Mining – India
1. SHRC wants ban on transport of manganese ore
2. Monsoon end to up iron ore supply, pressure price
3. PIL sought for mining scam
4. ECL mine caught adulterating coal
5. Government targets 100,000 carats of diamonds from Panna mines
6. KSU dubs mining move ‘sell-out’
Mining – International
7. Lundin Mining says won't bid on Chariot Resources
8. Mountaintop mining protests take to W.Va. trees
9. Rio Tinto mulls opening of Jadarite mine in Serbia
10. Churchill Mining upgrades East Kutai reserves
Other News
11. Involve tribals in forest management: Study
12. Droughts and decoupling
13. Power a casualty of drought
14. Joshi to convene all party meet to discuss NREGA implementation
15. Water recklessness worsening drought
16. India to use Chinese models for cleaning air and water: Jairam Ramesh
17. India, hub of human trafficking in South Asia: report
Mining – India
SHRC wants ban on transport of manganese ore
TNN 25 August 2009, 09:41pm IST
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MANGALORE: The State Human Rights Commission has directed the Uttara Kannada District administration to stop illegal transport and stocking of
manganese ore in Belikeri gram panchayat and make companies pay the dues owed by them to the panchayat immediately.
The SHRC acted on a petition filed by president and vice-president of Belikere gram panchayat in January this year. The petitions had contended that the ore companies were using the panchayat area for transporting the ore and stocking the fines from the past five years, which had caused innumerable problems to the villagers.
The complaint against the ore companies included not obtaining the permission of the panchayat while storing the fines; non-payment of panchayat taxes for using roads, street lights; no action to contain pollution caused by the constant movement of ore trucks; violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) act by storing the ore in prohibited area and declining fish catch due to water pollution.
The panchayat had also contended that the ore companies together have not paid taxes amounting to Rs 10 lakh from 2004-05, apart from Rs 57,519 spent by the panchayat to repair water pipelines damaged due to movement of trucks, and Rs 93,966 spent by the panchayat in supplying water to panchayat residents through water tankers due to damaged water pipelines.
The SHRC chairman Justice S R Nayak expressed his anguish over ore companies riding rough shod over the villagers thus violating their human rights and the also was shocked about them flouting the law.
Nayak ordered the district administration and superintendent of police to put a stop to all illegal mines transportation activities forthwith and make them pay the dues to the panchayat.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/mangalore/SHRC-wants-ban-on-transport-of-manganese-ore-/articleshow/4934036.cms
Monsoon end to up iron ore supply, pressure price
Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:07pm IST
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By Ruchira Singh
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Iron ore prices are seen under pressure by mid-September, when India's retreating monsoon brings exporters of fines back to the market, hungry for profits after a break of nearly four months.
India's iron ore fines, which comprise almost 90 percent of its annual exports of 106 million tonnes, are not shipped during the rainy season from June onwards, as the powdery commodity tends to absorb moisture.
Iron ore fines producers said they expect to resume exports by mid-September when the rains start to withdraw, hoping for a revival in Chinese demand by then.
"There are big companies that would be under pressure to show quarterly profits," said Haresh Melwani, chief executive of HL Nathurmal & Co, a miner and exporter in the western Indian state of Goa. "This could pressurize the market but there are other miners who could hold out for better prices."
One analyst said prices could dip by $10 a tonne from current levels across all grades as miners, particularly those in Goa, have low mining costs and by virtue of being close to the port, incur low transport costs. They could afford to sell at lower prices.
"A fundamental correction is expected because of a flood of iron ore expected post monsoon," said Pawan Burde, vice president for research at PINC Research. "I think it could come down to the level of $80-$85 (per tonne C&F for 63.5 percent iron content) in the next four weeks."
Iron ore demand from China has flagged with prices softening to $95 a tonne C&F for ores with 63/63.5 percent iron, after a nearly one-year peak of $115 early this month.
If China's lack of interest persists, it could aid a price fall in the next few weeks.
Hu Kai, an analyst at industry consultancy Umetal in Shanghai, said: "I do not think imports from India will pick up even though the idle ports capacity will resume operation after the monsoon. Iron ore prices in China are decreasing, following the weakened steel market. I am told trading is inactive now."
Yet Indian miners remained hopeful of a bounce back.
"I would expect the spot price to be higher," said S.V. Salgaocar, managing director at V.M. Salgaocar & Brothers Pvt Ltd, a miner and exporter also based in Goa.
Salgaocar said he would hope for a price of $70-$75 FOB for fines with iron content of 61 percent, his primary product, against the current price of $69.
