is less de- but in 18 years, in 15 percent of Delhi, the pendency on surface water. Of course, level has sunk in to 40 to 80 metres. Sim- the Yamuna happens to be polluted be- ilarly, 27% of the national capital terri- yond measure. And who cares about tory’s 1,483 sq km had ground water at reviving ponds and baolis!

VERBATIM 25 years of NHRC No Nobel in literature this year “As this is the first annual report of the Commission, it would be helpful here to recapitulate Following resignations over allega- the considerable scope and range of the functions envisaged tions of corruption and sexual mis- for the Commission under Section 12 of the Act, “all or any” of which are to be performed by it. These functions are to: conduct, the Swedish Academy has (a) inquire, suo motu or on a petition presented to if by a decided not to confer the Nobel prize victim or any person on his behalf, into complaint of - in literature this year. To compensate, i) violation of human rights or abatement thereof or two two laureates will be appointed in ii) negligence in the prevention of such violation, by a 2019, one for 2018 and one for 2019. public servant; The presigious prize was withheld b) intervene in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court with and postponed in the past as well. the approval of such court; The reason for postponing the prize this time, however, is differ- c) visit, under intimation to the State Government, ent as it is not related to academy’s inability but sexual harass- any jail or any other institution under the control of the ment allegations. The academy is in crisis ever since in the wake of State Government, where persons are detained or lodged #MeToo campaign, 18 women claimed to have been raped and for purposes of treatment, reformation or protection sexually assaulted by an influential figure on the Swedish culture to study the living conditions of the inmates and make recommendations thereon; scene. d) review the safeguards provided by or under the Constitution or any law for the time being in force for the protection of human rights and recommend measures for BJP’s fate according to Google prompt their effective implementation; e) review the factors, including acts of terrorism that inhibit the enjoyment of human rights and recommend appropriate measures; f) study treaties and other international instruments on human rights and make recommendations for their effective implementation; g) undertake and promote research in the field of human rights; h) spread human rights literacy among various sections of society and promote awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of these rights.

From the National Human Rights Commission in its first annual report released in March 1994

4 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 Road accidents a Law panel proposes 2 years’ jail for hate speech public health issue The law commission of In- disability or tribe” uses dia has proposed two years “gravely threatening words in jail and `5,000 fine for or advocates hatred” shall any person who indulges be punishable with two-year in hate speech, ridicules or jail and fine which may ex- abuses others on the basis tend to `5,000. The draft of of religion, caste, sex, etc. the Criminal Law (Amend- “Whoever on grounds of re- ment) Bill, 2018 clarifies ligion, race, caste or com- that “means of communica- munity, sex, gender identi- tion” will include “any in- ty, sexual orientation, place formation, audio, video or of birth or origin or such combination of both trans- other grounds relating to ra- mitted, retransmitted, and cial features or to racial be- sent through any telecom- haviour and culture or to racial cus- munication service, communication toms, residence, region, language, device or computer resource” .

Third Eye by The Delhi government’s draft policy Ajit Pathak on road safety describes road accidents as a public health issue. The policy emphasises on the rights Amit Bhai ! we are in the of pedestrians and cyclists and Þnal over of the Indian claims that the victims of the road Political League ; let us accidents are mostly people from hit every ball ! the poorer sections of society. The policy envisions reduction in the road accidents cases by 30% from 2018 to 2020. It also claims that the road accidents will be scientifically investigated within three months determine the cause and measures. Policy is being put in public domain for suggestions and objections.

The world’s first ever ‘ladies special’ train was started between In about 140 characters Churchgate and Purushottam Agrawal Raina Singh @raina_singh_ @puru_ag *Only civil engineers should opt Borivali As an unabashed Nehru for civil services* fan, I thank hon’ble As per this logic, only Amazon PM and his ‘entire knowledge’ for Prime user should stand up for the post of on May 5, 1992 bringing Nehru back to daily news. Prime Minister. #BiplabDebLogic Source: Indian Railways

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For subscriptions contact Devendra Kumar l [email protected]. l +91 9999140365 For sales contact Ragini Shrivastava. l [email protected]. l +91 9999673653 INTERVIEW / Ashis Nandy “Clear decline in the softer side of life”

Ashis Nandy, India’s pre-eminent intellec- tual of our times, completes 80 years. To celebrate the occasion, Ramin Jahanbegloo and Ananya Vajpeyi have put together a col- lection of essays, tributes, gifts and conver- sations. Here is an extract from a long, free- wheeling interview the two editors had with Nandy.

Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent Edited by Ramin Jahanbegloo and Ananya Vajpeyi Oxford, 367 pages, `750

Photos: Arun Kumar 8 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 RJ: How about yourself? When you look back RJ: We haven’t gone much into your status as at sixty years of intellectual work, is there a public intellectual in India. I wanted to know anything you wanted to do but you haven’t what the challenges have been. done? AN: First, I want to make it clear that I don’t take AN: Many things. The book on the violence of Par- that epithet called ‘public intellectual’ seriously. tition is not yet written. I will write something but For, if you are an intellectual as opposed to an ac- it will not be what I had thought of, I am sure of ademic, you are automatically sensitive to public that. There is a huge empirical part of the study, life and know your public too. I don’t think I will have the energy to finish the responsibility. Because it is book I had thought of writing on Partition. your job to look at the world I also wanted to write a book on chess, as a and comment on it, not counterpoint to my book on cricket. When you wait till the final weighty “I don’t take that have written out a chess game, you have said ev- academic judgement is pro- epithet called ‘public erything about it. Writing chess is like writing nounced, which comes af- mathematics. Once you write it out, there is noth- ter the generation that lived intellectual’ seriously. ing more to say. All the interesting books about in that world is dead. That For, if you are an chess are about chess players, and how eccentric is what I learnt during the they were or are. Wilhelm Steinitz and Bobby Fish- Emergency, that either you intellectual as opposed er, both world champions, were grand eccentrics. write when the chips are to an academic, you Steinitz, it is said, once while playing a match, peed down or you don’t write are automatically out of a window in front of the entire audience, at all. What is the point of instead of going to the washroom. political psychology if you sensitive to public cannot comment on the life and know your RJ: Steinitz actually challenged God in chess? Emergency when it faces It is well known that he has challenged God you right here and you are public responsibility. and he said he had won. sitting in the belly of the Because it is your job AN: In cricket, it is difficult to attain such levels of beast? eccentricity. Perhaps because it is a team game. But to look at the world and still, after you have written out the statistics of a RJ: So you believe in what comment on it, not wait cricket match, you have said almost nothing about Jean-Paul Sartre used to till the final weighty the match. It is a game in which personality unfolds. say – that an intellectual They’ve partly destroyed it now, with the T20s and is a person who meddles academic judgement is ODIs. Scores have become important, victory even in things that are not his pronounced...” more so. That’s not cricket. Cricket is a game where business? a glorious defeat can outshine a victory, any day. AV: So, by definition, an intellectual is already RJ: That’s very interesting. I thought that engaged in public life? eventually if we ask any social scientist or AN: Yes, by definition. Or I wouldn’t call him an political scientist or psychologist what is going intellectual. That is why I am not interested in that to be her or his magnum opus, he certainly old Soviet-style social realism. Because even if you would talk about a book on theory. But you are writing a love poem or painting an innocent say one of your magnum opus would be about landscape, in some way you are revealing some- chess or cricket. thing of yourself, your society and your culture. AV: I think he is talking about one of his Also, your dissatisfaction with and criticism of the missed opportunities or incomplete projects, world you lives in and your hopes about it. No art, not the magnum opus. To me, the big book you no literature, no science is entirely a product of should write is on music. one person. It is equally a product of one’s times AN: I am not saying I won’t write it. I would have and your location. You, Ramin, can be in Toronto written it… and in New Delhi, but you carry within you Iran and, don’t forget, Persia. RJ: On Indian music? AN: Actually, on the musicians and culture of Indi- RJ: In medieval times, philosophy was an classical music. Perhaps, if not a book, a series considered the mother of all sciences. Today of two or three essays. By the way, a majority of my in universities across the world, not only do books were not planned as books, they emerged they close the departments of philosophy, as books. they don’t hire any philosophers. Most of the

www.GovernanceNow.com 9 money goes to the law life, your eighty years of life and sixty years of schools and the business vibrant intellectual life, you are satisfied with “I think we have not schools. what you did, at the level of social psychology, AN: I am aware of the facts of social intervention, writing, everything. Are taken care to keep this this discipline because I have there any moments or anything which leaves society as humane as gone into this. Three hundred you unsatisfied? private universities have AN: Yes, I think we have not taken care to keep this it was. The removal come up in India; except Ma- society as humane as it was. The removal of pov- of poverty may be a nipal, all other universities erty may be a good project, but in the name of re- good project, but in are recent. Three hundred moving poverty, we have released forces that have universities, and not one has made us more brutal, more ruthless, and more the name of removing a proper department of phi- exploitative. You have mentioned my serenity but poverty, we have losophy and not one proper underneath it I am deeply saddened that I am leav- department of literature. ing behind for my children and grandchildren a released forces that What they have in the name world where graciousness, compassion, and em- have made us more of literature is English litera- pathy are in short supply and there is diminish- ture which actually teaches ing respect for the marginalized and the cornered. brutal, more ruthless, you English of the kind which There is a clear decline in the softer side of life. and more exploitative. will ensure your survival in You have mentioned a highly competitive English- AV: You see this also as a personal failure? speaking technocratic world. AN: Yes, I think we were too involved in finding in- my serenity but So, after you have done an stitutional solutions to our problems and too busy underneath it I am engineering degree, you can training our children to be successful profession- go take that course. als and wage-earners. In the process, we have de- deeply saddened...” veloped institutions that can always be better ma- RJ: If somebody comes nipulated by the clever, and the conniving and by and reads this interview in the psychopathologically inclined. n twenty or thirty years’ time he will get a feeling of serenity in what you said. Because it seems This excerpt is reproduced with the publisher’s to us that when you are looking back at your permission.

10 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 people politics policy performance ashish asthana Law and Society

Boys and girls Hasty ordinance on rape of minors is populist. It must be inclusive

Gajanan Khergamker staying, even being replayed ruthless- the recent past following the December ly, in memory with continual mention 2012 gang rape in Delhi, followed by and recall that compound its severity. the justice Verma committee constitut- It’s this outrage that offsets any chance ed in its aftermath to recommend legal f all offences, it’s the of the very objectivity needed to tackle reforms to curb sexual assault crimes. crime of rape that the issue. The Kathua crime followed Incidentally, in its report, the commit- fires public sentiment by the ordinance on ‘child’ rape is a tee said the introduction of death pen- the most, eliciting an case in point. alty for rape “may not have a deterrent outrage that exceeds The fulfilment of retribution, a vital effect” and recommended enhanced the seemingly worst outcome of legal punishment, is at the sentence of jail for the remainder of felony of all – murder core of the populist support for death life. Otoo. It has probably more to do with as a sentence. The national outcry for And, that led to the Criminal Law the offence and associated gory details death for rapists was first initiated in (Amendment) Act in which the very

