Category: telangana today

Why Trump became unbearable.

On By rchennIn Newspaper, telangana todayLeave a comment

From dividing people to convincing them that they are cheating, Trump is now undermining the electoral system itself

Nicholas Goldberg wrote an interesting observation in the Los Angeles Times on Nov 4. “But this much is clear: On one level, Donald Trump has already won. He’s won because he has sown exactly the kind of discord he thrives on. He’s won because he’s divided us still further in ways that will stay with us long after he has left office. He’s turned adversaries into enemies, undermined our democratic institutions and convinced us we’re cheating one another. At the moment, he is continuing to undermine the electoral system itself with unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud.”

Though it’s still uncertain who will occupy the White House on January 20, 2021, assuming Joe Biden wins, the path ahead of him is daunting: an electorate divided; a likely Republican Senate disinclined to compromise; and a Trump-enhanced Supreme Court poised to frustrate him at every turn. Biden has, wisely and appropriately, promised to govern as President for all Americans — that is, the opposite of Trump’s divisive approach. But even winning the popular vote does not erase the fact that Biden would inherit a country whose citizens are as angry and polarised as at any moment in the recent past.

THREE DISASTERS

At least three important developments played a key role in the elections and it is necessary to know them to understand the voters’ perspective. This may also provide us some first signs of what type of a shift one may expect from the new US government.

Poor Economic Policy

As we all know, the economic policy of the Trump administration is characterised by individual and corporate tax cuts, attempts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’), trade protectionism, immigration restriction, deregulation focused on the energy and financial sectors, and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A key part of Trump’s economic strategy was to boost growth via tax cuts and additional spending, both of which significantly increased federal budget deficits. The positive economic situation he inherited from President Obama continued, with a labour market approaching full employment and measures of household income and wealth continuing to improve significantly.

Trump also implemented trade protectionism via tariffs, primarily on imports from China, as part of his ‘America First’ strategy. However, two important implications of these policies were that because of cuts in Obamacare, the number of Americans without health insurance increased under Trump, while his tax cuts worsened income inequality. The administration’s most direct and craven contribution to growing inequality, of course, is the 2017 tax cut. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, $205 billion of the roughly $325 billion in revenue foregone by changes to the tax code went into the pockets of the richest 20%. Under $40 billion went to the poorest 60% of American taxpayers—about the same share that went to foreign investors.

Since the beginning of this year, pandemic concerns and mitigation measures resulted in over 40 million people filing for unemployment insurance until the end of March 2020. This has resulted in rapidly widening inequality in wages, incomes, and wealth where the poor and vulnerable were hit hard. For example, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of uninsured persons under age 65 rose from 28.2 million in 2016 to 32.8 million in 2019, an increase of 4.6 million or 16%.

Trump’s failures during the pandemic run the gamut from the rhetorical to the organisational. Every time the President speaks, he seems to add to the fear and chaos surrounding the situation: telling Americans it was not serious by asserting his “hunches” about data, assuring people that everyone would be tested even when there were very few tests available, telling people we are very close to a vaccine when it is anywhere from 12 to 18 months away, etc.

Bombastic and Racist

Trump was bombastic and racist from the outset, openly courting White xenophobic voters by falsely blaming immigrants and foreign nations for many of America’s woes. It seemed hardly a recipe for political success in a nation proudly built by immigrants and their descendants and led at the time by a Black president who, like Trump himself, was the son of an immigrant.

The peak situation was that there were more than a thousand protests—most of them peaceful, though some devolved into violence—which swept across America caused by outrage over the death of George Floyd, recorded as a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down. Floyd was one of approximately 1,100 people killed annually, most of them African-American, by police use of force in the US in recent years.

Withdrawal Syndrome

The US, on November 5, became the first country across the globe to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Agreement was drafted in 2015, with nearly 200 nations signing it to ensure and encourage a global response to the threats posed due to climate change. The US government, under the leadership of Trump, officially ended its association with the Agreement, over three years after the decision was first declared.

According to a report by BBC, the US represents around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions and remains the world’s biggest and most powerful economy. While on one side, Trump withdrew from the Agreement, his political rival Biden took to social media and made a contrasting announcement. Biden announced that the US government, under his leadership would be rejoining the Agreement “in exactly 77 days”. This is a good sign not only to strive towards improving the global climate but also a real hope that global cooperation towards a more peaceful, fair and egalitarian world can be expected from this global leader in future.

