[calvin_wonders]

As i dug deep to check impact of CSR in INDIA i found

1.Most of comapnies resort to CSR as a brand building exercise eg pepsi after pesticide controversy started emphasising it's CSR intitaives to improve image

2.Most of Indian companies see it as a Buzz word to present their social conscious image especially to western counterparts .Their initiatives limit to things like this

Still you have the leading industrial houses in India taking strong initiatives like Infosys Foundation and taking their CSR role seriously.

One of the most prolific social builders have been tatas and some the initiatives are -

the tata endowment trust provides higher education and since 1892 has supported 3,500 scholars and awarded rs 6.8 crore.

also, lady meherbai trust, an associated trust, has supported graduation of 32 women and distributed rs 30.7 lakh in the last few years.

The tatas have set up numerous premier educational institutes.
Tata management training centre, started by jrd tata, is one of india's leading management institutes.
Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore has produced an aids diagnostic kit and recombinant hepatitis b vaccine.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (tiss) is a pioneer in social work education. Tata Energy Research Institute has developed a mobile, multi-fuel biomass gasifier, and constructed a 6,000 mt solar pond.

Tata has also founded the national centre for performing arts (ncpa), started with an initial grant of rs 40 lakh, in 1966 at nariman point.

Telco automation ltd (tal) developed a prosthetic device that keeps more than a million indians with disabilities on their feet.

Tata sports foundation has nurtured 32 olympians, five world champions, 42 asian games champions, six padmashri winners, eight commonwealth winners and 28 arjuna awardees.

So as long as we have the leading Corporates understanding their Social responisibilty and contributing to social causes the CSR leads the way for effective change.

[calvin_wonders]

Before we start today here's something really uniqueRead here for a fantastic write up of experiencing TISS 2005 interviews

From this i got the list of GD topics asked in 2005

1. Nation States are becoming irrelevant in a global economy.
2. Decentralisation and democracy in India.
3. Can Eco-tourism contribute to Regional Development?
4. Knowledge generation or practise which is more important to managers?
5. How possible is people participation in development
6. Entrepreneurship or managers what shud be the emphasis of B School education.
7. Should FDI be allowed in indian media

and i was thinking that the only way we can effectively prepare is by learning about various social and economic scenarios and challenges they pose
That's why the focus until now has been core topics around which we are trying to improve our knowledge base and getting an excuse to research.
As your tiss Brochure it self says Contemporary Social Issues.

Another suggestion is that It would be great if all the puys participating while replying to the current topic would suggest some topic from their side that they feel is worth discussing for one whole day and on which proper research has to be done.

Today's topic is one of the inevitable ones having generated so much controversy and affecting India's economic and political powers to a great extent.

SEZ's in INDIA - Focal points of economic growth or poitical controversy
We can discuss
The very need for having SEZ's and how the idea originated
What went Wrong
Any SEZ success stories
Lessons to be learnt
Singur and Nandigram controversies..

Looking forward to some unique insights and reflections...


ps-trying to complie a list of GD topics asked in 2007
i am of course going through last year's thread and if someone can ask seniors and has any other info please pm me....it would be great help

[cat4sure]

@ Calvin_wonders

dude! great contribution coming from your part. Great work!!!!
will definitely try to synergise my awarenesss with this thread.

[calvin_wonders]

Thanks to Navia here 's our first link to topic

Rural resistance

although on going through the article (which is quite a detailed
report ) here's my summary

1.The article spoke about aquiring of SEZ near Mumbai,Delhi,Kolkatta
and Bangalore and gives us the side of grievences of farmers and
environmental impact

a)Fact -SEZ were asked by central govt to be established on infertile
land
Report says : many cases fertile land has been taken over by
industries

b)fact - Farmers consent must o buy land
report tells cases where it has been forcifully purchased

c)fact-SEZ launched to help increase govt finds
report tells due to tax liberations there will not be much profit
for govt

Also due to it being oct 2006 there is no mention of NAndigram yet and
in fact in the last part of report the West Bengal policies are being
appreciated

Now please keep in mind that these reports are collections of one
individual.
So let's absorb the facts ,see their opinions and then make ours.

