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Promoting philanthropy in india P28

Hope floats for a new era in politics P31

2 |www.indiatogether.org| 01 Apr 2013

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800- 1859) was a British prodigy, politician and a leading administrator of India during the British

Empire. As the blurb on the cover jacket claims, ‘if you are an Indian reading this book in English, it is probably because of Thomas Macaulay’. A more compelling invitation to read a book from cover to cover is difficult to imagine.

By any standard, Macaulay has influenced all our lives profoundly. He was instrumental in introducing English as a medium of (western) education in India; in shaping the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and thus the Indian Administrative Service (IAS); and in drafting the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He accomplished all this by the time he was just 39 years old. He spent his last twenty years back in Britain as a leading politician, a cabinet minister and a world-class writer of history.

It is not as if Indian leaders did not try to switch to a national language of our own, or to reorient the IAS for administering an Independent India or to revamp our legal systems. In spite of political independence, India could not shake away English as a medium of education. The IAS is still considered the backbone of Indian bureaucracy, albeit much weakened over the years. The IPC still rules the roost in our courts. All this is a vindication of Macaulay’s belief in deploying ‘soft power’ to influence the world in the service of Britain.

In that sense, Macaulay is the intellectual father of the

MACAULAY

The empire’s script-writerZareer Masani’s book is enriched by its narration of the contrast between Macaulay’s strong likes and dislikes in personal life and his libertarian streak in public affairs. r rajagopalan reviews Macaulay.

01 Apr 2013 |www.indiatogether.org| 3

MACAULAY

paternalistic interventions by Western powers that is going on even today. As an Indian of today, you may admire or hate Macaulay, but you cannot ignore him; we are all ‘Macaulay’s children’. What is the secret of his lasting Indian legacy? How did he break through the class-conscious British society? How did he do so much at such a young age?

This book has succeeded in giving us a reasonable and nuanced understanding of Macaulay. He comes across as a peculiar mixture of a loyalist of the Empire, keen modernizer, a believer in Anglo-Saxon superiority over the occident, an advocate of equality under law, a lifelong bachelor who simply could not let go of two of his sisters, and much more. That is the strength of this biography. While giving a very positive assessment overall of Macaulay’s legacy, it nevertheless offers a peep into his motives, origins and wheeling-dealing to get his way through.

Macaulay was a childhood prodigy but his father was a strict disciplinarian, an evangelist Christian who was against slavery. Though Macaulay hated the disciplinarian in him, he perhaps inherited his patronizing attitude towards those of other races and lower classes. Macaulay seems to have had no love interest or sexual passions whatsoever. Not that he was shy of female company or did not have any opportunity. He was not handsome - being short and stout - but he grew up with five sisters, who could have helped him along if he was interested in such endeavours.

While at Cambridge, Macaulay moved away from being a radical towards the Whig party, whose members believed in gradual parliamentary reform. He sympathized with the underdogs in English society of his time - Catholics, Jews, Blacks and others. Starting as a Whig party backbencher, he quickly rose up the hierarchy primarily due to his stirring speeches in the House of Commons. Winning a position as a member in charge of Law in the Council of the Governor General of India, he came to India.

He emotionally blackmailed his unmarried young sister to accompany him to India. When she fell in love with a British officer serving in India, he fixed an attractive position for his to be brother-in-law in the British hierarchy in Calcutta, to stop the couple from going back to Britain.

He cleverly shepherded his agenda for westernizing Indian Education outlined in the famous ‘Macaulay minutes’. He defeated the so-called orientalists back home in Britain, who advocated preserving the culture and educational practices of the Asiatic societies. He did a phenomenal job of drafting the Indian Penal

Macaulay was radical in

his thinking but believed in achieving

things through incremental

parliamentary means.


Code and had the patience to see it through. He was emphatic about testing the depth of knowledge in any one of a broad range of fields before appointing civil servants, a practice we follow to this day. This is in contrast to the other entrance examinations emphasizing surface level acquaintance with a broad range of subjects, encouraging the quiz-wizards who have quick answers.

Macaulay was a man of several interesting contradictions. He was radical in his thinking but believed in achieving things through incremental parliamentary means. He was a racist but believed in giving a reasonable chance to everyone in the British Empire, but in a patronizing sense and confident of the superiority of Anglo-Saxon way of life and Western science. He took pains to learn several European languages but never learned any of the Asian ones. He was ignorant but readily dismissive of all contributions by Asians to knowledge and culture. He was contemptuous of Indian customs, music, religions and even fruits!

What is striking is this contrast between his extreme and strong views, likes and dislikes in personal life and the libertarian streak when it comes to actions and positions while contributing to public affairs. For example, though he considered Indians untrustworthy, he pushed for equality before law for Britishers as well as Indians. Though loyal to British royalty, he strongly argued for equal rights for Catholics. While being a great admirer of the working and middle class in modern industry, he was against voting rights to those without property. The 1857 Indian Sepoy Mutiny made him so vengeful for Indian blood, even though in other times he could not hurt even a bird.

What do we make of such contradictions? Do we brand him a hypocrite? Was he a life-long learner or simply inconsistent? Do we conclude that personal prejudices and public positions can be successfully ring-fenced from each other? Was he a loving brother, or merely an extremely selfish and possessive one?

I would any day prefer to read about such an interesting person, even one so full of contradictions, rather than about someone who was boringly consistent. For, it raises the uncomfortable personal question: do many of us simply avoid participation in public affairs because we fear exposing our personal prejudices? It raises an even more important question: Why are we shocked when we hear that a prominent person in public life suffers from a personal prejudice or vice?

All in all, an excellent read for anyone who wants to appreciate the making of modern India. The author Zakeer Masani is himself a true ‘son of Macaulay’ - having studied in an elite English medium school of Bombay, an important legacy of Macaulay. His father Minoo Masani was a very active freedom fighter and a prolific contributor to post-independence politics as a conscience keeper, taking positions across the entire right-left spectrum. He had been a member of the Communist party at one end and then of the Swatantra party at the other extreme, and in between, like most freedom fighters in Indian national Congress too. No surprise, then, that this author of several earlier bestsellers and critically acclaimed tomes has managed to achieve such a nuanced biography of Macaulay.

Dr r rajagopalan, Fellow (IIMA) has been Professor of Management at IRMA, Anand and Dean (Academics) at TAPMI.

srirangapatnaThrough prisoners’ eyes

A portrait of Tipu Sultan by an unknown artist, now kept at the British Library. CREDIT: Wikimedia

MACAULAY


War stories are never boring. The courage, hardships,

strategies, daring escapes, treachery and hope make them as engrossing as an action movie or a thriller series that keeps you on the edge. The reality of these accounts, where the experiences and hardships are real, makes them even more fascinating andendearing to the reader.

The narrations of captives of Tipu, English prisoners of war, not only show their sufferings as prisoners and their daring escapes but also the life and times in Srirangapatna in late 1700s.Of course, these narrations should be taken with a pinch of salt since

these are survivors’ tales and not a historian’s documentary which is usually vetted for incidents & facts. Nevertheless, they are a vivid description of historic happenings in the seats of power during the rule of Haidar Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan.

BackgroundThe Anglo-Mysore wars

constituted the next big landmark event in history after the fall of Vijayanagaraas far asthe development of South India’s political charterwas concerned. The political situation in the mid-18th century saw a decline of able leadership in Srirangapatna and

srirangapatnaThrough prisoners’ eyes

Poornima dasharathi travels back in time to bring alive the adventures, sights and sounds in the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, as recounted in the memoirs of two English prisoners of war.

A portrait of Tipu Sultan by an unknown artist, now kept at the British Library. CREDIT: Wikimedia

RELIVING HISTORY


Mysore became a soft target for convenient raids by the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad.

At this juncture, Haidar Ali, a young Muslim soldier in the Mysore army rose to power, radically, and went on to become the commander (Dalvoy) of the Mysore army and even hold the Hindu ruler, the Wodeyar, in captivity.

Aware of the growing European armies and their disciplined military techniques, he very shrewdly befriended one (French) to keep the other (English) at bay.

His son, Tipu, took his fight with the English to greater heights and embroiledthemin four massive wars,which finally ended with Tipu’s death.

Narrations by James Bristow

James Bristow, a Bengal artilleryman, begins his tale with the gory scene of the Polilur battlefield when hundreds of British soldiers were either mercilessly killed or taken prisoners. He describes Haidar’s sadistic pleasure as his soldiers bring in the heads of slain Englishmenand lay them at his feet. The rest who survive are initially left in the dungeons, unmindful of their rank and file.

Tipu, initially, is kind to the Polilur survivors; he invites them to his tent and gives them biscuits and five pagodaseach. This attitude changed drastically once he became the Sultan and he ‘surpasses his father in cruelty towards the prisoners,’ says Bristow.

One of the first acts on the prisoners was the forced circumcision and conversion to Mohammedan faith. Those

who resisted were starved into submission. The act, though barbaric it may sound, was decreed since the rulers thought that change in faith would make the soldiers change loyalties.

