Decentralising

The Party for Capitalist Economy stands for decentralizing. For the last few years, the trend has been to centralize everything- grant of subsidies directly to the consumers from the central government, admission of students to certain professional courses, deciding quantum of taxes to be collected by the state governments etc. Even the state governments are taking decisions on behalf of private institutes and individuals like fees to be charged by schools from students, cutting trees, age at which one should marry, age at which one should go for jobs etc. The Party for Capitalist Economy thinks that decision taking should be decentralized- Central and state governments should resist the temptation to have more powers and allow private individuals and institutions to decide. There appears to be a need for All India parties like BJP and Congress as well as other parties to debate on the pros and cons of centralizing power.

manifesto for Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly elections.

If the party comes to power:

i.there will be no need for Community(Caste) Certificates as there would be no discrimination for or against any caste while extending concessions, benefits etc.

ii. There will be no need for Income Certificates as schemes/benefits to people will not be based on the income

iii.There will be no need for certificates as to Small Farmers, as all farmers will be treated alike

iv.there will be no need for applying for separate patta for land as this will be done automatically by the revenue department on forwaring purchase/sale deed from the office of Sub-Registrar.

v. there will be no need for applying for name change for electricity servce as electricity board will automatically change the name on receipt of copy of sale/purchase deed from the office of Sub-Registrar

vi. There will be no need for ration cards as there will be no ration.. All able bodied people will be provided employment with decent salary. Those unable to do any work will be provided food, clothing, shelter in hostels financed by government.

vii. There will be no need for cooking gas cards, as everyone will be able to buy cooking gas in the open market. Since there is shortage of cooking gas, government itself in the initial stage produce and distribute biogas, solar cookers, solar heaters, etc.

viii.there will be no need for environment clearance, as government will itself prevent pollution on collection of fee from industries just as garbage is collected by local bodies.

ix.there will be no need for applicants for licences/permissions to obtain and forward to the licence/approval issuing authorities No Objection Certificates from various offices like fire department, thasildar’s office. Village Administrative Officer, health department, etc., as these will be obtained directly by licence/approval issuing office.

x. there will be no need for the public to visit any government office personally for any service, as applications can be sent by post or online and the approval/certificat will be sent by post or by email.

xi. there will be no need to go to government office or bank to make any payment to the government as cvomputer centres will make payments electronically after receiving cash/cheque etc from applicants

xii.there will be no corruption, as in most cases, applicants do not meet the officials and the possibilities of officials asking bribe is almost nil.

xiii.There will be no overloading in trains, buses, trucks etc, as additional trains,buses, trucks will be deployed and roads will be wider and thee will be additional rail lines.

xiv. there will be no need for reservation in government jobs for any community as there will be adequate jobs in the public and private sector and the salary level and other facilities in these sectors will be more or less same.

xv.there will be no need for government to extend subsidies to farmers,consumers etc as the prices will be allowed to be determined by market forces. Only in unusual circumstances,the government would interfere.

xvi.there will be no power-cuts as adequate power will be generated from non-conventional sources like sun, wind, waves, biomass, urban waste/garbage etc.

xvii.in all cities, towns and major panchayats, electric trains/buses will be run.

Declining position of India in Cashew production and exports.

Till late 1990s, India was the largest producer of raw cashew nuts(cashew nuts with shell) and largest exporter of processed cashew nuts in the world. Roasted Cashew nuts also used to be an important item of export from India.However India is now not so prominent in the world as an exporter.While India’s production of raw cashew went up only by about 50% from 420,000 MT in 1996 to 675,000 MT in 2011,Vietnam’s production increased by about 500% from 237000 MT to 12,72,000 MT during this period making Vietnam the largest producer in the world. Nigeria’s production went up by about 700% from 110,000 MT to 813000 MT, making Nigeria, the second largest producer behind Vietnam and ahead of India.India thus is only the third largest producer in the world.

The low increase in production in India is due to low yield. During the 15 year period from 1996 to 2011, in India the yield increased only marginally from 0.66MT per hectare, while in Nigeria it went up by about 400% from 0.63MT to 2.46 MT.The yield in Vietnam increased from 2.23MT to 3.84MT.

In India as much as 0.95 million hectare of land is under cashew while Vietnam and Nigeria each have only about 0.33 million ha under cashew.

In 2001, India was the largest exporter of roasted cashew nuts with exporters of about 90,000 MT when Vietnam’s exports were only 44000 MT. But in 2011, India’s exports were almost at the same level at 93,000 MT while Vietnam’s exports went up by 4 times to 195,000 MT.

Cashew tree starts yielding from about 3rd year and its life is about 35-40 years.
India should consider measures to increase yield by encouraging farmers to grow high yielding dwarf varieties, consider giving grants and subsidies and/or procuring raw cashew nuts at a much higher price which would offset effect of increased wages of workers as also services like transport etc.

India should also coordinate with other large producing/exporting countries like Vietnam and Nigeria to promote consumption of cashew nuts in the world particularly in developed importing countries, to evolve high-yielding varieties,exchange of information, exchange of agricultural and industrial experts etc.

World Food Situation- No need for alarm

Food situation in the world in general and in Africa in particular is not as alarming as the protests against food grain prices in several countries, as also the warnings by FAO economists suggest. Low production is a very serious matter which defies solutions but price increase is not impossible to be tackled by increasing/extending subsidies, loans etc. While main food grain producing countries have witnessed slight decline of less than 1.5% in production,(less than 10% of carry forward stock) most of the African countries like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe etc. have recorded higher production in 2010 than in the previous year. Higher prices in 2010 for food grains are likely to lead to a higher production in 2011, as farmers will be encouraged to try to produce more, by higher income. The lower production of food grains in main producing countries will only mean lower stocks being carried forward to the next year and not non-availability of food grains.

It is also heartening to note that wages in most of the African countries have increased during the last few years and thus people have more money to meet the higher food grain prices. It is also pleasing to note that among the 20 fastest growing economies in the world, as many as 11 are in Africa. In other world, out of 53 African countries, 11 are witnessing very high economic growth rates. (Among the 140 non-African countries, only 9 are witnessing high growth rates.). Thus, the people will be able to absorb the higher prices without much difficulty.

From the long term view also, India alone has the potential to double its production of food grains from about 225 million tonnes to 450 million tonnes. If India achieves just 50% of its additional food grain production potential, the world will not have food insecurity at all. Even without bringing in additional land under cultivation, Africa has the potential to double its production, as its yield is very low. What is required is substantial investment in irrigation projects.

Subsidies to Farmers in Developed Countries

Food and Agriculture Organisagion (FAO) says that about one billion people, i.e. about 15% of the world’s population, are suffering from hunger. The people in this group are unable to feed themselves as food prices are high, which restricts access.

Most of the world’s grains are exported by developed countries and imported mainly by developing countries with a few exceptions. India is among the countries which import food grains, occasionally, if not regularly. In the years to come, India’s imports of food grains will increase. In such a situation, India should argue for ways and means of making food grains cheaper in the international market.

However, at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations of Doha Round, India, along with a few developing countries, is opposing the subsidies given by USA and Europe to their farmers. This approach seems to be wrong. Farm subsidies in developed countries make food grains cheaper in the domestic and international markets.  Food-importing developing countries, including India, should be happy that the food-exporting developed countries make their produce cheap in the international market by subsidizing their farmers.