"Old wine in new bottle"-New Minister but old system being flogged to perform beyond their capabilities!

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, known by its acronym, CSIR by its very name suggests that this top heavy organization is mandated to develop industry oriented technologies which can be commercially exploited by the industry. As technology is the most crucial driving force for creating new industries, though other inputs like infrastructure, finance and human resources are also important, CSIR ever since its inception more than 6 decades ago, has built up an impressive collection of multi disciplinary scientific and technological laboratories like engineering, biotechnology, drugs, foods, botanics, building and construction, aeronauticals, water processing etc with an annual budget of about Rs 3000 crores. By a conservative estimate CSIR must have spent more than Rs 25000 crores from the government kitty during the last two decades. The million dollar question that haunts the average citizen of this country is whether the returns on such a huge investment have been significant? No doubt these laboratories have some of the best talents in the country but if out put is measured in concrete terms probably it is abysmally low. The new government which does not seem to have any love for scientific research, put a minister, a physician turned poltician, who does not seem to have his heart in scientific research in charge of CSIR. In the ritualistic meeting that is held periodically with the minister, high sounding resolutions are passed which every one knows will remain on paper with no body serious about implementing them. Here is a take on this moribund organization and the "advice" proffered by the minister with his profound "wisdom"! 

"Labs under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) will develop technologies to provide solutions for national missions like Swachh Bharat, Swasth Bharat, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Namami Ganga, etc. A resolution to this effect was adopted at the end of two day conference of CSIR Directors held at CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum in Dehradun on June 13, 2015. It was also decided that CSIR labs will devise ways to develop industry driven technologies, including game changing technologies. Each laboratory would develop at least one technology in strategic sector for India. During the two-day 'Chintan Shivir' held on June 12-13, 2015, all CSIR labs have agreed to make efforts to be self financing in next two years. In his concluding remarks, Dr Harsh Vardhan, minister for science & technology and earth sciences, said, "CSIR should be a catalytic agent to evolve India into Samarth Bharat-Sashakt Bharat. A revenue model is to be developed in business-like manner with clear input-output cost analysis. Emphasis will be laid to achieve global standards and to build confidence in society about relevance of CSIR labs in terms of social benefit. Labs will endeavour to build up entrepreneurship in small, medium and big industries. CSIR should focus on developing technologies for improving quality of life of the common man." The Minister said that coming months would see each of the laboratory focusing its resources on developing specific lines of inventions which would contribute to the social and economic objectives of the Narendra Modi government for the poor and common man. Each of the laboratory heads made a presentation about his or her respective lab achievements in transferring products and processes developed by him or her to industry. They also disclosed the patents awarded, the skill development programmes carried out, socio-economic interventions made, villages adopted and upgraded and contributions to Swachh Bharat and other government programmes. The success in realising royalties and license fees receipts were also shared with projections made for the next year. "

Those who remember old days can recall about various technology missions taken up by CSIR during late eighties and early nineties and the disappointing results these missions brought out after spending billions of tax payer"s money! It is like attempting to produce a mountain which ended up in a mouse! The technology mission on pulses was a fiasco of Himalayan proportion and to day we are faced with a situation when pulses, the poor man's protein source, are being sold at prices approaching Rs 200 per kg. Similarly the Oil seed mission involving expenditure of millions of rupees to boost edible oil production in the country has ended up making India the largest importer of edible oils in the world! Can we trust this organization to contribute to any thing substantial to the new missions being promoted by the new government? Probably it is a pipe dream because the scientists working in the organization have neither the motivation nor the inspiring leader ship to achieve any thing substantial. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

IS SUGAR BECOMING BITTER?-A MINISTER'S PRIORITY!

In India the citizens are left wondering as to how many caps a minister can wear simultaneously, miserably failing to do any thing properly and efficiently! Any one watching the sordid cricket "circus" on the electronic media during the last one week must have noticed that it is the politicians who "manage" cricket in this country though none of them would have even handled a bat or a ball in their life. Same is true with all sports bodies where politicians, even in their seventies and eighties refuse to allow others younger and more knowledgeable than them to assume responsibility. Analogous to this, the cooperatives in this country also are "infested" with politicians of all hues and colors and even when they assume ministerial responsibilities , their industry interests are above that of the poor citizens. Here is an example of the agriculture minister of the country canvassing for the interests of the cooperative sugar industry by demanding from his own government to make sugar more expensive to the consumer through import policy manipulation! Probably he must be thinking that the citizens affected by such rise in sugar prices, will forget it during election time! Further he must be sure that electorates are just fools not capable of punishing him for his misdeeds and will reelect him every 5 years without fail! Here is his case.

