What is new
Mr. Modi, is this Smart Governance or Marginal Governance?
- Published on 28 September 2014
Image Courtesy: Narendramodi.in (Blog-artwork)
Can the Chairperson of a statutory commission embody one-person quorum? Yes. This has become a de facto rule under the ‘smart governance’ expounded by the NDA Government at the time of its formation.
In a release dated 26th May 2014, Prime Minister’s Office had stated: “Mr. Modi is eventually aiming at Smart Governance where the top layers of Government will be downsized and there would be expansion at the grass root level.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi perhaps might not be knowing about the quorum issue at National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), where the posts of three members are lying vacant. NCST is now left with Chairman and Vice-Chairman, both lightweight congressmen appointed by UPA Government.
Under the new quorum rule and the exisitng situation, if the Vice-Chairman is unable to attend the meeting even after half-an hour adjournment, then the quorum requirement stands dispensed with. This, in effect, means the Chairman represents the quorum in such circumstances.
One-man quorum certainly does not fit into Mr. Modi’s or any other democratic scheme of governance. It has, however, emerged due to the lax and bad governance that gets passed on from one Government to another.
Tackling Inflation-time for new Agriculture Governance
- Published on 24 September 2014
(Published by Farmers' Forum Magazine Aug-Sept 2014 issue)
Modi Govt Should not let Credibility deficit Build up from the word go
- Published on 11 September 2014
Image courtesy narendramodi.in
The Mainstream media has churned out tonnes of information ranging from special pages to opinion polls on completion of 100 days by NDA Government. As expected, most industrialists and analysts have largely appreciated the Government’s efforts to stabilize the economy and nudge growth rate. It is a fact that NDA Government has the potential to perform better than UPA or any other previous regime.
To ensure that this potential is not frittered away, the Government should focus on two initiatives, which if implemented wholeheartedly, can help NDA usher in sterling governance. The initiatives are: transparency & accountability and a mechanism to ensure that the policies, laws and administrative orders are implemented in letter and spirit by different appendages at various levels right from the PMO to the village panchayat.
If one were to judge NDA solely on these two parameters, it would have to be clubbed with the UPA, if not rated one or two notches below.
The Modi Governance at present is the business as usual mode, a fact that can be established by counting the backlog of issues created/left by the UPA. In certain cases, the bureaucracy has aggravated the mess under the NDA. It would, however, be appropriate to remain glued to the two crucial factors in this column.
Let us start with Prime Minister’s website that flaunted Narendra Modi’s “Quest for Transparency” shortly after he assumed charge as PM.
Atomic Energy Entities Embark on Strategic Import-Substitution Projects
- Published on 31 August 2014
Baroda Heavy Water plant: Image Courtesy HWB
The Department of Atomic Energy (DEA) has embarked on a slew of projects to reduce the country’s dependence on import of strategic materials required by the nuclear power and defence industries.
The projects include a nuclear-grade sodium metal plant (SMP); a Magnesium Recyclying Technology Development & Demonstration Faciltiy (MRTDDF); a commercial-scale uranium extraction plant (UEP) for segregating this nuclear fuel from fertilizer-grade phosphoric acid and a Technology Demonstration Plant (TDP) for production of 4N pure Titanium Dioxide & 4N pure Zirconium oxy-chloride. 4N or 4 nines is an indicator of purity of a metal. It means a metal is 99.99% pure.
These and other such strategic projects might serve as a setback to certain foreign-funded entities that have been working againt India’s energy and territorial security under the garb of opposition to nuclear energy and environmental degradation.
The country currently meets its entire requirement for sodium and magnesium metals from abroad. Import liberalization, high power tariff and certain other factors forced four sodium and magnesium plants to stop production several years back.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi should commission a case study on the closure of factories by dominant or monopoly producers in all sectors before reiterating his call all investors to set up manufacturing facilities in the country.
As sodium is used as a coolant in fast breeder reactors, DAE’s Heavy Water Board (HWB) has decided to set up a 600 tonnes per annum (tpa) plant at Baroda.
Says HWB’s pre-feasibility report (PFR) on the plant, “this project is of national importance for generation of clean energy without producing any greenhouse gases.”