Looking forward to all the people for adding in SEZ especially on
their exact advantages and why goverment for it specially for Singur
and Nandigram
-------------------------------------------------------
just came across this great article by TOI columinist and leading
economist Swaminathan

Swaminomics

(it's a great link and provides insights into many socio-economic
issues)

The summary is like this

That Gujarat is a state in which SEZ's have come up without any
protests and promise to lead to good growth.
Reasons being

SEZ policy of Gujrat came in 2002 ,two years before national policy
and it had beneficiary points like

First, every SEZ promoter had to be an industrialist, not a builder,
ensuring that this was an industrial project and not real estate in
disguise.

Second, the promoter had to have an anchor project of his own in the
SEZ. This ensured provision of high-class infrastructure, which a
builder might neglect.

Third, the promoter had to buy land voluntarily from farmers and not
expect state acquisition on his behalf. This avoided the heart-burning
seen in Orissa and West Bengal.

The Gulf of Kutch is the only coastal area in India with low rainfall.
Farming is tough, so farmers are willing to sell their land. The state
government itself owns vast wastelands, mud flats and marshes along
the coast. It has been selling these to developers (like Gautam Adani
at Mundra), without displacing farmers.

So the underlining is that
the ideal SEZ policy would have been to create only a few big SEZs in
the best locations, not hundreds of SEZs in flawed locations across
all states.

[cat4sure]

The very need for having SEZ's and how the idea originated
The concept of SEZ came into being in the early 1980s in China. It has more liberal economic laws as compared to the general economic laws in the country.
It engulfs the EPZ,FTZ, FZ etc. The SEZ are set keeping an increase in the foreign investment in view.

What went Wrong
It has been proved that when it comes to economic growth it is liberalization in policies that matter rather than the number of SEZs. One point where people went wrong was taking a hasty decision for setting up large number of SEZs rather than keeping a tab on the viability of such projects.

Any SEZ success stories-
When we think of some success stories in this regard, one name that comes across in a flash is Shenzhen, has developed from a small village into a city with a population over 10 million within 20 years. There are quite a good promising numbers coming up in India namely in Chennai, Mumbai etc.

Lessons to be learnt
The most important lesson to be learnt from the Singur and Nandigram controversies is that the land owner needs to be properly convinced before the land is acquired.
Proper compensation should be given in addition to the future recurring source of income. Mostly barren piece of land should be looked upon as the target area. The people in villages might be more resistant to changes, are more sentimentally attached to their property because of the inheritance factor so it would be initially difficult to get them convinced as it happened in Singur and Nandigram. But the land owner should always have his call as the final call when it comes to taking such a decision. Government should be expected to promote the SEZs only after checking the feasibility of the project but should never force the decision upon the owners.

[hahahamedicine]

Hi puys....

the budget highlights are - (therez a file with the detailed summary..)