A dealer with a large international trading company in New Delhi said higher stocks would pressure prices only temporarily.
"Prices depend on how China comes back to the market. One thing is sure -- they have to come back to the market," the dealer said.
(Additional reporting by Alfred Cang in SHANGHAI)
(For more news on Reuters Money click in.reuters.com/money)
http://in.reuters.com/article/specialEvents1/idINIndia-41986420090826?sp=true
PIL sought for mining scam
Statesman News Service
BHUBANESWAR, 25 AUG: The multi-crore mining scam which has rocked the state took a legal turn today with a PIL seeking CBI probe being filed in the Orissa High Court.
The court issued notices to the state government, the Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). One Mr Subrat Tripathy has filed the Public Interest Legislation (PIL), citing reasons as to why the state vigilance which is enquiring into the scam cannot unearth the corruption that has taken place.
It is not just one instance of Ram Bahadur Thakur Ltd (RBT) mines which is being probed by the vigilance, said the petitioner. The extent and magnitude of the scam which involves politicians, businessmen and officers calls for a CBI probe, added Mr Tripathy in his petition before acting chief justice Mr IM Quddusi and justice Mr S Panda.
It may be noted here that BJP legislature party leader Mr KV Singh Deo was the first to expose the multi-crore mining scam in the Assembly. The BJP leader took the house by storm with his well documented speech.
CM Mr Naveen Patnaik had ordered the state vigilance to conduct an inquiry and a prima facie case was established leading to the arrest of eight persons including seven officers. The vigilance which investigated into the RBT mining case found that illegal mining activity was taking place in broad daylight and vast areas of reserve forest had been dug up without any valid permission.
The state BJP and the Congress have been demanding a CBI probe saying RBT is only the tip of the iceberg. The two Opposition parties have also alleged that the vigilance probe is an eyewash to cover up other graver offences and the total plunder of the mineral wealth of the state.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=266106
ECL mine caught adulterating coal
Statesman News Service
DURGAPUR, 25 AUG: To negotiate with an acute shortfall in production, the authority of a mine under Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) was allegedly mixing thousands of tonnes of earth elements with the coal stock.
The labourers affiliated to a Naxalite backed trade union today witnessed the malpractice and refused to follow the superior’s instruction to continue in this manner. The labourers with the Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) - the Naxalite union - staged a strong demonstration and detained the custodian manager of the ‘Chora – 10 pit’ colliery under the Kenda area of ECL and stopped dispatch, setting a precedence. The bid sparked off a sensation in the mine fields especially after the state run thermal power plants complained of poor quality coal supply from the ECL causing the frequent tripping of power generation in recent times.
The Chora – 10 pit of ECL, that produces 140 tonnes of coal per day, suddenly reported 4,000 tonnes of production shortage which, according to the insiders of the mine: “Was a gross violation and was a result of over-reporting by a section of senior mine officials to help their promotion.” The authority was gasping to meet the crisis and the mixing of earth with the coal stock came as the easy solution.
The mine custodian manager of Chora – 10 pit, Mr Mohan Prasad Singh, tried to hush up the matter saying that about 100 truckloads of earth were being transported to the pit to help fill up potholes on the road.
He said: “Some roads inside the pit have become wretched due to monsoon downpour and need to be repaired. So the earth was being carried to the mine for the purpose.” Asked why this earth was dumped into the coal stock, Mr Singh said: “I don't want to explain everything.”
The labourers saw truckloads entering the colliery premises continually dumping earth at the coal loading site without a valid reason. The mine officials have been dumping the coal through a conveyor belt onto the earth heap for the last two days. As alleged by Mr Sunil Pal, general secretary, IFTU: “Such a practice has become common in ECL mines. The authorities incorporate earth particles desperately to meet the stock shortage.” He explained: “Shortages in stock are caused due to the regular pilferage of coal from the colliery siding as well as over-reporting by the officials greedy for promotion. This type of grade slippage causes ECL to incur huge revenue loss every year and the officials are never penalised.”
The thermal power plants are facing a severe crisis due to the poor quality of coal supply by the ECL mines. As stated by Mr SP Dutta, managing director,
Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL): “Our generation gets hampered time to time due to this type of faulty coal consignment. We need to sit across the table from the ECL and rethink coal prices from time to time. Due to adulteration of the supply of coal from ECL mines, we had deducted Rs 5 crore from the Rs 170 crore paid in the last fiscal year.”
