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Posted on 04/15/2012 6:16:43 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
NEW DELHI: The problem of plenty is once again troubling the Indian government as it does not know where to store the bumper grains to be harvested for the third year in a row. Fears are rising that the grains would be out in the open, rot and be eaten by rodents even as millions go hungry in the country which is planning to enact a right to food law.
The government's plans to create additional storage space have so far moved at a snail's pace. For instance, of the additional storage capacity of 19 million tonnes (MT) planned by 2012-13 through public-private partnership (PPP), only 0.5 MT could be created till January 2012.
"The states fail to provide land for the purpose," said a food ministry official, citing the reason for the tardy progress of the scheme.
Experts say the government's move to attract private players to build warehouses and other infrastructure has not succeeded because it does not offer tax benefits to them.
Biraj Patnaik, adviser to the Supreme Court-appointed food commissioners, told IANS: "The government should drop the idea of involving private players in building godowns and let the states do the job."
With wheat procurement having started this month, the government is looking at a record crop over 90 MT this April-June season.
But the total storage capacity available is 53.4 MT, including 33.4 MT with the Food Corporation of India functioning under the central government, and 20 MT with the states.
Of this, ministry sources said, storage utilisation is 76 percent, leaving around 24 per cent capacity unutilised due to lack of proper planning.
According to one estimate, up to seven percent of the country's annual grain production goes waste due to insufficient storage space and inefficient transport and distribution networks.
The lack of adequate storage capacity would bother authorities as procurement of wheat from major producing states like Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh picks up. Together, the three states account for over 80 per cent of India's total production.
One way of solving the problem, Patnaik told IANS, is that the government should distribute more grains among the needy if it is not able to create enough storage capacity.
To reduce stockpiles, the government had allowed traders last year to export wheat and rice surpluses.
The government's food grain stock up to January 2012 was 46.7 million tonnes. Ministry officials said most states failed to lift the additional 2.5 MT grain allocated to them last year.
To deal with the emerging situation, the finance and food ministries are trying to dovetail a food-for-work scheme with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
But the idea has not found favour with the rural development ministry.
Having too much food grown sounds like good news but there is a downside to everything in this old world.
Well they could trade it for Chevys from China.
Socialism is failing in India too.
Your point being?
It sure sounds like India needs some more “you’re-on-your-own” economics.
Wow.
I’ve been in that country twice now on medical mission trips. The Dalits (formerly known as the “untouchables”) are being drawn to Christ, especially in the south. They have been taught all their lives that their underclass, almost slave like status, results from previously shameful lives.
The gospel appeals to them, especially when they learn there is one God in heaven who loves them and sent his son to save them from eternal damnation.
Of course, distribution of an over abundance of food in a land of want is always problematic, but at least the article points out they are considering distributing the excess to the poor due to inadequate space. Amazing, under any other situation, corrupt officials would be the sole beneficiaries.
I wonder if this is how the Lord will provide for His people in India with adequate food? I know for a fact that there are honest capable Indian run Christian organizations that would jump on such an opportunity.
Currently living in rural India for the last half a year, and India fails on this because India is still entrenched in it’s centuries-old caste system, where corruption is every day business and common courtesy does not exist except for self.
Everyone expects someone else to pay and do the work, and most government workers don’t bother working at all unless you bribe them.
The Eastern half of India is currently in it’s third year of drought. the Godavari river is all but dried up and the people are out of drinking water in some places.
In India, no one does anything unless it benefits them in some way in money or political favors, and more than half the population are considered ‘untouchable’ and get little to nothing in support or help.
India is a system three and a half millennia old, and it does not change, except that everyone has cell phones but few have running water or toilets outside of using the side of the road. It’s chaos, graft and corruption on a scale that would make Chicago blush.
India sounds like Mexico.
Socialism never produced bumper crops too large to store. India isn't socialist, it's a sort of corrupt, government-heavy, every-man-for-himself system. That's still a step up from socialism.
Ah, just like Congress.
Have they considered turning their fool into fuel?
Why don’t they do like the US does, and give the wheat away free to their enemies?
Why doesn’t the US turn Joe Biden into fuel then?
It's how oligarch elites stay in power. If you're a smart lower-middle-class guy wanting to start a business, you face an endless stream of bureaucrats wanting to be bribed to overlook your violation of some obscure regulation, or to stamp your form, etc. Meanwhile, the "connected" don't have to worry about low-level bureaucrats when they have department heads on their payroll.
