ISSUES IN DEMOGRAPHY : rural and urban population, sex ratio, etc. Related Information: India DemographicsScientific study of human population, their size, their structure, their development is regarded as Demography. According to Van Mayer, sociologist, Demography can be defined as 'the numerical analysis of the state and movement of human population inclusive of census enumeration and registration of vital processes and of whatever quantitative statistical analysis can be made of the state and movement of population on the fundamental census and registration data'.CensusCensus is the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating analyzing and publishing demographic, social and economic data pertaining to specific point of time to all persons in a country. This process was first of all started by British in 1871, since then it is conducted every 10 years. The last census in India was conducted in 2001. A broad questionnaire is prepared for it which generally consists of mainly three parts; The House List, The Household Schedule and The Individual Slip PopulationIndia, land of unity in diversity, is situated roughly between 8 n and 37n latitude. This vast land occupying 2.4% of total area of world, is the second largest nation in terms of population size. India has population of 1.1 billion, which is 16% of total world population. With current rate of population growth(2.11% appx) India will soon replace China as a most populous nation of the world. According to the Census conducted in 2001, India had total population of 1,028,610,328 out of which population of males was 532,156,772 as against 496,453,556 number of females with overall sex ratio of 933 i.e. 933 females per 1000 males. Population Growth Trend In India, 1901-1991

CENSUS YEAR POPULATION (in millions)

ABSOLUTE CHANGE (in

millions)

AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPONENTIAL GROWTH RATE

1891 236.7

1901 238.4 1.69

1911 252.09 14.7 0.56

1921 251.32 -6.77 -0.03

1931 278.98 27.66 1.04

1941 318.66 36.68 1.33

1951 361.09 42.43 1.25

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1961 439.23 78.14 1.96

1971 548.16 108.93 2.2

1981 683.33 135.17 2.22

1991 843.93 160.6 2.11 Rural and Urban PopulationIt is said that India lies in villages. Around 70% population of India lives in villages and is employed in primary sector. But in recent times this ratio of Rural/Urban population is changing fast. There are many factors most important of them is Migration. Due to unemployment and lack of facilities in rural set up people are immigrating into the cities in search of work and better living conditions. This migration has put a lot of strain on basic infrastructure of cities. The increasing population pressure on cities has resulted in coming up of slums. According to 2001 Census Delhi alone has slum population of 1,851,231, which is 18.7% of total population of Delhi. ReligionIndia is a secular democracy almost all the religions of world find representation in this country. If on one hand majority of its population(appx 80%) is Hindu on the other it also boasts of having the third largest Muslim population in the world. As per the last census conducted, out of the total population of 1028,610,328; 8275879 are Hindus, 138188 (13%) Muslims, 24080 (2.34%) Christians, 19216 (1.8%) Sikhs,7955 (.7%) Buddhist, 4225(.4%) Jains and 6640 (.6%) Others. Literacy RateLiteracy can be defined as the ability to read and write with understanding in any one language. The percentage of literate people out of the total population of the country is known as the literacy rate of that nation. In India literacy rate is 65.38% as per 2001 census. But this rate is not uniform and may vary according to region, religion and gender. Urban literacy rate is much more than rural, male literacy rate is higher than the female literacy rate. The following table illustrates the point: PROGRESS OF LITERACY IN INDIA, 1901 TO 2001Percent Literate In Population

CENSUS YEAR TOTAL MALE FEMALE

1901 5.53 9.83 0.69

1911 5.92 10.56 1.05

1921 7.16 12.21 1.81

1931 9.5 15.59 2.93

1951 18.33 27.16 8.86

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1961 28.3 40.4 15.35

1971 34.45 45.96 21.98

1981 42.57 56.38 29.76

1991 52.21 64.13 39.29

2001 65.38 75.85 54.16 LanguageIndia is home to approximately 1652 languages among them 350 are major ones. There are 22 officially recognized languages, it include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannad, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Santhali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, Tamil, Nepali and Urdu. Hindi is the most widely spoken language closely followed by English, which is the second official language of the nation.

Gender Empowerment MeasureThe Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is a measure of inequalities between men's and women's opportunities in a country. It combines inequalities in three areas: political participation and decision making, economic participation and decision making, and power over economic resources. It is one of the five indicators used by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report. According to the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) 2007-08, Sweden has been provided the 1st rank. For UNDP’s Human Development Report 2009, visit the following page:http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/125.htmlhttp://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/indices/gdi_gem/ Issues arising from the social and economic exclusion of the large sections from the benefits of development such as poverty and inequality; poverty level; poverty line; disparities in income, employment and literacy by rural-urban background, and gender and social groups like caste and religion. WOMEN & CHILD WELFAREThe department of Women & Child Development has been set up to assist the women in improving their socio-economic status by associating them with different developmental activities, particularly rural women. The primary aim of this department is to provide necessary infrastructure for comprehensive development of women’s potential and thus help them to play a significant role in the development process as participants and beneficiaries.The policy for women aims at making them economically independent and self-reliant. Focus is on the following areas, as per the policy.1. Steps to eliminate violence against women;

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2. Ensuring equality in view of legal rights3. Improving the economic status of women;4. Appropriate use of media;5. Increased participation of women in local self-Government6. Enhancing community participation in Government activities (involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations)To know more go to:http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/pdf/tenthPlan/Chapter34.pdfPOVERTYThis write up very briefly looks at one of the new dimensions of the poor in India, which has always been ignored by the public authorities. This is concerned with plight of the poor including the marginal farmers (the poorest of the poor) especially in terms of the prices they pay for essential commodities of daily use, and the prices they are paid for their end products, if they have any. Apart from adding to the intensity of poverty, this leads to many serious implications for the whole economy. It is hypothesized that poor pay higher prices for (non-branded) commodities of daily use like vegetables, pulses, legumes, and this applies equally to marginal farmers with the smallest possible land holdings, because they are as poor as others. This is so because they have less income (liquidity/cash) than others, and hence lesser buying power, and, as such, they cannot buy in bulk. This is strongly supported by a recent research conducted by Vijayendra Rao in three Karnataka villages. This is one side of the story. The other part relates to the low prices (almost five times less) that the poor (marginal) farmers receive for their limited end products they sell, if any to the intermediaries between them and the ultimate demanders. The essence of this argument is that the poor (including the marginal farmers) finally end up paying higher prices as consumers and receiving lower prices as primary producers. They are, therefore, at a double disadvantage and their net well being gets tremendously reduced. This twin hypothesis of ‘lower-income and higher consumer-prices’, and ‘lower-income and lower producer-prices’ eventually immiserises the poor in a highly crucial way, and leads to many serious implications for the economy as a whole, some of which are briefly described below: Child labour:Despite the fact that child labour is socially undesirable, and violates the precept of human rights in all respects, it continues to be an important segment of the Indian labour force. There are startling facts about child labour in India that are highly baffling:

● The number of full time child labour workers increased from 13.4 million in 1951 to 14.5 million in 1961, and then later decreased to 12.7 million;

● Marginal child labour increased from 2.4 million in 1981 to 10.5 million in 1991;● A massive group of children referred to as ‘nowhere children’ (appearing neither in

official labour statistics nor in the education statistics) in the age-group of 5 to 14 years, who are neither in school nor in labour force, number about 74 million;

● The combined total of full-time child workers, marginal child workers, and ‘nowhere children’ amounts to over 97 million or about 40 per cent of the 5 to 14 years child population;

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The twin hypothesis of ‘lower-income and higher consumer-prices’ and ‘lower-income and lower producer-prices’ adds to this already worsening situation of child labour because child labour generates extra income and extra output, both of which are badly required by the poor families, essentially the marginal farmers, to buy enough so that they also pay like others just the normal prices, and sell enough so that they also charge like others higher prices than they charge otherwise. Poverty levelIf the already discussed twin hypothesis of ‘lower-income and higher consumer-prices’ and ‘lower-income and lower producer-prices’ is included in estimating the absolute poverty level, it can easily be seen that the poverty level will become higher than what is indicated by official data, because of the fact that the majority of the poor (including marginal farmers) end up paying more and receiving less than the normal. In other words, absolute poverty line, being a direct function of the general price index, shifts upwards as the general price index moves up with higher prices paid by the majority of the poor, especially the farmers in this context. Again, if both the variables (higher income and lower prices) of the reverse hypothesis of ‘higher-income and lower prices’ are also included in poverty line calculations, it can be seen that the poverty over time becomes more dramatic than shown otherwise in the sense that the fall in poverty over time will be much more than shown officially. In fact official data only talk of higher incomes, and this reduces poverty over time, and ignores the effect of higher incomes in lowering prices. We may, therefore, conclude by saying that the inclusion of the hypothesis of ‘lower-income and higher-prices’, and its reverse ‘higher-income and lower-prices’ in the poverty line calculations will surely project an extremely different poverty scenario as compared to what is shown otherwise by official data. PopulationThe twin hypothesis, as analyzed above, also encourages the poor households (including the marginal farmers) to go for larger families to be able to attain scale economies by buying enough of each commodity, and by (producing and) selling enough of farm products, if any to qualify for normal prices. This perhaps is an additional reason as to why poor households tend to have larger families. The twin hypothesis, therefore, in the long run works against the population control policy. The twin hypothesis as propounded and analyzed in this paper is perhaps well grounded on reality and casual observation. But it requires to be probed further qualitatively (on the basis of interviews), and quantitatively (on the basis of administered questionnaires). And, once the dataset becomes available, it needs to be analyzed and verified statistically with cross-site analytical case studies, and also in terms of the econometrics of the poor people covering determinants of their livelihood and survival, unemployment, and other miseries they face, and also in terms of the political economy of the poor covering the role of the government to ameliorate the lot of the poor.POVERTYIndia has many distinctions of being in the statistical list under several categories. However,

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this distinction is a bit awestruck. Recent trends in the world have suggested that the Indian economy is on the resurrection mode and many sectors such as Information Technology, health care and some other domains are making waves in the country. The recent distinction bestowed by World Bank is a curtain raiser for many who believe that India is joining the league of developed nations. The question now arises as to how would India carry the burden of World’s one-third poor and what would it do to alleviate poverty.World Bank’s latest estimates on global poverty state that the rate of decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than between 1990 and 2005. This is likely to give a fresh impetus to those who maintain that economic reforms that started in 1991 and has failed to reduce poverty at a faster rate.According to the new estimates, India had 456 million people or about 42 per cent of the population living below the new international poverty line of earning income less than $1.25 per day. The number of poor in India constitutes 33 per cent of the global poor, which is pegged at 1.4 billion people. There are 828 million people or 75.6 per cent of the Indian population earning less than $2 a day. Even Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, is better than India. It has 72.2 per cent of its population (551m people) below the earning of $2 a day level. The estimates are based on the recently recalculated purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates that make comparisons across countries possible. The dollar exchange rates being referred to as the criteria.The full report has not yet been released, however, a briefing note sent by the Bank had some of the data. The data depicted that the poverty rate, those earning below $1.25 per day, for India had come down from 59.8 per cent in 1981 to 51.3 per cent by 1990 8.5 percentage points over nine years. Between 1990 and 2005, it declined to 41.6 per cent, a drop of 9.7 percentage points over 15 years. This clearly shows a much slower rate of decline.According to the estimates, it is understood that more than four out of 10 Indians live below what the world’s poorest countries consider the poverty line. The new estimates are sobering not just for India but also for the developing world as a whole. They have revealed a higher level of poverty than earlier estimated.In fact, East Asia is the region that has shown the sharpest reductions in poverty from about 79 per cent of the population in 1981 to 18 percent in 2005. Contrary to this, Eastern Europe and central Asia has seen poverty rates go up from 1.6 per cent to five per cent. What is noticeable in this region is the decline in poverty till 1987, when it was down to just one per cent of the population, and the subsequent sharp rise. The Bank also states that raising people above the poverty line is a relatively achievable task. It also believes that poverty levels of 1990 can be halved by 2015, although, it is proving very difficult to raise them above the earning of $2 per day mark PLANNING IN INDIA, 11th Five Year Plan Related Information:

Planning in IndiaThe Planning Commission was set up by a Resolution of the Government of India in March 1950 in pursuance of declared objectives of the Government to promote a rapid rise in the

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standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of the resources of the country, increasing production and offering opportunities to all for employment in the service of the community. The Planning Commission was charged with the responsibility of making assessment of all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilization of resources and determining priorities. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Chairman of the Planning Commission. The first Five-year Plan was launched in 1951 and two subsequent five-year plans were formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969. The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992 after the initiation of structural adjustment policies. For the first eight Plans the emphasis was on a growing public sector with massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the Ninth Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature. * The first Five Year Plan was presented on December 8, 1951 by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.* With the Prime Minister as the ex officio Chairman, the commission has a nominated Deputy Chairman, who has rank of a Cabinet Minister. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Commission. The tenth plan completed its term in March 2007 and the eleventh plan is currently underway.For more information, visit the official site:http://planningcommission.gov.in/welcome.htmlThe 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-2012)The following are the main objectives:The following are the main objectives:

1.

