Author: cprindia

A BLOG SERIES BY TR RAGHUNANDAN OF THE ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE AT CPR
BUREAUCRACY

The blog series below by TR Raghunandan, an advisor to the Accountability Initiative at CPR, sheds light on how senior IAS officers overcome challenges to do their work and create value for the communities they are responsible for:

Why the Bureaucracy Clicks, and Doesn’t recounts the experiences of V J Kurien, the Managing Director of the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), and how he was able to convince and win the trust of all stakeholders to develop Kochi International Airport. His credibility as someone who strived for consensus helped overcome the challenges of financing, providing gainful employment for thousands of people, and getting the support of a sceptical local administration. An Eye for Detail, further explores Kurien’s exceptional eye for detail and his ‘un-relenting desire to seek economy and efficiency’ that set him apart from most other bureaucrats.

A Bureaucrat’s Endeavours Bear Fruit explores how T Vijaykumar managed to secure tribal rights and increase livelihood for rural women in Andhra Pradesh. It looks back on Vijaykumar’s experience as Managing Director of the Girijan Cooperative Corporation and head of the Society for the Elimination of Rural Poverty, (SERP). The latter, a state-level society, cut through red tape and implemented the state’s ambitious poverty reduction mission thereby supporting 1.15 crore rural poor women in the state. The success of the Andhra Pradesh approach significantly contributed to the evolution of the national model – the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

The Key to Success in the IAS reflects on the qualities that both Kurien and Vijaykumar exhibited, and how their personal experiences of interacting with the system shaped their professional vision such as dealing with political repercussions and jealousy of colleagues from within the bureaucracy. A Social Sector Crusader delves deeper into Vijaykumar’s career trajectory as a bureaucrat, including the time he was abducted and held for ransom by left wing extremists.

BY CPR-NAMATI ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PROGRAM
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The CPR-Namati Environmental Justice Program, with support from Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust has prepared handouts on the legal mechanisms available in Human wildlife conflict in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha and Karnataka. These handouts entail:

A brief overview of the present status of human wildlife conflict,
The measures taken by the Centre and states to tackle this, and,
The compensatory mechanisms available in case of human wildlife conflict.
The information in the handouts is based on publicly available information and discussions with partner organisations. It is available in Hindi, Gujarati, Odia and Kannada .

The Program also announced the release of material on the legal framework for conservation and protection areas. This material provides information on the legal provisions under which these areas are formed, the spaces available for the local communities, and the monitoring mechanisms. It is also available in Hindi, Odia, Gujarati and Kannada.

KANCHI KOLHI EXPLAINS
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RIGHTS

The state government of Andhra Pradesh is preparing to amend The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act (RFCLARR), 2013 in order to acquire land for the new proposed capital city of Amravati, in the footsteps of the Gujarat state government. A move of this kind would greatly disadvantage the farmers whose land is at stake, compromising their rights. In the interview below, Kanchi Kohli, the Legal Research Director at the CPR-Namati Environment Justice Program, explains this in greater detail.

Can you explain the specific provisions in The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act (RFCLARR), 2013, and how these provide protection to farmers’ lands?

There are few provisions in the RFCLARR, 2013 that look to strengthen the position of those whose lands are being acquired or whose livelihoods and rights would be affected by the acquisition. One is the need for prior consent of 70 to 80% of land owners depending on whether a project is a public-private partnership or entirely private sector owned. Another is a thorough Social Impact Assessment (SIA) to determine all people affected (other than land owners), and a process for determining and putting together a Rehabilitation &Resettlement (R & R) plan. There are also provisions relating to the repatriation of land or possible higher compensations, in case it has remained unused.

Can you explain the Social Impact Assessment in more detail?

Broadly speaking SIA is a process to understand the nature and extent of impacts on lives and livelihoods of people living in or dependent on the land being acquired. Although there are apprehensions expressed by industry and its associations that the SIA process will lead to delays in land acquisitions, at least two aspects of the SIA process as prescribed under the RFCLARR, 2013 are critical for a democracy.

