RNI NO: UPENG/2014/62662
MARCH 2017 VOL. 03 ISSUE 06 `60 PR NO: UP/GBD-212/2015-17 Date of Publishing 04-03-2017 Date of Posting 07-03-2017
ELLO
THIS IS ME!
ISSN 2455-0426
Dr. Kiran Bedi
Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
More skilled. More inspired. More aspirational. More independent. More mobile. More equipped. More knowledgeable. More visible. More tech savvy
Sadiya Siddiqui
Actor, Indian Film & TV
Face new situations, be strong and confident.
Renuka Shahane
Actor, Write, Director
I admire all women who are resilient and who are vocal in all sorts of adversities
Rakhee Vaswani Celebrity Chef
If your passion is strong enough, you can shake it and wake it to make it your new goal ANYTIME. Age no bar!
Swati Popat Vats
President Podar Education Network
Most men are left brain thinkers and most women are right brain thinkers. But many women are able to bring a balance between right and left-brains and today
Rita Mishra
Vice President Merrill Lynch, New York
Work life balance is very important
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL
How India looks up to her women folk to take the lead… PG 8
Urban Planning with Human Touch V. KALYANA RAMA Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR)
‘We Establish CONCOR Ahead of the Market’
PG 22
FOYER SUMMIT REPORT
PG 34
4 I March 2017
VARNALI DEKA
PG 44
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Editor-in-Chief Ajit Sinha Editor Director R. Manjushree Reddy Consulting Editor Rajesh Mehta CORPORATE OFFICE Strategy Head Ajay Kumar Corporate Sales & Marketing Siddharth Verma Vice President siddharth@governancetoday.co.in I 9811561645
Interviews
Sales & Marketing (Corp) Vaishali Gupta vaishali@governancetoday.co.in 7840086705 Swati Sharma swati@governancetoday.co.in 7840086706 Aakash Das sales@governancetoday.co.in I Alliance & Partnerships Stuti Bhushan I 9999371606 Guest Writers & Contributors
DR. NACHIKET MOR
In the Path to Possibilities in Healthcare & Innovation
Dr. Amita Prasad Mountains Need to be Covered by SDGst PG 60
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Editorial
A Selfie for Womanhood A self portrait of one taken by her/himself – that’s a selfie. Selfie is about self-confidence. Selfie is to show her as she is, as she wants to be, without having been filtered through anyone else’s lens or views.For her, it is a radical act of political empowerment, self-preservation, a means to resist and break from the shackles of submission, an window to get herself open and express and a lensto capture the beautiful ‘SHE’. In a male dominated media culture and obsession to get hold over women’ lives, faces, images, we all have experienced how empowering is this tool ‘selfie’, allowing the woman to be in control and express herself in a way that she feels comfortable, reflecting her positive attitude and self-regard. Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year 2013, let this word bring more power, more attitude, more positivity and more reflections in HER life. Send us your selfie, let it speak your mind, let it talk to the whole world, let it make possible all the vast array of gazes that simply were not seen before, to see the new you. While I take pride in making this tribute to the WOMAN Today as a member representing the other side of ‘Equality’, I dedicate this selfie drive to the ‘Celebrations of her Womanhood’,on behalf of the family of Governance Today.. The cover story in few pages aheadwill reflect more of HER glory, through the mirror on the wall. Last month only, we tried to plunge into one unorganized corner inhabited majorly by women, by talking about skilling and empowering the domestic workers,through our magazine and also organizing a national summit on skilling the domestic workers in association with Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council, National Skill Development Corporation and Skill India. The sector has the highest representation of women in comparison to any other work area, and their plights are enormous, untold and unattended. While we thank our patrons for creating the forum, we are glad to share the summit report in this edition as one more tribute to the Women’s world. Going forward with our ‘Skilling India’ march, I am glad to announce and invite you all to our forthcoming ‘April Edition’ and the National Summit ‘Green Jobs for Future’ to be organized on 12 April in New Delhi, on behalf of Skill Council for Green Jobs and Governance Today. Let the celebrations continue…
Best regards Ajit Sinha Editor-in-Chief www.governancetoday.co.in March 2017 I 7
COVER STORY
MIRROR, MIRROR 8 I March 2017
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She
is beautiful, she is gentle, she is motherly yet she is powerful… A long time ago, when the snowflakes fell like feathers, the Queen sat at a window, thinking … But, with every passing year, the mirror has decided not to say ‘thou’, but - ‘if truth be told’. The world around us is a mirror of what we’re thinking and feeling. Practitioners of conscious creation or the law of attraction principles especially know this, that the reality we experience is a reflection of the beliefs we hold, regardless of whether we’re aware of what those beliefs actually are. That premise provides the basis today in providing us reasons to celebrate the women hood, as we celebrate the International Women’s Day. GOVERNANCE TODAY HAS MADE A BRIEF ATTEMPT TO SPEAK THROUGH THE MIRROR THAT HAS BEEN REFLECTING THE WOMENHOOD SINCE AGES …How India looks up to her women folk to take the lead…
ON THE WALL… www.governancetoday.co.in March 2017 I 9
Show Competence! And the Man’s World will have no choice, but Submit; Concede; Accept; Respect; Or Recognize! What do you think is the biggest issue facing women in the country? To make her own place and to maintain it is her big challenge. Retaining her own identity too is a big challenge. Because, social expectations from women in our society are very high. Woman’s needs are not recognised. Her responsibilities are myriad.
In a country with so much varied regulations & policies, how does one create a supportive environment to achieve their set goal(s)? Sheer competence! Sheer merit by which the man’s competitive world to have no choice, but to submit! Or concede. Or accept. Or respect. Or recognize!
In your current role as the constitutional head of Puducherry, how has been your work aligned with women’s issues? My sheer presence in Raj Nivas is a big source of hope and strength to women and those in needs. But I also make a conscious effort to be a strength to them; to recognise and applaud them wherever I get a chance to.
Do you think a female Administrator would be any different than a male? Why and how?
Dr Kiran Bedi
In several ways. She is comparatively more sensitive. More accessible. Less demanding. More communicative. (there are exceptions, of course). Simpler in many ways too!
What was your answer and preparation to the core question- ‘Can I do it’?
If you compare your younger self with that of a girl today, what are the changes you notice when it comes to women’s rights or gender equality? What has caused this change?
Lieutenant Governor Puducherry
Yes you can do. But then prepare yourself. Do not take anything for granted. Also see what kind of support you can rely on. And do not feel a loser if u don’t Succeed. Pat yourself on the back for having made the effort. You, making the effort to challenge whether you succeed or not is a victory by itself. It will make u more confident. ‘Making the effort is your success’! 10 I March 2017
Larger awareness! More skilled. More inspired. More aspirational. More independent. More mobile. More equipped. More knowledgeable. More visible. More tech savvy.
How would you rate women’s representation www.governancetoday.co.in
in government and in other key institutions such as the judiciary, academia or the media? Plenty more are making an impact. Much more in academia and media than in government. We need more in public administration at the highest levels too.
How do you define women empowerment? One who is self-reliant. Makes
her own choices and one who willingly shares the fruits of her hard work while being capable of bearing the negative consequences of her challenges, by her own self, if the need arises.
If you had the power to make a decision tomorrow that would contribute to greater gender equality in India, what would it be and why?
I would give special coaching for more and more courageous
women to join all India civil services on their own merit. Would love to see capable women officers keep the corrupt and dishonest politicians in their right place and never succumb to threats of transfers, etc. Women to have courage to stand up to such Leaders (sic) and show them the rules to ensure honest use of all government resources. And Exercise total financial prudence in financial management.
If you are a humanistic person, you will automatically talk about gender equality Where does the country stand at the moment with the status of women? I cannot say much about rural areas, as I am born and brought up in a metropolitan city like Mumbai. In urban as well, I would say, patriarchy exists. We see empowered women from all classes and we also see subtle and gagging women from all classes. It is not depended on class, still, definitely women in the lower casts which because of the unfortunate cast systems are less empowered. Cast system itself is not very empowering. Today, more and more families have equality within the structure of the family. This is important. But, in spite of this equal right is being granted in the laws, customs like dowry still exists, which is a very skewed way of looking at women. We still have a lot to achieve in terms of status of women. I would like to highlight one more area that has prompted campaigns like ‘Beti bachao Beti padao’. This is an irony that we are still talking a subject like female foeticide, even in 21st century. For equality, we need to talk about this more, as unfortunately, foeticides, infanticides still happens in our country.
How do you feel about how women are represented in media- TV/film, art? Do you think a female artiste would be any different than a male? How?
In terms of equal pay, I think, women do differ from their male counterparts, and that does make a lot of difference. Actresses like Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Vidya Balan are huge achievers
Renuka Shahane
Actor, Writer, Director
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who can carry the entire film for success on their own shoulders, yet there is inequality, if we compare in the terms of payment with their male counterparts. This is one point of looking at the situation. The other point is, in industry women used to carry forth only a certain kind of films. But today, there are a wide variety of films which they can carry forth with all responsibility. People are also becoming receptive to female centric films. Market has opened up a lot. But again, there is a distinct line that has been drawn till some far and no further. Women are celebrated on screen, but through the male gaze. Films like Dirty Picture, which is a female-centric film, yet it was all about the male gaze. Such movies do well and are even encouraged. The movie like ‘Lipstick under my burkha’ will not be encouraged or promoted, because, female image is not portrayed in lines of our cultural settings. So, suddenly religion comes into the subject. Certain religious communities may get. The whole thing called morality is seen as something, which has to be carried forward by a woman only. The morality by now is about how women behave, rather than how men behave. This needs to be changed as we move forward.
How and when is your work aligned with women’s issues? Firstly, as an actor I try to pick up stuff which is not derogatory to woman. Lot of people question my being part of the movie, ‘Hum aapke hain koun’, which is supposed to have started this whole regressive television industry trend. People say, you acted in a film which celebrated woman being just good at home. Something, which I categorically say that, nowhere on screen did they ask me to shut up. Women have their own point of view, which is also respected by all the members of the family. That is 12 I March 2017
beautiful, and is much better than the fact that women don’t have a voice or they are asked to shut up or they are not allowed to express themselves. Such situations would have been derogatory to women, which is what we get to see on television these days. That is not celebration of our culture. These kinds of things should not be hammered because these things sensitize people towards violence that people commit against women in their daily domestic lives. This has an adverse effect on the society. Not only on screen. We were also not disrespected off screen, either by the producer, director or anybody else on the set. Also, as a director and writer I choose stories which are always empowering, not only for women but for human beings in general. We need to emancipate even men, as men too don’t get to choose a lot of things under the patriarchy. There are certain gender specific things that are expected of men which all men might not confirm to and they need not like as well. Whether it is about their marriage or the type of profession they choose, the kind of life they want to choose, or the kind of partner they want to choose. Such things should not be seen as supporting parent’s views only. There should be sensitivity to the need of both genders. As an artist, this is the humanistic view I would take. If you are a humanistic person, you will automatically talk about gender equality.
Over the years, what are the changes you observe in the society in its treatment towards women? How has the transition been in women empowerment?
Main issue is security of women. We need to work on it, even within our family. Our society is not very safe for women. Today, woman goes out of home for work. She needs peace of mind; she should feel secure. She cannot live with the fear. That apart, we are dealing with the prejudiced minds today.
As a mother also, these are my concerns. And I am trying my best to fight these issues. In my child’s class, I found a teacher saying that girls are not good in physics. The toppers in my child’s class are girls and they are very good at physics. Yet a teacher’s mind is also prejudiced. We are still dealing with the old school mentality that girls are only good at humanities and boys are good at math and physics. Look at NASA and our ISRO. There are so many women scientists and there are so many women IT professionals in our country. It is so regressive to see these things casually. ‘Don’t cry like a girl’- we come across such statements quite often. I try to deal with that at home with my children. But try to talk to them in logical manner, so they know that these things are not very cool to say. They are aware about the fact that these kinds of statements are sexist. Awareness has to be inculcated in the family. Whenever parents give a feeling to a boy that they can do anything and it is a girl who needs to be careful, at a very early age only we are perpetuating the same patriarchy. We should give some responsibility of being good to boys also.
What is the one thing you could recommend to make the country a balanced place, with masculine and feminine in harmony?