Notably, in June 2004, the top vigilance officials of the ECL had seized coal samples from Naba Kajora coal mine under Kunustoria area after being tipped-off by different sources that black stone and soil was adulterating the mine’s actual coal stock to meet shortages.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&theme=&usrsess=1&id=266150
Government targets 100,000 carats of diamonds from Panna mines
August 26th, 2009 - 2:49 pm ICT by IANS -
By Vishal Gulati
Shimla, Aug 26 (IANS) State-run National Mining Development Corp (NMDC) plans to produce close to 100,000 carats of diamonds from the Panna diamond mines in Madhya Pradesh by 2010-11, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said here Wednesday.
The Panna mines were reopened this month after being closed for four years over environmental issues. NMDC, a state-run unit under the steel ministry, extracts minerals across the country.
“We will invest more than Rs.20 crore to acquire one lakh carats of diamonds from the Panna mines in the next financial year,” Singh told IANS at his residence, Holly Lodge, located in Jakhu hills here.
“We have requested the Madhya Pradesh government to allow NMDC to explore more areas adjoining the Panna mines so that the area could emerge as a diamond hub. Moreover, Chattarpur district is also rich in diamond reserves,” he said.
Maintaining that this would attract investments in diamond cutting and polishing, the minister added: “The NMDC is also keen to explore other mineral-rich areas in Madhya Pradesh. Shahdol and Umaria districts are rich in coal deposits.”
The Panna mines are Asia’s largest mechanised diamond mines, and were commissioned in 1968-69 with an initial capacity of 12,500 carats per annum.
“In this fiscal, NMDC aims to acquire 35,000 carats of diamonds from Panna. In the next two months, the goal is to mine 5,000 carats,” Singh said.
The mines, which had been closed since August 2005, were reopened after the Supreme Court’s permission was taken. The mines fall in the Gangau Wildlife Sanctuary.
“On the direction of the Supreme Court, NMDC has deposited Rs.10.69 crore with the state government as net present value for reopening the diamond mines,” he said, and described it as a “great achievement” by the United Progressive Alliance government in its first 100 days of administration.
“This will not only result in additional revenue for NMDC but will also provide direct employment to more than 250 people,” Singh said.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/government-targets-100000-carats-of-diamonds-from-panna-mines_100238194.html
KSU dubs mining move ‘sell-out’
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Shillong, Aug. 25: The anti-mining lobby in Shillong has begun working overtime to oppose the state cabinet’s decision to allow groundwork for uranium mining in West Khasi Hills.
The powerful Khasi Students’ Union today termed the cabinet’s decision as a total sell-out of the interest of the people to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) and indicated drastic steps to prevent work.
KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said: “Our central executive committee will meet soon to chalk out our action plan to deal with the decision of the cabinet. Our stand is very clear. We are totally opposed to uranium mining and there is no change in our approach.”
He said the state cabinet has taken a hurried decision despite the fact that a majority had opposed uranium mining during the official public hearing held on June 12, 2007, in West Khasi Hills.
The state cabinet yesterday gave its nod to pre-development work to be undertaken by the UCIL at the uranium mining sites with a budget of Rs 209 crore. The cabinet also favoured leasing out around 422 acres to UCIL to start uranium mining.
The government hopes to get a royalty of Rs 20 crore a year once mining begins.
“We feel that these development activities are not for the sake of the people and once the schools and health centres are constructed, they will be taken over by the UCIL and will become their properties,” he said.
“We are not against development, but the aggressive development pattern risking the welfare of the people are not acceptable to us,” Jyrwa said.
The KSU leader said they are also concerned over the heath hazards of uranium mining.
“You cannot buy health with money,” Jyrwa said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090826/jsp/northeast/story_11406744.jsp
Mining – International
Lundin Mining says won't bid on Chariot Resources
Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:24pm EDT
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MARKET NEWS
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Nikkei rises 0.6 percent, Toyota gains on capacity cuts
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* Lundin Mining says no plans to bid on Chariot or project
* Chariot shareholders to vote on dissident slate
(In U.S. dollars unless noted)
TORONTO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Lundin Mining (LUN.TO) said on Tuesday does not plan to acquire Chariot Resources (CHD.TO) or its key project and is not directly involved in a proxy fight led by its chairman to remove Chariot's board.
Speculation that Lundin Mining could try to acquire Chariot or its Mina Justa copper project in Peru has skyrocketed since the proxy fight -- led by Lundin chairman Lukas Lundin and Lundin Mining director Brian Edgar -- was revealed last week.
Lundin Mining owns 18 percent of Chariot Resources.