One of the first objectives of the SIA is to determine whether the acquisition is for a ‘public purpose’ or not, as land cannot be acquired under the 2013 law otherwise.
Second, is to determine the people who would be affected by acquisition of the land, including farm labourers, users of a forest, pastoralists, artisans and several other occupations that have always been left out of the rehabilitation and compensation processes. This process needs to be carried out by the District Collector in collaboration with the panchayats, gram sabhas and municipalities and a public hearing has to be conducted to ascertain if the impact assessment is adequate. It is only after this that a Social Impact Management Plan is prepared.
What are the proposed amendments and how would these dilute the Act?

The Principal Act of 2013 allows states to create rules under the Act (Section 109). If one is to go by this news report, the Andhra Pradesh government is seeking to move amendments similar to that carried out by Gujarat. One significant change is the introduction of a section, which allows for some projects to be exempt from the SIA and food security related protection (discussed below).

According to the national legislation, SIA is mandatory and multi-cropped land is to be acquired only in exceptional circumstances. However, the Gujarat state rules, drawing from the 2014 ordinance put out by the Central Government, exempts defence and national security projects; projects related to rural infrastructure; affordable housing; industrial corridors of State governments and its undertakings; and infrastructure projects, from SIA and food security related safeguards–effectively rendering these protections invalid.

If Andhra Pradesh were to adopt similar amendments for the acquisition of land for the new state capital, the rights of land owners and those tilling the land, could be seriously compromised.

How can the Act be interpreted differently from state to state? And with respect to that how have the amendments played out in Gujarat?

In our working paper, co-authored with Debayan Gupta, we have tried to assess how Section 109 has been used in nine states and how it affects sections such as consent, SIA, determination of compensation, and applicability of the food security clause. While some of these amendments are in the form of clarifying procedures or giving clear timelines for processes, others are seeking to work around the national rules, which state governments find cumbersome to implement.

It is yet to be empirically assessed how these amendments have played out in Gujarat.

Is Andhra Pradesh government changing its land acquisition procedures​, and how will this affect the farmers of Amravati?

As has been widely reported, Amravati is the new capital for Andhra Pradesh following its bifurcation in 2014. The state government has lauded it to be a people’s capital with state-of-the-art infrastructure and is seeing it as an opportunity to create a world class city. A land pooling scheme has been put in place by the state government to bring together the 33000 acres of land required for the construction of the city, which reportedly several farmers have responded to positively.

However, the state government’s current move is to acquire the remaining land which that has not been pooled in through the acquisition process. The news report quotes the Agriculture Minister assessing this land at almost 6000-8000 acres. With the proposed amendment this would happen without an SIA and acquisition would be possible as food security safeguard provisions would not apply. More importantly, the livelihood dependence on this area would neither be assessed nor compensated for.

What is the likelihood of other states following suit? And if there is a domino effect of this kind, how can people’s rights be protected eventually?

A RFCLARR ordinance of 2014 and the proposed amendments to the 2013 Act drawing from the ordinance, had already put the above mentioned idea on the table. Large scale opposition within the parliament and by farmer’s organisations led to the setting up of a Parliamentary Standing Committee. This Committee had received several technical submissions, including by CPR-Namati Environment Justice Program, on the legal and constitutional tenability of the proposed amendments.

Even though the national law has not been amended so far, several provisions put forth have been built into the state rules. For instance, some states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tripura have proposed to do away with prior consent entirely.

Since the focus of the amendments to this law has shifted to the state rules and land acquisition is a process entirely under the administration of the state governments; it is important for us to follow these proposed amendments closely. Whether it is enhancing the national provisions, protecting safeguards or reversing the dilutions will require an active engagement of many interested in democratic decision making in India.

IN CONVERSATION WITH NEELANJAN SIRCAR
ELECTION STUDIES POLITICS

Neelanjan Sircar, Senior Fellow at CPR, provides a detailed data analysis of the Bihar election in 2015, and why the BJP performed poorly in Assessing Party Performance and Alliance Dynamics in the 2015 Bihar Election.

Drawing on key arguments from the Bihar analysis, he shares below the learning for the BJP for the upcoming state elections (Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Pondicherry) between April–May, 2016, with a special focus on Assam.

How do the upcoming state elections look for BJP in general?

The BJP is clearly not doing well in the state elections, and if they do not win one in 2016, they would have gone without having won a single state election for nearly two years, which is not good for any party. Four out of the five states slated for election between April and May are not in play for them at all. The only state in which the BJP may do well is Assam, and it is important for them to win this so that their base feels energised and the morale of the party workers is boosted.

