NOTA in context of India

In the last couple of years India seems to be going through a sort of awakening process. The wide spread reach of internet, proliferation of news channels, newspapers, proactive journalism and mobile phones made social forums and discussions a routine thing in even the far flung areas of the country. This has made the ordinary person aware of the deep routed sickness of corruption in the Indian bureaucratic and political system. Political corruption is more a matter of debate in the nation because of the sheer size of it. 2G, CWG, Land Scams, Coalgate, Adarsh, Porngate, Bhanwri Devi kidnap and murder, Tatra Truck controversy are all household terms nowadays.

Amidst all this a PIL was lodged in the Supreme Court demanding cleansing of politics. The Court has answered the need of the hour by a very much debatable ruling by interpreting the RPA act. Further in a separate ruling the bench headed by CJI himself has declared right to reject implicit in the fundamental rights. These two rulings of the court are supposed to go a long way in changing the face of Indian politics. It can be hoped that once politics is clean the rest of the machinery will improve rapidly.

However these rulings are not without their controversies. The first of the rulings says that any legislator or a candidate for legislature will be disqualified immediately if a court of law has convicted or found accused, such a person, in offences as defined in the RPA act as offences, conviction in which can be awarded for two or more years of sentence and/or fine for the term of the conviction and further 6 years. The existent law gave the convict a window of three months to make an appeal in the higher court and if such an appeal lies, he can carry on as a legislator, as long as the higher court does not find him guilty. The ruling of the court has eliminated the window and the tainted legislator is disqualified immediately.

This ruling will have two major impacts. First after this ruling the old scourge of criminalization of politics will get cured. It is a welcome change. Every citizen wants to see a clean legislature. There has been a resentment of law breakers holding the place of law makers. Second impact is negative, that it gives an opportunity to innovative politicians wage their political war. A politician can just get lodged an FIR against a rival politician and get him disqualified, investigations notwithstanding. Considering the influence a sitting MLA or MP has on the police and other law enforcement agencies, it is a walk in the park for them. This can disrupt the democratic functioning of our system. While in the first system it is easy for a criminal to make his way into the legislature, after the ruling it will be impossible for people with tainted record to reach the legislature, but at the same time hard for anyone to challenge the sitting legislature.

The one side of the coin is so bright that it outshines the other in the eyes of a common man. A clean legislature, MP’s and MLA’s who command people’s respect from their honesty in life and actions seemed to be a distant dream but the ruling of the court has made it realistic. But does a clean legislature guarantee the fulfillment of the nation’s dreams, elimination of poverty, hunger, disease, grievance of the tribals, a dutiful police, early justice, corruption free bureaucracy and so on. In words of Hitler, in politics, the good intentions of a man can not make up for his incompetence. There is no guarantee that even a clean legislature can be competent enough to answer the grievances of this nation, which are so difficult to handle. There is no such guarantee, only a hope. But as long as there are criminals right in the parliament, even such  hope does not exist.

There are costs which the nation will have to pay for such a clean legislature. A really potent politician who is well capable of leading his people out of the misery of circumstances might become the victim of false accusations, engineered investigation, and influenced judgment and his career may get ruined. The ruling has provided powerful people a very dangerous weapon to eliminate their rivals. It is not beyond one’s imagination that many a political careers will be sacrificed for this dream of clean legislature. Furthur a tainted powerful man can always field people on his behalf such as his son or wife and reap all the benefits. This ruling can clean the legislature for the purpose of paper but not necessarily for the purpose of conduct. The prospect of a clean legislature on record are bright by this ruling but a clean legislature in intentions can by no means guaranteed.

In my opinion the criminalization of politics is not a result of loopholes in the law, but it’s a result of bovine and careless nature of the common man. There are criminals in the parliament not because the law has permitted them to contest but because we have chosen criminals to represent us. For decades we have been voting on caste lines, communal lines, language and resemblance. People in India vote an image, not a personality. Without knowing a sinlge thing about the real character of a candidate we have been voting all our lives for his caste, religion and language. At best we vote the party, but only very rarely we vote the man. We all get blown by the propaganda. Propaganda is driven by the finance and muscle of criminals. We never try to look for the real truth for ourselves, we only trust the propaganda. The result is before us, 33% criminal in our apex legislature. Even the new ruling can eliminate the criminals from the legislature but not crime from politics. Criminal may be in the jail, but his son or wife will ride the propaganda and reach the legislature. Nothing will be solved until the common man looks into his own conscience, puts away the lure of caste and religion and votes the righteous irrespective of his background.

