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first step in operationalising the Paris Agreement ended up being more about the distractions
DownToEarth
1-15 DECEMBER, 2016
Joseph Stiglitz
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Sunita Narain
Ashis Nandy
IS IT THE
END OF
FREE
MARKET?
01Cover.indd 1 24/11/16 11:39 AM
Training
programme on
SOCIAL IMPACT
ASSESSMENT
COURSE FEES
Rs 15,000 for developers, government
officials and consultants,
C entre for Science and Environment recognises Social Impact Assessment (SIA) as
an important tool to inform decision makers, regulators and stakeholders about
the possible social and economic impacts of a development project. To be effective,
Rs 10,000 for academicians, NGOs and SIA requires the active involvement of all concerned stakeholders. CSE has developed a
researchers, Rs 7,500 for students five-day training programme aimed at giving practical exposure to participants on SIA
Note: Accommodation can be arranged with specific reference to infrastructure, mining and other industrial projects.
nearby the training centre, would incur
extra charges
The programme is designed based on the new Act, The Right to Fair Compensation
and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The objective of this programme is to build a cadre of trained professional who can
COURSE DURATION conduct and review SIA reports. The programme will also impart understanding of
December 12-16, 2016 the issues and challenges in land acquisition, enhance skills in socio-economic surveys,
public consultations, data collection, planning land acquisition and rehabilitation and
resettlement plan. The course would also discuss applicable central/state laws such as
TIMING Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), The Forest Rights Act, 2006,
10.00 am to 5.30 pm and the Companies Acts, 2013.
What participants will learn
COURSE VENUE 1. Land conflicts, land classification, land rights and governance
CSE, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, 2. Better understanding of SIA
New Delhi 62 How to make Term of References (ToRs)
Reconnaissance and baseline survey data need, data collection, collation and
interpretation
LAST DATE FOR APPLYING Development of tools and instruments to conduct SIA surveys
December 6, 2016 Effective assessment and reporting methodologies
3. Filling the Socio-Economic survey questionnaire
OPEN FOR ALL
4. Asset evaluation
SIA practitioners, officials from state land 5. Preparation of entitlement matrix
department, municipality, district collector, 6. Review of SIA reports
sub-divisional magistrate, developers, 7. CSR framework, its reporting and case studies
academician, students, NGOs 8. Post monitoring.
All this would be covered through lectures, exhaustive class exercises, discussions and roleplay
Selection will
be done on first
come first
basis For registration: Kindly email at: vikrant@cseindia.org
02GRP SIA Course December 12-16, 2016 (digvijay).indd 2 April 30, 16 24/11/16 2:40
BC PM
contents 9
THE FORTNIGHT
India's cat concern
CLIMATE
CHANGE
SPECIAL
FOOD
When Odisha
goes green
Winter is the time
when Odia platters are
awash with wild leafy
vegetables
40
Freeze frame LIFE & NATURE
A growing number of the
elite are freezing their Hound of the
bodies in hope of a rebirth snows
The history, geneology and
44 legends surrounding the fabled
St Bernard dog breed of the Alps
46 REVIEW
Politics of well-being
Is our obsession about our well-
being making us narcissists, asks a
new book 20-PAGE DTE SUPPLEMENT
OPINION 50 WITH SUBSCRIPTION COPIES
TPP's requiem
Pushing the envelope Donald Trump's win means the end of P L A N E T P E O P L E P O L I T I C S
FOUNDER EDITOR
EDITOR Sunita Narain
Anil Agarwal
Not bogged down
MANAGING EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Indonesia constitutes 83 per cent of
Richard Mahapatra Asia's peat landswhere partially
ASSOCIATE EDITORS decayed vegetation has accumulated.
Vibha Varshney, Archana Yadav, S S Jeevan Over two decades, a significant portion
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Arnab Pratim Dutta of it has been burnt for palm oil and
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ajit Bajaj paper industries. At CoP22 in Morocco,
GRAPHIC EDITOR Sorit Gupto
Myrna A Safitri from Indonesia's newly
REPORTING TEAM
Anupam Chakravartty, Jitendra Choubey,
formed Peatlands Restoration Agency
Kundan Pandey, Rajeshwari Ganesan, tells Down To Earth that help is on the
Shreeshan Venkatesh, Karnika Bahuguna way. The agency, formed in January this
COPY DESK year, is mapping peat lands and restoring
Snigdha Das, Rajat Ghai, Jemima Rohekar, areas by blocking canals and digging
Aditya Misra, Rajit Sengupta, Deepanwita
Niyogi, Aakriti Shrivastava, Priya Talwar, deep water wells.
Subhojit Goswami
DESIGN TEAM
VIDEO POPULAR
Chaitanya Chandan, Shri Krishan,
Raj Kumar Singh, Tarique Aziz, Ritika Bohra
PHOTOGRAPHER Vikas Choudhary Demonetisation blues On web
PHOTO LIBRARY Anil Kumar
Floating islands of the
WEB TEAM Rajendra Rawat, Jaidev Sharma
labourers working in world
PRODUCTION the Okhla, Azadpur and
Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das Ghazipur mandis say low On Facebook
MULTIMEDIA demand has led to heavy Baranaja: a climate-
Srikant Chaudhary, Rakesh Nair losses. Some without bank resilient farming
Bhaskarjyoti Goswami, Sunny Gautam
accounts are trading money practice
INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT
Kiran Pandey Post demonetisation, for a small premium. While
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in team Down To Earth visits support for demonetisation On Twitter
CONSULTING EDITORS Delhi's wholesale markets is strong, the economy is Antibiotic pollution
Chandra Bhushan, Anumita Roychowdhury to understand its effects badly hit. Farmers are the by pharmaceutical
Vol 25, No 14; Total No of Pages 80 on various stakeholders. next victims as low demand industries a global
Editorial, subscriptions and advertisements: Society for Many small traders and leads to unsold stocks. concern
Environmental Communications,
41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,
New Delhi 110 062,
Phone: 91-11- 29955124, @down2earthindia www.downtoearth.org.in @down2earthindia
29956110, 29956394, 29956399
Fax: 91-11-29955879.
Email: downtoearth@downtoearth.org.in
2005 Society for Environmental Communications.
All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction ARCHIVE
in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by
Richard Mahapatra on behalf of Society for Environmental
Communications. Printed at International Print-o-Pac
IN CONTEXT January 1, 2017, as the new
date for the implementation
Limited, B-204, 205, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New
As Down To Earth enters its of the code, which lays down
Delhi-110020 india and published at 41, Tughlakabad 25th year of publication, we
Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062. bring to you glimpses from the standard features of a
To subscribe, sms 'dte Subscribe' to 56070 our archives modern bus with designs
or visit www.downtoearth.org.in/subscribe and materials assessed by
FOR ADVERTISEMENT CONTACT
regulators. Eight years ago,
Jyoti Ghosh
jghosh@cseindia.org
Missed the bus, in City bus in demand, out
FOR SUBSCRIPTION CONTACT again of supply (16-31 October,
K C R Raja raja@cseindia.org The Union Ministry of 2008), Down To Earth had
COVER DESIGN Ajit Bajaj Road Transport and reported on this issue: India at a body-making facility.
COVER ILLUSTRATION: Ritika Bohra Highways has postponed has no basic standards for The same suspension, brakes
the implementation of the bus bodies. Till recently, a bus and mechanical components
Down To Earth editorial does not National Bus Code. The operator would buy a truck would go into a passenger bus
endorse the content of advertisements ministry, through its recent chassis from a manufacturer, as into a truck. The wait for
printed in the magazine
notification, has stipulated and get it converted into bus the bus continues.
NANDAN DAVE
GM crops and the hidden agenda
The article, Seeds of decline (1-15 November, 2016), on genetically modified
(GM) crops is aptly titled. Their resistance to pests and pesticides, which is the
rationale behind GM crops, has proved elusive over the years. There has also been
a sharp increase in the amount and number of herbicides and pesticides applied
to them and this is expected to increase further. If the yield of Bt cotton, the only
GM crop approved for cultivation in India, is any indication, GM mustard is unlikely
to be different.
Moreover, the lack of evidence to establish health risks of GM crops does not
Down To Earth welcomes mean they are safe. Another alarming development is the mega mergers between
letters, responses and gmo companies and the agrochemicals industry. The EU, USA and Latin American
other contributions from consumers are apprehensive that the companies may have the potential to
readers. Send to Sunita concentrate political and financial power and force more countries to adopt a
Narain, Editor, Down To single model of farming, which excludes or impoverishes small farmers. GM crops
Earth, 41, Tughlakabad
are not about preventing food shortage, but consolidating the control of food
Institutional Area,
New Delhi - 110062. Email: production for profits.
editor@downtoearth.org.in H N RAMAKRISHNA
BENGALURU
SORIT / CSE
October, 2016). The vibrant photography
by Vikas Choudhary captured the rich
history of the Apatani tribe. The article
agriculture due to expensive seeds and
reminded me of the hills and valleys, the
fertilisers, stray cattle and vermin menace
ice-filled nalas, kacha roads, the greenery
and improper marketing of their produce.
in the early 80s, the apple bagan, my
Proper planning in agriculture is needed
friends and the Losar festival. I would like
not only to create sustainable jobs, but
to read such articles about the tribes of
also to strengthen the economy.
the Northeast.