The converted prisoners were then put to train the slave

battalions [cheylahs]in the European way. Bristow, who was held captive for ten years, says, ‘the task imposed upon us was to instruct these chaylahs in the manual exercise. Our situation consequently became worse than before;we were obliged to

RELIVING HISTORY

James Scurry. CREDIT: books.

google.co.in


perform an office…’ This, Bristow says,caused them the deepest affliction - ‘especially when reflected that they were the detested enemies of our country whom we were compelled to instruct in that very art which would prove destruction to our

countrymen.’Life as a prisoner of war was

not easy. Bristow describes the tortures in the dungeons of Srirangapatna by Haidar’s armies. He speaks of the incessant whipping, low wages, stale food and near starvation that

drivesmany soldiers to the brink of death.

They often had to travel on foot in clapped hand irons from one fort to another; the group was sometimes divided and put up in different forts – their condition depending on the disposition of Khiledars.

Some of the distinguished officers who didn’t survive the captivity were Colonel Bailie, General Matthews, Captain Rumney, Lt Fraser and Samson. The first two were poisoned and the last three were killed.

These facts are confirmed in another captive, James Scurry’s, tale. The officers either plotted to take over the fort or gave protection toTipu’s rivals.

Some cruel punishments the rulers meted out to the enemies(not just English, but anyone suspected of treachery) were slitting of nose and ears in order to shame a person and being dragged by an elephant while their hands were tied until they died of exhaustion.

Though such systems sound barbaric, Lewin Bowring in his book on Haidar and Tipu explains that the manners of the time itself were savage, ‘every man’s hand being against the neighbour, while the English soldier was regarded by the natives as a ferocious beast who could only be subdued by the main force.’

EscapeSome captives were lucky

enough to be released during a peace treaty in 1784 while others made daring escapes from captivity in forts outside Srirangapatna. Bristow and his friends made such a provincial escape by carving a holethrough the fort in Ootradurg (Hutridurga). They crossed the hills and escaped

The narrations of captives of Tipu, English prisoners of war, not only show their sufferings as prisoners and their daring escapes but also the life and times in Srirangapatna in late 1700s. Of course, these narrations should be taken with a pinch of salt since these are survivors’ tales and not a historian’s documentary which is usually vetted for facts.

RELIVING HISTORY


into the forest.Bristow, ahead of others, soon

travels alone by night, resting by day through the Mysore countryside and the jungles. He has some lucky escapes in his journey.

He says he is especially lucky to meet the hindoo womenin the villages who take pity on his condition and help with medicine and food(ragi) for his journey. Such acts of kindness, he says, is not uncommon with rural folk or the civilians of Srirangapatna but not present in the palegars (local chieftains) or soldiers.

He gets caught more than once by the local palegar’s men; in order to ward them off, he pretends to be a Rajput going back home and once even acts as a deserter wanting to join Tipu’s army.

Throughout his journey, he survives on some meagre fruits, jowar, ragi given by the locals or collected from their fields. He finally crosses over to the Nizam’s regions from where he gets help to reach Madras.

Not many were as lucky as Bristow and failed to survive the forest’s hard life or its ferocious beasts. However the hope and lure of freedom were such that they made many attempts to breakout inspite of the dangers.

James ScurryApart from the prisoners of

war, a few young sailors, captured by the French werehanded over to Haidar in 1781. These boys were converted and educated in the oriental system, married to Indian women with whom they had children.

Scurry, mentioned earlier, is one such survivor who, after making an escape, tries to find his wife and child but in vain. He

journeys back to England with a handsome pension from the East India Company, reunites with his family and sets up a livelihood there.His narration is less stark and gives a better picture of city life in 1780s.

SrirangapatnaScurry describes the city as –

‘This capital of Mysore (though Mysore itself, distant nine miles, was, prior to Hyder's usurpation, the seat of government) is an island in the midst of a continent charmingly situated and surrounded by the Cavery; distant from Madras 296 miles.

It is about four miles in length and about one mile and a half in breadth across the middle where the ground is highest, whence it gradually narrows and falls toward the extremities. At the west end there is a fort of very considerable strength - about three miles in circumference mounting at least 190 pieces of cannon including what were on the cavalices.

Its appearance at about three miles’ distance was calculated to strike every beholder, being distinguished by magnificent buildings and ancient pagodas contrasted withthe morelofty and splendid m o n u m e n t s lately erected in honour of the M o h a m m e d a n faith.

At the east end of the island is the pettah or suburb called S a n a g a n g a m which was finished while we were there; it was beautifully laid out about half a mile square divided into regular streets all very

wide and shaded on each side with trees surrounded by a strong mud wall.

It was designed for merchants and troops and possessed all the beauty and elegance of a country retirement and was dignified by the mausoleum of Hyder.They were about erecting a new and magnificent palace in the year 1787, the last time I ever saw it ...’

The PalaceScurry describes the Palace as

an extensive flat roofed building with two wings, one of which is Haidar Ali’s seraglio and the other his treasury. The front of the palace was an extensive open place supported by strong pillars where the killadare(fort commander) and his retinue sat to administer justice,the palace door being about four yards behind them.

Navarathri/DasaraNavarathri or Dasara, the

famous Vijayanagara festival celebrated by the Mysore Wodeyarsand laterTipu Sultan is explained in the notes of an anonymous officer of Colonel Baillie’s regiment.He describes it as an annual Hindu celebration where the Raja of Mysore comes out to meet his people.

The people have great respect for their king and hence Haidar is careful not to antagonise the locals by taking good care of the royal hostage.

Of his appearance, he is described as

‘comely’ and of dark complexion. During festival time, the European prisoners can view his harem

RELIVING HISTORY

Scurry too finally escaped to the safety of the English Dominions


better. The soldier describes the royal ladies as beautiful, of fair complexion and around 40 or 50 in number.

The Raja makes his appearance to his subjects only during the festival.He sits on this throne, in the royal courtyard, with several servants around him, as the entire place is decorated and bedecked with jewels. In a ground facing the palace, musicians, balladieres, gladiators (wrestlers) show off their skills.

Of the wrestlers’ fights, Scurry presents a detailed account:

‘I was an eye witness twice to his games, once before the peace of 1784 and once after... These games were something after the manner of the Pythian or Olympic and continued ten days without intermission.’

‘...thegetiees... had on their right hands the woodguamootie or four steel talons which were fixed to each back joint of their fingers and had a terrific appearance when their fists were closed. Their heads were close-shaved, their bodies oiled and they wore only a pair of short drawers.

On being matched and the signal given from Tippoo, they begin the combat always by throwing the flowers which they wear round their necks in each other's faces watching an opportunity of striking with the right hand on which they wore this mischievous weapon which never failed lacerating the flesh and drawing blood most copiously.

They were obliged to fight as long as Tippoo pleased unless completely crippled and if they behaved well they were generally rewarded with a turban and shawl, the quality being according to their merit.

Outside the semicircle there

would every day appear a man on lofty stilts with one of the Company's uniforms on; at one time he would seem to take snuff at another tobacco, then he would affect to be intoxicated… in short it was intended as a burlesque on the English and to make them appear ridiculous as possible in the view of the numerous spectators.’

The day’s events would be concluded every night with fireworks that were so grand that even the English prisoners were astonished and admired them.

In the EndScurry too finally escaped

to the safety of the English Dominions and returned to Srirangapatna only after it fell.

He describes the final siege by Lord Cornwallis’ army and the fall of Srirangapatna in detail. Though Tipu’s power would at least equal the combined European settlements in India, he writes, the Sultan made errors in his strategy that makes it easier for the English to reach the fort almost unhindered. The events of the final war are well known. Scurry speaks of the magnificent riches of Tipu’s palace that astonished the English army. Much of this is taken away for the Company’s coffers.

In conclusion, Scurry has this to sayabout Tipu Sultan:‘For vigorously defending his country against any power on earth,I give him credit and for using every exertion in expelling all its invaders but this should have been done without those unheard of cruelties which were interwoven in his very nature, but he is gone and I proceed’.

Suffering aside, Scurry’s tale gives a better picture of the city, its people and life in late 18th century while Bristow’s tale is

more of a thriller, describing the prison break & his daring escape.

Through their eyes, one can imagine the grandeur, the lifestyle and the politics in the cities and forts of those times.

poornima Dasharathi is a writer and a travel enthusiast. She blogs at http://www.

coffeenirvana.in

RELIVING HISTORY


COST OF DEVELOPMENT

A proposal to set up two industrial corridors passing

through Bangalore has been talked about for a couple of years now, but British Prime Minister David Cameron's recent push and later Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's mention of the two corridors in his Budget speech has created an intense buzz in the industry.

High speed road and rail networks, industrialisation in under-developed regions, job and wealth generation, and smart/green cities are all part of the plans in these two mega infrastructure ventures. Understandably there is a lot of expectation that

the corridors will change the landscape of the towns and cities that lie along their alignment. But what is not known yet are the social costs, and impact on resources like water and the environment in general.