It cannot be men against women. It has to be both working for each other. I am blessed to be raised in a family where my brothers are more feminist. That is because of the values our mother gave us at home. And it should start at early stage, at school and college levels. Those places should also be very sensitive about gender issues. They should carry such thoughts forward through students, may be by some reward programs for kindness and compassion, rather than giving just good grades. We are very competitive about when it comes to subjects like Math, Science, www.governancetoday.co.in
etc. But there is nothing to grade someone as good human being. Students are constantly geared to be brighter, smarter and stronger. But, are we teaching our children that being kind, compassionate and sensitive is good? I think, there should be grades for that too, so that people will compete to be good. Being good will
make our society more peaceful, compassionate and happy. In turn, it will automatically make a safer society.
What do you consider female attributes? It’s resilience. I have seen women who are so patient and resilient in handling lot of adversity
and yet making forward moves in life and having courage to voice their opinion. However contradictory it might be to the social morals and acceptability for doing things, I would say, that is the strongest female attribute. I admire all women who are resilient and who are vocal in all sorts of adversities.
Add extra flavor of passion, spice it up with efforts and relish the fruits of your hard work How do you feel about how women are represented in the Indian workforce? What is the one thing you could recommend to make it a more balanced place, with masculine and feminine in harmony?
Rakhee Vaswani Celebrity Chef Palate Culinary Studio
Women in this developing country are rising above the social norms, even though it may be just a fraction of the entire female population. In the contemporary society the way women are seen is taking a turn for the better. Though the percentage of women in the Indian workforce will not match up to the percentage of men, but even a humble start makes a difference. In a country like India, the greatest issue that arises is the societal pressures everyone falls prey to, that is women being seen just as child bearers and home-makers, and that is what needs to be changed. To create a balanced workplace in this country, the image that most women are subjected to, whether they choose to be identified as hat or not, needs a drastic makeover. Women must work after marriage or after they have kids if their heart desires. It’ll be wrong to say that being a stay-at-home mother is taking away a woman’s chance to excel professionally. Some choose that life, while some don’t. The ones who don’t, need to go out and create a strong foothold
in whichever field they are passionate about and the family must support her. I can say this from experience, because I chose to stay at home and look after my kids and those years will always be close to my heart. But when I expressed the desire to work, the support I received from my family was the best thing that I could’ve asked for. This is exactly what will drive women to pursue what they want and hence, will be a stepping stone in the creation of a more balanced place.
What is your definition for women empowerment?
I can say a lot about women empowerment, but what will really make a difference is when each woman individually stands up for herself and pursues her passion and dreams on her own scale. They say each drop matters to make an ocean. After hearing my story I hope a lot of women reading this will realize that it is never too late to start or restart your career. If your passion is strong enough, you can shake it and wake it to make it your new goal ANYTIME. Age no bar! Another thing, never give up on learning. Never think you know it all. Each and every day will teach you something or the other. Even though I teach 100+ cuisines, I always learn something every day. Never stop that. And of course
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imparting that knowledge further is a great deed. At the same time, trials & errors and research are very important. A cook is like a Chef, because without trying too hard a cook’s palate will know if the flavors are in balance. It’s also essential to give your own personal touch to each recipe. In the same way, no matter what career path you are riding on, give it your own style and twist. No competition is good enough for you to stop yourself from being yet another player in the market. To add that extra flavor of passion, spice it up with some efforts and relish the fruits of your hard work thereafter. Even if you are 50/60 years old, just start! You never know what works out and how :)
What do you think is the biggest issue facing women in the country? Rape has become a joke in this
country. It has not only become common and easy, but also reminds us how low our security levels are. Women trafficking, child trafficking and genital mutilation are some of the biggest issues that women have been facing since a long time, not only in rural areas but also within urban homes as we may not expect. Educated families force their girl child into social pressures like marriage and religious beliefs like genital mutilation, despite having all the money and education that one should have. The problem is in the myths and mentality that people blindly believe in, which has been passed on from generation to generation. Unfortunately, literacy has not played a big role in changing people’s minds for the better.
If you compare your younger self with that of a girl today, what
are the changes you notice when it comes to women’s rights or gender equality? What has caused this change? Back then, women never had a say. In fact, in many parts of the world they still don’t. Although, lately there have been a lot of reasons and circumstances where women have stood up for themselves and reciprocated to unfair practices on them like never before. Internet and social media has now increased awareness and guts in women to speak up for themselves and fight for their rights, be it in any genre. Also, the tolerance levels of women after all that inequality and unfairness has gone lower. Only experiences make one stronger and that is what has caused a positive change in today’s world. I only hope it keeps getting better and better. More Power to us!
Don’t Support; Celebrate A Woman How do you feel about how women are represented in the education and academics? What is the one thing you could recommend to make it a more balanced place, with masculine and feminine harmony?
Swati Popat Vats
President PODAR Education Network 14 I March 2017
Over the years I feel women are being represented quite well in the education sector both as academicians and administrators. Previously of course, higher leadership level posts were not filled by more women because of bias and because people would feel that a woman will not be able to give time or take the stress due to family related responsibilities. Also, many a times even if she manages to reach a leadership role, the men on her team would slowly edge her out, as men, especially in India were not brought up to respect women or did not expect or accept women leading them. Taking orders or directions from a woman, even if
she is more qualified would not augur well with many men.Now of course women empowerment and the way the society and families look at bringing up women has changed.So there is almost 50% change.But more needs to be done so that women are not ‘molly coddled’ and the more ‘tough positions’ given to men. My one suggestion is to judge the candidate not as a woman or a man but to judge as qualified or not qualified, experienced or not experienced. Only then will this deep rooted, hidden bias be removed.
What is your definition for women empowerment? For me women empowerment is about equality, not preferential treatment. Because once we get into preferential treatment, the bias is tilting to the other species. So for me it means equality in terms of wages, job profile, and the selection for competitive www.governancetoday.co.in
exams and posts. I am not in agreement with women who want men to stand up when they come in the room or hold the door for them, then you are asking to be taken care of. Let’s not confuse the issue. I am also against the so-called bra burners who feel that women empowerment is about embracing the male way of life. God gave us grace, poise, dignity and just because we want to be empowered does not mean that we have to dress only in trousers and coats and start aping the men. For me, women empowerment means to be able to celebrate being a woman and be successful in whatever I choose to do. Not supported but celebrated.
Do you think a female academician or administrator would be any different than a male? Why and how?
Women bring a certain multitasking element that many men lack, but men bring a lot of clear logical thinking. Since I am a strong proponent of brain research I feel most men are left brain thinkers and most women are right brain thinkers. But many women are able to bring a balance between right and left-brains and today, they are the ones leading big corporations globally. I would not say that female academicians or administrators are better or worse than male, but, I would say both have their strengths and weaknesses and the gender that is able to balance their strengths and weaknesses are able to become both good academicians and administrators.
In your current role as the institutional head of Podar Education Network, how has
been your work aligned with women’s issues? Very well aligned. Podar is an extremely progressive thinking organization,deep rooted in values. After all, our first president was Mahatma Gandhi. Dr PavanPodar has always been the epitome of equality for both men and women in the workspace and the tradition is being carried forward by his two sons, Gaurav Podar and Harsh Podar. Their wives are also an integral part of the work at Podar. I have never judged someone’s capability based on their gender and that is what we respect at our schools and centers and in our corporate office. I take parenting workshops too, in which, I always talk about fathers and mothers both playing an equal and complimentary role in the parenting process. I am also a strong proponent of both maternity and paternity leave.
See your life through your own eyes Define women empowerment. Women empowerment is about capability of making choice. In India’s societal structure, where, fathers, brothers, husbands make all the choices and decisions, women usually don’t get the choice, at least in the first round. Allow them the freedom; allow them to make their own decision. There are lots of changes in policies and laws for making women empowered in our society. But till the time women are not able to think about this freedom, or about their own rights and decisions, they are not empowered in reality.
Where does the country stand at the moment with women?
Sadiya Siddiqui
Actor, Indian Film & TV
In India there is still bias, there is still cast distinction, there is still patriarchy. Any place outside the home has become unsafe for a girl. There is so much insecurity. This is a case, even in the cities. Of course, the girls are getting
more encouragement these days than before. At least within the family they are encouraged now, for education, for sports or for any other activity. Such attention, starting right at the family level can lead us to the larger national goal sets. There are certain places and states, where the status of women is as it was even before 50 years back. The laws are there, policies are there, but the status still remains the same. We need to look deep within our own selves first. As women, we need to look within our family, talk to our family members, extend every support towards empowerment, even to the house help, kids, get them education, get them freedom.
How do you feel about how women are represented in TV or Film or in any media?
I will talk more in the context of Television today. Various issues are being highlighted today; there has been enormous change in
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the society. People are beginning to break stereotypes, beginning to go out, work, work towards a cause, feel the freedom. For any change to happen, they need to take the decision of doing first, to go out first. They may be at times shown as an object at times, with derogatory remark or performing a decorative function. But we also see the change; more women are taking the freedom of choice, following their dreams, they select media and become a part of it. Content wise also, the role of a woman has begun to receive acknowledgement. Now it has opened up possibilities for development of women. There are new generation shows. Women are shown as independent, working outside their home, happy, empowered, keeping her head up and not just to find another venue for romance.
How and when is your work
aligned with women’s issues? Most of my characters represent some or other core issues of the society, be it a girl child marriage, status of a widow or a very powerful woman. In 90s, I played as a child bride in Door Darshan’s Humrahi. And then years after, I portrayed a teacher in Balika Badhu, who counseled, made friendship and helped a child bride not to fall into the societal trap, enlightened her to have education, handle the marriage matters with the power of education. I as a person and the characters I usually represent, talk about keep going when faced with difficult situations. Face new situations, be strong and confident.
What do you think is the biggest issue women are facing? We are dealing with some or other kinds of prejudice. People become protective for a girl, even
before she decides something independently. As a woman also, we tend to think through the eyes and minds of the men in our family. Freedom from all those prejudices should be the first step. Some other times, it is the prejudices of other women. We must learn to nurture young girls and make them realise their actual role, their aspirations. Look down, speak less‌No! We must groom them to look good, stand tall, and be sure about what you are saying. There is also the security issue of women. We need to work on it, even in our family. Our society is not very safe for women. Today if a woman is working, going out of the home; forget about the family members, she herself is not very confident till the time she comes back. Living with fear, without peace of mind, are some other major issues a woman encounters with.
Every dollar men get paid, women get paid 75 cents for the same exact work Where is the world at with women now? Thumbs up? Thumbs down?
I would definitely say thumbs
up.
What do you think is the biggest issue facing women?
How hard is it to make it to the top? It is very hard for women to make it to the top. There may be a lot of working women, but there are very less women in executive role.
Unequal pay at workplace. For every dollar men get paid, women get paid 75 cents for the same exact work.
What is the one thing you could recommend to make the world a balanced place, with masculine and feminine in harmony?
How does one create a supportive environment at home? In the society?
Work life balance is very important to me. Both partners should care and follow work life balance.
Respect for the individual and team work.
Rita Mishra
Vice President Merrill Lynch, New York 16 I March 2017
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When Statistics is Numb...
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18 I March 2017
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By-Manjushree Reddy 20 I March 2017
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PSU DIARY
‘We Establish CONCOR
V
. Kalyana Rama, the Chairman & Managing Director of Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) is not only instrumental in development of container depots in many important regions of CONCOR but also has been involved in all the developmental planning and operational activities of EXIM and Domestic cargo at many of its dry port terminals. A trained professional in Railways and multi modal transport logistics, he has wide experience in the field of Engineering, System design, Railways & multi modal logistics operations and Project planning and commissioning. In an exclusive conversation with Swati Sharma of Governance Today, Shri Kalyana Rama speaks up more‌
22 I March 2017
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Ahead of the Market’
V. Kalyana Rama Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR)
How CONCOR has contributed in the growth of Indian economy in last two years and what are the future plans?
Logistics is a service industry and the thumb rule here is every percentage of GDP growth will require around 1.4% growth in logistics segment for GDP growth to happen. OfCourse , GDP is growing but, may be logistics is not growing at the same pace.Like in every developed economy, tertiary sector that includes the service industry contributes more in growth of GDP than primary and secondary sectors. However, growth in these two sectors is also important asall these sectors and the related growth are interdependent and services www.governancetoday.co.in March 2017 I 23
have to be given in the primary and secondary sectors. Precisely, this is the reason our government is putting emphasis on ‘Make in India’ kind of programs. We are an economy of 125 crores, which is a huge domestic market. Make in India is going to pick up the speed now. People will be interested to come and manufacture in India and export outside. Recently, FDI has also started growing and this shows interest of other countries in Indian economy and in Indian market. Domestic as well as EXIM movements are certainlygoing to increase.