The court has given its best by giving this ruling, but I don’t see upside down changes in the political gamut until the voting behavior changes. The role of the media is paramount in unmasking the truth behind the propaganda, and the media is doing a commendable job indeed. However, the drive behind the activeness of the media is not an urge to strengthen the democracy but TRP. I don’t mind this as long as awareness about the real character of those who rule us keeps on spreading.

Lets move on to the second ruling of the court. In a landmark judgment the court has declared that the right to reject all the candidates in an election if the voters don’t find any of the candidate worthy of his vote, is a fundamental right implicit in the right to expression. Earlier, one had to vote at least one of the candidates whether he like it or not. In the ruling the court has directed the election commission to add the choice NOTA as an option. If a voter finds none of the candidates worthy of his support he can reject them all by NOTA. The right to reject exist in many other democracies like USA, UK. However the NOTA will not change in the election results since a person exercising NOTA will amount to not voted for anyone. It will add zero votes to all of the candidates. However, in the true right to reject if a sufficient number of voter choose NOTA, the election will become void and fresh election will be held considering the earlier candidates were hated by so many voters that it will amount to tyranny if any one of them reached legislature.

So in those term the new ruling will not have a substantial impact on the outcome of the election, however many people believe that the coming election will be more democratic because of the NOTA option. Many of the people do not go to vote simply because they do not like any of the candidates. This new option is supposed to increase the ballot substantially. I see the importance if this ruling in paving the way for real right to reject since no big change comes at once but step by step. Once the people at large become aware of the NOTA they will demand the full right to reject. The way I see it, the constitutional duty of the Supreme Court as being the protector of the social revolution has been duly fulfilled in paving the way for a new instrument of democracy. I can imagine the NGO’s and other sections of the people demanding full fledged right to reject once the NOTA becomes a wide phenomenon.

As we have seen the series of ruling by the EC and Supreme Court have come a long way in democratic process in the country. But these rulings like mandatory disclosure by the candidates of their assets and liability, declaration of criminal record if any, monitoring of the election spending, stringent codes of conduct, prohibition of liquor, disclosures of large sums of donations received by parties have not changed by a great dealthe ground realities. Most of the grievances of the people still remain unsolved. Many new grievances appear. The recent rulings of the court are, in my opinion new chapters in the book of electoral reforms. This book is a book after all, it cannot change much until the reader adopts the noblel reading in his life. Not much will change if the common man does not apply his mind and use his vote as if it was a valuable asset, because a vote is valuable indeed.

“What greater luck for the rulers than those whom they rule do not think.” Adolf Hitler

Neeraj Gaur 

E- Governance- A complete study

Historical Background

·         E- governance in India owes its origins to the in house development of applications during the 1970s and 1980s in defense, economic planning,census, tax administration and elections.

·         Subsequently, massive efforts were made during the 1980s by the National Informatics Centre(NIC) to connect all the district headquarters in the country througha VSAT network.

·         However, all these efforts were mainly governmentcentric with the primary objective of exploiting information andcommunication technologies (ICTs)for automating internal government functions.

·         Citizen centricity with a focus on improving delivery of services to the citizens was not the primary goal during this period.In the late 1980s, a few computerization initiatives in the government started making an impact on citizen services.

·         The most prominent among these was the computerization of the passenger reservation system by the Indian Railways (Ramani,1991).

·         E-governance during this period received a major thrust with the launch of NICNET in 1987,followed by the launch of DISNICthat aimed at computerizing all the district offices in (2nd Administrative Reforms Commission,2008).

·         During the 1990s, several government departments at both central and state levels launched projects aimed at deploying ICTs for improving services to citizens.

·         Initial attempts were made by some government departments during the latter half of this decade to use the World Wide Web mainly for providing information to the citizens.

·         Several states, particularly the southern states, achieved significant successes in using e-governance to improve delivery of services to the citizens during this period.

·         This trend continued during the early years of the last decade with Several states across the country implementing citizen-centric-government projects.

·          However,these initiatives were isolated and fragmented due to lack of adequate and integrated ICT infrastructure reaching down to the block and village levels, lack of comprehensive back end computerization, lack of connectivity, and lack of adequate capacity at all levels of government to efficiently deploy ICTs for improving the quality of governance.

