Govt looks to streamline slew of social welfare schemes

The government is planning a revamp of some social sector schemes. It has been proposed state-sponsored insurance and pension schemes be merged, the scope of skill development widened and gaps in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme plugged.

According to a draft Cabinet note circulated, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) and the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) were sought to be merged. “This will reduce administrative costs. The revamped scheme will provide improved social security benefits in terms of life cover and health insurance,” said a government official, requesting anonymity. “Some schemes with allocations of less than Rs 100 crore might also be merged for effective delivery.”

The AABY was launched in 2007 for rural households, in case of death or disability of the head of the family or its earning member. In the same year, the government launched IGNOAPS for all citizens aged more than 65 and living below the poverty line. In 2008, it introduced RSBY to provide health insurance to below-poverty-line families and various workers and labourers.

The AABY, the IGNOAPS and the RSBY are administered by the finance ministry, the rural development ministry and labour ministry, respectively, which increases costs.

For 2014-15, the government has estimated an expenditure of Rs 150 crore on the AABY, though no Budget provisions were made for the two other schemes.

Experts say the plan to merge different schemes is easier said than done. “The pension and insurance schemes cannot be merged because pension is given to everyone,” said N C Saxena, former member of the Planning Commission. Changes are also being considered in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, in terms of storage and serving conditions and supervision by teachers. The scheme provides free lunch to all school children.

“It should not be job of teachers to supervise the scheme,” said the official quoted earlier.

The government is also planning to bring about a change to the scheme for skill development of minorities, adding a new component on artisans and traditional craftsman. The scheme is aimed at providing training and employment to youth from minority communities.

It has also been proposed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) be revamped by including agricultural workers.

The government is considering using labourers employed under the job guarantee scheme to construct durable agriculture assets such as bunds, embankments and small irrigation projects in farmlands, during the non-sowing period.

In his Budget 2014-15 speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said under the MGNREGS, the government would provide self-employment opportunities in rural areas through works that were productive, asset-creating and linked to agriculture and allied activities.

Besides revamping social sector schemes, the government is also planning to name schemes after eminent freedom fighters, social reformers and political leaders. Currently, of the 49 schemes and institutes named after eminent personalities, 16 are named after Rajiv Gandhi, five after Indira Gandhi, and two after Jawaharlal Nehru.

IN THE NEW SCHEME OF THINGS

• Govt-sponsored health, life and pension schemes proposed to be merged to cut administrative costs
• Some schemes with allocation of less than Rs 100 crore may also be merged for effective delivery
• Artisans and traditional craftsman could be added to the scheme for skill development of minorities
• Changes considered in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme with regard to storage & supervision by teachers

INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS – 16 AND 17 SEPTEMBER 2014 by INSIGHTS HEALTH Fastest decline in child mortality rates witnessed According to the recently released data‐New estimates in levels and trends in child mortality 2014‐ under five mortality rates have dropped by 49% between 1990 and 2013. However it is still way far behind to reach the global target of two-thirds decrease in under five mortality rate by 2015. Important observations made by the report: Neonatal deaths account for 44% of all under-five deaths in children. And hence it is considered to be the most vulnerable period(neonatal period: 0 – 27 days). India has the highest number of neonatal deaths in the world. The report says that many of the neonatal deaths can be prevented by simple, cost effective interventions before, during and immediately after the birth. Of the 2.6 million still births in the world, 600,000 take place in India( still birth occurs when the fetus dies in the uterus). India's performance: India has performed well in reducing the neonatal mortality rate. It was 37 per 1000 live births in 2003 and by 2012 it was dropped to 29. There has been a consistent decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) in India. The rate of decline in current decade is higher than in the previous. Six states, namely Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal are likely to achieve the goal(two thirds decrease in under five mortality rate) by 2015. Measures taken by govt: Promoting institutional deliveries by providing cash transfer incentive, free drug, diagnostic test, diet and free transport facilities. Establishment of New born care corners which provide immediate care for newborns which further enhances the chance of survival. Establishment of special new born care units which care for babies that have very serious conditions. Home visits of newborns by ASHA workers who educate the mothers on breast feeding, the importance of keeping the newborns warm and also identify the sick babies( breastfeeding within an hour of birth can save the 44% of new borns. The first breast milk is COLOSTRUM which is thick and nutritious and provides early nutririon, has VITAMIN A, decreases jaundice and transfers antibodies from mother which prevent infections and help in the development). (about ASHA: http://nrhm.gov.in/communitisation/asha/about-asha.html) More on infant mortality rate and India: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=101932 http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78(10)1192.pdf Sources: the hindu, http://www.unicef.org/, wiki. Gilead's deal with Indian generic drug companies  The US pharmaceutical giant Gilead signed agreements with seven Indian generic drug manufacturers licensing them to make its drug sofosbuvir for treatment of the disease Hepatitis C. SOFOSBUVIR: It is a medicine used along with other antiviral medicines to treat chronic hepatitis C disease. It has proved to be effective in 90% of the cases. Hepatitis C: It is a liver disease caused by bloodborne hepatitis C virus. The virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis infection. Mode of infection: Through unsafe injection practices, inadequate sterilization of medical equipment and unscreened blood and blood products. It can also be transmitted sexually, and can be passed from an infected mother to her baby. Hepatitis C is not spread through breast milk, food or water or by casual contact such as hugging, kissing and sharing food or drinks with an infected person. Symptoms: The incubation period for hepatitis C is 2 weeks to 6 months. Following initial infection, approximately 80% of people do not exhibit any symptoms. Those who are acutely symptomatic may exhibit fever, fatigue, decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, grey-coloured faeces, joint pain and jaundice (yellowing of skin and the whites of the eyes). Chronic infection will lead to liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. As of now, Antiviral treatment is shown to be effective in most of the cases but access to diagnosis and treatment is low. There is no vaccine available for hepatitis C. Sources: the hindu, www.sovaldi.com, wiki, http://www.who.int/. SCIENCE ANT TECHNOLOGY HAZE: It is an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles accumulate in relatively dry air obscuring the clarity of the sky due to scattering of light. Sources of particles include from farming, industry, traffic and wildfire. It is an indicator of high level of pollutants in the air. It may extend upto thousands of kilometres. Haze can be defined as an aerial form of Tyndall effect where waves with shorter wavelenghts scatter more and long waves scatter less. Tyndall effect: it is the scattering of light by particles in colloidal solutions or fine solutions. Under the Tyndall effect, the longer-wavelength light is more transmitted while the shorter-wavelength light is more reflected via scattering. Example: a beam of light entering through a small hole in a dark room. ECONOMY ADB to grant Rs.284 cr to Karnataka for municipal projects Asian development bank is providing $270 million for the North Karnataka Urban Sector Investment Programme. The North Karnataka Urban Sector Investment Program will help Govt of Karnataka rehabilitate existing urban infrastructure facilities and construct new ones in ULBs of North Karnataka. The Investment Program will assist GoK in meeting its urban sector investment plan and providing water supply systems, sewerage systems, drainage, and urban road resurfacing and junction improvements. The living environment in slums will be improved with the provision of basic services. About ADB: Asian development bank is a regional development bank established in 1966 and aimed at improving the economic conditions of the countries in Asia and Pacific. It has 67 members currently. The ADB offers "hard" loans from ordinary capital resources (OCR) on commercial terms, and the Asian Development Fund (ADF) affiliated with the ADB extends "soft" loans from special fund resources with concessional conditions. The ADB offers "hard" loans from ordinary capital resources (OCR) on commercial terms, and the Asian Development Fund (ADF) affiliated with the ADB extends "soft" loans from special fund resources with concessional conditions. ASIAN DEVELOPMENT FUND:Funded by ADB's member countries, it offers loans at very low interest rates as well as grants to help reduce poverty in ADB's poorest member countries. Sources: ET, http://www.adb.org Competition Commission of India It is a body established by government of India, responsible for enforcing the competition act 2002 throughout India and to establish a fair competition in market and to regulate the activities that have adverse effects on competition in India. The competition Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations. It consists of a Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government. It is the duty of the Commission to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India. The Commission is also required to give opinion on competition issues on a reference received from a statutory authority established under any law and to undertake competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues. Sources: http://www.cci.gov.in/,wiki INTERNATIONAL Global hunger figures decline by more than 200 million United nations agencies— The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) — dealing with nutrition issues, confirmed the positive trends in the decreasing global hunger figures. According to the report, the number of people without enough to eat fell to 805 million in 2012 to 14 from a billion in 1990 to 92. Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty was one of the eight goals under Millennium developmental goals. The MDG hunger goal has already been met in East and South East Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean. What are Millennium developmental goals? It is a global partnership, adopted at the millennium summit in 2000 by the UN members, to reduce poverty and achieve other time bound targets, with a deadline of 2015. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security. Since the adoption, there has been significant progress in many of the goals. But the progress has not been uniform. The progress differs from country to country and even within the country. Sub Saharan Africa is still lagging behind in many aspects. Asia is the region with fastest growth. The eight MDGs include: Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

Fastest decline in child mortality rates witnessed

According to the recently released data‐New estimates in levels and trends in child mortality 2014‐ under five mortality rates have dropped by 49% between 1990 and 2013. However it is still way far behind to reach the global target of two-thirds decrease in under five mortality rate by 2015.