The net effect is that the elite make money without having to work hard. Meanwhile, the unconnected find it impossibly hard to get anything off the ground, which is why they all want to come here on H1B visas.
For good reason, it's a very similar system. In both countries you have a hereditary elite class running things. Both are oligarchies. The pattern is similar in many countries.
” Fears are rising that the grains would be out in the open, rot and be eaten by rodents even as millions go hungry in the country which is planning to enact a right to food law.”
Any law will be tried except the law of the free market.
No, but I've considered doing it to ours.
” Fears are rising that the grains would be out in the open, rot and be eaten by rodents even as millions go hungry in the country which is planning to enact a right to food law.”
So...Lucifer says to God, “let me have control of them for 2000 years, and I’ll show you just how stupid they are.”
“It’s chaos, graft and corruption on a scale that would make Chicago blush.”
That is hard to believe!
They grow bumpers? What do they use for seed.....door handles?
Even the U.S.
The only difference is that in India, the division between the upper (haves) and lower (have-nots) caste is clear cut and written in law.
Some see a problem, I see possibilities.
Oddly enough, the Indians and Mexicans look very similar.
You are absolutely correct on all counts there. The Hindu leadership HATES our preaching of the Gospel, which is being widely accepted by the Adhi Andrha (Dalits), for they have willingly suffered for millennia believing the Brahmin lies that they must pay for the sins of their past lives in the hopes of a better reincarnation.
Most of them have never heard that their sins are already forgiven them if they would simply repent and come to Christ. And for that, the Gospel is popular among the lowest of the low castes in India. And like any tyranny, the religious and civil leadership despises it.
So persecution in India of Christians is institutionalized and often brutal. A truth that has been shrouded in ignorance because Hinduism has been sold to the West as a benign and tolerant faith.
In India, Hinduism is on a par with Islam in the category of intolerance Christians.
As to Christian orgs in India - BE CAREFUL. We have run into many Hindus posing as Christian care groups to get money from Americans and Westerners. Some troll the net to get on forums and e-mail Christians begging for financial help. Several of us got stung in the past being far too trusting because when we came to India to investigate - poof!
In India one has to be wise as a serpent, wiser even.
You would be wasting your time and effort. In the cities of India, they have been trying to teach the population to use trash cans instead of simply tossing garbage into the streets and wherever they throw their waste.
Cans sit empty and the waste is piled up around them.
Dropping trou and taking a crap is every day out here, and there is no shame of these people to treat the land or other people the same way. Pretty gross in a land that does not use TP.
“Pretty gross in a land that does not use TP.”
It would be grosser if they did.
Which could create another problem:
So... if I meet an Indian, I should bump knuckles rather than shake hands.
Dropping trou and taking a crap is every day out here, and there is no shame of these people to treat the land or other people the same way.
Straight out of Atlas Shrugged and the old woman who grew soybeans.
[India is still entrenched in it’s centuries-old caste system,]
Uhuh. And that fact is apparently very useful -- rendering a pit filled with a half a billion or so impoverished souls nipping up at the heels of the H1B "sponsored".
Evidently it makes them highly motivated to "Just Shut Up and Code"...
True about wolves in sheep’s clothing in India. The organization I’ve had experience with is one our church has been working with for decades. I’ve personally stayed on their grounds, have served in their medical and eye clinics and have seen some of their orphans grown from to toddlers to adults. In fact, I even had the pleasure of serving with the child I once sponsored for years this past trip over. I walked past her in a hospital and we both recognized each other immediately from photos. She’s now a graduate nurse. I too am a nurse, and it was wonderful working along side her. She was assigned as my translator, so that was a special joy.
I am not sure if they are all drawn over by “Christ” or the freebies that are on offer.
“They have been taught all their lives”
By who?
“that their underclass, almost slave like status, results from previously shameful lives.”
Also not sure that you become a rich upper class just by accepting Jesus as your savior.
” I know for a fact that there are honest capable Indian run Christian organizations that would jump on such an opportunity.”
Christian organizations aren't necessarily the only capable organizations in India. And food belonging to the State will be distributed by the state not by Christian Organization.
You could say pretty much the same thing about Christian leadership vis à vis any other religion preaching on their turf. Nobody likes competition.
“for they have willingly suffered for millennia believing the Brahmin lies that they must pay for the sins of their past lives in the hopes of a better reincarnation.”