JAYANTA TOPADAR L R SHARMA
VIA EMAIL VIA EMAIL
I N W H A T can be considered a
worrying sign for big cat conservation,
the country has witnessed the highest
number of tiger deaths this year since
2010. According to data released
this year. Of this, 41 deaths are still
being investigated. Madhya Pradesh,
followed by Karnataka, reported the
maximum number of big cat deaths
during this period. The high mortality
1.4 million
The number of child deaths due to
by Tigernet, an official database rate indicates increased poaching. pneumonia and diarrhoea each
of the National Tiger Conservation Poisoning, road accidents and year in the world
Authority, 76 tiger deaths were elimination by authorities are also Source: One is Too Many: Ending Child Deaths from
reported between January and October to be blamed. Pneumonia and Diarrhoea by Unicef
1 ,0 0 0 WO R D S BY VIKAS CHOUDHARY
SMALL DELIGHT: A fisherman dries fish near the Kosi riverbank in Bihar. Fish drying is a popular economic activity in this part of the country. Fisherfolk
usually catch locally known varieties like tengra, patasi, kothi, reba and kesra for supply to Jammu and Kashmir, Siliguri in West Bengal and other parts
of the country. The fish is usually dried on long bamboo structures and flipped for uniform drying in the sun.
presence
the Moroccan city of Marrakech during
November 7-18, was supposed to usher in a
new era and play a key role in the imple-
mentation of the Paris Agreement. The
Agreement, adopted by 195 countries in
December 2015, seeks to restrict global
warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels
India's participation at the recently concluded and will come into effect in 2020.
Optimists saw Marrakech as an oppor-
22nd Conference of Parties was passive tunity to step up immediate efforts to tack-
and lacked vision le climate change. Even for the realists, who
thought of the conference as more of a pro-
VIJETA RATTANI AND SHREESHAN VENKATESH | marrakech cedural step towards operationalising the
Paris Agreement, the event marked an op-
portune moment to untangle contentious
T
HE MAIN story emerging from the 22nd climate change:
Conference of Parties (cop22) to the UN n Climate change was not even an issue in the US
Framework Convention on Climate Change elections. Apart from a few utterances by Hillary
(unfccc) at Marrakech is that the coun- Clinton on renewable energy in the presidential
tries have agreed to frame the rulebook of the Paris debates, there were hardly any discussions on the
Agreement by 2018a full two years before the pro- topic. The fact is that a large number of US citi-
visions of the agreement kick in. But the real story zens do not believe in climate change and even a
is the disquiet about the future of international cli- larger number does not want to sacrifice their
mate negotiations post Donald Trumps election as lifestyle to cut emissions.
the US President. n All the Republican candidates in the US election
CHANDRA
BHUSHAN I was in Marrakech for the last week of cop22 and Primaries were climate change deniers and
the discussions at Bab Ighli villagethe venue of the promised to increase the use of coal and other
Deputy Director conferencewere all about the Trump presidency fossil fuels.
General, Centre for and the chances of American withdrawal from the n Trump himself is a climate change denier and has
Science and Paris Agreement. There were two strands of narra- reportedly termed the phenomenon a hoax cre-
Environment tive on Trump and the US withdrawalone was ated by and for the Chinese in order to make US
straightforward while the other was a spin-doctored manufacturing non-competitive.
version of reality. n During the elections, the Trump camp released
The straightforward narrative centred on spec- a television advertisement featuring an Ohio
ulation on how quickly and in what manner will coal miner. The 30-second clip was aired in
Trump withdraw, and the implications of this with- Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvaniaprime
drawal on the climate treaty. Within the climate coal mining countrypromising an increase in
change networks, legal documents were exchanged coal mining and protection to mining jobs.
about the possible route that Trump would take to n Trump has appointed Myron Ebell, a climate
leave the agreement. Reports were being circulated change denier, as head of the Environmental
on the impact of the US withdrawal on the funding Protection Agency (epa) transition team. It is
of the UN Secretariat which organises these meet- important to understand that the Clean Power
ings. There were discussions on the fate of the Green Plan, under which power plants in the US have
Climate Fund and the proverbial mirage of billions been given targets to reduce greenhouse gas
of dollars that the developed countries promised to (ghg) emissions, is administered by epa. Trump
pay to the developing countries to combat climate has vowed to kill this rule.
change in Paris last year. n Harold Hamm, who became a billionaire by
Then there was the spin-doctored version. Led fracking for shale oil and gas, is Trumps advis-
by some US-based non-profits, academics and their er on energy and is likely to be US next energy
supporters, this narrative suggested that the US secretary. This man has talked about disman-
withdrawal was not that important. They claimed tling regulations and increasing production of
that even without Trump, industry along with a few fossil fuels.
climate-friendly cities and states would ensure sig- n Shares of fossil fuel companies in the US are
nificant climate mitigation action in the US. They soaring. Peabody Energy, the largest coal pro-
were assuring everyone that the Paris Agreement ducer in the country, which had filed for bank-
would be alive and kicking even without the US. ruptcy, saw its share value go up by 50 per cent
But these arguments are hollow and mislead- after Trumps victory. This company contri-
ing. The following facts show the disconnect be- buted a quarter of a million dollars to Trumps
tween US presidential candidates and the reality of campaign.
The US currently produces more oil than Saudi a change in rules to suit US businesses. This would
Arabia, more gas than Russia and more coal than slowly finish the Paris Agreement and even the un-
India. And a Trump presidency would ensure that fccc. At a time when 2016 has been declared as the
the fossil fuel production and consumption in the hottest year on record (with the global temperature
US will only go up. This will end Obamas Clean about 1.2C above the pre-industrial era) and there
Power Plan and with this, the US commitment to re- is a huge mitigation gap to meet the 2C target, we
duce ghg emissions by 26-28 per cent below 2005 need countries to cut more emissions and quickly.
levels by 2025. It is important to understand that And we need the US to take leadership in emissions
this commitment itself was insufficient. On a 1990 cuts. But Trumps presidency would not allow this
baseline, the US would have reduced emissions by a to happen.
mere 13-15 per cent by 2025. It is in this context that I think it might be bet-
Let us now consider the argument that even if ter that the US leaves the Paris Agreement. The
the US withdraws, it would have little effect on the world has invested too much in these negotiations
Paris Agreement. The facts tell a different story: for the past quarter of a century to be destroyed by a
The Paris Agreement was designed to get the US climate change denier who at the maximum would
committed to the UN Climate Treaty. It has no be the US president for the next eight years.
targets for countries and has no consequences Once the US withdraws, countries would have
for non-compliance. 195 countries, therefore, the time to do a reality check vis-a-vis the Paris
agreed on a weak treaty that has put the world Agreement. The US withdrawal might strengthen
on a path to more than solidarity among the coun-
3C temperature incr- The international tries. They might like to make
ease by the end of the community should never agreement stronger and in-
century. If the US junks
agree on an agreement just corporate economic sanc-
the agreement, other
countries, might become
for the convenience of one tions so that Trump and his
likes cannot walk away. They
sceptical about its effica- country, even if that country might decide to abrogate the
cy and quit. happens to be the most agreement entirely and work
The US contributes sig- powerful (and polluting) on a new one. We can only
nificantly to whatever country of the world speculate the reaction of the
climate finance is made remaining 194 countries, but
available by the devel- what is clear is that the Paris
oped countries to developing nations. For in- Agreement without Trump is better than the Paris
stance, of the US $10.3 billion pledged to the Agreement with Trump. At least we will know who
Green Climate Fund, $3 billion has been the enemy is!
pledged by the US. A US withdrawal would have But as the saying goes, those who do not learn
significant impacts on climate finance. history are doomed to repeat it. During the Kyoto
The US currently accounts for more than 15 per Protocol negotiations, the US under Bill Clinton
cent of total global CO2 emissions; its per capi- pushed everybody around and reduced the emis-
ta emission is 17 tonnes. If the US does not take sions cut target for the developed countries from 20
significant action on emission cuts under per cent to mere 5 per cent. The US argued that the
Trumps presidency, it would have a cascading Republican Party and the US Congress would not
effect: countries are not likely to increase or even agree to a treaty with stiff targets and hence a weak
stick to their targets under the Paris Agreement. Kyoto deal came into existence. Then George Bush
In a nutshell, without the US the Paris came and walked away from the Kyoto Protocol.
Agreement, as it stands today, is as good as dead. So, Obama and his team used the same tactics from
what is the way ahead? Should we try to convince Copenhagen onwards to dilute unfccc and a weak
Trump to remain with the Paris Agreement (as UN Paris Agreement was signed. And now, Trump is
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and many other planning to withdraw from this Agreement as well.
leaders have reportedly alluded to) or should we al- We should not let this happen.
low him to leave? The international community should never
Whether the US stays or leaves, Trumps presi- agree on an agreement just for the convenience of
dency would be extremely destructive to the agree- one country, even if that country happens to be the
ment. For instance, he may not provide the funds most powerful (and polluting) country of the world.
pledged. He may go back on the US commitment to We should agree on a climate treaty which is in the
cut emissions. He may demand disproportionate best interest of all, especially the poor and the vul-
contributions from developing countries or demand nerable communities of the world. @Bh_Chandra
Rock bottom
It is difficult to find water
B
EKU BEKU shashvata neero (We However, this is not the first time Kolar has
want a permanent source of wa- witnessed such scarcity. Groundwater was
even at record depths ter)! For the past five months, overexploited in all its talukas in 2011.
