[calvin_wonders]

Why another thread for TISS GD-Pi ?
Because the first one (TISS HRM 2008-10 Call Getters, GD/PI discussion and experiences) never served it's purpose and disgressed into an intro session.

So please make sure that you have gone through the gudelines before posting-

This thread is for one purpose.
To help generate quality content for the TISS GD-PI preparation to be held between April 7-16th Mumbai

How are we going to do it ?

We can decide one topic for the day .
Then do our research about it and post relevant info here.
For around forty days we can thus cover forty topics closely related
to various contemporary social happenings.

Rule to be followed :
One post per person and about the topic for discussion that day and if any change needs to be done it should be edited into the same post


for eg if topic is Corporate Social Responsibility
please collect your ideas and post them in a single post.
The idea is not to debate here but to make a solid info base on which we can present our opinions.

Strictly No Do's-
1.Posting anything other than the topic for the day(except the previously discussed topics;if you haven;t posted earlier you can make a post about an old topic)
Use PM or other threads for that . or better ORKUT

I hope this proves useful to everyone

Let's start with the topic for today -\

Agrarian Crisis in India-

We can discuss
1)Agricultural scenario in India
2)Various challenges
3)associted aspects like farmer suicides and land aquiition
Anything which helps complete the agriculture picture in INDIA


edit on Mar3 2008
In last six days we have covered following topics(followed by major contributor/s)

• 26feb-Agrarian Crisis in India -Harshaoz
• 27feb-Ruppee appreciation and its impact on Indian Industry -Geminigal,isha_raravis
• 28Feb- Corporate Social Responsibility (Myth or Reality)-ebullience,gaurav1012,hahahamedicine
• 29feb-SEZs in INDIA - Focal Points of Economic Growth or tools of oppression-cat4sure,ebullience,maahi_prasad,Terpsichorean
• 1mar-"Legalizing/ Decriminalizing Prostitution" -roopag,arulprakash
• 2mar-Naxalites : A threat to India's sovereignty -sanjana.srikant,
• 3mar-Budget 2008

I think we have well begun so the job is half done !
What we need is to carry the momentum forward and pour in our thoughts on a daily basis for next 30 days and we know that we would have done justice to our preparation towards TISS GDPI.

[calvin_wonders]

Here are some key points regarding agrarian crisis in
India

Crisis 1-World Food prices are increasing and trend likely to continue
due to following reasons-

a)Rise in demand for food consumption in developing economies
b)Increase in consumption of meat
c)Diversion of land to raise biofuels

Hence export not an option

Crisis 2 -Food production output in India inc by 3% per year ,demand
inc by 10 %
LArge gap in demand supply ! Shortage inevitable !

hence per capita availability of pulses/serials decreased from 510gm
in 1990 to 422gm in 2007

Crisis3- Indian Agriculture contributes to 20% output of Indian
economy while 60% people are employed in it
Acc to National Sample Survey Organisatopn 2 out of 5 farmers looking
to quit

Crisis4-India'a Average LAbor Productivity has declined and is even
less than BAngladesh due to inefficient use of resources

Crisis5-Subsidies in Agriculture not working all though they are four
times than in Industrial sector.Difficult to maintain due to
increasing oil prices.

Solutions-
1.Reliable Power Supply
2.Proper Asset Base for farmers
3.Assured market and price
4.Increasing productivity per acre
5.Decreasing wasteful consumption habits like meat consumption

(SOURCE TOI - 25 FEB)

[Subrat.etc]

My points:

1.Threat from organised retail sector - With organised retails coming at large, there is a threat perception among the local small retail stores who get their products indirectly from rural farmers.If this perception continues, the average selling of farm items may come down which would be a cause of worry for the rural sector......

2.Government fundings still doesnt reach the root level farmers.Most of them remain unutilised and in some other cases are mis utilised.

3.Farmers should be trained with latest methodologies to compete with international standard products.

Even if FDI is opened up in retail the rural farmers should be in a position to produce high class products to compete the foreign items.

[GeminiGal]

post deleted

[Subrat.etc]

Sure...going forward i'll be doing tat...

[I Must]

V nice initiative...

My take on the topic.

1. In many cases Agriculture is a seasonal employment. Once the harvest is done farmers and their family use to involve in alternate works like basket weaving. Change in todays market scenario have made these commodities obsolete. Farmers must be trained in other contemporary alternative works too to avoid seasonal unemployment.

2.Both agriculture and Soil research department must work combinedly to utilise the available arable land effectively.

Will add more...

[harshaoz]

Will add some of the issues i feel

some may be repeated...
will try to conjure up some viable solns... :P

1) Disguised/Seasonal employment is a huge proble especially in this
sector

2) To much indirect supply of resources(use of middleman)...although
retail IPO helps to an extent here

3) Trade unions for agriculture are ppl who are just figureheads

4) Land acquisition especially in fertile zones and subsequent
reallocation is highly ineffective

5) Land ownership is highly sequestered and need to be more
clustered so as to enable higher productivity

6) Use of better irrigational techniques is needed especially with the
prevalent water crisis and seasonal/eratic rainfall

7) Better solns towards understanding law of diminishing returns as the need to lookin at
the organisational structure of this sector is everincreasing

Need for implementation for cash crops as well as food from the
perspective of biotechechnology(BT-cotton) and also recognise the importance of
horticultural crops

9) Implemation and R&D towards bio-fuel crops, growing Jatropha etc.

source: my powerful mind...

regards
harsha

[hahahamedicine]

hi all...

breaking the holy rules of calvin (who actually walked into a total group of strangers n asked, n i quote, "are u pagalguys??" - the day we were supposed to meet, B'lore!! since no one knew the other... wat a way to get started - shukar kar mara nehi!!)

hmmm... quite a lotta ideas/data/views... personally it all got clogged inside (ya, am like that another bric in the wall types! takes a lil time)...so i thought id share sum perimeter stuff too that i have/had; more of a general read.. not totally a wholesome 'meal' but ya... 'spices' that u can add/mix in gds/pi to get the yummy taste...

the attachements -

[calvin_wonders]

Our coverage of the first topic i felt was good to start with and i am sure that with more research we can come with very informative posts with accurate facts and clear logic.
I will post the new topic at 12 am from nowonwards.(regarding suggestions of new topics kindly pm )

By the end of the day we should have at least a couple of good compilations of facts and situations.

Our last topic was social oriented.Let's look at the socio -economic angle
So new topic is
ruppee appreciation and its impact on Indian Industry

Let's analyse the topic in a manner so that we know
1-what is rupee appreciation
2-why is it happening
3-what are the good sides
4-what are the downs
5-any possible recourse for RBI

Will post my analysis by evening

ps-@haha leaking inside info :P

[GeminiGal]

1) Rupee appreciation basically means rupee getting more expensive vis-a-vis other currencies esp dollar.
2)In recent past we have see the rupee has appreciated from Rs 46 in July2006 to current Rs39.9. Usually a country's currency moving up is a sign of country well doing economy.

Boon:
1)It is a boon for those involved in imports. e.g India's chief import is crude oil. Say the cost of one barrel of oil costs 100$ (just for calculation purpose) so earlier with Rs 46=1US$ it would have costed us Rs.4600. But now since rupee is Rs. 39.9 , its costs us Rs.3990

2)One of the biggest beneficiaries of this rupee appreciation are borrowers from international banks. Due to appreciation of rupee, the amount to be repayed to them in terms of dollars is reduced.

Source:attached

Regards,
GeminiGal