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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

[vinnomot] IFPRI Report + ADB + India-Australia Wheat Program + Rehab Policy + Nobel Prize

NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development
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1. India on track to achieve MDGs: IFPRI
2. India, Australia join hands to increase wheat output NO TRANSGENICS or GMOs
3. Don't blame futures trade for price rise: panel chief    
4. Core development can help push GDP further : ADB president
5. Social reforms on right track; youth lead the pack
6. GOVERNMENT SHIFTS INTO ELECTION MODE - New R&R policy seeks to please both displaced and developers
7. National R&R policy resembles our rehab package, says RIL
8. Nobel Peace Prize goes to Al Gore, IPCC
9. Proposed biotech policy will be finalised in two weeks, says Sibal
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India on track to achieve MDGs: IFPRI
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Friday , October 12, 2007 at 2017 hrs IST
 
New Delhi, October 12: India and Ethiopia have made notable progress in reducing hunger and are very close to be on the track to achieve the target set by the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, according to a review done by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in conjunction with German Agro-Action and Concern Worldwide (GAACW).
 
IFPRI and GAACW have constructed a global hunger index target based on the United Nation's MDGs. The index is slated to be released shortly for the second year in a row
 
According to IFPRI-GAACW review top 10 countries on the track to meet the global hunger index target are Cuba, Kuwait, Fiji, Peru, Uruguay, Egypt, Tunisia Djibouti, Syria and Lebanon.
 
The 10 countries that have experienced the greatest setbacks towards achieving the global hunger index target by 2015 are Congo, Burundi, Swaziland, Liberia, North Korea, the Comoros, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and Venezuela.
 
Burundi and Congo have the highest levels of hunger followed by Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Liberia Niger, Yemen, Angola and the Comoros, almost all of which have been involved in violent conflicts in the past decade.
 
According to IFPRI-GAACW only two regions of the world - Latin America and the Caribbeans and East Africa and the Pacific – are on the track to reach the MDGs targets relating to hunger and child mortality.
 
In Sub-Saharan Africa many countries are found particularly off-track for meeting the targets. Of the 42 countries ranked, 38 are off-track regarding child mortality, 35 are not on track when it comes to reducing child malnutrition and 27 are off-track to reduce the proportion of people who are calorie deficient.
 
According to the study team leader, Doris Wiesmann : "Despite some negative setbacks, there is good news. Every region of the world is experiencing some progress. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, Ghana and Malawai have made considerable progress towards reducing hunger."
 
The global hunger index is based on three indicators – the proportion who are calorie deficient, the prevalence of underweight in children and under five mortality rate. The index ranks 118 countries for six different years to measure progress over time. It has been calculated for 1981, 1990, 1992, 2003 and 2004
 
The index does not include highly industrialized countries and some developing countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia where data are not available.
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India, Australia join hands to increase wheat output
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Thursday , October 11, 2007 at 2215 hrs IST
 
Scientists of two countries – India and Australia – have joined hands to work towards increasing the yield of wheat.
 
Wheat has posed problems to both the countries. In Australia wheat production in the current year declined due to drought. In India, though wheat production increased to about 75 million tonne there was a problem of procuring enough grains for the buffer stock and the country had to go for costly imports.
 
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have jointly drawn up short and medium term strategies to increase the yield of wheat to an optimal level.
 
"This joint collaboration is not for increasing the potential yield of wheat by increasing the photosynthesis to the level of C4 crops like sorghum and sugarcane. This will take considerable time. Therefore our efforts are now concentrated on increasing the yield to an optimal level by developing resistances to pests and diseases and several biotic and abiotic stresses," said ACIAR research programme manager Christian Roth.
 
Wheat yield in farmers' fields in Punjab is about 3.2 tonne to 3.7 tonne per hectare, which is much below the demonstrated yield
 
The 10-member Australian team is currently on a visit to India. They visited wheat fields currently under sowing in Punjab and Haryana and are now discussing with Indian agri scientists about the implementation of the medium-term plan.
 
According to the medium-term work plan scientists would deploy genomic tools like quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of collective gene which can ensure heat tolerance, resistance to salinity, drought like conditions and water logging. Developing wheat crops, tolerant to heat is very important for India as the crop is grown in select regions having favourable temperature. Wheat crop suffered damaged in the past two due to sudden spurt in temperature before ripening.
 