·         The National e-Governance Plan(NeGP), conceptualized in the early part of the last decade, aimed at addressing all these deficiencies.

National e-Governance Plan

The National e-GovernancePlan (NeGP) is the most significant initiative taken in India during the last decade to mainstream ICT in governance at both central and state levels. It lays emphasis on creating the right governance and institutional framework within the country, establish the core IT infrastructure, and implement a number of Mission Mode Projectsat the central, state and integrated levels.

 The original vision of NeGPwas to “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparencyand reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man”.

The plan, consisting originally of27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs)and 8 Components, was approved inMay 2006. Subsequently, during July2011, four new MMPs on Health,Education, Public DistributionSystem (PDS) and Posts wereadded. The respective ministriesand departments in Government of India are responsible for overallformulation, financial approvalsand implementation of the MMPs.

Integrated ApproachtoImplementationThe overall strategy forimplementation envisaged anintegrated approach focusing onsix key aspects and seven guidingprinciples.

The six key aspects included

1.      Connectivity

2.      Capacitybuilding,

3.      content creation,

4.      cyber law,

5.      citizen interface, and

6.      capital.

The sevenguiding principles included thefollowing:

1.      Centralized initiative and decentralized implementation;

2.      Delivering public value;

3.      Think big, start smalland scale fast;

4.      Change management;

5.      Common core and support infrastructure;

6.      Capacity building;

7.      And public private partnerships (ppps).

Governance Structure underNeGP

NeGP has conceptualized awell-defined governance structureto ensure its implementation as a comprehensiveand integrated plancutting across various central lineministries and state governments.

·         At the highest level, there is aCommittee headed by the PrimeMinister to provide the overallleadership for the implementation oftheNeGP.

·         A National e-GovernanceAdvisory Group headed by theMinister of Communications and IThas been constituted to seek viewsof the various stakeholders anddeliberate on the policy issues andinterventions needed to mainstreamICT in governance in the country.

·         An Apex Committee on NeGPchaired by the Cabinet Secretaryhas also been constituted to monitorits implementation, provide policy directions and resolve any interministerialissues.

·         For the actualconceptualization, financialapprovals, and implementationof the MMPs, the respective lineministries and departments areresponsible.

·         DeitY(Departement of Electronics and Information Technology) serves as thesecretariat for the Apex Committeein managing the NeGP and providestechnical advisory and appraisalservices to the various departmentsimplementing the MMPs.

·         It isalso responsible for implementingthe core infrastructural and othertechnical support components ofthe plan.

Components under NeGP

The NeGP consists of eight components.

·         The three main corecomponents consist of

·         State WideArea Networks (SWANs),

·         State Data Centres (SDCs),

·         Common Service Centers (CSCs).

·         All thesethree projects are being implemented by Deity. The other five components comprise

·         Standards, awareness andcommunication,

·         Capacity building, assessment,and

·         Research and development.

DeitY plays a pivotalrole in these areas as well.

Mission Mode Projects underNeGP

The 31 MMPs under the NeGPconsist of 11 central, 7 integratedand 13 state projects.

The 11 centralMMPs are as follows:

1.      Banking - This MMP has been led by the banking industry and aims at integrating the core banking solutions across various banks in the country.

2.      Insurance – This is another industry led initiative that focuses on services in the insurance sector being provided by the public sector insurance companies.

3.      MCA 21 - This project provides various services of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs such as registration of companies,filing of documents, etc.through a secure portal. It has 8 service categories.

4.      Income Tax: It aims at providing all income tax related services to citizens and businesses under 18 service categories.

5.      Central Excise: It provides excise and customs related services such as online filing of service tax and excise returns, e-payment of customs duties, etc. under 16 service categories.

6.      National ID/UID: It aims at providing unique identification numbers to all the residents int he country.

7.      Passports: It offers all passport related services under 17 service categories including applications for new passports,renewal of passports, tracking of status of applications, etc.

8.      Immigration and Visa: It provides immigration and visa related services under 9 service categories at the Indian Missions abroad.

9.      Pensions: It provides pension related services to pensioners under 2 service categories.

10.  E-Office: It aims at automating all internal file management processes within government departments.

11.  Posts: This new MMP focuses on providing all postal services in the country including postal savings accounts and postal insurance.Out of the 11 central MPs Mentioned above, 10 have gone live and are offering services to their stakeholders. However, not all services under their defined service categories may be operational.

