Selling tomatoes at 25 paise/ kg! Chhattisgarh farmers destroying their own produce, thanks to demonetisation 12-10

Pathalgaon and Farsabahar in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur and Raigarh district respectively were hoping for some miracle this year! As the tomato production at both of these

With scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes by PM Narendra Modi in the mid night of 8th November, the demand for vegetables went down as people couldn’t find change to buy much during initial phase. The middlemen started taking advantage of the situation. It went to such a chaos that the traders fixed the price at Rs 25-50 for 100 kilos, which drips down to 25 paise to 50 paise a kg. Not just that the hard work of a farmer is insulted but that doesn’t even compensate the transport cost of the farmer for bringing the produce to the mandi.

Raged at the injustice, the farmers have decided to crush the tomatoes on roads instead of selling them, confirms a report by ANI. Despite a legal tender to sell the produce, the farmers have destroyed the tomatoes by spreading them on road for speeding vehicles to crush them.

places rose to a never-before mark, they thought they will be having a really good year ahead. But suddenly the demonetization happened and it all changed.

Chhattisgarh administered by the BJP member Raman Singh has been demanding adequate cold storage facilities for preservation of crops. Unfortunately it’s been a decade, neither a cold storage nor food processing factories have been set up. Though this isn’t just a case of Chhattisgarh, even farmers in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have been hard hit after demonetization as the profit margins have gone down and the farmers can’t hire labours to harvest the ripe crops.  

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Currency Press Capacity: Around 6 Months Needed To Replenish Rs. 500 Notes. 11-17

New Delhi:  Will new notes which replace the demonetised currency find itself in circulation soon? Unlikely, if the capacity of all the currency printing presses in the country is taken into account.

The latest calculation, based on capacities of the currency printing presses, shows that replenishment would take around six months.

This is particularly true for the new Rs. 500 notes, whose printing, presumably, started after November 10. Till those are replenished in adequate numbers, the "currency pain" would not go away since Rs. 2,000 notes are difficult to exchange for lower denominations.

However, enough of the new Rs. 2,000 notes may already have been printed, calculations show.

The central government had demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes on November 8, sending the whole nation into a tizzy. Long queues outside banks have been a daily occurrence since then because enough currency notes are not available with them.

New information gleaned from public sources show that the government may be too optimistic in claiming that "adequate amount" of money would soon be in circulation.

That's because of the limited capacity of the printing presses in the country for such a sudden, huge job.

There are four currency presses -- one each in Nashik (Maharashtra), Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), Salboni (West Bengal) and Mysuru (Karnataka).

The first two are owned by the central government through the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd. According to information available in the Finance Ministry's latest annual report, the yearly currency printing capacity of these two presses is around 40 per cent of the total in the country.

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The other two presses -- in Nashik and Dewas -- are part of the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt. Ltd. (BRBNMPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). These two, comprising 60 per cent of the total capacity, can print 16 billion notes in two shifts per year, according to information available on BRBNMPL's website.

In essence, it means that total capacity in the country would be 26.66 billion notes in two shifts. If all three shifts run, as the government says is happening now, the four presses would be able to print 40 billion notes a year, irrespective of the denomination.

Now, according to the government, the total money in circulation -- before Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes were declared illegal -- was Rs. 17.54 lakh crore or Rs. 17,540 billion. Of this, 45 per cent was in Rs. 500 denomination -- equivalent to Rs. 7.89 lakh crore or Rs. 7,890 billion and 39 per cent in Rs. 1,000 notes amounting to Rs. 6.84 lakh crore or Rs. 6,840 billion.

In other words, there were 15.78 billion notes of Rs. 500 denomination in circulation and 6.84 billion notes of Rs. 1,000.

But if they are going to print Rs. 2,000 notes equivalent to value of the Rs. 1,000 notes declared illegal, that is, worth Rs. 6.84 lakh crore, they would have to print only half, or 3.42 billion notes.