What should the BJP learn from the Bihar outcome?

There are two big lessons for the BJP from Bihar:

1. They must figure out a way to work with the state outfits—this was a problem in Bihar. Unlike the Congress, which is really a collection of quite independent state level Congress parties, this avatar of the BJP is far more centralised. In Assam, the BJP state election is being led by a Congress defector, and it might prove tricky to lead a state election through a centralised campaign, which requires negotiating with an opposition party defector.

2. If there is one state where playing the Hindu cultural issues is likely to work, it is Assam, given its Muslim population and the Bangladeshi migrant issue, which are existing fault-lines. That being said, if that is the only card played, it will be hard to win. Tarun Gogoi is weighed down by anti-incumbency, but I always tell people that ‘anti-incumbency’ is an observation, not an explanation ; it only means that people are tired of the incumbent. The BJP needs to develop an explanation in order to appeal to the floating population of voters that may be swung in its favour. Issues like economic growth and infrastructure development tend to draw floating voters and expand vote share. The BJP failed to develop these sorts of narratives in Bihar, often focusing on cultural issues. It must be remembered, however, that such cultural issues can motivate the BJP’s core base of voters but are less effective in drawing the floating voters necessary to win an election.

To what extent will the current debate around ultra-nationalism be a factor in Assam?

It is an open question. As it appears, since a lot of state elections are not going well, the BJP’s return to power in 2019 is unlikely to happen through these state elections. As a result, they are creating this national narrative around nationalism, with the 2019 general elections as the goal.

Sircar and his team will be regularly sharing data analyses; positing trends; field notes; and detailed post-analyses from April through June for all state elections.

A JOINT INITIATIVE BY NITI AAYOG, INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE (IIC), AND CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH (CPR)
TECHNOLOGY

Metamorphoses is a modest effort to try and bridge the gap between digital technologies, which are transforming our lives, and our understanding of their multiple dimensions. It will unfold in a series of nine interactions covering different aspects of the digital revolution. The keynote on May 2, 2018 by Professor Yochai Benkler, Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School & faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, will look at the big picture – exploring the nature of technological change and its interplay with individual and social attitudes.

The following sessions will attempt to demystify the unique jargon through which new technology is projected on to our lives. Further sessions will delve into issues relating to data privacy and cyber security as well as the emerging legal regime to regulate this critical domain.

This series will examine the impacts of digital technologies on the human psyche and on societies – exploring ways in which some of the negative elements may be mitigated. There will be a peep into the future – of what machine learning and artificial intelligence may bring to human experience – and the moral and ethical dilemma associated with these.

The objective of Metamorphoses, which seeks to assemble acknowledged thought leaders from India and abroad, is to inform and educate society about both the power of new technologies to change our lives for the better but also to alert ourselves to the risks that are attached to them. Risks that must be confronted and overcome as the future continues to unfold before our eyes relentlessly.

The idea behind Metamorphoses – unpacking the paradox of digital transformation

Our world is in the midst of rapid and unprecedented transformation driven by the accelerating advance of scientific thought and technological innovation in multiple domains, which are increasingly interlinked through digital processes. In no other era of history has mankind acquired the power, as it has today, to order life with a sense of deliberate agency.

The scale and speed of technological change is bringing immense benefits to humankind, generating instruments that can help eliminate poverty, disease and hunger. For example, the internet is making it possible, as never before, for cultures to interact, engage as well as share information, experiences and solutions across national boundaries, making this truly an era of knowledge. Similarly, greater understanding of the biology of the human brain and organising patterns among neural networks are leading to advances in artificial intelligence.

Yet, it is also true that technological advance is running ahead of the capacity of the human mind to comprehend and adapt to it. The adaptive capacity of societies as a whole is even less. More critically, the platforms used for communication and engagement have also become the purveyors of hate and exclusion. They are diminishing both privacy and human dignity. While digital technologies can empower the individual by expanding democratic freedoms, in the hands of a predatory state, these may become an instrument of subjugation.

We are, therefore, living a paradox.

