SAARC comes out with poverty profile

A poverty profile for eight South Asian nations, including India, was released here today to share of the best practices and experiences towards poverty alleviation in the region.

Inaugurating the two-day SAARC Symposium on the Best Practices in Poverty Alleviation here, Nepal's interim Prime Minister Khil Raj Regmi said "with consistent focus on poverty alleviation the member states have been able to lift a quarter of the population from abject poverty over the past two decades."

On the occasion, Regmi also launched the SAARC Regional Poverty Profile (RPP), 2009-10. The profile is aimed at sharing of the best practices and experiences towards poverty alleviation in the region. The RPP focuses on the food security challenges for the poor and social inclusion in South Asia.

Delivering the welcome remarks Ahmed Saleem, Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) recapitulated the initiatives taken by SAARC in reducing poverty in the region.

He made particular references to the directives of the successive SAARC Summits in the area of poverty alleviation.

"The primary purpose of the Symposium was to facilitate the sharing of the best practices in poverty alleviation and to develop strategies to upscale these practices individually or collectively to eradicate poverty from our region," he said highlighting the objectives of the Symposium.

Saumitra Chaudhari, member Planning Commission of India, said that the rural economy has grown in India and the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act is playing a key role as it has ensured generation of employment and increase of wages in the rural sector.

Rural connectivity and access to market play a vital role along with logistic support and other practices such as horticulture and animal husbandry which would help small farmers, Chaudhary pointed out.

In January 2004, the 12th SAARC Summit declared poverty alleviation as the "overarching goal" of SAARC. Since then, the Association has undertaken several measures to free South Asia from poverty. SAARC is currently observing the decade, 2006-2015, as the SAARC Decade of Poverty Alleviation.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Increase in Total Broadband Subscriber Base

Total Broadband subscriber base in the country has increased from 15.19 million at the end of June 2013 to 15.24 million at the end of July 2013. This is a monthly growth of 0.33%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 3.79% during the last one year (July 2012 to July 2013). 

As per the latest telecom subscription data (as on 31st July 2013) released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there are 161 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are providing broadband services in the country. Out of these, 121 ISPs (having 98.48% market share) have provided broadband subscription data for the month of July 2013, for the rest of the ISPs data from previous month has been retained. Top five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are: BSNL (9.97 million), Bharti Airtel (1.43 million), MTNL (1.10 million), Hathway (0.37 million) and You Broadband (0.32 million). 

People’s Linguistic Survey of India

A new study, the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, says that the official number of languages in India, 122, is far lower than the 780 that it counted and another 100 that its authors suspect exist.

The survey, which was conducted over the past four years by 3,000 volunteers and staff of the Bhasha Research & Publication Centre (“Bhasha” means “language” in Hindi), also concludes that 220 Indian languages have disappeared in the last 50 years, and that another 150 could vanish in the next half century as speakers die and their children fail to learn their ancestral tongues.

The 35,000-page survey was released on 5 Septeber 2013, to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Indian philosopher Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, who was also the country’s second President. 

Ganesh Devy, who supervised the project, said this is the first comprehensive survey of Indian languages that anyone has conducted since Irish linguistic scholar George Grierson noted the existence of 364 languages between 1894 and 1928.

There is a major reason for the disparity in the government’s number of languages versus what the survey found: the government does not count languages that fewer than 10,000 people speak. Devy and his volunteers, on the other hand, combed the country to find languages such as Chaimal in Tripura, which is today spoken by just four or five people.

One of the most interesting aspects of the project is Devy’s view of language as a marker of the well being of a community. Languages are being born and dying as they evolve–note how Old English is unintelligible today, and how different is Chaucer’s Middle English from ours–and that is a natural process. But bringing attention to Indian languages with small numbers of speakers, Devy said, is a way of bringing attention to the societies that speak them, along with the well being of their people.

Insurance repository

Insurance repository is a facility that allows you to hold insurance plans in the demat form. As is the case with shares and bonds, which can be held in a demat account with a depository, you can keep your insurance policies in an e-insurance account with an insurance repository. Even if you have policies from multiple insurance companies, they can be stored in the same account. As of now, only life insurance policies and pension plans are being allowed to be held in e-insurance accounts. The facility will eventually be extended to health, car, home and other forms of general insurance. The policyholder has to pay nothing to open an e-insurance account or hold the policies in the demat form. The insurance companies will recoup their costs from the savings in policy issuance and delivery. IRDA has given five companies the status of insurance repositories and provided with a licence that will be valid till July 31, 2014. The five companies are: NSDL Database Management Limited, Central Insurance Repository Limited, SHCIL Projects Limited, CAMS Repository Services Limited and Karvy Insurance Repository Limited.

World Happiness Report 2013

According to the 2013 World Happiness Report by Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden are the world’s happiest countries. Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo—all nations in Sub-Saharan Africa—are the least satisfied with their lives. The United States came in at number 17 and lags behind Canada (6), Australia (10), Israel (11) the United Arab Emirates (14) and Mexico (16).  India has been ranked 94, Bangladesh 104, Pakistan 85 and China is 112 among 156 countries. The 2013 World Happiness Report comes on the back of a growing global movement calling for governments and policy makers to reduce their emphasis on achieving economic growth and focus on policies that can improve people's overall well-being. An idea first proposed in 1972 by Bhutan’s former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the concept of “happiness economics” has now gained traction in many countries across the world. The UN first encouraged member countries to measure and use the happiness of their people to guide public policies in July 2011.

Raghuram Rajan panel report

The Raghuram Rajan panel report has made a case for ending the ‘special category’ criteria for providing additional assistance to poorer States, as it ranked Goa and Kerala as the economically most advanced States and Odisha and Bihar the least.

