Poverty Alleviation gotten right this time

The former deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram’s famous speech on hunger and poverty alleviation still resounds in many minds. One can judge his thrust by his words, when in an interview with All India Radio, he had said-(translated) “Any government who reigns here, whether socialist, communist, capitalist, or authoritarian, should first ensure that no one sleeps without food, each person has at least a shirt and a pair of shoes, and only then work on other things and plans. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, he further said – for those starving, one who provides food becomes like a God and freedom carries no meaning. Hence, our first objective is to provide food to one and all, then only that person can be free.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) is one such welfare programme launched to alleviate the pain and sufferings caused by Covid-19 pandemic and to feed the country’s poorest citizens by providing grains through the PDS system. The government has spent Rs. 2.60 lakh crore so far and another Rs. 80,000 crore will be spent over the coming months till September 2022. According to a report by the dept. of Food and Public Distribution, the initiative stands out as the largest food assistance
program anywhere in the world during the pandemic in terms of the number of people covered, which is more than 10% of the world
population. Along with food assurance, financial benefits and healthcare expenditure are also being taken care of by the government, and continuous efforts are leading to positive results as far as poverty-reduction is concerned.

Financial inclusion plan like Jan Dhan, accidental insurance at the premium of Re. 1 per month and life insurance also at the same premium providing a cover of Rs. 2 lakh have proved vital. Over 12 crore people have been enrolled under PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana- the life insurance scheme and over 28 crore people have been enrolled under PM Suraksha Bima Yojana- the accident insurance scheme. Ayushman Bharat provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year to about 18 crore families. So far, over 3 crore treatments under this scheme have saved over Rs. 37,600 crore for the poor. The Jan Aushadhi scheme further helps the poor when it comes to bearing the cost of medicines. With a network of over 8,700 stores across the country, under the Jan Aushadhi Scheme, medicines are sold at 50-90% lesser than market prices, saving over Rs. 10,000 crore for the people since 2019.

Due to many inter-connected new steps & initiatives, India has seen a sharp decline in extreme poverty in recent years, prompting even the top multilateral organizations like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) appreciating India’s efforts towards reducing extreme poverty. A World Bank working paper has extolled the efforts of the Government of India with regard to extreme poverty in both rural and urban areas. The paper says that extreme poverty fell by 12.3% points to 10.2% in 2019, from 22.5% in 2011. According to the same paper, extreme poverty in rural areas dropped by 14.7% points, while in urban areas it fell by 7.9% points. Whereas, IMF’s paper says- PM Narendra Modi’s food security scheme proved crucial in keeping the extreme poverty levels checked in India even during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The IMF working paper furthers- the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, which is at less than 1%, did not go up despite the excruciating Covid-19 pandemic, attributing this achievement of the Government of India to free food grains provided under PM Modi’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana during pandemic. The paper says, a government which is serious about poverty alleviation, must do two things- first, a programme should be in place to ensure that the poor are lifted out of poverty and second – providing a social security net that protects the poor from falling back into poverty. Interestingly, both these factors are well taken care of in India’s current poverty alleviation approach.

Harnessing Digital Strength for Credit Delivery

Launch of recent digital platforms by the government like DigiLocker, eNAM (e-trading platform for the National Agriculture Market), AI-driven research portal SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency), CoWIN platform, National Single Window Platform, etc. which have worked wonders as far as information delivery, public use, notice circulations, availing services, bookings and record-keeping, etc, is concerned. These have also become a means of transparency and accessibility and even grievance addressal in some cases. The National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) that was launched by NITI Aayog for free public use recently, ensures the same. It makes data accessible, interoperable, interactive, and available on a user-friendly platform, which intends to democratise access to public government data. ‘Jan Samarth’ portal is yet another skyrocketing idea of the Government to cut the clutter and establish a direct connect with public.

Launching of the national portal for credit linked government schemes – ‘Jan Samarth’, may prove to be a game changer for the economy, as it gives a big boost to the inclusive growth and development of various sectors by guiding and providing the beneficiaries with the right type of government benefits through simple and easy digital processes. It promises to improve the ease of living for those who presently have to face much hassle in the lending process. In absence of human interventions in the approval – red tap, human eccentricities and corruption would cease to exist in the process, paving way for a transparent setup, greater growth of the economy and judicious and rational utilization of the human resources.