The 13 state MMPs are asfollows:

1.      National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP):It aims at comprehensive computerization of land records, integration of registration and mutation processes, automatic updation of land records, etc. under 16 service categories.

2.      Commercial Taxes: It provides online filing of returns and taxes, automatic refunds, etc.under 22 service categories.

3.      Transport: It includes services like vehicle registration and driving licenses under 18 service categories.

4.      E-District: It provides district and tehsil/block level G2C services such as various certificates, welfares ervices , etc. under 10 service categories. While five categories are defined,states can add five categories specific to their requirements.An E-District pilot project hasbeen implemented across 41districts in 16 states and nowthe project is being rolled outacross all the states.

5.      Treasuries: It includes allpayment related servicesthrough treasuries under 13service categories.

6.      Municipalities: It providesmunicipal level G2C and G2Bservices such as birth and deathcertificates, payment of taxesand fees, licenses, etc. under 8service categories.

7.      Police – Crime and CriminalTracking and NetworkingSystem (CCTNS): It aimsat comprehensive automationof police and criminaladministrationsystem inthe country with 23 servicecategories

8.      Agriculture: It providesservices such as market prices,crop diseases and management,best practices in agriculture,horticulture, sericulture, etc.under 12 service categories.

9.      Gram Panchayats: It includesservices like house taxes, tradelicenses, certificates, etc. under12 service categories.

10.  Employment Exchange:It includes services such asregistration of job seekers andguidance to them, potentialemployers and onlineregistration of vacancies, etc.under 6 service categories.

11.  Health, Education and PDS:These three MMPs have beenadded in July 2011 and aimat providing a comprehensiverange of services in theirrespective sectors.

Out of the 13 state MMPs fourMMPs, i.e., NLRMP, Transport,e-District (Pilot), and CommercialTaxes have gone live and aredelivering various services.Two MMPs, Treasuries andMunicipalities, have become livepartially. Three MMPs, CCTNS,Gram Panchayats, and Agricultureare under implementation andEmployment Exchange MMP isyet to be launched. The three newMMPs are under conceptualizationstage.

The 7 integrated MMPs are asfollows:

1. India Portal: It aims atproviding a single windowaccess to all governmentservices under variousdepartments at both centraland state levels.

2.National Service DeliveryGateway(NSDG): It is amessaging middleware toroute intelligently and securelyall service requests to therelevant backend databasesand the processed services tothe service seeker. It facilitatesexchange of information acrossvarious backend databases ofdifferent departments. It has 6defined service categories.

3.Common Service Centres(CSC): It provides ICT enabledfront end kiosks for deliveringvarious G2C and G2B servicesto citizens in rural areas.

4.E-Courts: It aims at automatingcourt related services suchas e-filing of cases, onlineavailability ofjudgements, etc.under four service categories.

5. Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) for Trade: It enablesonline filing and clearance ofimport and export documents,online payment of chargesand fees and exchange ofdocuments among differentgovernment departmentsand agencies such as ports,customs, etc. It has four servicecategories.

6. E-Biz: It aims at providingintegrated services through asingle window for businessesand investors related toapprovals and permissions,payment of various fees throughone lumpsum payment, etc.under 29 service categories.

7. E-Procurement: It providesall procurement relatedservices to various governmentdepartments and agencies.Except the e-Biz MMP, all theother MMPs listed above have gonelive though not all the servicesunder various categories mightbe operational. E-Biz MMP isexpected to go live shortly.

Cross-Case ComparativeAnalysis:

Issues and Challenges in Implementation of NeGP

Though several projects underthe NeGP have achieved significantsuccess in implementation andhave started delivering servicesto their stakeholders, manyprojects are facing challenges inimplementation. What are theseissues and challenges?

OperationalThe main operational issuesand challenges mentioned by theMMPs include lack of dedicatedproject teams, frequent changesin project leadership, lack ofcapacity and change management,inadequate engagement with thekey stakeholders and issues inproject management due to thesheer scale and diversity of somevery large projects.

InstitutionalThe main institutional issuesand challenges noted by theMMPs include inter-departmentalcoordination, duplication of infrastructure, lack of aninstitutionalized incentive scheme,inadequate business processreengineering (BPR), delays inobtaining necessary approvals, and exit management for PPP projects.