Important observations made by the report:

• Neonatal deaths account for 44% of all under-five deaths in children. And hence it is considered to be the most vulnerable period(neonatal period: 0 – 27 days).
  
• India has the highest number of neonatal deaths in the world.
• The report says that many of the neonatal deaths can be prevented by simple, cost effective interventions before, during and immediately after the birth.
• Of the 2.6 million still births in the world, 600,000 take place in India( still birth occurs when the fetus dies in the uterus).

India's performance:

• India has performed well in reducing the neonatal mortality rate. It was 37 per 1000 live births in 2003 and by 2012 it was dropped to 29.
• There has been a consistent decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) in India. The rate of decline in current decade is higher than in the previous.
• Six states, namely Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal are likely to achieve the goal(two thirds decrease in under five mortality rate) by 2015.

Measures taken by govt:

• Promoting institutional deliveries by providing cash transfer incentive, free drug, diagnostic test, diet and free transport facilities.
• Establishment of New born care corners which provide immediate care for newborns which further enhances the chance of survival.
• Establishment of special new born care units which care for babies that have very serious conditions.
• Home visits of newborns by ASHA workers who educate the mothers on breast feeding, the importance of keeping the newborns warm and also identify the sick babies( breastfeeding within an hour of birth can save the 44% of new borns.
  The first breast milk is COLOSTRUM which is thick and nutritious and provides early nutririon, has VITAMIN A, decreases jaundice and transfers antibodies from mother which prevent infections and help in the development).

                                  Inclusive Growth

Introduction: 

    The agenda for inclusive growth was envisaged in the Eleventh Plan document which intended to achieve not       only faster growth but a growth process which ensures broad-based improvement in the quality of life of the         people, especially the poor, SCs/STs, other backward castes (OBCs), minorities and women and which               seeks to provide equality of opportunity to all. Bringing these excluded sections of the society into the                 mainstream of the society so that they are able to reap the benefits of faster economic growth is the kind of         ‘inclusion’ which is being envisioned in the concept of inclusive growth.

     Inclusive growth means economic growth that creates employment opportunities and helps in reducing poverty. It means having access to essential services in health and education by the poor. It includes providing equality of opportunity, empowering people through education and skill development. It also encompasses a growth process that is environment friendly growth, aims for good governance and a helps in creation of a gender sensitive society. Special efforts to increase employment opportunities are essential as it is a necessary condition for bringing about an improvement in the standard of living of the people. 

1.  Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), one of the largest social safety network in India, has improved the standard of living of people and has been able to check migration to a great exten
2. Apart from this, the Government has launched various flagship programmes like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Bharat Nirman etc. to bring about improvement in the area of education, health and infrastructure thereby making growth more inclusive.
3. The growth story of Indian economy has been remarkable in the recent years. During 2005-06 to 2007-08 it has achieved an average growth rate of 9.47%, though declined somewhat afterwards in the wake of global financial crisis. Even then it was able to maintain a decent average growth rate of 7.76% for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. Further, it is expected that the growth is likely to average 8.2% for the Eleventh Five Year Period (2007-12) which is less than the targeted 9% but above 7.7% achieved during the Tenth Five Year plan. India has comfortable level of investment and savings rate to steer such a growth rate.
4. But in terms of Human Development Index, India is lagging behind China, Sri Lanka and many other African and Latin American countries. India has a rank of 119 in the HDI ranking done by the UNDP (Human Development Report 2010). Similarly in terms of other indicators like poverty, unemployment and regional disparities India has lot more to do.
5.  The HDR 2010, has also come up with a new parameter to measure poverty called Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) replacing Human Poverty Index (HPI).
6.  India’s performance is dismal in this regard poorer than China, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia as about 41.6 per cent of India’s population (in terms of $ 1.25 a day) lives below the poverty line. Thus, there is a need to broadbase the economic growth, increase participation of people and share the benefits of the growth process in order to make it more inclusive. Reducing rural-urban gap, gender discrimination and achieving higher level of human development will also bring about inclusiveness. Inclusive growth can hardly ignore the environmental concerns. India’s effort in this regard is commendable as India is one of the lowest Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitters in the world and still India has announced that, by proactive policies, it will reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25 percent over the 2005 levels by the year 2020. India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan (to be launched on 1st April, 2012) will also focus on achieving a low carbon inclusive growth as one of its targets.