"We are at present not aiming at developing transgenic wheat. We would be deploying genomics tools for developing conventional wheat," said NK Sigh, principal scientist at the National Centre on Plant Biotechnology.
 
Another aspect of the programme is to identify single gene traits and go for gene tagging for developing resistance to diseases like Karnal Burnt, leaf rust. Alleles mining of cloned genes and gene pyramiding would be taken up to develop resistance to yellow and leaf rust. Mining blast resistance genes from wild species of rice would also be taken up.
 
Maker assisted selection (MAS) is expected to ensure development of crops with improved grains as well as with resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses
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Don't blame futures trade for price rise: panel chief
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Tuesday , October 16, 2007 at 0027 hrs IST
 
New Delhi, Oct 15 The expert panel on the futures markets is not likely to propose a ban on futures trading in any agriculture commodity. Rather, it will propose building strategic reserves of several commodities to deal with price volatility.
 
Speaking to FE, panel chairman Abhijit Sen said: "The terms of reference is not for deliberating whether a ban should be imposed on any tradable commodity, but to find out whether futures trading has caused a rise in prices of essential commodities in the recent past. Therefore, we would not be suggesting a ban on futures trading."
 
According to Sen, futures trading provides liquidity and can benefit farmers and consumers if prices stabilises at optimal levels. His comments are significant as futures trading has been criticised by all political parties as inflation spiked. The panel will also suggest means to check price volatility and determine ways that could benefit farmers.
 
Speaking about the reasons for the rise in prices, Sen said futures trading should not be blamed. There were other reasons like a shortfall in production, an increase in demand, lack of proper transportation as well as a rise in the cost of transportation.
 
According to Sen, more competitive futures trading with a larger number of players could stabilise prices and earn farmers remunerative prices for their produce. He however agreed : "price stabilization factor is very weak."
 
To deal with volatility in prices, Sen argued that there was need to build strategic reserves of agro commodities, which could then be offloaded onto the market to combat an abnormal rise or fall in prices. The offloading of stock during a price rise would keep inflationary trends under control and benefit consumers.
 
Another thing that needs to be done, he said was to put in place a regulation to check panic buying and selling. He said that futures trading provides liquidity and can benefit the farmers and consumers if prices stabilises at optimal levels
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Core development can help push GDP further: ADB president
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Thursday , October 11, 2007 at 2336 hrs IST
 
Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said infrastructure development in India could help push the country's gross domestic production (GDP) growth to 10-11% from 8-9% at present.
 
ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda, while addressing a group of infrastructure companies under the umbrella of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), emphasised the importance of public-private participation (PPP) in mobilising resources for the infrastructure sector. India's experience in designing and executing such partnerships could then become a lesson for other emerging economies, he said.
 
According to various estimates, India will need about $490 billion over the next ten years to boost its infrastructure sector. A fourth of this could come through PPPs.
 
The government has been working on a number of steps, including floating two special purpose vehicles to route funds into the infrastructure sector, which is marred by lack of funds and project overruns.
 
According to the government data, of the 860 central sector projects in 16 infrastructure sectors like railways, coal, civil aviation and power with an estimated cost of Rs 3,84,686.30 crore, as many as 307 projects are running as much as 195 months behind schedule. There are about 257 projects, which have cost overrun of 64% as on September 2006, compared to its original cost.
 
The main reasons for the cost and time overruns has been identified as fund constraints, land acquisition problems, law and order situations, delay in supply of equipments and environmental clearance. The government has projected that investment in infrastructure sector would have to almost double from the present level of 4.55% to 8% in the terminal year of the 11th Plan.
 
Arvind Mayaram , joint secretary, ministry of finance, also present at the meeting, said the involvement of ADB in financing private sector projects in infrastructure would deepen the appraisal capacity of Indian financial institutions.
 
According to others present at the meeting, the presence of ADB would enhance the credibility of a project. Other critical roles that the ADB can play include the provision of guarantees and take-out finance.
 
Other issues discussed at the meeting include the issue of slow implementation of projects and how rapid urbanization will make it imperative to provide adequate infrastructure including low-cost housing.
 
The country's economy grew by 9.4 % during the 2006-07 and as per the Reserve Bank's projection, the country is likely to record a growth rate of 8.5% during the current fiscal.
 
