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Showing posts from June, 2018

Whither transparent political party funding thru electoral bonds?

By Venkatesh Nayak* Time and again, the Government of India has publicly said that donations to political parties made through Electoral Bonds (EBs) will increase transparency of political party funding. The Hon’ble Union Finance Minister said so in his February 2017 Budget speech while introducing the statutory mechanism for EBs (see paras # 164-165 of his speech). In January this year, he repeated this assertion in the Lok Sabha. A week later, on a Facebook post, he gave his take on how EBs would make political funding more transparent than the practice that prevailed hitherto. So far so good. The State Bank of India (SBI) — the only Bank authorised by the Government to sell EBs publicly — has refused to divulge the identity and other details of buyers under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). So much for the guarantee of transparency of political party funding through EBs. The RTI Intervention The Union Finance Ministry notified the Electoral Bonds Scheme on 02 January, 20

Urban-centric banking model a recipe for disaster when used in villages

By Moin Qazi* Rural banking has come a long way from the days when bankers had their first brush with rural culture. Bankers are now financial anthropologists, and many of them are playing a missionary role in transforming rural societies. However, challenges continue to persist. When rural banking took its baby steps, villagers were shy of loans because they were afraid they would not be able to repay. The situation today is quite the opposite. People have a savage appetite for loans but, unlike their forebears, they have lost that pristine morality which equated default of loans with the guilt of shame. Banks are piling up mountains of sour loans and governments are brushing them off with buckets of precious public money. Rural banking has been a great hurdle race ever since the government nationalised major commercial banks and mandated them to focus their thrust on villages. India Gandhi nationalised private banks with a deposit base above Rs 50 crore in 1969 “in order to ensure fu

An occasion to demonstrate: hapless victims of violence are humans like us

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* On World Refugee Day (20 June), the global community commemorates the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees who are forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution. It is also a chilling reminder that refugees, the forcibly displaced, have no choice of their own.We also need to challenge unjust systems and political leaders, the rich and the powerful who are responsible for displacing people, for the refugees and the migrants of this world. World leaders and every single citizen must demonstrate the political will, the courage and compassion to reach out to refugees, to listen to them and to address the endemic issues, which has resulted in the greatest humanitarian crisis after World War II. Just this past week, two callous deeds have demonstrated the abysmal depths to which humans can sink. The first was the refusal by the Italian and Maltese Governments to allow the rescue ship MV ‘Aquarius’ to dock in their ports. The ship was

Catalyzing market-based solution to fulfill UN sanitation goal

By Moin Qazi* Sanitation is the key to proper hygiene and is extremely essential for a healthy population. Till a few years back, India’s record on basic sanitation was horrific. The 2011 Census found that more Indians have access to mobile phones than to toilets. It must be said to the credit of the Modi Government that after coming to power, it got down to addressing the most fundamental problems of the people like sanitation and e-financial inclusion instead of launching grandiose but abstract programmes. Singapore was born as an independent state in 1965 but inherited vast poverty. Freedom meant little promise of a decent life. Lee Kuna Yew, the country’s founding father and the first Prime Minister, found that Indonesia’s public health system was in a pathetic state and there were frequent outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and other life-threatening diseases. Lee knew a sick nation couldn’t be productive but Singapore didn’t have the time or resource to build a robust health system

India’s water politics amidst mounting climatic stresses

By Moin Qazi* Water is the driving force of all nature. – Leonardo Da Vinci India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources — water. The country’s chronic mismanagement of water is staring at it now. Over 600 million Indians rely on the monsoon to replenish their water sources and the unpredictable nature of rain leaves them vulnerable. The country breaks out in a cold sweat every time the monsoon is delayed. Despite these alarming signals we continue to abuse and use water so profligately. Complex and capricious, the South Asian monsoon which is regarded as the most powerful seasonal climate system on Earth, impacting nearly half the world’s population — has always been hard to predict. With global warming skewing weather patterns, it’s not just the scientists who are confounded.Farmers, who have for generations used the Panchangam, the almanac that elaborates the movement of the Hindu constellations and helps in understanding the monsoon also lament that their system

One third plastics escape collection system, clog streets, pollute environment

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* About 70 kg plastic and still-born calf were taken out of the womb of a dead cow in Surendranagar, Gujarat, by a professional Dalit skinner recently, leading to huge furore in the district. Photo by Natubhai Parmar, a social activist, who called it an alarm bell for those celebrating the World Environment Day, June 5. One of the most common sights in urban India is a herd of cows around a garbage bin, apparently having a ‘royal feast’ of leftovers and other rotten thrash dumped into them, which are usually tied into plastic bags. Sadly these bovines, cannot but help swallow the complete ‘parcel’ – plastic and all. This indeed is the irony and tragedy of India today! Whilst a fringe group of extremists, have no qualms of conscience in murdering innocent people for apparently ‘eating beef’; these very same bigots will not bat an eyelid when the cows ingest plastic bag litter and die a slow but painful death. Come June 5 and India will play host to World Environme

From ragpickers to entrepreneurs: How rural women empower themselves

Original founder members Zaibun, Minakshi and Shashikala By Moin Qazi* I vividly remember my moment of epiphany. It was a balmy afternoon in early 1996 in Warora, a small township in northern Maharashtra. I was posted as a manager of my bank’s branch, dealing mostly with rural clients. I was busy trawling through the day’s mail and going about my tasks.Although transactions had not commenced, there was, as usual, an undisciplined crowd of customers waiting for the main door to swing open. I was distracted by the yells of customers and the clumping of heavy boots of clients from the military barracks when my assistant interrupted me, saying that a group of women wanted to meet me.At first, I hesitated, but my instincts suggested otherwise. I agreed. I beckoned them to sit. Their leader didn’t waste much time and said they had come to seek a loan to set up a business. I lobbed a few soft questions at them. They answered them confidently. Finally, I fired a fast one, “How will you repay t

Why are 17 Indian cos, including Sterlite, blacklisted by Norway bank

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may recall the gory incidents that took place at Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) in Tamil Nadu in the southern part of India on 22 May, 2018. Thirteen protesters died on the spot when the police opened fire to disperse an assemblage of thousands of local residents and representatives of civil society groups. They were protesting against the adverse environmental impact of the industrial operations of Sterlite Copper which runs a copper smelter plant in the area. Accusations against the company have ranged from polluting local water resources to plans for expanding the installed capacity of the plant without the necessary environmental clearances. A ground report published in The Wire recently, mentions the decision taken by Norges Bank a few years ago to not invest funds from Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) in Sterlite “due to an unacceptable risk of complicity in current and future severe environmental damage and systematic human rights violations