By Moin Qazi* India grows enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, yet is unable to feed millions of them, especially women and children. The country ranks 100th out of 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017. In fact, it has consistently ranked poor. Even as millions of Indians go to sleep on an empty stomach, the country wastes food worth a whopping Rs 58,000 crore in a year — about seven per cent of its total food production. It is lost during production, processing, retailing and consumption. One of the major ways of addressing food insecurity is controlling wastage. It’s the most obvious place to start. India is the second largest producer of vegetables and fruit but 25 per cent to 30 per cent of it is wasted due to inadequate logistical support, lack of refrigerated storage, supply chain bottlenecks, poor transport and underdeveloped marketing channels. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) puts this figure at around 40 per cent — worth around $8.

By Moin Qazi* The Gaekwad family lives in a single-room house on the outskirts of Mumbai. The family cooks, have meals and sleep in the same room—which is also used as a play area by their three-year-old child. Lack of credit has prevented the Gaekwads from getting loans to improve their living conditions. The Gaekwads are actually among the millions of Indians live on sidewalks and railway platforms, and in illegal slums and shanties. There is little more critical to a family’s quality of life than a healthy, safe living space. However, this section of India’s poor lives in inhuman conditions and is often under the threat of displacement, harassment and arrest. Over the last decade, India has substantially expanded its net of welfare policies, aimed at lifting its millions from poverty. It seems that the time has come, now, for the ‘right to shelter’. Priority for housing ought to be higher than education and health. Sustainable and inclusive housing solutions, indeed, could bolster

By Moin Qazi* The present-day education reformers believe that schools are broken and market solutions are the only remedy. Many of them embrace disruptive innovations, primarily through online learning. There is a strong belief that real breakthroughs can come only through the transformative power of technology or the invisible hand of the market. However, findings suggest that this strategy has not lived up to its hype and with valid reason. The youngsters need to believe that they have a stake in the future, a goal worth struggling for if they are going to make it in school. They need a champion, someone who believes in them, and this is where teachers enter the picture. The most effective approaches are those that foster bonds of caring between teachers and their students. Gejha is like any other village in Noida, but only till one sets foot in it. Once the hour-long ride from the capital ends, an unlikely educational hub for the underprivileged emerges, being presided over by a fo

Statement by Concerned Citizens of Vadodara on the eve of Gujarat state assembly elections, December 14: Do the political candidates vying to win the Vidhan Sabha elections care about environmental issues facing our cities, including Vadodara? Once elected will they do something about these issues? Development seems to means constructing more and more without being constructive and foresighted. Why do we suffer from water-logging and floods during each monsoon? Why does the city government keep on inviting “floods” in our city? How can a city be planned without inputs from qualified planners and other professionals, coordination among different agencies, genuine public participation, and without scientifically and technically considering the lay of the land (contours of the land)? Where do the debris from road widening and demolitions of buildings go? What will wall to wall carpeting do to our nalas and rivers? Rare natural areas that are home to various rare and endangered flora and

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers will recollect, much has been made of India’s 30-point jump in the latest round of World Bank’s rating of 190 countries for the Ease of Doing Business (EDB). On International Ant-Corruption Day (9th December), I am sharing with you an argument pointing out a major weakness in the study, namely, the omission of ‘corruption’ as a parameter and some RTI-based evidence to how poor the State’s reaction is to the phenomenon of corruption in some key areas which affect the ease of doing business in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Why should “corruption” be factored into studies on the ‘ease of doing business’? Readers will recollect that the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business Study focuses only on the following 10 parameters: a) Starting a Business; b) Dealing with construction permits; c) Getting electricity; d) Registering Property; e) Getting credit; f) Protecting minority investors; g) paying taxes; h) trading across borders; i) enforcing con

By Moin Qazi* The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.  ― Tahir Shah, House of the Tiger Kin The Indian village has been celebrated by every poet who has admitted to having been touched by India including Rudyard Kipling and Rabindranath Tagore. Social scientists of the past wrote about Indian villages as virtually self-sufficient communities with few ties to the outside world. There is nothing unusual or novel in the city-bred person’s belief in the regenerative powers of the village. This nostalgia has been expressed since the 19th century in literary form in fiction and poetry and in political form through the slogan: `Back to the villages'. Interestingly, these writers, poets and nationalist leaders were all city-dwellers, not villagers themselves; nor had they ever considered trekking back to the villages to live there. The Indian intelligentsia has a somewhat mixed attitude towards