LegalSome MMPs pointed out thatrecognition of electronic recordsis still an issue despite the legalmandate provided by the IT Actfor the same. In some cases, BPRneeded legal enactments to beimplemented.

FinancialSome MMPs noted that delaysin obtaining financial approvalswere hampering the progress ofimplementation. Delays in releaseof funds to the states and theirutilization was also mentionedby some state MMPs as a majorchallenge in making projects go livein those states.

TechnologicalThe major technologicalchallenges pointed out by theMMPs included dependency on coreinfrastructure for implementation,software customization, systemintegration, compliance withsecurity standards and third partyaudit, lack of a central network andlack of adequate disaster recovery(DR) facilities.

Critical Factors Affecting theImplementation of NeGP

We can observe from theabove analysis that the issues andchallenges being faced by theMMPs can be broadly classified intoseven critical factors: information,people, management, process,structure, strategy and technology.This analytical framework allowsus to suggest interventions tomake the MMPs more effectiveand outcome oriented in theirimplementation.

NeGP: The Way ForwardHow can the MMPs be mademore effective in terms of theiroutcome orientation and how canthey take advantage of the latestnew and innovative technologiessuch as cloud and mobile to makeimplementation faster and moreresource efficient? Based on theanalysis in the preceding sections,tthe following recommendationscan be made for the MMPs in thisregard.

Redefining the Strategy: OutcomeOrientationThe MMPs should redefinetheir service delivery strategywith a renewed focus on outcomeorientation through provisioningof all feasible services throughthe electronic mode, well-definedservice levels and measurabletransactions either through CSCsor in self-service mode.

Process: Focus on BPR andAadhaar IntegrationThe process interventions shouldinclude comprehensive BPRdigital signing of all the documents,electronic authentication, integratedservices and integration of theAadhaar platform for servicedelivery.

New and Innovative Technologies:Cloud Computing, Mobile, andLocalizationThere is tremendous scope forexploiting the new and innovativetechnologies such as cloudcomputing and mobile platformfor making rollout of services faster and more resource efficient.Cloud computing offers tremendousopportunities for fast-tracking theimplementation of different projectsand for quickly replicating thesuccessful e-governance projectsin various states across the country.Similarly, as access to mobilephones is much higher compared tothe same for computers and internet,mobile platform holds tremendouspotential for widening the reach ofe-governance, espeically in ruralareas. Use of local languages inapplications can facilitae easyaccess to them for the people.

Institutional Structure andManagementEnsuring inter-departmentalcoordination and coordinationamong the central ministries andstate government departments aresine qua nons for the success of anyproject. They are also vital in avoidingunnecessary duplication of efforts.Such coordination can also help intimely sanctions and releases offunds to the implementing agenciesand states. There is also need foran institutionalized performancelinked incentive scheme to be putin place for the MMPs. A propermanagement information system(MIS) must be put in place by all theMMPs to effectively monitor theperformance of the projects. Properpolicies for strategic control and exitmanagement also need to be put inplace. Appropriate revenue modelsfor ensuring financial sustainabilityof the projects also need to becarefully examined.

People and Information: CapacityBuilding andEmpoweringStakeholdersCapacity building at all levelswithin the government is a mustfor the success of any project. Theimportance of dedicated projectteams and change managementcannot be overemphasized.Disseminating proper informationand empowering the key stakeholderscan go a long way in ensuring thesuccess and sustainability of the projects.

Issues and Challenges faced by MMPs	Critical Factors as per Heeks and Bhatnagar (1999) Model
Operational: dedicated project teams , project leader ship, capacity and change management, inadequate engagement with the key stakeholders, project management	Information, People, Management, Structure
Institutional: inter-departmental c o o r d i n a t i o n , d u p l i c a t i o n of infrastructure, lack of an institutionalized incentive scheme, inadequate business process reengineering (BPR), delays in obtaining necessary approvals, and exit management for PPP projects.	Management, Process, Information, Structure, Strategy
Financial: delays in financial approvals, release of funds	Process Management
Technological: core infrastructure, system integration, customization	Technology

Submitted By Neeraj Kumar

·    

Food Security Bill Explained -Part -2

Food Security Bill:

Overview:

1. Grain procurement is already around 60M tonnes and it has been going up steadily in the last 20 years at about 5% per year
2. Carrying costs of grain is double the cost of their production (costs INR 5 to transfer the worth of benefit INR 1)
3. 1990-2007 : Population growth at 1.9% ; Food grain production at 1.2%; But with recent initiatives, rate of growth  in production surpassed the rate of growth in population

Estimates:

1. Grain availability
1. Food Production in India = 200 M tonnes (Last year 236 M tonnes)
2. Marketing surplus after Self-consumption of small farmers = 140 M tonnes
3. Commission of Agricultural costs and prices estimates of Requirements to Food Security Bill = 60 M tonnes (30% of the total production) - Half of the world's trade
4. Available to private market = 80 M tonnes
5. Crisis of Plenty : As per the requirements of the bill, by the end of July Govt stocks need to be 52MT ; But the actual stocks are expected to be around 88MT in which case, 38MT will be sitting as a dead weight; Total economic cost of 38MT is projected as Rs 75,000 Crore ; In a way food inflation is created by government; Year-on-Year inflation : Rice 17% and Wheat 20% (Gross Failure in Food Management); Shows that we are very tolerant of inaction and delays;
2. Subsidy Burden (According to official govt. estimates)
1. Existing burden to cover 45% of the population = 95,000 crore (1,09,000 crores in reality)
2. Extra burden to cover 67% of the population = 35000 crore if it manages a revamped delivery system with minimum leakages.
3. Existing PDS : Major cost component is into storage of the grain; with the roll-out of FSB these costs can be drastically cut.
4. Higher taxes of the states distorting markets Eg: PJ,HR,AP; Punjab taxes as high as 14.5%; Subsidy of 95000 crore in total food security, atleast 8000-10000 crore are taxes in the name of poor;
5. The foodgrains to be allocated to the PDS under the Act will be 54.9 million (mn) tonnes; Further,about 6.5 mntonnes are now allocated for other welfare schemes
6. Assuming a subsidy of Rs 21.5 per kg, then for 61.4 mntonnes, this comes to about Rs 1.32 lakh crore a year or about 1.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) at current market prices
7. Other estimates:
1. Bhalla's estimations : Rs 3 lakh crore or 3% of GDP
2. CACP : 6.8 lakh crore over three years (roughly Rs 2.3 lakh crore a year)
3. Prachi Mishra from the finance ministry :annual incremental cost of the NFSA will be anywhere between Rs 44,411 crore to Rs 76,486 crore in 2013-14
3. Beneficiaries:
1. 35% of the national wide might be excluded (current beneficiaries of Dalits and Backward sections in certain western areas like Punjab, W.UP will be excluded with this criteria)
2. coverage under NFSA has been delinked from poverty estimates and therefore the hitherto followed system of APL and BPL beneficiaries would no more be relevant.
4. Storage: (total Central procurement & Storage (doesn't include PDS))
1. Present Storage capacity(Public Sector) : 82 M tonnes (2009-10 : 55M tonnes); the warehousing capacity available in India in public, cooperative and private sectors is about 109 mt and an additional 35 mt of are housing capacity is estimated to be required during the Twelfth Plan for the storage of major crops.
2. Upgrading our storage structures(wastage of only 0.02%) by involving Private players(72 Lakh tonnes in last 2 years with their help) in big way : April-June, 2013- 1Lakh tonnes of food grains worth INR 236.32 crore were lost in "Transit, Storage and due to theft". Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme to create storage facilities
3. we are also thinking of going beyond traditional Godown structures by introducing 'Silos'
5. Need to stabilise production and distribution systems when you are committing Food supply as a right ; In 2002-03 itself, production fell by 38MT in a single year;
1. Storage and Railway wagons
2. Agricultural Min says that 100,000 crore in agriculture to stabilise production and it has to done in the first 3 years of FSB
3. CACP estimates it as 200,000 crore/year
6. State Coverage :
1. Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand will have coverage of about 85% of the population in rural a reas under the NFSA
2. UP, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh around 80-82%

Beneficiary Identification:

1. based on socio-economic and caste census.
2. Automatic exclusion and Inclusion (some proposed parameters) {It is opinion, not Saxena cmt parameters}
1. Urban : 3 types based on the vulnerabilities
1. Residential : Homeless-obviously poor; Slum-dwellers : High chances of being poor
2. Occupational : Rickshaw pullers, Construction Labour, Domestic help, Beggars
3. Social : households with no able-bodied male aged 18 to 60
2. Rural : some socio-economic categories : Single Women, Disabled people, old people,.
3. Complexities involved in the identification of beneficiaries based on caste survey
4. Exclusion criteria should be state specific; Eg: "pacca house" as an exclusion criteria : It is a sign of wealth in in plain, not necessarily in hills