The committee, headed by the then chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan (now RBI Governor) was set up by the government amid demand for “special category” status by Bihar. It has  suggested a new methodology for devolving funds on States based on a ‘multi dimensional index (MDI)’.

The committee has suggested that the 28 States be split into three categories—least developed, less developed and relatively developed—depending upon their MDI scores. As regards the allocation of funds, the report has suggested that each State should get a basic fixed allocation and an additional allocation depending on its development needs and development performance.

According to the committee, these two recommendations, along with the allocation methodology, will effectively subsume what is now “special category” status.

Based on the MDI scores, the 10 least developed Atates are Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The seven most developed States are Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand and Haryana.

National Rural Drinking Water Programme

The aim and objective of National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) is to provide every rural person with adequate safe water for drinking, cooking and other basic domestic needs on a sustainable basis, with a minimum water quality standard, which should be conveniently accessible at all times and in all situations. Achieving this aim and objective is a continuous process. 

In the 12th Five Year Plan period, under the NRDWP, the Ministry is giving special emphasis on piped water supply in rural habitations. States are being asked to plan for coverage of habitations with piped water supply through stand posts or household connections. In addition to the fact that this shall reduce the drudgery and time taken in the collection of water, it shall also facilitate in tackling the problem of drinking water quality in the habitations affected with water issues. In addition, to accelerate the setting up piped water supply systems in rural areas in States where such coverage is low, the Ministry has proposed a project with World Bank support in parts of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh which focuses on setting up piped water supply systems. At the beginning of Bharat Nirman Phase I, as on 1.4.2005, it was targeted to cover 55,067 uncovered, 3,31,604 slipped back and 2,16,968 quality affected habitations with adequate safe drinking water supply. Against this, as reported by the States on the online Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, as on 15.8.2013, 55,193 uncovered, 8,33,304 partially covered/slipped back and 1,52,371 quality affected habitations have been covered. This includes newly identified Uncovered, Slipped-back, partially covered habitations and Quality affected habitations. 

The reasons for not fully achieving the targets of coverage of habitations include high capital costs of large multi-village schemes to bring water from distant safe sources, time taken for planning, designing, sanctioning, procuring, execution and commissioning of such schemes, slipping back of habitations to partially covered status due to drying up of drinking water sources; lowering of ground water table; drinking water sources becoming contaminated due to natural and man-made causes; water supply systems outliving their life; systems working below rated capacities; poor operation and management of systems; increase in population and emergence of new habitations, procurement issues, etc. 

To assist in addressing the above issues, the Government of India provides financial and technical assistance to States under the NRDWP, to supplement their efforts to provide adequate safe drinking water to the rural population. In 2013-14, Rs. 11000 crore has been allocated under the NRDWP. In order to achieve the targets under NRDWP, the State Governments are vested with powers to plan, approve and implement drinking water supply schemes. The State Governments, in consultation with the Central Ministry, prepare Annual Action Plans (AAP) each year, to implement rural water supply schemes to cover partially covered and quality affected habitations and for other activities. 

To ensure sustainability of functioning of rural water supply schemes, the States have to adopt improved Operation & Maintenance (O&M) methods for their better working and to control leakages. Up to 15% of funds allocated to States under NRDWP can be utilised for O&M. To ensure the sustainability of drinking water sources, the State can utilise 10% of their allocation. To ensure supply of safe drinking water, 5% of national allocation is earmarked for allocation to States with chemical contamination affected habitations and areas reporting Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis cases (JE/AES). Further, 67% of funds allocated to States can be utilised for coverage of water quality affected habitations. To facilitate water quality testing, a separate Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance Component with 3% of NRDWP allocation has been created to strengthen water quality testing practices in States. To incentivise States to involve the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in the planning, operation and management for drinking water supply schemes, a Management Devolution Index has been formulated to measure the extent of devolution of powers made by States to the PRIs with respect to Funds, Functions and Functionaries in regard to drinking water supply. 10% of funds under NRDWP are kept for allocation to States on the basis of their MDI scores. The Ministry has set up a robust web-based monitoring mechanism at the central level to monitor the implementation of water supply schemes under the NRDWP in the States. 

Under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme NRDWP, various mechanisms have been put in place to monitor the activities at different levels. The State Governments are required to prepare and discuss with the Central Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, an Annual Action Plan to implement various components and activities of the NRDWP. Every year, the States have to mark the habitations targeted for coverage and provide details of works, schemes and activities being taken up, on the on-line Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of the Ministry. The physical and the financial progress being made by States have to be reported on a monthly basis on the IMIS. The Ministry monitors the information provided regularly, and States which are lagging behind in the implementation of the programme, both in terms of physical achievements and financial expenditure, are advised to take appropriate corrective measures. Senior Officers, Area Officers and Technical Officers of the Ministry tour the States to assess the progress in the implementation of the Programme. The Ministry also conducts meetings of the Secretaries in charge of rural water supply, regional review meetings, video-conferences, etc. through which implementation of NRDWP is monitored. Assessment of achievements is done through periodic evaluations of the programme by the Ministry and the Planning Commission. 

The deficiencies which have been noticed in the implementation of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in some States include the non-achievement of annual targets of coverage of rural habitations, especially quality affected habitations, and the inadequate utilization of central funds in time resulting in high unspent balances. 

The reasons for some States being unable to spend the available funds under NRDWP fully and in time include delays in procurement processes, taking up multi-village schemes that require 2-3 years for completion thus delaying expenditure, delays in preparatory activities, long time taken for completion of legal formalities including obtaining various clearances, delayed release of funds to implementing authorities etc.