How growth of CONCOR is proportionate to growth of market?
We try to establish ourselves ahead of the market. Today we are present at 66 locations in India and we got tie up at 3 locations. Our aim is to start 12 facilities by next FYI which is 2017-18. We are also looking at covering around 100 locations by 2020. This is good enough number to cater to Indian Logistics market. This is in addition to working out from some CRT facilities (Container Rail Terminal) and all the gateway locations where our containers are handled. We operate on demand from these facilities. With all these plans and arrangements in place, we are confident, we will be able to meet the demand.
What are the key challenges you are facing in the course of translating and implementing Prime Minister’s Digital Transport vision? Where does CONCOR stand in that?
CONCOR is quite equipped in regards to digital transport. We are having a very strong IT enabled system with us. We have got our ERP system.. I personally look after the ITes aspects of CONCOR. Today we are looking more at Customer Value Creation. Customer Satisfaction may not be 100 per cent satisfaction. Customer Satisfaction still leaves the scope of little complacency. We may get 95 24 I March 2017
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Our aim is to start 12 facilities by next FYI which is 201718. We are also looking at covering around 100 locations by 2020
per cent customer satisfaction, but customer value creation can be achieved with only 100% customer satisfaction. It may look difficult at the face, but we are trying to graduate towards that. That process requires lot of ITes. We are very much aligned with Digital transportation. Some of our new initiatives are coming upincluding Direct Port Delivery and faster clearances, which we are set to adapt fast. NITI Ayogexpects us to do faster clearances. So have we been able to achieve our targets with this regard, with our monitoring systems already in place.
What is the contribution of Railways, when the Ministry says that they are very much into Cargo and transport? How has that helped CONCOR to execute their planning like 100% empty container utilization?
Out of the many good initiatives of Railways, one is the Time Table freight train. It is difficult to implement because of the sectional capacity. Although Railways has got constraint of sectional capacity, these time tabled trains are run. We run trains on three routes, from Delhi to Chennai, Delhi to Bengaluru and Delhi to Hyderabad, all of which go through Balharshah. Pushing a train through that place
is a nightmare in operational terms. However, we have been able to do it with railway support. Such initiatives have given confidence in railway transport among trade. In EXIM sector, we have started time table trains from National Capital Region, from Tuglakabad and Dadri, with two of our flagship terminals through Kathuwas to Mundra. At Kathuwas we are double stacking it and then taking it to Mundra. Double stacking gives us advantage of competitive rate as well as guaranteed transit. The outcome of this is, big multinationals like Target and Wallmart, who are importing goods from India are now using trains for their exports purpose. Rail transport is environment friendly and is safe in comparison to road. They were not adopting it earlier because of the nonguaranteed transits. Once we came out with the product of guaranteed transit, it became easy for them to adopt. We announced this service on 26 October and till date, these service are running from Dadri and Tuglakabad, without break. These all are exim cargo, for which, custom clearance is mandatory. That’s where we see success of this product. Although custom doesn’t work for seven days, still trains are running all seven days.
How road transportation system in India is helping CONCOR in covering last mile delivery services? Ideally, there should be a mix of transport. There should be collaborative transport through Road, Train and Waterways. But unfortunately, that is not happening. All modes of transport are competing with each other for short and long leads. There is no distinction that short lead should be by road or long lead by train or else, there should be some modal shift and aggregation points. With the Dedicated Freight Corridorcoming up, we are expecting this modal shift to happen, as DFC requires www.governancetoday.co.in
huge parcel size in transit and is very competitive. But this also requires consolidations. These consolidations should happen at designated consolidation points. As of now Road is also transporting for long distances and train is transporting for shorter distances. Road is essential for transporting to last mile. Mostly, first mile and last mile transportation has to be by road only. Now, with these multi modal logistics park and DFC we are expecting that this shift should happen over a period of time and there will be better collaboration between road and train.
According to the logistics market, there is less delivery of Containers from CONCOR than the demand. What is your say in that?
We have been able to provide according to the demand. We need to assess the correctness. There are two domain of logistics where CONCOR works, one is domestic other is EXIM. In EXIM, we have no role regarding the equipments. However, whenever there is any equipment balancing is required we certainly help. In domestic transport, there are some places where there is shortage of containers. We are willing to provide containers over there, but the issue is, in India people still compare logistics with basic transport. Logistics is much beyond mere transport. It is difficult to transport by container, if you compare cost of logistics with only cost of transport. The other anomaly is, in most cases of long distance transportation, cost of transportation is almost 3% of total product cost.But generally buyer is very sensitive about that cost and as a result, many a times, we face hard negotiations.
Are there any policy expectation from the Government to come in action which forces Road and Railways to help in empty container transportation or in using them in cargo?
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We are very much aligned with Digital transportation. Some of our new initiatives are coming up including Direct Port Delivery and faster clearances, which we are set to adapt fast.
This cannot be done by legislation because this is the imbalance in traffic. This imbalance can be taken care by logistics operators, manufacturers, traders and consumers. To balance this, the cost of transport may increase. We can always include that in product costing. But, people are not very concerned with quality of transport rather with the cost of transportation. Second, legislation and administration of legislation is important in controlling overweight transport on road, avoidance of unethical practices in some segments of transport. If we control them, all the idealistic things which we are talking about like collaboration in transportation, multimodal transportation, different ways of transportation depending on each other, and more, will definitely happen.
Will you give any suggestion which can help in better multimodal transportation and better services to small manufactures who are in interior areas and who don’t need full container load transportation? We are already doing that, not only in domestic but in EXIM sector
too. These are called LCL (Less than Container load). In domestic, we call it business associate policy. We appoint business associates who collect the cargo and stuff the container. However, if consolidation is not happening as it is supposed to happen, then we can’t run the train. For this, there is another initiative from railways, which is called hub and spoke model. Here, we run the train, but we bring the cargo first to hub and then deliver it to destination after consolidation. We are adopting such practices to help the small traders and manufacturers and these traders are again handled by business associates if they are having less than container load. Government policies and their administration may further help in making these better.
How will DFC change the transport scenario? What benefits do CONCOR see from DFCs? The main problem of railways is differential speed of different types of trains. After DFC, the speed is same for all trains moving on the system, hence the movement will be faster. Again, the average length of the train is 686 meters and that carries 90 TUs (Twenty foot equivalent unit). On DFC, length of the train will be 1500 metres. Till now double decking was allowed only on selected routes, but DFC is cleared for double stacking. Therefore the capacity of train will be of 400 TUs. In which case, we will be able to transport more in less time. Consolidation will be easier. Road transporters will find it beneficial to consolidate at one designated place and pick up from other place. This will help in modal shift.
Are there any plans for CONCOR to expand globally? We are looking at global markets with lot of interest. If there is any opportunity, we will expand.
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GOVERNANCE WATCH
Health Ministry undertakes largest ever drug survey in the world for quality The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India had entrusted the work relating to carrying out a Survey of the extent of Problems of ‘Spurious and Not of Standard Quality Drugs’ to the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Noida. The statistical design of the Drug Survey included as many as 224 Drug molecules belonging to 15 different therapeutic categories of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011. As part of this survey, 47,954 drug samples relating to 23 dosage forms were drawn from 654 districts of 36 States and Union Territories from the supply chains including retail outlets, Government sources and from eight airports and sea ports. Overall, out of the 47,012 samples tested, 13 samples were found to be Spurious and 1,850 samples were found to be ‘Not of Standard Quality’ (NSQ). As such, the percentage of NSQ Drugs in India has been found to be 3.16% and that of spurious drugs 0.0245%. This is the largest ever scientifically designed and professionally executed drug survey undertaken in the world for determining the quality of drugs. The entire survey report has been uploaded in the Reports section of website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare viz. www.mohfw.gov.in and also on the website of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) viz. www.cdsco.nic.in.
Central Board of Excise and Customs launches a Mobile Application for GST to inform the taxpayers In step with the Government’s Digital India initiative, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has launched a mobile application for Goods and Services Tax. The Mobile Application enables taxpayers to be well informed of the latest updates on GST. Taxpayers can also provide feedback and contact CBEC’s 24x7 helpdesk “CBEC Mitra” through a toll-free number or email, at the touch of a button.
IT Department Launches Operation Clean Money Income Tax Department (ITD) has initiated Operation Clean Money. Initial phase of the operation involves e-verification of large cash deposits made during 9th November to 30th December 2016. In the first batch, around 18 lakh persons have been identified in whose case, cash transactions do not appear to be in line with the tax payer’s profile. ITD has enabled online verification of these transactions to reduce compliance cost for the taxpayers while optimising its resources. The PAN holder can view the information using the link “Cash Transactions 2016” under “Compliance” section of the portal. The taxpayer will be able to submit online explanation without any need to visit Income Tax office. In case explanation of source of cash is found justified, the verification will be closed without any need to visit Income Tax Office. The verification will also be closed if the cash deposit is declared under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY). 26 I March 2017
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15 lakh youth to get online and experiential learning on Entrepreneurship Education The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (SDE) and Wadhwani Operating Foundation (WOF) signed two Agreements for effectuating an earlier understanding of jointly developing and implementing Entrepreneurship and Skill Development initiatives in the country with the Pradhan Mantri YUVA Scheme being the first joint effort in this regard. Pradhan Mantri YUVA Scheme launched by the Ministry during November, 2016 aims at providing online Entrepreneurship Education to about 15 lakh students across the country through 3050 Project Institutes consisting of Institutions of Higher Learning; Schools; ITIs and Entrepreneurship Development Centres, both Government and Private. The online Entrepreneurship Modules will be duly supplemented by the class room based experiential learning activities and practicums which will be facilitated by specially trained Faculty of the educational institutions. The Ministry would also provide financial assistance to these institutions for different activities under the Scheme. The total scheme outlay is INR450 crores. The five-year Scheme is expected to witness setting up of more than 23,000 enterprises thus resulting into creation of more than 2.30 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the country.
“SWAYAM� Platform will be launched to leverage Information Technology The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament said that the Government proposes to leverage information technology and launch SWAYAM Platform with at least 350 online courses. In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister said this will enable students to virtually attend the courses taught by the best faculty; access high quality reading resources, participate in discussion forums; take tests and earn academic grades. Access to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels, dedicated to education.
National Housing Bank will Refinance Individual Housing Loans of about Rs. 20,000 Crore in 2017-18 The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament today said that affordable housing will now be given infrastructure status, which will enable these projects to avail the associated benefits. The National Housing Bank (NHB) will refinance individual housing loans of about Rs. 20,000 crore in 2017-18. Thanks to the surplus liquidity created by demonetisation, the Banks have already started reducing their lending rates, including those for housing. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley in his Budget Speech said that in addition, interest subvention for housing loans has also been announced by the Prime Minister. www.governancetoday.co.in March 2017 I 27
GOVERNANCE WATCH
Opening of the first batch of new Post Office Passport Seva Kendras The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DOP) announced their decision to utilize the Head Post Offices (HPO) in the various States as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the citizens of our country. The objective of this partnership is to extend passport services on a larger scale and to ensure wider area coverage. With the successful operationalization of the two pilot projects at the HPO at Mysuru in Karnataka and at the Post Office at Dahod in Gujarat, the Government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 56 more POPSKs in various regions.
Major Ports to Go Green, to Save INR 75 Crore Annually The Ministry of Shipping, as a part of its ‘Green Port Initiative’ has been emphasizing on use of renewable sources of energy to power Major Ports across the nation. The Ministry aims to set up 91.50 MW of solar energy capacity at the twelve Major Ports and 45 MW of wind energy capacity by the two Major Ports of Kandla and V. O. Chidambaranar. Major Ports have started the process of setting-up renewable energy projects by investing INR704.52 crores (Solar–INR 412.02 Cr and Wind–INR 292.50 Cr) in these projects. When completed, these renewable energy projects will help in the reduction of carbon dioxide emission by 136,500 MT annually.