Original post: https://telanganatoday.com/why-trump-became-unbearable

Profitable Plates

On By rchennIn Newspaper, telangana todayLeave a comment

Producing what buyers want with focus on nutrition and enabling policy prescriptions can make farming a permanently rewarding profession

Telangana has launched a comprehensive agriculture policy by introducing new cropping patterns, under which farmers will have to cultivate crops in demand as recommended by the government. The State already provides free electricity, investment support, free insurance, increasing irrigation, crop procurement and other input facilities as well as extension services to its farmers. For the first time, small and marginal farmers have started producing large quantities of agricultural output for profitable marketing.

As traditional monoculture of rice was leading to marketing problems and there is ample demand for other crops, a way forward towards sustaining farm income was designed. This policy of introducing new cropping pattern, among others, is aimed at making farming a permanently profitable profession and promote Telangana’s agricultural products at home as well as in other parts of India and the world market.

Though the initial focus is correctly on cropping pattern, thereby kicking off a win-win strategy, a comprehensive agriculture policy will have to address step by step a number of other related challenges in future, for example, the issue of reforming India’s domestic support policies, safeguarding sustainable agriculture and exploring the export potential for agriproducts.

Cropping Pattern

Agri-food systems are undergoing rapid transformation. Increasing concentration on processing, trading, marketing and retailing is being observed in all segments of production-distribution chains across regions. The traditional way in which food is produced, without farmers having a clear idea in advance of when, to whom and at what price they are going to sell their crops, is being replaced by practices, which resemble manufacturing processes, with far greater coordination between farmers, processors, retailers and others in the supply chain. Farmers have to increasingly produce to meet the requirements of buyers rather than relying on markets to absorb what they produce.

As incomes increase, food consumption is changing. Demand for fruits and vegetables (80% from outside), animal products and oilseed crops (40% from outside), red gram (70% from outside) is growing and farmers have to diversify production for profits. Cropping pattern in agriculture too has to transform from the point of view of nutrition security. This is again a win-win strategy as a change in cropping pattern has the potential to tap the demand gap for nutritious food, fully explore export possibilities, increase soil fertility, reduce investments in fertilizers and pesticides apart from containing crop damages by animals.

Therefore, this strategy of linking farmers to markets, the intervention model to achieve remunerative prices for agriculture products proposed by the Telangana government through its own corporation is highly necessary and will have to be strengthened to tame our highly imperfect conventional market.

On the production front, the choice of product to grow must take into account not just market demand but also farmer location, social structure, infrastructure, farm size, suitability of the land, land tenure situation, farmers’ assets, capacity to establish new enterprises, etc. Consideration of the risk that farmers may face in diversifying into new products is important as well as the technologies promoted by the government should be viable for the type of farmer. Research, technology transfer studies and extension guidelines will have to play a key role in this process.

Nutrition Security

Food security denotes the availability and the access of food to all people; whereas nutrition security demands the intake of a wide range of foods, which provide the essential nutrients. Despite historically high levels of food production in India, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies persist. According to a recent National Nutrition Survey, Telangana finds itself saddled with a large number of cases of stunting, underweight and anaemia, and Vitamin A deficiency among children and adolescents. About 29% of the children below five years in Telangana have stunted growth while the national average is 34%. Close to 33.4% of children in India below the age of five are underweight, while in Telangana it is 30%.

Thus, improving the health of the people requires improving their nutrition through more nutritious food. This is where agriculture plays an important role not only as a means of producing diverse, nutritious, safer food that is affordable but is also the pathway to improved household access to nutritious food, improved income and women’s empowerment.

Strengthening the agriculture-nutrition pathway when considering food system development in Telangana is key to addressing these challenges. The main issues now in discussion are ensuring agriculture is represented in our nutrition policy so that cultivation technologies for fruits and vegetables, animal products and oil crops are developed; creating market-based solutions for producers by creating the incentives that are aligned with choices of nutrition-dense products such as vegetables, fruits and animal products near urban centres; creating incentives for consumers through price and non-price mechanisms; and addressing safety and other issues along the value chains for healthy and fresh foods.