The growing disconnect between technological advance and its impact on individuals and society at large is the defining challenge of the digital age. Individuals and societies, therefore, need to comprehend both the positive and negative aspects of the digital revolution and be in an informed position to manage this paradox.

Join us in this journey of metamorphosing

We hope that Metamorphoses will impart useful knowledge about our digital inheritance. But more importantly, we hope that this knowledge will lead to wisdom without which we may end up with mechanisms without meaning.

We look forward to you joining us on this journey of multiple explorations and interacting with us through our social media platforms, including twitter, facebook, and our blog.

The Metamorphoses team of NITI Aayog, India International Centre (IIC) and the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).

VIEW ALL WEBINARS AS PART OF THE SERIES
SANITATION

On the occasion of 2nd October, celebrated as Swachh Bharat Diwas, the Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI): Sanitation initiative at the Centre for Policy Research is launching the ‘Sanitation Insights at CPR’ series. The series is a deep-dive into the sanitation landscape of India, highlighting various aspects from key challenges to progress made, through a series of webinars.

All webinars can be found below:

[WATCH]: SCI-FI Programme at CPR: Reflections and Way Forward
In the first webinar of the series (above), Shubhagato Dasgupta sheds light on the research agenda and work of the SCI-FI programme, which focuses on two broad themes of (i) land planning and housing; and (ii) sanitation and drinking water. Dasgupta highlights the various activities of the Programme, ranging from academic research, policy support to policy and programme analysis, and capacity strengthening. He also analyses the Indian sanitation sector, studying the main concerns in the evolution of the sanitation policy and the status of urban sanitation.

[WATCH]: Private Sector Participation in Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) Service Delivery
In the second webinar of the series, Anindita Mukherjee sheds light on private sector participation in FSM service delivery, highlighting the business case in FSM and the demand and supply factors that drive the FSM market. Mukherjee points that while the large-scale construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has created the potential for a massive increase in the FSM market, we currently lack a complete understanding of risks and risk allocation methods.

[WATCH]: Sanitation in Large and Dense Villages of India: The Last Mile and Beyond
​In the third webinar of the series, Aditya Bhol discusses the methodology and findings of a study on sanitation in large and dense villages (LDVs) in India. Through an analysis of an earlier study of identification of LDVs and a recent white paper on findings of a rural survey of five states of India, the webinar underscores emerging trends in sanitation infrastructure and services to substantiate FSM and integrated planning as the way forward after SBM.

[WATCH]: Unearthed: Facts of On-site Sanitation in Urban India
​On-site sanitation systems, such as septic tank systems and leaching pits, are ubiquitous in urban India. Rapid urbanisation, gains in toilet access under the SBM, and lagged sewerage growth have further entrenched the dependence. In the fourth webinar of the series, Neha Agarwal sheds light on the on-ground typology of these systems as revealed through a primary survey of ten Indian cities. Agarwal highlights that inadequate regulatory oversight, complex technical standards, limited technical awareness of masons, and a resilience-building approach of households, have resulted in the proliferation of ill-constructed systems which may pose a threat to the surrounding environment and communities.

[WATCH]: Manual Scavenging: What does the law say?
In the fifth webinar of the series, Tripti Singh discusses how the concept of manual scavenging has evolved over the decades in relation to the changes in sanitation technologies. She highlights that although there has been a focus by the government on the working conditions of sanitation workers since Independence, the practice of manual scavenging continues in the country till date. She points out, that in comparison to the 1993 Act on manual scavenging, the new Act introduced in 2013 has widened the scope of the law. She discusses the implication of Manual Scavenging Act, 2013 on manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks and deliberates on key gaps in the implementation of the Act.

[WATCH]: Need for Circular Sanitation Systems
​In the sixth webinar of the series, Ambarish Karunanithi and Dhiraj Santdasani highlight the need for a circular sanitation value chain rather than a linear one. This will enable the sanitation value chain to be sustainable, will result in reduction of the carbon footprint by replacing conventional fertilisers, and thereby achieve the goal of safely managed sanitation along with resource recovery.

[WATCH]: The Case of Small Cities in Odisha: Project Nirmal
​In the final webinar of the series, Anju Dwivedi highlights the journey of the states and the urban local bodies in addressing serious environmental pollution concerns through effective management of faecal sludge. The project substantiates institutional strengthening, capacity building, policy influence, private sector engagement, and strengthening community based structures in managing faecal sludge.