Income & Poverty

l Accelerate GDP growth from 8% to 10% and then maintain at 10% in the 12th Plan in order to double per capita income by 2016-17

l Increase agricultural GDP growth rate to 4% per year to ensure a broader spread of benefits

l Create 70 million new work opportunities.

l Reduce educated unemployment to below 5%.

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l Raise real wage rate of unskilled workers by 20 percent.

l Reduce the headcount ratio of consumption poverty by 10 percentage points.

2.

Education

l Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2% in 2003-04 to 20% by 2011-12

l Develop minimum standards of educational attainment in elementary school, and by regular testing monitor effectiveness of education to ensure quality

l Increase literacy rate for persons of age 7 years or above to 85%

l Lower gender gap in literacy to 10 percentage points

l Increase the percentage of each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15% by the end of the plan

3.

Health

l Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 and maternal mortality ratio to 1 per 1000 live births

l Reduce Total Fertility Rate to 2.1

l Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009 and ensure that there are no slip-backs

l Reduce malnutrition among children of age group 0-3 to half its present level

l Reduce anemia among women and girls by 50% by the end of the plan

4.

Women and Children

l Raise the sex ratio for age group 0-6 to 935 by 2011-12 and to 950 by 2016-17

l Ensure that at least 33 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl children

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5.

Infrastructure

l Ensure electricity connection to all villages and BPL households by 2009 and round-the-clock power.

l Ensure all-weather road connection to all habitation with population 1000 and above (500 in hilly and tribal areas) by 2009, and ensure coverage of all significant habitation by 2015

l Connect every village by telephone by November 2007 and provide broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012

l Provide homestead sites to all by 2012 and step up the pace of house construction for rural poor to cover all the poor by 2016-17

Agriculture in India, crop and livestock production systems Related Information:

Agriculture in IndiaAgriculture in India has a long history dating back to ten thousand years.Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and logging accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, employed 60% of the total workforce and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. It also has the world's largest cattle population (281 million). It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco. India accounts for 10% of the world fruit production with first rank in the production of banana and sapota. India's population is growing faster than its ability to produce rice and wheat. The government has implemented various schemes to raise investment in marketing infrastructure. Among these schemes are Construction of Rural Go downs, Market Research and Information Network, and Development / Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and Standardization. The low productivity in India is a result of the following factors:

● According to World Bank's "India: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development", India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-enhancing investment.

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Overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty. Government intervenes in labor, land, and credit markets. India has inadequate infrastructure and services. World Bank also says that the allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable. The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating.

● Illiteracy, general socio-economic backwardness, slow progress in implementing land reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce.

● The average size of land holdings is very small (less than 20,000 m²) and is subject to fragmentation, due to land ceiling acts and in some cases, family disputes. Such small holdings are often over-manned, resulting in disguised unemployment and low productivity of labour.

● Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case of small land holdings.

● Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 2003–04, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish growth. Farm credit is regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex agent for rural development in the subcontinent. At the same time overpumping made possible by subsidized electric power is leading to an alarming drop in aquifer levels.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), established in 1905, was responsible for the research leading to the "Indian Green Revolution" of the 1970s. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body in agriculture and related allied fields, including research and education. The Union Minister of Agriculture is the President of the ICAR. The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute develops new techniques for the design of agricultural experiments, analyses data in agriculture, and specializes in statistical techniques for animal and plant breeding. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan is known as "Father of the Green Revolution" and heads the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. He is known for his advocacy of environmentally sustainable agriculture and sustainable food security. Official website:http://www.iari.res.in/about.phpThe Agricultural Prices Commission The Agricultural Prices Commission was set up in January, 1965 to advise the Government on price policy of major agricultural commodities with a view to evolving a balance and integrated price structure in the perspective of the overall needs of the economy and with due regard to the interests of the producer and the consumer. Since March 1985, the Commission has been known as Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. The Commission is composed of a Chairman, a Member Secretary, two official members and three non-official members. The non-official members are representatives of the farming community. They are usually persons with long field experience and active association with the farming community.

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Assurance of a remunerative and stable price environment is considered very important for increasing agricultural production and productivity since the market place for agricultural produce tends to be inherently unstable, which often inflict undue losses on the growers, even when they adopt the best available technology package and produce efficiently. Towards this end, minimum support prices (MSP) for major agricultural products are fixed by the government, each year, after taking into account the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). Official link:http://dacnet.nic.in/cacp/

Agricultural CensusAgricultural Census is conducted to meet the information needs of planning for the development of agriculture in India. This Census has been conducted at five yearly intervals, commencing from 1970-71. The Census is followed by an Input Survey. So far, this Department has completed five Agricultural Censuses. The results of the Sixth Agricultural Census with reference year 1995-96, have been finalised. The Seventh Agricultural Census with reference year 2000-01, followed by an Input Survey with reference year 2001-02, is about to be completed. The preparatory work for the next Agricultural Census with reference year 2005-06, has also been initiated.Through the Agricultural Census, data is generated using ‘Operational Holding’ as the unit of study. The data is compiled according to size-classes and size-groups (marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large) of holdings, social-group (SC, STand Others) of the holder, type (Individual, Joint and Institutional) and gender of holder (Male and Female). The data collected through the Agricultural Census throws light on the structural changes in Indian agriculture brought about by socio-economic andtechnological factors. The data includes information on number and area of operational holdings, land utilization, tenancy pattern, cropping pattern and irrigation status. Through the Input Survey, data is collected on the use of vital agricultural inputs like use offertilizers, manures, pesticides, agricultural machinery and equipment, livestock and agricultural credit. Official website:http://agcensus.nic.in/ Livestock in IndiaA large number of farmers depend on livestock for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and dryers. Thus, animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy. The gross value of output from this sector was Rs358 billion in FY 1989, an amount that constituted about 25 percent of the total agricultural output of Rs1.4 trillion.In FY 1992, India had approximately 25 percent of the world's cattle, with a collective herd of 193 million head. India also had 110 million goats, 75 million water buffalo, 44 million sheep, and 10 million pigs. Milk production in FY 1990 was estimated to have reached 53.5 million tons, and egg production had reached a level of 23.3 billion eggs. Dairy farming provided supplementary employment and an additional source of income to many small and marginal farmers. The National Dairy Development Board was established in 1965 under the auspices