Being first of its kind platform, ‘Jan Samarth’ is a one stop digital portal linking government credit schemes, which directly connects beneficiaries to lenders. The portal ensures end to end coverage of all the linked schemes by bringing all kinds of government schemes on a single platform, making them easily accessible for the people and without much puzzle. The portal is a universal platform for delivery of various schemes being run by the various ministries and departments of the government. Working on the ideals of minimum government maximum governance, this nationwide portal plans to initially onboard 13 credit linked government schemes and the offerings will gradually be expanded, which will depend on compatibility, since a few Centre sponsored welfare and credit linked schemes involve multiple government departments/agencies/ministries.

The portal uses smart analytics and technologies that provide guidance to beneficiaries for checking subsidy, eligibility and the auto recommendation system that recommends the suitable schemes as per the requirements and credentials of the beneficiaries. The entire lending process is automated and based on digital verifications to make it simple, speedy, and hassle-free. Being integrated with the governments’ Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), the new portal helps in receiving in-principal approval of loans for MSMEs and after receiving in-approval, the loan is expected to be disbursed in a few days as the loan application process doesn’t have any human interventions, rather it depends on advanced algorithms to analyse data points from sources like income tax return, GST data, banks accounts among others.

Jan Samarth Portal has multiple integrations with UIDAI, CBDT, NSDL, LGD and other such organisations to make the processes smooth for both beneficiaries and lenders. It does enable beneficiaries to choose from multiple options being offered by various lending financial institutions on the portal. Presently, the platform has more than 10 nodal agencies and over 125 lenders with four broad loan categories – education, business, livelihood and agriculture related infrastructure loan. To avail the loan, beneficiaries first need to check their eligibility by providing answers to few simple questions under the selected loan category. When found eligible, they can proceed to provide the required details and documents. Upon submitting the details, people are recommended to select the schemes based on their needs and then they need to proceed to apply online for the selected scheme to receive digital approval.

Garib Kalyan Sammelan – A war against poverty

The war is not only on the borders. The vast majority of country has been fighting against poverty. A population impoverished by brutal foreign rule and resultant widespread scarcity of resources has been living in a situation seeming like un-winnable battle for a long long time. The onset of Covid pandemic would have meant bengal-famine like starvation situation if not handled properly. From very beginning PM Modi’s focus has been on the inclusive development of the all sections of the society especially that of the poor and needy. Earlier today, PM Modi who was in Shimla, marking completion of eight years of the government, interacted with beneficiaries of different government schemes. He heard them appreciating government’s schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Aawas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi among others, which have proved to be huge successes with the smooth process giving no reason to face any hiccup in availing the benefits.

Putting asides the discrepancies and difficulties paved on its path, India successfully ventured out with a victorious flag in poverty alleviation and food security to the needy. Only recently, the World Bank hugely appreciated the efforts being made by the Government of India in reducing absolute poverty and robust economic growth that has led more than 90 million people escape extreme poverty with improved living standards, further highlighting PM Modi’s most fulfilling 8 years journey in “Desh Seva”.

Amid a grand welcome and thunderous applause upon reaching Shimla, Prime minister interacted with a host of beneficiaries of different government schemes. During the event, he also released the 11th installment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, which provides a new lease of life to the farmers badly hit by Covid and other occasional natural calamities. Terming himself as the Pradhan Sevak of 130 crore people, PM Modi at the ‘Garib Kalyan Sammelan’ released Rs 21,000 crore to more than 10 crore beneficiary farmers.

During the interactions, farmers shared their experiences about the PM-Kishan Scheme also, which is a central sector scheme with 100% funding from Government of India. Having become operational from 1.12.2018, the scheme gives an income support of 6,000/- per year in three equal installments to all land holding farmer families. Definition of the family for the scheme is husband, wife and minor children. State government and UT administration identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines and funds are directly transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Shimla Accord of July 1972 was an attempt of lasting peace with a hostile neighbor which unfortunately did not yield desired results. But, today it seems the hill city Shimla has seen redemption of its reputation that the war against poverty has been given a shot in the arm.

Concept of Family ID card is on the table

From genetics to social perspective to spiritual understanding to occupational and educational choices, a lot depends on family when it comes to development of individuals and young minds generation after generation. This directly and collectively is responsible in defining the tone and tint of India as a country and its national Identity. For Indian democracy too, family stands probably as the most important social institution. In a way family is an inevitable parameter to plan not only for proper welfare delivery but to achieve new growth benchmarks too. For all of this though, a strong data log is a requisite for a planning of this stature. And the concept of a family ID is a topic of interest.