Changes in I-T slab. Threshold of exemption for all Income Tax assesses raised from from Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,50,000.
Every income tax assessees to get relief of minimum of Rs 4,000.
No change in rate of surcharge.
New tax slabs will be: 10 per cent for Rs 150,000 to Rs 300,000, 20 per cent for Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000 and 30 per cent above Rs 500,000.
For women, the income tax limit goes up from Rs 1.45 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh. In case of senior women citizens, it increases from Rs 1.95 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh.
Fresh facilities, encouragement to sports and guest houses exempted from Fringe Benefit Tax.
Five year tax holiday for setting up hospitals in tier II and tier III regions for providing healthcare in rural areas from April 1, 2008.
Five year tax holiday for promoting cultural tourism.
Short-term capital gains increases to 15 per cent.
Commodities Transaction Tax to be introduced on the lines of Securities Transaction Tax.
Banking cash transaction tax withdrawn from April one, 2009.
Direct tax proposals to be revenue neutral. Indirect tax proposals to result in loss of Rs 5,000 crore.
Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Help Groups for LIC [Get Quote] cover for permanent disability.
Agricultural loans given by scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and due for December 31 that year will be covered under the waiver scheme to address the problem of indebtedness.
No change in corporate income tax.
To protect tigers, Rs 50 crore for National Tiger Conservation Programme. Bulk of it to be used to raise Tiger Protection Force.
Plan expenditure fixed at Rs 2,43,000 crore and non plan expenditure at 5,74,000 crore.
Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.1 per cent and revenue deficit at 1.4 per cent.
Tax to GDP ratio increased from 9.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 12.5 per cent 2007-08.
No change in peak rate of customs duty for non
Customs duty on specified life saving drugs reduced from ten per cent to five per cent.
Special Countervailing Duty on power imports.
Customs duty on specified sports goods machinery down from 7.5 per cent to five per cent.
Duty withdrawn on naptha for production of polymers.
Duty on crude and unrefined sulphur reduced from five to 2 per cent to help raise domestic fertiliser production.
General Centvat on all goods to be reduced from 16 per cent to 14 per cent. Excise duty reduced from 16 per cent to eight per cent on all pharmaceutical goods manufacture.
Excise duty on small cars reduced to 12 per cent from 16 per cent and hybrid cars to 14 per cent.
Excise duty reduced from 16 to 8 per cent on water purification items.
Duty on non filter cigarettes to be raised.
Asset management service under mutual funds, services by stock exchanges to be brought under Services Tax net.
Threshold for small service providers raised from Rs eight lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Allocation for defence to be increased by 10 per cent from Rs 96,000 crore to Rs 1,05,600 crore.
75 lakh people to be covered by health insurance scheme.
Allocation for Textile Upgradation Fund to be more than doubled.
Micro, small and medium enterprises to continue to get special attention.
Risk Capital Fund to be set up in SIDBI.
PAN requirement to be extended to all transactions in capital market subject to a threshold.
Rs 750 crore for upgradation of 300 ITIs in 25 districts.
Rs 32,676 crore as subsidy to Public Distribution System.
PDS through smart cards in Haryana and Chandigarh on pilot basis.
Three schemes to be introduced for providing social security to unorganised sector workers.
Sixth central pay commission to submit report by March 31, 2008.
Rs 624 crore allocated for Commonwealth Games
Farmers' debt to be waived
Complete waiver of loans for marginal farmers owning land up to one hectare and small farmers owning land up to 1 and 2 hectares.
Agricultural loans given by scheduled commericial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and due for December 31 that year will be covered under the waiver scheme to address the problem of indebtedness.
One time settlement of loans for other farmers.
Agriculture loans restructured and rescheduled by banks from 2004-06 and other loans normally rescheduled under RBI guidelines will also be eligible under the waiver scheme.
Implementation of debt waiver and debt relief will be completed by June 30 this year.
Loan waiver scheme to involve loans liability of Rs 60,000 crore and to benefit four crore farmers.
By loan waiver scheme, the country is discharging a deep debt and sense of gratitude to farmers, says Chidambaram.
The corpus of rural infrastructure development fund to be raised to Rs 14,000 crore.
More reforms needed in coal and electricity sectors to ensure double digit growth in manufacturing sector.
Rs 800 crore for accelerated power reforms programme.
National Fund for Transmission and Distribution Reforms to be launched.
The loan waiver scheme will benefit three crore small and medium farmers and cover loans totalling Rs 50,000 crore.
One crore other farmers will benefit to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore in the waiver.
Foreign investment of 3.5 to 8 billion dollars expected for exploration and development of new oil blocks.
Rs 7,200 crore to be allocated to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, marking an increase of 24 per cent.
Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Helf Groups for LIC cover for permanent disability.
A target of Rs 2.80 lakh crore for agriculture credit set for the coming year.
Rs 20,000 crore for irrigation projects under AIPB, showing an increase of Rs 9,000 crore over last year.
National Horticulture Mission to be given Rs 1,100 crore in 2008-09 with special focus on coconut cultivation.
Rs 75 crore to be given to Agriculture Ministry for providing mobile soil testing laboratories in 250 districts.
Rs 644 crore for National Agriculture Insurance Scheme, which will be continued pending evolving an alternative crop insurance scheme.
National Plant Protection Training Institute at Hyderabad to be made autonomous body and Rs.29 crore will be allocated to it.
A scheme of debt waiver and relief for small and marginal farmers announced.
NREGA scheme to be rolled out in all the 596 rural districts in the country in 2008-09.
Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission to get Rs 6,865 crore this year against Rs 5,482 crore past year.
Allocation for Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission to be increased to Rs 7,300 crore. Rs 200 crore for potable water in schools.
Rs 300 crore to be set aside for desalination plant in Chennai for drinking water.
Rs 500 crore for identifying urgent needs of development programmes of border areas like Arunachal Pradesh.
SC, ST and minority students to continue to get special attention.
Allocation for several schemes in North East raised from Rs 14,365 crore to Rs 16,400 crore.
Rs 75 crore sanctioned for Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Programme for SC/ST students pursuing M.Phil.
Rs 230 crore will be extended as additional equity to developmental organisations looking after the welfare of SC,
ST, socially and economically backward classes and minorities.
Allocation for Minority Affairs Ministry to be doubled from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.
Rs 540 crore for multi-sectoral development plan for minority concentration districts.
288 public sector bank branches to be opened in districts having minority community concentration.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be provided Rs 13,100 crore, Mid Day Meal scheme Rs 8,000 crore, Secondary education Scheme Rs 4,554 crore.
410 additional Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya to be set up in backward blocks.
Navodaya Vidyalayas to be opened in 20 districts with special focus on regions having SC/ST concentration.
Allocation of Rs 130 crore for this purpose. Rs.750 crore more to be given for merit scholarship to students up to 10th and 12th class.
Mid day Meal scheme extended to upper primary level in 3479 schools. 16 central universities to be opened in 2008-09.
Three IITs to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
Schools of architecture and planning in Bhopal and Vijaywada. More institutes of higher education to be opened.
Rs 100 crore to be given to Information Technology Ministry to set up national knowledge centres.
Allocation for NRHM increased to Rs 12,050 crore
Rs 992 crore for national AIDS programme.
A national programme for the elderly to be started at a cost of Rs. 400 crore.
Rashtra Swasthya Beema Yojana to start from April one in Delhi and Haryana. Rs 30,000 for each family belonging to unorganised sector.
Allocation for ICDS increased to Rs 6300 crore.
Rs 85 crore sanctioned for scholarships to students pursuing science education.
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research to be set up at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.
Agriculture credit doubled in the first two years of the government to reach Rs.2.40 lakh crore by March 2008.
Eleventh Plan started on a robust growth.
Gross budgetary support to be raised to Rs 2,43,386 crore, an increase of more than Rs 38,000 crore from the current level.
Allocation for Bharat Nirman to be raised to Rs 31,280 crore.
Twenty per cent hike in education budget this year from Rs 28,674 crore to Rs 34,400 crore.
GDP growth slows down to 8.4 per cent during quarter ended December 31, 2007 as compared to 9.1 per cent a year ago.
Economy grew over eight per cent over 12 successive quarters since 2005, says Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Growth rate of agricultre extimated at 2.6 per cent during the current year.
Services and manufacturing sectors expected to grow by 10.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent, says Chidambaram.
Keeping inflation under check is one of the cornerstones of the Government's policy.
Rice production estimiated at 94.08 million tonnes, maize 16.78 mt, soyabean 9.45 mt and cotton 23.38 million bales.