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of Operation Flood at Anand, in Gujarat, to promote, plan, and organize dairy development through cooperatives; to provide consultations; and to set up dairy plants, which were then turned over to the cooperatives. There were more than 63,000 Anand-style dairy cooperative societies with some 7.5 million members in the early 1990s. The milk produced and sold by these farmers brought Rs320 million a day, or more than Rs10 trillion a year. The increase in milk production permitted India to end imports of powdered milk and milk-related products. In addition, 30,000 tons of powdered milk was exported annually to neighboring countries. As high as 70% of livestock market in India is owned by 67% of small and marginal farmers and by the land less. Women provide 60% of livestock farming labor and more than 90% of work related to care of animals is rendered by womenfolk of the family. Indian Livestock is reared in close human proximity where they form component of the life system of the people. Cows, buffaloes, bullocks, mule and donkeys are not just utility animals, but also companions at work for the toiling poor who rear them along side their own dwelling. India has 53% of world Buffalo population and 15% of world Cattle population. In terms of sheep population, India ranks fifth after Australia, China, Iran and New Zealand. Production area Rajasthan, Jammu, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, hilly regions of North and Eastern Himalayas are the Indian regions with maximum livestock population. Growth promotional activities The Indian government has collaboration and policies to provide guidance for a more holistic planning, implementation and monitoring of animal husbandry projects. Following plans have also been made:

● Also, the government has planned to assure a sound Natural Resource Management (NRM) Sphere co-ordination and implementation at country level for SDC.

● Create / enhance synergy between the activities of the Livestock production and Dairying (LPD) and Sustainable Land Use (SLU) sectors

● Enlarge the scope for new and innovative interventions and for support to technical development and technology transfer.

● Promote and support validation, documentation and dissemination of experiences in order to contribute to the process of knowledge management in SDC and Inter cooperation (IC) and to strengthen inputs for policy and strategic dialogue with partners and actors in the NRM Sphere.

Prominent among livestock supply from India are cows, buffaloes, camel, goats, sheep, pigs etc. New Livestock Policy developed by the Indian Government in collaboration with the Swiss Development Corporation is a policy of ecocide of indigenous cattle breeds and a policy of genocide for India's small farmers. RURAL POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES(Green Revolution, Operation Flood, land reforms, NREGA, ICDS, IAY, SSA and NRHM) Related Information:

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Green RevolutionThe world's worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated four million people died of hunger that year alone in eastern India (that included today's Bangladesh). The initial theory put forward to 'explain' that catastrophe was that there as an acute shortfall in food production in the area. However, Indian economist Amartya Sen (recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1998) has established that while food shortage was a contributor to the problem, a more potent factor was the result of hysteria related to World War II that made food supplies a low priority for the British rulers. Indian traders who hoarded food further exploited the hysteria in order to sell at higher prices.Nevertheless, when the British left India four years later in 1947, India continued to be haunted by memories of the Bengal Famine. It was therefore natural that food security was a paramount item on free India's agenda. This awareness led, on one hand, to the Green Revolution in India and, on the other, legislative measures to ensure that businessmen would never again be able to hoard food for reasons of profit.However, the term "Green Revolution" is applied to the period from 1967 to 1978. Between 1947 and 1967, efforts at achieving food self-sufficiency were not entirely successful. Efforts until 1967 largely concentrated on expanding the farming areas. But starvation deaths were still being reported in the newspapers. In a perfect case of Malthusian economics, population was growing at a much faster rate than food production. This called for drastic action to increase yield. The action came in the form of the Green Revolution.The term "Green Revolution" is a general one that is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is NOT specific to India. But it was most successful in India.What was the Green Revolution in India?There were three basic elements in the method of the Green Revolution:(1) Continued expansion of farming areas;(2) Double-cropping existing farmland;(3) Using seeds with improved genetics. Continued expansion of farming areasAs mentioned above, the area of land under cultivation was being increased right from 1947. But this was not enough in meeting with rising demand. Other methods were required. Yet, the expansion of cultivable land also had to continue. So, the Green Revolution continued with this quantitative expansion of farmlands. However, this is NOT the most striking feature of the Revolution.

Double-cropping existing farmlandDouble-cropping was a primary feature of the Green Revolution. Instead of one crop season per year, the decision was made to have two crop seasons per year. The one-season-per-year practice was based on the fact that there is only natural monsoon per year. This was correct.

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So, there had to be two "monsoons" per year. One would be the natural monsoon and the other an artificial 'monsoon.'The artificial monsoon came in the form of huge irrigation facilities. Dams were built to arrest large volumes of natural monsoon water that were earlier being wasted. Simple irrigation techniques were also adopted.

Using seeds with superior geneticsThis was the scientific aspect of the Green Revolution. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (which was established by the British in 1929 but was not known to have done any significant research) was re-organized in 1965 and then again in 1973. It developed new strains of high yield value (HYV) seeds, mainly wheat and rice but also millet and corn. The most noteworthy HYV seed was the K68 variety for wheat. The credit for developing this strain goes to Dr. M.P. Singh who is also regarded as the hero of India's Green revolution.Statistical Results of the Green Revolution

● The Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 million tons in 1978-79. This established India as one of the world's biggest agricultural producers. No other country in the world, which attempted the Green Revolution, recorded such level of success. India also became an exporter of food grains around that time.

● Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30 per cent between 1947 (when India gained political independence) and 1979 when the Green Revolution was considered to have delivered its goods.