By Moin Qazi* One of the most challenging problems of our times is homelessness. While we continue to record improvements in dealing with poverty, homelessness has been plagued with an unimaginative response from policy pundits. The apathetic approach of successive governments is symptomatic of the disease that ails India’s housing system. Housing is often the bedrock of other development interventions: owning land boosts health profiles, educational outcomes and gender equality. Decent housing is a rising tide that lifts all boats. The converse is equally true. India’s slums are horribly chaotic and sickening. Inmates live in cramped shacks made of rotting wood with rickety corrugated roofs. They are not only visual eyesores but also emblems of raw inequality. Moreover, the slums are unhealthful and physically dangerous. Hygiene is worse. These slums do not just breed physical illnesses but are also home to social ills like gambling, stealing, domestic violence and worse, sexual ass

By Venkatesh Nayak* “The name’s Bond, Electoral Bond- a sovereign guarantee of donor secrecy for political party funding!” In the near future, this is how an Electoral Bond might introduce itself to large donors (money-wise, not girth-wise or chest size) to seduce them to put money in the pockets of any political party (with apologies to Mr. James Bond immortalised on the silver screen by Sir Sean Connery, the Late Sir Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig and others). Readers may recall the “big idea” of Electoral Bonds (EB) that was announced in the Annual Budget presented in Parliament, in February, 2017. The Government amended three laws relating to elections, income tax and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to create this new method of making monetary donations to political parties. Briefly explained, anybody will be able to buy EBs in the form of bearer bonds from a designated commercial bank for any sum of money and donate it anonymously to a political party that he, she or it

By Moin Qazi* Reviewing the impact of demonetisation on its first anniversary, it is evident that several sectors have suffered severe setbacks. The microfinance industry is one of them. According to Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organisation of the NBFC-MFIs, the MFI industry which has a total loan portfolio of just over Rs 1 lakh crore, may have to write-off 7 percent of outstanding loans, or Rs 7,000 crore, because of delinquencies due to demonetisation. “Demonetisation affected a lot of businesses where cash was used extensively including MFIs. But the impact has been extended in case of MFI sector due to non-monetary influences on the ground after demonetisation,” says Ratna Vishwanathan, CEO, MFIN. She explained that the non-payment after the first three months were more influenced by people who were politically motivated or had vested interest and wanted to create a place for themselves in the business post demonetisation. Microfinance has been faci

By Moin Qazi* Poverty won’t allow him to lift up his head; dignity won’t allow him to bow it down — Malagasy Proverb The global battle against poverty has acquired a new dimension this year with Pope Francis declaring 19 November 2017 as the First World Day of the Poor. Hereafter it will be observed on 33rd Sunday of every year. The occasion provides us an opportunity to reflect on growing inequalities and realign our thinking and approach in the light of our learning and experiences. The perception that the poor do not have skills or would not be able to survive on their own is a myth. This conclusion is grounded in the premise that a paternalistic conceit has hindered the development of poor families and negative beliefs perpetuated about them. The new findings are challenging traditional development wisdom—particularly the assumption that poor families need a great deal of advice, aid, support, and motivation to improve their lives, instead of engaging in wishful thinking we

By Moin Qazi* Historians will tell you that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent, or that the search for solutions has come to an end. This explosion is fate’s way of reminding us that there is always something just over the horizon of knowledge. Social entrepreneurs are now using their talent to bring lasting solutions to several entrenched social problems at a time when the world has never needed them more. The Indian film celebrity Aamir Khan is shepherding a very revolutionary campaign–making Maharashtra drought-free in five years. Khan is in the news in villages of Maharashtra for the last two years as conceiver of a revolutionary initiative that is galvanising the rural population to go back to fundamental lessons of water management taught by their ancestors. The government has been purveying the same lessons for long but with little success. When the teacher is Khan, the whole equation of learning and ins