"Lundin Mining wishes to make clear that it has taken no part in the dissident proxy solicitation launched by certain concerned shareholder of Chariot Resources Ltd," the company said in a statement.
"Lundin Mining has no intention of acquiring the Mina Justa project or in making a bid to acquire Chariot."
However, Lundin Chief Executive Phil Wright said the company would support the alternative slate of directors.
The dissident slate includes Lundin, Edgar, Colin Benner and Donald Charter, all of whom sit on Lundin Mining's board.
Lukas Lundin said last week that Chariot's current board has failed to progress the $750 million Mina Justa project, which is expected to produce about 1.3 million tonnes of copper over its 11-1/2 year life once it begins production.
Chariot shareholders will vote on the dissident board at the company's annual general meeting on September 4.
Chariot's shares were up 1 Canadian cent at 46 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange, while Lundin was up 6 Canadian cents at C$3.87.
($1=$1.08 Canadian) (Reporting by Cameron French; Editing by Frank McGurty)
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN2521771120090825
Mountaintop mining protests take to W.Va. trees
(AP) – 13 hours ago
PETTRY BOTTOM, W.Va. — Two activists trying to stop mountaintop removal mining climbed into treetop platforms near a Massey Energy mine in southern West Virginia early Tuesday, vowing to stay put until the coal company stops blasting and compensates residents for health care and home repair.
The protesters unfurled two banners, one urging an end to the particularly destructive form of strip mining. The other was directed at the state Department of Environmental Protection, which they contend is not adequately safeguarding residents or the environment: "Don't Expect Protection."
Mountaintop removal mining is a process in which companies remove vast areas to expose coal. While they are required to restore much of the land, the removal creates many tons of debris that's used to fill nearby valleys. The blasting can damage homes by shifting foundations, cracking walls and throwing rock from the mine site.
Nick Stocks and Laura Steepleton, both of Rock Creek, are at the edge of the Edwight mine site in Raleigh County, about 80 feet above the ground and 30 feet from the mine. They are also within 300 feet of the blasting area. State law prohibits blasting when people are that close.
Stocks and Steepleton said they'll remain in the trees until Virginia-based Massey stops blasting, which they said occurs daily around 4 p.m. But State Police Sgt. M.A. Smith said the mine superintendent told him that Massey had no immediate plans to blast there.
Massey officials did not comment, but Smith said the protesters are on the coal company's land. He cited two activists who were on the ground, Louisiana resident Kim Ellis and Zoe Beavers of Hurricane, with trespassing. Both were later released.
Beavers, an Army veteran, said in a press release that she had served in the military "so that we can all live in a country that does not exploit and destroy its land and people."
All of the protesters are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice. Smith said none of them would speak to him when he went to the site.
"I understand their purpose and what they're doing, but it's not safe," he said, expressing concern the protesters might fall from the trees. "It's unnecessarily dangerous."
Massey security guards were assigned to stand by about 75 yards away, Smith said, "watching in case they need anything."
The superintendent was at the site, too.
"He knows what's going on," Smith said, "and he's not going to do anything to endanger those kids."
The Department of Environmental Protection did not immediately comment on the protest. The federal Office of Surface Mining considers it a state matter, said agency spokeswoman Cynthia Johnson. She declined further comment.
The protest is the 13th in the Coal River Valley this year.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRFjIvp7yDpMnistp_aolQIRAj_QD9AA4OD80
Rio Tinto mulls opening of Jadarite mine in Serbia
Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:16pm EDT
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BELGRADE, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) (RIO.L), the global mining and resources group, is likely to open a mine in Serbia in five or six years to exploit Jadarite, a mineral used to produce mobile phone batteries, officials said on Tuesday.
"The mine could open in five or six years," Radivoje Milanovic, the state secretary at the Energy and Mining Ministry, told Reuters. "It contains an estimated 100 million tonnes of exploitable reserves."
In a separate statement, the ministry said that Energy Minister Petar Skundric met a Rio Tinto delegation led by Preston Chiaro, member of Rio's Executive Committee.
"Rio Tinto is satisfied with the findings collected from two locations and has expressed interest in launching a pre-feasibility study on Jadarite exploitation in the Jadare Valley," the Energy and Mining Ministry said in a statement.
Jadarite is a lithium-boron mineral used for the production of lithium carbonate, boron hydroxide and natrium sulphate.
Lithium carbonate is widely used for the production of lithium batteries for mobile phones, computers and hybrid or electric cars, with the global demand estimated to be growing at 10 percent a year in the coming years, the ministry said.
"This (Jadarite) deposit could satisfy Europe's needs for lithium carbonate over several decades," it added.