● The crop area under HYV varieties grew from seven per cent to 22 per cent of the total cultivated area during the 10 years of the Green Revolution. More than 70 per cent of the wheat crop area, 35 per cent of the rice crop area and 20 per cent of the millet and corn crop area used the HYV seeds.

Economic results of the Green Revolution● Crop areas under high-yield varieties needed more water, more fertilizer, more

pesticides, fungicides and certain other chemicals. This spurred the growth of the local manufacturing sector. Such industrial growth created new jobs and contributed to the country's GDP.

● The increase in irrigation created need for new dams to harness monsoon water. The water stored was used to create hydroelectric power. This in turn boosted industrial growth, created jobs and improved the quality of life of the people in villages.

● India paid back all loans it had taken from the World Bank and its affiliates for the purpose of the Green Revolution. This improved India's creditworthiness in the eyes of the lending agencies.

● Some developed countries, especially Canada, which were facing a shortage in agricultural labour, were so impressed by the results of India's Green Revolution that they asked the Indian government to supply them with farmers experienced in the methods of the Green Revolution. Many farmers from Punjab and Haryana states in northern India were thus sent to Canada where they settled (That's why Canada today has many Punjabi-speaking citizens of Indian origin). These people remitted part of their incomes to their relatives in India. This not only helped the relatives but also added, albeit modestly, to India's foreign exchange earnings.

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Sociological results of the Green RevolutionThe Green Revolution created plenty of jobs not only for agricultural workers but also industrial workers by the creation of lateral facilities such as factories and hydro-electric power stations as explained above.

Political results of the Green Revolution● India transformed itself from a starving nation to an exporter of food. This earned

admiration for India in the comity of nations, especially in the Third World.● The Green Revolution was one factor that made Mrs. Indira Gandhi (1917-84) and her

party, the Indian National Congress, a very powerful political force in India (it would however be wrong to say that it was the only reason).

Limitations of the Green Revolution● Even today, India's agricultural output sometimes falls short of demand. The Green

Revolution, howsoever impressive, has thus NOT succeeded in making India totally and permanently self-sufficient in food. In 1979 and 1987, India faced severe drought conditions due to poor monsoon; this raised questions about the whether the Green Revolution was really a long-term achievement. In 1998, India had to import onions. Last year, India imported sugar

However, in today's globalize economic scenario, 100 per cent self-sufficiency is not considered as vital a target as it was when the world political climate was more dangerous due to the Cold War.

● India has failed to extend the concept of high-yield value seeds to all crops or all regions. In terms of crops, it remains largely confined to food grains only, not to all kinds of agricultural produce. In regional terms, only Punjab and Haryana states showed the best results of the Green Revolution. The eastern plains of the River Ganges in West Bengal state also showed reasonably good results. But results were less impressive in other parts of India.

● Nothing like the Bengal Famine can happen in India again. But it is disturbing to note that even today, there are places like Kalahandi (in India's eastern state of Orissa) where famine-like conditions have existed for many years and where some starvation deaths have also been reported. Of course, this is due to reasons other than availability of food in India, but the very fact that some people are still starving in India (whatever the reason may be), brings into question whether the Green Revolution has failed in its overall social objectives though it has been a resounding success in terms of agricultural production.

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● The Green Revolution cannot therefore be considered to be a 100 percent success.For more information, visit:http://www.indiaonestop.com/Greenrevolution.htmOperation FloodOne of the world's largest rural development programmes: A National Milk GridLaunched in 1970, Operation Flood has helped dairy farmers direct their own development, placing control of the resources they create in their own hands. National Milk Grid links milk producers throughout India with consumers in over 700 towns and cities, reducing seasonal and regional price variations while ensuring that the producer gets fair market prices in a transparent manner on a regular basis.The bedrock of Operation Flood has been village milk producers’ cooperatives, which procure milk and provide inputs and services, making modern management and technology available to members. Operation Flood's objectives included:

● Increase milk production ("a flood of milk")● Augment rural incomes● Reasonable prices for consumers

Programme ImplementationOperation Flood was implemented in three phases.

● Phase I Phase I (1970-1980) was financed by the sale of skimmed milk powder and butter oil gifted by the European Union then EEC through the World Food Programme. NDDB planned the programme and negotiated the details of EEC assistance.During its first phase, Operation Flood linked 18 of India's premier milk sheds with consumers in India’s four major metropolitan cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

● Phase II Operation Flood's Phase II (1981-85) increased the milk sheds from 18 to 136; 290 urban markets expanded the outlets for milk. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives covering 4.25 million milk producers had become a reality. Domestic milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-project year to 140,000 tons by 1989, all of the increase coming from dairies set up under Operation Flood. In this way EEC gifts and World Bank loan helped to promote self-reliance. Direct marketing of milk by producers' cooperatives increased by several million liters a day.

● Phase III Phase III (1985-1996) enabled dairy cooperatives to expand and strengthen the infrastructure required to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary first-aid health care services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended, along with intensified member education. Operation Flood's Phase III consolidated India's dairy cooperative movement, adding 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies organized during Phase II. Milk sheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly.Phase III gave increased emphasis to research and development in animal health and animal nutrition. Innovations like vaccine for Theileriosis, bypass protein feed and urea-molasses

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mineral blocks, all contributed to the enhanced productivity of milk animals.From the outset, Operation Flood was conceived and implemented as much more than a dairy programme. Rather, dairying was seen as an instrument of development, generating employment and regular incomes for millions of rural people. "Operation Flood can be viewed as a twenty year experiment confirming the Rural Development Vision" (World Bank Report 1997c.)Visit the following websites for more information:http://www.indiadairy.com/ind_operationflood.htmlhttp://www.nddb.org/aboutnddb/operationflood.html National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) NREGA is a path breaking legislation and a flagship programme for promoting inclusive growth by ensuring a legal guarantee of 100 days of employment to rural poor. Its Rights based framework creates a paradigm shift from earlier wage employment programmes. The Acts’ objective is to generate employment opportunities, and regenerate the natural resource basic of rural livelihood through an implementation process that strengthens grass root democratic processes. NREGA.NREGA GOALSa. Strong social safety net for the vulnerable groups by providing a fall-back employment

source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate

b. Growth engine for sustainable development of an agricultural economy. Through the process of providing employment on works that address causes of chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation and soil erosion, the Act seeks to strengthen the natural resource base of rural livelihood and create durable assets in rural areas.Effectively implemented, NREGA has the potential to transform the geography of poverty.

c. Empowerment of rural poor through the processes of a rights-based Law

d. New ways of doing business, as a model of governance reform anchored on the principles of transparency and grass root democracy

Thus, NREGA fosters conditions for inclusive growth ranging from basic wage security and recharging rural economy to a transformative empowerment process of democracyCOVERAGE The Act was notified in 200 districts in the first phase with effect from February 2nd 2006 and then extended to additional 130 districts in the financial year 2007-2008 (113 districts were notified with effect from April 1st 2007, and 17 districts in UP were notified with effect from May 15th 2007). The remaining districts have been notified under the NREGA with effect from April 1, 2008. Thus NREGA covers the entire country with the exception of districts that have a hundred percent urban population.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE ACT

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i. Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, may apply for registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat

ii. The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA and is free of cost

iii.