Support System

There is ample evidence today that ineffective and inefficient implementation of Centre’s spending in the form of input subsidies, general services or support to consumers through the food distribution system has indeed led to a negative amount of total support to the farmer.

Minimum Support Price or MSP, apart from export restrictions and prohibitions in certain times, is an important factor contributing towards depressing the domestic prices of agriculture. While the system covers 24 crops, it only involves significant purchases at guaranteed prices for rice, wheat and cotton. Apart from Telangana, where a 100% purchase by MSP is guaranteed, the overall India’s picture of just 6% of farmers participating reflects its inefficient implementation.

Input Subsidies constitute the largest category of government disbursements, with roughly Rs 2 lakh crore. The largest input subsidies are provided for fertilizers, electricity and irrigation, and, to a lesser extent for seeds, machinery, credit and crop insurance. While these transfers have played a critical role in increasing production, their indiscriminate use without considering natural resource management is contributing to unsustainable agriculture and fiscal deficit. The most striking example of it is agriculture in Punjab. While intensive farming played havoc with soil fertility, necessitating application of more chemical fertilizers year after year — resulting in a decrease of real output, excessive use and abuse of chemical pesticides — has contaminated the food chain.

Consumer Subsidies are implemented through PDS in India. While PDS provides a means to strengthen consumers’ purchasing power, the main weakness of the system relates to the high level of ‘leakage’ of foodgrains – due to poor targeting, wasteful management of stocks or, in certain cases, outright corruption. Purchases made to support the MSP have also tended to overshoot requirements, leading to the accumulation of stocks far in excess of the norms.

From a policy perspective, correcting the critical inefficiencies that contribute to depressing producer prices remains a priority. In this respect, the objectives of achieving simultaneously affordable food for poor consumers and remunerative prices for producers are indeed a challenge for the government. A possible way forward consists in moving from output and input subsidies towards less trade-and-production-distorting forms of support, including direct payments to producers as has been initiated for the first time by the Telangana government in the form of Rythu Bandhu.

As far as consumer support is concerned, a possible option would consist of moving from an in-kind food distribution to cash transfers to enhance the purchasing power of the target group. This could help reduce the costs of stockpiling and food distribution while addressing leakage and waste. For example, Telangana has initiated a move wherein consumer preferences of rice varieties of the local people within PDS are taken into account by encouraging the cultivation of such varieties for local consumption. The data network to identify the needy consumers for eventual cash transfers should be developed comprehensively as has been done through ‘Sakala Janula’ survey in Telangana.

Agriculture Exports

In contrast to policies of the US and Europe where farmers were offered heavy subsidies to export their produce in the past, policymakers in India used restrictive export policies for most of the agriproducts to keep domestic prices low. To compensate farmers, the government introduced MSP and input subsidies, especially for rice and wheat leading to their excessive cultivation.

One consequence of such an approach is that we are far from being secure in the field of edible oils among a number of other products such as pulses, vegetables and fruits. India produces less oilseeds and imports about 65% of its annual requirement of 23 million tonnes at a cost of Rs 75,000 crore and by 2030, it will be importing 70% of edible oils with about Rs 1 lakh crore. To make amends, certain policy reforms are necessary, including:

• Phasing out the built-in consumer bias (that is anti-farmer) in agri-policies

• Creating business space for private players (including Farmer Producer Organisations) to have integrated markets

• Using income policy approach (through direct cash/benefit transfer) to protect both poor        consumers and small farmers

• Creating a predictable and stable agri-trade policy and streamlining high Customs duties on India’s export-competing products like rice

Source: https://telanganatoday.com/profitable-plates

Follow South Korean Covid plan

On By rchennIn Newspaper, telangana todayLeave a comment

The Asian nation’s virus strategy of ‘trace, test and treat’ is helping Germany get ahead of the situation

In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world. There are a few important indicators, which Germany is leveraging.

Germany has a population of 83 million (8.3 crore) living in 16 States. The country’s proposed plans echo the “trace, test and treat” strategy that appears to have helped South Korea bring its outbreak under control. It has included mass screening for potential cases and heavy use of technology to monitor patients.