Kolar, a district in Karnataka, has The eastern gateway to Karnataka,
in Kolar, Karnataka's been reverberating with this slogan. Every Kolar, has no perennial source of water.
horticulture hub day, hundreds of farmers and traders gath-
er at College Circle in Kolar town to protest
Although it is drained by three river ba-
sinsPalar, Ponnaiyar and Pennarthese
an acute shortage of water, which resulted rivers and their tributaries are small and
JIGYASA WATWANI in a 50 per cent crop loss this year in the dis- carry water only during the rainy season.
| kolar , karnataka trict. Kolar is ranked highly among all the The semi-arid district receives an annual
districts in the state in productivity and yield average rainfall of just 748 mm. The rainfall
of horticultural crops. But the protest has is also extremely erratic. While in 2005, the
landed on deaf ears as nobody from the state annual rainfall was 1,195.4 mm, in 2016 it
government has acknowledged it, forget was just 521 mm. In the absence of surface
about visiting the site. This forced many water and adequate measures to recharge
farmers to abandon agriculture and migrate water aquifers, farmers started digging bore
to Bengaluru. wells in early 2000s, a practise which soon
For more than a decade, Karnataka has became rampant.
been overexploiting its groundwater. In In just four years, from 2011 to 2015,
2006, Kolars average groundwater level the number of bore wells in Kolar increased
was at a depth of 15.03 m. This year, from by 64 per cent. Although the Central
January to August, it dropped to 61.48 m. Ground Water Board says Kolar had 84,287
It now ranks the lowest among all districts bore wellsthe highest in the state in
in the state. In fact, groundwater has been 2015Holali Prakash, a farmer from Kolar
overexploited in all its five talukas, leaving taluka and one of the leaders of the protest,
Since June 12, the citizens of Kolar have
been protesting the acute shortage of water. no scope to further tap groundwater, which says that this is a conservative estimate. It
Groundwater in all its five talukas is overexploited meets its irrigation and domestic needs. could be at least 125,000, Prakash says. Like
AAIS
GREEN DRIVE
Airports Authority of Indias (AAI) Energy Conservation Initiatives include:
Ground mounted solarisation to maximise non-conventional energy at all airports.
LED lighting installation of variable frequency drives for air-conditioning equipment,
provision of energy efficient pump, motors, air-conditioners and other similar
measures.
Commissioned rooftop solar power plants at 16 airports, with similar work
underway at 11 other airports.
Water conservation methods include treating waste water for
horticulture, fire fighting and air-conditioning practices.
Conferred with the National Excellence Awards 2016 by
Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of
India.
Himalaya Engages
Employees in CSR Activities
Employee engagement is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their
capability and potential. Himalaya as a brand truly believes in it. It helps improve the morale of employees.
Employee Engagement, much like employees themselves, come in all forms. Here are the six ways we keep
the commitment and employees engaged:
Volunteers from Himalaya's Baby Care Division come together to create a kitchen
garden in a residential school for children from lower income communities.
REVENGE
OF THE RICH
Trump's election reflects the anger of the rich who did
not get richer. This inequity is also at the core of the
climate change challenge
SUNITA NARAIN
DARRON R. BIRGENHEIER
Is the free economy. The recession wiped out 13 per cent of the glob-
al production and 20 per cent of the global trade. In fact,
its impacts are still being felt across developed countries.
buyers?
ter opinion poll, including the one from the Pew Research
Center, a Washington-based fact tank, suggests that many
European countries want to follow in Britains footsteps
and exit the European Union to pursue their sovereignty
Trump's victory shows growing over decision-making and economy.
This sentiment was reflected during the US presiden-
discomfort with globalisation tial election campaigns when unusual reports filled the
newspapers. Nobody is talking about the 43 million poor
RICHARD MAHAPATRA AND
of US. Voters cant buy bus tickets to go to the poll sta-
SUBHOJIT GOSWAMI tion. usa just closes its eyes to the inequality. Then there
T
were the kind of slogans Trump made: Stop outsourcing
HE DEVELOPED worlds poorest countrythe American job to India and China; Deport illegal migrants
United States of America (usa)has voted for from the country. The campaign slogans had an uncanny
its new president. The victory of Donald Trump similarity with those made in developing countries: free the
was unexpected. But the anger that fuelled his market economy; create jobs for the locals; eradicate pov-
victory was very much expected, and sends erty. This is the reason Trump won, even though he has ac-
out a clear message. It questions the free market model of cumulated his fortune by reaping the benefits of free trade.
economy that has been the only model in existence for more For the world yet to overcome the Brexit shock, Trump
than half of the worlds population. is just a rude reminder that there is some fundamental
Championed by the developed world, the free market problem with the free market model. Donald Trumps
economy has been under scrutiny since 1990. But develop- victory should serve as a lesson for Europes mainstream
ments in the aftermath of the recession of 2008 show that forces ahead of their own ballots next year. Politics as usu-
countries are increasingly losing interest in this model of al just does not work on both sides of the Atlantic. Clearly,
people are not feeling they profit from the benefits of glo- ment of the imf had alleged that the proponents of neolib-
balisation and free trade, says Anthony L Gardner, the US eralism have been over selling the benefits of free market.
ambassador to the EU. Trump had campaigned on a promise to scrap inter-
The victory of Trump also indicates that the devel- national trade deals that transferred US jobs overseas and
oped world now struggles with the third world problems. flooded domestic markets with foreign goods. His call for
Its economies are in tatters; inequality is further widened, Americanism, not globalism struck a chord with the white
with a handful of people amassing the major chunk of prof- working-class voters at a time when the US was still licking
its generated out of a free market; and human development the wounds of the North American Free Trade Agreement
indices have declined sharply. (nafta), an agreement signed between the US, Mexico and
For example, in the US the per capita gdp grew by Canada in 1994. nafta had resulted in the loss of manufac-
14 per cent between 2001 and 2015, but the average wage turing and shipping jobs for the Americans.
grew by only 2 per cent. An analysis by the McKinsey Global
Institute shows that the real incomes of about two-thirds Verdict against rising inequality
of households in 25 advanced economies were flat or fell There is another reason Trumps brand of protectionism
between 2005 and 2014. The situation was the worst has found takers in usa. Free trade, which served the coun-
in Italy, where 97 per cent of the middle-class saw stag- try for two decades following Europes and Japans wartime
nant or declining take-home pay. In usa, the figure was collapse, ensured enrichment of an already rich part of the
81 per cent. About 193 million people, or one-third of those society. The protectionism, as demanded and upheld by
whose income has not been advancing, express negative Abraham Lincoln, is now looked upon as a more fitting
opinions about free trade and immigration. answer to exclusionary capitalism that helped the eco-
The possibility of creating the nomic elite reap all the fruits of unre-
worlds biggest free trade market now strained international trade.
looks bleak due to this rising discon- Trump's victory indicates Factory work, which was once
tent against economic liberalisation that the developed world the backbone of the middle class,
in developed countries. The proposed now struggles with the is now all but gone. It has been re-
Transatlantic Trade and Investment third world problems. Its placed by low-paying service jobs. In
Partnership (ttip) between the EU and economies are in tatters; 1980, one in five Americans worked
the US, dubbed one of the most ambi- inequality is further in manufacturing units. Now it is one
tious free trade accords ever attempt-
widened; and basic human in 12. Ohio now has one-third few-
ed, has attracted opposition in Europe
as voters have grown doubtful of the
development indices have er manufacturing jobs than it had in
2000. Estimates by Massachusetts
benefits of globalisation. The victory of
declined sharply Institute of Technology economist
Trump, who has pandered to the anti- David Autor show usa lost a million
globalisation sentiment, is likely to result in the demise of manufacturing jobs to China between 2000 and 2007this
the deal. He has already vowed to withdraw the US from is a quarter of the jobs lost across the US during the period.
another free trade agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership Political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who had previ-
that covers 12 countries, on his first day in office. Instead, ously supported the American model of capitalism and
we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring free trade, also highlights this fallout of globalisation.
jobs and industry back onto American shores, Trump said We thought to make the best of globalisation by produc-
while unveiling plans for his first 100 days in office. ing nothing ourselves and offering services instead. This
Small wonder that immediately after the US presiden- was a mistake. We forgot that socialism never was a big is-
tial elections, multilateral financial organisations like the sue in the US, because enough people always managed to
World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund move into the burgeoning middle class. Nowadays, this is
(imf), who champion the free market economy, defend- no longer the case, because they have worked in industries
ed the model. Addressing a press conference at the World that we have outsourced to countries like China, he says.