[ebullience]

here s why SEZ s are controversial:

Displacement of Farmers:

Estimates show that close to 114,000 farming households (each household on an average comprising five members) and an additional 82,000 farm worker families who aredependent upon these farms for their livelihoods, will be displaced. In other words, at least 10 lakh (1,000,000) people who primarily depend upon agriculture for their survival will face eviction. Experts calculate that the total loss of income to the farming and the farm worker families is at least Rs. 212 crores a year. This does not include other income lost (for instance of artisans) due to the demise of local rural economies.

Almost 80% of the agricultural population owns only about 17% of the total agriculture land, making them near landless farmers. compensation is being discussed only for those who hold titles to land. No compensation has been planned for those who don’t.

WILL SEZS CREATE JOBS?

The growth of employment in the entire organized sector since the inception of the reforms in 1991 has been negligible. The total employment in the organized sector is still less than 3 crores. Even in IT and ITES, the boom areas of the economy, employment is less than 0.15 crores. (60% SEZs are for IT.) The Indian labor force is estimated at 45-55 crores. Thanks to growing automation, modern manufacturing grows joblessly around the world. (In India automobile production has grown rapidly, while employing less labor than before.) With more automation, organized services also require limited supplies of labor. SEZs will attract modern industry and services in order to succeed. To that extent they are unlikely to generate
too many jobs. Moreover, the few jobs that will be generated will be for highly skilled labor, usually not available in the countryside – from where working people are being displaced to make room for SEZs.

LOSS OF PUBLIC REVENUE

Thanks to exemptions from customs duties, income tax, sales tax, excise duties and service tax (even on luxury hotel facilities, shopping malls, health clubs and recreation centres) given to SEZs, the Finance ministry estimates a loss of Rs.1,60,000 crore till 2010 in revenue.