India has been exploring prospects of establishing a “universal family ID” ecosystem in the country – which is to be built on the same concept as Aadhaar card being the unique identification number for every Indian citizen. A miniature implementation of the same can be seen in the Haryana Government’s 2019 move wherein it came up with the ‘Parivar Pehchaan Patra’ (PPP) through which the state government enrolled around 54 lakh families living across the state. Under PPP, each family counts as a single unit and is allotted a unique 8-digit identity number, which becomes the family health id number for each member.

The move can be a game changer for government in especially combating the menace of corruption. This is because of the larger transparency that family ID can bring to the surface, by giving direct details of beneficiary families and cancelling all the goofed-up and old data presently registered in the existing systems. Further, because of the lack of authentication and verification processes, a common challenge the administration has been facing is ‘exclusion’ or ‘duplication’ of beneficiaries from welfare schemes. There have also been cases where beneficiaries belonging to same family have received benefits using different IDs. Presence of PPP protects from such cases to happen. The family identifier card, with a strong data inventory, can help in streamlining beneficiary identification and registration processes, ensure data symmetry and interoperability, in order to ensure smooth transfer of benefits to the public.

Family plays a key role in defining the health status of an individual whether it is through genetics or through shared social and physical environment. In terms of healthcare too, a family ID will mean a complete record of family level health details, a database that can lead to a better health infrastructure and aid facilities by the government. Family data will thus give a lot of inputs to the government, administration and scientific institutions so that they can plan utilisation, consumption and expenditure in an optimal manner and open gates to innovative solutions for a plethora of environmental, physical, educational, and even social ailments. This kind of documentation may even be of great assistance to struggling groups, especially families being run by single-mothers, old guardians, children who have lost both their parents, etc.

As powerful and useful as this idea may be, certain loopholes also need to be taken care of, especially in cases of deaths/births registration, missing documents within families, divorce cases, etc. However, this is a small bottleneck compared to the ease this data can extend. One can go back to the time when the government rolled out the concept of making Aadhar card for all. Though the idea was not loved by many and faced criticisms in the initial years, there is no denying the fact that the full scale implementation by India has led to a massive capacity-building across the country bringing out system excellence, administrative ease and a confidence of taking up projects of large scale implementation. The concept of creating and maintaining family ID records possesses a similar untapped potential.

Status of Wheat & Edible Oils Stocks in India

From Railways, to manufacturing to digital and tech advancement, India has now introduced new norms and relaxation in almost all the sectors to increase growth figures. The country has for so long been tagged a status of ‘Krishi Pradhan’. Now, agriculture and allied activities as a sector too has strengthened with more jobs, better produce and MSPs, modern agri solutions, agro-startups growth and mega welfare schemes to support farmers and their produce. The efforts have resulted in pursual of many other types of agricultural practices & methods across the country like organic farming, horticulture, poultry, dry farming etc. and have also led to record stats of exports and production.

Today, India is in a much comfortable position, when it comes to having overall surplus availability of grains and stocks as they are expected to be higher than the minimum requirements for the next one year. It all becomes possible despite country’s wheat output looks likely to go down in 2022 because of a sharp and sudden rise in temperatures in mid-March, causing damage to crop yields especially in Punjab, Haryana and UP. Meanwhile, India- the world’s second largest producer of the grain has had five consecutive years of record harvests of wheat till 2021. Moreover, the edible oil prices too are likely to soften soon as the palm oil imports are expected to start very soon after a temporary ban by Indonesia.

Dispelling the concerns of potential shortage in surplus food availability, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), recently cleared the air conveying that after meeting the requirement of welfare schemes in the year ahead, on April 1, 2023, India would have stocks of 80 LMT of wheat, well above the minimum requirement of 75 LMT. Total Food-grains production during 2021-22 is higher by 25.35 million tonnes compared to total figures of last 5 years. Similarly, other items that witnessed higher production in last five years include Rice (higher by 11.49 mn tonnes), Nutri /coarse cereals (higher by 3.28 mn tonnes), pulses (higher by 3.14 mn tonnes), oilseeds (higher by 3.28 mn tonnes), and sugarcane (higher by a whopping 40.59 mn tonnes).