"With the production of lithium leaving large quantities of boron, it is 99 percent certain that there will also be a boron hydroxide plant at this location," Milanovic said.
Boron hydroxide is used in food, pharmaceuticals, construction industries and agriculture. "Boron itself can be toxic, but in certain concentrations it can be used as a fertilizer," Milanovic said.
Hit by the global recession and falling demand, Serbia has been eager to attract investment to its industrial sectors. The mining sector has grown by an average 3.0 percent since 2003. (Reporting by Gordana Filipovic; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSLP41322320090825
Churchill Mining upgrades East Kutai reserves
Wed Aug 26, 2009 2:26pm IST
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* Measured and indicated resources exceed 1.3 bln tonnes
* Says project feasibility completion date still on target
* Shares pare early gains, down marginally (Adds details)
Aug 26 (Reuters) - Coal miner Churchill Mining Plc (CHLL.L: Quote, Profile,Research) said its total measured and indicated resources for the East Kutai Coal Project in Indonesia exceeded 1.3 billion tonnes and that the asset would yield substantial interest in the company from energy producers.
Churchill said it was confident that the majority of the inferred mineral resources, which is estimated with a low level of confidence, can be upgraded to indicated mineral resources that is estimated with a reasonable level of confidence.
However, given the extremely large measured and indicated resource, the company may consider leaving further exploration work on the inferred tonnes for a later stage.
The company said its 75 percent-owned East Kutai project, located in the Kutai Timur Province of East Kalimantan, was expected to result in a project with "persuasive returns".
The project feasibility work is on schedule with about 80 percent of the engineering completed to date, and the feasibility study is still expected to be completed by the end of 2009, the AIM-listed company said.
Churchill shares, which rose as much as 8 percent in early trade, were marginally down at 58.5 pence at 0851 GMT on Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange. They touched a trading high of 64 pence earlier. (Reporting by Purwa Naveen Raman in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
http://in.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idINBNG47969420090826
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Involve tribals in forest management: Study
TNN 26 August 2009, 12:57am IST
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PUNE: Unless viewed from the perspective of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), forest management and governance will prove to be detrimental to
the forests and the life of tribal communities that share a symbiotic relationship with the forests. It is therefore, necessary to involve tribal people in the designing of forest management plans.
This recommendation was a part of a recently-released study conducted by the Maharashtra NTFP forum, a collective of seven organisations spread across the state, working for tribal rights, conservation and regeneration of forests and forest-based livelihoods.
Broadly speaking, NTFP are considered to be any commodity obtained from forests, including nuts, seeds, berries, medicinal plants, fuelwood, foliage, peat and fodder.
Organisations like Maharashtra Arogya Mandal (Pune), Lok Panchayat (Ahmednagar), ECONET (Pune), Gramin Samasya Mukti Trust (Yavatmal), Lok Paryay (Aurangabad), Navi Ummed (Nanded) and Srujan (Yavatmal), were a part of the study. ECONET facilitates the collective and is involved in extending human and institution development, legal and advocacy support.
The baseline study conducted in 14 districts of Maharashtra- Raigad, Thane, Nandurbar, Ratnagiri, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Satara, Aurangabad, Latur, Amravati, Kinwat-Nanded, Yavatmal and Gadchiroli - covered 1,400 families in 70 typical tribal villages.
Village-level data was gathered to explore the overall situation and the percentage of communities dependent on NTFPs for their food, fodder, rituals and medical needs. Some of the families studied were the nomadic pastoralists and communities with life stock, keeping in mind grass/fodder as one of the main NTFPs.
Krisha Srinivasan, director, law and advocacy programme, ECONET, said NTFPs are the backbone of tribal existence as their culture, food and health security is dependent on them. He drew attention towards the challenge of addressing the alarming rate of alienation of tribal land under the garb of development projects like mining, dams, Special Economic Zones etc.
Executive trustee of ECONET Anuradha Krisha said, "The study could be utilised to claim community forest rights under the Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006) as it captures the interdependence of the tribals-forest relationship."
Social researcher and writer Milind Bokil, underlined the dire need to save forests and other natural wealth from the hands of political leadership and bureaucracy and restore them to the safe hands of tribal communities. "This will result in the democratisation of natural wealth," he remarked.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/pune/Involve-tribals-in-forest-management-Study/articleshow/4934527.cms
Droughts and decoupling
The record suggests that India’s economy began decoupling from its farm sector at least two decades ago
The drought of 2009 is widely expected to be more benign in term of its economic impact than previous droughts.