www.GovernanceNow.com 11 people politics policy performance

Law and Society

definition of rape was expanded to in- of consent, a section on marital rape Law (Amendment) Ordinance pro- clude various acts in addition to vagi- and amendments in the Armed Forces vides for stringent punishment of a jail nal penetration and a new Section (Special Powers) Act so no sanction is term of minimum 20 years or life im- 376 (A) which states that if a person needed to prosecute an armed force prisonment or death for rape of a girl committing the offence of sexual as- personnel accused of a crime against a under 12 years. Amendments to the sault, “inflicts an injury which causes woman were disregarded by the gov- Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Proce- the death of the person or causes the ernment while framing the Criminal dure Code, the Protection of Children person to be in a persistent vegetative Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013. from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and state, [that person] shall be punished This was a given considering the exec- the Indian Evidence Act were made to with rigorous imprisonment for a term utive action though democratic in let- underline the same. The president the which shall not be less than twenty ter is often populist in spirit. very next day gave his assent to the or- years, but which may extend to impris- Cut to Kathua, five years later in dinance which has now become law al- onment for life, which shall mean the 2018, when following the abduction, beit temporary. remainder of that person’s natural life, rape and murder of an eight-year-old Accordingly, the minimum punish- or with death.” Death was included as girl near this town in Jammu and Kash- ment for rape has been increased from a punishment for rape for the first time mir in January, the opposition and the seven years to 10 years; the maximum in India’s penal history although only media made another national outcry punishment remains the same – life when the act caused the victim’s death for death – this time around for the imprisonment. A new clause (3) has or caused the victim to be in ‘a persis- rapists of the girl child – flaying the been added to Section 376 prescribing tent vegetative state’. state and the legal machinery for fail- the minimum punishment of 20 years The trigger for the latter provision ing to protect the girl child. On April to a person committing rape on a wom- was the Aruna Ramchandra Shan- 21, the union cabinet approved a crim- an under 16 years of age and a new baug case wherein the victim – a nurse inal law amendment ordinance seek- Section 376AB has been inserted which in Mumbai – spent 42 years in a veg- ing to amend the IPC, the Evidence Act, prescribes the minimum punishment etative state because of sexual assault, CrPC and the POCSO Act. The Criminal of 20 years rigorous imprisonment to leading to a national debate on eutha- a person committing rape on a woman nasia and a concurrent review of the less than 12 years of age. Such a per- very definition of rape in the law. The son can be awarded capital sentence accused, in this case, had served two While POCSO was as well. Sections 376DA and 376DB concurrent seven-year sentences and gender neutral, the provide minimum punishment of life could not be tried for rape owing to imprisonment for persons involved in the limited reach and interpretation of amended Section 376 gang rape of woman aged less than 16 the law. At the time of Aruna’s death to mentions the word years and 12 years respectively. pneumonia in 2015, the accused was The ordinance, once again a married and living with his family in “woman” meaning that kneejerk reaction from the executive a village in Uttar Pradesh. Section 376 provided, a half-baked solution but (A) aimed to plug that anomaly in In- those guilty of raping risks being overwhelmed, this time, for dia’s law on rape. boys below the age of being bad in law. It is in direct viola- Also, in case of “gang rape”, per- tion of Articles 14 and 16 of the consti- sons involved regardless of their gen- 12 years would not be tution that guarantees equality before der shall be punished with rigorous subject to the death law. According to Article 14, the state imprisonment for a term which shall shall not deny to any person equality not be less than twenty years but may penalty provision. It before the law or the equal protection extend to life and shall pay compensa- has created an anomaly of the laws within the territory of In- tion to the victim which shall be rea- dia. It also prohibits discrimination on sonable to meet the medical expenses where the same crime grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or and rehabilitation of the victim. That committed against place of birth. The ordinance, now with ‘regardless of their gender’ insertion force of temporary law, discriminates to the section was initiated to include a girl and a boy is between a male child and a female women perpetrators involved in rape treated differently and child. All the amendments pertain to by dint of their support, connivance or the girl child only, thus are violative of abetment to the act of rape. contradicts the spirit of the right to equality and can be ques- However, highly progressive sug- a gender-neutral POCSO. tioned for their constitutionality. gestions recommended by the com- So, the union women and child de- mittee that included reduction of age velopment ministry, less than a week

12 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 after the ordinance was promulgat- a post-mortem and instead bur- ed, is set to move the cabinet seek- ied his body swiftly. The body ing approval for the same punish- was exhumed but investiga- ment for those guilty of sexually tors felt that extracting evi- abusing young boys of the same dence of any sexual assault age. While POCSO was gender would be difficult as it had neutral, the amended Section decomposed badly. The rape 376 mentions the word “wom- of minor boys is a reality an” meaning that those guilty that is mired in secrecy ow- of raping boys below the age ing to the stigma attached of 12 years old would not to the offence. Even be subject to the death pen- families of the victims alty provision. It has cre- are reluctant to initi- ated an anomaly where ate investigations. the same crime Now, there is a committed against unique legal situ- a girl and a boy is ation here. Crimes treated differently and who consumed rat poison to com- against minor girls contradicts the spirit of a gender-neu- mit suicide in 2017 and made a decla- below 16 and below 12 fetch a mini- tral POCSO. ration of being ‘raped’ multiple times mum life imprisonment and maxi- A proposal to amend Sections 4, by four men who had threatened to kill mum death for the latter while crimes 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act, which will his entire family, before succumbing to against minor boys fetch a minimum make rape committed against “any multiple organ failure. His 10-year-old of seven years and a maximum of life child” below 12 punishable with the friend had died earlier allegedly due to imprisonment. This anomaly will per- death penalty is now been prepared ‘dehydration’ and his parents refused sist till the relevant sections in POCSO and will be sent to all stakeholder min- are amended and the quantum of pun- istries after which the cabinet will be ishment enhanced – which is, at the approached. At present, Sections 4, 5 earliest, in the next parliamentary ses- and 6 deal with aggravated penetra- Now, there is a unique sion. So, rapes against minor boys dur- tive sexual assault on children under ing the period between April 22, when 18 years; currently punishable with up legal situation here. the ordinance was promulgated, and to 10 years in jail, extendable to life im- Crimes against minor sometime during the next parliamen- prisonment, under the POCSO Act. tary session – in July, August or Sep- The ordinance promulgated on girls below 16 and below tember 2018, when the amendment to April 22 will have to be approved by 12 fetch a minimum the POCSO Act takes place, will fetch a parliament within six weeks of reas- minimum of seven years while rapes sembling, failing which it will cease to life imprisonment and against minor girls fetch a minimum of be functional. And by the time parlia- maximum death for life imprisonment. ment reconvenes, and the ordinance The differential treatment of the is approved, the women and child de- the latter while crimes law is triggered by a swiftly drafted or- velopment ministry will try to get the against minor boys fetch dinance flawed with a lapse that will POCSO amendments approved and have to be corrected soon. Compound- made part of the common law. a minimum of seven ing the bias in the perception have The sexual abuse of minors at Apna years and a maximum of been sections of an apathetic media Ghar, a children’s home in Rohtak, and a trigger-happy opposition set on Haryana is a case in point where it was life imprisonment. This coercing the present government into revealed that several minor boys were anomaly will persist till conceding to errors and in public do- sexually abused by the accused who main. In the absence of motivated sup- ran the children’s home. The trauma the relevant sections port for the ‘boy’ child as is the case suffered by minor boys could in no in POCSO are amended with the ‘girl’ child in India, it will rest way be considered any lesser to that upon the government to set the law suffered by girls in their place. Treat- and the quantum of right. Knowing this government, it ing them differently makes little legal punishment enhanced. should...and will! n sense. It may be also pertinent to recall the case of a 13-year-old Mumbai boy [email protected]

www.GovernanceNow.com 13 people politics policy performance arun kumar Economy

Our jobs, their jobs

Some govt-affiliated economists are trying to browbeat the data, but what about the obvious indicators of rising unemployment?

DS Saksena director of CMIE, observed that the According to Vyas, only 1.4 million claim of creation of 15 million jobs was jobs were added in 2017. On May 2, we absolutely false; rather incomparable have an article by Arvind Panagariya, tatistics has come a long way data sets, cherry-picking, and dubious former vice-chairman of the NITI Aay- from the time when British statistical analysis were behind the og, in the Times of India, in which he prime minister Benjamin claims of robust employment growth. claims that instead of the generally ac- Disraeli observed: “There cepted figure of 12 million job entrants are three kinds of lies: lies, in a given year, the number of job en- damnedS lies, and statistics.” Statistics trants is only 7.5 to 7.8 million per year. At the time when Sri is now an accredited branch of applied This has naturally left lay readers quite mathematics; statistical methods are Ram’s forces were confused; all economists involved in routinely used to prove or disprove camping just across this debate are well respected yet all theories in fields as apart as econom- are canvassing diametrically opposite ics and medicine. Statisticians would, Lanka, Ravana’s statistics, a bit like the doubt being cre- however, shudder to see the use to ministers were telling ated over the outcome of the battle of which statistics is put in the current Haldighati. Indian political discourse where every him to sit tight because Anecdotal evidence suggests that mistake known to statistical analysis is Sri Ram’s army was we are going through an employment deliberately committed to prove doubt- crisis, with the IITs reporting place- ful hypotheses. a piddling force! This ment of hardly 60% students. Engi- Proceeding from pre-determined neering and management colleges conclusions and relying heavily on prompted Goswami which had mushroomed in the eco- a priori reasoning, many columnists Tulsidas to observe: nomic boom of the first decade of the quote selective statistics to prove millennium are shutting down at an doubtful political points. In an article “When gurus, doctors alarming rate. More than 3 crore ap- in the Indian Express on April 28, re- and ministers start plications were received for 90,000 lying on CMIE data, Surjit S Bhalla, Class 3 railway jobs. An advertisement well known economist and a member talking sweetly out of for recruitment of 1,137 constables of prime minister’s economic advi- fear then religion (and in Mumbai Police has got more than sory council (EAC), concluded that 15 2 lakh responses, which comes to million jobs were created in 2017, as knowledge), health and around 175 candidates for each post. against an average of 4 million jobs per the nation are quickly Applicants included three doctors, year in the UPA regime. Shortly there- five lawyers, 167 MBAs, 423 engineers after, in another article in the Indian destroyed.” and a large number of post-graduates. Express, Mahesh Vyas, the managing Such instances underline the lack

14 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 of suitable opportunities in the job labour department’s quarterly survey forwarding the government’s agenda market. However, a conjoint reading has been done away with, to be re- through their writings. of what Panagariya and Bhalla have placed by monthly payroll data in the This entire episode reminded me of written would have us believe that organised sector. After it showed un- some ancient wisdom from the Ram- job creation is galloping at twice the employment at an all-time high of 5 acharitamanas. At the time when Sri rate at which job-seekers are entering percent in 2015-16, the government Ram’s forces were camping just across the job market. This is pure humbug; discontinued the Annual Survey of the Lanka, Ravana’s ministers were telling at last count 4.83 crore jobseekers Labour Bureau; a case of shooting the him to sit tight because Sri Ram’s army were registered with the employment messenger who brings ill tidings. was a piddling force! This prompted exchanges out of which a paltry 3.39 The whole debate about the employ- Goswami Tulsidas to observe: “When lakh had been placed. The current ment situation has its genesis in the gurus, doctors and ministers start talk- year’s professional tax collection for electoral promise of the ruling party of ing sweetly out of fear then religion Maharashtra fell dramatically and generating 1 crore jobs per year. Per- (and knowledge), health and the na- was the lowest in the last five years; haps in desperation, recently, the PM tion are quickly destroyed.” which would not have been the case suggested that a pakoda seller should Unfortunately, this saying appears had the conclusions drawn by Pan- be counted as a person with good to be coming true for us. Fearing the agariya and Bhalla been correct. means of employment, which led to the loss of goodwill, teachers in our top- The World Bank has expressed con- proliferation of a number of pakoda notch schools rarely admonish their cern over the lack of formal jobs in the jokes. On a more serious note, obfusca- students, doctors in five-star hospitals Indian economy while some home- tion of an emotive issue like unemploy- seldom give bitter medicine and min- grown economists have estimated ment may prove counterproductive. isters keep busy congratulating them- that we would need a growth rate of One may recall the India Shining cam- selves on their excellent performance; 17-18 percent to employ all job aspi- paign of 2004; the electorate refused to even when all indicators like law rants. Demonetisation, GST and now be convinced that India was shining, and order, employment, agricultural bank frauds have all taken a heavy leading to the defeat of the incumbent well-being keep turning increasingly toll on the job market. Ambitious pro- government. negative. grammes for job creation like Make in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said: “It is We are lucky to have a press which India and Skill India have not taken a capital mistake to theorise before exposes politicians and their cohorts. off. one has data. Insensibly one begins The only danger is that academicians Such a depressing scenario would to twist facts to suit theories, instead would lose all credibility if self-serving merit all-out efforts to rekindle the job of theories to suit facts.” The suspect theories, based only on doubtful facts, market but the government seems to statistics relied upon by Bhalla and continue to be churned out at the pres- be working in an entirely new direc- Panagariya fully fit this narrative. Be- ent rate. n tion; they would rather deny the exis- ing closely aligned to the government, tence of any crisis in employment. The these gentlemen appear to be intent on Saksena is a retired IRS officer.