Suffering is very universal. Many have suffered Christian tyranny for centuries.... and thousand times worse.
“So persecution in India of Christians is institutionalized and often brutal. A truth that has been shrouded in ignorance because Hinduism has been sold to the West as a benign and tolerant faith.”
That is bit of an extreme libel against India and Hindus. Even Christians in India wont quite agree with your exaggerated representation.
Hinduism on par with Islam?? Do ask any Christian if they like living in India or would they prefer moving to Pakistan.
“We have run into many Hindus posing as Christian care groups to get money from Americans and Westerners. “
Only the evil Hindus would do that right? No Christian would even think of doing such a thing! /s
” Several of us got stung in the past being far too trusting “
Oh poor you! But hey, dont blame it on Indians. If you think you can throw money at the needy any be able to buy off their faith, be prepared to be scammed. That's how it always works.
You don’t have a clue what you are talking about save your own animosity towards Christianity.
I’m living here experiencing what I testified to. Our brethren here suffer institutionalized persecution daily. I’ve seen it and experienced it firsthand bub.
What do you got? Only a worthless opinion.
One frankly more worthy to read on DU and a militant Atheist site instead of FR.
“Pretty gross in a land that does not use TP.”
I don't know how much of the word you have traveled but much of Asia, Africa and definitely most of the third world don't not use TP. If you want to know why, do go to any general store in a city in India (they do have TP in India) and check the price of a roll. Paper is expensive in most parts of the world out side of US.
“In the cities of India, they have been trying to teach the population to use trash cans instead of simply tossing garbage into the streets and wherever they throw their waste.”
In a country where a large population has a tough time feeding and clothing itself, sanitation wouldn't quite be a high priority for a lot of people.
I have lived in India far longer, and I know and understand India far better then you ever will.
You can spew your lies and throw some epithets and labels when challenged but other then that.... what have YOU GOT?
I don't have any contempt for the people here.
I have contempt for the system that enslaves them to servitude, filth and deprivation.
go to any general store in a city in India (they do have TP in India)
In the rural slum villages, surrounding towns and cities - TP is not an item used or sold. And the vast numbers of India's poor population lives in these rural slums.
In a country where a large population has a tough time feeding and clothing itself, sanitation wouldn't quite be a high priority for a lot of people.
Again, more pathetic ignorance on your part. Sanitation and hygiene is not ANY kind of priority for this culture, and it's ability to feed and clothe itself is limited to it's millennia-old Caste system of haves, laborers to serve the Haves, and the Have-nots. The people here are willfully enslaved mind, body and soul to a playground that the Devil runs.
I stand before the Lord by what I have testified to since I'm here on HIS business. You can call them lies all you like. You're not living in the slums here, I AM living here, and I am a witness to what I've seen and experienced.
“I have contempt for the system that enslaves “
Please tell us what system you are talking about? The liberal secular democratic system of India?
“TP is not an item used or sold. “
Yes. And I asked you to find out why. You still have no answer.
“Sanitation and hygiene is not ANY kind of priority for this culture, and it's ability to feed and clothe itself is limited to it's millennia-old Caste system of haves, laborers to serve the Haves, and the Have-nots.”
Lets face it..... you have an agenda. You are in the business of spreading the Gospel, nothing wrong with that. However I dont quite see the Gospel fixing up India's economic problems (notwithstanding your strong contempt for non-Christian population/culture).
Every country in the world has an upper class and an underclass. Heck, I have lived in the US long enough to know even US has the same thing, big time! The class difference in India is far more grim but India is a large country that has just about started adopting free market capitalism and is slowly coming out of poverty in the last 2 decades ....after 3 centuries of slavery under guess who?.... A Christian colonial power. If the Gospel could have fixed India's Cast problem and fixed India's economic and sanitation problems it would have done it 3 centuries ago.
The silver lining is that India is changing, there is a lot more optimism and millions of people are actually coming out poverty. Most of it has really nothing to do with the spreading of the Gospel but any genuine good work sure has its rewards.
Matthew 7:6
My mistake in violating that admonition when it comes to you. I won’t make it again.
You don't need to make false testimonies taking the name of the Lord. As I said I have lived in India far longer then you have, I was raised there. I have been in villages and slums far more then you have or ever will and I speak the language. I have families and friends there who I visit regularly. And finally I am an Indian. There is just no way you can more about India then me. You cant even begin to understand the the people, the culture and the mindset the way I do, not matter what you say.
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