Government should distribute 20 kg rice or wheat at Rs 2 per kg per ration card through Public Distribution System
1. Will have a CASCADING effect on remaining food items and will help in reducing the prices and inflation. 2. Will create demand for agricultural products and will PREVENT farmers suicide. 3. Will prevent 350 million people STARVING every day for a meal. 4. A nationwide credible "minimum" income guaranteed system for every one whether they work or not will bring in "dignity" instead of desperation for the working poor and "inheritance taxes" will stimulate "compassion" instead of collusion.
Such system will prevent all socioeconomic issues in India viz farmer suicides, dowry deaths, child labor, fear, frustration, corruption, bribery, prostitution, terrorism etc.
In USA,UK,Germany,Portugal, Brazil, Belgium etc this system is implemented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income#Examples_of_implementation http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Inheritance_taxes
RE:Will and Wisdom
by ajit verma on Mar 27, 2007 07:11 PM
Well nice suggestion friend.
What i have concluded after few days of thought is, Involve Government and end user directly. Give directly money equivalent to subsidy altogether avoiding middle man.A clear transparency.The beneficiary will purchase goods at market rate.
the government machinery is ineffective and corrupt. Just to quote from article " It is estimated that for every Re 1 of subsidy to reach the ultimate beneficiary, the government has to spend approximately Rs 7 on the administrative mechanism. " So to give 1Rs benefit u spend 7Rs still PDS is failure, as also accepted by government.
Solution for PDS. 1. Open bank a/c for poor people and deposit Food equivalent money for a month. Benefit : End target directly in control of Money for food. Only problem which might come is Awareness of Managing bank a/c, but that also can be taught.
Last and most important, No system can be perfect. " Country men have to active and in control of how the country is governed "
Well this is true for all countries.It is in root of civilisation.It is called 'samantvaad' where a few people control the majority.They become self appointed representatives and care takers of people and bleed them.that is how social hierarchy survives. Democracy is also a fraudulent model. There is nothing like democracy. No correct information is possible with media licking feet of Big house and governments for ad.money. Make newspapers Rs 6-10 and you will see change in newspaper reports. Right of information is farce even in USA. Try challenging President there and government and wealthy attorney senators. It would be meaningless to talk here about American imperialism. Democracy needs character, real competition and surplus and control of voters over elected. Nothing is like that in India even remote. Keeping farmers poor is good way to keep Prices in check of basic goods so luxury goods can bleed people in a complex cycle of exploitation within societies. The way present government has put obstruction in WTO negotiations in name of agriculture subsidies is ridiculous. On other hand agriculture land is being converted recklessly into useless and unwarranted SWEZ and industrial complexes. It will further make people deproved. Man is only rich when he owns a few sq feet of land and assets. Money is merely means of circulation of value in society and pass on costs. Holding money is useless. India is on sure path to self destruction selling out to western models and pseudo capitalist and free market economy. More hunger, deprivation and internal wars will erupt in very near future. It suits corrupt self seeking and boneless bureaucrats and politiacians.'Consumer is king' is a silly joke. Like smearing salt on wounds.
Good article but why Media is not identifying the bad names in govt. and not giving them publicity.. If Media behave in right way they can do a revolution in India.. but if media is playing "good-guy bad-guy game" with public then it will not help but shows that Media is also cheap..
RE:Its good article though need more
by dean jones on Mar 27, 2007 10:03 PM
Absolutely...power of media has to be harnessed appropriately. Naming and shaming is important to instil fear and consequently discipline. If only people believed in morals.
I agree with author. But not only farm, government is sucking blood from the salary sector too with their lopsided income tax policy and indirect taxation whereas many rich are going tax-free. Income tax needs to be removed and service tax or similar tax needs to be applied on the luxury items so that the tax realization would be much higher. Then the earning needs to be well spent on all the deserving sectors of the country. But these bloody sucker politicians would never let it happen. Congress is the most devil among all.
RE:G(oonda)overnment are sucking every sector including farm
by Rajesh Purohit on Mar 27, 2007 06:36 PM
taxation is good for economy and country as whole. Developed nations tax 40% as income tax and upto 20% as indirect tax (like in UK VAT is 17.5% flat)
RE:G(oonda)overnment are sucking every sector including farm
by Ghochu Singh on Mar 27, 2007 06:48 PM
But this is also important that what responsibility is taken by Govt. for a citizen of the developed countries,-do u hv any idea?
Or u want a citizen shd be a tax payer(in huge amount in various ways) only and he/she shd not expect anything from the Govt????????
While the writer does bring in data and facors at play in agriculture, the sector hinges on 4 issues (apart from the factors mentioned in the article): - Increasing the arable land area - Bringing in economy of scale in farming (read larger farms) - Increasing productivity per acre (loosely linked with point 2) - Ensuring adequate RoI for farmers (dependent to a great extent on the price of the produce)
The last point is the moot one (and more controllable by government in Indian context compared to others where free market forces is much stronger). The paradox is that given the increasing land prices and higher incomes in other sectors, the opportunity cost for the farmers is going up significantly, but due to political reasons the government is forced to keep the food prices artificially depressed. Indian prices are no more than 10% of the int'l prices Indian prices, and yet in other areas we're moving towards int'l averages.
This means keeping the food prices artificially low is working against the market forces, which sooner or later will prevail. And this will be good for farmers (w're talking about 60% of India here). They can prosper while toiling on the land rather than migrating to urban ghettos and running after pipe dreams.
I doubt the ability to measure the food production in india. The real figure may be around 40-50% more than official figure . Yes definitely there is need for mass production. I think with retail oufits like wallmart and Reliance come , it will be good for farmers , avoiding middlemen , Demand based production , Preservation and transportation. Provided it is not subbotaged by communist. I am not a big fan of MNC retail stores but is lesser evil and good for consumers and farmers.
RE:Is the statistics correct
by deep varshney on Mar 27, 2007 06:12 PM
Yes , we have to cghoss between 2 evils. so choose the lesser evil.....at least the MNCs work towards the interest of shareholders.... unlike politicians who work for self interests
RE:A poverty stricken hell hole
by deep varshney on Mar 27, 2007 06:13 PM
this is the kind of "Wash you hands" attiude and pesimism that has bought the subcontinent to this state my friend
when you are speaking of farmers and the governmet apathy towards them one should also look at the farmers of modern india or say farmers in my ie nashik region you will find that most of them have expences more than there known sourse of income, you will find them drinking liquer whole day, having various vehicles and many more things all this expense is done in anticapation of a good crop and a good prise for the crop. if the crop fails they end up bankrup hense the farmers themselves have to rase to current scenerao and not blame govt for every thing
RE:keeping indians poor
by Abhey Rathor on Mar 27, 2007 06:12 PM
I think that is why everyone is pointing towards literacy and education, that doesn't only mean knowledge of alphabets, but includes the ability to distinguish between good and bad.
Res.CA has given factual figure and picture of our country:s food growth.Our Govt. knows all these things but nothing is being done on this front except sending condolence to farmers family who has commited suicide