Bangalore is expected to become the fulcrum around which much of the development will take place. Among other benefits, it has been cited that the 1500 km Mumbai-Bangalore and 330 km Chennai-Bangalore corridors will help decongest Bangalore. But will they really decongest the city or further increase the pressure on its already stretched infrastructure?

Between the two corridors, there are at least three towns within 100 km of Bangalore that have been identified as hubs for development. Bangarpet is 90 km, Tumkur 70 km and Hoskote just 25 km away. Given their close proximity to Bangalore, they are unlikely to act as “population

industrial corridors:

boon or bane?The proposal to create two industrial corridors around Bangalore has generated heady excitement, but this needs to be tempered with rationalism and transparency around water and land acquisition, says b s nagaraj.

The Hemavathy Canal, which provides for the bulk of water

requirements in Tumkur is designed for 30 MLD, but

only 13-14 MLD is available at present for drinking water. [SRC:

http://www.tumkurcity.gov.in/ws] Photo: Siddharth P. Raj via

Wikimedia


COST OF DEVELOPMENT

counter magnets”. Instead, it can well be expected that the reliance on Bangalore will increase, at least till the time the required physical and social infrastructure are in place in these to-be-developed industrial hubs. If the intended counter magnet concept doesn't work, resources like water, housing

and electricity will come under more strain. Even if the impact on Bangalore is temporary, we do not know what measures have been planned to handle it in the city.

While the impact on Bangalore is surely a cause for concern, we are also in the dark as far as the scale and range of negative impacts of

the corridors are concerned, leave alone the mitigation measures that have been incorporated into the scheme of things.

Let's take the case of the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) proposed at Tumkur. This zone will be integrated into the Mumbai-


Bangalore corridor as well the Peninsular Region Industrial Development Corridor (PRIDe). This integrated urban industrial township will be spread over a 50 sq km area.

We do not know as yet how the Karnataka government proposes to go about implementing NIMZ but from the little information that is available in the public domain, it is known that availability of water in Tumkur will be a major disadvantage. The Tumkur region is perennially short of water and the scarcity will only get exacerbated with NIMZ. It is estimated that NIMZ alone requires 60 to 75 mld of water which is double the requirement of Tumkur town as of today. How is the government planning to augment supply to the town and NIMZ?

A pre-feasibility report prepared by CRISIL for the state government talks about the adverse impact on ground water availability and quality likely to result from the tapping of ground water for use in NIMZ and subsequent discharge of effluents respectively. Officials of the KSIIDC, the nodal agency for the implementation of NIMZ, have been quoted as saying water would be sourced from the Gorur reservoir. If this was so simple, it begs the question why the same was not done so far to meet the drinking water and agricultural needs of the town and the surrounding areas.

In fact, not just Tumkur but other proposed hubs such as Bharamasagara, Haveri, Savanur, Yelburga, Hukeri and Navanagar (Bagalkot) along the Mumbai-Bangalore corridor are historically water-deficient. In such a scenario, the cost of providing access to water, if at all, for the townships

will become exorbitant. The same goes for the Chennai-Bangalore corridor as well. Water in Bangarpet, a proposed hub, is as scarce as gold in the neighbouring mines at Kolar Gold Fields.

Steel, cement, food processing, IT/BT, automobiles, readymade garment zones, petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals are among the sectors most likely to take advantage of the industrial corridors, according to representatives of the industry. Many of these industries are water-intensive and defy the logic of being set up in water-deficient areas. There could emerge a situation where the drinking water requirements of the people will be short-shrifted in favour of the needs of the industry.

As it is, India is categorised as a “water stress zone”by the International Water Management Institute and a third of its rivers are severely or moderately polluted. In the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor that is under implementation, it is assessed that there is little water left in the rivers for diversion to new projects. The situation is not too different in areas covered under the Mumbai-Bangalore corridor as well. Adding to the complexity, Karnataka is already in conflict with neighbouring states over the sharing of its river waters, both in the Krishna and Cauvery basins, and any move to make use of these rivers to feed the industrial corridors will have far-reaching consequences.

Besides the impact on natural resources and on the environment, there appears to be no estimation of the social costs of these mega infrastructure ventures. Even though it is still early days, land acquisition and loss of livelihoods, and resettlement and

A pre-feasibility report prepared by CRISIL for the state

government talks about the adverse impact on ground water availability and quality likely

to result from the tapping of ground water

for use in NIMZ and subsequent

discharge of effluents

respectively. Officials of the

KSIIDC, the nodal agency for the

implementation of NIMZ, have been quoted as saying

water would be sourced from the

Gorur reservoir. If this was so

simple, it begs the question why the

same was not done so far to meet the

drinking water and agricultural needs

of the town and the surrounding areas.

COST OF DEVELOPMENT


rehabilitation are concerns that need to be addressed on priority. The Centre's policy states that the "NIMZ would be preferably developed on wastelands, infertile and dry lands not suitable for cultivation. The use of agricultural land will be kept to a minimum." The operational word here is "preferably." From what we know, around 23 sq. km. of land has been acquired in Tumkur and Gubbi taluks so far for this project. There is no clarity yet on what kind of land this is.

In another instance, the Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani had been quoted as saying one lakh acres of land have been identified along the Mumbai-Bangalore corridor, but "we don't want to curb the farmers' rights until the investments are guaranteed.”By implication, therefore, some part of the identified land could be agricultural. He goes on to add that "70 per cent of the local farmers" would have to give their consent for the acquisition.

It may also be interesting here to recall that Savanur, one of the hubs identified for development, used to have flourishing betel vine cultivation and trade for decades. In recent years, thanks to scanty rainfall, lack of a perennial water source and depleting ground water levels, betel vine cultivation has fallen on bad days. It is only recently that the state government has put into implementation an irrigation project that combines the advantages of lift and drip irrigation technologies in 9900 hectares in three taluks of Haveri district including Savanur.

While it is possible that the identified zones may be developed for industry without significant displacement or resettlement issues for the local land-owning

population, it is time the project authorities place all the relevant information in the public domain in order to facilitate an informed debate on the costs and benefits involved. It is imperative that projects of such magnitude and with far-reaching consequences be transparent in the way they are planned to be implemented.

B s nagaraj is an independent risk management consultant and journalist.

COST OF DEVELOPMENT


GREEN TRANSPORT



GREEN TRANSPORT


While they represent an important technology option in an environmentally-challenged world, large scale adoption of electric vehicles aided by government policy might remain a pipe dream till cost structures become more competitive. shiva Prasad susarla explains.


Large-scale deployment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (“PEVs”

or “EVs”) is often touted as an effective option to de-carbonize transport systems and reduce dependence on conventional vehicles (Internal Combustion Engine vehicles or “ICEVs”) that use fossil fuels. Not only are EVs potentially cleaner than their equivalent ICEVs, they are also noise-less and typically have lower operating costs.

EVs can be cleaner than their equivalent ICEVs in two ways: They have zero tail-pipe emissions, leading to cleaner air in the streets. Their wide-spread use can also result in lower green-house gas emissions, depending on whether the fuels used for electricity generation are less polluting than the ones used for transportation.

It is little wonder then, that policymakers around the world are interested in promoting the uptake of EVs. As of 2013, more than 20 countries in Europe, North America and Asia already have various incentives such as cost subsidies and tax-breaks in place. However, almost all cases, the policies have failed to yield desired results with only a few hundred EVs being sold in each of these countries. A range of barriers continue to inhibit the uptake of EVs, the attractive policies and incentives notwithstanding.

EVs are expensive. The upfront cost of an EV is significantly higher than that of a comparable ICEV. Even with lower fuel costs, the total cost of owning an EV over a vehicle lifetime of 10-12 years is still much higher than that of a comparable ICEV, rendering the EV economically unfeasible.

As an example to illustrate how lifetime costs can be calculated, let us compare the Mahindra

Reva, which is probably the only commercially sold EV in India to the Tata Nano, an ICEV that runs on petrol. While it may require an engineering expert to determine whether these two models are indeed comparable (they are probably not), some crude criteria can be used to justify the comparison. The maximum torque of both models is similar (53Nm v/s 51Nm), Kerb weight is about the same (700 kgs vs 600 kgs), Vehicle length is in the same range (2,650 mm v/s 3,100 mm) and so on.

The following assumptions are made for the estimation of the lifetime costs: Reva Ex-showroom price of INR 445,000, Nano Ex-showroom price of INR 120,000; Average daily driving distance of 25 kms, which translates into an annual driving distance of about 9,125 kms; Fuel efficiency of 15 kms/liter of petrol for the Nano, Fuel efficiency of 60 kms per full charge (14 kwh of energy) for the Reva; Pump price of petrol is INR 70 per liter, Retail electricity tariff of INR 5 per kWh; These assumptions translate into an annual fuel expense of about INR 42,500 for the Nano and about INR 10,600 for the Reva; The lifetime costs are estimated over a 10-year period.

