Concept note for the Anand conference, by Rajiv Shah A journalist speaks: Culling out gist from a plethora of sources available to you is indeed quite tricky. While I cannot speak for others (frankly, I lack competence to do it), journalists are made to do it almost on a daily basis. In doing so, at initial stages, they often falter, as they lack conceptual clarity as to what should be considered news. Of course, there are textbook definitions, but they cannot in any way help one to identify news from the huge flow of information available around. Journalists, especially of my generation, have never been trained into a formal school of communication, hence to them to answer this question academically is even more difficult. They have just “picked up” the skill. I asked a senior editor, “How do you identify what should be headline today?”, and his answer was simple, “Well, Rajiv, it comes from within, frankly, it just comes…” Often, whatever new you find from the available information is identified as news. It’s especially very easy when a big event takes place—an electoral victory, an earthquake, a nuclear disaster, a peace talk, a victory in a cricket match, or bloody a riot. But things become complicated when one is forced to go beyond. Nowadays, you often hear journalists complaining, “There’s no news in Gujarat, with Modi gone…” So, while preparing a short version, or news, of what is happening around you, as a journalist, it is necessary to identify for a journalist the big question: “What is news?” Though involved in formal journalism since 1979, I personally never thought of putting down the issue of “What is news” in black and white till about three years ago, when I had to introduce myself in order to be a blogger for the Times of India; as someone, my editor thought, to my amusement, had “wide experience” with bureaucrats and politicians in Gandhinagar. Quite in line with what I thought, I gave two definitions of news, while writing about myself – that “news is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising” (Lord Northcliffe, 19th century British publisher), or “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations” (George Orwell). I thought these definitions fitted well into the type of job I was involed in – to cull out news from government sources, many of them were oral narratives, while in other cases they were reports got prepared by consultants to suggest a policy direction. Indeed, as a newsperson, I was always involved in “culling out” information from available sources – and had to fight against time, as there were deadlines to be met, whether it was Delhi, Moscow , Ahmedabad, or Gandhinagar, the places where I worked. While preparing news, we had to also keep in view the need to be as precise as possible in disseminating information. Latest instructions given to us in the Times of India were sharp and quite – no news stories should be “more than 450
words”; worse, ideally they should be “less than 350 words”. Reason? New readers wouldn’t be interested in reading long stuff. But while preparing these news stories, the framework of Northcliffe and Orwell was important, that news is what “someone somewhere wants to suppress.” It is this concept that has helped great journalists to write great stories, even as being precise with events, though they had with them a huge lot of information. Without this central concept, I think, I wouldn’t do justice to what I wanted to write. As a Times of India representative in Gandhinagar, one of the most exciting jobs would be seek information from official sources. There was a huge amount of utter nonsense—propaganda stuff – around us. Once having accessed them, should one report all that was there? That would be stupidity. Before it reached the reader, my editor would just throw away my copy. Besides, it would be a tall order, particularly when one is fighting against time, as the official document would have a plethora of facts and figures, a lot of background, an effort to highlight how the government has been “successfully” functioning, and so on. So, the effort would be to get involved in finding out what was novel in the document, indicating a major policy change, which was not known to the general public -- and which the proponents of the documents wouldn’t perhaps like as much to highlight. We would be given three volumes of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report sometime in the afternoon, and we had to file our reports (not one but three) “latest by eight”. This wouldn’t be possible if we, as journalists, did not keep in mind latest controversies identified in the document. We were supposed to know some bit of background; and as for the rest, we had to depend on others -- officials, academics, fellow journalists. Often, we would make the choice the most controversial issue in the report. I will offer two examples here. Two months before the 2007 Gujarat assembly elections, I was handed over a book Gujarati, a collection of Chintan Shibir speeched by Narendra Modi, published under the title “Karmayog”, by top IAS official in the chief minister’s office (CMO), K Kailashnathan. There was virtually nothing in the book worth reporting, all big talk on how well should babus perform. Finally, I found “news” – Modi said, manual scavengers have “spiritual experience” while performing their duty. I promptly reported. Kailashnathan was angry, and I thought this was my success. Five thousand copies of the book were withdrawn. In 2010, another CMO official AK Sharma handed me over the “first copy” of the 1,000-page “Blueprint for Infrastructure in Gujarat (BIG) 2020”, as he had promised, and I filed a report titled “Las Vegas set to bloom in dry Gujarat: Casino zone planned near Dholavira in Kutch”. The report made government to order a recall of all copies of “BIG 2020”, including the ones given to babus, as this was embarrassing. A white slip was pasted on the controversial portion where this was mentioned before redistributing it. “BIG 2020” is supposed to be a major policy document! I am not claiming these are best examples of how a short note should be culled out of a huge document. But they do suggest the need to identify what’s “new”; only after identifying what’s most current, and perhaps most contentious, one should pen it, so that others notice it. This is particularly important if one has to swim and feel