       POTA: LESSONS LEARNED FROM INDIA’S ANTI-                TERROR ACT

 Abstract:

 Shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, India passed its own anti-terrorism ordinance, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), following a terrorist attack on India’s Parliament building in December 2001. As with the USA PATRIOT Act, Indian legislators acted quickly, declaring the Act to be a necessary weapon against terrorism. But POTA, like the USA PATRIOT Act, had detractors, who criticized the law as unnecessary and draconian. Among other potentially dangerous measures, POTA allowed for 180-day detentions without charge, presumptions of guilt, sketchy review procedures, summary trials and trials in absentia. In many ways, POTA was harsher than the USA PATRIOT Act, but then again, so is India’s terrorist threat. In September 2004, a new central government repealed POTA, but other vigorous anti-terror laws are likely to follow. This Note evaluates the most dangerous provisions of POTA, how officials abused those provisions, and what lessons India and the United States can learn from the experience.

Introduction                                                                                                                                            

• The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 sent shockwaves of fear and insecurity far beyond the borders of the United States. India in particular had reason to be afraid, and its fear was not merely for the 250 Indian citizens who were trapped in the burning towers of the World Trade Center.1 As a nation already at war with terror, it was clear that the struggle was about to get harder.2 Since gaining independence fifty years ago, India has seen the assassination of its most prominent civil rights leader, a prime minister, a former prime minis[*PG262]ter, and a retired Army chief.3 Moreover, for over ten years, India has been fighting insurgents in Kashmir, including Islamic radicals from Pakistan and Afghanistan.4 As of the fall of 2001, terrorists in Kashmir had killed thousands of civilians, policemen, and Indian soldiers, and violence raged on.5 Add to these concerns the continued separatist violence in India’s northeast, the potential threat of the Tamil Tigers in the south, and the existence of an organized, international crime network distributing weapons and explosives to all of the above, and it is unsurprising that government officials felt compelled to act swiftly and forcefully in the wake of Al Qaeda’s assault on the United States.6 
•  India’s Union Cabinet issued the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) in October 2001.7 The central government claimed its action was a response to “an upsurge of terrorist activities, intensification of cross border terrorism, and insurgent groups in different parts of the country.”8 The ordinance granted state law enforcement sweeping powers to investigate, detain, and prosecute for a wide range of terrorist-related offenses.9 Most notably, POTO targeted those who allegedly incited, supported, abetted, harbored, concealed, or benefited from the proceeds of terrorism.
• 10To some, POTO bore an ominous resemblance to the notorious Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (hereinafter TADA), which lapsed in 1995 after years of abuse.11 Despite some initial criticism, however, events in India soon made POTO an apparent necessity to the ruling coalition and many other legislators.12 On December 13, 2001, Muslim terrorists, allegedly backed by Pakistan, attacked the Indian parliament in a failed attempt to assassinate legislators.13 The [*PG264]Cabinet condemned the attack as targeting “the very heart of our system of governance, on what is the symbol and the keystone of the largest democracy in the world.”14 Three months later, during a rare joint session convened at the Prime Minister’s request, the temporary ordinance became the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA)        
• After the legislature passed POTA in March of 2002, the Indian media and human rights groups observed and criticized frequent abuses of the law, including hundreds of questionable and prolonged detentions with no formal charges filed.16 The most visible of these involved political figures arrested by rivals in control of state law enforcement machinery.17 Most abuses arising in the form of prolonged detention without charges, however, went unreported, as the targets were often members of disempowered minorities lacking a forum in which to voice the mistreatment.18 Detainees languished in jail for weeks or months while the wheels of India’s overburdened criminal [*PG265]justice system creaked slowly along.19 Despite the existence of special courts to expedite the process, at least in theory, they did little to counter POTA’s permissive stance on such lengthy incarcerations.20 Provisions for oversight were similarly impotent.21 Some of these problems stemmed from the law’s broad text, while others were rooted in its enforcement
• In September 2004, a new central government repealed POTA, but other vigorous anti-terror laws are likely to follow.23 India’s experience under POTA is a cautionary tale from which both Indian and U.S. lawmakers might learn. This Note examines how certain provisions of POTA lent themselves to abuse and suggests ways to avoid similar abuses in future anti-terror laws, wherever they may be written and applied. Part I of this Note describes the tools India used prior to POTA to combat terrorist threats throughout the country. Provisions of POTA that are particularly susceptible to abuse are examined in Part II. Part III focuses on how law enforcement officials and politicians misused or abused POTA during the past two years, particularly with improper arrests, prolonged detentions, and ineffective oversight. Part IV examines how the Indian government can avoid some of POTA’s shortcomings in the future. Finally, Part V considers the lessons the United States can and should draw from India’s experience with POTA.