www.GovernanceNow.com 15 WHITHER DEMOCRACY? Metamorphosis

16 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 Ashish Asthana

Metamorphosis Ajay Singh

With the Karnataka t could have been the office of a start-up; only the posters on the walls made it clear that this was what has come to be known elections, as ‘party war room’ – the hub where po- litical strategists and party cadres come democracy enters together to chart out their work. Their work is to help the party and its candi- a new age in which datesI grab more and more votes. War rooms were laid out all over Karnataka, in starred hotels and plush houses. The BJP top brass was the voter stands meeting at a home in the upscale locality of Mallesh- waram north-west Bengaluru, those of the ruling Con- reduced to a robot gress at a similar venue on Cunningham Road. A motley crew of young professionals – techies and MBA types, at home with gadgets and jargon – pored over Excel sheets and PowerPoints on their laptops and large-size mobile phones. In another corner of the hall, a bunch of veter- ans discussed voter feedback gathered in the old-fash- ioned way of actually interacting with people. Were they nostalgic about past battles, and trying to recall the les- sons they had learnt in dusty rallies? Were they trying to come to terms with the new age of flamboyant, technol- ogy and data-driven election campaign? At any rate, the marriage of politics and big data has finally happened, not surprisingly in the tech hub of India, Bengaluru. There have been elections before in which cyber technology – especially social media – played a major role, as in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But, the first election in which the whole of the hi-tech armoury was deployed is the one that just ended – the Karnataka assembly elections. This was also the first elections in India after the Cambridge Analytica fracas hit the headlines. This Lon- don-based company (which calls itself ‘political consul- tancy’ and has a tagline that says ‘Data drives all that we do’) is accused to have illegally harnessed person- al data from Facebook, collected through the bait of a game, and used it for political purposes. To simplify, if a party (or a candidate) has a good idea of the political views and likes-dislikes of as many voters as possible, it can use this information to fine-tune its own outreach to voters and influence their votes. Though the internet and social media penetration in India is yet to achieve a critical mass, it is getting there faster and faster, and

www.GovernanceNow.com 17 WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

a new ploy like this can indeed decide the outcome will do all the micro-planning for the candidate – when elections are won and lost over a margin of for the right price. a few thousand votes. While l’affaire Cambridge Big money meets Big Data Analytica rang alarm bells for Which brings us to the second aspect of the twin at- In the time it takes to say the law-enforcement agencies tack on the gullible voter: funds. This was arguably worldwide, it seems to have also the costliest election of its kind in India so far. ‘Cambridge Analytica’, only inspired new-age political Money and muscle power are now replaced by a techie would have consultants in India. They are money and data power – at least in our own Sili- also helped by the alleged loop- con Valley as yet. In place of social engineering, it is scanned your digital holes in data and privacy laws time for social-media engineering. The Karnataka presence, sussed your here. election marks a complete transformation of Indi- political preference, If war rooms look like start- an politics. It is totally unrecognisable to those who up offices, that is no coinci- watched candidates slogging day and night, ad- spammed you or dence; many are indeed staffed dressing rallies and going to as many homes as pos- insidiously fed you with and run by tech start-ups from sible, folding their hands before voters and seeking Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune. their blessings. social media inputs that Their techies and marketing If you have any doubt, consider this vignette: a might swing your vote experts have developed tricks candidate walks into the war room of a national to get whatever relevant data party and demands `30 crore to counter his main the way s/he wants. In that can be gathered about as rival’s aggressive campaign. There is no reason to Karnataka, it’s happening. many voters as possible – and believe his demand was not met, and that would Now. also apps to track any changes mean the particular assembly constituency would in voters’ thinking as the vot- have witnessed a spending upward of `60 crore by ing day comes closer. Voters’ any conservative estimate. phone numbers and email IDs Here is another vignette: a candidate of a na- too have been collected, not always through legal tional party is believed to have told one of his sym- routes. There are agencies available for hire that pathisers that he had earmarked `50 crore only for

bjpkarnataka.org 18 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 Twitter/Siddaramaiah

his assembly election. In effect, he was promising to geeks were out to manipulate their behaviour. In distribute nearly `7,000-10,000 to each voter. any case, voters’ intelligence Karnataka was stinking with cash in this no- may not be a match for arti- holds-barred battle. So much so that when ATMs in ficial intelligence backed by many parts of the country went dry for many days the razzmatazz of the mon- Voters are no longer in March, it was blamed on this election. Ironical- ey power. Pushed out of the ly, the state’s most critical political happening was agenda were all the issues thought capable of mired in slush cash. Digital money was missing. that mattered to the citizens exercising their own (read the report in the follow- Pointless blame game ing pages). judgement. Armed with Who is to be blamed? One can hear BJP leaders pro- As you are now analysing data about them, political testing as vehemently against the Congress as the results for caste and regions Congress against the BJP. HD Deve Gowda and his trends, these code writers war rooms manned by son HD Kumaraswamy who lead another impor- and brand consultants are techies out to manipulate tant regional outfit, Janata Dal (Secular), were aim- right now analysing which their behaviour build ing to play the kingmaker in the eventuality of a trick worked and which hung verdict, and are not above blame either. needs to be tweaked. For a sphere of influence By the time you read this, the result would be out. they are preparing for the big around them, hoping it Irrespective of who wins the Karnataka elections, it gamble next year. marks the beginning of a new trend in politics – the Democracy in its content will make them vote the tendency to treat voters like robots who respond may remain intact but it will way a party wants. to a software program through remote control. be flagrantly violated in spir- Voters, in this scheme of things, are not supposed it. That is the essence of the to be intelligent enough to decide who to vote for. Karnataka election. n They are reduced to puppets on strings, and armed with all the relevant information about him or her, [email protected]

www.GovernanceNow.com 19 WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

bjpkarnataka.org

Voter, voter everywhere, but not a drop for them to drink… In poll time, politicians talked a lot, on a lot of issues. Curiously, water scarcity was not one of them

Ajay Singh Karnataka has been facing a con- – in a strategic manner. Technology stant drought-like condition for the and data are used to amplify commu- past three years, but the response nication and create a political smoke- from the Siddaramaiah government screen to divert attention from the real ne of the three big elec- could not be any worse. In contrast, issues (see the previous story). Take for tions before the grand the SM Krishna government was bet- example the manner in which water final next year is over. ter at tackling drought in Mysore and issue was cursorily mentioned in the Predictably, there was adjoining regions. But what appears election discourse. Just across Benga- mud-slinging and allega- to be lacking is a consistent approach luru, on the way to Mysore, you’d find tions,O caste equations and mutt visits, to tackle a drought-like situation. In cultivation of paddy and sugarcane. histories and histrionics – with a pinch Mysore and adjoining regions, sug- The region is known as a sugarcane of alternative facts. Thus was lost the arcane and rice are grown which are belt with a thriving sugar industry. opportunity to debate and discuss, water-intensive crops. Since the area Yet the shortage of water is extremely once in five years, the issues that mat- becomes arable only if Cauvery water acute. The Cauvery river that is the life- ter – or should matter. And there was is supplied, it is essential now to devise line for social economy of the region is no dearth of such issues, as we found methods of harvesting rainwater and practically dried up. traversing through the state. use modern agricultural technology In a state where agriculture is quite Consider the water scarcity. When like drip irrigation to reduce consump- diverse, technology can be used to the South African city of Cape Town tion of water. A strong commitment maximise the usage of water for ag- was running out of water in March to make Karnataka use its water re- riculture. At the same time, there can this year, media outlets speculated on sources judiciously and conserve wa- be serious discussion on protecting the fate of other cities. In one listicle, ter in the region would find resonance the green cover to conserve water and Bengaluru was named as one Indian among people. In the entire state with build structures to harvest rain water. city most likely to meet the fate of Cape diversified crop and growing urban- In and around Bengaluru, water tables Town very soon. The ‘Fifth Metro’ has isation, a commitment to make plans have gone down to alarming levels. been suffering from perennial water to conserve water and create a prom- The forest cover is gradually dwindling woes. Then, how surprising it would ising futuristic scenario will find wider thanks to the thriving business of tim- be that, when the once-in-five-years acceptability. ber mafias. The mining of sand is an is- vote time came, people and politicians While travelling across the state, one sue which is nagging people who have of this city debated all and sundry mat- got a distinct feeling of voters being ad- to purchase it at an exorbitant cost. ters but not water? dressed and treated – rather, targeted The non-availability of sand and its

20 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 jds.ind.in Twitter/INCKarnataka

Voter, voter everywhere, but not a drop for them to drink… Among other issues ignored amid the election din 1. Actual nitty-gritty of governance As the din of election campaign reached its peak, the debate went further and further In poll time, politicians talked a lot, on a lot of issues. Curiously, water scarcity was not one of them in the past – from K Thimayya to Bhagat Singh – and less and less was said about the future of the state. How did the two main contending parties plan to take the state on the path of development? Urbanisation in Karnataka is chaos, giving free hand to reckless mining with the help of sitting land mafias and corrupt real-estate developers. A concrete roadmap for urbanisation in legislators, mostly of the Congress, has the state would have found better resonance among people. Beyond the platitudes of caused a lot of social resentment. manifestos, little was said about the specific roadmap for governance. While travelling along the highway connecting Bengaluru to Tumkur, Chi- 2. Past track-record tradurga and Chennagere, one passes The Congress had ruled the state for the full five years, and the other contender, the BJP, through a beautiful landscape dotted had not only ruled the state earlier, but has been in power at the centre for four years by splendid hillocks. But most of these now. Yet, both sides seemed shy of debating, comparing and publicly evaluating their hillocks look barren as reckless cutting achievements. When this was attempted, it was more to show the other in bad light. of trees has turned the region as ecolog- For example, Congress campaigners frequently told their audiences, largely comprised ically fragile zone. Mahima Patel, JD (U) of voluble urban voters, that the NDA government at the centre despite its majority candidate from Cehnnagere and son of had little to show. This question did get traction among a section of people who were former Karnataka chief minister JH Pa- divided on caste and communal loyalties. The BJP, in turn, responded by arguing that tel, said he was involved in a campaign the Congress had done little over six decades. for reforestation of the area which faced destruction on industrial scale. 3. Social divisions But none of these issues got ad- Though Karnataka is known the engine of India’s IT power, Siddaramaiah’s politics of equately articulated in the din of the divide and rule made it look like Bihar of the Lalu era. The way he propped up one caste election campaign which was punc- against the other, he seemed to be fascinated by the Bihari leader without realising the tuated by fierce rhetoric on sectarian deleterious impact of Lalu’s model. In search of votes, he declared the Lingayat as a lines. If someone talked about Vokka- minority religion. No wonder, among enlightened Kannadigas the prevailing sentiment ligas, Lingayats, Kuruba, everybody was “Save us from Siddaramaiah”. paid full attention. People talked of chief minister Siddaramaiah’s “mas- 4. Parochialism terstroke” in granting the minority re- Historically and culturally, Karnataka has always rejected parochialism of any variety or ligion status to the Lingayats. Analysts social division on caste and communal lines. Karnataka has always chosen the political sought to discern a touch of strategic brilliance in BJP president Amit Shah’s course which is aligned to national politics. This time there was a determined attempt to attempt to co-opt smaller castes falling push the state towards the path of sub-nationalism which as a political tool has failed into the category of scheduled castes or in the states where regional parties are strong. Siddaramaiah’s tactic may prove to be OBCs. n gross injustice for people of the state.

www.GovernanceNow.com 21 WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

Unlike his predecessors like SM It’s Sholay all Krishna, Siddaramaiah is a full-time politician deeply engrossed into his over again vocation in his every action round the clock. And since the ascendancy of the BJP, he understood the necessities of hile driving down from cementing his social base by playing Bengaluru to Mysuru, you inherent contradictions in the society. Wcome across a patch of hill- That was why he decided to declare ocks near Ramanagar whose hillocks the Lingayats as distinct religion other provided the backdrop for the all-time than Hindu. hit Bollywood movie, Sholay. This was Since Karnataka’s social economy where villain Gabbar Singh, played by revolves around thousands of maths inimitable Amjad Khan, delivered that (religious seats) that command over- immortal dialogue, “Kitne aadmi the? weening influence on different castes, (How many people were they?)” The Siddaramaiah desperately tried to dialogue is better remembered for its win over maths and caste groups in style of delivery than content. order to consolidate his political sup- As the voting day came closer, port base and subsume Hindutva. In this dialogue found resonance in the sociological terms, he attempted to region, as the Congress, the BJP and subsume “larger traditions by little Janata Dal (Secular) desperately tried traditions” in the state. His move to to keep their flock together and moti- forge a coalition of ‘AHINDA’ (minori- vate their cadre to outdo the others in ties, OBCs, and dalits) could be a sound the poll campaign. political strategy that is reminiscent of In the core Mysuru region, there KHAM in Gujarat or MAJGAR in Uttar From the are 29 assembly segments which are Pradesh. known to be strongholds of either the Compared to the Congress, the BJP Reporter’s Congress or the JD(S). Former PM HD in the region was a much less signifi- Deve Gowda belongs to the region and cant force given its internal factional Scrapbook is known to have considerable clout feuds. In 2014 and even before, BS among Vokkaligas of the area. His son Yeddyurappa, the party’s tallest leader, and former CM HD Kumaraswamy was marginalised thanks to internal was seen as a potential kingmaker in bickering led by factions owing alle- case of a hung verdict – provided he giance to LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, himself retained his influence among and Ananth Kumar. Yeddyurappa voters. floated his own party and reduced the Travelling across the region, it was BJP to a completely marginal force. quite evident that the Congress and Of course, the BJP’s strategists the JD(S) were the dominant politi- were sharp enough to appreciate the cal forces. For historical reasons, the potential of Yeddyurappa and roped Congress was still a party that can claim to have a significant following across caste groups. For older generations, Indira Gandhi is still an unforget- table icon and debt to whom is weigh- ing heavily in their mind. And Siddara- maiah despite his failing as CM was not a pushover.