Wheat Production, however, is expected to be 1050 LMT, which is lower than the initial estimate of 1110 LMT in FY 23. Due to higher market prices, large quantity of wheat is being bought by traders at a higher rate than MSP (Minimum Support Price), which is good for the farmers. “This year due to an increase in market prices and higher demand by the private players both for the domestic as well as export purposes, the purchase by the government agency is less. But that goes in favour of the farmers as they are getting a good price for the wheat,” Sec Sudhanshu Pandey had said. Earlier, the farmers had no option but to sell to the government. Now, they are selling only that quantity of their produce to the government, which they are unable to sell in the private market at higher prices. Therefore, from that perspective, the government procurement has reduced.

The edible oil stocks are also sufficient in the country and after a temporary ban by Indonesia, the palm oil imports are expected to start soon and this would soften the edible oil prices in the country. Besides this, India has a surplus availability of rice as well. Government has directed that locally available stocks of rice will get distributed in the same state where they are getting consumed. So, this will help exporters with their requirement of rakes or movement within the country. It is going to help the exports and all commodities including food grains. Also, the moment the state is able to distribute the rice into the PDS system they become entitled to claim their subsidy. This is an added advantage to the states otherwise they have to maintain the stocks and bear the expenses and only after distribution do they become able to get reimbursement of their Food subsidy.

Delivery and Language of Courtrooms

One can argue that judicial communication is an area needing urgent reforms, both in terms of timely delivery of justice as well as delivery in common person’s language. PM Modi echoes the mood when he says, “A large population finds it difficult to understand the judicial process and rulings of the court. There is a need to simplify this and make it accessible. We just encourage the use of local languages in courts. This will ensure that the common man has faith in the judiciary and can feel part of the system.” He expressed these at the inauguration of the 11th Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts, highlighting yet another need of the hour to make judiciary more inclusive and explicit.

Various regions have demanded from time to time to allow the use of local language in the proceedings before the high courts as provided under Article 348 of the Constitution. The matter has long been a matter of debate too. Certain barriers have prevented local language from being adopted for the proceedings before the high courts. Some of the prominent ones, as highlighted by CJI Ramana, include the fact that sometimes some of the judges are not familiar with the local language & that the Chief Justice are always from outside. However, the government is trying to find solutions to many of such outstanding issues through technology. “I am sure with the innovation in science and technology, the advancement such as Artificial Intelligence, some of the issues associated with the introduction of languages in the high courts may be solved in the near future,” says CJI Ramana.

While lower courts function in local languages and English, the High Courts and Supreme Court use English in their proceedings. The move of adoption of local languages in court would help the common man relate to the judiciary like never before. The Prime Minister also parallelly underlined yet another pressing issue i.e. the need of endorsing medical and technical education in mother-tongue that can help the country have more and more engineers and doctors. “I am glad the Chief Justice of India mentioned having High Courts using local languages. It will take a long time for that, but it will improve access to justice. Why can’t medical and technical education be done in the mother tongue? Some states are already doing it,” PM Modi said while also conveying to and assuring people that the government is even working towards simplifying laws passed in Parliament for the common man to understand them. “Along with the actual legislation, if a simplified version is also passed in Parliament for the common man to understand, then he will not have to go to the court for interpretation of the law. The government is studying this issue,” he said.

The government seems to have been looking towards solution that can improve the judicial system and upgrade the judicial infrastructures. Efforts are being seen to fill up vacancies in courts. Further, use of technology in the judicial system is now an essential part of the Digital India mission. AI, machine learning, natural language processing, digital sharing and record-keeping, etc. are some of the solutions that are already being explored and examined. “To explore the use of AI in judicial domain, the Supreme Court of India has constituted Artificial Intelligence Committee which has mainly identified application of AI technology in Translation of judicial documents; Legal research assistance and Process automation,” Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated recently in Parliament conveying about implementation of phase two of the eCourts projects of the government. Another stepping stone towards this new-age judicial ecosystem was set with the launch of the AI-driven research portal SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency) last year. The portal deals with large chunks of case data through machine-learning

“How do we make our judicial system so capable that it can fulfill the aspirations of India of 2047, … these questions should be our priority today,” said PM Modi invoking a vision for the future of the judiciary and urging the Judges and Chief Ministers to set the vision for the nation in 2047, when India would celebrate 100 years of independence. As the New India begins to dawn and shape up, it is bringing a wave of change in every domain that helps run the country, including the Indian Judiciary. The judiciary system is being made more relevant, tech-ready, transparent and accessible for all. From working on deciding upon as to what all court-related proceedings and matters can be made public to implementation of e-courts project in mission mode, efforts are seen to make Indian Judiciary trusting and impactful for New India.