If the printing started in early September, as has been claimed by some printing press officials, they would need only a little over two months to meet the full requirement, even at 50 per cent capacity. In other words, they should have printed all the replacement needs of Rs. 2,000 notes till now.

Further, how long will they need to print Rs. 500 notes, now that the machines would not be printing Rs. 2,000 notes? Assuming an 80 per cent run (remember Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 comprised 84 per cent of all currencies), the time taken for the new Rs. 500 notes, which began printing, presumably, on November 10, would be: 5.9 months.

The rest of the 20 per cent capacity could be used for the lower denomination notes from Rs. 5 to Rs. 100.

So, by April-end, one would presume, all the new notes would be in circulation. And, of course, the pain would be longer than the 50 days that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mentioned.

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Is India Capable of a Surgical Strike in Pakistan Controlled Kashmir? 10-05

Is India Capable of a Surgical Strike in Pakistan Controlled Kashmir?

A surgical strike operation by Indian forces begs the question of the military’s capability to launch such an attack.

On Thursday India claimed it had conducted a “surgical strike” in Pakistan controlled Kashmir across the Line of Control (LoC). Pakistan denied that India carried out a surgical strike and claimed that two of its soldiers were killed in cross border fire.

“The notion of surgical strike linked to alleged terrorists’ bases is an illusion being deliberately generated by India to create false effects,” the Pakistani military said in a statement.

India’s director general of military operations, Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, publicly announced the strike. He stated, “Based on receiving specific and credible inputs that some terrorist teams had positioned themselves at launch pads along the Line of Control to carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states, the Indian army conducted surgical strikes at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists.”

Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.India has provided few details of the operation but sources indicate that the “surgical strikes” consisted of a heliborne unit and Special Forces that infiltrated the LoC and conducted assaults on seven suspected terrorist launch pads that were two to three km beyond the LoC.

Throughout the day Pakistan has continued to deny any surgical strike took place. “There has been no surgical strike by India, instead there had been cross border fire initiated and conducted by India which is existential phenomenon,” the Pakistan Army said in a statement.
A surgical strike operation by Indian forces begs the question of whether Indian forces have the capability to launch such a sophisticated and coordinated attack.

Surgical strikes can be conducted through airborne or artillery based precision guided strikes or ground force based assaults; both of which require sophisticated intelligence collection, platforms to conduct collections, and surveillance of target sites and objectives.

India is still on the cusp of building a sophisticated and modernized asymmetrical capability to conduct counterterror operations, while much of its forces are still organized and trained on Cold War models.

Over the last decade, India has spearheaded efforts to modernize her military to include domestic production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Rostum I and Rostum II could provide India with an air platform capable of surgical strikes, long loiter times for target surveillance, and intelligence collection. However, these platforms are still in development and Rostum II just began test trials this summer. India’s drone development program is still in its infancy.

As for artillery, in 2015, India and BAE finalized contracts for the sale and development of new M777 155 mm howitzer system, capable of firing the new Excalibur GPS guided shell. However, development and production of the artillery system is not slated to begin until 2018.
India does currently field a Russian GPS guided munition called the Krasnopol, though its precision fire support is within a 30-40 km radius and its accuracy is far less when compared to the new Excalibur shell.

As far as precision strike missile capability, India has recently acquired the U.S. anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) Hellfire, which has frequently been used for targeting operations by U.S. forces. India is currently producing a domestic ATGM called the Helina, a helicopter launched precision strike missile, though this missile is still undergoing testing.

In other words, much of India’s asymmetrical warfare capability is still being developed and tested. The examples above are by no means an exhaustive list but it certainly details a capacity not fully developed by Indian forces.

Furthermore, a cross border air raid by either heliborne assets or drones would still prove exceedingly difficult as Pakistan boasts an incredibly impressive air defense system. Pakistan controlled Kashmir is a high threat area for shoulder fired surface to air missiles, some of which have found their way into the hands of militant groups. Any air operation over the territory would be under threat from these weapon systems.