22 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 him in as the chief ministerial can- dominance. Nijalingappa mentored individualistic,” Kumar said looking didate for the upcoming election. In Ramakrishna Hegde and many others. forlornly at the hill-dotted landscape posters all across the state, he is given From the 1960s till the ’90s, political of the region which is considered the more than adequate prominence socialism dominated the state before BJP’s stronghold on account of signifi- along with Narendra Modi and Amit it got mutated into a virulent form of cant concentration of Lingayats. Shah to emphasise his numero uno corrupt politics ceding ground to the Kumar said the significance of position within the party’s state unit. BJP. religion in public life was also un- Given his background as a formidable In today’s Karnataka, it would dermined by a section of succeeding leader of farmers and his influence on appear to be a tale from a forgotten socialists who by promoting cronies the powerful Lingayats, the BJP was era to recall that Hegde had resigned able to put up a stiff resistance to the twice as chief minister on moral Congress in nearly a third of the 29 grounds – more so in a scenario where constituencies in the region. the state is believed to be fighting But the party that seemed to be the most expensive elections in the gripped by the ‘kitne aadmi the’ country. Money has just been flowing syndrome was essentially the JD(S). like an unending stream of a mighty This region has been regarded as the river – not Cauvery which is dried up pocket borough of Gowda’s family. for want of water. While driving in the Kumaraswamy claims that legacy, state, one regularly comes across ATM and has been heavily banking on the booths which do not have cash. But support of this region to enable him cash is the king in this election. to assume the role of a kingmaker. In such a setting, the discussion and their own family went against Significantly, Kumaraswamy was about socialism and its old propo- the basic ethos of socialism. “Lohia reconciled to the idea of playing the nents is not only irrelevant but also was quite emphatic about respect- role of a leader who will hold the key ridiculously archaic. This is why Bihar ing people’s sentiment irrespective of to power. And to realise this political chief minister Nitish Kumar was the their religions and castes. He wrote a aspiration, he would be keen only to odd man out when he came here to beautiful essay on Ram, Krishna and retain 30-40 seats that can enable him campaign for the eight candidates of Shiva, and emphasised their relevance to see through his plan. his Janata Dal (United). While driving in contemporary context.” But there is a sting in the tail which down from Bengaluru airport, Kumar An astute politician that he is, Nitish is again borrowed from Sholay in turned nostalgic and said, “This place Kumar was quite aware of the limited which the jailer played by Asrani asks used to be a bastion of the socialist scope of his appeal in Karnataka amid his men, “Aadhe idhar jaao, aadhe leaders ranging from Nijalingappa, the din of an election campaign which udhar jaao, baki mere saath aao (half Virendra Patil, Hegde and JH Patel to is punctuated by high-decibel rhetoric of you go on this side and half on the SR Bommai and HD Deve Gowda – on caste and religion, and is infused other side and the rest come with not to forget the redoubtable George with cash on an unprecedented scale. me)”, without realising that he is left Fernandes. On his way back, he recalled the man- with no one. That is the potential risk Why did socialist ner in which Lohia Kumaraswamy’s strategy may entail. leaders cede space turned around the to parties like the country’s politics only BJP? I asked while Karnataka was once two decades after in- prodding him to a lab for socialist dependence, in 1967, explain his perspec- by helping to throw Decline and fall tive on the decline experiments. That out Congress regimes of a powerful ideol- is no longer true. in many states. In a ogy within a span of political atmosphere of socialism three decades. “You Campaigning there, that reeks with slush see, the problem Nitish Kumar lamented money and subter- uch before Karnataka’s arose as a large the end of an era, and fuges, such memories politics degenerated into a group of socialist alone offer a whiff of Mden of corruption, the state leaders could not the arrival of a political fresh air. n boasted a legion of political leaders cohere as a group atmosphere reeking of like S Nijalingappa who broke off from and also as leaders, These two reports have the Congress and aligned themselves though brilliant in slush money. appeared on First- with a new variant of politics that was their own right, they Post.com in different egalitarian and averse to one-family turned out to be versions.

www.GovernanceNow.com 23 WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

illustration: Ashish asthana A campaign sans vision and road map

Caste, populism and mudslinging through a hit-and-run social media propaganda based on half-truths and outright lies marked the Karnataka election

K Subrahmanya But the social media influenced the There wasn’t any campaign attention course of electioneering in the state far either on the performance of the Nar- beyond merely providing a voice to the endra Modi government at the centre, ordinary voter; it actually dictated the though the prime minister himself led he just-concluded assembly agenda of the election campaign. How- the BJP’s campaigning. The campaign election in the southern state ever, much of the social media con- punchlines by leaders quite often mir- of Karnataka has demon- tent has been negative, frivolous and rored the most trending themes in strated the power, reach, and personal, moving the campaign focus social media. And they fed election- influence of social media. away from key public policy issues. time controversies which did not have Facebook,T WhatsApp and Twitter are In this social media din, no proper much to do with the issues that con- proving to be effective tools of com- scrutiny of the record of the incumbent cern urban and rural voters alike. As munication to people who in the pre- Congress government under Siddara- issues got sidelined, the election man- digital media era did not have an op- maiah could be carried out through the ifestos too got relegated; manifesto portunity to make themselves heard. course of month-long electioneering. launch by rival parties ended up being

24 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 just formalities. If at all a manifesto re- term in office wasn’t inspiring enough away from the saffron party to sup- ceived some attention, it was by way of public confidence in him and his party port the Congress did not seem to have a social media ridicule of typographi- for the voters to consider giving anoth- made much headway. cal and other silly errors that crept into er chance at chief ministership. Similarly, the BJP, which is yet to the Congress manifesto. Thus, in the absence of a focussed make decisive inroads into the dalit Why did the campaign assume such scrutiny of their respective tenures in community, made an attempt to woo frivolous dimensions? Perhaps the office, what with the social media mak- it ahead of the elections. But this too reasons are not far to find. Some of ing all sorts of unsubstantiated alle- did not seem to have yielded desired Siddaramaiah government’s pet Bha- gations and counter-allegations, their results for the party, as the Congress gya schemes – Annabhagya, Ksheer- respective social bases turned out to launched a counter-offensive against abhagya, etc. – figured prominently in be crucial in the mobilisation of elec- the BJP’s alleged neglect of dalits. the campaign theme of the Congress. toral support by rival parties. How- Both the BJP and the Congress also Though populist in nature, some of ever, much as Siddaramaiah and his switched gears to encourage commu- these social welfare schemes of the confidantes would have liked to align nal polarisation – the Congress to con- Congress government have been quite their AHINDA (acronym for minorities, solidate the minorities in its favour to popular. It may be debatable if these backward classes and dalits) plank to the JD-S, which too is a contender for schemes would help securing a re- the campaign strategy, they realised the minority support in the state. The newed mandate for the ruling party, quite early that it may not yield the de- Congress reached out to fledgling Mus- but it certainly provided the theme for sired electoral dividend. Hence their lim political outfits like the Social Dem- a positive campaign (it did not help focus on the Lingayat community, ocratic Party of India (SDPI) to ensure the party in the Lok Sabha elections in which forms the backbone of the BJP’s that they did not split the Muslim votes. 2014). Specifically for this very reason, support base. However, the campaign This was enough for the BJP to launch a the opposition BJP’s strategy did not to wean a section of the community high-pitch Hindutva campaign in parts envisage taking on the Congress on this of the state where it hoped to benefit agenda. Thus, through extensive use the maximum from polarisation of the of social media, the BJP and its army Hindu votes – particularly in the coast- of active supporters on social media al region of the state. platforms pinned down the ruling par- One unexpected offshoot of this ty and Siddaramaiah on some of the kind of a campaign is Siddaramaiah’s more controversial issues during the appeal to the voters in the name of five-year term – be it the weakening of Kannada chauvinism – he projected the Lokayukta institution, the record himself as a champion of Karnataka of senior ministers like KJ George, Ma- and Kannada interests. It is doubtful if hadevappa and DK Shivakumar, and this has benefited him or the party. It the chief minister’s advisors like Kem- is possible that the Congress might find paiaih. The prime minister added his itself vulnerable on this count in elec- bit to this social media-type campaign tion campaigning elsewhere. when he dubbed Siddaramaiah as the A biggest casualty of this kind of 10-percent chief minister. In the absence of a campaigning was the irrelevance of The social media-led campaign Bengaluru in the election-frame of po- drift suited everyone. Besides Siddara- focussed scrutiny of their litical parties. The city’s myriad prob- maiah escaping the adverse scrutiny of tenures in office, what lems, caused mainly due to widespread his performance, for the BJP it helped corruption and administrative apathy, deflect attention away from its forget- with the social media did not receive the attention that they table five years in office between 2008 making unsubstantiated deserved. and 2013. Ahead of the electioneering, allegations and counter- Thus, it was a campaigning in which the BJP’s biggest concern was about no party presented a vision for the state the possibility of a campaign focus on allegations, rival parties’ or a road map for development. Caste, its term in office and BS Yeddyurappa’s social bases turned populism and mudslinging through a leadership. Indeed, without even any hit-and-run social media propaganda prompting, Yeddyurappa, the party’s out to be crucial in the based on half-truths and outright lies chief ministerial candidate, made a mobilisation of electoral marked the election campaigning in point to plead in every public meet- the state. n ing that the people should trust him support. and give him another opportunity. Ob- Subrahmanya is a Bengaluru-based viously, he is aware that the BJP’s last veteran journalist

www.GovernanceNow.com 25 Bengaluru goes a-polling

PHOTOS and TEXT BY RADHA DATTA

This was shot in a slum near Neelasandra. It’s a Muslim-dominated area where people have been fervent Congress supporters. They were enthusiastic about being photographed. Luckily, I was able to get a candid shot of a father- daughter duo trying to find the right pose to get the perfect poster shot. What strongly came across was ‘the Hand’. Here was a father trying to tell his daughter how she should hold up her hand and pose in a certain way. It was a classic example of how political loyalties are passed down to the next generation without the latter realising and understanding the intricacies involved. As if caste, religion and stereotypes weren’t enough, we are now being born labeled with a party stamp. A two-in-one portrait of Dr Ambedkar, the ‘Voice of the oppressed’, is positioned above two people in a magnanimous light. It’s almost tragic that he’s looking in another direction and avoiding eye contact from his people. The neighbourhood – Malleshwaram, not far from the BJP media centre – is home to the lower- income group but is sandwiched between a mall and one of the swankiest localities of Bengaluru. I tried to bring out that contrast out with a tight frame. The little kid at one point had so many scarves in his hand that he found it difficult to keep them safe and in one place at the same time. He copped a squat away from the rally, quickly assembled all the bands and ran back to his rightful place in the rally.

This was shot during PM Modi’s rally in Kengiri. Standing among the large crowd, I chuckled when I saw the mask. It really wasn’t just another face in the crowd. To my surprise, the face behind the mask was that of a 14-year-old boy.

Being a huge ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ fan, when I was forming this frame, the theme tune was thumping in my head. The man and his tribe! Booths like these were set up in a lot of areas where one could hear the PM speak. Next to rallies, auto- rickshaws provided the most preferable option to reach out to the voter. Every party deployed them. I spoke to some auto-wallahs who told me they worked in shifts for different parties. One could be driving around for the Congress in the morning, and the BJP in the evening. people politics policy performance PHOTOS: deepak parvatiyar Reportage

The resemblance to a suicide by hanging is uncanny and stark. This hanging scarecrow near Tikamgarh is an ominous reminder of farmland distress in the Bundelkhand region

30 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 A dry run in Bundelkhand

Yet again, a region synonymous with hardship and farm distress faces up to the tragedy of farmer suicides