Most economists estimate that the drought will reduce India’s economic growth by a modest 1 percentage point. A look at economic performance during dry years in the post-independence period shows that the decoupling of overall economic performance from farm output has not been a sudden occurrence.
India’s gross domestic product reduced after the first three major post-1947 droughts: 1965, 1972 and 1979. But the economy grew after the droughts of 1987 and 2002, as it will grow this fiscal year. Economic growth had dropped by at least 10 percentage points between 1964-65 and 1966-67 and between 1978-79 and 1979-80. Compare that with a modest drop of 0.8 percentage point after the 1987 drought and 2 percentage points after 2002.
This record suggests that the overall Indian economy had started decoupling from its farm sector at least two decades ago. There could be three reasons for this. One, the contribution of agriculture to the overall economy has dropped significantly; two, the rural economy has diversified so that households have some alternative sources of cash flow from rural services and remittances; three, the recent growth acceleration had few links with the rural poor, who were neither employed in new activities nor important sources of demand for modern goods and services.
The third explanation is also a political time bomb, since it suggests that there are now two Indian economies that are only very weakly linked to each other: A modern and globalized economy, on the one hand, and a traditional economy where millions are trapped in low productivity work that inevitably leads to low incomes, on the other. A crisis in the latter does not affect the former.
Droughts have almost inevitably been accompanied by political firestorms, though I do not know whether there is strict causality between the two. The 1965 drought was followed by both the Naxalite uprising and the first electoral victories by an anti-Congress rainbow coalition, the 1972 drought led to food inflation of over 20% and a nationwide wave of strikes and street agitations, the 1987 drought coincided with the first blows to the Rajiv Gandhi government by its opponents.
The government seems to be following a three-pronged strategy to combat the drought and rural distress. It is bringing into play the usual statist brew of export bans, restrictions on forward trading of certain agricultural commodities, ticking off hoarders and plans to buy food from the world market (which is always based on the neat assumption that other countries will not put their own export bans in place).
The second prong is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which is expected to provide basic income support to the rural poor though it will continue to make a mess of public finances and raise rural wage rates at a time when farmers are in trouble. The first such rural jobs scheme was launched by the Maharashtra government in 1973; its long-term impact on the state’s rural economy and poverty is still a matter of heated debate.
The third thing that the government is doing is increasing support prices for grains and pulses. The main goal of raising the prices at which the government will buy food from farmers is to create a disincentive for hoarding. Higher procurement could then allow the government to manage food inflation. “While (the move to increase minimum support prices) is aimed at increasing procurement, it could have a knock-on effect on prices—as primary product prices are derived from farm harvest prices, prices at the village mandi, procurement prices or support prices,” wrote Citigroup economist Rohini Malkani in a 24 August research report.
Malkani said NREGS will offer some relief to the small farmer while higher procurement prices and the shift to value-added cash crops will help big farmers.
It will be interesting to see how the government’s three-pronged approach works over the next few months. Assuming it does lessen rural distress, the main challenge will be managing inflation. Real incomes of net food buyers—especially the poor—could be dropping as a result of sustained double-digit food inflation.
Food inflation has been higher than general inflation in only 19 of the 37 years since 1971-72, according to data on average weekly variation in the Wholesale Price Index published in the Reserve Bank of India’s annual Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy. And it was far lower than general inflation through most of the current decade.
Higher food inflation benefits net sellers of food and hurts net buyers (especially the poorest who do not have indexed wages and who spend most of their meagre income to buy food). This obvious fact will create several political and social problems that the government may need to manage.
That, rather than the impact of overall economic growth, is likely to be the main challenge of this year’s drought.
Your comments are welcome at cafeeconomics@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/2009/08/25212624/Droughts-and-decoupling.html?h=B
Power a casualty of drought
TNN 26 August 2009, 03:50am IST
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JAIPUR: Rajasthan experienced drought from 2002-2004 and in 2009, the same condition is staring in it's face now. However, it presents a
contrasting scenario. Last time, it was only Rajasthan that bore the brunt of drought. But this time not only the state but also entire north India is reeling under drought. The immediate casualty is power as its demand from varous states has increased manifold.
The states meet their demand by overdrawing from the northern grid. However, states like Rajasthan have constraints as it is located at the tailend of the grid. Uttar Pradesh is the highest beneficiary of the grid as many of the central power units of NTPC are located in the state.
A Discom official said sometimes UP overdraws about 1,000 MW from the northern grid leaving little for other states.