Ministry of UD to push dense urban growth along mass transit corridors To effectively address the emerging urbanization challenges, the Ministry of Urban Development has formulated a ‘National Transit Oriented Development Policy’ to promote living close to mass urban transit corridors. This new initiatives seeks to promote ‘Transit Oriented Development (TOD)’ which enables people to live within walking or cycling distance from transit corridors like the Metros, Monorail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, currently being taken up on a large scale. Under TOD, city densification will be promoted along mass transit corridors through vertical construction by substantially enhancing FARs (Floor Area Ratio) backed by promotion of Non-motorised Transport Infrastructure for walking and cycling to transport stations, development of street networks in the influence zone of transit corridors, multi-modal integration, effective first and last mile connectivity through feeder services to enable people access public transit in 5 to 10 minutes from home and work places. Under the new Metro Policy, TOD has been mandatory while under Green Urban Mobility Scheme, TOD has been made an essential reform and is given priority for receiving central assistance. TOD is being taken up Ahmedabad, Delhi(kakardooma), Naya Raipur, Nagpur and Navi Mumbai and the Ministry would like this to be expanded to other cities as well. 28 I March 2017
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MeitY launches Cyber Swachhta Kendra Extending the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign to the cyber world, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Shri. Ravi Shankar Prasad, launched the Cyber Swachhta Kendra–Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre for analysis of malware and botnets that affect networks and systems. This is a part of MeitY’s Digital India initiative aimed at creating a secure cyber space by detecting botnet infections in India and to notify, enable cleaning and securing systems of end-users to prevent further infections. The centre is operated by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).The Centre aims to enhance coordination between the Government and industry in order to encourage cyber hygiene among all end-users and to create a secure and safe internet ecosystem in India.
Help to Farmers by Indian Meteorological Department The Agro-meteorological Advisory Services (AAS) under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva (GKMS) is operated to prepare biweekly weather based AAS bulletins for wider dissemination to the farmers at district scale through multimedia channels and also through SMS so as to plan farm operations accordingly. At present, 24.5 million farmers are directly subscribing SMS based AAS bulletins and have benefitted by and large. Efforts are continuously made for expanding the outreach of the AAS to every farming household across the country. As per the recent National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) report, farming community of the country is using the GKMS service products for critical farm operations viz. i) Management of sowing (Delayed onset of rains); ii) Changing crop variety (Delay in rainfall); iii) Spraying Pesticides for disease control (occurrence of rainfall); iv) Managing Irrigation (Heavy rainfall Forecast). GKMS has the potential of generating net economic benefit up to Rs.3.30 lakh crores when Agro-Meteorological advisory is fully utilized by the 95 million agriculture dependent households.
Sikkim becomes 22nd State to join UDAY The Government of India and the State of Sikkim signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the Scheme Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) today, for operational improvement of the State’s Power Distribution Department. With the signing of MoU, the total number of States covered under UDAY has reached twenty-two. Sikkim would derive an Overall Net Benefit of approximately INR 207 crores through UDAY by way of cheaper funds, reduction in AT&C and transmission losses, interventions in energy efficiency, etc. during the period of turnaround. The reduction in AT&C losses and transmission losses to 15% and 3.50% respectively is likely to bring additional revenue of around INR 179 crores.
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GOVERNANCE WATCH
States will be ranked on innovations from 2017 To make India an innovation-driven economy, NITI Aayog, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) together launched a mega initiative “India Innovation Index” that will rank states on Innovations through country’s first online innovation index portal that will capture data on innovation from all Indian states on innovation and regularly update it in real time. The India Innovation Index Framework will be structured based on the best practices followed in Global Innovation Index (GII) indicators and additionally by adding India-centric parameters those truly reflect the Indian innovation ecosystem. India currently ranks 66th out of 128 countries on the Global innovation Index (GII) 2016.
“SANKALP” for Livelihood Promotion Programme to be Launched at a cost of INR 4000 Crores The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament today said that the Government proposes to extend the number of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras from current 60 to cover more than 600 districts across the country. He said 100 India International Skills Centres will be establish ed across the country. These centres would offer advanced training and also courses in foreign languages. This will help those of our youth who seek job opportunities outside the country. The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that in the Financial Year 2017-18, a programme SANKALP (Skill Acquistion and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion Programme) will also be launched at a cost of Rs. 4,000 crore. SANKALP will provide market relevant training to 3.5 crore youth.
Scientific Panel on “Food Fortification and Nutrition” The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which is addressing the nutritional gap in the population through fortification of various foods has now constituted a Scientific Panel on “Food Fortification and Nutrition” to take the program further. The Panel will identify critical nutritional gaps in the Indian diet in general as well as in specific target groups based on diet surveys and credible scientific evidence, define strategies to address nutritional needs of the general population and vulnerable groups, and review the standards for all suitable food fortifying vehicles, in addition to the healthy dietary intake of Fat, Sugar & Salt. It will also address regulatory and related technological issues, review proposals from industry using modern risk assessment methods, and prescribe standard sampling and test methods for effective monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of the relevant regulations.
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Ministry of Tourism and Culture launches pre-loaded Sim Card for Tourists arriving in India on E-visa Dr. Mahesh Sharma,Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Culture, launched the initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for providing pre-loaded Sim Card to foreign tourists arriving in India on e-Visa. This initiative has been launched in association with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (BSNL. This facility will be initially available in the Indira Gandhi International Airport (T3 Terminal), New Delhi and later cover remaining 15 international airports, where e-Visa facility is currently available. This facility is only available for tourists arriving in India on e-Visa. Sim cards will be pre-loaded with a value of Rs. 50 talk time and 50 MB data and will be activated on immediate basis so as to enable them use this facility instantly.
Indian Navy Concludes First Contract under Buy and Make (Indian) Category A contract between Nova Integrated Systems Ltd and Indian Navy for procurement of Surface Surveillance Radars (SSR) has been concluded. This is the first contract concluded under the Buy and Make (Indian) Category, in line with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. Nova Integrated Systems Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Advanced System Ltd, would indigenously manufacture these state-of-the-art radars in collaboration with Terma, Denmark. This contract marks the entry of Indian Private Industry in production of hi-tech sensors for the Indian Navy. Procurement of SSR is a part of Indian Navy’s Plan for modernisation of its Fleets, and these radars would also be installed onboard the ships under construction.
India accelerating efforts to eliminate measles and control rubella by 2020 Accelerating efforts to eliminate measles and control rubella, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, convened a meeting of an Expert Advisory Group to recommend strategies to end the scourge of these killer and debilitating diseases by 2020. India has made important gains in recent years. Measles deaths have declined by 51% from an estimated 100,000 in the year 2000 to 49 000 in 2015. This has been possible by significantly increasing the reach of the first dose of measles vaccine, given at the age of nine months under routine immunization programme, from 56% in 2000 to 87% in 2015. In 2010 India introduced the second dose of measles-containing vaccine in routine immunization programme to close the immunity gap and accelerate measles elimination. Nearly 11.8 crore children aged nine months to 10 years were vaccinated during mass measles vaccination campaigns between 2010 and 2013 in select states of the country. In 2015, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization recommended introduction of rubella vaccine as combined measles-rubella vaccine, as a nation-wide campaign, covering children in the age group of 9 months to less than 15 years age group. The ongoing MR campaign in five states – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Puducherry & Lakshadweep, to vaccinate 3.48 crore children, has till date, reached 1.16 crore children.
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GOVERNANCE WATCH
Exchange Rate of Foreign Currency Relating To Imported and Export Goods Notified
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), and in supersession of the notification of the Central Board of Excise and Customs No.12/2017-CUSTOMS (N.T.), dated 16th February, 2017, except as respects things done or omitted to be done before such supersession, the Central Board of Excise and Customs hereby determines that the rate of exchange of conversion of each of the foreign currencies specified in column (2) of each of Schedule I and Schedule II annexed hereto, into Indian currency or vice versa, shall, with effect from 3rd March, 2017, be the rate mentioned against it in the corresponding entry in column (3) thereof, for the purpose of the said section, relating to imported and export goods.
Rate of exchange of one unit of foreign currency equivalent to Indian rupees
Foreign Currency
Ministry of Road Transport’s New Format for Reporting Accidents An expert committee is constituted by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to review the format for reporting of road accidents. The committee has developed a uniform accident Recording Format to be adopted by the police in all states and UTs. The accident Recording Form has five sections designed to capture all relevant information like accident identification/location, road condition, vehicles involved and victim details.
NTPC INSTALLS ROBOTIC DRY CLEANING SYSTEM FOR SOLAR PV PLANT AT NTPC DADRI Robotic Dry Cleaning System for Solar panels at Solar PV plant at NTPC Dadri was inaugurated by A. K. Jha, Director (Technical), NTPC Limited in presence of D.K. Sood, RED (DBF) & ED (CSR/R&R) and S. K. Sinha, GGM (Dadri) and other senior officials of NTPC.
32 I March 2017
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FOYER
l l i k S s r e k r o W c i t 7 s 1 e 0 m 2 t i Do m m u S Utility Skill India
FOYER http://skillindia.govtoday.in/glimpses
34 I March 2017
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D
omestic work is one of the largest sectors of work among the essential services and is a lynchpin connecting the economics of the home and the requirements of the workplace. Domestic workers who are estimated to be over 20 million in the country – women constituting 90 per cent of them, are a constantly growing service in the informal and unorganized sector. The last two decades have seen a sharp increase in their numbers on account of the demand and utilities they carry. This increase in the number of domestic workers is also linked to a shift from agrarian-based economy to a manufacture and service-based economy. However, the majority of domestic workers in India still remain illiterate, low-skilled and ill-provided in their lives and workplaces. They are also one of the poorest and most exploited groups of workers in the country, migrating in sizeable numbers and often trafficked.Imparting skills goes a long way in formalizing and upgrading the labor economy. It leads to a change in the workers’ demographic profile and helps them settle into long-term occupations, thus reducing frictional unemployment. Also, it is not just training and recruitment that is catching the interest of entrepreneurs and service providers but also their placements into creation of need based job roles. Employers are increasingly seeking workers who possess a mix of transversal, vocational as well as technical Skills.
Summit Report www.governancetoday.co.in March 2017 I 35
There is largely the expectation for the skills’ programs to strike the right balance between leveraging and recognizing existing skills, and skilling, and also to account for the increasingly varied nature of the domestic work sector, both in terms of the skill sets represented, training and experience, and the qualities and better services that employers are seeking. By committing to improving domestic workers’ skills, organizing and mainstreaming the workforce in the domestic labour segment commit to building an extended economy apart from creating appropriate service and life conditions for these hugely neglected and unorganized workers in the country. In this background, Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council (DWSSC) in association with Governance Today organized a One Day ‘Domestic Workers’ Skill Summit 2017’- Utility Skill India on 2 February 2017, at New Delhi. The Summit was intended to provide a more solid foundation for an overdue national conversation in order to recognize that Domestic work is among the most essential services and economic activity. Already the national policy on domestic workers alongside state level legislations have brought this sector under the legal, constitutional, educational and developmental purview. The Domestic Workers’ Skill Summit brought the planners and policy makers, trainers, service providers and the implementers together on one forum for a clear understanding of the sector, particularly with reference to the utilities in the household services and for creating a positive nexus among those who care for our homes and our loved ones being treated fairly with policies, and to facilitate the link between skill and education for living and for making a living. The Summit also resulted in a set of concrete recommendations 36 I March 2017
for future policy reforms and programs.