Bank-imf Annual Meetings, World Bank Group President Other than soya beans and corn, which in a highly
Jim Young Kim cited the example of China that has lifted mechanised agriculture are practically produced without
700 million people out of poverty using the same model human labour, the US sells services like patents and licenc-
of economy. Christine Lagarde, managing director of imf, es, and technologically sophisticated products like indus-
was more vocal. On Trumps idea of getting American jobs trial machines, semiconductors, electric apparatus and
by adopting protectionism, she said, The rhetoric against medical equipment. Unfortunately, high-tech industries
[free] trade would do harm to the country. I call it econom- and research do not create jobs for the majority of American
ic malpractice. Just a few months ago, the research depart- people. This explains why the Rust Belt (Pennsylvania,
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Ohio, Michigan and Iowa) has been decisive in Trumps other $3,000 to the Trump campaign.
victory. These are the states where working class people So, American political scientist Larry Bartels was not
and union workers have seen deindustrialisation and man- off the mark when he recently said the US senators are five
ufacturing decline. to six times more likely to listen to the interests of the rich
A study by the Pew Research Center finds that 65 per than to the interests of the middle class. There is no dis-
cent of Americans agree that the gap between the rich and cernible evidence that the views of low-income constituents
the rest has widened in the last 10 years. In 2013, the medi- had any effect on their senators voting behaviour, Bartels
an wealth of the nations upper-income families ($639,400) said. Economist Joseph Stiglitz says from the 1980s un-
was nearly seven times that of middle-income families til 2007, deregulated capitalism in the US brought great-
($96,500), the widest wealth gap seen in 30 years when the er material wellbeing only to the very richest in the rich-
Federal Reserve began collecting these data. est country of the world (see How Trump happened on
Obviously, the US is no stranger to the trend of rich dic- p28). Over the course of this ideologys 30-year ascend-
tating the political agenda, financing the candidates who ance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stag-
protect their interests and ensure that the laws are in the in- nate year after year, says Stiglitz.
terest of the corporate. The six-month-old Dakota Pipeline There are many Americans who work two jobs to make
Access protest is the most recent specimen. Despite hun- ends meet, says Hershey Friedman, professor of Business
dreds of indigenous people upping their protests against at Koppelman School of Business, Brooklyn College. One
this proposed pipeline, Kelcy Warren, the chief execu- of my friends, a college professor, is having trouble paying
tive officer of Energy Transferthe promoter of the pro- his rent and is heavily in debt. He is considering working at
jectsays, I am 100 per cent sure that the pipeline will night driving a cab. There is a large number of people like
be approved by a Trump administration. In June, Warren that in the US. They are opposed to an economy slanted to
donated US $100,000 to the Trump Victory Fund and an- benefit the rich, Friedman says.
Increasing inequality and stalled growth in the wake of recession. G20 economies applied 145 new trade-restric-
global financial crisis are also the reasons most nations in tive measuresan average of almost 21 new measures per
Europe seem to denounce the ideology of free trade. This month, compared to 17 in the previous report, it states.
becomes evident from the rise of anti-globalisation move- Going by the European Commission report, between
ments and nationalist parties in several countries. July 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015, Russia issued the
Brexit exposed the anti-EU feelings and anger against largest number of measures restricting government pro-
the power structures that are alienated from the society curement. Countries, such as Algeria and China, used dis-
and ineffective in tackling global downturn and the criminatory tax measures favouring local businesses. In the
Eurozone crisis. The referendum is the result of a reali- field of services and investment, China adopted the high-
sation that the beneficiaries of globalisation have been est number of restrictive measures, followed by Indonesia.
powerful corporations, affluent families and skilled and China is the EUs second largest trade partner. But the
educated workers; the working-class continues to strug- EU says Chinese exports are flooding European market.
gle with stagnant wages, job losses and staggering debt. A Recently, it has taken temporary anti-dumping meas-
UK departure is going to make the entire EU inward-look- ures against the imports of Chinese seamless steel pipes.
ing and more defensive on globalisa- Europe cannot be naive and must
tion, says Fredrik Erixon, director of protect its interests, especially when
the European Centre for International Emerging economies were it comes to dumping, says Peter Ziga,
Political Economy, a policy research responsible for 50 per cent trade minister of Slovakia that holds
think-tank based in Brussels. of all trade-restrictive EUs presidency.
In both Europe and the US, the measures during 2014-15. The European Commission says
grouse has been evident among old- But a WTO report says G20 emerging economies were responsible
er and less-educated citizens whose economies introduced for 50 per cent of all trade-restrictive
livelihoods were affected by automa- measures introduced between June
new trade-restrictive
tion and cheaper foreign labourtwo 2014 and December 2015. However,
main features of globalisation. Branko
measures at the fastest developed countries, including G20
Milanovic, a leading economist of in-
pace since 2008 recession members, also take protectionist
equality, explains in one of his books measures despite repeated pledges
that the recent surge of inequality in the West has been driv- against them. According to European Commissioner for
en by the revolution in technology, just as the Industrial Trade Cecilia Malmstrm, Trade protectionism contin-
Revolution drove inequality about 200 years ago. ues to be on the rise worldwide. Open markets are proven
to bring more innovation, increased productivity, econom-
Rise of restrictive trade measures ic growth and prosperity. Despite this, few barriers to trade
Way back in 2011 when the Occupy Wall Street took roots, have been removed, while new ones have been introduced.
highlighting inequality and the failure of the economy Though usa is officially committed to free trade, it has
to meet peoples expectation, the International Labour limited openness since the 2008 recession. In fact, it has im-
Organization (ilo) hinted that the growing unrest had plemented the maximum protectionist measures since
an uncanny protagonist: the youth. Currently, the popu- 2008. usa had pursued protectionism between the Civil War
lation in the age group of 15-24 is at a historic high. This and the Word War II, before it radically changed its mind in
group has not seen any economic model other than the free the middle of the 20th Century, when Europes industries
market. Comparing the current crisis of unemployment were largely destroyed, and turned into the follower of free
among the youth to the Great Depression, ilo said, There trade to prevent others from protecting their industrial pro-
have been serious financial crises, none have been as deep, duction. The optimism of the first two decades after the
as prolonged, and as globally contagious as the current World War II is now sagging. Under the Trump regime, it is
crisis. It also indicated that a generation is growing up most likely to tailor its rules to shut out foreign companies
without access to the labour market, further precipitating from public tenders.
the crisis. It is no surprise that a majority of Trumps voters Like Japan, which practised protectionism much to its
are less educated unemployed youths. benefit, the upcoming Republican government in the US is
Growing unemployment is one of the reasons most de- going to be conservative in foreign trade deals and pay heed
veloped countries are resorting to economic protectionist to Abraham Lincolns warning to his countrymen: I pro-
measures. The wto report, which analysed restrictive trade ceed to try to show that the abandonment of the protective
measures between mid-October 2015 and mid-May 2016, policy by the American Government must result in the in-
says the G20 economies have introduced new protection- crease of both useless labour and idleness; and so, in pro-
ist trade measures at the fastest pace since 2008 economic portion, must produce want and ruin among our people.
J O S E P H E ST I G L I T Z
A
have traveled
S I
around the world in
recent weeks, I am re-
peatedly asked two
questions: Is it con-
ceivable that Donald Trump could
win the US presidency? And how
did his candidacy get this far in the
first place?
As for the first question,
though political forecasting is even
more difficult than economic fore-
casting, the odds are strongly in fa-
vour of Hillary Clinton. Still, the
closeness of the race (at least until
very recently) has been a mystery:
Clinton is one of the most qualified
and well prepared presidential
candidates that the United States
has had, while Trump is one of the
least qualified and worst prepared.
Moreover, Trumps campaign has
survived the behaviour by him that
would have ended a candidates
chances in the past.
So why would Americans be
playing Russian roulette (for that is
what even a one-in-six chance of a
Trump victory means)? Those out-
side the US want to know the an-
swer, because the outcome affects
them, too, though they have no in-
fluence over it.
And that brings us to the second question: why did the Americans are economically worse off than they were a
US Republican Party nominate a candidate that even its quarter-century ago. The median income of full-time male
leaders rejected? employees is lower than it was 42 years ago, and it is in-
Obviously, many factors helped Trump beat 16 creasingly difficult for those with limited education to get
Republican primary challengers to get this far. Personalities a full-time job that pays decent wages.
matter, and some people do seem to warm to Trumps re- Indeed, real (inflation-adjusted) wages at the bottom
ality-TV persona. of the income distribution are roughly where they were
But several underlying factors also appear to have 60 years ago. So it is no surprise that Trump finds a large,
contributed to the closeness of the race. For starters, many receptive audience when he says the state of the economy
is rotten. But Trump is wrong both about the diagnosis and Several underlying factors
the prescription. The US economy as a whole has done well appear to have contributed to
for the last six decades: gdp has increased nearly six-fold. the closeness of the race. For
But the fruits of that growth have gone to a relatively few
starters, many Americans are
at the toppeople like Trump, owing partly to massive tax
cuts that he would extend and deepen.
economically worse off than
At the same time, reforms that political leaders prom-
they were a quarter-century ago
ised would ensure prosperity for allsuch as trade and
financial liberalizationhave not delivered. Far from it. The US economy has done well
And those whose standard of living has stagnated or de- for the last six decades. But
clined have reached a simple conclusion: Americas politi- the fruits of that growth have
cal leaders either didnt know what they were talking about gone to a relatively few at the
or were lying (or both). toppeople like Trump, owing
Trump wants to blame all of Americas problems on
partly to massive tax cuts
trade and immigration. Hes wrong. The US would have
faced deindustrialization even without freer trade: glo-
bal employment in manufacturing has been declining, with Those whose standard of living
productivity gains exceeding demand growth. has stagnated or declined have
Where the trade agreements failed, it was not be- reached a simple conclusion:
cause the US was outsmarted by its trading partners; it America's political leadership
was because the US trade agenda was shaped by corpo-
either didn't know what they
rate interests. Americas companies have done well, and
it is the Republicans who have blocked efforts to ensure
were talking about or were lying
that Americans made worse off by trade agreements would
share the benefits. in technology, education, or infrastructure to build a wall
Thus, many Americans feel buffeted by forces outside between the US and Mexico is a twofer in terms of wast-
their control, leading to outcomes that are distinctly un- ing resources.