According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) figures, while states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have imposed power cuts on industries to tide over the situation, there is no such notified cut for Uttar Pradesh industries. An official said CEA had issued warnings to UP for overdrawing power but it fell on deaf ears.
In the northern region, the total requirement is 23,843 million units (MU) as against the availability of 21,493 MU. While UP tops the deficit of -1,452 MU, Punjab comes second with a deficit of -667 MU followed by Haryana (-134 MU) and Rajasthan (-64 MU) during July this year.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4934597.cms
Joshi to convene all party meet to discuss NREGA implementation
Rural development minister, C P Joshi will convene an all party meeting to deliberate the issues relating to implementation of national rural employment guarantee act (NREGA) in New Delhi.
Representatives of national parties are participating to discuss the strategy to make NREGA more effective and transparent.
Joshi said the feedback and the suggestion from the political parties would be taken into consideration to make implementation of the scheme more beneficial to the targeted sections.
It is learnt that there have been complaints from various states about irregularities in the implementing the scheme. These include payment of wage and issuing of job cards to beneficiaries.
Various political parties have been emphasing the need to root out corruption in the scheme and streamline its implementation. The problem is that while the centre provides the money for this scheme, the implementation is the responsibility of the states.
http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/storyShow.php?fileR=20090826145843707&dir=2009/08/26&secID=livenews
Water recklessness worsening drought
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI - India's current dry spell, brought on by an errant annual monsoon, is rapidly turning into a full-fledged drought as a result of reckless exploitation of groundwater resources for farming, experts say.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, 246 of India's 626 districts have now been officially declared as facing a "drought-like" situation. Monsoon rains account for 75% of India's annual rainfall. Officials at the Indian Meteorological Department say this year has seen the scantiest season in seven years.
Water levels in the country's 81 major reservoirs are now down to about 38% of normal levels and offer no margin for comfort, government data show.
"India's vulnerability to droughts whenever there is a slight
deviation in the monsoon pattern has grown over the years because of excessive groundwater withdrawal to support intensive farming, particularly in the northwestern states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan," says Devinder Sharma, internationally known agriculture and food security expert. "At present rates of withdrawal, by 2025 all groundwater will have been exhausted."
Sharma, who chairs the independent New Delhi-based collective, Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, says the situation is especially grim in the state of Punjab, where groundwater mining has for years exceeded natural replenishment. "Punjab, which provides nearly 50% of the country's food surplus, is paying a price for playing the role of granary to the nation," he told Inter Press Service.
Of Punjab's 138 administrative blocks, 108 have been officially categorized as "dark zones", where 98% of underground water has been overexploited.
Satellite images released in August by the National Aerospace and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States show depletion of groundwater storage in Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana during the 2002-2008 period.
NASA's images indicated an average drop in groundwater levels of four centimeters a year, with about 110 cubic kilometers of groundwater lost during the six-year period that was studied.
If the current level of unsustainable over-consumption, mainly for agriculture, continues, India could face severe water shortages, NASA scientists caution.
"Groundwater is extremely valuable as a resource which stores water during the wet years and makes it available in the dry years, so that people and farmers can survive droughts, whether part of the natural variability or related to climate change," said Matthew Rodell, a NASA hydrologist and lead author of the study, in the SciDev.Net portal. "However, groundwater must be managed sustainably, or in time this capability could be lost."
Rodell said 95% of groundwater withdrawal from the region was for irrigation, mainly for rice, wheat and barley. "If farmers shift away from water-intensive crops such as rice, and also implement more efficient irrigation methods, that would help," SciDev quoted him as saying.
NASA's projections, based on tracking by twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, show that 54 cubic kilometers of groundwater are lost every year in the Indo-Gangetic plains, the world's most densely populated and heavily irrigated region.
GRACE satellites make detailed measurements of the Earth's gravity to facilitate discoveries about the Earth's natural systems.
The depletion rate has been estimated to be 70% faster this decade than in the 1990s. Withdrawals have been mainly for irrigation, although urbanization and industrialization seem to be playing an increasing role.
The NASA data roughly tally with estimates from India's Ministry of Water Resources based on a simpler and cheaper method of drilling holes and measuring water levels four times a year. This water-level fluctuation method helps assess both how much rainwater is contributing to underground aquifers and reservoirs, and how much is being used.
A report released in June by hydrologists Rana Chatterjee and Raja Ram Purohit at India's Central Ground Water Board corroborates the over-exploitation of groundwater in northwestern, western and peninsular India. The hydrologists estimate that Indians use 231 billion cubic meters of groundwater each year, 92% of it for irrigation.