The foregone tax revenue every year is five times the annual allocation for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and is enough to feed each year 55 million people who go to bed hungry every day.



cheers

Navia

[maahi_prasad]

I think when we are are talking abt SEZ, these are the primary issuese which need to be discussed .. Is it right for state governments to expropriate land from farmers or should land acquisition be the responsibility of private developers and subject to market forces? Who does the state bear greater responsibility towards - the farmers and other villagers who will lose their livelihoods as a result of establishment of these zones, or the private developers of these zones?


Acquiring the land is the biggest incentive held out to private SEZ developers by the state governments. The state involvement becomes more apparent in the larger zones that are in the land acquisition phase. Nandigram is by now famous as an example of a failed forced acquisition. However, i feel this has not deterred the West Bengal government from looking at other areas in the state for the same SEZ and for acquisition for the Haldia SEZ. In Maharashtra too, the state government has transferred lands acquired by CIDCO to the Navi-Mumbai SEZ, while it has been actively acquiring land for Reliance for the Maha-Mumbai SEZ. And in the north, there is the example of the Reliance Haryana SEZ where the state government and Reliance together have signed agreement for developing what is billed as the largest SEZ in India.

Singur is another example of the same government acquiring prime agricultural land for a car factory, in this case, for Tata Motors. State governments have not hesitated to acquire land even (mis)using draconian emergency powers available in the Land Acquisition Act. A case in point is the Tamilnadu government's acquisition of land near Pulicat Lake north of Chennai for a petro-chemical complex

All the above cases reinforce the idea that large sized SEZs implicitly depend on the state to provide land. Governments play a humongous role in acquiring land for private development . They argue that SEZs are needed for the 'development' of their states, and that they need to do everything possible to attract the promoters of these zones to their own state. Whether SEZs will bring in the promised benefits is an entirely different discussion. injustice is being metted out by the government by using the colonial land acquisition law that has become such a favourite instrument in the hands of state governments.

( will add some more soon .. )

[maahi_prasad]

Check out this attachment ...
SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF MAHA MUMBAI SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE (MMSEZ)

[Terpsichorean]

If it was Influenza ever earlier,
It is the avidity of this group today - HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS !!
Great going puys.

Now, coming onto SEZ.......
Special Economic Zones or SEZs policy is deemed by the government ( inspired by China) as a tool to boost the economic growth of the country. As the one-line wikipedia definition says it all - It is ' a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country's typical economic laws '.

For the industrialists, it is a cake on the plate, so who wouldn't want it? And hence the problem put in simple terms is 'grab-the-pie-and-eat-it' attitude rather than 'share-the-pie' . At least,the ones whose pieces are being taken aren't really convinced that others are merely trying to share it. They do believe with all their heart and soul that their pie is being snatched away which is leading to vehement oppositions - be it Nandigram in WB or Nandagudi in Karnataka.

The story started in 1894 with the inception and implementation of Land Acquisition Act ( LAA) which gives the state the power of 'eminent domain' ; to acquire any land for 'public purpose' . Land acquisitions happened in '80s too when IDCs were formed and LAA has been a point of concern since then.
Since contiguous land is required for SEZs , many farmers are forced to sell it. The ones who are willing to sell it too broadly need 'proper and adequate compensation' and also 'alternative means of livelihood'. In India, this becomes difficult in the absence of a strong national rehabilitation policy.
It is acute in the rural areas where subsistence agriculture is being practised. This leads to resistance from the marginal farmers, agricultural labourers etc who believe they are nothing but losers in the 'growth story'.

A solution being proposed by the GOI is to let corporate houses purchase land directly and then farmers would have the right to stay 'No'. This is not a viable solution of course, because it would lead to the emergence of industry-farmers interfaces - in short, agents. And for the industry, the problem would accentuate due to local/regional problems which would vary from region to region. Not only this,companies would want to compensate in 'cash' and would care little for rehabilitation.

Need of the hour :
1) Legislation that protects farmers' rights, that helps them make informed decisions.
2) Responsibility enshrined in Government and not private organizations.
3) Take help of local decision making bodies.
4) Infrastructural support to rural folk whose land is being taken away so that they do not consider corporate houses as their 'inherent foes. Gain their confidence, help them regain their confidence and make them an integral part of wealth creation , thereby making them an important constituent in the 'process of growth'.

This would turn SEZs into an empowerment tool and not weapons of mass destruction :-)