 POTA in Context: Fighting Terror on the Subcontinent

•     POTA was only India’s latest tool in combating the continually evolving terrorist threat, which has emerged in several parts of the country since its independence from Great Britain in 1947. One of India’s earliest terrorist experiences is also one of its most notorious: the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu extremist on January 31, 1948.24 Subsequent terrorist attacks involved large and persistent regional groups fighting for secession.25 As a large, multi-ethnic, post-colonial nation still in development, India is particularly vulnerable to violent political movements predicated upon geography, ethnicity, language, and religion
• To preserve public order and national security, India’s Constituent Assembly drafted the Constitution of India to grant explicitly to state and federal legislatures the power to enact laws providing for preventative detention.27 This practice involves incarcerating individuals based upon the suspicion that such individuals may commit a crime in the future.28 Both central and state governments incorporated preventative detention provisions—albeit subject to certain constitutional safeguards—in several pieces of legislation throughout India’s turbulent history. For example, during a decade of gruesome terrorist violence in the State of Punjab, the central government passed the National Security Act (NSA) and TADA, both of which permitted preventative detentions under broadly defined conditions.29 Similarly, in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government passed [*PG267]the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act of 1978 (PSA), which contained equally harsh preventative detention provisions.30 Although several preventative detention laws have since expired, the NSA and PSA remain operative.
• In extreme cases, the Indian government has employed the military to combat terrorism. The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act of 1958 allowed the state governor of Assam and Manipur to declare all or part of the state a “Disturbed Area,” wherein military officers had discretion to kill armed individuals or groups and to conduct searches and arrests without warrants.32 The Indian [*PG268]government later invoked variants of this law in both Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir
• Thus, given its history of turbulence, it is not surprising that India’s latest anti-terror law was more ruthless than its U.S. counterpart.34 POTA was more moderate, however, than India’s prior national security laws.35 It neither involved the military nor provided explicitly for preventative detention, although it did resurrect large portions of TADA.36 Other provisions, however, such as those permitting prolonged detentions with minimal judicial oversight, were virtually as dangerous.

Conclusion

• The United States has been waging war on terrorists since September 11, 2001. India has been waging that war for over fifty years, and has learned a great deal from its successes and failures. No politician since Indira Gandhi has suspended the constitution. After heavy-handed action within Punjab, the Indian military now fights its largest anti-terror battles at the border. TADA’s widespread abuse and unpopularity instructed legislators to include enhanced safeguards in POTA. Abuses persist, however, and the learning must continue. India must continue to refine broad definitions of terrorist offenses and guard against arbitrary detentions motivated by politics, prejudice, or haste. In this regard, the world’s largest democracy and the world’s richest have much in common. India’s lessons are America’s lessons, too. For students of the war on terror, the classroom has no walls.
  ?? ??                                                                                                                            

WTO's  Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (“SCM Agreement”) and examine how much of India's policies are consistent with these measures.