Because the costs are incurred at different time intervals, they need to be discounted to their present value for any meaningful analysis. At a 5% discount rate, the lifetime ownership cost of the

EV is about 55% higher than the ICEV’s and at a 10% discount rate, it is about 86% higher. Obviously, many of the assumptions are relatively arbitrary and need further refinement. For example, the two models are not really comparable; neither the cost of petrol nor electricity would remain constant over the entire period; maintenance and repair costs have not been considered; a probable drop in fuel efficiencies of both models has not been considered; a more scientific assessment of driving distances is required and so on. In general, it c a n

be inferred that higher the driving distance and lower the discount rate, the more competitive EVs become.

It is, however, unclear what the exact impact of fuel subsidies are on the commercial feasibility of EVs. Electricity tariffs differ from state to state in india and are still

GREEN TRANSPORT


GREEN TRANSPORT

India, meanwhile, got its latest variant of electric vehicles as Mahindra Reva launched the new Mahindra e2o on 18 March, 2013. The all-electric zero-emission vehicle is being touted by the manufacturers as the ‘future of mobility’ - it enables users to carry out self-fueling through any 15 amp

plug point at home or at their workplace and boasts a first-of-its-kind

remote emergency charging option, that

can be activated through a smart

phone app.

Pic: Mahindra

not priced at market rates

in many places. At the same time, liquid fuel prices, particularly those of diesel, are also heavily subsidized. This distorts the economics of both EVs and ICEVs and makes a cost-benefit analysis extremely complicated.

EVs do not have adequate charging infrastructure support. EV charging points are currently available only at designated points such as home, office or other selected locations, unlike the ubiquitous petrol stations that can be found within a 5-10 kilometer range in most cities. This leads to ‘range anxiety’, which inhibits the EV user from planning

relatively long drives for fear of running out of ‘charge’. Numerous consumer surveys in different parts of the world have shown that range anxiety is a real concern among EV buyers, even though average city distances are typically

much lower than what the manufacturers claim the EVs are

capable of on a single charge.In addition, EVs require

about eight hours for a full charge, which means that EV users can afford to charge their cars only when they are sleeping or at work. A fast-charging option that can charge batteries up to 80 per cent of their capacity in about 10 minutes has recently become available, although prolonged use of the fast-charger can shorten battery life. Provision of charging infrastructure on a commercial basis can be a viable business


model given adequate volumes of operating EVs, but the private sector is reluctant to invest now in anticipation of high uptake of EVs in the future.

Clearly, EVs need to become more cost-competitive before they can be accepted more widely by the buying public. For policymakers in India who are under pressure to reduce crude oil imports and also plan for a carbon-constrained world in the future, EVs represent an important technology option. However, EVs are only as clean as the grid they draw electricity from and the Indian electricity grid is still heavily reliant on dirty coal and not as clean as say, Denmark or Singapore. Nonetheless, the energy mix is bound to change in the future and in any case, it is easier to control emissions at a single source (the electricity generation plant) rather than at a million mobile sources (moving vehicles running on dirty fuel).

From the above discussions, it can be inferred that EVs are socially desirable and can result in significant operating savings from a private ownership perspective, but the prevailing cost structures inhibit EV markets from developing naturally. Naturally, it is argued that governments should step in to support EVs either by subsidizing the cars to make them cost competitive with ICEVs and/or by sponsoring charging infrastructure to remove other associated barriers. Many governments around the world, including in India, have adopted this line of reasoning and have announced various incentives.

The dilemma for policymakers, though, is that EVs continue to be an expensive mitigation option compared to the spectrum of other renewable and clean technology

options available, particularly to a resource-rich country like India. Should they support the (expensive) development of EV markets now in anticipation of a disruptive technological breakthrough in the future, or should they allow market forces to take over and determine what the cheapest and most effective mitigation option would be? Another option would be to capture lower-hanging fruit such as development of efficient public transport systems that will reduce reliance on privately owned cars, automatically making the source of emissions more centralized and manageable.

A somewhat different, but related policy dilemma is whether poor, developing countries like India should assume global leadership and invest precious money in expensive ideas like EVs, or instead focus on providing basic necessities of life to millions of people below poverty line.

Regardless of whatever policy the Indian government adopts, it is clear that large-scale deployment of EVs is many years away and policymakers have to focus on other, more feasible, mitigation options for the near term. Also, there is little point in promoting EVs without first ensuring reliable, stable and round-the-clock power supply. Otherwise, EV buyers will be left with expensive cars parked in their garages without adequate availability of fuel to charge them up!

shiva susarla is a researcher in energy economics and policy and focuses on

renewable energy, clean technology and natural gas.

The dilemma for policymakers is

that EVs continue to be an expensive mitigation option

compared to the spectrum of other

renewable and clean technology

options available, particularly to

a resource-rich country like

India. Should they support

the (expensive) development of

EV markets now in anticipation of a disruptive

technological breakthrough, or

should they allow market forces

to take over and determine what

the cheapest and most effective

mitigation option would be?

GREEN TRANSPORT


In late December 2012, two events took place that are likely

to be very significant for the water sector. On 28 Dec 2012, the National Water Resources Council – chaired by the Prime Minister and with all state chief ministers

and a number of central ministers as members – adopted the new water policy for the country. The earlier policy, approved in 2002, was being revised after ten years.

Just a day before this, on 27 December 2012, the National

Development Council had approved the 12th Five Year Plan for the years 2012-2017. Water resource planning is a critical component of the Plan.

While either of these would be important developments at

WATER WOES

in suPPorT ofA PArAdigm

shifT in wATer

A recent report by the UNICEF highlights

the most critical issues faced by the

Indian water sector today, urging the

establishment to break new ground in resource

management and utilization. shripad

dharmadhikary discusses the key

findings.

Open waste water and sewers often run along the same paths as drinking water pipes and taps in rural and semi-urban areas, raising the risk of water contamination. Picture: McKay Savage (via Wikimedia)


any time, they assume greater significance as the 12th Plan is attempting to break new ground in water resource planning. As the 12th Plan document’s chapter on water states, the current challenges of the water sector “can only be met through a paradigm shift in the management of water resources in India.” The Plan document presents such a paradigm shift with ten key elements.

Not only the contents, but also the process of the Plan and Policy reflect some of these intentions. There was an attempt to seek wide-ranging inputs for developing the water sector component of the 12th Plan, with some 10 working groups constituted to give inputs related to themes ranging from major projects, groundwater, urban and industrial water supply to water data and water governance. Interestingly, each and every one of these working groups was chaired by an eminent and knowledgeable person from outside the government.

The consultation around the drafting of the water policy left much to be desired. Yet, even in this process, the Ministry took on board several suggestions and made important changes to the first draft of the policy based on comments received.

In spite of these, the Policy and the Plan have many important lacunae. At the same time, there are many elements that signal the intention of trying to achieve substantial change.

However, given the entrenched attitudes and vested interests in the system, any progressive change will be an uphill task, particularly if the task is left only to official agencies like the Planning Commission. Any useful change in the face of enormous challenges

and opposition can only take place with continuous involvement of communities, particularly hitherto deprived communities, experts and others in the process.

New Report Highlights Critical Issues

It is because of this that a recent report (early 2013) by the UNICEF and FAO (“Report” henceforth) has come as a timely intervention. The Report, titled “Water in India: Situation and Prospects” has been brought out in partnership with SaciWaters (South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies) and UN agencies working in India and involved in water issues. The report tries to bring together many of the important and critical issues in the water sector in a comprehensive manner, and it has been “timed to contribute to the implementation of the Government of India's Twelfth Five Year Plan.”

The utility of the Report stems from two things. One, the Report has emerged from a process of extensive consultation and drawing of inputs from a wide range of people working in the water sector. Five consultations were held in five different parts of the country with participation from government representatives, experts, civil society members and grassroots NGOs.

Second, the Report not only brings out important suggestions which support many of the initiatives that the 12th Plan wants to take up, but also highlights issues which the Plan does not seem to focus so much on. (Albeit, it does not categorise the issues as those dealt by the Plan and those less emphasised in the Plan).

The Report has nine chapters, one each dealing with the topics of

water availability, water demand for various sectors, urban water and sanitation, water pollution, gender and water, governance and management, case studies of positive interventions, likely drivers of change and how to move towards the goal of water for all.

Water PollutionOne of the most significant

contributions of the Report is in highlighting the issue of water pollution. Water pollution is possibly the element of water sector that is most neglected, least addressed and one which has

WATER WOES


the highest impact. By rendering vast quantities of water unfit and highly risky for use, pollution is probably the biggest “user” of water.

The Report brings out the shocking fact that “almost 70 per cent of surface water and an increasing percentage of groundwater [is] contaminated by biological as well as chemical, organic, inorganic and toxic pollutants”. The sources of pollution include industrial, domestic as well as agricultural sources.

The Report documents that about 638 million people in India

still defecate in the open, and over one third of rural ground water sources in India may be microbiologically contaminated. Much of this contamination is preventable, though, with proper operation and maintenance of water sources coupled with safe sanitation practices. Run-off and leaching from solid waste dumps and dumping of hazardous and toxic wastes into streams are also serious issues.