"The minister said that despite drought in Maharashtra, India's sugar production in the 2012-13 crop marketing year that will end on September 31 is expected to be around 25 million tonnes. When these are added to the season's opening balance of six million tonnes, it will leave the country with around eight million tonnes in stocks when the current  season ends. "Therefore, availability of sugar will be much more than domestic consumption , despite the drought in Maharashtra. Hence, we do not need imports at this stage," Pawar is believed to have written. According to industry officials, usually, the country's opening balance of sugar is around 4.5 million tonnes. Giving another reason for increasing the import, officials said the minister let as international prices of sugar have been falling in the last few months, the Indian market has also dropped. The domestic price has seen a steady fall since October 2012, which has led to the accumulated cane arrears and hence, the import duty should be hiked, Pawar wrote. India's sugar production has stabilised at  23-25 million tonnes because of a declining recovery ratio. Recently, the government partially removed some of the decades-old curbs on the  Rs 80,000 crore sector, which is expected to boost its efficiency in the coming years. It abolished the levy sugar mechanism, under which millers had to sell a fixed portion of their annual produce to the government for distribution through ration shops at cheap rates. It also gave the mills freedom to sell any quantity of sugar at any point of time."

More concessions government gives, higher is the appetite for making money at a faster pace as far sugar industry is concerned. It was very recently that government decontrolled the sugar sector, removing the levy sugar system for two years and with this one policy change sugar sales by the manufacturers are now driven purely by supply-demand dynamics. Though this sector was happy initially, it soon realized that its fortunes are influenced by international sugar market prices as India, being a member of WTO has to ensure free trade as a part of its commitment to the world body. As the global sugar prices are falling, imports are cheaper than that expected by the industry. The domestic industry is not able to make killing profits as it has hoped and hence this demand by the minister who is also a prominent sugar baron to increase import duty substantially so that domestic prices can also be raised! Why the poor sugarcane producers are being used as a pawn in this dirty game should e understood in this context. The rich sugar barons have money for every thing in life but plead  that liquidity problems prevent them from paying the mandated minimum price for the sugarcane crop to the farmers when it is delivered at their factory gate. It is time that the government stands up to their machination, does not buckle under their lobby and does not sacrifice the interest of the poor farmer.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

AGRI FRONT-ACHIEVEMENTS IN SPITE OF THE GOVERNMENT!

Is it not interesting that when the food production dips in the country, umpteen number of excuses are meted out by the officials of the Food and Agriculture Ministry in the country. But when there is a marginal increase in production none other than the Minister himself boasts of "his" achievements! One will naturally ask the question whether the food production increase, if it is really true, is due to the role of the Minister and his crony babus in his Ministry or it has happened in spite of them? In this "celebration" the fact is forgotten that India continues to be the top importer of edible oils in the world. Also ignored is the bitter truth that there country has never been able to increase the production of pulses to any meaningful extent during the last one decade! In a country predominantly vegetarian by economic compulsion, if pulses and milk products, due to their sky rocketing prices are denied to the poor and vulnerable population, one can imagine the cumulative consequences on the physical and intellectual status of the population as a whole. Listen to what our Cricket-crazy Agricultural Minister at Delhi has to say about his "achievements"!  

"You are all aware that foodgrain production has reached a record level of 241.6 million tonne in 2010-11. We have also achieved highest ever production of wheat, pulses, oil seeds and cotton. Overall farm output has also achieved an impressive growth rate of 7.5% during the last quarter of 2010-11 thus helping Agriculture GDP to register a growth of 6.6 % during the year. This also makes average growth rate in current plan to be 3.2% which we could achieve under some of the worst climatic conditions like drought, un-seasonal rains, flood, frost etc. in recent past. Monsoon 2011 has been very encouraging and our production outlook too. As per 1st Advance Estimates, Kharif 2011 production of Rice in the country is estimated at 87.10 million tonnes which will be an all time high. We are also expecting record productions in Cotton and Oilseeds this year. We hope to see a substantial expansion in crop area and to achieving record production in coming Rabi season too. We are confident that we will be able to surpass our own production record set last year. All these give me great optimism that strategies for rejuvenating agriculture sector have been working well and we will now be able to achieve targeted 4% growth. While the results are encouraging, we also have challenges ahead. Demand of food grain will grow rapidly in next few decades not only due to growing population but also due to rise in per capita income and various governmental interventions to ensure food and nutritional security to less advantaged people. We have to produce more for ensuring food and nutritional security of our nation. But, this will be achieved with more competitive demand on land and water, progressive fragmentation of land holdings, degrading natural resource base and emerging concerns of climate change'. 