Deepak Parvatiyar 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Mad- every year, they go away to Surat, in hya Pradesh. For about 15 years now, Gujarat, to work as labourers on con- the region has become synonymous struction sites. The `200-250 daily wage with drought, farm distress, farmer they earn there is more than what the he paved road, the few suicides. NREGA scheme will give them in their concrete houses and Ram Sanjeevan, Babu’s younger village. men on motorcycles brother, spoke about his death. “On The villagers know that Babu was – these are deceptive April 19 evening, a baraat from our vil- diligent and hard-working. It’s just that signs of development lage had gone to Simra village, some 15 the rainfall has failed the village for in Madralalpur village. km away,” he says. “When Babu didn’t more than three years now. He owned Only a couple of weeks return home that night, we thought even eight bighas in the Chambal ravines. ago, Babu, a 47-year-old he had gone with the baraat. Next morn- All that would grow there was pulses. distressed farmer, had hanged him- ing, the baraatis returned, but he wasn’t But with no rain, even growing daal, Tself from a babool tree. Villagers were with them. We started looking for him. tur, gram or a hardy millet like jowar gathered at his house as his wife, moth- Then a man who herds buffaloes came was impossible. The two tubewells in er, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law and told us he had seen Babu’s body his fields went dry. Not one to give up, were in mourning, flailing their limbs hanging from a tree in his field.” Babu had joined hands with three oth- about on the verandah. Babu’s body The region may have seen many er farmers and taken three bighas of had been cremated, but the grief was farmer suicides, but this was the first better farmland on lease to grow pad- in the air, live and palpable. in Madralalpur. So the villagers are dy. A hailstorm ruined the crop. Madralalpur lies in the Kalpi tehsil apprehensive. Many of them are debt- Babu began to worry about the `2.5 of Jalaun district, formally in the state ridden, like Babu was. His sons Bhan lakh loan he had taken through his of Uttar Pradesh. But it’s bound by Singh and Man Singh, both in their Kisan Credit Card after bank officials cultural identity to the Bundelkhand 20s and married, are worried about called at his house. “On April 17, when region, named after the Bundela Ra- whether the bank he owed money to Babu was in his fields, they came to his jputs who held small kingdoms there will come after them. Like many other house with a debtors list and said he for a couple of centuries from the 14th youths in the village, they have given should pay up immediately. Our moth- century onwards, and spanning about up on farming. For three-four months er, Babu’s wife and daughter-in-law,

www.GovernanceNow.com 31 people politics policy performance

Reportage

we were all there. When he returned Historic lakes and ponds in the region Relatives of Babu, a farmer who hanged from the fields, we told him about are dry. One of the most famous lakes himself, mourn at his house in Madralal- the officials’ visit and he became very here is one spread over 62 acres in pur village, Jalaun district, Uttar Pradesh. tense,” says Ram Sanjeevan, his broth- Panya village. It’s believed to be more (Right) Babu’s sons at the parched field their father owned. Both of them work in er. “He was a very hard-working man, than a thousand years old. The dry lake the cities as labourers but he did not go to work the next day.” stands in stark contrast to the name of There was threshing to be done, but the thresher lies unused. the village, which in local dialect means In Bangany village, water. “Ground water is more than 200 n n n feet below the surface and we have per- “In its election manifesto, the BJP had Tikamgarh district, haps just a month’s supply,” says Latif promised to waive loans of up to `1 Madhya Pradesh, only Ali, a village elder. Some 2,000 people lakh for small and marginal farmers used to live in Panya. Only about 500 owning less than five acres. The Uttar some 150 elderly people people remain. The rest have migrated Pradesh cabinet had even proposed a remain. The young to cities in search of work. waiver of loans totalling `36,000 crore. Another famous pond of the re- We had thought we would benefit,” have all migrated gion is the Buddha Sagar, in Bangany says Nishad, a farmer from Babu’s vil- to Delhi in search of village, in the Jatara block of Madhya lage. “But this has not happened.” Pradesh’s Tikamgarh district. It dates It would have made a big difference work as labourers on to the eighth century, the times of the to a region like Bundelkhand, which construction sites. The Chandela Rajputs, who pre-date the in the last 15 years has had adequate Bundelas, and supported life in the re- rainfall only in 2009, 2012 and 2016. old survive on meagre gion. But it’s dry this year, and all the Last year was particularly hard, and pensions of `150-500. ten handpumps in the village have this year, average rainfall has been just gone dry. The population of the vil- 350 mm against the normal 1,000 mm. lage is about 1,200, but only about 150

32 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 elderly people remain. Everyone else been reported from Bundelkhand in not recognise all of them as such. has migrated to the Delhi NCR region the last 15 years,” says Singh. Once The death of Bikram Aherwal, 39, a for work. The old survive on mea- again, severe drought and water crisis resident of Pattharwada Tola of Kha- gre government pensions of `150-500 is causing a spurt in farmer suicides juraha Bujurg village in Babina block monthly, depending on age. There are but the government quite often does of Jhansi district, is a case in point. 20 widows, who get a pension of `200 per month. For water, they depend on the Paramarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, a Jalaun-based NGO that sends water tankers to villages in the region, helps them build check dams, offers help to needy farmers. Sanjay Singh, who works for the NGO, chimes in, “The ground is rocky, and we had to depend on surface wa- ter or rainfall. Now, there’s no rain, no water, no crop.” Villagers had tried to bore deep to get water but failed. Singh says mahua fruit, obtained from the forests, was a major source of income. Farmers could earn up to `10,000 by picking and selling the fruit, but this time, there was no fruit because of bad weather in March. This has never hap- pened before. “Around 3,000 farmer suicides have Rajkumari, wife of the deceased Bikram Aherwal, with their daughter

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Reportage

Police records say he died on Novem- ber 19 last year, when he came under a train while chasing away animals near his fields. His wife Rajkumari received `5 lakh in accident relief from an insur- ance company too. She says she has all reasons to believe her husband’s death was accidental. But she does concede that he was heavily in debt. Bikram owed the Grameen Vikas Bank `2 lakh. He had taken loans for the treatment of his 10-year-old daugh- ter who has a congenital heart defect. He had borrowed `50,000 from four moneylenders, `18,000 from yet anoth- er moneylender, mortagaged his wife’s silver ornaments for `7,000 at five per- cent interest, and taken away her gold mangalsutra, apparently to raise mon- ey for getting a borewell sunk. Villagers say that hardly four people The Chandela era Buddha Sagar lake in Bangany village of Tikamgarh district (Madhya Pradesh) has been reduced to little more than a puddle have been mowed down by trains in the region in over 20 years, whereas there have been quite a few suicides avail herself of the pension for widows loss was almost 25 to 30 percent more by distressed farmers. So they have and get a job thorough NREGA. than last year. There’s no contingency reason to suspect that Bikram too may But it would still be difficult for her plan yet. In fact, even regular work has have committed suicide. to manage, since the pension and NRE- not been done: villagers complain that Bikram’s younger brother Braj- GA payments are meagre. And her fears soil health cards (which come with rec- man wants a proper inquiry. He too about not being able to get her daugh- ommendations on what crop to sow, has a bank loan of `80,000. “I had bor- ter treated are, alas, well-founded. what fertiliser to use) have not been rowed `32,000 in 2004 for a diesel wa- distributed during the last four years. ter pump. But since there has been no n n n Queries about suicides are stone- crop for the last 10 years, I am unable The government is yet to wake up to walled: officials in the administration to repay the amount. With interest, it the distress call. Sources say that in in Jhansi, for example, say they have no has gone up to `80,000,” he says. Anoth- Jhansi district alone, 313 villages are suicide statistics for this year. Already er brother, Ratiram, too, owes a bank drought-affected, and that agricultural the issue is being politicized. As Beer `80,000. Pal Singh, Jalaun district president of The three brothers had inherited the Samajwadi Party, claimed, he had 4.68 acres, which they divided among In Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi a complete list of suicide cases and that themselves. Bikram, however, had sold he had visited the families to check. “We part of his share for `90,000 for his district, 313 villages are have clear instructions to visit each and daughter’s treatment. “After his death, drought-affected, but every affected family and our party is we don’t know whether our daughter going to make it a big issue in the com- will survive or not,” says his wife Ra- there is no contingency ing state assembly session,” he says. jkumari. She says she’s harassed by plan yet. Officials say But politics apart, what is largely re- moneylenders whom she doesn’t know, quired is the political will and determi- as they aren’t from her village and her they have no statistics nation to get into the root of the crisis. husband never introduced them to her. for farmer suicides. As Anil Singh, a former teacher based She says that the village head refuses in Orai, the district headquarters of to help her renew her BPL ration card. But talk to opposition Jalaun district, said growing multi- The pradhan, though, says he’s unable parties and they have ple crops and adaptation to climate to help because it’s difficult to access change could be two such solutions, the website. Siddhgopal Singh, a pan- lists of farmer suicides, besides training women on water con- chayati raj trainer, says it shouldn’t be all verified with visits. servation methods. n difficult for the pradhan to get the BPL card; besides, Rajkumari could also [email protected]

34 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 people politics policy performance

Infrastructure

Will there be light at the end of the tunnel? It is heartening to note that all villages are now electrified. Let us go beyond the narrow definitions and provide a better life to villagers

Anish Kumar correct is the definition: The govern- We have always argued that the ment considers a village electrified if national aspiration of ‘Transform- it has basic electrical infrastructure ing India’ can’t move ahead with- ny good news which prom- and 10 percent of its households and out ‘Transforming Rural India’, the ises to bring about qualita- public places including schools, local sheer number and persistent urban- tive improvement in the lives administrative offices and health cen- rural opportunity divide lays waste of people, especially in rural tres have power. The extremely faulty a very large humanity. Critically, India, is always welcome. It definition, which needs to be critically India in near-term will continue to Awas heartening indeed to learn that looked into, is silent on the fate of the be overwhelmingly rural in spite of every single village in the country now remaining 90 percent. high economic growth, and the situ- has access to electricity, as announced Meanwhile, the gov- ation around quality by the prime minister on April 29. This ernment is aware education, healthcare is most certainly laudable and should that such claims, even and governance is un- make us all proud. This is especially though officially cor- likely to change with- good news for the stranded India – rect, may not hold if the out urgent concerted which we define as the bottom 1,00,000 logical next steps are national effort. It is villages which have remained stuck in not taken. Therefore, an imperative that in a time warp and not seen the kind of it is working through addition to achieving developments that many other pock- the ambitious `16,320 sustained high rate of ets in India have. However, there are crore Pradhan Man- economic growth (both compelling questions over what this tri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar urban and rural), we means, including its implications for Yojana (‘Saubhagya’) to also bring urgent focus the millions who remain caught in the facilitate free electric- on making the village a crossfire of misery and poverty. ity connections to about better place to live in. When the government of India 4 crore households in rural and urban Electricity is certainly a key resource launched the `75,893 crore Deen Dayal areas. The programme also aims to that holds the potential of driving the Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), provide solar photovoltaic (SPV)-based engine of rural growth. What a trav- there were 18,452 un-electrified census standalone systems for un-electrified esty, be it access to electricity or other villages out of India’s 5,97,464 census households in remote and inaccessible basic human needs such as education villages and on August 15, 2015 the PM villages / habitations, where grid ex- and health, our records remain poor. had announced that all such villages tension is not feasible or cost effective. Our celebrations will remain hollow if would be electrified in 1,000 days. The The scheme was launched in October we don’t go the next mile and ensure target was met ahead of the deadline 2017 and so far just about 14 percent that access to electricity is supple- and this indeed is worthy of apprecia- of the targeted households have been mented with other substantive mea- tion. What is crucial however – and the electrified. sures including access to opportuni- key question is getting lost in the din of The Saubhagya website throws some ties such as better irrigation, markets excitement – to ask is if this means that interesting, and worrying, state-wise and also arresting the migration. we have suddenly brought the strand- data confirming our apprehensions It is a well-known fact that access ed India out of the misery of darkness! about the problems of the stranded In- to electricity does trigger better oppor- Or in simpler words, does this mean dia. Out of the 17 percent of the total tunities for people in developing soci- that all Indians have access to electric- households that need to be electrified eties. We sincerely hope that this en- ity? The answer is no, and this is where as per Saubhagya data, most are in the hanced access and connectivity could the bigger concern lies. states which have remained laggards. trigger the process of change in the It is rather intriguing to note that Jharkhand with only 48 percent elec- stranded India. n the government systems and defini- trification, UP with 58 percent, Odisha tions are a little tricky and at times can with 64 percent and Bihar with 74 per- Kumar is co-lead, Transforming Rural leave us flummoxed. What has made cent display the disparities and high- India Foundation, an initiative of Tata this claim by the government officially lights our thesis of the stranded India. Trusts.