Further, out of about 38,000 million litres of sewage generated every day, treatment capacity exists for only about 12,000 million litres per day and many

plants do not conform to the prescribed standards. The Report also notes that while industry “accounts for only 2 per cent of the annual water withdrawals in India, its contribution to water pollution, particularly in urban areas, is considerable.”

The Report notes that the reason for the persistence of pollution is not the absence of required laws and regulations, but rather non-compliance and the absence of adequate monitoring. It also highlights the serious health impacts of pollution, including the fact that “water and sanitation related diseases are responsible for 60 per cent of the environmental health burden in India.”

Water and GenderAnother important

contribution of the Report is in bringing out the importance of the issue of water and gender.

The Report notes that there is much talk of “mainstreaming gender” and no shortage of rhetorical support for gender inclusion in official policies, programs and projects. However, it points out the very critical fact that unless there is gender disaggregated data available on various aspects of water resources, there is no way related concerns can be effectively integrated. Such gender disaggregated data is hardly available and hence the Report argues for such data to be collected, and the performance, especially with respect to equity in benefit sharing of domestic and irrigation projects, to be assessed with the help of such data.

It also highlights the fact that women are grossly under-represented in the water bureaucracy and professional organisations, quoting a study that

Girls carrying water in India. One of the key recommendations of the UNICEF report relates to gender

disaggregated data on various aspects of water resources. Picture:

Korrigan (via Wikimedia)

WATER WOES


“discovered that in the irrigation sector in Maharashtra only 7.53 per cent employees were women, of which a mere 1.93 per cent were employed as technical staff.” To address this, the Report forcefully argues that “there is a need for a positively discriminatory gender policy in the water sector that not only relates to hiring more women staff but also retaining them through affirmative action such as providing gender-specific facilities.” This is certainly one recommendation that the establishment must take serious note of.

The Way ForwardTwo chapters towards the

end identify the pressures and drivers of changes, the role that various stakeholders can play, and present recommendations for addressing key sectoral gaps. This section highlights the importance of making water a fundamental human right, and also raises critical questions about some of the “panacea” like Public Private Partnerships and Independent Regulatory Authorities being promoted by international financial institutions like the World Bank.

One of the most interesting recommendations in this section is the need for “imparting a new vision of water for technocrats through targeted capacity building programme” as the complexities of managing water need integration and interdisciplinary approach, and working with communities. The need of the hour is to educate water professionals, and especially the engineers working in departments dealing with domestic water supply and irrigation, with integration skills. Moreover, the Report says that

“there is a pressing need to expose the water bureaucracy to social processes”, and equally important, to expose “people to the technical processes, of water management. Both need to see 'the other side' and find a practical way to work together.”

Supporting the Paradigm Shift

The UNICEF report is interesting because it represents an important intervention from outside to push the establishment towards positive change. On one hand, it supports, with evidence and insights, many of the changes being proposed in the new Policy and the Plan. At the same time, it highlights critical elements that the Plan and Policy have missed or have not emphasised enough. Lastly, it also offers critical comments, sometimes even scepticism regarding some of the “reform” measures that have been pushed in the last decade by international financial institutions. In this manner, the Report provides support for pushing the water sector in a more desirable direction.

It is only many such interventions, in the form of studies and reports, ground level actions, critical monitoring of the water establishment, and others that will ensure that the water sector really moves in the direction of a new paradigm of resource use and management.

shripaD DharmaDhikary coordinates the Manthan Adhyanan Kendra, a centre set

up to research, analyse and monitor water and energy issues.

The UNICEF report is interesting

because it represents

an important intervention from

outside to push the establishment

towards positive change. On one

hand, it supports, with evidence and

insights, many of the changes being

proposed in the new Policy and the Plan. At the same time, it

highlights critical elements that the

Plan and Policy have missed or have not

emphasised enough. Lastly, it also offers critical comments,

sometimes even scepticism regarding some of the "reform"

measures that have been pushed in the last decade

by international financial

institutions.

WATER WOES


OPEN DATA

Imagine a presentation that shows how millions of dollars of

World Bank money are operating in one area of one Indian city alone. At the Open Data Camp in Bangalore, held over the weekend of 2-3 March, this visualisation of data from the World Bank project in Bommanahalli, Bangalore

got everyone’s attention, in part because of the sheer monitoring opportunity the data afforded citizens.

Getting data and getting it clean was the theme of this two-day camp that afforded a fascinating glimpse of the sweeping range of possibilities

of data. Data is emerging as a whole new language and the world wide web makes it fabulously dynamic.

Telling stories with data“A single set of data can tell

so many stories and it’s all in the way you represent it. There is no

re-imagining india with new data

A quiet but steady revolution seems to be underway as both government and private individuals and organizations increasingly explore ways to make more data available to the people and in various innovative ways to facilitate application. shamala Kittane reports.

Panel discussion. Alka Mishra of NIC, Meera K, co-founder, Citizen Matters and Shekhar

Krishnan, PhD Scholar from MIT. Pic by: Shamala Kittane


dearth of tools and story-telling mechanisms to make facts and data visually powerful” says S. Anand, Chief Data Scientist at Gramener - a data visualisation company that involves processing of tera-byte scale data.

The opening talk was about “Visualising Politics” by Anand; scraping data from CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) Decisions, CCI (Cabinet committee on Infrastructure) Decisions and Cabinet decisions information put online by the GoI, he showed how such data, when presented suitably, could provide a clear glimpse into many facets of political development and discourse in the country. The transformation of data from what is available on the website of the Press Information Bureau into what Anand projected in one of his slides is brilliant and signals only the starting point of a data revolution.

Anand’s visual depiction of government data could easily engage one for an hour or more - there was so much information in it and yet, it was easy on the memory (for those who rely on visual memory). The information on one slide captured statistics about the number of times certain “keywords” were used in Cabinet Committee meetings and decisions, tactful use of which could make it possible to assess what the government’s priorities are. For example, one sees a distinctly greater emphasis on decisions related to ‘states’ post 2009, as opposed to the focus on ‘central’ in the pre-2009 era. Also, evidently, with the dwindling incidence of ‘agreements’ in meetings and decisions, one could conclude that the number of international agreements has declined dramatically since 2009.

Data from the government

In another session, Alka Mishra, Senior Technical Director, National Informatics Centre (NIC) discussed the importance of open data in the government and the drive to enable this through “Data.Gov.In.” Under the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP, notified in March 2012) there were calls for nominations across all government bodies (state and centre) to prepare open datasets defined under the “Open Government Data” of the NDSAP guidelines as:

“A dataset is said to be open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it – Open Data shall be machine readable and it should also be easily accessible.”

According to Alka, of the 80 government departments, 67 nominated themselves but only 15 out of the 67 have actually provided datasets that are made available on the data.gov.in website. The datasets include performance reports, statistics, various government schemes and there are 147 such sets available in various formats.

In a panel discussion entitled “Why Open Data is Good for Government and Citizens Alike” that also included Meera K, Editor of Bangalore’s interactive newsmagazine, Citizen Matters, and Shekhar Krishnan, PhD Student, Science Technology and Society, MIT, Alka emphasised the importance of not just the importance of open data, but of data that is ‘readable’ and ‘useable’ and conforms to international open data formats.

Many amongst the audience expressed concerns about formats like pdf and excel that make usability and processing difficult.

Converting pdf to csv, which is open data format, takes time. “It takes about 8 hours to process 60 pdfs with tabulated data. So the bulk of our work is in getting clean data while representation of the data takes much less time,” says Anand as he shares his day-to-day experience in dealing with data.

“It is difficult to explain the requirement of ‘clean data’ and ‘open data formats’ to government officials,” Alka admits. She goes on to clarify that there is an effort to sustain the NDSAP by setting up of NDSAP Cells in various government offices. “They ensure that government makes datasets

Anand talks about Parliament decisions and ways to interpret them using data

visualisation. Source: http://www.slideshare.net/gramener/visualising-

politics

OPEN DATA


available regularly and that the data is clean before it goes on to the data.gov.in website. The Cabinet Secretary holds a meeting every month to address the issue of slow response of government organisations to NDSAP and ways to encourage opening up of data across government offices” shares Alka in the discussion.

“Since NDSAP is about proactive data aggregation, we cannot impose it on officials. It is unlike RTI where data is provided on demand by citizens. Communities coming together to demand open data from various government offices is the much

needed catalyst to pace up this initiative of NDSAP,” Alka says in response to Meera’s suggestion to mandate availability of basic information like ‘project details’, ‘tender notifications’, ‘budgets and funds’ of all government departments at all levels (state, municipality, ward). “It is easier for us to push for this at the level of Centre,” she adds.

Crowdsourcing EffortsThe efforts involved in getting

data does not dampen the spirits of all data enthusiasts. According to some, it is exciting to know the shapes and forms that data

Under the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP, notified in March 2012) there were calls for nominations across all government bodies (state and centre) to prepare open datasets as defined by the NDSAP guidelines. Of the 80 government departments, 67 nominated themselves and 15 out of the 67 have so far provided datasets that are made available on the data.gov.in website. The datasets include performance reports, statistics, various government schemes and there are 147 such sets available in various formats.