fair. Long-standing assumptionsthat America is a land There are two messages US political elites should be
of opportunity and that each generation will be better off hearing. The simplistic neo-liberal market-fundamen-
than the lasthave been called into question. The global talist theories that have shaped so much economic policy
financial crisis may have represented a turning point for during the last four decades are badly misleading, with gdp
many voters: their government saved the rich bankers who growth coming at the price of soaring inequality. Trickle-
had brought the US to the brink of ruin, while seemingly down economics hasnt and wont work. Markets dont ex-
doing almost nothing for the millions of ordinary Americans ist in a vacuum. The Thatcher-Reagan revolution, which
who lost their jobs and homes. The system not only pro- rewrote the rules and restructured markets for the benefit
duced unfair results, but seemed rigged to do so. of those at the top, succeeded all too well in increasing ine-
Support for Trump is based, at least partly, on the quality, but utterly failed in its mission to increase growth.
widespread anger stemming from that loss of trust in This leads to the second message: we need to rewrite
government. But Trumps proposed policies would make the rules of the economy once again, this time to ensure that
a bad situation much worse. Surely, another dose of ordinary citizens benefit. Politicians in the US and else-
trickle-down economics of the kind he promises, with tax where who ignore this lesson will be held accountable.
cuts aimed almost entirely at rich Americans and corpo- Change entails risk. But the Trump phenomenonand
rations, would produce results no better than the last time more than a few similar political developments in Europe
they were tried. has revealed the far greater risks entailed by failing to heed
In fact, launching a trade war with China, Mexico, this message: societies divided, democracies undermined,
and other US trading partners, as Trump promises, would and economies weakened.
make all Americans poorer and create new impedi- Joseph Stiglitz is former chief economist of the
ments to the global cooperation needed to address critical World Bank and recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in
global problems like the Islamic State, global terrorism, Economic Sciences. He teaches at the
and climate change. Using money that could be invested Columbia Business School
M O N T E K S I N G H A H LU WA L I A
T
HE ELECTION of Donald Trump as US President, If gvcs are here to stay, even if they expand less aggres-
coming after the Brexit vote, is widely seen as a sively, it follows that we need to position ourselves to derive
thumbs down for globalisation. Herewith some full benefit from them. Sceptics will be quick to point out that
comments on implications for trade policy, we have not benefited as much as other developing countries
climate change and the role of multilateral from the growth of gvcs in the previous decade, but this is
development banks. largely because we have not implemented policies that would
make us competitive. The policy lesson for us is to focus on
Trade policy overcoming these disadvantages rather than turning our back
The most immediate worry relates to global trade. A slow- to continued openness. This is strengthened by the fact that
down is already under way and pessimists worry that if the Asia is the part of the world most likely to experience rapid
threat to raise tariffs, which was mentioned in the campaign, growth, and this region is likely to remain open and pursue
is implemented, it may trigger a Smoot-Hawley-type pro- trade integration. We should plan to be part of the Asian
cess, precipitating a severe downturn as happened in the growth story and encourage deeper trade integration with the
inter-war years of the last century. Things may not turn out other fast-growing Asian countries, including China.
as bad, but a fresh protectionist turn in the US will have a Early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive
negative effect on the global economy Economic Partnership (rcep) agree-
which will affect us as well. ment would send the right signal at
Industrialised countries have A fresh protectionist this time. Unfortunately, the Indian
turned against globalisation because of turn in the US will have industry has been lukewarm about
the perception that it has hollowed out a negative effect on the our regional integration efforts, and
manufacturing and shifted jobs to de- global economy which will some parts of it have even opposed
veloping countries. The perception is affect us as well. But there the steps taken. Industry needs to re-
exaggerated: some jobs may have been consider its position in terms of what
are good reasons for us
offshored, but other jobs have been is in its longer term interest. They
created, and more could be created if
not to turn inwards should work harder to persuade the
industrialised countries were to under- government to remove impediments
take the reforms to restart growth and re-skill their labour. to our competitiveness, rather than argue for higher tariffs
From our perspective, the key issue is whether we should on the assumption that these impediments are here to stay.
remain open or respond by turning inward. We also need to rethink our strategy in the wto. Trade
There are good reasons for us not to turn inward. The US, negotiators have to fight hard to protect national interests,
Europe and Japan are likely to have a continuing compara- but successful negotiations are also a matter of give and
tive advantage in the development of new technology, but to take. Unless industrialised countries can present the out-
sell the products embodying these technologies in world comes to their domestic constituencies as providing a gain
markets, each industrialised country has to be as competi- from their perspective, they will marginalise the wto and
tive as possible and it helps them to exploit the lower manu- push for plurilateral negotiations outside it. This is what led
facturing costs in developing countries. There is much talk to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade
of robotification and 3D printing reducing labour costs in and Investment Partnership, but as these agreements appear
industrialised countries and thereby shrinking global value to be stalled, there is a window for showing progress in the
chains (gvcs). The technology has indeed advanced impres- wto. We should review our position on ongoing wto mat-
sively, but it is not clear that it would be sufficiently cost- ters, such as trade facilitation, government procurement, the
effective to offset the lower costs of skilled labour in develop- Information Technology Agreement II and the Trade
ing countries. in Services Agreement. We often act in the wto on the
CM
MY
CY
CMY
assumption that we should resist any nar- investments in these areas. They can pro-
rowing in our policy space but there may vide technical support in project design
be a good case to change domestic policy and also in devising the policy framework
where it has become the source of compe- needed to incentivise the shift. They can
titive disadvantage. contribute directly to financing a part of
the project. Given the scale of the chal-
Uncertainty over climate lenge, private investment in the form of
cooperation public-private partnerships will be neces-
President-elect Trump had said in the sary. This calls for an assurance to the
campaign that he would scrap the Paris private investor that the policy framework
Agreement and this is causing much worry is conducive to private investment and
among those fighting against climate that policy will be stable over the life of the
change. Unlike trade policy, where the project. The involvement of mdbs in
Republican Party can be expected to exert a financing these projects even in a limited
moderating influence on unnecessary re- way will help reduce risk perception in the
versals, there is no such restraining element private sector and be an assurance against
on climate change. Many in the Republican whimsical policy changes.
Party are climate change deniers and the The G20 had, in the past, called
fossil fuel lobby is strong. upon the World Bank to prepare
The Paris Agreement has many short- specific proposals on how mdbs can
comings. Nevertheless, it is important be- help in this area. No credible
cause it broke the earlier impasse in the UN proposal has emerged thus far,
Framework Convention on Climate Change but with the World Bank
and got all the countries on board. It was ILLUSTRATIONS: SORIT / CSE President having just been
hoped that as momentum developed it elected to a second term, it is
would be possible to improve the agreement in subsequent opportune to push for concrete action.
reviews. A US withdrawal will undoubtedly interrupt the A recent report by the Center for Global Development
momentum of global cooperation on climate change. It will has recommended that of the $3 trillion additional invest-
also create uncertainty about policy in industrialised coun- ment that may be needed annually in developing countries,
tries, slowing down investment in the development of green $200-250 billion should come from all mdbs taken togeth-
energy technology. It would also put paid to hopes of mobi- er. The current flow from these institutions for infrastruc-
lising financial resources to help developing countries make ture is about $50 billion per year. The biggest contributor is
the transition. the World Bank and it must play its part in meeting the en-
There is not much India can do to counter this develop- hanced target for mdbs. Indeed, it must give a lead. An in-
ment other than urge our point of view in bilateral discus- crease of the order required will only be possible if the major
sions and use the G20 forum, now chaired by Germany, to member countries agree to a large increase in the World
persuade the new US administration to stay the course. Banks capital, along with a clear mandate to develop a work
programme for action in this area.
World Bank for sustainable development Industrialised countries have been reluctant to expand
A major problem facing developing countries today is the the capital of the World Bank. They say there is no shortage
need to invest massively in building sustainable infrastruc- of funds from the capital market and the real constraint is
ture that will moderate the energy requirement and there- the absence of well-prepared projects and a credible policy
fore the ghg consequences of future growth. The additional framework that would attract private funds. The case for
investment needed in developing countries on this count is greater involvement of the World Bank arises precisely be-
estimated to be between US $1 trillion and $3 trillion per cause its involvement can help in both the areas. World Bank
year between now and 2030. This covers investment in new lending would not substitute for private flowsit would, in
green energy sources (solar, hydro and wind) plus the asso- fact, leverage them. The need to push in this area is all the
ciated balancing investments. It includes investment in en- greater if climate change negotiations run into difficulties,
ergy-saving urban infrastructure and transport systems. especially in the area of mobilising finance. Once again, the
Multilateral development banks (mdbs), such as the G20, under the German presidency, is the logical forum to
World Bank and the Regional Development Banks, and also push these ideas.
the New Development Bank (brics Bank) and the China- Montek Singh Ahluwalia is former deputy chairperson
sponsored aiib, can all play a critical role in supporting of the Planning Commission of India
A S H I S N A N DY
D
ESPITE HAVING an impressive resume and an (Singapore). All of them endorsed an authoritarian form
illustrious political career, Hillary Clinton of capitalism. You cannot separate it from development.
lost to Donald Trump, a rank outsider whose These Asian tigers, whom I also call man-eaters, thought
intemperate comments and other stunts were that an authoritarian structure will help them actualise
lambasted by the liberal camp. So, how could their development dreams.
this billionaire Republican script one of the major upsets But this form of tradition comes with a caveat. There
in the history of US elections? If you think Trump is a spoil- is no place for human considerations. No one asks where
er, then you have to know that there was thirst for an out- will the indigenous and poor people go? How will they
sider in the system. People thought of him as an instrument be affected?