www.GovernanceNow.com 35 PSU Lucknow, Chennai, Guwahati airports to be expanded Watch irports Authority of India’s expan- The new integrated terminal build- Asion and upgradation plan of in- ing of Lucknow airport will have an Railways to monitor food tegrated terminals at Chennai, Guwa- area of 88,000 sq mt along with the ex- hati and Lucknow airports has been isting terminal building, having an area production via AI approved by the of 16,292 sq cabinet commit- mt. It will be ndian Railways’ tee on economic able to handle PSU, IRCTC, has I affairs. combined an- developed an arti- In order to nual traffic of ficial intelligence meet the grow- 13.6 million (AI) module to ing aviation de- passengers. find anomalies in mand, AAI has planned infrastructure The total built-up area of the pro- standard operat- expansion of a few airports like Chennai, posed terminal building of Chennai ing procedure us- Guwahati, Lucknow, Agartala, Patna, airport shall be 3,36,000 sq mt with an ing CCTV footage. Srinagar, Pune, Trichy, Vijayawada, annual capacity to handle 35 million The new technology will enable Port Blair, Jaipur, Mangalore, Dehra- passengers. IRCTC to monitor the base kitch- dun, Jabalpur, Kolhapur, Goa, Rupsi, The new terminal building of Gu- ens across India. The AI module re- Leh, Calicut, Imphal, Varanasi and Bhu- wahati airport will be spread across alises the value of their videos and baneswar with a capex of `20,178 crore 1,02,500 sq mt to handle 9 million pas- photos with vision computing and in the next 4-5 years. sengers per annum. detects an unexpected change or an event that does not conform to the expected pattern using their ma- Job-oriented training for 1,000 Mewat women chine learning algorithms. To begin with, 16 base kitchens EC Foundation, the CSR arm of REC Limited, has partnered with Matrix of IRCTC have been installed with RSociety for Social Services (MASS) to provide job-oriented skill-development high-definition cameras connected training to women in 100 self-help groups in Mewat. As per the project, doorstep to huge monitors for AI vision de- training in stitching, tailoring, embroidery, food processing, beauty and wellness tection. Live streaming of 16 base will be provided to 1,000 women enabling them to gain financial independence kitchens is played all the time. The and raise their family income. The agreement committing financial assistance of system detects anomalies of head `77 lakh from REC to MASS was inked on May 7. gear, uniforms, rodents and mop- ping across kitchens and raises is- sues to be dealt accordingly with by BHEL gets largest hydro Rourkela steel plant blast IRCTC. power project order in Nepal furnace Pravati rebuilt The AI system will be used to im- prove upon catering units. HEL has se- teel Authority of Bcured an order SIndia Ltd’s first for executing 900 blast furnace Par- MW Arun-3 hy- vati situated at SAIL’s NTPC targets 268 billion units droelectric project Rourkela Steel Plant power generation in 2018-19 from SJVN Arun-3 has been rebuilt and TPC has decided to generate 268 Power Develop- is successfully blown Nbillion units (BU) of electricity in ment Company in recently. 2018-19 fiscal, under a memorandum (SAPDC), Nepal. The blast furnace Parvati is rebuilt of understanding (MoU) inked between Once completed, this will be the larg- with state-of-the-art features and ad- NTPC and ministry of power recently. est Hydropower project in Nepal. Locat- ditional capacity. The useful volume of Revenue from the operations is ed in Sankhuwasabha district, the proj- the furnace has increased from 1,139 targeted at `85,500 crore. Parameters ect will substantially enhance Nepal’s cubic metre to 1,710 cubic metre, re- related to financial performance, present installed power capacity and sulting in the expected enhancement improvement in operational efficiency, will contribute significantly to its vi- of production capacity from 0.438 MT capital expenditure, projects sion of utilising its vast hydro potential per annum to 1.015 MT per annum. monitoring, technology upgradation for accelerated economic development. Apart from boosting the production, and HR Management are also part of The order is a testimony to BHEL’s prov- the modern features will help reduce the MOU for the year 2018-19. en technological prowess in executing the dependence on coal which will re- power projects of this magnitude. duce carbon footprint.

36 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 3Rd iNstitutioNal partNer forum 2018 16th may 2018 | the lalit | New Delhi digital tRansfoRmation of psus

Key DigNitaries

• shri sn tripathi, Secretary, Parlia- • shri Rakesh Chopra, Executive Manager (Systems), Western mentary Affairs, Govt of India Director ( IT), RITES Ltd Coalfields Ltd • shri sanjay Jaju, Joint Secretary • shri Kamlakar Kaul, Executive • shri mukesh sareen, General (DIP), Defence Production, Govt Director (IT), TCIL Manager (IT), Air India Ltd of India • shri pramod Bhatnagar, General • shri abhishek agarwal, SVP & • dr. ud Choubey, DG, SCOPE Manager (IS Services - North), CIO, Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd • dr m Ravi Kanth, Chairman & BPCL Ltd • shri ms Rawat, CISO, BHEL Managing Director, HUDCO Ltd • shri Rajiv Chandra, Chief General • shri ambrish tripathi, Sr DGM, • dr. dinesh Kumar likhi, Chairman Manager- IS Strategy, HPCL BEL & Managing Director, MIDHANI Ltd • shri Jayant gupta, Chief General • shri g g agarwal, Head IT, • shri K s popli, Chairman & Man- Manager- IS Infra & Security, HPCL Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd aging Director, IREDA Ltd • shri CV Rao, General Manager • shri Ram Krishan, Head (IT & • shri mV subba Rao, Chairman & (IT), NTPC Ltd CC), Pawan Hans Ltd Managing Director, KIOCL Ltd • dr mukesh arora, General • shri abhay mishra, Jt. General • shri H purushotham, Chairman & Manager (Corporate IT), BHEL Manager (IT) & CISO, RVNL Managing Director, NRDC • shri Ramachandra R parashar, • shri Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, • shri a K Jain, Managing Director, General Manager (CS), NLC India Infrastructure and Government REIL Ltd Services, KPMG India • shri a s Rao, Executive Director- • shri Vijay p mutadak, General • shri Rahul aggarwal, Partner, CISO, ONGC Ltd Manager(IT), Rashtriya Chemicals Cyber Security, PwC India • shri alok Khanna, Executive Direc- & Fertilizers Ltd • shri ankur goel, Director - Sales tor (IS), IOCL • smt savitri srivastav, General & Channels, Polycom India & • shri s V satish, Executive Director Manager (IT), and CISO, NHPC Ltd SAARC (IT), Airports Authority of India • shri sunil Kumar, Group General • shri manish garg, CEO, WeP MPS • shri shailesh tripathi, Executive Manager (IT) IRCTC Ltd • shri sameer advani, Manager – Director (IT), HUDCO Ltd • shri alok nath sarkar, General System Engineering, Fortinet

mobility partNer priNt maNagemeNt partNer uNifieD commuNicatioN partNer

associate partNers exhibitors

www.event.governancenow.com An African salient India’s engagement with African nations is steadily moving from the political to the strategic

Shankar Kumar km north of the main island. Accord- feasible way to build this (naval) facil- ing to Sanjay Panda, a joint secretary ity.” And MEA officials say clarity about on the Indian Ocean region desk at the the base on Assumption Island would ministry of external affairs, the base emerge when Seychelles president o counter Beijing’s aggressive should be completed by 2021. Danny Faure arrives in India for a two- agenda in the Indian Ocean, Indian diplomats are also confident day state visit on June 25. New Delhi is seeking to create that a naval base on Assumption Island, In Madagascar, India has a monitor- strategic bastions in Mauri- a Seychelles territory, will also come ing station since 2003. Neena Malhotra, tius, Seychelles and Madagas- through. Two rounds of talks between a joint secretary at the MEA, says, “Mad- car.T The immediate provocation was the two countries have already taken agascar is important for India’s secu- China’s inauguration of its first over- place: the first was on the sidelines of rity outreach.” The monitoring station seas military base in Djibouti, in the the International Solar Alliance summit keeps an eye on ship movements in the Horn of Africa. in Delhi on March 11, the second on the Indian Ocean. Of late, India has offered Only recently, New Delhi had ex- sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads surveillance technology to many nations tended a $100 million line of credit to of Government meet in London on April in eastern and southern Africa. Partici- Mauritius for buying a multipurpose 19-20. But there is a hitch. The Seychel- pating in an informal dialogue at the In- offshore patrol vehicle, a deal signed lois parliament is yet to ratify a revised stitute of Defence Studies and Analyses when president Ram Nath Kovind was pact between New Delhi and Victoria. (IDSA) on March 27, Shambhu S Kuma- visiting the island nation mid-March. In the first week of April, the Sey- ran, joint secretary (policy) at the min- Following up, it is continuing work on chelles News Agency quoted vice-pres- istry of defence, said, “With the bulk of a naval base in the Agalega Islands, a ident Vincent Meriton saying, “A decla- the east and southern African countries, Mauritian territory lying some 1,000 ration will be made very soon to find a we now have enabling agreements in

38 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 people politics policy performance

Diplomacy

place. We have offered them some of An Indian naval base credit worth $3.1 billion to SADC na- our specialised maritime capabilities. tions, mostly for roads, bridges, fly- In this regard, I would like to mention in the Mauritian overs, power transmission lines and coastal surveillance radar systems.” Be- Agalega Islands is set other infrastructure. sides Mauritius, Seychelles and Mada- Under the new political dispensation, gascar, defence agreements exist with for completion in 2021. Zimbabwe wants good relations with In- Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethio- Another one is likely to dia. Its vice-president Constantino Chi- pia and Zambia in eastern Africa, and wenga met the Indian president in Delhi the southern African countries Lesotho, come through on the on March 23. Besides seeking India’s Botswana and South Africa. TS Tiru- assistance in capacity building and hu- murti, secretary (economic relations) at Seychellois Assumption man resource development, Chiwenga the MEA, says these relationships have island. The navy also has also sought India’s support in the agri- been established in view of a “complex culture sector. Zimbabwe government, set of security challenges” in the Afri- a functional monitoring under president Emmerson Mnangag- can countries. Apart from supplying de- station in Madagascar. wa, has chosen India over China, Brazil fence technologies, India trains military and Belarus for the supply of 500 trac- personnel of these countries. tors and agricultural equipment. New An Indo-French maritime agree- Delhi had agreed to provide them under ment signed on March 11 adds to India’s Prabhu at the summit, which focused on a government-to-government agree- ties with African nations, for it allows healthcare and pharma, agriculture, au- ment at a minimal interest rate. Accord- Indian ships to use French naval facili- tomatives, mining, startups and women ing to sources, the delivery of tractors ties in Djibouti, the UAE, and Reunion in business. Overall thrust of the sum- will start June onwards. Zimbabwe has Island (a French territory in the Indian mit was to increase business interaction also sought increased investment from Ocean, lying to the southwest of Mau- and increase volume of trade between India in coking coal, gold, iron and other ritius). Says Tirumurti, “Our defence India and southern African region. Ac- minerals. engagement with Africa has deepened cording to the ministry, India’s total In Lesotho, the India-funded Ad- in the last few years, thanks no doubt trade with SADC countries witnessed vanced Information Technology Cen- to our political engagement, which has nearly 10-fold increase from $3.7 billion tre was recently inaugurated in the gone to an unprecedented level.” in 2004 to around $31 billion in 2017. capital Maseru. In November last The president, vice-president, and Indian investors have preferred Afri- year, India had sent 500 tonnes of rice prime minister have altogether visited ca. According to the ministry of finance, to Lesotho, which was facing a fam- 21 countries from May 2016 to April India’s approved cumulative invest- ine. Talks are on for developing farm- 2018. President Kovind has just conclud- ment in the SADC countries from April ing and agriculture in the land-locked ed a visit to Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, 1996 to March 2017 amounted to over southern Africa country. It has asked and Swaziland (which, interestingly, $52 billion. South Africa, Mauritius and for over 200 tractors and other farm- maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan Mozambique were top destinations. In ing equipment from India, and sourc- and not China). Continuing the process, fact, SADC countries accounted for near- es say delivery should begin soon. vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu will ly 93 percent of India’s total investment Lesotho’s King Letsie III and Queen visit the southern African countries of in Africa. ONGC Videsh has a stake in Masenate Mohato Seeiso visited India Botswana and Malawi in October. oil and gas assets in Mozambique. Re- in January. Diplomats who have served Another indication of India’s increas- cently, Mozambique approved an ONGC in Africa say India never put so much ing engagement with Africa is New Del- Videsh-led development plan for Golfin- effort in increasing its presence inAf- hi’s engagement with the 15-member ho-Atum natural gas field in the Area 1 rica as now. On May 21, the cabinet ap- Southern African Development Commu- block of the Rovuma offshore basin. To proved the setting up of new missions nity (SADC), on the sidelines of the first ship extracted gas to India, ONGC Videsh in 18 African countries between 2018 ever India-South Africa business sum- will set up a liquefaction plant with a to- to 2021. Full-fledged missions will be mit in Johannesburg on April 29-30. The tal capacity of 12.88 MMTPA in this east opened Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape two-day business summit was themed African nation. India has invested $6 bil- Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Djibou- ‘United by legacy, united for prosperity’. lion in the Rovuma gas field; it will in- ti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, The SADC comprises Angola, Botswana, vest another $6 billion by 2019-20, a se- Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, nior official of the ministry of petroleum Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sey- and natural gas said. Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Togo, chelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanza- African nations have also received thereby, increasing the number of In- nia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. significant financial assistance from dian missions in Africa from 29 to 47. n India was represented by union min- India. As of March 31, 2017, India’s ister for commerce and industry Suresh EXIM Bank had extended 52 lines of [email protected]

www.GovernanceNow.com 39 people politics policy performance

Healthcare

Making palliative care child’s play

A unique healthcare effort in Kerala’s Alappuzha district is doing wonders by roping in children