OPEN DATA


can take if we know how to use it and if there is a strong reason to use it. For Deepa Gupta, Founding Director, Jhatkaa.org, use of data and technology are time-sensitive. She is exploring ways to use technology to transfer data quickly among large numbers of people, transcending geographical boundaries, so as to make activism more effective. “There are masses of people rising up against similar issues and it is scattered in time and space. It needs to be collective and sustained, and solidarity is important. Passion drives us and we need to capture that as data and use it to keep us going.” she says.

What Deepa talks about is crowdsourcing of data - something that many organisations working in the social sector have benefitted from. “Ushahidi” was born of a distress situation in Nairobi when elections caused wide spread violence and the government shut out the media. Bloggers became the de facto reporters of news, they went mobile and quickly put together an online web site that had all information regarding safe booths to vote at, areas to be avoided etc. Ushahidi’s crowdsourcing app today tracks power cuts in India and any of us could become a part of it to make it more accurate.

Crowdsourcing data is best represented using maps. Arun Ganesh who graduated from National Institute of Design and has worked with Wikimedia foundation is one individual now engaged in creating afree geodatabase of India usingOpenStreetMap and building an online public transit information system for the country.

TransparencyAll of these benefit the

educated, middle and higher classes of the society. “But what happens to the invisible sections of the society” questions Siddharth Hande, Fellow, Hyderabad Urban Lab in his rather insightful presentation titled “Examining data practices: The case of Cyberabad’s publicly accessible crime”.

Hyderabad police is making crime data available and open, but Hande recalls a recent incident to draw attention to the suppressed side of it. Hussain Sagar perceived and projected as an important ‘consumption centre’ is barely acknowledged as also being a ‘work hub’ for street sweepers and sex workers. This section (kept invisible for various reasons) was driven to a discreet location of the park by the police force and kept away from the Midnight March on the night of 5 January 2013 between 10 pm to 1 am, in which 10,000 participants marched around the lake, claiming the rights of women to walk on streets in the night without fear. However,

the workers (sex workers and street sweepers) at Hussain Sagar were excluded deliberately from this as narrated by Hande.

Clearly, this raises serious questions with regard to the reliability of open crime data: ‘how and why certain data gets projected,’ ‘who wants this data to be visualised’ and so on. There are also questions on ‘data privacy’ with Hyderabad’s open crime data including the phone numbers of people. Hande’s presentation points to the clear need for data practices to be constantly examined and made more sensitive and standardised.

Bridging the divideSharing his farming

experiences in Devarayanadurga, Dinesh T B from Servelots revealed that the organization, under the banner of ‘Janastu,’ is working on a project called “Re-narration Web.” Named “Alipi’ (pronounced ‘aa’ ‘lipi’ in Kannada - meaning non literate), the project hopes to bring Internet to the ‘10 per cent of the 10 per cent.’ 10 per cent of the total population in India had access to

Open Data Tech-nology Who How Objective

Crowdsourcing Ushahidi Involves anybody and everybody who is affected by power cuts. Live data that people can report and is made available online using Twitter and other mediums like Mobile Web, SMS, Smartphone Apps

A better understanding of demand for electricity; it also highlights where there is a need for investment in power production and supply. Now news reports news about lost productiv-ity as well as potential ways to use cleaner alternative energy sources is also being made available. SRC: http://powercuts.in/page/index/2

Crowd sourcing and GPS, Wiki Maps (Supporting Free Libre and Open Source Software and geospatial software/data). More here

Open Street Map (Arun Ganesh/ planemad)

Bus users can report mapped stages, unmapped routes, erroneous routes online or through their smart phones

Making maps and commute easily available and easy to fix http://busroutes.in/chennai/

OPEN DATA


the Internet as of December 2011, and 90 per cent of this 10 per cent is urban population.

“Everybody seeks out mediated service. Why would anybody want to read the budget data if someone is providing them a concise analysis of the same ? The media (electronic and print) have made progress in this direction” - these were observations that led Dinesh and his team to immediately understand the need to extrapolate this service to reach communities that can use the Internet, irrespective of whether they are literate or whether they can read or write english.

“Since the western world does not acknowledge the possibility of ‘having eyes but not being able to read’, we are on our own. Software to address this need has to be developed from scratch. We have the framework ready and proof of concept in place. And we will develop the software on an ‘on-demand’ basis for those who need it,” says Dinesh, even as he expresses pride in how India has long been a centre for information re-narration through forms such as paper puppetry, story-telling through dance and songs (baul music, Harikathe) etc.

Data from the World Bank

The World Bank currently releases data on project-related contracts that were reviewed by the Bank before they were awarded. World Bank funds are tracked and regular project updates are made available online. “We are constantly on the alert for any irregularities in use of funds and encourage the public to report back to us if they find any discrepancies in the use of funds,” says Ankur Nagar, World

Bank Finances (Open Data) in the course of his presentation on “Open Financial Data: Following World Bank’s Money.”

Nagar’s slide had everybody’s attention, as noted at the beginning of this article. It showed us the World Bank money operating in Bangalore that runs into millions of US dollars for the area of Bommanahalli alone. “Citizens can thus actually monitor World Bank-funded projects and report to the Bank if they suspect corruption,” Nagar points out.

The World Bank has a hotline where anybody who suspects fraud in a World-Bank funded project in their locality can summon an investigation by the bank to assess project integrity. “We are seeing the emergence of data scientists, data journalists and the trend is catching up. But the potential impact of open data in the humanitarian sector needs to be questioned,” Nagar says.

The journey onwardsSo, can all of these and

projects similar to these bring about a ‘tipping point’ as far as presentation, use and application of open data in India is concerned?

“There is data out there and enough tools and technology available to quantify social issues but it is the lack of awareness that is a challenge,” observes Anand. However, given the density and complexity of the society in India, awareness might take a while to come about, but we need to get our data and facts right first. “There are many possibilities to make the Internet truly accessible to all, open to not just the educated but everybody for whom information could be life changing. We need to find them,” says Dinesh, on the future reach of open data.

The infectious enthusiasm

has evidently touched all. In a first-of-its-kind event, the National Innovation Council and the Planning Commission are coming together to host a two-day Hackathon on 6-7 April, in which teams of data enthusiasts will delve into the 12th Five-Year Plan and compete with each other in creating visualisations, info-graphics, mobile/web applications or even short films based on the same. The idea is to enable participants to have fun even as they take part in something as significant as evolving a vision plan for the nation. Clearly, India is changing and open data could have a bigger role to play than most would tend to think.

shamala kittane is a Bangalore-based writer. She reports for Citizen Matters and

India Together.

OPEN DATA


CHARITY

Azim Premji’s decision to donate Rs.12,300 crore to

his foundation has brought to the forefront the debate on why people donate to charities. ‘Why has he given to his own foundation?’ is an additional question the discerning few ask. As is to be expected in a decision of such large magnitude, there is a wide range of motives attributed to his action. I often wonder if the attributed motives mirror the mindset of its proponents. Turning to the second question, are they being asked by individuals who plan to emulate? In either case, it is worth exploring the alternative

answers. Skeptics search for the

narrow personal benefit that accrues to donors. They wonder, could donations be merely a tax-planning ruse? However uncharitable this view is, it needs further examination. Skeptics forget that donations do not increase post-tax income. Instead they lighten the load of the donor by reducing the tax they would have otherwise paid without the donation. To put this in perspective, can we quantify the donations made from which tax-payers were benefitted in our country?

Earlier in February this year, the Union Government pegged the tax revenue foregone in 2011-12 on account of 80G deductions for donors at Rs.847 crore. This amount is not the quantum of donations made but only the tax saved by the donors, who include all classes of income tax assessees—individuals, firms and companies. A liberal extrapolation based on this tax savings would quantify the donations made that year at around Rs.6000 to 8000 crore.

Viewed independently of tax deductions too, this quantification looks reasonable, as an

Promoting philanthropy in indiaIf charitable giving in India is to rise to the next level, the social sector needs to take more serious note of donors’ preference for active involvement in the use of donations, explains shankar Jaganathan.


CHARITY

independent study conducted in November 2012 extrapolates the annual donations made to charity organizations at Rs.5000 crores. Further, this study titled India Giving conducted by Charities Aid Foundation, found that only a quarter among donors gave to charities. The rest gave to religious organizations, prompted by pious motives. Considering that three-fourths of the people give for religious reasons, pious motives cannot be ignored.

A common factor found in all religions is their emphasis on charity. Charity is seen as going beyond the bodily self

and reaching out to the divine. Among Christians, charity is seen as connecting with God by loving God’s creations. In Islam, charity is one of the five duties of a Muslim. Any income earned is impure, i.e. haram and can be purified or made halal only by sharing it with the needy. Among the Buddhist, charity is seen as an expression of kindness arising from universal love and the first step in the path of salvation.