The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.

iv.

A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of employment have to be at least fourteen.

v. The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates

vi.

Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not then daily unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.

vii.

Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case work is provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet additional transportation and living expenses

viii.

Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notifies a wage rate which will not be less than Rs. 60/ per day. Equal wages will be provided to both men and women.

ix.

Wages are to be paid according to piece rate or daily rate. Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight in any case

x. At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested work under the scheme.

xi.

Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided

xii.

The shelf of projects for a village will be recommended by the gram sabha and approved by the zilla panchayat.

xiii.

At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution

xiv.

Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation, afforestation and land development works

x A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and machinery is

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v. allowed

xvi.

The Central Government bears the 100 percent wage cost of unskilled manual labour and 75 percent of the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi skilled workers

xvii.

Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha

xviii.

Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation process

xix.

All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should be available for public scrutiny

For more information, visit the following websites:http://nrega.nic.in/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_ActIntegrated Child Development Scheme, 1975 (ICDS) India is the home to the largest child population in the world. “The development of children is the first priority on the country’s development agenda, not because they are the most vulnerable, but because they are our supreme assets and also the future human resources of the country”. In these words, our Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) underlines the fact that the future of India lies in the future of Indian children – across income groups, geographical locations, gender and communities. Launched on 2nd October 1975 in 33 Community Development Blocks, ICDS today represents one of the world’s largest programmes for early childhood development. ICDS is the foremost symbol of India’s commitment to her children – India’s response to the challenge of providing pre-school education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality, on the other. It is an inter-sectoral programme which seeks to directly reach out to children, below six years, especially from vulnerable and remote areas and give them a head-start by providing an integrated programme of early childhood education, health and nutrition. No programme on Early Childhood Care and Education can succeed unless mothers are also brought within it ambit as it is in the lap of the mother that human beings learn the first lessons in life. Objectives of ICDS: * Lay the foundation for proper psychological development of the child* Improve nutritional & health status of children 0-6 years* Reduce incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school drop-outs

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* Enhance the capability of the mother and family to look after the health, nutritional and development needs of the child* Achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation among various departments to promote child development For more information, visit the official website:http://wcd.nic.in/icds.htmIndira Awas Yojana (IAY) Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) was launched during 1985-86 as a sub-scheme of Rural LandlessEmployment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) and continued as a sub-scheme of JawaharRozgar Yojana (JRY) since its launching from April, 1989. It has been delinked from theJRY and has been made an independent scheme with effect from January 1, 1996.The objective of IAY is primarily to help construction of dwelling units by members of Scheduled Castes and also Non-Scheduled Castes rural poor living below the poverty line. From the year 1999-2000, it has been decided to earmark 80% to total allocated funds for construction of new houses and 20% funds for up gradation of Kachha unserviceable houses. As per guidelines, tallest 60% of assistance should go in favour of Scheduled Castes beneficiaries under this schemes. Target Group The target groups for houses under the IAY are below poverty line households living in the rural areas belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers and non-SC/ST BPL rural households, widows and next of-kin to defence personnel/paramilitary forces killed in action residing in rural areas (irrespective of their income criteria), ex-servicemen and retired member of paramilitary forces fulfilling the other conditions. The Gram Sabha will select the beneficiaries form the list of eligible house holds. They have complete freedom as to the manner of construction of the house .no contractor is to be engaged for construction of the houses under I.A.Y. . ceiling on construction assistance under I.A.Y. is Rs.20,000 /-per unit for plane areas and rs.22,000 /- for hilly difficult areas .sanitary latrines and smokeless chullahs are an integral part of the I.A.Y. houses.Under I.A.Y. the Gram Sabha is empowered to select the beneficiaries under the scheme. Whether the allotment of the dwelling units should be in the name of the female member of the house hold , alternatively it can be allocated in the name of both husband and wife.Funding PatternThe Indira Awaas Yojana is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme funded on cost-sharing basis between the Government of India and the State Governments in the ratio of 75:25. In the case of Union Territories, the entire funds under this Scheme are provided by the Government of India.For more information, visit:http://pib.nic.in/archieve/flagship/faq_iay.pdfSarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is Government of India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th

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amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory Education to the Children of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right.The scheme of SSA was launched in 2001.SSA is being implemented in partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations. Salient Features of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

● A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.● A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.● An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.● An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management

Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.

● An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country. ● A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.● An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education

The programme seeks to open new schools in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure through provision of additional class rooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants.Existing schools with inadequate teacher strength are provided with additional teachers, while the capacity of existing teachers is being strengthened by extensive training, grants for developing teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure at a cluster, block and district level.SSA seeks to provide quality elementary education including life skills. SSA has a special focus on girl's education and children with special needs. SSA also seeks to provide computer education to bridge the digital divide. The objectives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan can be summed as:

● All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-School' camp by 2003;

● All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007● All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010 ● Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life● Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary

education level by 2010● Universal retention by 2010

For more information, visit the following link:http://www.education.nic.in/ssa/ssa_1.asp

National Rural Health Mission –2005-2012 (NRHM)• The National Rural Health Mission (2005-12) seeks to provide effective healthcare to rural

population throughout the country with special focus on 18 states, which have weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure.

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• These 18 States are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.

• The Mission is an articulation of the commitment of the Government to raise public spending on Health from 0.9% of GDP to 2-3% of GDP.