to fix the establishment. The modern Western civilisation is blinded by the as-
Post-electoral analyses suggest that Trumps message sumption that it is the vanguard of future. It does not re-
was more resonant than Clintons as he focussed on trade alise that no human construction is perfect and all human
and immigration. While the Democrats sneered at Trumps constructions are open to criticism. There was a belief that
socialist promises of nixing international trade deals and the vision of enlightenment can be actualised through
reclaiming manufacturing industry, the often-neglected Western colonisation. No radical thinkers could identify
Americans drove him to the White House. this arrogance of Western civilisation. They say man is the
Every establishment is run on the basis of rationali- measure of all things, but this homocentrism is ultimately
ty and organisation. You have to fight that ra- self-destructive. If we think of the West, they are largely de-
tionality within the establishment. For some pendent on defence and other sophisticated technologies.
people, Hillary is rational and Trump is not. This, itself, is anti-people, anti-life and anti-
But not many realised the need to challenge future. You have to realise that technolo-
this rationality. We have to be suspicious of the gy cannot solve all problems.
rationalist structure that drives a government and Trump has tapped into the an-
its economy. ger of millions of people who are
Trump had chosen to speak about economic national- jobless, marginalised and displaced,
ism instead of globalisation; he preferred isolationism to and he has promised to return the sover-
interventionism and voiced in favour of job growth-ori- eignty to America. But it is to be seen
ented economy rather than jobs export-oriented econo- how his economic policies impact
my. Many have started to think that his economic policies the society. He believes that envi-
may see a collapse of the bourgeois democracy. While the ronmental concerns are all hoax.
victory of an authoritarian Republican leader has kindled This is where he has to distance
hope of fighting neoliberalism and welcoming protection- himself from that arrogant assump-
ism, does that also mean that a form of authoritarian cap- tion that the edifice of laws and the diplo-
italism will ensue? matic processes that his government builds
We have examples of countries where author- will lead to historical progress. You need a
itarian capitalism triggered development. new way of looking at the world. Its an age of
If you look at East and Southeast Asia, compassion and humanity that requires a different
stellar economic growth was achieved form of consciousness and a different type of schooling.
during the regime of Syngman Rhee (Based on a conversation with Subhojit Goswami)
(South Korea), Ferdinand Marcos Ashis Nandy is an Indian political psychologist,
(the Philippines), Mahathir Mohamad social theorist and critic who has written extensively on
(Malaysia) and Lee Kuan Yew European colonialism, development and modernity
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ADVERTORIAL
L
ong before Corporate Social curriculum strengthening, faculty and as the major cause of road accidents.
Responsibility became a buzzword student training, stronger industry By supporting driving training of
or even mandatory, Maruti exposure, holding of job fairs and underprivileged youth, the Company is
Suzuki was engaging with communities partnering with its own dealer network able to enhance their employability while
to identify gaps, using collaborative to create a better job-fit. Automobile making roads safer. Creating awareness
approaches to find solutions. Using social Skill Enhancement Centres are setup among school children, and taking
interventions, the Company supports with state-of-the-art infrastructure and integrated measures on specific road
village panchayats (elected bodies) training facilities. Over 5,000 students are stretches, are other ways in which the
to enhance infrastructure facilities in gainfully employed through this initiative. Company contributes to road safety. The
the domains of education, water and Road safety is the third arm of the Company has trained more than 3 million
sanitation and rural infrastructure, with Companys multi-pronged CSR work. people in over a decade. The Company
the singular objective of improving quality The Companys main focus is driving manages six Institutes of Driving Training
of life and making the village an Adarsh training, as driver fault is identified and Research in partnership with State
Gram (Model Village). It recognises Governments, besides offering training
the fact that while industrialisation The company increased its through over 370 neighbourhood driving
benefits local communities economically, expenditure on its CSR schools (Maruti Driving Schools) in
large-scale migration of labour and venture to 783.6 million Rs in partnership with dealers.
vehicle movement around the very 2015-2016 from 372.5 million Maruti Suzuki has hence, committed
same industries also puts pressure on Rs in 2014-2015, which is itself to serve the society through its
local infrastructure. Striving to create 2.4% of their average CSR initiatives and has identified local
prosperous and content communities net profit communities and societies around its
around manufacturing facilities is
therefore vital for long-term sustainability. Auto Denting and Painting Course Introduced in ITI Pusa, Delhi
As of March 2016, the Company is
working in 21 villages across Haryana and
Gujarat locations.
Aligning itself closely with
Governments social agenda of not only
Swachh Bharat but also Skill India, the
Company is addressing the growing
mismatch between industry needs and
what the Government run Industrial
Training Institutes (ITI) produce. The
Company has adopted over 140 ITIs
to provide infrastructure support,
manufacturing facilities to be a major waste management, 65 sweepers along borne diseases in these villages. With the
stakeholder. with 9 waste collection vans have been construction of toilets, open defecation
deployed in 12 villages to help maintain has stopped and respect for peoples
Village Development: cleanliness on the streets. These vans are privacy is more prominent.
Swachh Bharat Swachh Gaon covering over 7,500 households on daily Further, the company has made
In a land where ceaseless waste is poured basis. The streets have also been rid of major infrastructural progressions in the
unmonitored into the rivers, where potholes that collected water during the form of new constructions along with
health in rural areas is endangered monsoons. repair work in village communities. In
because of poor sanitation facilities and Maruti Suzuki has actively the year 2015-2016, community halls
unavailability of toilets, Prime Minister
Narendra Modis Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Waste Collection Vans runnung in villages for Solid Waste Collection
is a much-needed social drive.
In such times, hence, Maruti Suzukis
initiative to further this drive is laudable.
As a part of their Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR), the company has
made earnest efforts to reach out to the
rural areas around its manufacturing
facilities in Haryana and in Hansalpur,
Gujarat. As a result of water and sanitation
initiatives, over 1,500 households in
4 villages of Manesar now have better
methods of liquid waste management.
This is due to the 11.9 km of sewer line
that has been laid under Maruti Suzukis
watch. participated in creating awareness about were built, crematoriums were repaired
Not only has the company aided in the maintenance of the villages hygiene and roads were upgraded. The CSR team
laying better sanitation for the villages but and sanitation facilities. Programmes of Maruti Suzuki has constantly kept in
it has also constructed community toilets have been organized with the help of touch with the village Panchayats to better
along with those for individual houses. So NGOs to instill an understanding in the understand their needs and collaborate
far, more than 2,000 toilets have been built people about the continuous preservation with them.
for individual homes and 15 community of a clean environment for retention Efforts undertaken by the Company
toilets have been installed in the villages of good health. The joint efforts have in Bass Hariya village at IMT Manesar
of Manesar, Rohtak. For furthering solid led to considerable reduction of water paved the way for that village to receive
Open Defecation Free certificate and The Company is developing the classroom windows have led to an
Nirmal Gram award by Government of infrastructure facilities for creating an increase in attendance. Retention of girl
India. enabling environment for the students. students has specially gone up by the
A separate cleaning area for utensils used construction of the new toilet blocks.
Education initiatives: in mid-day meals has been constructed Apart from improving the
Strengthening school in schools leading to the mid-day meal infrastructure, a MoU has been signed
infrastructure and creating workers in schools winding their work with the Government of Haryana with
yearning for learning faster. Additionally, the drinking water a holistic approach to improve the
As per the annual reports of Pratham, tanks now cease to be plagued with learning level among the students of
a Delhi based non-profit organisation, leftovers from the meals. It has also led 50 Government schools. This initiative
Government schools have been lagging to a wider hygiene practice wherein includes training the teachers to use
behind in providing proper education more and more children have started to modern day teaching methods along with
to the students enrolled with them. wash their hands before and after meals providing teaching learning material in
According to the Annual State of which came out in an impact assessment schools for the students.
Education Report (ASER) released by study conducted by the Company. The company has installed 16 multi-
Pratham in 2014, 30.8 per cent of rural Improvements in school infrastructure media projectors in a total of 13 schools
students prefer to pay more for private in terms of boundary walls and wider and a total of 37 supplementary teachers
schools than enrolling with Government
schools for want of better education Support teachers provided in Government Schools with smart class
facilities. Additionally, the student
attendance have remained more or less
stagnant as 2013 with 71.4% in primary
schools and 71.1% in upper primary
schools in 2014.
With annual reports presenting
a dismal condition of Government
schools in the country, Maruti Suzukis
CSR ventures in education present a
silver lining to the students enrolled in
these Government Schools. Since 2008,
the company has upgraded 47 schools
that have benefitted more than 50,000
students.