Leveraging Smartphones

Although Germany and South Korea are two very different countries, the Asian nation’s virus strategy “can be an example”, according to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control. Germany is already carrying out more coronavirus tests than any other European country at a rate of 300,000 to 500,000 a week, according to officials.

The government aims to ramp that up to at least 2,00,000 tests a day. The goal would be to test all those who suspect they have caught the virus, as well as the entire circle of people who have come into contact with a confirmed case. The current testing criteria are focused on those who are sick with Covid-19 symptoms and have had contact with a confirmed case.

A crucial weapon in the battle would be the use of smartphone location data to trace a patient’s recent movements, to more accurately track down and isolate potentially infected people. While government officials and epidemiologists have come out in favour of cell-phone tracking, it remains a controversial idea in privacy-minded Germany, a nation haunted by the surveillance of the Nazi era and the communist-era Stasi secret police.

The mortality rate of Germany due to Covid- 19 is 1.4% — compared with around 10% in hardest-hit Italy, 9% in France, 8% in Spain and 4% in Switzerland. Due to intensive testing, the average age of a German infected with coronavirus is 46, whereas in Italy it is 63. About 80% of all people infected in Germany are younger than 60. In Spain, the number of affected over 60s is around 50%, 12% in Italy and 7% in the Netherlands.

According to medical experts, older people are far more likely to die from the coronavirus, and most deaths occur in those with pre-existing health conditions, which are more common in older people. For example, highly older populations in the most badly affected areas, such as the Lombardy and Bergamo regions in Italy, as well as in regions of France, had very high fatality rates.

Strong Public Healthcare

The solid and publicly-funded German healthcare system is also a reason for Germany’s relatively low death rate. With 28,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators, Germany is in a better position than many countries to deal with an influx of patients in respiratory distress.
Germany spends $5,848 per person each year on healthcare, which is higher than most other nations. It has compulsory health insurance for all and the cost of testing is free. It also has the second-most critical care beds per capita in Europe, 621 beds per 1,00,000 people. Italy has 275, and Spain 293.

However, in recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff. Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care. As a result, many hospitals have resorted to drafting in retired health professionals or student medics to help with the coronavirus onslaught, including at Berlin’s renowned Charite University Hospital of Humboldt University.

Changing Strategy

In view of this situation and increasing number of infections by the day, German Health Minister Jens Spahn has warned that the country could face “a storm” of new cases in the weeks ahead. Germany’s health specialists, however, warn that the dramatic scenes at Italian hospitals at breaking point could happen in Germany as well. Therefore, the government strategy is now to replace the previous method, based on the motto “we test to confirm the situation,” by the approach “we test to get ahead of the situation”.

Germany is following South Korea, which has used mass tests and the isolation of infected people to slow down the spread of the virus without bringing public life to a standstill, as a role model. Unlike China, South Korea did not impose any general curfews.

Experts say that the testing capacity in Germany should be increased “very quickly”, with the aim to carry out 1,00,000 a day from April 13, and 2,00,000 by the end of April. Berlin-based senior virologist Christian Drosten estimated last Thursday that around 5,00,000 tests are currently being carried out per week.

Beyond the plans for mass testing and the preparedness of the healthcare system, many also see Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership as one reason the fatality rate has been kept low. Merkel has communicated clearly, calmly and regularly throughout the crisis, as she imposed ever-stricter social distancing measures on the country.

The restrictions, which have been crucial to slowing the spread of the pandemic, met with little political opposition and are broadly followed by all sections of the people. This is a strategy many countries could adopt.

Source: https://telanganatoday.com/follow-south-korean-covid-plan

Changing dynamics of monsoon

On By rchennIn Newspaper, telangana todayLeave a comment

More lead time for forecasts is crucial for planning and strengthening capacity to respond effectively to disasters

With global warming, monsoon is changing, breaking well-established ‘rules’, and becoming more and more erratic and unpredictable. So the criteria of monsoon onset need to be refined accordingly. Climatological norms, which are a 30-year average of a weather variable, must be reconsidered in the context of climate change.

The Indian summer monsoon is likely to withdraw from the central part of India between October 14 and 24. This unique forecast, made for 70 days in advance, is the only available forecast for India from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which has proved successful for three years in a row.