• It aims to undertake architectural correction of the health system to enable it to effectively handle increased allocations as promised under the National Common Minimum Programme and promote policies that strengthen public health management and service delivery in the country.

• It has as its key components provision of a female health activist in each village; a village health plan prepared through a local team headed by the Health & Sanitation Committee of the Panchayat; strengthening of the rural hospital for effective curative care and made measurable and accountable to the community through Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS); and integration of vertical Health & Family Welfare Programmes and Funds for optimal utilization of funds and infrastructure and strengthening delivery of primary healthcare.

• It seeks to revitalize local health traditions and mainstream AYUSH into the public health system.

• It aims at effective integration of health concerns with determinants of health like sanitation & hygiene, nutrition, and safe drinking water through a District Plan for Health.

• It seeks decentralization of programmes for district management of health.

• It seeks to address the inter-State and inter-district disparities, especially among the 18 high focus States, including unmet needs for public health infrastructure.

• It shall define time-bound goals and report publicly on their progress.

• It seeks to improve access of rural people, especially poor women and children, to equitable, affordable, accountable and effective primary healthcare.

GOALS• Reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)

• Universal access to public health services such as Women’s health, child health, water, sanitation & hygiene, immunization, and Nutrition.

• Prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, including locally endemic diseases

• Access to integrated comprehensive primary healthcare

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• Population stabilization, gender and demographic balance.

• Revitalize local health traditions and mainstream AYUSH

• Promotion of healthy life styles For more information, visit the following:http://mohfw.nic.in/NRHM.htmhttp://jknrhm.com/Guideline/Frequently_Asked_Question.pdf

Antodaya Anna YojanaAntyodaya Anna yojana has been launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India on the 25th December,2000. This scheme reflects the commitment of the Government of India to ensure food security for all create a hunger free India in the next five years and to reform and improve the Public Distribution System so as to serve the poorest of the poor in rural and urban areas. It is for the poorest of poor that the Antyodya Anna Yojana has been conserved. It is estimated that 5% of population are unable to get two square meals a day on a sub stained basis through out the year. Their purchasing power is so low that they are not in a position to buy food grains round the year even at BPL rates. It is this 5% of out population (5 crores of people or 1 crore families), which constitutes the target group of Antyodaya Anna Yojana. The scale of issue that was initially 25 kg per family per month has been increased to 35 kg per family per month with effect from 1st April 2002.The most crucial element for ensuring the success of Antyodaya Anna Yojana is the correct identification of Antyodaya families. It is estimated that there are 6.52 crore families below poverty line in the country as on 01-03-2000.First Expansion of AAY The AAY Scheme has been expanded in 2003–2004 by adding another 50 lakh BPL households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support. With this increase, 1.5 crore (i.e. 23% of BPL) families have been covered under the AAY.Second Expansion of AAY As announced in the Union Budget 2004–2005, the AAY has been further expanded by another 50 lakh BPL families by including, inter alia, all households at the risk of hunger. Orders to this effect have been issued on 3rd August 2004. In order to identify these households, the guidelines stipulate the following criteria:

• Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans, craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood, on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes and other similar categories irrespective of rural or urban areas.

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• Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.

• Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.

• All primitive tribal households. With this increase, the number of AAY families has been increased to 2 crore (i.e. 30.66% of BPL) families.

Third Expansion of AAY As announced in the Union Budget 2005-06, the AAY has further been expanded to cover another 50 lakh BPL households thus increasing its overage to 2.5 crore households.(i.e. 38% of BPL)The status of identification of households under AAY (Normal, 1st expansion, 2nd expansion and 3rd expansion) is given in Annexure. The defaulting States/UTs are reminded regularly as a part of monitoring.Identification of Antyodaya Families and Allocation of FoodgrainsThe identification of the Antyodaya families and issuing of distinctive Ration Cards to these families is the responsibility of the concerned State Governments. Detailed guidelines were issued to the States/UTs for identification of the Antyodaya families under the AAY and additional Antyodaya families under the expanded AAY. Allocation of food grains under the scheme is being released to the States/UTs on the basis of issue of distinctive AAY Ration Cards to the identified Antyodaya families. The present monthly allocation of food grains under AAY is around 7.27 lakh tonnes per month. Visit the following link for more information:http://www.sccommissioners.org/schemes/aay Institutions in Rural Development-policy, role, and characteristics; rural banks, NGOs, co-operatives, PRIs, corporate social responsibility NABARDNational Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex development bank in India. It has been accredited with "matters concerning policy, planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas in India". NABARD was established by an act of Parliament on 12 July 1982 to implement the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act 1981. It replaced the Agricultural Credit Department (ACD) and Rural Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of Reserve Bank of India, and Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC). It is one of the premeire agency to provide credit in rural areas. NABARD has its head office at Mumbai, IndiaRole

1. Serves as an apex financing agency for the institutions providing investment and production credit for promoting the various developmental activities in rural areas

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2. Takes measures towards institution building for improving absorptive capacity of the credit delivery system, including monitoring, formulation of rehabilitation schemes, restructuring of credit institutions, training of personnel, etc.

3. Co-ordinates the rural financing activities of all institutions engaged in developmental work at the field level and maintains liaison with Government of India, State Governments, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other national level institutions concerned with policy formulation