38Advertorial.indd
36-39 Maruti DOWN TO EARTH 38 1-15 JUNE 2014
24/11/16 2:44 PM
ADVERTORIAL
have been provided. To further encourage is seen to have improved as infrastructural action from their side can help change
learning, institutionalised rewards and improvements have gone hand in hand or save a persons life. Additionally,
recognitions have been introduced with with learning improvisations. Classrooms, Maruti Suzuki makes no discrimination
over 700 academic excellence awards in these schools in the rural areas, in the employees portfolios and
having been distributed so far. These are not boring centres for rote everyone participates in the volunteer
awards were given to the meritorious learning but spaces where students learn programmes equally.
students of class X and XII in supported to interact with their immediate social Two years back when Government
schools. Scholarships have been organised surroundings. The learning standards brought social giving by large-scale
for students who want to pursue studies have improved as a result of better corporates into law, it was clear that these
in engineering, diplomas and for those methods of teachings. companies could do much more for the
who want to join the ITIs. A total of 158 Throughout Maruti Suzukis society by sharing a simple 2% of their
scholarships were distributed in the year initiatives in Corporate Social profit. As per the Annual Sustainability
2015-2016. Responsibility, the employees of the Report, Maruti Suzuki has made
Classes in the Government schools company have been actively involved substantial developments in and around
affected by Maruti Suzukis programme as volunteers. In the last year, the the rural areas of Gurgaon, Manesar,
ceased to be unattended with the help of employees in different engagements for Rohtak in Haryana and Hansalpur
the supplementary teachers. Prior to that, social benefits invested more than 15,000 in Gujarat. Students of Government
teachers would be absent for months, a hours. This venture has bloomed into a schools seem to have been benefitting
phenomenon that affected the completion two way process with the employees greatly from the facilities provided to
of syllabus and exam results. The having a deep sense of satisfaction them by the company over the years.
supplementary teachers not only keep the while giving to the people in terms of A foundation has thus been laid in the
classes running but have also improved the knowledge that they have acquired success that can be achieved if corporates
the students results in Mathematics, over the years. The employee turned regularly join hands with non-profit
Science and English. Students attendance volunteers understand that a simple organisations on a regular basis.
1-15
36-39 Maruti JUNE 201439
Advertorial.indd www.downtoearth.org.in24/11/16
39 2:47 PM
L I F E & N AT U R E
ISTOCK PHOTOS
to save
traces the history of St Bernard, a
dog groomed to rescue travellers,
and now part of popular culture
www.downtoearth.org.in 41
Chimeras of afterlife
A growing number of the elite are freezing their
bodies in the hope for a rebirth. Is it possible?
I
N A historic and unusual verdict last month, a high diculous if it were not fraudulent too. In a 2015 article,
court in London granted a terminally ill teenage girl The False Science of Cryonics published in the MIT
her wish to be frozen post-mortem in the hope that Technology Review, neuroscientist Michael Hendricks
medical advances might revive her in the future. The of McGill University, who works on less evolved species
girl had petitioned the court, as her estranged father was like the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans,
opposed to the idea. The court gave the mother the final argues that despite the fact that we know all of its genes
say in deference to the teenagers wishes. (about 1,000) and have mapped its 302 neurons, we still
The girls dead body was immediately shipped to the cant simulate the mind of this worm. Incidentally, the
US and frozen at the Cryonics Institute in Detroit, one human brain is an orchestra of 100 billion neurons! The
of only four places in the world that offer to cryopreserve technology to do so, let alone the ability to read this infor-
the deadthree are in the US and one in Russia. Since mation back out of such a specimen, does not yet exist even
1967, when the first person was pickled in liquid nitro- in principle. It is this purposeful conflation of what is theo-
gen, 250 futurists have been frozen, while about 1,500 are retically conceivable with what is ever practically possible that
in the queue. exploits peoples vulnerability, he writes.
While some might sympathise with the girls decision Even if it were to become possible to simulate/down-
to be mummified, what are the odds that a frozen body, es- load the mind, will it be really you? Assuming that the
pecially the brainbodies are hung upside down so that subjective I is a gestalt of the innumerable interactions
the brain is affected the last should the nitrogen oxygen between the neurons, would it remain the same I in a
leakcould be defrosted and revived time and space removed many times
without damaging the structural in- over? Thinkers of Hendricks persua-
tegrity of the neurons? sion believe that it is counterintuitive,
Cryogenics or preservation of and hence, unlikely that it would be
body parts in extremely low temper- you who would come back to life.
atures is neither new nor controver- Besides, cryonics also raises a
sial. Eggs, sperms and embryos are host of moral, philosophical, and, not
now routinely frozen and thawed for to say, financial dilemmas. The girls
infertility treatments. This is possi- father, who has condemned cryo-
ble, thanks to a technology called vit- nicists for selling false hope, was
rification that allows cells to be fro- worried about her feeling totally diso-
zen without damaging them with the riented in a future sans anyone whom
TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
help of some anti-freeze materials. she may have known. In a similar vein,
However, making it work for whole bodies or even brains James Hughes, head of the Connecticut-based Institute
is a fantasy that many believe is very unlikely to come true. for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, backs cryonics yet
Nevertheless, the proponents of cryonics believe that will not sign up for it as, to quote him, I value my relation-
one day it might be possible, with techniques of molecu- ship with my wife.
lar nanotechnology, to revive frozen zombies by decoding Money matters too. It cost the girls mother about
and reconstructing the complex network of neurons and 40,000 pounds, which she reportedly rustled together by
their interactions that determine an individuals persona selling off property, to have her frozen. Clearly, cryonics,
her thoughts, memories and desires. In fact, American in- like immortality, is a fantasy entertained by the elite for
ventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has stuck his neck out by only for they can afford the luxury of longing for anoth-
claiming that scientists would be able to simulate a persons er life. For others, it doesnt make sense to gamble mod-
mind and download into a computer by 2030. est earnings on Pascals wager. They would be better off
For some, even this claim would be fantastically ri- spending it on making the present joyous and beautiful.
Leafy saga
Of the 106 species of
A
S WINTER sets in, the fragrance of leafy greens fills the
kitchens across Odisha. This is the time when nature is
leafy vegetables consumed in bounteous, and a variety of potherbs can be found grow-
ing in kitchen gardens, roadsides, grazing fields, under-
southern Odisha, 78 are wild growths in forests, along water bodies almost everywhere. The
specieseach with a distinct leaves are no longer spoiled by moisture or infested with germs and
worms. And saaga bhajaa (cooked green leaves) becomes a regu-
taste and medicinal property lar feature on the menu of Odias.
People in Odisha typically relish a wide variety of potherbs,
SNIGDHA DAS both domesticated and wild. While they have a cultural signifi-
cancesaaga bhajaa is an integral part of the platter offered to
deities during festivalsthey play an important role in the food
and nutritional security of those living in rural and tribal areas.
SRIKANT CHAUDHARY / CSE
The Ambiliti
saaga has a
sour taste
and can help
relieve scurvy
and skin
disorders
PAT E N T LY A B S U R D L AT H A J I S H N U
L
eonard Cohen (rip) has faded into the night vinced Cohen to sign, met him in 1984 and offered to
leaving behind enduring songs and indelible make amends. Three years later, the copyright revert-
memories of the drug-laced beatnik era of the ed to Cohen.
1960s. Some of those numbers have become in- Making money from his other much-loved songs
grained in the collective memory of generations who does not appear to have troubled Cohen unduly.
were captivated by the lyrical charm of the verses spun Hallelujah, his signature song, turned out to be a block-
out by the Canadian poet, novelist and songwriter. His buster although Cohens own version was not an im-
most remembered numbers were made iconic over the mediate success. One of the most popular covers ever,
years by other singers as Cohen himself, who started sing- Hallelujah hit the big time in 1991 after John Cale used
ing in his thirties, and was a mediocre performer initial- it on a Cohen tribute album. This, in turn, inspired the
ly; his baritone would take a while to be fine-tuned be- biggest hit of them all by Jeff Buckley whose album has
fore he gave us the haunting renditions of Suzanne and sold more than five million copies. All this kept the roy-
Hallelujah among others. alties rolling in as more than 300 artists released cov-
Suzanne captures the ers of Hallelujah in-
bohemian mood of the cluding Bob Dylan, Neil
1960s wondrously well Diamond and just about
but its interest for read- everyone else.
ers of this column lies else- Copyright battles
where. Published as a poem between songwriters and
in 1966, it was recorded by record labels, on the
singer and social activ- TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE
other hand, seldom have
ist Judy Collins the same a happy ending. Thats
year, while Cohen made it his debut single in a 1967 al- why globally its always been a struggle for singers and
bum Songs of Leonard Cohen. It is listed as one of the lyricists to wrest royalties from music giants for their own
top songs of the 1960s and is one of the most-covered works. In India, it took the determined efforts of lyricist
songs in his catalogue. However, in the following dec- Javed Akhtar, when he was a nominated member of the
ades, Cohen always prefaced his performance of Suzanne Rajya Sabha, to bring about a change in the law to ben-
with a story that won him tremendous applause. efit performers. The 2012 amendment to the Copyright
Here is what he would say: I feel very good about Act allows them to claim royalty for their works which
this song. It is a song that people loved. Fortunately, the were earlier cornered by producers. The Act declares au-
rights of that were stolen from meI thought it was per- thors owners of the copyright, which cannot be assigned
fectly justified. It would be wrong for me to write this to producers.
song and get rich from it too. So Im happy for that friend And yet, producers are still fighting over the laws
who put that piece of paper in front of me and said: Sign wording. Arguing that the amendment bestows an in-
this. And I asked: What is this? He said: Just a stand- dependent copyright on the producer of the sound re-
ard writers contract. So I signed it, and it was gone! cording, they have just won their case in the Supreme
The copyright was taken away not by the usual sus- Court. Their claim: once the author of a literary work or
pects, the recording companies, but by his arranger who composer of musical work authorises a film producer, or
convinced Cohen that it was necessary to temporarily producer of a sound recording of his work, he parts with
relinquish his rights to the song. The story took an un- the copyright. This, surprisingly, has been upheld by the
expected turn after a contrite Jeff Chase, who had con- apex court.