Highlights: Opening Ceremony The ‘Domestic Workers’ Skill Summit 2017’- Utility Skill India was formally opened by the Convener of the Summit, Amod Kanth, Chairman Domestic Workers’ Sector Skill Council (DWSSC) and was inaugurated by the Chief Guest of the Summit, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. Kanth, the former bureaucrat who has been raising his voice about similar issues surrounding the weaker sections of society, has contributed to various policy discussions of the Indian Government in the past. He presented the ground situation in domestic work sector that sees the entry of nearly 13 million workforces in India’s labour market every year, out of which, only 5 per cent are trained workforces in the segment in comparison to the international situations, where in most of the developed and developing countries have their skilled workforce as high as between 40 to 90 per cent. Talking about the role of the Sector Skill Council, he said, this is not an industry led Sector or a Council. For this sector, every household is like an industry. Employment is not the problem in this sector; rather the problem is about skilling the Domestic Workers, their safety, their social and economic issues. The fund allotment for Skilling has been doubled in the budget 2017-18 in comparison to the previous year. ‘Most of the domestic workers now need to be trained to make this sector professional and to make the profession aspirational’, he said. Maj Gen Manik Sabharwal (Retd.), CEO, DWSSC presented the objective of providing the summit platform to bring together the Training Partners,
Assessment Partners, government functionaries, industry, etc to synergize all efforts so as to meet the bigger goal for meeting the skill requirements of Domestic Workers in the country. He defined the role and characterization of a domestic worker, and discussed the challenges in this sector, how there is an exponential growth of the domestic workforce from approximately 6 million in 2013 to a projected 10.88 million in coming few years. Statistics says, 2.5 million out of the 7.9 million of the total number of the Domestic Workers are found in the tier 1 cities. Maj Gen Manik Sabharwal also discussed the objectives of the Sector Skill Council and how they are working towards changing each of the challenges in the sector to opportunities. National policy for domestic workers is waiting for the approval with the Union Cabinet. That apart, the Council also signed MoUs with states including Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and also stand closely to sign the understandings with Punjab and Goa. The Council provided support to Jharkhand government in drafting the Jharkhand Private Placement Agencies and Domestic Workers Regulation Bill, which is likely to be replicated to other states. The Council has also made 4 Participants’ Handbooks, completed 8 ToTs. It has set a target of 1680 trainings for job roles like general house keepers, house keeper cum cooks, child care taker, elderly care takernon-clinical, which, it is all set to commence soon. The Council is considering two more job roles for Japa maid and Baby care. ‘The first Indian International skill centre is commissioned in Ranchi, which will take off soon. DWSSC also looks forward to have more such international training centres with the support of NSDC’, he said. While delivering the Inaugural address, the Chief Guest of the Summit, . Rajiv Pratap www.governancetoday.co.in
A total of 150 enthusiastic stakeholders participated in the Summit
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Rudy, Hon’ble Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship lauded the DWSSC for taking up such a complex and unorganized sector for skilling with so much of seriousness. Hon’ Minister said, although a constant question about ‘Where is the job’ keeps haunting him, but the truth is, the country has millions of job, unrecognized, unidentified. ‘We have not been able to stitch an ecosystem for the jobs.’ Today, the ecosystem which we have established, 60 thousand retiring armed personals are being trained in last 6 months of their jobs to be prepared to take up new jobs of trainers, entrepreneurships, etc. in civil life. The SSCs are failing in identifying, aggregating and connecting with the jobs. But, unless the ecosystem starts working for all of us, it is not going to work, he said. Stakeholders need to be active, as there are numerous opportunities available. If the workers are being trained and groomed properly they would do very well across world. Hon’ Minister suggested for a link that should be made between The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and the Passport of a worker. ‘No recruitment agency can send a worker without NSQF certification’. The Minister said, more than 6000 young people of India live in the jails of Gulf countries, some have even been given either death or life imprisonment, because of the ignorance of the rules of the area. Such workers at least need trainings on basics, language, and manners of those areas. He also hinted about the upcoming international skill centres. The Minister said, Skill Ministry is doing great in terms of surpassing other national initiatives, including Make in India and Digital India. ‘Now we need to carry it forward, the spirit needs to remain with which we can achieve many more success in skilling India’, he said. Rajesh Agarwal, Joint Secretary, 38 I March 2017
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, in his special address highlighted about the three variants of skilling, which are – Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), special project variant, and Short term training. He also pointed out the need for Skilling to be done at the source location of the workers, where the migration actually takes place. Amitabh Kant, the CEO of NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) in his keynote address, talked about the need for institutionalization of the sector, which DWSSC will do. He also spoke about bringing in effective gender parity. ‘Out of the 20 million workers in the country, 90% are women. India’s GDP cannot grow without having gender parity. Women contribute 17% of Indian GDP, while globally it’s 40%. One of the McKinsey reports suggests, if India includes gender parity, the GDP percentage will increase for almost a quarter. So the most significant effort in this direction will be women’s training.’ Secondly, Less than 1% workers are formally trained and almost 85% are totally unskilled. For which getting adequate value from the labour force is difficult. Training of workers as per the global standards is highly required. There is need for professional agencies and NGOs to train, hand hold and guide the workers. ‘The country needs to train about 100 lacs people. The current target needs to be enhanced to this mark’, he said. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation, who is responsible for providing strategic vision to NSDC, to SSCs and the entire skill ecosystem so that they move cohesively towards achievement of the Prime Minister’s Skill India Mission, also shared his thoughts in the Summit. While presenting his keynote address, he talked about how the whole skill ecosystem is quite complex with so much moving machinery.
‘But one thing is certainly clear that we are moving in a right direction, under the strategic guidance of the Ministry’, he said. SSC needs to remain close to industry because of the employment opportunities they can create; at the same time, they are also supposed to remain close enough to government as the supply side, where a lot is happening. DWSSC is one of the most challenging SSCs as they have to work with people at the bottom of the income pyramid and therefore very critical in many ways. Again, this is the sector which has the highest female labour force, and is hugely affected by migration from different parts of the country. Unlike others, this sector may not connect to Industry, but this connects to every individual. There is a bigger role to advocate the better treatment of the workers by orienting the employers as well. Advocacy is highly required in this sector with both Centre and State levels of Government. Also, DWSSC needs to connect with the states in a strategic way, to be successful. M C Luther, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs talked about overseas employment in the Domestic Workers’ sector. He presented the massive scale of budget and training allocations for the group, which is, INR 4000 Crores for Sankalp training scheme, INR 1500 cr for training institutions, INR 1800 cr for the Ministry, INR 500 cr for skill devt of rural women, and all these for 5 lakh masons who are to be trained by 2022. And the best parts are online trainings and certification of the industry by the academia. 30 million Indians are living across the globe. Out of that 9 million live in Gulf countries, of whom, only 3 million live in Saudi Arabia and another 2.5 million in the UAE. These two countries give us a lot of employment opportunities. Indian manpower is great in demand, foremost for, they are obedient to the laws, they www.governancetoday.co.in
Key Speakers SHRI. RAJESH AGARWAL Joint Secretary Ministry of Skill Development And Entrepreneurship
SHRI RAJIT PUNHANI Joint Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment
SHRI CHANDRAN CHETAN Director National Domestic Workers Movement(NDWM)
SHRI. SUSHIL RAMOLA Director - DWSSC CEO & MD - B-ABLE
SHRI AMITABH KANT CEO NITI Aayog
SHRI MANISH KUMAR SHRI M CECIL LUTHER MD & CEO Joint Secretary Ministry of External Affairs National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) (MEA)
SHRI AMOD K. KANTH Chairman Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council (DWSSC)
MAJ GEN MANIK SABHARWAL SHRI PAWAN AGARWAL SHRI DEEPAK BAGLA (RETD) CEO Managing Director & CEO CEO Food Safety and Standards Invest India (DWSSC) Authority of India (FSSAI)
SHRI JAYANT KRISHNA COO (NSDC)
MS. MEENAKSHI JAIN CEO Helper4U
SHRI. MAHESH.T Co-Founder & CEO Navriti Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
MS. BHARTI BIRLA Sr. Manager International Labour Organization (ILO)
SHRI. ASHOK MEHTA President & Business Head Educomp Solutions Ltd
MS. GAURI SINGH Founder & Director DekhoSeekho
SHRI. SACHIN BHAGAT General Manager Training Hamara Angels
SHRI. GABRIEL H. BORDADO SHRI. DEBABRATA GHOSH Skills & Employment Specialist Director International Labour KPMG Organization(ILO) and many more...
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are skilled, they don’t retaliate, and they are competent. Demand for Indian workers is more than other South East Asian Countries. Indian Caregivers are largely required in European countries. US $30 Billion remittance comes from these golf countries, at a time when all our exports are going down. For last 20 months the exports have been dropped, but this is one sector which grows at a CAGR of more than 20%. Emigrate portal of MEA shows the demand of the workers and their wages across the world. On this portal one can track how many are travelling to other countries, on a daily basis. 2.5 million Emigrants are registered on emigrate portal of MEA. We have captured any immigrant’s data in his/her e-locker. Today, the number of foreign employers is 92 thousand. 1500 registered recruitment agents who have got license after a deposit and bank guarantee of 15 lakhs with us. In scenarios of any crisis, the response time MEA takes is 30 days. We have project exporters, who have huge projects going on abroad. On an average, India exports 8 lacs workers every year. Ironically, 22 thousand male workers while only 60 women went through legal and licensed recruitment agencies. 6 lakh women have gone abroad as domestic workers, last year. We need to curb this illegal practice. Mr Luther also highlighted how the licensed agents are not able to meet the international demands for labour force. A lot of training partners are needed to cover 0.5 million job globally. North-Eastern workers have big opportunities in global market because of their English language skills. ‘However, Domestic Workers will go abroad only with license’, he said. Sameer Nagpal, Director, CoCubes Technologies, as part of the industry presentation, discussed about how the structure of the jobs are fundamentally 40 I March 2017
changing. The rate of change in what we do or the nature of work is really fast. India is in the state of lopsided workforce. A report says, 50% of all jobs in US will be franchised. The solution as CoCubes sees is,’ we need to connect, we need to have the right supply, and the demand has to be measured in a quantifiable way and the supply has to be assessed and mapped onto the demand’. For last 20 years CoCubes has been in vocational space and has been conducting assessment programs with 20 SSCs. With Aon Hewitt consulting, we are bringing onto the table a lot of assessments on the corporate and assessment sides. ‘From Blue collar to the Boardroom- that’s our mission’, he said, e.g., from a plumber to a programmer. And we help connect them to the jobs.