Some time back there was a news item regarding using the technique of "shaming" food fraudsters by naming them publicly under the impression that such adverse publicity would act as a deterrent for future fraudsters. But the ground reality in India is that shame is not considered a negative factor in the lexicon of politicians as evidenced by the overflowing Tihar Jail in Delhi and the Central Jail in Bangalore! Therefore the "head you lose, tail I win" stand ( borrowed from the cricket lexicon), makes the non-performing government and its ministers an "indestructible' institution in India.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

YES, MINISTER, PLEASE DO IT, COUNTRY IS WITH YOU

Public Distribution System, generally known by its acronym PDS, has been the backbone of India's food security till a decade ago and was being grossly neglected while the GOI was engrossed in economic liberalization policies. There was a time not in the too distant past when most of the population had ration cards for drawing food grains and sugar at subsidized rates and the ration card doubled up as a family identity document acceptable for many official purposes. Over a period of time most of the card holders stopped patronizing the ration shops because of poor quality of grains sold by these outlets, most of them housed in dilapidated structures and managed by inefficient cooperatives or "not so honest" small scale traders. According to sociologists, more than 60% of PDS grains are siphoned off by unscrupulous pilferers with the blessings of corrupt politicians and petty bureaucrats. To day the system has degenerated into a "poverty eradication" tool for distributing food grains at ridiculously low prices of Rs 2-3/ kg to the so called "Below Poverty Line" population, with more that 70% of the country's citizens having no card at all. It is any body's guess as to what proportion ultimately reaches the intended beneficiaries.

"Computerisation of the entire network of targeted public distribution system (TPDS) operation is a must and should be completed in a time-bound manner," Pawar said speaking at a conference of food secretaries here. He said the government has already initiated the process of computerisation of PDS network up to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) delivery point. "It is essential that our efforts in this direction to be accelerated so as to cover the entire distribution chain from the procurement process and ending with retail distribution at fair price shop level," Pawar said while adding, states should also simultaneously take up such networking at their end. The minister said, use of technologies such as global positioning systems for tracking of movement of PDS commodities, bar-coded ration coupons, digitisation of ration card database and smart cards would also help in bring changes in the system and it need to be taken up. "The time has come to have a re-look at the way it has been functioning and introduce reforms so as to make our TPDS more efficient and responsive to the changing socio-economic milieu," Pawar said.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture is a busy senior politician with added responsibility of administering the International Cricket Council based in Dubai as its President and must be congratulated for his policy declaration which has far reaching implications. That he found sufficient time to "air" his thoughts is a good augury and if implemented as proposed by him, there is a distnict possibility that a substantial portion of the resources now being "looted" could be saved. But there are imponderable factors that can still thwart the scheme and the die-hard corrupt breed in India have their own way of circumventing any well laid out fool proof plans and hijack public money. Use of modern computer technology including bar coding, RFI Tagging, Global Positioning etc is well thought of to keep track of commodity storage, transportation and retail distribution net work. The desire to transform Ration Shops into modern type of retail stores is also welcome and if these modernization efforts succeed, covering the entire population, there could be no more need for a unique identification number for which GOI is spending a fortune.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.comD

IN DEFENCE OF GM FOODS-A MYOPIC VIEW?

The Bt Brinjal Minister is continuing his road show around the country presumably to 'elicit' views from the consumers about the advisability of clearing introduction of the GM version of this poor man's vegetable in the country. In a recent interaction with the media, the Minister felt that all those who are protagonists of GM foods should not be accused of supporting the business interest of the multinational seed supplier and others opposing could not be branded as anti-technology. He further promised to take a decision before February 10, 2010 on the issue. In spite of many protests and demonstrations against Bt Brinjal, there are still some supporters who believe it is safe. Here is one of the cases where an argument is being put forward by an NRI scientist from the US as to why Brinjal, of all the vegetables in India, needs genetic modification.

"We need it to bring down the cost of cultivation. Sixty to 70% of planted brinjal is lost to pests during cultivation. Farmers use insecticides and sprays that are harmful to the soil as well as to the labourers working on farms. Brinjal has no natural resistance to the stem borer (pest). Hence, there is a need to have a variant that is resistant to the pest. The alternative technology, other than conventional breeding, that helps achieve this is Bt. Through this technology, cost and pollution can be reduced and the produce will be bountiful. Moreover, the technology is ready to deliver the product now. There are 2,500 varieties of brinjal. If Bt brinjal were to be introduced, will it not affect biodiversity? The premise that that the introduction of Bt brinjal will destroy biodiversity is a scientific falsehood. There are no more than 200 varieties of brinjals".

As a democratic country India must respect the views of every "citizen" who has a right to be heard on any issue concerning the welfare of the country. But the pedestrian "opinion" like the above volunteered by foreign nationals with 'desi' sounding names, not based on ground realities in India, smells of a pronounced bias in favor of the business group that promotes GM foods, ignoring the inherent risks involved for millions of people in this country and affecting the very foundation of our agriculture.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com