This projection comes at a when the economy is reeling under the pressure of rising rupee and a slack growth in the exports sector.
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Social reforms on right track; youth lead the pack
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Thursday , October 11, 2007 at 2334 hrs IST
 
New Delhi, Oct 11 Social sector reforms in the country seem to be on the right track. If the findings of the latest round of the National Family Health Survey 2005-06 (NFHS-3) are any indication of the country's progress, significant strides have been made in combating population explosion and busting myths about HIV/AIDS.
 
The knowledge of temporary contraceptive among married women has increased to 87%, from 80% in NFHS-2 done in 1998-99 and from 66% in NFHS-1 done in 1992-93. Contraceptive prevalence rate has gone up to 56% from 48% in NFHS-2. The demand for family planning has increased to 82% from 75% in NFSH-2 and 67% in NFHS-1.
 
When it comes to HIV/AIDS education, it is the young in the country who lead the way. Not only are they least likely to be HIV+, but are also far more aware about the disease than people in the 1990s. Only 0.10% of the youth in the age group of 15 to 24 are likely to be HIV+, compared to 0.36% of adult population.
 
The new official national estimate of HIV is now down to 2.47 million affected individuals, less than half the estimate for 2006. The revision of official estimates was done on the basis of the NFHS-3.
 
The high's apart, there has been a steady decline in the fertility levels. At current fertility levels, a woman in India will have 2.7 children in her lifetime, down from 2.9 in NFHS-2 and 3.4 in NFHS-1. In fact, if all women were to have only the number of children they wanted, the total fertility rate would have been 1.9. The preference for sons still remains strong, with only 3% of the households wanting more daughters than sons.
 
Infant mortality rate has come down to 57 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 68 in NFHS-2. There has been marginal improvement in full vaccination coverage, with 44% children being fully vaccinated against 42% in NFSH-2. Underweight childbirth has come down to 40% from 43% in the corresponding period.
 
Electricity has been provided to 68% houses, against 60% in NFHS-2. Toilet facilities have, however, come down to 55% from 64%.
 
NFHS-3 interviewed 124,385 women in the age group of 15-49 years and 74,369 men in the age group of 15-54 years. The fieldwork was conducted in two phases by 18 research organisations between November 2005 and August 2006.
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GOVERNMENT SHIFTS INTO ELECTION MODE
 
New R&R policy seeks to please both displaced and developers
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Friday , October 12, 2007 at 0002 hrs IST
 
New Delhi, Oct 11 Virtually painted into a mid-term poll corner by the Left over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the UPA government on Thursday shifted into populist gear. It approved the much-awaited National Policy on Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R), cleared a productivity-linked bonus for railway staff and decided not to increase retail price of petrol or diesel. It also extended the subsidy on LPG and kerosene for another three years.
 
The R&R policy gives landholders the option of taking 20% of the rehabilitation grant as shares in the projects that displaced them. It also eases the rules for buying land by corporate India by amending the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.
This has expanded the definition of public purpose to mean companies, too.
 
The policy comes in the wake of several violent protests, including those at Nandigram in West Bengal, against forcible land acquisition for industrial projects. The policy, replacing the earlier one of 2003, was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh.
 
At least one person from each affected family would get preference for jobs in new projects, subject to vacancies and suitability of the candidate. All dislocated families, including landless ones, will get a house in compensation.
 
Developers like DLF and Raheja group said their compensation package was more liberal than the new policy. However, consultants like Rajiv Chugh, partner, E&Y, said the policy would clear the obstacles for SEZs. Over 500 SEZ proposals have received government approval so far.
 
The compensation package specifies that subsequent resale of land must plough back 80% of the net unearned income to the original sellers. The government can also give prior approval for hiking the proportion given as shares to 50% of the grant. To ensure inflation does not erode the benefits, all monetary compensation has been linked to the Consumer Price Index.
 
A strong grievance redress mechanism has also been prescribed. There will be a National Rehabilitation Commission, while at the district and project levels would be standing R&R committees as well as an ombudsman. The committees will have members from the affected families, voluntary organisations, panchayats and elected representatives.
 