Thematic Sessions: From Policy to Practice: Addressing Legal Safeguards The thematic session was introduced by the moderator, Amod K Kanth, Chairman, DWSSC. He said, DWSSC has to safeguards the benefits of both the employer as well as the employee. Domestic worker in Saudi Arabia gets salary of 800 Riyal equals to INR14400 per month, however, the employers pay up to 1200 riyals, if they are happy with the worker.The fixed salaries of the workers in various countries are available on e-migrate website. Rajit Punhani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment highlighted on the need of the National Policy on the Domestic Workers. Draft policy is now with ILO to have their inputs. It will then be available on the website for people to comment and then will be taken up with the Government. All the policies should be acceptable by employers and employees. He also pointed out that there is no platform available for employers. The part time workers even have more than
3 or 4 employers. Dr. S S Pathak, Joint Labour Commissioner, Govt. of Jharkhand highlighted the Jharkhand Private Placement Agencies and Domestic Workers’ Bill, 2016 which is in place now and has been passed in assembly. He pointed out some critical needs for the Domestic Workers; including, the need to regulate the placement agencies, not to allow child workers, and also to issue the pass books to the domestic workers with registration numbers. He again suggested for the private placement agencies to have offices in local and source areas, to become more active, and to give details of information including salary, both within and outside the state. Bharti Birla, National Project Coordinator, International Labour Organization spoke while providing ILO’s long standing contributions in the Domestic Workers development sector, discussed about ILO recommendation 195 that talks about the skill development and opportunities to work in decent situations. There are 84% women domestic workers in urban areas and 92% in rural areas who get low wages. According to one of the ILO surveys on employers, they want to pay more to the caregivers in elderly, new born, and childcare, but not to the workers who does the regular sweeping, dusting, etc. Demand for skills is not created as of now. She also highlighted some of the concern areas that needs immediate address, to provide written contracts, majorly for migrated workers, defined working time, weekly and annual leaves, proper remuneration, conditions of employment, health and safety, social security , discrimination on sex and religion and also to provide and organize trainings. Chandran Riymonds, Director, NDWM suggested for the provision in the Census Survey in 2021, to include a segment which will tell about the category of workers in order to get the actual www.governancetoday.co.in
Exhibition Glimpses
In Media
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statistics in this segment. Domestic workers who make significant contribution to the economy, needs absolute safeguard for their rights, dignity, justice and equal opportunities. Ashok Mehta, President & Business Head, Educomp Solutions Ltd while making an industry representation discussed the many aspects of skills trainings Educomp has been providing over the years for different sectors and work forces in the society. The session on ‘Breaking Barriers: Unmasking the invisibility of Domestic Workers’ was moderated by Pritha Dutt, Director of the skilling farm, Empower Pragati. The discussions proceeded around how mobilization is a challenge, including the challenge of demand aggregation Vs supply drives. It also brought forth insights around incremental human resource requirement and skill gap, and making Domestic Worker Skill Training aspirational and dignified. Vijeta Shrivastava, Consultant, Madhya Pradesh State Skill Development Mission, mentioned about PMKVY to train 2 lakh women, 39,000 as general housekeeper. ‘Vocational Training Providers (VTP) are the most vital part of skill ecosystem’, he said. Gitali Thakur, Founder, Maitri echoed the voice for skilling which is the way to get the due of the workers. She insisted on having a proper road map for bringing the dignity of the job. Sunita Reddy, President, Satat, Mathew Cherian, CEO, Helpage India,and Atul Kumar Goyal, President, URJA also talked on the stigma related to the domestic workers those need to be removed and more sensitization needs to be brought in. Debabrata Ghosh, Associate Director, KPMG made the industry presentation on the demandsupply as well as on the trainings perspectives. The other thematic session titled ‘ Skill for future: New Age Training, Talents and Utilities’ 42 I March 2017
was moderatored by Sushil Ramola, Director, DWSSC, & Chairman of B-ABLE. The session portrayed future skills demands, Industry classifications and overview, stakeholders, Training infrastructure, training modules, standardization, and recommendations for them, and the Public-private initiatives in skill development. Jayant Krishna, COO, NSDC encouraged DWSSC as one of the most significant SSC to take care of people who are at the bottom of the pyramid. He said, ‘if we get the proper supply chain, there would be around one lakh jobs every year. 100 IISC will be opened and also be mapped with trans-national QPs and job roles. There would be huge number of trainings in PMKVY and other fee based and Government Schemes.’ Television and Smart phones can be used as the mode of delivery to impart training. 2 Lakh Panchayats have broadband network facility which can be used for training of these workers. A think tank needs to be set up to create a model of training, he added. Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI spoke about how this sector could bring the economic benefits to the society by skilling work. He said, 3 million food businesses are registered with FSSAI. RPL is happening in many areas. Skill India, FSSAI and RWAs are making tri-partite associations. Gabriel H Bordado, Skill & Employment Specialist, ILO shared his insights on the four core areas for training, which are Learning to learn, Communication, Problem Solving, and Team Work. He also discussed the Regional Model Competency Standards (RMCS) for Domestic Work, which is available on the ILO website. Mahesh T, Founder & CEO, Navriti Technologies made the industry presentation. Gauri Singh, Founder & Director, The Maids Company also spoke in the session. The last thematic session of the summit, ‘Path of reform: From
Unorganized to Organized Sector and Technology Reinforcement’ was moderated by Bhaskar R Sayapparaju, Director, Volksy Technology. The panelists who discussed about the role and importance of technologies in many interesting ways, are Capt. Uday Prasad, Head Consultant, NSDC,Sushil Ramola, B-ABLE, Meenakshi Jain, CEO, Helper4u, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-Founder, UrbanClap, Sameer Nagpal, Director, CoCubes,and Capt Harpratap Singh, Director, MSAG Skill India LLP, and Suresh Goel, President, Vasant Vihar RWA shared their thoughts on the reform areas and needs in the Domestic work sector, while emphasizing the need for skilling this segment of the society. The session tried to capture the views around improving collaboration with social partners, opportunities for joint efforts, raising awareness and selecting priorities for action. The session discussions also reiterated the transition from unlicensed, self-employed or unregistered economic activity to an organized, licensed organizations, tax-paying initiatives, and registered economic activity. The video presentation by Hamara Angels captured the attention of audience on how interfaces, application and similar organized services are changing unorganized sectors by providing on demand and quality resources. Consolidating the discussions of the day-long summit, Amod Kanth, Chairman, DWSSC presented the concluding remarks. Jaya G Kumar, Head, Advocacy & Business Development, DWSSC gave Vote of Thanks, marking the closure of the summit.
For more, Visit http://skillindia.govtoday.in/glimpses www.governancetoday.co.in
PARTNERS AND ASSOCIATES Organised By
Co-Host
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SMART CITY
Urban Planning with Human Touch
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Varnali Deka CEO, GMDA
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oday’s cities need to accommodate spiralling numbers of people, servicing their needs and stimulating trade and investment, creating jobs, all within the constraints imposed by mega challenges, such as infrastructure, climate change and more. Guwahati is not just Assam’s largest city; it is the gateway to Northeast India for providing the best connectivity to other states in the region and the world beyond. Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, mandated for the formulation and execution of schemes for the planned development of Guwahati Metropolitan area has become the front runners of fostering sustainable solutions in its efforts to become more livable and long-term beneficial to the inhabitants. How change is at the heart of Guwahati metropolitan life- Manjushree Reddy in conversation with Varnali Deka, CEO, GMDA ‌ www.governancetoday.co.in
What are the urban challenges Assam is facing? In the case of Assam, there are some generic challenges of urbanisation. The foremost of which is rapid growth of population, in ways of both natural and migratory population. For Assam, Infrastructure is also a big challenge, if we compare the situation with other parts of the countries, where in, planned cities and towns are coming up. Also, in Assam, flood has been a chronic issue, particularly, in monsoons. We typically get heavy volume of rains in the monsoon and then in rest of the year there is scarcity. In urban areas, Guwahati in particular, flood and water logging are frequent, because of the unique geography of the city. The city has planes surrounded by hills. Some amount of water is absorbed by the ground, but because of concretization in recent times, the water which was supposed to go under the ground and recharge the ground water level adds up to the already high volume of water logging. This is a major concern for the city. Waste disposal is the other
concern, as there are no sustainable models except few like the one is Vellore model by Mr. Srinivasan. But I am happy to say that government of Assam has now taken up waste disposal as a focus area in order to target sustainable ways of disposal. Urban transportation is also one more area to focus, in absence of any mass transport systems. Till now, we solely rely on unorganized operators. However, things will change with metro rail project coming up.
Assam government seems to have undertaken several initiatives in the urban space. What is your vision to make Guwahati a smart city? Can you tell us what you see as effective strategies for the city to provide infrastructure to keep pace with challenges like growing populations or migration or traffic, etc? Guwahati has been taken up under smart city project, which is the only smart city and gateway for the entire Northeast region. The implementation of the Smart
City Mission at the City level will be done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). I am happy to say that GMDA has taken up a number of initiatives, which I feel will make Guwahati a better place to live in. We are considering development of a lot of civic amenities, which includes, development of bus terminal, civic centre and botanical garden of international level, open park initiatives, park network, which will not only increase green coverage in the city but also will serve for people who are concerned with fitness. We are following Singapore model for an old jail land campus. River front development is also under consideration. A systematic planning is underway for whatever unutilized or underutilized lands available in the city. We are also planning land filling policy for low cost housing. These apart, government is also working on smart lighting and multilevel car parking in the city. We are also coming up with an interesting initiative relating to traffic issues, under which, we will connect north and south banks across. That will reduce the
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concerns around traffic congestion to a greater extent.
There are some complains around the existing Guwahati Building Construction Bye-Laws, which are defective. Are you aware of the errors? What are the plans to rectify? The government in December 2016 has constituted a technical committee, who is reviewing the building bye-laws of 2014. In the last few years, there have been a number of focal areas for government, including ease of business and Swaccha Bharat Abhiyaan. The bye-law needs to be aligned with the requirements of such initiatives. There are many people who are physically challenged and are unable to access all routes. The parking norms also need to be included. The committee is looking at integrating solutions towards all these concern areas. The committee is looking at taking care of the bye-laws with two approaches. One, they will examine and suggest integration of certain changes and provisions with the already existing byelaw. Two, the bye-law is also incorporating norms in alignment of new initiatives.
Tell us more about the Metro corridor and the rail project. What were the stumbling blocks before? The planning and work for the metro rail project is well in track. Once the metro rail comes, it would definitely change the face of Guwahati. We have already awarded the contract to prepare Detailed Project Report for the 46 I March 2017
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The planning and work for the metro rail project is well in track. Once the metro rail comes, it would definitely change the face of Guwahati. The total system consists of 4 corridors covering a distance of 61.4 km. in phase one of the Guwahati Metro.
mass rapid transit system. We will move in phases. The total system consists of 4 corridors covering a distance of 61.4 km. in phase one of the Guwahati Metro. The state development authority in January has approved the changes in the DPR. In addition of the studies done earlier, we are also doing promotion of SPV. Guwahati Metro Rail Corporation will carry forward the anticipation of MRTS. We have also extended corridor 1 to Mukundpriya Gopinath International Airport, which will facilitate lesser travel time for travelers. We are also planning to cover major tourist points in the first phase, including, Kamakshya Railway Station, Kamakshya Temple, and Guwahati University.
How will the development activities for the Assam State
Capital Region Development be different from that of the GMDA?
This is an authority which will be governed under the ASCRDA Act. The jurisdiction of ASCRDA will be different. We are still planning the area outline for ASCRDA. As GMDA, we are governed by the GMDA Act of 1985 and all our activities are governed by this act.
What are the digital initiatives undertaken? The website talks about Information systems being available on a click. What are the technology areas that would be of interest to you? I have done my Masters in Operations (MBA Operations) and B.Tech in Computer Science. I am personally inclined to the technology areas. GMDA has also taken lots on initiatives in this line. We have the entire building permission system online. We are trying to minimise the human interface, which will subsequently increase transparency and efficiency. Coming to other digital processes, we use tally for accounting, we have wifi network covering the entire campus of GMDA, and we are also looking at GRP solutions for functional departments of GMDA. We are trying to transform GMDA into paperless office, both for GMDA office as well as for GMDA project partners. We will maximize the use of digital tools and will use GIS in various projects for planning and monitoring.
What are the action plans for development of Brahmaputra River Front? www.governancetoday.co.in
There is already hydraulic modeling done by National Institute of Hydrology. Considering the flow, nature and water condition of Assam, we have decided for hydraulic modeling. Brahmaputra as a river requires lots of technology to ensure that the treatment is proper. We are also exploring other options like acquisition of land. We are developing Sankardev Udyan in a very grand way.
There have been a lot of smart city plan areas and related memorandums, interests and understandings happening but do you see those translating into wins for you in terms of contracts? We are doing lots of projects in association with many international organizations. As far as smart city is concerned, there is a separate body under Guwahati Smart City Ltd. Under the Smart City Mission also there are lots of initiatives which are coming up. There are many options available for us to explore and consider tie ups with International organizations. We have collaborated with a Switzerland based company. For urban development, Public Private Partnership has come up as a very feasible alternative. We are planning a number of projects in PPP mode.
Do you have any recommendations or comments you might make to the design community, people involved in urban planning and such, about in terms of developing technologies, social networks,
systems for this emerging area of smart cities and urban development?
Considering Guwahati, I think sustainability should be our priority. We are focusing more on Rain water harvesting. So, the technical people who are involved in a project should ensure that there are provisions of rain water harvesting, accessibility, feasibility, sustainability, provision for Swacchata (cleanliness) and alike. We need the cooperation of all stakeholders in developing Guwahati into a city that truly deserves title of being the ‘Gateway of Northeast’. I request all the stakeholders to ensure their part in making it a reality.
What is your future vision? Smart City Mission is another SPV. But GMDA is taking up all the initiatives to bring in all feasible, systematic and sustainable changes in Guwahati, in next few years. We are developing new parks. Our honorable Minister has already announced two new parks. We are also redeveloping already existing parklands. We are looking for sustainable activities; we are looking for public private partnerships. Again Guwahati is a city of group of fitness enthusiast, so we are ensuring greenery for runners and appropriate place for cycling. As a matter of fact, we are trying to provide human touch to each of these urban systems.
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CHANGE MAKERS
In the Path to Possibilities
Dr. Nachiket Mor Country Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India
52 I March 2017
www.governancetoday.co.in
in Healthcare & Innovation
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he Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India focuses on key areas that will affect the future of India’s most vulnerable communities: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition; sanitation; agricultural development; and financial inclusion. Headed by Dr. Nachiket Mor in India, the foundation, in its decade long journey here, has been building momentum in developing scalable, measurable programmes across all priority areas. Dr. Nachiket, flitting between the financial and philanthropic worlds, has been closely associated with the core interest areas of the foundation, including healthcare alongside sanitation, agricultural development and financial services for the poor. In conversation with Rajesh Mehta, Consulting Editor, Governance Today, Dr Nachiket Mor, India Country Office Director talks about the foundation’s values, services and plans in India...