India has released little detail on the operation; however if India in fact carried out a cross border surgical strike on terrorist facilities and not Pakistani military posts, it would be a paradigm shift in India’s war against terrorist and militant organizations. It would also boast the perception that India’s asymmetrical warfare capability is further along than many may perceive.

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Aadhaar set to get govt push for 5 key schemes 09-22

Aadhaar set to get govt push for 5 key schemes

80% of beneficiaries in 300 districts to be linked with direct benefits transfer

After reposing faith in the Aadhaar project at its Cabinet meeting last week, the Narendra Modi government wants direct benefits transfer (DBT) for 80 per cent of beneficiaries in five key schemes “as soon as possible”.

The schemes to be covered include that for cooking gas subsidy, where DBT was stalled by the previous government. The other schemes are on transfer of pensions, scholarships, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and thePublic Distribution System (PDS).

According to the Planning Commission’s assessment, Aadhaar’s penetration among beneficiaries of these five schemes varies from 25 per cent to 60 per cent at present.

“In some states the reach is very little. We will now scale up the penetration to bring an Aadhaar-enabled mechanism for transfer of funds to 80 per cent of the beneficiaries of five programmes,” a senior official said.

To begin with, the plan to take Aadhaar to 80 per cent beneficiaries would be for 300 districts (of India’s 670 districts); it would be expanded after the first stage got over, the official said.

The Commission, the nodal agency for Aadhaar, will meet representatives from on Tuesday and those from Union Territories on September 30. “The meeting is for reviewing the state-wise progress of Aadhaar, evaluating the bottlenecks and finding solutions,” the official added.

The Prime Minister’s Office, it is learnt, is directly monitoring the progress of Aadhaar coverage for these five schemes. It had earlier sought from the Planning Commission a report on the feasibility of implementing DBT for these schemes.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a review meeting for both Aadhaar and the home ministry’s National Population Register (NPR) project. He had emphasised the need for using biometric technology for checking leakages in welfare schemes. Officials said it was decided that bank accounts would be linked to both Aadhaar and NPR for cash transfers — the finance ministry was told to work out a mechanism for linking NPR to bank accounts.

Under the previous government’s term, efforts were made to transfer cash directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries for PDS and cooking gas, among other things. However, the plan had to be stalled due to Aadhaar’s sparse linkage with bank accounts. Also, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Aadhaar numbers could not be made compulsory for people to avail of benefits of government schemes and subsidies. Before DBT for cooking gas was put in abeyance, around Rs 5,000 crore had been transacted through the channel.

However, after the launch of the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the government’s plans of Aadhaar-linked programmes have again got a boost. The finance ministry had recently said 40 million bank accounts had so far been opened under the Jan Dhan scheme and banks had mobilised Rs 3,700 crore. The target for this scheme is to provide basic bank accounts to at least 75 million households by January 25.

The Cabinet had last week re-approved the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s) mandate by extending its coverage to four more states, to cover one billion people. Aadhaar had undergone a period of uncertainty after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power in May this year. This was because BJP leaders had opposed the project during their campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.

To date, about 674 million Aadhaar numbers have been generated. UIDAI’s total expenditure from inception to the end of August was estimated to be Rs 4,906 crore.

According to some estimates, Aadhaar-enabled transfer of benefits could bring down the government’s fuel subsidy bill by 20 per cent. The Centres’ total expenditure under this head was pegged at Rs 63,427 crore for 2014-15, against the revised estimate of Rs 85,480 crore for the previous year.

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WIDER REACH

• 80%: Proportion of beneficiaries of five key schemes that PMO wants to cover with the Aadhaar-enabled direct benefits transfers
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• 300: Number of districts to be covered in the first phase of the plan
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• Key schemes: Those to be covered for DBT are subsidies in cooking gas, public distribution system, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, scholarships and pensions
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• 25-60%: Aadhaar’s penetration among the beneficiaries of these five schemes at present
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• Taking stock: Planning Commission has called a meeting of states and Union territories this month to review the progress.

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