Jairam Ramesh rejecting the Vedanta mining project owing to environmental violations by Vedanta and tribal rights protection is a bold move. All of us should hope this momentous decision by the minister will set a bench mark before clearance is given for such projects in the future.

In India what happens in the name of mining natural resources is unabashed looting of the nation’s wealth by politicians and industrial houses. A weak and corrupt regulatory environment aides these coterie in carrying out the nefarious activities of illegal mining, exports, tax evasion,environmetal damage etc.

The environment ministry has long been a rubber stamp headed by pliable ministers who had no interest in using their power to push the country towards sustainable development. It is a welcome relief to see Jairam take over a powerful corporation and its state backers on the principal of environment protection and tribal rights. It is a victory for the Dongriya Kondhs for they waged a war against the mining project for the past 4 years. (There are many horror stories on how the Orissa police harassed the tribal’s to push them out of their lands)

Take the case of Obulapuram mines in the Karnataka, AP region where huge irregularities in mining operations were noted by the Supreme Court nominated CEC. The Karnataka government had no guts to take on the Reddy brothers and hence under pressure took the easy route of banning iron ore exports from the state ports, I am sure the Reddy brothers are exporting the ore from AP and other nearby ports.

The exploration rights for the Bayyaram mines have been cancelled by the Union mining ministry owing to allegations of due process not being followed in allocation of the license (YSRs son-in-law managed to get the rights).

Overall the mining industry in the country is in a sort of a Wild West situation with little or control being exerted by the state in monitoring the industries activities (obviously both are in collusion).

This is one industry I would prefer the state to take full control and probably nationalize. Case in point the Supreme Court ruled that the government has the last word on pricing and utilization of national assets the same yard stick should be applied in the case of the mining industry. Mines are natural resources and national assets; the Government has the responsibility of formulating a policy that addresses all the aspects related to environment and ecological damage, people displacement, sustainability and rehabilitation.

Thinking about the poor

I took a train last weekend to a coastal town for a family function. I was alone and observing the scenes inside and outside the train.

As the train moved through towns and cities and along the tracks there ghettos and mud houses, many of them, it is a typical sight across India. Within the train there are hawkers, beggars and all sorts of vendors selling their vares. This is India living on the margins. It is hand to mount existence for these families. As far as my memory goes this scene has not changed in the last twenty years including the train compartments design.

Are the benefits of economic liberalization reaching these families? Are the children raised in these families having access to higher education? How about access to decent healthcare. When will these families move into decent housing, there are millions of them to be taken care. These are some of the questions bother many of us. Are our planners and bureaucrats up to the challenge of providing reasonable housing to the BPL families? Where is all the govt spend on improving public infrastructure going?

All the noise about GDP growth, all sorts of schemes for employment generation, health care programs – is it making a real difference to the lower middle class and below stratum of the country. Visibly it doesn’t seem to. Estimates of poor in the country vary by who is giving the data, obviously planning commission and other government sources give better date, however one can safely estimate 60-70% of the population earning less than <2 USD/day. A study by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative using a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) found that there are 421 million poor living under the MPI in 8 north India states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and this number is higher than the 410 million poor living in the 26 poorest African nations. India’s poverty elimination/alleviation strategy is heading towards a total failure.

We need to have a serious look at the china story and how it managed to reduce poverty levels from a whopping 64% to the current 10-15% levels in flat 4 decades. Our common refrain about progress in a democracy will naturally be slow due to debate, accommodation of views etc is a poor consolation to the fact that we are having the largest number of poor and deprived in this land.

There is surely a need for a coordinated assault on this issue by the entire Indian state, human resource development, retraining, economic inclusivity, industrialization, modernization of agriculture, healthcare, driving rural youth to industrial work, infrastructure development and related investments are all the aspects in the puzzle of poverty elimination, but who will execute these plans, I think that is what we are still trying to figure out. For once let us ask the Chinese and Brazilians.