Fly high or crash land

As far as labour is concerned, in trying to make hiring and firing easy, the government should take care to see that industrialists do not ride roughshod over the basic rights of workers such as collective bargaining for better contracts, wages and conditions of work and living

The new BJP government has placed its first complete Budget before Parliament. It shows great hope. The Finance Minister has anticipated a growth rate of 8.5 per cent. The Economist of February 21-27 has an editorial on the subject with the title “India’s chance to Fly”. The editorial has suggested reforms in three areas: Land, Labour and Power. These areas are crucial but one may not agree entirely with the direction of changes suggested.

Keeping all this in the background let us look systematically at the three areas of Land, Labour and Power, as suggested by the editorial in The Economist.Land reform is a problem plaguing India ever since it became free. Naxalism, a terrorist movement fighting for land reform, had its beginnings in the country going back to pre-independence days. It started as a farmer’s movement in the Telangana districts of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad. Only in two States of Kerala and West Bengal were land reforms successfully implemented. But in the rest of the country much has to be done in the realm of land reforms and tenancy rights.

Successive Prime Ministers have stated that the Naxalite movement is one of the biggest enemies the country has been facing.A new land acquisition bill is before the House. This is the opportune moment to look at the whole problem instead of restricting it to acquiring land for industrial purposes. At present the Naxal movement in India seems to be concentrated in the forest areas of central and eastern India. The forest dwellers have been living off the produce of the diminishing forests. Yet, we seem to be denying them even the meagre produce of the dwindling forests.

It is relevant to recall here that the Supreme Court had given a ruling in the Alcoa case in Orissa that no mining rights should be given to any corporation without the consent of the inhabitants of the area. So there is a precedent.As far as labour is concerned, in trying to make hiring and firing easy, we should take care to see that the industrialists do not ride rough-shod over the basic rights of the workers such as collective bargaining for better contracts, wages and conditions of work and living. The new government should also make sure that we do not develop a system of growth without employment.

The aim should be full employment or close to it. Emphasis must be on labour-intensive industries especially in the rural areas. This involves not only economic planning but careful fiscal planning. We should measure growth not only by the GDP but also by measuring the gap between the rich and poor. In the Western countries the gap between the rich and poor is growing. In India this gap is already a huge one. We cannot afford to make it worse or it will create tremendous problems of law and order, which may become unmanageable. So the country should pay as much attention to bridging this gap as to ensuring growth.

In the electrical power sector, the lure of increasing power through fossil oil and coal based power units may be great. But we should remember the dreadful price that India and the world have paid in the name of industrial progress. World organisations have a dire prediction for us. They say that many countries, including China, India and the USA, may face a huge shortage of drinking water within even a few decades because of global warming.The US and China have already committed themselves to significantly reduce carbon emissions by 2025. If India tried to blindly emulate the progress in Western countries without considering the effect on climate change—that would be like cutting the nose to spite the face.

The answer for India therefore is to concentrate on creating new “clean” sources of renewable energy like solar, wind, and water. With the present solar energy technology available in the world it should not be difficult to set up power units in the public, private and joint sectors, to meet most of the demands of power all over India. Not only should power units be set up for industrialisation but also to electrify public transport in cities and all the way into villages. (www.mainstreamweekly.net)

By N V K Murthy