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You had recently written an annual letter showcasing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s projects and its impact in India. Please let readers know more about the message. The first edition of our annual India Letter marked a significant milestone for the Gates Foundation, the completion of 15 years of our work globally, with 13 years in India, and we felt that it provided a good opportunity for us, to reflect on our progress in reducing inequalities in health, and in access to safe sanitation and financial inclusion; and to better understand the good practices that should be scaled up as well as the challenges we continue to face as we work together to help achieve India’s development goals. The India Letter was centred on the primary question: “What if every Indian had the opportunity to lead a healthy, productive life?” This “What if” is a vital question that we often ask ourselves at the foundation; so that the search for answers can enable us to deploy our collective expertise and to develop solutions that can potentially help solve the world’s most intractable problems. In the letter we highlighted three sets of initiatives in which we have been involved, as examples of successful foundation interventions, jointly with the government and our 54 I March 2017
partners, to leverage our combined capabilities to help India get better results from her investments in the social sector: in primary healthcare services for women and young children, tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, and sanitation. In primary healthcare services, we found that onsite nurse mentoring, and improved clinical skills and better observation of clinical practices, led to reduced occurrence and better identification and management of maternal and new-born complications. The trends indicated a 22% reduction in Still Birth Rate (SBR) from 1.8% to 1.4% over a period of 12 months in facilities where nurse mentoring was implemented in Bihar. This reduction was two times higher than the historic trend. In addition, improvements were witnessed in the identification and management of other new-born and maternal complications such as the death of babies because of their inability to breathe and of mothers from excessive bleeding. In tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, technology led innovations combined with carefully structured private sector engagement helped develop a new model for tracking TB patients, resulting in early identification and resolution of TB and Multi-Drug Resistant TB. In sanitation, the incorporation of a Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) framework in key urban sanitation projects such as AMRUT
and Smart City initiatives was a significant positive step towards bringing safe sanitation systems to millions of Indians.
How is it working with the Government of India so far? You also work with multiple governments in the states and Centre. Are there any challenges in this regard? Since the inception of our work in India, our core operating model has been based on partnerships with the government, which are guided by their priorities, rules and regulations. At each stage, our work is informed by the ideas of a broad group of experts, both inside and outside the foundation, including government officials, community leaders, technical experts, and civil society leaders and advocates, to ensure that it is both impartial and rigorous in its approach. Using this approach, over the years, we have been able to successfully work with a number of governments both at the Centre and the States.
Could you enlighten readers about affordable healthcare innovation in India? Tell us about the foundation’s preferential choice of venturing only in the public healthcare domain, but not in the critical care needs. www.governancetoday.co.in
As its core strategy, the foundation focuses on making both government and nongovernment service providers work for the poor. We believe that one of the fundamental drivers of human inequality is the prevalence of disease and malnutrition in the poorest parts of the world and that we can ensure good progress in reducing the level of inequality, by improving the manner in which both the private sector and the government meet the healthcare needs of the poor and marginalized peoples globally. In India, the healthcare work of the foundation has encompassed both preventive and curative care, particularly as it concerns women and children. For example, the work of our partners in government health facilities on the mentoring of nurses, and on the establishment of Sick New-born Care Units ensures that there is good quality curative care available for mothers and children at the primary and secondary levels in states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and the work of our partners on the elimination of vaccine preventable diseases such as Polio; support to the government on its plan to introduce new vaccines; nutrition; sanitation; and in helping women have a wider choice of options for contraception, are all preventive interventions geared towards ensuring that there is a general improvement in population health and well-being.
What are your priority areas in India, other than healthcare? What are the areas the foundation can improve in? In addition to public health, our focus areas in India also include urban sanitation, digital financial inclusion, and agricultural development. Additionally, as women play an increasingly important role in both farming and livestock management, we have a significant focus on efforts that seek to address traditional constraints in their ability to access knowledge,
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Financing options for municipalities for urban sanitation; better access to credit through digital channels; better access for smallholder farmers to electronic markets; and understanding what truly works at scale in the area women’s empowerment, are a few of the many areas in which we need to do more work services, and essential products. And, in each of these areas as well as the ones mentioned earlier in health care, there is a continuing need for the foundation to learn and to generate greater impact. Financing options for municipalities for urban sanitation; better access to credit through digital channels; better access for small-holder farmers to electronic markets; and understanding what truly works at scale in the area women’s empowerment, are a few of the many areas in which we need to do more work and learn more.
What are your views on philanthropy in India? I believe that our deep-seated and growing tradition of individual and corporate philanthropy is one of the biggest strengths we
in India can bring to bear against our development challenges. We have been witness to seminal examples of philanthropy in India from, among others, the Nilekanis, the Premjis, the Tatas, and the Piramals, who have generously allocated their fortunes, shared their knowledge and ideas, and committed their time to become champions for those who need help the most. It is also good to see the model of philanthropy in India is gradually shifting from one of only charitable giving to one in which there is a desire to effect longer term change through strategic philanthropy. The need for such efforts is particularly key in challenging domains such as health care.
How do you see the impact of the private market on the foundation’s work?
The Indian private sector produces over 60% of the world’s vaccines, including the locally developed one against the Rotavirus, and over 20% of its generic medicines. Given the significant cost and quality advantages that the Indian private sector offers, the foundation works closely with companies such as the Serum Institute, and Bharat Biotech, and provides them with assurances of offtake as well as product development subsidies, so that the costs of vaccines and essential medicines continue to drop, and the availability of new vaccines continues to improve. In fields such as diagnosis and treatment of Tuberculosis and in the increase in the number of contraceptive choices available to women, the foundation has supported the work of governments with the private sector, both at the national and the state levels. In addition, our sanitation program focuses on developing innovative approaches and technologies, both across private and public sector that has the potential to lead to radical and sustainable improvements in sanitation in the developing world.
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INTERVIEW
Biometric Iris Recognition: Turning an Eye on eGovernance Service Delivery
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iomatiques Identification Solutions, the leading Iris recognition technology company operating in India since 2012, is one of the 13 global players having patented technology in this area. The first and only Indian company to receive Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) from Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) has specializations extending to areas of access control, information protection, time and attendance, identity management, enterprise mobility management and many more. Umesh Panchal is leading Biomatiques Identification Solutions as Vice President, Business Development for its state-of-art solution, IRIS MOBILE, where the password feature would be supplemented with iris verification of identity of subject. Mr. Panchal is proficient in the fields of IT and Security Management with biometric technologies to secure property and people for over two decades. Now as spearheaded leader of Biomatiques, his efforts are to compliment the industry with most accurate and highly reliable Iris Technology to mitigate the vulnerability in usage of mobile phones. Umesh Panchal in conversation with Governance Today‌
Umesh Panchal President, Biomatiques Identification Solutions 56 I March 2017
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How have you integrated the vision of financial delivery services of government of India with the vision of your business space? Biomatiques is the one and only manufacturer of IRIS technology in India, performing along 12 other players outside India. The biometric story got viral through Aadhaar which started with the pilot project in Andhra Pradesh. In 2009, Govt of India started creating unique ID with finger print as the biometric. It started with the enrolment of 50000 people in the pilot project;however, they found a lot of challenge in their authentication. 70% of them were from labour class who do manual labour by invariably using their hands. So, using finger print in the authentication processes of government and social welfare schemes and delivery of services posed a big challenge. IRIS came into picture as a preferred choice by some technocrats.
What is the edge over other technology types available in similar space?
Iris is a biometric identification solution which is accurate, tamper-proof and integrate-able technology for applications in all walks of life. The authentication comes from the fact that, practically no human can have the same Iris pattern what-soever. Speaking in terms of the software, false rejection rate of the Iris recognition technology is less, which is 1 in 1.5 million. Iris recognition checks for 240-250 vertices as compare to 40-50 vertices in the fingerprint. There is no need to touch anywhere as it is contactless, which also addresses the hygiene concerns. The price was a challenge before for this technology, which was 10 times more than finger print cost. Now this is more cost effective. From INR 30000, the cost factor has been come down now to INR 7500. It also has
the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) from Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY). IRIS is the first and only Indian company to receive for the certification for this patented biometric authentication solutions. Iris scanners are STQC or UIDAI approved, which means, these are certified for any Aadhaar or unique ID based authentication applications and services. The technology, the hardware and software components are available locally. The devices are made for Indian working condition and environment. IRIS is also cost effective.
IRIS technology has a humongous market right from Government of India with its Aadhaar enabled services to resident to corporate sectors like, BFSI, Logistics, Retails, Airports. Tell us about the market penetration of Biomatiques. Pension process, PDS, MNREGA, logistics, Airport, Reality, Government, micro ATMs are the areas we are focusing on. Biomatiques’ retina recognition technology also offers solution for cattle identification or cattle UID which will enable farmers to
manage their livestock as well as allow government agencies and insurance companies in distribution of monetary claims and aids. Automobile sector is also one forward looking area for us. Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have already adopted and implemented Iris technology, being promoted through Wipro for resident identification. Government of Andhra Pradesh has procured more than 30,000 devices from us. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Telangana are the states who are in the process of implementing our technology. Odisha has just initiated the process. We are looking forward to have more Aadhaar enabled and eGovernance Services.
How have you integrated the vision of financial delivery services of government of India with the vision of your business space? How do you think the recent advancements in IRIS technology would facilitate change the way banking is done? We work in financial inclusion segment, under which, we focus more on rural India. Having ATMs in those areas will not be feasible
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with the kind of connectivity as well as operational issues we have in the country. The operational cost of having micro ATMs in comparison to white label and brown label ATMs is very negligible with having a micro authentication unit and the related processes. Person’s bank account gets linked to Aadhaar through IRIS authentication. So, banking becomes available even in remote areas, in control, and with no fraud. Under financial inclusion, rural India is more focus. We understand, more and more people should get banking facility. Again, the micro ATMs are pushing now for point of sell devices to tap based devices, because of the interoperatibility. One tap can have 10 applications, where as PoS has only one application. That advantage we want to give to the industry now.
IRIS has emerged as a disruptive technology in the security space, considering
the wide use of finger print technology. Why is it a case in India, that other players are not seen? What stops them? It is the Intellectual property. Biometric, in terms of definition is all about algorithm. It is not like any other program one can write. That is where we got the STQ certification. In my company, the promoters are connected with technology for 3 decades.
Biomatiques Identification Solutions has introduced iris recognition technology at the cost of finger print technology. Has it been able to generate that unique identity for its technology? When we started IRIS, finger print had already taken the centre stage and the choice was to find out the better, secured and reliable biometric. Voice, face, etc have already raised concerns in this space and government had already incurred losses at those
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fronts. The task for us here is to get over the synonymous positions. Like the way people use Xerox for a photocopy. When we started propagating IRIS, people said, we know biometric. Finger print in the first instance is treated as biometric, whereas, there are 14 biometrics available under the umbrella, including eye, nose, and even body odour.
What scope do you see further in this space? Currently we are eyeing the domestic market only. Africa is a big user of IRIS. We will consider that, once we get an appropriate opportunity. We are also working to introduce a couple of more devices soon, in next 4-5 months. Following which, we will have better competitiveness, with better technology, bringing compete solutions. At present, we’re giving only IRIS scanner. But all the eGovernance projects require complete solutions, which we are gearing up for.