I&B minister PR Dasmunsi told reporters after the Cabinet meeting, "The policy of the previous NDA government was disastrous, as it did not take into account the interest of farmers."
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National R&R policy resembles our rehab package, says RIL
 
 
Economy Bureau
Posted online: Friday , October 12, 2007 at 2341 hrs IST
 
Mumbai, Oct 12 The Reliance Industries Ltd-promoted Mumbai special economic zone (MSEZ), which is under attack from various political parties over land acquisition, on Friday asserted that Centre's national policy on rehabilitation and resettlement that provides several benefits to the project-affected persons (PAPs) resembles its package announced in February this year. The Cabinet cleared the policy at its meeting held on Thursday.
 
The company in a release said MSEZ project, being developed in Pen, Panvel and Uran tehsils in Raigad district of Maharashtra, would cause no physical displacement since none of the gaothans (villages) would be acquired. MSEZ's package envisages providing 12.5% of the developed land to the PAPs. It also offers a handsome compensation at market rates for lands, assurance of a job after successful completion of training and 2 years' sustenance payment for landless labourers and, in addition, upgrade the village infrastructure by spending substantial amounts to ensure improvement in quality of life.
 
The Centre's policy moots returning 10% of land to the PAP whereas the MSEZ R&R package has a provision whereby 12.5% developed land will be returned to the PAPs. Such lands will become permanent sources of income for the Project Affected Families (PAFs).
 
MSEZ has shown willingness to purchase land under paddy at Rs 10 lakh per acre and varkas (unproductive) land at Rs 5 lakh per acre in the project area. The land prices offered by MSEZ are ten times more than prescribed in the Ready Reckoner of the state government, the company said.
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Nobel Peace Prize goes to Al Gore, IPCC
 
 
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Saturday , October 13, 2007 at 0150 hrs IST
 
Former US vice-president Al Gore and the Rajendra K Pachauri-led Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for disseminating knowledge on man-made climate change and the measures needed to confront it.
 
While Gore has been a self-styled ambassador for promoting awareness on climate change, even producing a documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which went on to win an Oscar earlier this year, Pachauri has been heading the panel sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and World Metrological Organisation since 2002.
 
Said a surprised Pachauri to FE: "It feels good. The news has just come in. It will take a bit of time to sink in." He added, "I feel encouraged and more responsible. I feel I have to do more. At the IPCC, we have work in progress. There is a clear-cut programme of action."
 
Pachauri, 67, who heads New Delhi-based The Energy Resource Institute (better known by its acronym Teri), was given charge of the IPCC when the US did not support the second term of its outspoken chairman Robert Watson. IPCC has been stressing the role of humans in causing global warming with evidence from 2,500 scientists from over 100 countries.
 
Brushing aside initial criticism of being promoted by the US oil lobby to go soft on climate change, Pachauri, who has doctorates in economics and engineering, came into his own, travelling the world to increase awareness about climate change and its impact, particularly on the poor and on those in low-lying countries. He has met with several heads of state and government to press home the IPCC's findings.
 
Pachauri's argument was reinforced by the Nobel Committee, which stated, "They (climate changes) may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the Earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burden on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states."
 
Said Pachauri, "The debate will now move from whether climate change is caused by human activities or not, to how to deal with it. And it's for governments to decide whether they want to listen to IPCC or not."
 
He added, "Similarly, businesses have to be part of the solution. They don't live or function outside society. They have to play their part in fighting climate change." The Nobel Prize couldn't have come at a more opportune time for IPCC, which is preparing to release its new synthesis report next month.
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Proposed biotech policy will be finalised in two weeks, says Sibal
 
 
Posted online: Sunday , October 14, 2007 at 0146 hrs IST
 
New Delhi, Oct 13 The government on Saturday said it will finalise the framework for the proposed biotech policy that seeks to incentivise research and development in the sector, within the next two weeks.
 
"The proposed policy would focus on incentivising research and development activities in biotechnology by way of public-private-participation and we would give a final shape to the policy within the next couple of weeks," minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal said at CII lifesciences conference here.
 
He said the new policy is aimed at providing assistance to lifescience companies in all stages of drug development and dealing with intellectual property right issues.
 
The minister said the policy would work towards better co-ordination between the industry and government-owned research institutes. "Emphasis would be given on equity partnership between industry and research institutes such as CSIR," Sibal said.
 
—PTI
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