Features:

1. Upto 75% of the rural population and upto 50% of the urban population will have uniform entitlement of 5 kg foodgrains per month per person at highly subsidized prices of Rs. 3, Rs. 2, Rs. 1 per kg.for rice, wheat, coarse grains respectively . These are national coverage ratios to be adjusted state-wise so that the coverage is higher in poorer states.
2. The poorest of poor households would continue to receive 35 Kg foodgrains per household under AAY
3. Eldest Women of the household above 18 years to be head of the household for the purpose of issue of ration cards.
4. special focus on the needs of poorest of the poor, women and children.(Lactating mother will also receive maternity benefit of at least of Rs. 6000/-(INR 1000 for 6 months). Children in the age group of 6 months to 14 years will be entitled to take home ration or hot cooked food as per prescribed nutritional norms.)
5. In case of non-supply of foodgrains now people will get Food Security Allowance.
6. States to get assistance for intra-State transportation and handling of foodgrains
7. Eldest women is recognised as the head of the household
8. Grievance redressal
1. Increased role of PRIs, Women's SHGs
2. District Grievance redressal officers, State Food commission - provides for grievance redressal mechanism(at the district level) and penalty for non compliance by public servant or authority
3. Social audits and vigilance committees
4. PDS related records to be placed in public domain
5. Call centres& Helplines
9. Doorstep delivery of foodgrains to the TPDS outlets;
10. Application of information and communication technology tools including end-to-end computerisation in order to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels, and to prevent diversion;
11. Leveraging “aadhaar” for unique identification, with biometric information of entitled beneficiaries for proper targeting of benefits under this Ordinance.
12. Full transparency of records;
13. Diversification of commodities distributed under the Public Distribution System over a period of time;
14. Support to local public distribution models and grains banks.
15. The Center has proposed a committee of State Food Secretaries under the chairmanship of Union Food Secretaries to sort out issues of sharing expenditure towards intra-State transportation and handling of foodgrains, margins to fair price shop dealers and other implementation issues to ensure speedy implementation of National Food Security Act(NFSA).

Challenges:

1. Can we still uphold the right in the case of weak monsoon and subsequent fall in food production?
2. Need to streamline the PDS system and plugin the leakages and pilferage before making the food supply universal.
3. If the approach still is identification of a beneficiary, how will it be different from current scenario? Rigid targetting may only lead to exclusion of genuine BPL families and vulnerable APL families
4. Already some states are believed to have well developed PDS, this bill may seem retrograde.
5. Direct Benefit transfer - how will it adjust for the price fluctuations and the delay in payments will not be in sync with current inflation scenario.
6. Storage, Transport(planning to bring rail infra into the supply chain); Expansion of decentralised procurement.
7. Danger of over-centralisation of the PDS under the bill, at a time when many state governments are making good progress with reforming the PDS on their own
8. Better existing models:
1. TN already has universal PDS
1. FSB - Targetted coverage ; TN Model - Universal coverage
2. FSB - Rural population(75%), Urban Population(50%); TN - Rice free of cost to 1.8Crore families
3. FSB - Rice(INR 3/kg), Wheat(3/Kg), Millets(3/Kg); TN - Rice entitlements 12kg/month(min) - 20kg/month(max)
4. FSB - AAY beneficiaries to get 35kg/month; TN - AAY to get 35kgs/month
5. FSB - Food security allowance to be provided in case of non-supply; TN - Sugar to rice-drawing holders 500gms to max 2kg, edible oil and pulses at subsidised rates under special PDS
2. TN has 50% of the population in Urban areas => under FSB 25% of TN population will not be eligible for food entitlements.
9. India need to convince WTO that it is not violating AoA(Agreement on Agriculture) by this bill
10. Moving from household based entitlements(25kg/household) to percapita entitlements (5kg/person) . Could be disruptive if it is imposed overnight from the top. Could face resistance from the public.
1. AP and TN already has put in use Per-capita entitlements model
2. Population totals are better defined and better known than household counts and therefore better suited for determining state-wise allocations.
3. only 10% of the rural families have more than 7 members.// But this scheme of per-capita entitlements is done at a lower price than earlier, so it is more equitable
4. Adding a name to the ration card when a child is born tends to be difficult and enrollment is an issue even in the better governed states.
5. Could be disruptive in the states where per-household model works well (Chattisgarh, Odisha, HP,RJ)
6. Opinion:
1. Equity can be ensured without forcing states to adopt per-capita approach; Eg: by considering every nuclear family as a separate household(as in NREGA)
2. Central govt. could allocate grains on the basis of entitled population, and let states decide which approach to use.
11. The percentage of beneficiaries may vary from state to state(This would be based on caste & Socio-economic census) .Southern states' PDS will be affected b/c of this bill, since their existing quota will have to be diverted to other states unless our export of food grains to Europe to feed their cattle are curtailed or we import food grains from Vietnam or Thailand
1. Estimation of 18 states losing and 17 states and UTs gaining the quota (since it is based on population figures) - Losing states : TN, Kerala, Tripura; Gaining States: UP,Bihar, Gujarat
2. Estimated cut of 31.24L tonne to losing states and higher out-go of 110.28L tonnes to gaining states at subsidised rates (CIP)
3. Provision of additional grains at MSP
12. Leakages need to be plugged through (9-point strategy)
1. de-privatisation of ration shops (Community ownership of FPS – SHGs )
2. end-to-end computerization - also a proposal of new independent agency manned by professionals to computerize PDS.
3. Aadhar - biometrics (authentication, portability)
4. Social audit
5. Leakages are minimum in AAY category, but high in APL category b/c APL is not a fixed quota.
13. No clarity on cost-sharing formula b/n Centre and states.
14. Political consensus on these issues:
1. Cash transfers in lieu of food grains
2. Protection of present grain allocations to states
3. Framing of rules and guidelines
4. Ready-to-eat meals and fortified foods('energy dense' foods).
5. Role of Contractors and Manufacturers in ICDS
15. Demands of amendments on these issues
1. Raising the percapita entitlement from 5kg to 7kg
2. Inclusion of Pulses and Edible oil in PDS basket
3. Removing caps on percentage of eligible beneficiaries.

Dimensions:

1. the implementation of the legislation promises economy-wide benefits.
1. the guarantee of subsidised food grains, which constitutes a significant proportion of the consumption basket for most people, will have the immediate effect of increasing their disposable income. This is not trivial, given that the growth of consumption expenditure has doubled between 2009 and 2012
2. the provision can play the role of an economic stabiliser because food prices determine the floor wage level, which is why they are termed a wage good. The guarantee would thus not only help in controlling food prices but also stabilise wages. Indeed, it is perplexing that industry lobbies are attacking the provision of an enhanced social wage, from which they stand to benefit significantly.
3. if the fiscal deficit is run in an imaginative way, even more can be achieved. For instance, coupling the food guarantee to the MGNREGA can help in the construction of a countrywide network of godowns for the Food Corporation of India
2. a cash transfer scheme would negate much of the potential economy-wide benefits that would accrue from the implementation of the food security legislation.
3. Greater dependency of Centre on states to procure on their behalf ; High time centre and states rationalise tax structure (GST ); States monopoly in grain trade; 1972 : Centre tried to take over the grain trade, but political set up didn't allow this to happen;

Direct Benefit Transfer:

Prerequisites:

1. Financial inclusion with each beneficiary to have a bank or post office account
2. each bank and PO in India to have Internet Connectivity
3. to have an Aadhar number
4. each bank/PO account to be seeded with the Aadhar number

Benefits:

1. provides range of options. But vulnerable become more prone to market fluctuations ; So need to link DBT with nutritional outcomes (ie Conditional cash transfers), or food stamps (to buy Veg, Fruits, Micronutrients), or Mixed transfers.
2. Our strategy of DBT is essentially an attempt to streamline PDS. It talks about cash transfer of subsidy, not the total food grainieWhen centre issues food grain to states at CIP, it bears food subsidy which is to be transferred to beneficiaries rather than to states directly and states are supplied grains at Economic cost. Beneficiary has to pay For Eg: Rs 3+ subsidy transferred to buy one Kg of Rice. It is qualitatively different from subsidy in cash given in-lieu of food grain. (Analyse its impact in terms of range of real choices(not spurious ones) it offers and transparency )

written by - A Sunil Kumar