"Despite the dismal consequences of the irrigation policy, the fascination of the planners for costly projects has not diminished," laments Sharma.
"Traditional water harvesting and rain-water collection practices do not find favor with policymakers and planners for the simple reason that they do not need investment and budget allocations," says Rajendra Singh, leader of the Tarun Bhagat Sangh, a well-known non-governmental organization which has been promoting simple check dams and traditional water conservation methods in arid Rajasthan, India's largest state.
Singh, winner of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, said that, even now, planners continue to overlook simple ways to conserve natural water bodies and underground reservoirs, although they are the only way to drought-proof the country.
"As traditional forms of water storage and harvesting disappeared and rural irrigation was taken over by inefficient government machinery, ground water began to be exploited indiscriminately," said Sharma.
Sharma believes that water shortages for farming can be resolved, at least partly, by following cropping patterns that are linked to water availability rather than pushing for greater yields through the use of hybrids developed by scientists.
"At present, drylands are increasingly being brought under hybrid crop varieties that have high yields, but several are water-guzzlers,'' says Sharma. "There is no sense in encouraging farmers in a desert state like Rajasthan to grow sugar cane. In fact, all kinds of hybrid crop varieties that require large quantities of water, such as rice, sorghum, maize, cotton and vegetables, are promoted in the dryland regions."
(Inter Press Service)
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India to use Chinese models for cleaning air and water: Jairam Ramesh
Saibal Dasgupta, TNN 25 August 2009, 08:15pm IST
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BEIJING: India wants to emulate China on various issues concerning use of technology and management controls to reduce emissions and poisoning of
rivers, Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment and forests (independent charge), said on Tuesday.
Ramesh also told his Chinese hosts that India would like to be made part of a mechanism on climate control issues, which have China, Japan and South Korea as members. The hosts have promised to take up New Delhi’s request with the two other member-countries.
"We must be plugged into what they are doing," he said.
Ramesh was full of praise for the Chinese Academy of Research on Environmental Sciences, which he visited today. He was also impressed by Chinese successes in cleaning up some of their lakes and rivers using modern technology.
"It would be a good idea for India to emulate. We do not have a major scientific institution in the area of environment although we have major institutes in the fields of agriculture and industry," he told Indian journalists on Tuesday.
His ministry will send two delegations for studying Chinese methods of dealing with industrial pollution and cleaning of lakes and rivers by 2009 end, Ramesh said. The Indian teams will mainly focus on the kind of technologies used by China in the environmental field.
"China has followed a more scientific approach in cleaning rivers and lakes than what we have done," the minister said while lamenting that hundreds of crores spent on cleaning up the Ganga and Yamunna rivers have not yielded significant results.
India and China are due to sign an agreement to collaborate on several areas of climate change tomorrow. Another agreement for joint research on Tibetan plateau will also be inked tomorrow.
New Delhi is also seeking Chinese participation in the research for management of coastal zones. It wants an institution from China to join hands with the National Institute of Sustainable Coastal Zone Management, which is being set up at the Anna University in Chennai.
The minister invited Chinese environment scientists to attend the next conference of the Indian Science Congress in Shillong in January.
Ramesh said China have five times the installed capacity of electricity compared to India. National Thermal Power Corporation, which is India’s largest electricity company, would rank seventh if compared to Chinese companies, he said. He was impressed by the high degree of maintenance and housekeeping at a power plant near Beijing, which he visited on Tuesday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/china/India-to-use-Chinese-models-for-cleaning-air-and-water-Jairam-Ramesh/articleshow/4933815.cms
India, hub of human trafficking in South Asia: report
Nearly 150,000 women and girls, mostly from Nepal and Bangladesh, are trafficked every year to India or to a third country through India, as sex slaves, reported the Indo-Asian News Service Wednesday, quoting an international children protection non-government organization.
India is the main destination of "alarming flows" of cross-border trafficking in South Asia, said a study by the global child rights group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) International, according to the report.
"In India, the majority of trafficking in underage girls for sexual exploitation happens within the country," the report quoted ECPAT as saying.
Children are mainly trafficked to Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal from Nepal and Bangladesh, said the report.
Titled "Their Protection is in Our Hands: The State of Global Child Trafficking for Sexual Purposes", the ECPAT report was published in New Delhi Wednesday, while being published in many other countries haunted with the scourge of human trafficking.
"Between 5,000 and 7,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked into India for sexual exploitation every year," it said. "Children from Bangladesh and Nepal are also trafficked into and through India to Pakistan and the Middle East."
http://www.emgonline.co.uk/news.php?news=7109
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