The moral I
T MAY be common to prohibit people from smoking in public
places, but how bizarre would it be to ban smokers from
applying for jobs? That was the news some years ago when
several healthcare institutions in the US disqualified smokers
treadmill
who applied for jobs. The logic: your mind and body are economic
resources, and if you take care of them, you are a good worker. And
if you fail to conform to this idea, then you are simply weak-willed.
In a capitalist economy, there is more to this bizarre moral
Is an individual command. Employees who are smokers potentially cost more to the
employernot because they would suffer from diseases, but because
solely responsible for it would be cheaper not to hire them and provide health insurance.
This invasive command to be always healthy, happy and successful
his/her wellness? is called the wellness command, something you should be wary of,
say academicians and authors, Carl Cederstrm and Andr Spicer
in The Wellness Syndrome.
PRIYA TALWAR
Ideology sans logic
They say there is nothing wrong in being healthy, but when wellness
becomes an ideology, the failure to conform becomes a stigma. Not
THE WELLNESS just health, but happiness, success, mindfulness are all capitalist
SYNDROME ideologies to which we may be succumbing to at the cost of edging
C arl Cederstr m and out the world. With an idea as definitive as that, the authors show
Andr Spicer how everyday life could throw up peculiar situations.
Polit y Press | 200 pages | `1,360 Take, for example, the mind-body approach to health. The idea
that physical illnesses are caused by whats troubling your mind
ISTOCK PHOTO
TODAY, wellness has become a When we engage in boring It dictates the way we work and offers a package of ideas and
moral demandabout which activities, such as washing live, how we study, and how we beliefs which people may find
we are contently and tirelessly up at home, we should think have sex. We find it even in the seductive and desirable,
reminded. To be a good of them as improving our most unexpected places, such although, for the most part,
person, as Herve Juvin mindfulness. Even baking a as the Ashland Federal these ideas appear as natural
reminds us in the epigraph, is loaf of bread is now recast Correctional Institution, or even inevitable. The
to constantly find new sources as a way of nurturing Kentucky, where prisoners ideological element is
of pleasure. It means turning our wellbeing. undergo wellness particularly visible when
life into an exercise in wellness In other words, wellness programmes, and learn about considering the prevailing
optimization. At work, we are has wormed itself into every nutrition, exercise and how to attitudes towards those who
kindly offered a place on aspect of our lives. A few deal with stress. fail to look after their bodies.
`wellbeing programmes'. As decades back wellness was the Our concern in the book is These people are demonized as
consumers, we are required to preserve of small groups of not with wellness per se. Our lay, feeble or weak willed.
curate a lifestyle aimed at alternative lifestyles. Today, concern is how wellness has (Printed with permission
maximizing our wellbeing. wellness has gone mainstream. become an ideology. As such, it from Polity Books)
indicates that you must take charge of the and success industry, the command pervades
cause of the illness. Your inability to check critical aspects of our life. The more you
or take charge means you are chase it, guilt and anxiety will be the
responsible for your condition. So by symptoms you are likely to suffer. So
putting the onus on the individual the next time you are on a diet, check
placed at the centre of modern whether you can completely evade
livingthe wellness command guilt. And if you hire a life coach,
depoliticises the issue at hand and see whether you were made to feel
discredits the economic causes. that the only real barrier to getting
So the choice is solely yours. If you what you want is you, and not
fall ill, you are solely responsible; external factors. The solution, the
when you are sacked or are unable authors suggest, is to stop being
to find a job, you are at fault, not the obsessive about your health and ha-
economy, which has failed to ppiness, forget that you have unli-
generate employment for everyone. mited potential, and instead, act upon
For instance, the authors interpret the world and make it a better place.
the happiness index announced by former But should the alternative to realising
British Prime Minister David Cameron in No- your potential be to change the world? Who is to
vember 2010, as a cheap compensation for a weak- say that what is excessive enjoyment and what are
ened welfare state. Cameron emphasised that though he moderate pleasures? Who decides that and how? The
hadnt forgotten to improve the economy, prosperity, he believed, authors are mum on this, just like they deny any voice to those
alone cant deliver a better life. The irony is that this index was individuals who consciously practise any command of wellnessbe
announced close to the time when students and labour unions were it mindfulness over traditional methods of cognitive therapy, life
protesting against his austerity measures. coaching, treadmill desk, or the walking meeting.
In the US, what was an alternative lifestyle trend a few decades Not only is their solution moralistic, extremist, but also reduc-
ago, has become the mainstream ideology. Half of US employers tive. Why should the wellness command be an alternative to
today provide wellness programmes to their employees. However, thinking soberly about the world, acting in it or transforming it?
they resulted only in minor health improvements. Cant the wellness command be checked and appreciated through
people who achieve a balance?
Pushing insecurities For todays anxious individual, who has no Gods to look
The central critique the authors offer is this: The wellness up to like the Greeks (read institutions), no public sphere
command essentially pushes the structural insecurities of the (read community living) and an unstable economy, it seems
modern economy back onto the individual. From management that to equip oneself with soft shoes is more reasonable than
science, popular psychology to human relations and the happiness carpeting the entire earth. @priyatalwar24
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30 years of research and reportage, the fruits, seeds and roots to cook tasty recipes
annual issue analyses key developments that are also nutritious.
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It covers
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SORIT / CSE
TYING UP WITH
SANITATION ECOSYSTEMS
It is imperative to reimagine the role of the corporate beyond funding and
infrastructure creation to achieve a sustainable sanitation ecosystem
NAINA LAL KIDWAI
T
ODAY, THERE is an unprecedented buzz and energy around It has become critical to reflect on the current trends around
which corporates have been called to action in the sani- corporate engagement in the sector, the gaps in the sanitation eco-
tation sector. The Swachh Bharat Mission (sbm) has pro- system and the potential role that corporates can play. Ultimately,
vided India Inc with an opportunity to spend on a specif- it is essential that we view the corporate not merely as a source of
ic cause with high visibility. It therefore comes as no surprise that funding or for infrastructure creation, but as a partner in Indias
today many corporates are responding enthusiastically to this call journey towards sustainable sanitation.
to action, with a majority leveraging Section 135 of the Companies
Act, 2013. However, corporates should not be mere funders, for Open challenge
we as a country, would lose out on an opportunity to leverage the Sanitation is one of Indias greatest unmet challenges. Inadequate
value additions that this sector can offer, particularly in the realms sanitation has dire consequences for public health, childrens ed-
of innovation in technology, project management and scalability. ucation and growth, womens safety and the fight against poverty.
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R I G H T TO D I S S E N T L AT H A J I S H N U
T
HE TRANS PACIFIC Partnership (tpp) is dead in the posted on YouTube. Why we did not hear those shouts
water. It died effectively on November 11 when of approval is that most liberals do not like the incoming
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress president and his agendaand admittedly for perfectly
categorically told the White House they would valid reasons. Yet, for another lot of liberals who look at
not advance it. For President Barack Obama, it was a Trump from a global aspect, he spells hope, not least be-
major slap in the face as his ambitious plan to bind Asia cause he is anti-war. That he is against mega trade blocs,
and the Pacific in one of the biggest trade agreements too, is another point in his favour.
unravelled. But for the rest of the world and specially Civil society movements across Asia, Latin America,
for civil society movements in the 12 nations that com- Oceania, and North America that have come to fight
prise tpp, it was celebration time because of the receding tpp for over seven years, say the agreement would have
threat of restrictive measures on a host of critical eco- expanded corporate power to destroy peoples liveli-
nomic and social sectors that the mega trade agreement hoods, undermine human rights and the environment,
would have imposed. threaten financial stability, increase the cost of life-
And on November 21 came still sweeter news. saving medicines and attack health and other pro-peo-
President-elect Donald Trump ple safeguards.
made tpps rollback a priority as he The underlying reason is that
announced a series of measures that tpp is not about free trade but the
his administration would take in reverse: a sharp increase in protec-
the first 100 days to make America tionism by way of stronger and long-
great. The first of these would be a er patent and copyright protection.
note of intent to withdraw from the This kind of protectionism, which
tpp agreement which he described strives to enforce standards higher
as a potential disaster for our coun- than that required by wto rules, is
try. He would instead negotiate aimed at helping multinationals in-
fair bilateral trade deals that bring crease profits. This would be signif-
jobs and industry back. icant in the case of products such as
That is undoubtedly the final TARIQUE AZIZ / CSE medicines and software. The bigger
nail in tpps coffin because the oth- threat from tpp is that it would have
er countries are unlikely to find it worthwhile to push become the blueprint for other such trade pacts. A dead
ahead with the deal without the US. As Japanese Prime giveaway is the following statistic: the gain for the US is
Minister Shinzo Abewho is among its fervent cheer- just 0.23 per cent of gdp.
leadersadmits, tpp would be meaningless minus the India is not likely to respond to the demise of
US. For the Obama administration, it is a humiliating tpp. For a country that was not part of the pact but
defeat given that tpp was a top priority for it. Since tpp was threatened by it, the relief is certainly immense.
was signed in February 2016, the White House has been Although conclaves have been held on the impact of
lobbying relentlessly for it, with Obama even making it tpp on Indias trade, there was little it could do to op-
part of Hillary Clintons campaign. pose it. The biggest worry was the impact it would have
The sigh of relief which was palpable after the set- on the generic medicines industry and the undermin-
back in Congress should have turned into a loud cheer ing of public health. For the time though, the Modi gov-
after Trumps promise that was carried in a brief clip ernments cheers for Trump will have to be muted.