Share your Initiatives, Case Studies & Best Practices on Green Skills & Green Jobs
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MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT
Integrating Sustainable Development Goals to Mountain Development Fifth Edition of Meet of the Twelve Mountain States in New Delhi 60 I March 2017
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oday, the Indian Himalayan Region accounts for 11 fullfledged states along with the district of Darjeeling out of 30 states in India. Baring a few, the mountain states are not only bereft of technical institutions, but also of basic infrastructure and facilities. A collective vision is the need of the time to attend the crucial mountain issues like water security and skills for development in the mountains. To facilitate that collective vision, the fifth edition of the Meet of the Mountain States was organized by the Integrated Mountain Initiative was held on 10 February 2017at WWF India Secretariat in New Delhi. The Meet deliberated on subjects of water security, skill development and disaster risk reduction in the mountains. The Meet was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju. Members of Parliament, Dr. ThokchomMeinya (Manipur), Shri Vincent Pala (Meghalaya), Shri JitendraChaudhury (Tripura), Shri. P.D. Rai (Sikkim) and former
Member of Parliament Shri Tarun Vijay were also in attendance. The Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) is a civil society organisation formed in 2011, aimed at redefining the architecture of sustainable development across the 12 mountain states in the Indian Himalayan Region, comprising 10 states of Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and the hill districts of West Bengal and Assam. It is a collective initiative for recognizing the value of mountain regions and enabling people to realise its potential by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholders. IMI operationalizes this platform through its annual Sustainable Development Summits (SMDS) and Meet of Mountain States (MoMS) by engaging different stakeholders to come together and engage in informed debates on themes relevant to the mountain regions. Shri Rijiju stressed on the need
to work in convergence to ensure sustainable development in the mountain regions of India. He also highlighted the dilemmas of livelihoods in the development context and environmental consequences of development facing the mountain cities which has led to severe damage in valleys of Kullu and Manali and hill cities of Mussoorie, Nainital amongst others. As a part of the Meet, a legislators’ dialogue was also held. All Members of Parliament insisted on the need to focus on research in mountain subjects such as glaciology, hydrology, renewable energy, human-wildlife conflict and biodiversity. Shri P.D. Rai also shared the path followed by Sikkim towards sustainable development. He also mentioned that the state is moving to build a legislation to mainstream the subject in all departments and amongst the citizens. The Meet was convened by Shri Alemtemshi Jamir, President of IMI and former Chief Secretary of Nagaland. Several eminent leaders of the development sector from organisations such as FAO (UN), NECTAR, UNDP, NSDC, ICIMOD, SDC, WWF and senior officials from ministries and government departments were in attendance. Theyemphasized the need for stronger mountain partnerships and integration of sustainable development goals into mountain development. It was pointed out that skill building needs to factor in the socio-cultural and geographical features of mountains and focus on self-employment and entrepreneurship. Disaster risk reduction measures need to be community based and managed. The need to focus on sustainable mountain cities and climate change was also a recurrent theme. IMI announced that the next Sustainable Mountain Development Summit which will be held in Sep, 2017 in Aizawl, Mizoram will take up these issues for further deliberation.
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MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT
Mountains Need to be Covered by SDGs
Dr. Amita Prasad
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Dr. Amita Prasad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India, shares about the peculiarity of the problems in mountain and hilly states and the need to address issues for these areas in a more localised manner with active involvement of various stakeholders‌
ndian Himalayan Region covers 10 states of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and 2 partial States i.e. Assam & West Bengal. The Region has 7 Biosphere Reserves spread over 26,421 km2 area, and 25 National Parks & 98 Sanctuaries. One of the 34 Biodiversity Hotspots of the World, the region has 4481% of total plan species in the country, which provide important ecological, economical services to communities including medicinal plants, fuel, fodder and various mountain products.
Schemes of government of India, but those do not specifically address mountain related issues. Mountains as region need to be covered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The cross cutting issues here include Poverty, Water, Food , Energy, Environmental Stability, Climate Change, Natural Disaster, Gender and Livelihood among others, which need more attention. Comprehensive Status and a consolidated database are not available for this region. Also, the extent of funds and their coverage under various Schemes and programmes of the government in the Himalayan States is negligible.
On the Gaps and Challenges in Mountain Region
On Sustainable Mountain Policy for Development
The issues to be highlighted are critical. There is no Mountain specific Policy and strategy available, although Planning Commission 2013 Report has specifically recommended for this. There are some on-going
Another shortcoming seen with these regions has been their lack of focus on sustainability. There is no dearth of planning and research but the policies remain the main challenge for sustainable development in the mountains.
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It’s important to strengthen the Knowledge about Mountain ecosystems and share and disseminate realistic and accurate information on the regions. There is need to give attention to urban aspects of Mountains and promotion of green technologies and promotion of integrated watershed development. Capacity Building of Mountain communities, especially women for alternative livelihood options is also crucial.
On Initiatives of Ministry on Mountain Region The National Policy on Mountain is being prepared which will look at the Conservation, Management and Sustainable Development of Mountain Resources and Livelihoods. The Strategy, Scheme and Action Plans are also being prepared. The need is to frame and implement through greater stakeholder participation, and also to involve State Government, local communities, researcher, NGOs for www.governancetoday.co.in
Linking with SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
Sustainable development of the Himalayan Region. Under the nomination of UNESCO transboundary World Heritage Site (WHS), there are initiatives which emphasize the importance of promoting the transboundary landscape approach to generate both ecosystem and livelihood co-outcomes. Kailash Sacred landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI) is one in progress which is a collaborative programme being implemented across the borders of China, India, and Nepal, Kanchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KLCDI) to achieve conservation and development goals in the landscape and Fareastern Himalayan Landscape (Hi-LIFE) across India, China and Myanmar come under this. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development implements six Regional Programmes with 8 Member Countries of Hindu Kush Himalayas, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan, strengthening Regional Cooperation. The Himalayan Region is
On Disaster Risk Reduction
highly prone to geological & climatological hazards like earthquakes, landslides and floods. Despite recent advances in seismology and instrumentation, earthquakes remain the most
unpredictable phenomenon among natural disasters. Cloud burst during the rainy season leads to flash floods triggering landslides causing enormous loss of life, property and environmental
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degradation. Climate change is responsible for Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and Forest Fires. There is need to bridge the gap between technology and disaster management communities and improve coordination and communication with Centre, State Government, Universities/ Institutions and other stakeholders. There is need to access to data information and knowledge on Disaster Risk Reduction, and also to capacity building awareness, training and networking for disaster risk reduction.
On Skill Development State Government should involve more towards Skill development and establish vocational training centres for skill development of youth. There should be more efforts towards promoting traditional knowledge and medicinal systems through human resource development, capacity building for marketing, international laws, practices for export, packaging, and quality control of mountain goods On Strategy for Sustainable Development of Mountain Ecosystem We need to focus on special thematic areas of Biodiversity Conservation & Management, Land & Water Management, Sustainable Energy & Energy Efficiency, Risk Reduction in Natural Hazards and Disasters, and Livelihood Improvement. We must recognise the invaluable contribution of mountains to the food, water and energy nexus and work for development of long term conservation and utilization strategy. Survey of endangered species on a region basis needs to be undertaken along with their subsequent multiplication and cultivation. Development and application of technologies for water and soil conservation specific to mountainous and hilly region, establishment of alpine/temperate 64 I March 2017
botanical gardens and zoological parks, catchment area protection across the Himalayan Region that requires urgent remediation and conservation, tap the Potential of Himalayan Region to develop sustainable energy and energy solutions which can contribute to the goals of energy security,
climate resilience and economic development, and promote and expand sustainable energy and energy efficiency, low cost housing using disaster resistant materials resilient to natural disasters are some of the urgent and immediate strategic moves that need to be undertaken.
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RESEARCH
Social Media as a Clout for Digital India Apeksha, Research Scholar, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. Prof(Dr) M L Singla, Head and Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi
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ith the announcement of Union Budget 2017, Digital India once again is found to be holding the pace of development leading to TEC India (“Transform, Energise and Clean� India), a broad agenda of current budget 2017. Rather than tinkering around technology, this time budget is more about strategic direction and policy proposal where mickle of digital project have made their way for the first time ever in any budget. Digital word in current budget is reminiscent of 1982-83 budget, where this highly loftier word was mentioned for the first time and only once, however, the current budget has projected same word as major pedestal to nurture TEC India. Our nation is stupendously progressing in the direction of digitisation to make paradigm shift towards e-Governance to foster the culture of transparency in administration and to have ally citizen. Now when e-Governance maturity model as proposed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is prefaced than it has three major tenets namely cashless, paperless and faceless services and current budget has given major impetus to all three pillars to realize Transformational Stage of e-Governance.
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Figure 1: Budget 2017 impetus to digital pillars of E Governance
Source: Author Review
Budget 2017 is an applauding move in the direction of digitisation of nation but in current jittery environment, where citizen is more informed and updated, need is of utilizing that aspect of technology which is parlance to citizen. And one such aspect that can be used as clout is Social Media. Social media is basically a set of tool and technologies that enable users to communicate collaborate and involve with one another over internet like social networking sites as Facebook, micro-blogging sites as twitter. It has now been seen that government, citizens, politicians across the globe even in least developed countries started exploring social media to revolutionize governance arrangements, mobilise movements against and in support of governments, hold election campaigns, sustain governmentcitizen communication in disorder, etc. Governments under some policy or government officials in their personal capacity have been using social networks for foreign affairs, administration and information.
In India, with the increasing rate of internet penetration and mobile penetration, social media has now become wherewithal of life. According to recent report released by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), 74% of subscribers in urban India and 39% of subscribers in rural India are using mobile internet mainly for social networking. Such a phenomenal use of social media is another powerful pitchfork for achieving the TEC India agenda.Though major
predicament in achievement of TEC India agenda is the lack of transparency in our administration which budget 2017 has diligently tried to address by trudging the harder and politically braver path of prudence. But gleaning social media into administration would present the preening opportunity to foster the culture of transparency byinvolving citizeninCollaboration, Compliance, Civic Probity, Corruption control, Promotion, Transaction, Empowerment, Monitoring and
PERCENTAGE OF INTERNET USERS IN INDIA
200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142014 Graph 1: Percentage of Internet users in India
Source: World Bank
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tracking, Analytics, Disaster/ Epidemic Control. Bringing government machinery to live up to the clout of 21st century will be the prompt answer rather than following the piece meal approach around the technology. Last but not the least India is a country where lot of opportunities exist for e-Governance initiative, need is to tap them right with right strategy at right time in a right way with right focus on right use.
PERCENTAGE OF MOBILE USERS IN INDIA
2010
2012
2014
2015
Graph 2: Percentage of mobile users in India
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vide digital services to common people in villages the Common Services Centers were created. In June 2014, only 83,000 such centers were active across the country, which has now increased to 2.05 lakh centers. Bharat Net: Optical Fibre Network to connect villages of India has seen rapid growth. In June, 2014 only 358 kms of optical fibre was laid. In January, 2017 1.72 lakh kms of optical fiber has been laid across more than 76, 000 Gram Panchayats. MyGov: A new platform created for participative governance now has over 40 lakh registered users. Jeevan Pramaan Portal: A new initiative to provide convenience to pension holders was created which now has 56 lakh registered pensioners. Digi Locker: A new initiative to provide safe online document storage to citizen now has more 42 lakh users. More than 165 Crore digital documents have been issued by the Government in these lockers. Scholarship Portal: Online scholarship was easily made available to the students. 1.4
Item
Production 2014-15
Production 2015-16
Production Growth
LCD/LED TVs
0.87 crore units
1.2 crore units
38%
Mobile handsets (Nos.)
6 crore units
11 crore units
83%
Mobile handsets (Value terms)
Rs.18,900 crore
Rs.54,000 crore
185%
LED products
Rs.2,172 crore
Rs.3,590 crore
65%
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2013
Source: World Bank
Digital India initiative of the government of India has transformed the digital profile of India significantly. Some of the key indicators of this are: • Phone Users: From 95 Crore phone users in June 2014, India today has 108 Crore mobile phone users. • Aadhaar Holders: From 63 Crore Aadhaar holders in 2014, India today has 111 Crore Aadhaar holders. • Investments in Electronic Manufacturing: Investments in electronic manufacturing which was just Rs. 11,000 Crore in June 2014, has increased to Rs. 1,27,880. • Mobile Phone Manufacturing Hub: From 6 Crore mobile handsets in 2014-15, India’s mobile manufacturing capacity has increased to 11 Crore mobile handsets in 2015-16. With 72 new mobile handset and component manufacturing units set up in last two years, India has emerged as a mobile manufacturing hub. • Growth in other areas of Electronic Manufacturing: • Common Service Centers: To pro-
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Crore students have registered under this. Online Hospital Appointment: Online appointment services in 60 major hospitals have been started. Total 47 lakh appointments have been taken online. eNAM: Online National Agriculture Market was created so that farmers can get the best price for their produce. Today more than 8.5 lakh farmers have registered on this portal. Growth in Digital Transactions: eTaal portal which measures the digital transactions of various eGovernance services has seen a rapid growth: • In 2013- 66.25 lakh transactions per day • In 2014- 96.9 lakh transactions per day • In 2015- 1.85 crore transactions per day • In 2016- 3 crore transactions per day Computerization of Land Records: Land records have been computerized in 31 states and Union Territories. Record of Rights (RORs) made online for 22 States/UTs. Bhu-Naksha/ Map digitization done for 15 States/UTs. Digi Dhan Abhiyaan: To promote digital payments across the country, Digi Dhan Abhiyaan was launched in December, 2016. Under this effort of the Ministry, more than 2 Crore people and 7.18 lakh shopkeepers were trained in digital payments across 5636 blocks of 640 districts. www.governancetoday.co.in
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