4. Undertakes monitoring and evaluation of projects refinanced by it.NABARD's refinance is available to State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs), State Co-operative Banks (SCBs), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), Commercial Banks (CBs) and other financial institutions approved by RBI. While the ultimate beneficiaries of investment credit can be individuals, partnership concerns, companies, State-owned corporations or co-operative societies, production credit is generally given to individuals.NABARD operates throughout the country through its 28 Regional Offices and one Sub-office, located in the capitals of all the states/union territories.Each Regional Office[RO] has a Chief General Manager [CGMs] as its head, and the Head office has several Top executives like the Executive Directors[ED], Managing Directors[MD], and the Chairperson.It has 336 District Offices across the country, one Sub-office at Port Blair and one special cell at Srinagar. It also has 6 training establishments.NABARD is also known for its 'SHG Bank Linkage Programme’ that encourages India's banks to lend to self-help groups (SHGs). Because SHGs are composed mainly of poor women, this has evolved into an important Indian tool for microfinance. As of March 2006 2.2 million SHGs representing 33 million members had to been linked to credit through this programme.E CHOUPALE Choupal is an initiative of ITC Limited (a large multi business conglomerate in India) to link directly with rural farmers for procurement of agricultural / aquaculture produce like soybeans, wheat, coffee, and prawns. e Choupal was conceived to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterized by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries.Traditionally, these commodities were procured in "mandis" (major agricultural marketing centers in rural areas of India), where the middleman used to make most of the profit. These middlemen used unscientific and sometimes outright unfair means to judge the quality of the product to set the price. Difference in price for good quality and inferior quality was less, and hence there was no incentive for the farmers to invest and produce good quality output. With eChoupal, the farmers have a choice and the exploitative power of the middleman is neutralized.Effects of eChoupalITC Limited has now established computers and Internet access in rural areas across several agricultural regions of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale of their produce with ITC Limited. The PCs and Internet access at these centers enable the farmers to obtain information on mandi prices, good farming practices and place orders for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers in improving the quality of produce, and also helps in realizing a better price. Each ITC Limited kiosk having an access to Internet is run by a sanchalak — a trained farmer. The computer housed in the sanchalak’s house is linked to the Internet via phone lines or by a VSAT connection and serves an average of 600 farmers in the surrounding ten villages within about a 5 km radius. The sanchalak bears some operating

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cost but in return earns service fee for the e-transactions done through his eChoupal. The warehouse hub is managed by the same traditional middlemen, now called samyojaks, but with no exploitative power due to the reorganized role. Indeed these middlemen make up for the lack of infrastructure and fulfill critical jobs like cash disbursement, quantity aggregation and transportation.Due to the eChoupal services, farmers have seen a rise in their income levels because of rise in yields, improvement in quality of output and a fall in transaction costs. Even small farmers have gained from the initiative. Customized and relevant knowledge is offered to the farmers despite heterogeneous cultures, climates and scales of production. Farmers can get real-time information despite their physical distance from the "mandis". The system saves procurement costs for ITC Limited. The model is quite different from the other models, as the farmers do not pay for the information and knowledge they get from eChoupals. The principle of the eChoupals is to inform, empower and compete. At the same time ITC Limited also has extracted value in four steps to make the model sustainable and scaleable: 1. Elimination of non-value added activities 2. Differentiated product through identity preserved supply chains 3. Value added products traceable to farm practices 4. e-market place for spot transactions and support services to futures exchangeOne of the factors leading to eChoupal's success is ITC's managerial expertise in executing complex projects and managing costs. ITC Limited adopted a flexible project management approach called "roll out, fix it, and scale up" to deal with uncertainties in a pioneering model. There are 6,500 eChoupals today. ITC Limited plans to scale up to 20,000 eChoupals by 2012 covering 100,000 villages in 15 states, servicing 15 million farmers.The National Dairy Development BoardThe National Dairy Development Board is an institution of national importance setup by an Act of Parliament of India. The main office is located in Anand, Gujarat with regional offices throughout the country. NDDB's subsidiaries include Mother Dairy, Delhi. Dr. Verghese Kurien founded it and Dr. Amrita Patel is the current Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, Anand.The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was created in 1965, fulfilling the desire of the then Prime Minister of India - the late Lal Bahadur Shastri - to extend the success of the Kaira Cooperative Milk Producers' Union (Amul) to other parts of India.That success combined the wisdom and energy of farmers with professional management to successfully capture liquid milk and milk product markets while supporting farmer investment with inputs and services. The major success of this mission was achieved through the World Bank financed Operation Flood, which lasted for 26 years from 1970 to 1996 and was responsible for making India the world's largest producer's of milk. This operation was started with the objective of increasing milk production, augmenting farmer income and providing fair prices for consumers.NDDB has now integrated 96,000 dairy co-operatives in what it calls the Anand Pattern, linking the village society to the state federations in a three-tier structure. NDDB launched its Perspective Plan 2010 with four thrust areas: Quality Assurance, Productivity Enhancement, Institution Building and National Information Network.Indian Agri Trade Junction Portal of APEDAThe Agri Trade Junction Portal of APEDA has been developed to provide all relevant information in a single place on Indian products to International buyers and international market intelligence to Indian exporters, in the agriculture sector. Apart from this, it shall serve as a

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single point meeting place for exporters and importers online. Exporters can receive offers and trade enquiries online. Importers can float their demand and queries online.APEDA is the apex body for promotion of agricultural products from India, under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. This portal has been a major initiative by APEDA to make information about Indian agriculture products and exporters available in an easily accessible form for importers of the world Health issues including the management of public health, health education, and ethical concerns regarding health care The recently launched Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) - a health insurance scheme provides cover to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. RSBY is an idea that has its origins in the Ministry of Labour, and is designed as yet another way to provide social security to people below the poverty line. Under the scheme, BPL families (up to a total of 5 members per family), will get insurance cover of up to Rs.30,000 per person per year.It is well recorded that in India, those people who are economically below the poverty line or are at the margins need just one prolonged illness or hospitalisation to be pushed to the verge of bankruptcy. But a little more thinking about RSBY and our health sector, made me ask some questions: Why do we need an insurance scheme for BPL families?Is it because we do not have adequate government medical facilities or trained doctors that people can access? Or is it because many government-run health care centres simply do not run the way they are supposed to? Or, could it be that, people have so little faith in our public health facilities that they simply do not go there even though they might become bankrupt paying for private health care? Or is it because there is an explicit policy statement in which we have said that we must encourage private provision of health care, because we have come to the conclusion that government facilities are beyond redemption?Our opinions on the role of RSBY will vary, depending on the answers and explanations to these and other similar questions. In any event, the scheme is symptomatic of a larger problem. The health ministry has failed to deliver essential health care services to the population through the government health care system, and to overcome this failure, a different ministry wants to provide insurance to a section of the population so that they can access private health care.How fruitful will the Ministry of Labour's labours on this front be? That remains to be seen. But one thing is clear - for the first time, the government has signalled to a large percentage of the population (over 20 percent) that they should access health care offered by private providers and that the government would be willing to work with insurance companies to finance this arrangement. Already, around 85 million people are covered under schemes such as Employees State Insurance Corporation, Central Government Health Scheme, etc. That number is a relatively small fraction of the total population. With RSBY, the push towards privately provided care will receive a much bigger boost.

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