Compared to the relatively distinct and clear logic for charity in other religions, Hindu tradition considers multiple motives. Using the triguna lens of viewing

human nature, charity is seen as manifesting from satva, rajas or tamas instinct. Sharing as a natural trait without any conscious effort is seen as satvic; in contrast, motive driven giving is seen to be rajas behavior. At an individual level, such motive could be a variety of triggers — such as the desire for success, longevity, offspring, blessings, happiness and the like. In contrast, tamasic giving would be due to laziness – to avoid additional work or responsibility for managing assets or incurring additional costs. This is often seen in current day practices where partially damaged and broken-down equipment are ‘gifted’ while shifting residence.

While the motive for giving may be individual specific, the methodology for giving changes significantly with the quantum of giving. Philanthropic methods seem to evolve with quantum – from a passive role of giving at the end of a lifetime or giving ‘away’ with no strings attached, to more active or involved giving. Donors not only give but also want their donation to be put to good use. This is reflected in the results of donors surveyed by India Giving, where 52 per cent agreed with the view that lack of transparency in NGOs deters donors from giving.

This concern brings to the forefront the two distinct aspects of ownership: the concept of beneficial ownership or enjoying the fruit, as distinct from fiduciary ownership where the fruit is ripened and preserved. In religious giving, this distinction does not appear critical as it is more in the nature of giving a ‘fish’ as opposed to charities where the focus is on ‘teaching fishing’.

In charities, while the donors are willing to part with beneficial ownership, on the fiduciary


front they do have concerns. The simple and transparent nature of beneficial ownership is in contrast to fiduciary ownership that has four distinct aspects. At its core fiduciary ownership consists of responsibility for decision making and being acknowledged as the decision maker. In philanthropy, this translates to a more active role for the donor. However, not in all cases are donors competent to take decision; especially in areas that require expertise such as resolution of complex social and environmental issues. In our personal life too we see similar challenges when we deal with doctors and lawyers.

Just as in these instances, in philanthropy too, trust in competence and integrity of professionals is the key. In these instances, where decision making is handed over to an expert, fiduciary ownership is reflected in the owners being informed before a decision is acted upon. In philanthropy we see this in action when donors choose the end-purpose for which their resources can be used. If for any reason, they are not consulted before the decision is implemented, they are kept informed on priority basis.

Decision making, acknowledgment as decision maker, consultations before implementing decisions and regular intimation of decisions are the four distinct elements of fiduciary ownership. Given the two clearly distinct aspects of ownership, large donors willingly transfer beneficial ownership but may want to retain the fiduciary ownership to ensure that their money is well spent. Realizing the need for it, Andrew Carnegie the first among the great philanthropists of the 20th century remarked, it needs more ability to

spend wealth that benefits the community than to earn it. Given the obvious truth inherent in his observations, will we see more people emulating the Carnegies and Premjis?

The stark ground reality of abject poverty and child malnutrition demands more. It does not matter where it comes from—taxes or philanthropy. Only taxes can be mandated, not philanthropy. Hence, the immediate need is to enhance the credibility of the social sector for enabling greater participation.

This requires the Indian social sector to pay greater attention to fiduciary ownership of their resources and proactively involve donors in it.

shankar jaganathan is passionate about corporate governance, sustainability

practices and economic history. He divides his time between consulting engagements,

teaching and writing. He is the author of the book 'Corporate Disclosures 1553-2007, The

Origin of Financial and Business Reports', and the recently published 'The Wisdom of

Ants, A Short History of Economics'.

While the motive for giving may be individual specific, the methodology for giving changes significantly with the quantum of giving. Philanthropic methods seem to evolve with quantum - from a passive role of giving at the end of a lifetime or giving away with no strings attached, to more active or involved giving. Donors not only give but also want their donation to be put to good use.

CHARITY


POLITICS AND REFORM

The Lok Satta party headed by Jayaprakash Narayan is flexing

its muscles in Bangalore as the state gets ready for elections in May. The party has named 15 candidates for MLA elections in the state. Nine are contesting in Bangalore city itself, and the rest from other parts of Karnataka. Lok Satta has a reformist positioning in the Indian political sphere. It supports clean governance, setting up of a strong Lokpal, liberalising agriculture, closing of populist subsidies, FDI in retail, and so forth.

Jayaprakash Narayan, 57,

the charismatic leader who is more widely known in Andhra Pradesh than Karnataka, is the sole MLA of the party anywhere in the country. He ran and won his seat in AP assembly elections from Kukatpally in Hyderabad. Nisha Singh is the other elected representative from the party, she serves as councillor for the city of Gurgaon, near New Delhi.

Given the cynicism around the state of politics in India, many consider the chances of candidates with strong credentials and track records to enter legislatures to be very low. However, in the past

few years, India, and urban India in particular has seen a surge of demand in the streets from a largely frustrated young citizenry. There has been an outpouring of protests around the country on several counts. From the huge wave of public support for a Lokpal bill for fighting rampant corruption to the most recent protests over the Delhi gang-rape incident, the yearning for change among large sections of the Indian populace has been evident.

Lok Satta has been at the forefront of many such change campaigns from a time when

hoPe floATs for A new erA in PoliTics

As the Lok Satta party, with its crop of image-defying politicians, raises hopes for a new brand of politics in states such as AP and Karnataka, subramaniam vincent catches up with party leader Dr Jayaprakash Narayan on the party’s hopes at the Karnataka polls and possibilities of a larger wave of political reforms in the country.


public angst had not even made itself so visible. In Bangalore for example, Lok Satta party volunteers were originally involved in sparking off Saaku, an anti-corruption movement in the city that peaked during the support campaign for Justice Santosh Hegde. During his tenure as Lokayukta, he had exposed the BJP government's ministers including former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. Many volunteers who were part of the India Against Corruption (IAC) group that campaigned for the Lokpal bill in the city during Anna Hazare’s fast in New Delhi were also Lok Satta party cadres.

Better known as JP, Jayaprakash Narayan is no mean achiever in public life. He is a doctor by training, and a former IAS officer with a long track record of accomplishments. He is well known for his campaign and role in bringing electoral reforms to India in 2002 that made disclosures by candidates running for office mandatory.

Prior to founding Lok Satta as a political party, he founded it as a movement for better governance in Andhra Pradesh. Lok Satta's work on electricity reforms became visible as it took over and operated four power distribution stations in the state to demonstrate the efficacy of several reform measures they had advocated.

In Bengaluru today, Lok Satta party candidates, most of them reasonably well known in their neighbourhoods and the city, are running for MLAs. Jayaprakash Narayan or JP as he is called has been moved by the upsurge in Bangalore and says it has the most cosmopolitan electorate in the country. “Bangaloreans are more likely to transcend old loyalties

and parochial power that mainline parties have,” he says.

As the campaigns in Bengaluru have begun to peak, Subramaniam Vincent caught up with JP for a 40-minute conversation over the telephone. He spoke from Hyderabad. He was passionate, thoughtful, clear and yet restrained. Excerpts.

You have been the single MLA for Lok Satta in AP. What are your hopes for the next AP election (2014)?

Being a single MLA in the assembly is not such a bad thing. We have shown that it is still possible to influence significant public policy outcomes.

We feel 15-20 per cent of the electorate certainly wants change. But there are systemic compulsions in India because of which even if you have good support base, and strong credibility, conversion to votes is not easy.

We are considering issue-based alliances for the AP 2014 elections. If there is an iron clad guarantee on specific issues from a bigger political party in constituencies where we are strong, we may transfer our support to them.

These are issues on which we will seek issue-base alliances:1. Full decentralisation of power

to local government at the ward and panchayat level.

2. Services guarantee law, with compensation to citizens when there is delay or denial

3. Radical change in the power sector

4. Agricultural reforms – liberalisation of agriculture, not merely giving short term freebies, but long term benefits

5. Anti-Corruption agenda – A Lokayukta for AP with real independent power

As a winner-takes-all system, FPTP

overweighs the views of the winner

and ignores all others. This is true even if the winner

himself gets only 15 per cent of the vote, as we saw in

one recent case. A proportionate

system would correct this, and give

voice to a greater diversity of views.

This is all the more important when, as in India today, we are seeing an

increasing fracture of the vote among

different parties. Ideally, an elected

representative even in a single-member

constituency should represent 50 per

cent of the voters at least. That\’s clearly

not the case today

POLITICS AND REFORM


6. Education and Health care reform.

We currently have strong presence in 80 constituencies in AP, and there are around 20-25 people who have been working hard in these areas for the people. They may become the MLA candidates for LS in 2014.

What significant outcomes have you been able to influence as MLA, even as a lone representative in the AP assembly?

There are several concrete outcomes. There is a robust Societies Act in use in AP. The Congress party wanted to amend it in a way that would bring in far more controls. The amendment was unconstitutional according to me. I have stood against this and held it up for the past four years in the legislature and have got the rest of the opposition to stand against it as well. The Congress could have passed it by brute force and has not because of the opposition I have led.

Next is the Citizen Services Delivery Guarantee bill. While this is not enacted yet, there has been debate on the bill and the rules the government needs to put in place for it to function effectively. This has already resulted in real action on the ground, even without the bill being passed.

There is a now a Lokayukta bill pending in the AP assembly. This is also my party's work and we have pushed for it. It is not enacted yet, but we will continue to push for it.