Additional research:

[REPORT]: Towards a New Research and Policy Paradigm: An Analysis of the Sanitation Situation in Large Dense Villages
​Read the report on SCI-FI’s study that attempts to comprehend the preference for improved on-site sanitation facilities in selected villages which were also found to be proximate to urban areas and national highways. The findings of the research highlight the state-wise variations in large and dense villages. These account for sizeable percentages of respective state population and depict a, generally, high preference for septic tanks and improved pits. The results of the study substantiate the need for a primary survey to instruct policy making adequately on the indispensability of decentralised strategies to improve the sanitation value chain.

[PODCAST]: Making Sanitation Work Safe and Eradicating Manual Scavenging
​Listen to episode 25 of the CPR podcast, ThoughtSpace, featuring Shubhagato Dasgupta and Arkaja Singh, discussing deaths due to manual scavenging. Manual scavenging has emerged as one of the biggest challenges of sanitation in India. Dasgupta and Singh point to severe inadequacies in the legal and institutional response to the issue, disentangling some of the challenges around unsafe sanitation infrastructure, and the reasons why current infrastructure cleaning and management practices are killing people.

[ARTICLE]: Safe and Dignified Sanitation Work: India’s Foremost Sanitation Challenge
​As part of CPR’s compendium, Policy Challenges 2019-2024, Shubhagato Dasgupta and Arkaja Singh, analysed the gaps in sanitation policy for manual scavengers. Dasgupta and Singh highlight how workers (and the families of sanitation workers) remain trapped in circumstances in which they have to keep performing unsafe and humiliating sanitation work, in spite of the heavy price they have to pay for it. In a series of recommendations, they write, how the government should address this challenge in a comprehensive manner.

NEW BOOK CHAPTER BY MANJU MENON AND KANCHI KOHLI
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Manju Menon, Senior Fellow and Kanchi Kohli, Senior Researcher have authored a chapter ‘Is Conservation Impossible? The Case of Coastal Regulation in India’ in the book, ‘Nature Conservation in the New Economy: People, Wildlife and the Law in India’ edited by Ghazala Shahabuddin and K Sivaramakrishnan. Read below an abstract of the chapter:

India’s coastline that is spread over thirteen states and Union Territories (UTs) is a space that epitomises policy contradictions. It is to be managed both as a region of immense biodiversity importance as well as zone for high economic investments through industrial and infrastructure projects. This ‘balance of priorities’ is to be arrived at by special regulatory bodies called the Coastal Zone Management Authorities(CZMAs) set up at the central and state government levels.

This paper critically analyses the effectiveness of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 2011 to achieve these priorities through the functioning of CZMAs. The paper illustrates the challenges of regulating high impact development projects in ecologically important coastal zones through two cases, a proposed port in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka and the Adani Port and SEZ in Kutch, Gujarat.The paper concludes that while the CZMAs have granted regulatory approvals to such projects, the management and conservation functions of the law have remained stuck in bureaucratic hurdles.

FULL VIDEO OF PUBLIC LECTURE ORGANISED BY ASHOKA UNIVERSITY AND CPR
POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of the public lecture on ‘Is Electoral Democracy still a good tool for Social Justice?’ featuring Philippe Van Parijs, organised by Ashoka University and CPR. The lecture was followed by a conversation with Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

Electoral democracy possesses virtues that arguably makes it an indispensable tool in the pursuit of social justice. These virtues include the educational force of vote fetching, the disciplining force of self-infliction and above all the civilising force of hypocrisy. But this tool is very imperfect and for a number of reasons — among them, the growing impact of our local decisions on people living elsewhere or not yet born and the growing role of the internet — increasingly so.

To address its imperfections, it is worth exploring unorthodox strategies whose relevance will vary greatly from place to place. These strategies include the democratisation of a lingua franca (as a complement to local languages), the creation of global constituencies (as a complement to local ones), the development of randomly composed citizens’ assemblies (as a complement to elected assemblies) and listening to the street (as a complement to the ballot box). They will be illustrated by recent proposals and debates in the European context.

Philippe Van Parijs is the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics at UCLouvain.