Long-term Forecast
The monsoon withdrawal date is of crucial importance for the Indian people. In a warming world, severe storms and floods during monsoon retreat are becoming frequent. Such a long-term forecast could help the government do strategic planning, consolidate resources and strengthen capacity to respond effectively to disasters.

The end of the season is shifted due to very high temperature on the periphery of monsoon in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It takes longer time when the whole continent cools down to the temperature of monsoon withdrawal. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said, “we hope this alert in August will be taken into account at carrying out preventive measures in the system of dams in order to prevent its overfilling and floods in October.”

Crucial For Planning
Close to half of the global population depends on the monsoon rainfall. Floods in different States raise questions about the understanding of monsoon, preparedness to deal with rivers in spate to reduce the gap between climate research and its application in policy, business and societal decisions, particularly regarding agriculture, hydrology and water resources, and migration issues.

Prior knowledge of the date of monsoon onset is of vital importance in India. More lead time for monsoon forecasts is crucial for planning agriculture, water and energy resources management.

The southwest monsoon has left a trail of destruction this year. Nearly 500 people have reportedly lost their lives in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam and Bihar. In Kerala, which experienced its worst deluge in a century last year, over 80 people have lost their lives in five days since August 8. In neighbouring Karnataka, the toll stands at over 48. Northern Karnataka, which was facing drought-like conditions in May, is now under water and the State is witnessing its worst floods in 45 years. In Maharashtra, more than 40 people have lost their lives in Sangli and Kolhapur districts, while the Marathwada and Vidharbha regions are reeling under a drought.

Flood Fury
The floods this year have drawn attention to the changing dynamics of the southwest monsoon. Take the case of Kerala. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the State recorded over 25% deficit in rainfall between June 1 and August 7. But Kerala has nearly made up the deficit in the past five days. Similarly, on August 8, Karnataka received nearly five times the rainfall the State receives in a day. Kodagu, the State’s worst flood-hit district, received 460% cent above normal rainfall between August 5 and 11.

In fact, monsoon rains in the past five years have followed a pattern: A few days of intense rainfall sandwiched between dry spells. But this behaviour of monsoon has changed all over the Indian subcontinent.

The focus this year, as in the past, has been on providing relief to the flood-affected. But questions must also be asked about the ways States prepare for, and deal with, floods. The vagaries of weather, for example, demand cooperation between States that share a river basin. This year, Maharashtra and Karnataka bickered over opening the gates of the Almatti dam on the river Krishna. By the time the two States agreed over the amount of water to be discharged from the dam’s reservoirs, the damage was already done.

The floods also drive home the urgency of focusing on nature’s mechanisms of resilience against extreme weather events. Policymakers and planners have shown little inclination to place wetlands, natural sponges that soak up the rainwater, at the centre of flood control projects.

Misplaced Priorities
Flood governance in the country has placed inordinate emphasis on embankments. But the floods in Bihar and Assam showed — for the umpteenth time — that these structures are no security against swollen rivers. Of course, what is true for the Western Ghats States may not hold for Assam and Bihar. But the message from the floods this year is clear: there is a need to revisit the understanding of the monsoon, particularly under changing climatic conditions, and find ways to deal with its fury.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, July’s global average temperature matched (and maybe broken) the record for the warmest-ever logged month – July 2016. Global heat in July was replaced by torrential rains in August in Asia and North part of Europe. Heavy rainfall has also triggered flooding in central and northern parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal leaving tens of thousands displaced and millions affected.

The summer monsoon rainfall is the most important source of water in India. About 80% of the river flow occurs during the four to five months of this season. India collects and stores rainwater in the system of dams in the monsoon season to sustain itself in the dry season. In particular, hydroelectric power plants are driven by the water collected during the monsoon.

Taking into account very intensive rainfall in August, dams are supposed to be full in September. It is very important to alert the management of the dams that monsoon is unlikely to stop at the beginning of October in the central part of India.

Looking back to 2018, the severe cyclonic storm Titli appeared unexpectedly around October 11, and it was still rainy until October 18. In 2017, monsoon withdrew from the region around October 15. It is now well-established that the monsoon is changing with climate change. In view of this, a new approach must be evolved.

Source: https://telanganatoday.com/changing-dynamics-of-monsoon