In the 2010 elections in AP, Lok Satta had a well articulated vision with many reform points that the Congress party copied from us. Our party has a lot of credibility in the state in arguing its points and other parties have drawn from us whenever they want. That is also impact.

Tell voters what the Lok Satta party has done for Bangalore and Karnataka that legitimises its claim that it is ready to fight big electoral races such as MLA elections.

The Lok Satta party has already contributed to Bangalore, in three areas.

First, through Ashwin Mahesh, whose work on transportation for Bangalore is remarkable.

Second, it has covered a lot of ground in waste segregation and management: Ramakanth and Meenakshi Bharath have been doing stellar work in this area. This is part of our focus on urban planning.

Third is the Saaku movement itself. Lok Satta volunteers were at the core of triggering off that movement in Bangalore earlier. The IAC and Arvind Kejriwal happened after that.

Some voters think that too often in elections, people run to make statements, satisfy their egos, etc., even though chances of winning are considered slim. This has happened to parliamentary races before. What will you say to Bangalore voters this month who worry that Lok Satta candidates 'might

not win'? How should citizens think about 'winnability'?

You have hit the nail on the head. Winnability does seem to dominate during elections. And with our first past the post system (FPTP), winning for new candidates is a challenge. Our political parties – when you talk to individual politicians -- are themselves not so terrible. Many of them also want the right candidates to run, but they are concerned about winnability.

But when people worry about new candidates not being winnable – they should look at the following.

Congress has won in Karnataka, the state is still in a mess. BJP has also won, that is they are winnable too, and they have also not fixed the mess in the state. Likewise with JD(S). So it is not as if the winners of the past have been able to bring about serious reforms or bring down corruption.

Lok Satta candidates, even though they are few in number and running from Bangalore, offer a genuine alternative. Moreover, Bangalore city offers a unique opportunity. It has the most cosmopolitan electorate in the country. Voters in Bangalore are more likely to transcend old loyalties and parochial power that mainline parties have. Secondly, because of the way Karnataka politics has gone, there are now many factions and hence fragmentation of votes. There is an opportunity for Bangaloreans to vote with their heart for candidates with an excellent track record.

There is also a difference between unattached independent candidates who do not belong to parties and party-backed candidates. Parties can articulate an agenda, they have

POLITICS AND REFORM


organisational memory which they can bring into the Assembly even if they have only one or a few seats in the legislature. Single independent candidates cannot do that.

Your manifesto makes a promise that implies that 12-hour three-phase power supply in rural Karnataka in possible. How?

It is possible. First we must separate rural electricity feeders from agriculture feeders. Secondly every consumer of electricity, even a farmer who gets free power has to be metered. Long back, when Lok Satta was an NGO, we took over four distribution stations and ran it for the AP government. We brought about an 18 per cent reduction in line losses from 27 per cent to 9 per cent. These are all audited figures, publicly available.

There are around 9.75 lakh transformers in the AP power system. 5-7 per cent of these usually fail each year and when taken down for maintenance, it takes several days for them to come back online. Lok Satta showed that we can spend a few hundred rupees to fix these transformers and bring them back online much sooner which helps in running the power system with less outages.

Separating agricultural power from the rest of rural power itself can ensure that 12 hour supply is possible. This provides a boost to SMEs in rural areas because otherwise they have to come to the cities. Making more rural power available will boost rural investment and employment, and cut back on migration to the cities.

Gujarat is the best example for all this. By taking this approach they have already managed 24-hour single-phase power in all of rural Gujarat. So it is possible to promise and deliver 12-hour single-phase power in rural Karnataka.

An opposing candidate from some mainstream party is going to promise very low-cost housing or some freebie to low-income citizens in his constituency. Are you going to compete with that? People are used to a patronage relationship with their MLAs, you know this.

Yes, Promises will be made. After all elections are all about public money. Lok Satta candidates will explain an alternative vision. Our option is to explain to people that short term freebies are not making problems go away.

Our plan also is go to educated voters and youth, and especially women to get their backing.

We are hearing this view from several people – that women are supporting new candidates who stand for change, more than men. Why do you think this is so?

This is an important question and it must be studied. I can only hazard a guess.

Ultimately men see these

battles as power games. Patriarchy, caste, linguistic and regional affiliations are above all about power won over identity and parochial loyalties. Men who already have power as part of patriarchy become concerned about who will win. Once issues are boxed into identity politics like the Cauvery issue between TN and Karnataka, there is no coming out.

Women on the other hand do not have power; they tend to be concerned about survival, and what will happen to family, prices, schooling of their children, etc. So they tend to be more open to voting for change. Women and youth definitely helped us win the MLA seat from Kukatpally. So men are concerned about who, and women are concerned about what.

The first-past-the-post system voting system in India presents serious challenges to new parties. Comment on the chances in the Karnataka elections for your Bangalore MLA candidates.

Yes, FPTP for India is a huge challenge. But I have some good news to report here.

Look at India’s most influential states for parliamentary seats: UP, Bihar, Bengal, TN, Maharashtra and AP. Except AP (even there, Congress is shaking), in none of

these states has the BJP or the Congress been able to win on their own. Together these states contribute 65 per cent of Lok Sabha's seats. This is because of the FPTP system; it has already caused serious problems for these parties.

In UP for example, Rahul Gandhi invested a substantial amount

On why more women voters are supporting reforming candidates than men:“Men are concerned about who will win, and women are concerned about what will happen.”

POLITICS AND REFORM


of time and strategy. See the results though. Samajwadi Party got 3.7 per cent more vote share and got 127 more seats in the last elections. Even though Congress got 3 per cent more vote share, it got only 6 more seats. In Maharashtra, Congress cannot come to power on its own either.

The FPTP system is hurting the national parties in the most influential states.

But leaders of parties should be alive to this problem, it cannot be that they do not understand all this…?

Parties have not taken a hard look at this problem till now. The reality is that leaders do not have time. They are mostly caught up in day-to-day running of the party and the problems that keep emerging. But this is changing now.

The Congress Party has set up a high-powered committee under Ambika Soni, with Veerappa Moily, Mani Shankar Aiyyar, and others to look at reviewing FPTP. There is discussion on this issue also within the BJP at a mid-level. Left parties are already on board to change the FPTP system.

What is interesting is that this does not require a constitutional amendment or even a change in the law. It is just a rule being used to run our elections. If the parties agree, the rule can be changed.

What would you like the FPTP system to change to? You have advocated proportional representation; does that also mean you will support multiple representatives per constituency?

As a winner-takes-all system, FPTP overweighs the views of the winner and ignores all others. This is true even if the winner himself gets only 15 per cent of the vote, as we saw in one recent case.

A proportionate system would correct this, and give voice to a greater diversity of views. This is all the more important when, as in India today, we are seeing an increasing fracture of the vote among different parties. Ideally, an elected representative even in a single-member constituency should represent 50 per cent of the voters at least. That's clearly not the case today; in fact it is the exception.

A number of solutions, including multi-member constituencies, run-offs and other options can be considered. Once we accept that FPTP is hindering the broad representation of public opinion in elected houses, a lot of other things will become possible. It has taken many decades for parties to come to this realisation. Now we must act on this, and strengthen democracy by a new system with greater inclusion of voices and views. (Response to this question alone was received via email after the interview.)

You mentioned Arvind Kejriwal. What happened between Aam Aadmi Party and Lok Satta that they could not come together?

There are genuine issues we have to iron out.

One is the whole approach AAP has about good and evil. An approach that says one side is always good and the other is always evil is not right in a democracy. I have always held that our political parties are not evil and they cannot be blamed for everything that is wrong in India. Yes, our parties have bungled, no doubt.

We have to recognise the historical process we have gone through as a nation. Federalism, states, peaceful transfer of power, and universal adult franchise have

all come to stay in the country, and our political parties have seen through this. So it is not right for AAP to make this contest one about good and evil.

The good and evil approach also caused us to lose an opportunity earlier. Take the Lokpal bill. In 2011, the bill that went to Parliament was 80 per cent of the bill “we” wanted. But Hazare and IAC did plenty of grand-standing that it could either be 100 per cent or zero. Media also made it into a big deal. In such a negative climate for the government's bill, the path became clear for other parties to use the ruse of 'states rights' to kill the Lokayukta provision. So now, while the Lokpal bill has Lokpal provisions, mandatory Lokayuktas for all the states is gone from it. But 80 percent of corruption impacting people is at the state level, not central. We have lost the chance for getting that option through the central bill.

We all want an ethical india. But the fight against corruption alone can only be a minimum qualification for politics, it is not the maximum. There needs to be more. AAP, for instance, does not support our positions on FDI in retail, and also on power sector reforms.

Having said this, our differences need not be blown out of proportion in the media. In a democracy, there is always a need for a spirit of accommodation. We have not written off working together.

suBramaniam vincent is co-founder and editor at India Together. Disclosure: Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta candidate in

the Karnataka MLA elections this year, is a director at Oorvani Media, the firm

that publishes Citizen Matters and India Together.

POLITICS AND REFORM

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