kicking, as a top newspaper tycoon told us, “in the business of news.” Otherwise, nobody would notice you. The choice of subject should depend on this. Of course, while doing this, I think, one would need to keep in view another factor – one should be act as a “media” to convey what is there in the original source, instead of seeking to interpret facts by giving own explanations. But facts should be selected. And selected facts should speak for themselves about what’s there in the original source. They should be meticulously chosen. All facts need not become part of small report. The interpretation must necessarily depend on the choice of facts from the original source. M Chalapathi Rau, described in yesteryears as “doyen of journalists”, once said, journalists are “quick historians.” Even as “quick historians”, it is necessary to understand what EH Carr once said in his famous book “What is History?”: “When we attempt to answer the question ‘What is history?’, our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our position in time, and forms part of our answer to the broader question what view we take of the society in which we live.” He adds, “History consists of a corpus of ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish on a fishmonger’s slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to them.” Further: “The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to give the floor, and in what order and or context.” What Carr talks about history should also true of any blog, or a short note, or a news story – it should have to depend, basically, on the type of facts that one selects.
News story 4: Labour under stress Based on “Labour Under Stress in Gujarat” by Atulan Guha / Rajiv Shah A just-prepared research paper “Labour Under Stress in Gujarat?” by Atulan Guha of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) has noted that huge investments in Gujarat's industrial sector, leading to a high growth rate of the state economy, has failed to translate into “higher wage earnings in Gujarat relative to the rest of India.” Basing on the National Sample Survey Organisation's 2011-12 data, the senior scholar says, the all-India wage rates of urban casual workers were 1.18 times higher, and of regular salaried urban workers 1.41 times higher, than Gujarat. Worse, the scholar's calculations suggest, the gap between urban workers’ daily wages in Gujarat and all-India has been growing over the years. Thus, between 2007-08 and 2011-12 the urban workers' “all-India daily average wage of casual workers multiplied to 1.13 times that of Gujarat.” As for the female urban workers, in 2007-08, the all-India ... average daily wage, which was 1.07 times that of Gujarat, “rose by 1.25 times by 2011-12.” The scholar finds a similar increase in the gap involving regular urban daily wages for both males and females between 2007-08 and 2011-12. Apprehending criticism that “this gap between all-India and Gujarat wages exists due to the different sets of prices exposed to the workers”, the scholar says, “The broad trends observed in the wage-gap between Gujarat and the all-India average do not change much, as the all-India consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers is only 3.56 per cent higher than that of the CPI for industrial workers in Gujarat in 2011-12. In 2007-08, this figure was 3.04 per cent.” Calling the situation “interesting” for a state considered highly industrialized with an “entrepreneurial and industry-friendly policy framework”, the scholar says, “The industry contributed 37% GSDP to the state in 2011-12, whereas industries all over the country contributed 27% to India’s GDP..” Further, “compared to all the Indian states, Gujarat’s contribution in total manufacturing GSDP increased from about 11% in 1993-94 to 14% in 2011-12.” Also, “registered manufacturing evinced a steeper rise- from about 11% to 16%.” In fact, according to the scholar, between 2007-08 and 2011-12, Gujarat’s contribution to India’s GDP in all three sectors of the economy rose – in the agriculture and allied sector it rose from 6.6 per cent to 7 per cent, in industry from 11 per cent to 12.3 per cent, and in services from 5.9 per cent to 6 per cent. But this high rate has failed to translate “to augmented wages relative to the rest of urban India”, he emphasises. He says, “the incremental manufacturing output” is mostly because of “a single industry – petroleum refining – with its share in gross value added in the state’s registered manufacturing having risen from 4% in 2000-01 to nearly 25% a
decade later”, the scholar says, adding, “This is because of the output from only two refineries – the shore-based refineries of Reliance and Essar in Jamnagar.” The petroleum refining sector, as represented by Reliance and Essar, are known to be highly capital intensive, relying on modern automation technology. A major reason the scholar seeks to suggest for low wages in Gujarat is poor bargaining power of Gujarat workers. While regretting that no authentic data is on this score is not available, he says, a look at the website of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangha (BMS) – “the trade union of the RSS and hence a sister organization of BJP, the ruling party of the state for last 15 years” – shows that only 2.54% of its members come from Gujarat.” Based on on this, the scholar surmises that among India’s large states, Gujarat’s trade union membership strength would rank 13th, which only goes to reveal “how the workers of Gujarat are so little organized.” He adds, “Organizational paucity hampers the workers’ ability to fight for a greater share in the output growth or value addition.” In fact, the scholar regrets, the workers’ issues are “barely heard in the state’s dominant political discourse” and “this could be the reason for the major political parties’ paltry efforts towards organizing workers.”