Sreelatha Menon How it all start? Dr Nisha was posted in Kandallur in Alappuzha district. This was one of the two panchayats where ayurvedic pal- liative care was introduced by the gov- neha Sena is a unique at- ernment in 2017. more about feeling cared and feeling tempt to integrate education Dr Nisha decided to give a novel part of the family. and healthcare by bringing twist to the treatment. She wanted the “I was touched by that incident and school children into the field patients to feel that they were part of decided that palliative care henceforth of palliative care. the family and not dependents, as most was going to be about affection and not SIn Kerala’s Alappuzha district, bedridden patients feel. just medicines,” she says. a government medical officer So in 2017, on the day of Onam, Soon another incident happened has decided to create an army of when the whole state was celebrating, which made her rethink her strategy. student volunteers to be part of the Dr Nisha launched the palliative care There was a family of mother and son. government’s pain and palliative care programme with medicinal plants The son was alcoholic and incapable of programme. in her dispensary and offered Ona doing anything, while his mother lay in As part of the government policy, pudava or new clothes to the patients filth, bedridden. every primary health centre (PHC) of palliative care. Children from the The mother was transferred to an is supposed to have teams of doctors families of palliative care patients old-age home. “But we still felt that and health workers who visit homes were also involved in this initiative. something was missing,” she says. of bedridden or terminally ill patients And it was like a big family gathering. In another case, there was a 45-year- who need home-based care. The After a few months, one of old male patient who was paralysed. doctors are from allopathic, ayurvedic the palliative care patients, His fingers needed to be massaged dai- and homoeopathic streams of Pankajiakshiamma, fell and needed ly. But both his parents were old and medicine. surgery. She was old and not hopeful of asthmatic. This is being implemented all over surviving. So she told her daughter that “Who would take care of him every the state and the patients are allowed when she dies she wants to be wrapped day? We had just one sister and one at- to choose between allopathy and in the same clothes that we were given tendant,” Dr Nisha says. ayurveda treatment. In Alappuzha, a to her on Onam. “Then I thought that I needed an medical officer Dr Nisha NT has further Pankajiakshiamma’s last wish army of people from various families given a boost to this effort by roping in touched Dr Nisha and she felt that her in the community to take care of pal- students in the programme. instinct was right. Palliative care was liative care patients. So I turned to the

40 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 Courtesy: Kandalloor Ayurveda Dispensary

were very moving and made me look at things with new eyes,” she says. Finally before the academic year came to an end this year, Dr Nisha set off for her first trip with the kids. Two of them were going for their first-ever trip to a patient’s home. They were able to visit two homes and it was more like a demonstration trip for the students. Usually Dr Nisha and her two assis- tants cover 10 homes of bedridden pa- tients daily. Dr Nisha as well as the students are excited about their activities after the school reopens in June. “We have divided activities for the team into identifying patients in their neighbourhood and going and talking to them,” she says. The students would usually visit the patients on holidays or Saturdays. In some cases they would visit every day. There are some patients who are paraplegic and have nobody to give Student volunteers for palliative them medicines on time. Their family/ care take oath before they join relatives go out in morning for work, the local dispensary on home locking them inside the house. “In such visits of bed ridden patients cases, we would usually go from the kitchen door to give them medicine,” schools around me. That was the be- held for the children and they were says Dr Nisha. ginning of Sneha sena,” she adds. asked to draw what they thought of “But now we can depend on boys A social change was needed; just palliative care. “The ideas they drew living in the neighbourhood to go and giving medicines would not change give them medicine once a day,” she anything. There was a need to change adds. the approach of families. “It is our re- Dr Nisha’s idea to rope in children sponsibility to take care of our elders. is already a hit in the state. There have And this has to be cultivated in chil- been enquiries from Kannur and Er- dren if we want them to grow up as nakulam districts to replicate the idea. responsible adults,” says Dr Nisha. The Dr Sheela Karlam who is the district patients need mental relaxation, and medical officer of neighbouring even if they are bedridden they need Thrissur is all praise for Dr Nisha’s relief from loneliness, she adds. energy and the uniqueness of her Therefore, involving school chil- “It is our responsibility concept. dren seemed like a good idea. “Kids Dr Karlam has embraced the pallia- will talk or play with the patients, lis- to take care of our tive care scheme Snehadhara as one of ten to their stories, and so on. This was elders. And this has to be her pet projects in the district. She says what I wanted,” says Dr Nisha. that Dr Nisha has given a new direc- But before this, students were given cultivated in children if tion to her. “It is a possibility one must training in primary healthcare in their we want them to grow up explore. She has definitely taken a bold schools. A lecture on palliative care initiative. We can’t deny that experi- was given to students and after that as responsible adults.” ence is the best education. And here about 30 students from the only higher the children would learn to look after secondary school in Kandallur came their own aged relatives in a more em- Dr Nisha pathetic way.” says Dr Karlam. n forward to volunteer as members of Medical officer Sneha sena. Interestingly, a drawing activity was [email protected]

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coNtact us For spoNsorship Ragini Srivastava, +91 9999673653, [email protected] | Prem Kumar, +91 9711888860, [email protected] Vaishali Gupta, +91 8851228362, [email protected] www.event.governancenow.com 4th Railways reforms & Governance conclave 2018 Event Report

L to R: Ashwani Lohani, Railway Board; Vladimir A Finov, Russian Railways; Sergey Stolyarov, Russian Railways; Jean – Marc Fenet, Embassy of France in India; Som Satsangi, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; and Ahmad Shoaib Habibi, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Indian Railways mantra: Consolidation and growth Experts talk about the future of Indian Railways

Vishwas Dass should not lose their jobs”, he said. Traffic congestion on major routes will reduce once the dedicated freight corridor becomes operational, he said. afety, security and punctu- Sinha also briefed the audience about ality are the three most im- the work being done on Mumbai- portant pillars of the Indian Ahmedabad high speed train. Railways, said Manoj Sinha, The Indian Railways is planning to minister of state for commu- have a modern signaling system and Snications (I/C) and minister of state for for this purpose several global com- railways, at the 4th Railways Reforms panies were recently invited to share & Governance Conclave 2018, organ- their technologies. “Top priority is be- ised by Governance Now and support- ing given to change the signaling sys- ed by ministry of railways. tem and adopt the modern one”, Sinha The minister said that the railways is said. a huge organisation with over 13 lakh The railways is also planning to uti- employees. Keeping this in mind, it will lise Internet of Things and machine-to- not run driverless trains, despite having machine communication for improv- the best of modern technology. “People Manoj Sinha ing safety, security and punctuality.

44 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 4th Railways reforms & Governance Event Report conclave 2018

The national transporter is trying to Afghanistan is the regarding the maintenance of tracks have better Wi-Fi connectivity and missing link in and services. A big focus has been giv- wants to install CCTVs at a large scale. terms of connec- en on the development of high-speed The minister said that, however, there tivity. Therefore, trains,” he said. are certain issues in modernising and the government is Sergey redeveloping different stations. But trying to get this re- Stolyarov, strat- these issues will be taken care of. As gion well connected. egy director, RZD most countries are developing their “Afghanistan is work- International rail stations as multi logistics hubs, In- ing on various railway systems and a LLC, Russian Rail- dia too is trying to emulate them. “In- number of other connectivity systems ways, said that in dian Railways can be transformed only to ensure trade and transit through the 2001 structural re- through the adoption of technology”, country,” he said. Rail connectivity is forms were undertaken he said. an important priority of the Afghani- in the Russian Railways with the objec- Ashwani Lohani, stan government, the ambassador said. tive to increase reliability, accessibility, chairman, Rail- Historically Afghanistan did not have safety of rail transport and improve way Board, under- any internal or external connectiv- the quality of transport services and scored the need for ity because of its own problems. “The nationwide economic development. cutting down hier- Asian Development Bank, the World At present, the Indian Railways is archy and feudal Bank, the United States of America and facing some challenges. “In such a sit- systems in the Indi- Iran have committed to improve con- uation, the Russian Railways can ex- an Railways and build- nectivity in the country”, he said. change some good experiences with ing a corruption-free organisation. Lo- Jean – Marc Fenet, the Indian Railways,” he said. The hani said that the country is changing minister – counsel- major result of the reforms undertak- and the government is fully committed lor and head, re- en by the Russian Railways was the towards reforms, improvements and gional economic formation of competitive businesses actions. service, Embassy which were transferred from RZD “There is a lot of difference in the of France in In- company to its subsidiaries in key ar- way things are happening in the coun- dia, said that In- eas such as operating freight, long try now. Consolidation and growth dia has one of the distance and suburban passenger ser- is Indian Railways’s mantra but that largest rail networks vices, and repair and maintenance of has to take place on the back of the re- spread across 66,000 kms, which is coaches. forms. We are looking at reforms at a connected through thousands of sta- Vladimir A Finov, major way and trying to build an or- tions. The railways in India is more head of repre- ganisation that is based on integrity than just a means of transport; it is an sentative office and is corruption-free,” he said. economic asset. “Trains in India serve in India, RZD The Indian Railways is a commer- as a futuristic means of transportation International cial organisation. It is perhaps the only and carry huge number of passengers LLC, Russian organisation of its kind in the world with minimum impact on the environ- Railways, said which is commercial and run purely ment”, he said. that the Indian Rail- by the government, Lohani said. Having an efficient rail network ways is going through In the last five-six months, the kind with good quality coaches and station an im- portant journey of reforms of authority delegated to the field em- links is a critical issue to foster sustain- and development. “The delegation of ployees would not have been possible in able growth nowadays. To achieve this authority to employees is very crucial”, the last couple of decades. “The railways goal, investment is necessary and am- he said. has made the field totally free from su- bitious choices must be made. The Russian Railways is very keen perior officers whose job is to give vi- The French railways is also facing a to help the Indian Railways in mod- sion and direction to the organisation,” new set of challenges. “A new reform ernising and improving its infrastruc- he said. The first phase of delegation of called national rail service has been ture, Finov said. “Russian Railways is powers has been concluded. The second introduced. It is currently being dis- using integrated asset management phase is going on and will continue until cussed in the French parliament”, he system, which is based on big data. In completed. said. India, trials of anti-collision device are HE Shaida Mohammad Abda- The French people are deeply at- going on in three places. Trespassing li, ambassador extraordinary tached to railways as it provides servic- by humans, animals and vehicles on and plenipotentiary, Embassy of es to four million passengers in major the railway track is not only common Afghanistan in India, said that cities. “France is also facing challenges in India but in Russia too”, he said.

www.GovernanceNow.com 45 4th Railways reforms & Governance conclave 2018 Event Report

Som Satsangi, to play an instrumental role in the en- that the railways ex- VP & GM, Enter- tire digital transformation and mod- ists because of its prise Group and ernisation journey of the Indian Rail- passengers. managing direc- ways, said Satsangi. “The company’s The railway tor India, Hewlett association with the Indian Railways stations are like Packard Enter- is more than three decades old and it smart cities as prise, said that from started when the railways decided to they consist almost the Indian and global IT have a passenger reservation system,” all the elements of a companies’ perspective, this is one of the he said. HP Enterprise can have a smart city, he said. Talking about as- best times in India for all the reforms partnership with the railways in three set monetisation and how crucial it is, that have been announced in various to four areas like Wi-Fi, Internet of Malik said, “The railways has already sectors. Things, surveillance system, moderni- started monetising its assets by rede- Information technology will play sation of enterprise resource planning veloping stations like Habibganj and a very important role in various (ERP), one Cloud system and artificial Gandhinagar. The definition of a rail- fields of the Indian Railways like sig- intelligence machine learning. way station is changing. It is no lon- naling, telecom, high-speed train, Amit Malik, managing director, ger a station, it has transformed into a security surveillance and control public sector and services, Cisco In- community hub”. management. dia & Saarc, talked about the impor- He also talked about how important Hewlett Packard Enterprise is going tance of passenger experience. He said workforce modernisation is.

Panel Discussion Attracting investments and strengthening infrastructure

ajaji Meshram, Transport sector expert, said that the investments in the railways have gone up multifold in the pastR 4-5 years. However, the railways’ share has gone down to 35 percent pri- marily because of the chronic underin- vestment. “If you go through various five-year plans, you will find that the in- vestment in road infrastructure was of a very large quantum. Four years back, the annual railway budget used to be around `55,000 crore, which has now ` crossed over 1 lakh crore”, he said. L to R: Kishore Arun Desai, Niti Aayog; SK Pattanayak, IRFC; Sanjay Gupta, Konkan Railway Rajiv Mehrotra, chairman & man- Corporation Ltd; `Khurana, MRVC; Rajaji Meshram, Transport Sector Expert; Rajiv Mehrotra, aging director, RITES Ltd, said there RITES; Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory; and Gouri Thounaojam, is a need to examine why Built Oper- PMI ate and Transfer (BOT) model could not pick up and how the railways is going railway is very typical and the network Recently, a comprehensive pro- to expand the infrastructure. is huge, because of which the safety as- gramme for the development of Mum- He said in the last three to four pect has become very important. bai suburban area has been proposed. years, the railways has increased the The railways is planning to mon- SK Pattanayak, managing direc- pace of attracting investments and this etise the land available to get invest- tor, IRFC, said that the IRFC since its momentum needs to be accelerated. ments for enhancing the suburban net- inception in 1986 has been into railway “We need to get out-of-the-box solu- work. “Mumbai has developed along financing. It started with the financial tions”, Mehrotra said. the railway tracks ever since the first leasing of rolling stock assets in its first RS Khurana, chairman & manag- EMU DC train started its operations in year of operation and today it is very ing director, Mumbai Railway Vi- 1925. The importance of local or subur- much active in financial leasing do- kas Corporation, said the suburban ban trains cannot be ignored”, he said. main, he said.