• India is threatening to block the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s trade facilitation agreement (TFA) reached at Bali last year unless its agricultural policies are permanently excluded from multilateral scrutiny. Is the objective - on agriculture - valid? Are the tactics - blocking Bali - sensible?
• The short answers, elaborated below, are, respectively: yes, supporting agriculture is valid, but no, the tactic may be less so
• Objectives: preserving agricultural policies
  India wants to head off potential challenges by its trading partners to its policy of minimum support prices (MSPs) for rice and wheat, which could potentially breach India's obligations undertaken in the Uruguay Round. There, India agreed to limit support to farmers via domestic subsidies (called "aggregate measurement of support", or AMS). Trading partners also want India to curtail any potential exporting of excess food stocks at subsidised prices.
• The root of the problem is the gap between the structure of India's polices and the structure of itsWTO obligations. This gap owes to a sharp rise in world agricultural prices since 2007, combined with a major expansion of India's domestic commitment to subsidise consumers of foodstuffs.
• India's agricultural policies used to consist of protecting farmers via tariffs and subsidising consumers via the public distribution system. India provided little support for farmers via the MSPs, which remained well below international prices until very recently.
• The Uruguay Round essentially codified these policies, giving India leeway to raise tariffs on rice to between 70 and 80 per cent and on wheat 100 per cent without breaching the WTO obligations. The generous freedom to protect farmers via tariffs that India had obtained and the fact that India at that time had few domestic subsidies led it and other developing countries to pay less attention to their obligations on domestic subsidies, which were set at a relatively constricting 10 per cent of output.
• Advanced countries, by contrast, had tighter obligations on tariffs, which they had to reduce by 36 per cent from levels that were generally lower than that for developing countries. They were also obliged to reduce export subsidies by 36 per cent. But they were allowed more space to support their farmers via domestic subsidies reflected in smaller reductions (only 20 per cent) in their domestic subsidies.
• When the food-price shock hit the world, the focus in India and elsewhere shifted dramatically from the producer to the consumer. India slashed its tariffs (from about 30-50 per cent to near-zero for rice and wheat), raised the MSPs for farmers, and expanded food subsidies, culminating in the food subsidy Bill enacted by the previous United Progressive Alliance government.
• Using tariffs to protect farmers was eliminated because the cost to consumers would be too high, as would the cost to the government of subsidising consumers. So the government had to switch to domestic subsidies via generous MSPs that also enabled it to procure stocks for food security purposes.
• In structure, therefore India's agricultural policies - on the producer side - started to resemble that of advanced countries a few years ago. (Of course, the food-price increases of 2007 have led to some automatic reductions in production-related subsidies in advanced countries; they have over time also moved toward more direct support for farmers decoupled from production, the so-called "green box" of permissible subsidies in the WTO.)
• But these policy changes were not reflected in the structure of India's WTO obligations. The oddity is that India is permitted by the WTO to adopt the inefficient policy of raising tariffs but unable to pursue the less inefficient policy of the MSPs.
• There are two ways out of this dilemma: changing domestic policies or changing WTO obligations. India's domestic agricultural policies have improved considerably but remain inefficient: food subsidies and even income support to poor farmers should gradually be replaced by cash transfers (which would be WTO-consistent "green box" subsidies). But implementing such changes takes time - several decades in the case of even the United States and Europe. India's concern to not be prematurely forced into such ideal policies is, thus, not unreasonable
• So India must attempt to change the structure of India's WTO obligations. The experts, Ashok Gulati and Anwarul Hoda, have suggested that the WTO change the way it calculates domestic subsidies, giving India more wiggle room to continue its current policies. Such an approach makes sense, especially because the current calculations are, absurdly, based on international prices that prevailed nearly three decades ago. This change in measurement is desirable but India's problems may well go beyond the measurement of subsidies.
•  India would be saying to rich countries, "Our agricultural policies are similar to yours, so we want our WTO obligations to be similar to yours, too." It could argue further that the structure of obligations is biased against India, because rich countries can subsidise agricultural exports while India cannot.
• Tactics: blocking the TFA:Is holding up the TFA the best way for India to secure its objectives on agriculture?
• The July 31 deadline for adoption of the Bali agreement does provide India some leverage to advance its broader objectives on agriculture.
• 
  Despite the criticism, India is not standing in the way of great global trade advancement. Gains from the TFA have been grossly overstated. Reforming Customs administration, a key ingredient of trade facilitation, is important, but the TFA neither adequately provides incentives nor forces such reforms that will be politically difficult within member countries.
  
  Nevertheless, opposing the TFA is perceived as obstructionism. The reputational costs for the new government that is trying to project an image of being investor- and market-friendly and constructive in its international engagement are potentially high.
  
  Moreover, India seems isolated in its current position, with China, Brazil, Russia - the band of BRIC brothers - and other emerging market countries distancing themselves from New Delhi. A policy that has limited support in the WTO looks weak and lacks legitimacy, and, hence, is unlikely to succeed.
  
  Indeed if India succeeds in its opposition, and the Bali deal collapses, the blow to an already weak WTO would be significant and India would bear much of the blame. And the costs of a weak multilateral trade system are greater for countries such as India, which is excluded from the emerging Asian trade architecture underpinned by the United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership
  
  India should, thus, withdraw its opposition to the TFA, reformulate its position on agriculture, proceed to persuade its partners of the merits and fairness of its new position over the next few months, and revisit this issue at the WTO in the near future.