News story 5: Labour under stress Based on “Labour Under Stress in Gujarat” by Atulan Guha/ Rajiv Shah A recent case study in one of India's richest districts, Anand, has found the existence of large-scale casualisation of the workforce, with factories situated in a state-owned Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) premises opening flouting labour laws, even as paying scant regard to the laws that make it obligatory to pay minimum wages. Titled “Labour Under Stress in Gujarat”, the study by Atulan Guha of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) says that the GIDC estate in Vallabh Vidyanagar, situated just outside the Anand township of Central Gujarat, only “confirmed” the macroeconomic picture of dormant earnings of the urban workers in Gujarat. On-the-spot inquiry by the scholar suggested that “most employees were hired on a contractual basis even in the big companies.” In fact, he came across “not one factory worker ... who was not contract-based. Permanent employees were to be found only in the higher echelons (highly skilled professionals) of the big companies.” What makes the situation of the workers in the GIDC estate particularly precarious, the scholar suggests, is that “while the contractors would change every 2 to 3 years, the workers continued with their same jobs in the same companies.” Pointing out that this shows how “temporary workers” continue to “work permanently in the same factories”, the scholar says, “Behind the facade of outsourcing, jobs of a permanent nature are given to temporary workers who work more or less permanently in the same factory.” Pointing out how this suggests that “regular workers are used for permanent jobs but under the terms and conditions governing temporary workers”, the scholar regrets, “The labour market inflexibilities applicable to the industrial labour market through the Industrial Dispute Act are non-existent” in GIDC estate. “Factories employing over 100 workers are not employing workers under a permanent contract”, he adds. “In the GIDC estate, the smaller factories that employ less than 100 workers too do not employ workers under permanent contract.” Worse, the scholar says, “These contractual workers often obtain marginally less than the minimum wages pertained to skilled labour -- between Rs 210 and 230 per day.” Suspecting that the that “big companies” may be paying to contractors at the minimum wage scale, he says, as for the workers, they get less than minimum wages because of the “cut taken by the contractors.” As for workers’ wages outside the big factories within the GIDC estate, the scholar says, these “have been generally found to be lower than the prescribed minimum wage with a high degree of variation”. He adds, “For skilled workers it ranges between Rs 80 and 200 per day. Workers who have graduated from ITIs receive higher wages with a minimum of Rs150 per day.” The current minimum
wages in Gujarat, even for unskilled workers outside the municipal corporation limit and in towns of more than 1 lakh population is more than Rs 200. Anand falls in this category. In fact, the scholar says, “The latest figure pertaining to the minimum wages for skilled workers in the state varies between Rs. 210 and Rs 253 – linked to sector, geographical location, and inflation. Overtime work does not merit compensation in the form of double wages. Generally speaking, single wages are paid for the overtime period.” Actually, he adds, “overtime has become something of a rarity with a slowdown in industrial growth.” The scholar found during his inquiry in the Vallabh Vidyanagar GIDC that “workers who, having worked on higher wages in factories closed down due to recession, now work at almost half the wages of previous job.” The scholar adds, in Vallabh Vidyanagar GIDC, he “did not come across any trade unions. The workers informed us that factory owners disallowed the formation of workers’ unions and any attempt in this direction was thwarted by terminating the job contract.”