46 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 4th Railways reforms & Governance Event Report conclave 2018

Incremental borrowing has gone up a stage where there is no scope left for has planned to garner an investment like anything. Today, the cumulative the infrastructure expansion and more of `8.56 lakh crore over a period of borrowing, which IRFC has done for efforts are being made to attract invest- five years. the Indian Railways, is around `2.2 lakh ment for creating infrastructure. There are enough provisions with- crore. “This is further going to increase,” Kishore Arun Desai, OSD, in the Indian Railways and it can go he said. The railways has fixed the tar- Economic Advisory Council to PM, ahead with monetising its assets. “For get for the IRFC in the current year at NITI Aayog, said that the fundamental ensuring a growth, you have to have around `55,000 crore. question which needs to be asked is the revenue”, he said. Around `25,000 Sanjay Gupta, chairman & manag- whether the railways is a commercial crores can be raised if the transmission ing director, Konkan Railway Corpo- entity or not. “We are apparently lines of the railways are monetised, he ration Ltd (KRCL), talked about how treating the railways for passenger suggested. Konkan railway is an example of in- businesses. About 70 percent of the total Gouri Thounaojam, head – creasing investments and creating in- passenger revenue is under recovery, government relations, PMI, said that frastructure. KRCL came into being in which means the railways is losing a the project management ecosystem de- 1990 and for the first time the model huge chunk of its passenger revenue veloped within the nodal ministry or of a joint venture between the benefi- on account of social obligation,” he PSU will not only mitigate risk but will ciary states and the union government said. The railways is using freight as also ensure implementation of the idea was picked up. The equity holders of an instrument to make money and to execute projects effectively. the corporation are the ministry of rail- there are no political issues around the A total of 355 out of 1,304 railway ways and the four states. “This is how freight, he said. projects were recently reviewed and the first investment was attracted,” he Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, 198 of them witnessed a cost overrun said. director and practice leader – trans- of `1.5 lakh crore, which is alarming. Today, KRCL is running 30 trains port and logistics, CRISIL Infra- “It is the need of the hour to get the from each way. Now, KRCL has reached structure Advisory, said the railways house in order”, she said.

Panel Discussion Transforming railways via information & communication technology (ICT)

L-R: NK Goyal, CMAI; Nalin Bansal, NPCI; Kamal Kashyap, HPE; Dr R Badri Narayan, Indian Railways; Rahul Rishi, EY; Mukesh Nigam, CRIS; | PK Sikdar, Indian Railways; Rupinder Singh, Cisco; Himanshu Goyal, The Weather Company; and Sunil Kumar, IRCTC

ahul Rishi, partner & leader trains and looking after the signaling to minimise human interference in the – advisory services (digital system from the safety perspective. signaling system to increase the level of government), EY, said mod- PK Sikdar, executive director/sig- safety, as safety is of the utmost impor- ern signaling is going to trans- nal development, Indian Railways, tance. “As we increase the speed, the role formR the Indian Railways in the next few said signaling system is the backbone of signaling becomes more important”, years. It is challenging to manage 20,000 of rail operations. The railways want he said.

www.GovernanceNow.com 47 4th Railways reforms & Governance conclave 2018 Event Report

Rupinder Singh, director systems development it is good to have a captive fee. IRCTC is thinking to give insurance engineering, Cisco India & SAARC, organisation,” he said. on cancellation fee to passengers to mi- said that the Indian Railways has enor- Kamal Kashyap, country manager, nimise their losses”, he said. mously improved upon itself in the last India – public sector sales, enterprise Himanshu Goyal, India business couple of years. It is going with the right group, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leader, The Weather Company, said strategy to leverage technology, opti- said the complexities which exists in the that the company was founded 40 years mise services, improve safety and mon- railway operations in India are unparal- ago in the United States of America and etise assets. lel in many ways in terms of number of IBM bought it three years back. “We are Train communication system is ex- passengers and tracks. Indian Railways forecasters at one end from Business tremely important and the railways is is a classical organisation because it has to Consumer (B2C) perspective and we still using the age old communication a huge manufacturing setup and a huge help our customers make better deci- system. He hoped that the railways customer base. sions,” he explained. The company pro- would soon opt modern communica- “As an IT organisation, the company vides services to major mobile handset tion system. On the asset part, he said can bring in the cutting-edge technolo- companies, Facebook and other compa- that he was glad to see two stations – gy. We have the understanding of tech- nies. The firm had also helped the gov- Habibganj and Ghandinagar – are being nology and we can assist the railways ernment of Rajasthan to create Rajd- modernised by the railways. to have a particular technology which haraa citizen App where people can get Mukesh Nigam, managing direc- is best suited for it. We have a whole latest weather updates. tor, CRIS, said for the past 15 years, lot of customised products for the rail- such is the push towards digitisation ways”, he said. Presentation on security surveillance that all other aspects of railway work- Nalin Bansal, VP, RuPay con- in Indian Railways by ings have been brought under this tactless & new business, National Sumati Shandilya, ambit. There has been two objectives Payments Corporation of India, said DIG/MAC, Railway of digitisation, which include a push NPCI is farily a young company which Protection Force, towards customer delight as well. “To- started around 10 years ago and was Indian Railways day a customer wants seamless ser- given a mandate by the RBI to set up underscored the im- vice. The applications are in silos but domestic payment system. portance of safety as the technology has grown, we are Today, NPCI is a 1,000 people strong and security. He said heading towards integration of these organisation. Everything that NPCI that it needs to function applications”, he said. does is completely in-house. “It has smoothly in a secured en- Dr R Badri Narayan, executive di- helped in creating an ability to inno- vironment for the economic and social rector (C&IS), Indian Railways, said vate and coming up with solutions rel- well-being of the nation and its citizens. the railways chose to go with its own IT evant to the market”, he said. Railway network in India has un- organisation to execute its applications NK Goyal, president, CMAI Asso- dergone massive expansion in the re- and that was the time when CRIS came ciation of India Limited, said there cent years. While the length of route into being. should be a balance in the way in which kilometres has not increased as much, “I want to highlight the benefits of technology is used in the age of mass the number of trains and volume of having a captive IT organisation.There scale adoption of modern technology. passengers have gone up manifold. was a time when Passenger Reserva- Sunil Kumar, GGM – internet tick- The inherent structural weaknesses tion System used to be with the CMC and eting, IRCTC, said that at present insur- of the railway system like many en- the railways got into major contractual ance cover is being given on the reserved try/exit points, stoppages of trains in issues and could not take the project tickets to passengers by the IRCTC. “If due poorly secured roadside stations, lack forward. Later, CRIS was pitched in for to some unavoidable reasons, a passen- of access control and unregulated the project. Despite a lot of improve- ger cancels his ticket, a certain amount crowd movement make it highly vul- ments, we find that for sustained IT of money gets deducted as a cancellation nerable, he said.

Presentation on digital signage for corporate and BFSI. information system, outdoor displays, modern transportation by It also caters to train management system, security Manish Gundigara, vertical head- the requirements surveillance system, CCTV NOCH transportation, PSU & government, of indoor and centers and auto tracking signalling LG Electronics India Private outdoor display systems in the Indian Railways”, he Limited, said that the company is into spaces. “LG is said. LG has recently introduced foot different verticals like transportation, targeting passenger over bridge display system.

48 GovernanceNow | May 31, 2018 4th Railways reforms & Governance Event Report conclave 2018

Panel Discussion Modern rolling stock in Indian Railways and introduction of high speed trains: The future of railways

L to R: Vijay Kumar, NHSRCL; Sudhanshu Mani, ICF Chennai; Rajesh Agrawal, MCF Raebareli; and Harsh Dhingra, Management Consultant

udhanshu Mani, general Coach Factory (MCF), the monthly car- sanctioned in 2017. The total route manager, Integral Coach Fac- riage production was 50. The minister length is 508 kms with 12 stations in be- tory, Chennai, said that a lot of railways Piyush Goyal wanted to tween including four stations in Maha- of powers have been given to scale it up from 500 coaches per year rashtra and eight in Gujarat. theS general managers by the minis- to around 5,000, which appeared to be “We will be getting the first set of try. Recently, an in-principle decision a mammoth task. “Indian Railways is the trains by 2022. NHSRCL is making was taken by the Railway Board to changing and tremendous spirit has efforts to commission the 50 km long stop manufacturing conventional ICF been given by the new minister and the stretch between Surat and Bilimora by coaches and switch to German LHB new CRB which has given a lot of em- August 2022”, he said . coaches. powerment to railway employees and Harsh Dhingra, management “The target of manufacturing LHB officials,” he said. consultant & former chief country coaches that the railways minister had In the last three months, MCF Rae- representative, Bombardier Trans- given to us was an uphill task. The em- bareli has been able to double the portation, said at present India re- powerment given by the minister and monthly production. For the past two quires four types of coaches such as the chairman, Railway Board, is the months, MCF is consistently manufac- the high speed coaches (which can run main reason behind the three-fold in- turing 100 coaches per month. “Last between 250-280 kmph), LHB coaches, crease in the production of LHB coach- year, around 700 coaches were built EMU coaches and metro coaches. He es in one year”, he said. Mani said the and in 2018-19 we are eyeing on a tar- lauded the move where a push was factory had to make 600 coaches with- get of manufacturing 1,500 carriages”, being given to the production of met- in six months, but eventually it suc- he said. ro coaches. He said that if Indian Rail- cessfully succeeded to manufacture Vijay Kumar, executive director ways gets into production of metro 1,111 carriages. (rolling stock and workshop), Na- coaches, there will be standardisation Rajesh Agrawal, general manager, tional High Speed Rail Corporation of metro carriages design. n Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli, Ltd, said the Mumbai Ahmedabad said that when he joined the Modern High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project was [email protected]

www.GovernanceNow.com 49 On a personal NOTE Denzil Smith photo courtesy: Denzil Smith Actor

Denzil Smith is a stage and film actor who has featured in several Indian and international productions that have achieved both critical and What are you reading at present? commercial success. Gurinder Chadha’s Viceroy’s House was based The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil on partition in which he played the role of Jinnah. He also appeared in What do you feel is best about the craft of acting? The Lunchbox and Bombay Velvet. Besides acting, he hosts jazz tribute The ability to step into several people’s shoes. concerts on International Jazz Day. In 2006 he founded Stagesmith Any memorable moment while performing on stage? Productions to produce Indian English Theatre rooted in home grown It was when Ben Kingsley came to my dressing room narratives. He has trained in voice at the National Centre for the to congratulate me after a performance of Letters to A Performing Arts and does voiceovers for commercials, corporate films Daughter from Prison directed by Vijaya Mehta. I had and documentaries besides conducting voice workshops in theatre played the role of Pandit Nehru. Second was when the institutes and colleges in India. set crashed on me in the middle of a performance on stage in Mumbai many years ago. Why is it important to have local narratives in English theatre? All art is a reflection of life and vice-versa. Stories of our people, events of the past and present act as a mir- ror and hopefully help us see where we are going or not going. How is the theatre scene changing with time? Many new theatre companies and playwrights are being born. Theatre seems to be thriving. However, we are in need for many more performance spaces. While the number of theatre practitioners has gone up, the number of theatres has remained the same if not diminished. Your views on new age cinema? Cinema in India has never been in a better space than it is now. Films are being made in all kinds of budgets, for all sorts of audiences in different languages. If only the archaic censorship system were changed there would be many more exciting movements to look for- ward to. Who has been your greatest influence in your life? My father who I lost at the age of 11 and actor Naseer- uddin Shah. I respect Naseer as my guru and teacher. Governance issues that affect you the most. Simple things like roads, lack of discipline, corruption everywhere, pseudo-nationalism, rule of the mob, freedom of speech, censorship, etc. Have you ever been at the receiving end of misgovernance? Several times! How can the government promote dramatics, cinema and arts? It needs to start small initiatives at district levels in every discipline and put some serious money and re- sources into it. The arts should be incorporated deeply into the education system. Government should make it a rule for all schools to have the necessary facilities to foster all forms of arts.

As told to Geetanjali Minhas

50 GovernanceNow | May 31,, 2018

Posting on 1st and 16th of the month PRN: UP/GBD-150/2018-20