Black Hawk Coming???

Yeah...you read that right! Not just speculations though! In fact, a team from Sikorsky - the makers of this beast, has already given a grand presentation to the Defense Ministry this month. It's not very clear though on whether India would be delivered the stealth technology along with the machine. That remains to be seen, given the fact that the U.S. is known to be stingy when it comes to technology transfer of its highly valued toys! Not that we won't seek the stealth but that comes only if the deal comes ripe. By all probability, we are being offered the latest UH-60M Black Hawk. With highly classified avionics, radars and weapons, the Black Hawk is definitely the most formidable and expensive helicopter around. The acquisition of the naval version of Black Hawk - the Sea Hawk is on the anvil for the Indian Navy and we may as well have 16 of these multi-role choppers soon enough.

The UH-60M will be highly useful for high altitude terrain operations like Siachen as well as in the desert regions. No wonder why all the branches of the U.S. army make use of this beast!

Major Concerns with regard to Administrative Reforms (to be continued)

"Administrative Reforms" are nothing but the artificial inducement of administrative transformation against resistance. They pave the way for a new order and refer to the formal, mechanistic and meditated process of structured change. Like F. Riggs mentioned, administrative reform is 'a problem of dynamic balancing'.

Some of the major concerns of administrative reforms in India are:

1. Efficiency and Economy:

Both these aspects come from the time the Management Sciences evolved during F.W. Taylor's age. Even Fayol and Weber had stressed on their importance in an organisation for avoidance of excessive costs and wastage. In India, the reports of Secretariat Reorganisation Committee (headed by Girija Shankar Bajpai, 1947) and The Economy Committee (under Kasturbhai Lalbhai, 1948) & A.D. Gorwala's Report (1951) set the tone for stress for focus on efficiency and economy. Later, Paul H. Appleby's recommendation of setting up of an O&M division by GoI went a long way to promote efficiency in Govt. circles. Also, with the advent of technology in administration, one can notice emphasis on productivity in Govt.

2. Specialisation

It was Max Weber who stressed on the need for specialisation as an important feature of an ideal type of bureaucracy. This brings us to the age-old conflict between the Generalists and the Specialists. Of late, there has been stress on differentiation of structures and functions and allocation of tasks and responsibilities among the personnels based on their specialisation in their respective field. There has been a new dawning with regard to the critical role of a specialist in top posts of the Govt. In fact, the first ARC, 1966 had recommended that every member of the Indian Administrative Services must opt for specialisation in any one of the 8 functional areas it highlighted in its report. Later in 1979, the synthesis between the generalists and the specialists became more feasible with the doors of the Civil Services opened for medical and engineering graduates too. The first ARC did take a cue from the famous Fulton Committee Report (UK) that stressed on the important role specialists can and should be allowed to play in British bureucracy. In India, though the change is not very drastic, yet the trend is unmistakably clear with the growing competition between the public and private sector, expansion of the MNCs, growing stress on technology. Thus, the road to rigorous specialisation appears to be the only path to rapid development.

3. Effective Coordination

Mooney had considered 'coordination' as the first principle of any organisation. There has been a distinctive focus on administrative coordination in the reports of N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar (1949), ARC etc as also in many of the individual state committees. Also, the Committee on Indian Foreign Service chaired by N.R. pillai emphasised on the need to achieve coordination among the several components of the Ministry of External Affairs. Such steps have culminated into setting up of boards, commissions and committees. However, it appears that in the area of structural reorganisation, the Govt.'s approach has remained ambivalent.

4. Administration and Development of Public Personnel

In most of the reports submitted since independence, a lot of focus has been on the salient aspects of personnel administration like manpower, recruitment, career planning, training and promotion, performance appraisal etc. A.D. Gorwala's report (1951), V.T. Krishnamachari's report ( 1962), ARC report on personnel administration (1969), D.S. Kothari's report (1977) etc. - all have made significant contributions to this field.

Let's toil....

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of fate
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

"The Watershed as an instrument of positive change"

A Watershed is a basin-like landform defined by ridgelines and highpoints that descends into lower elevations and stream valleys. It is a geo-hydrological unit of land that drains at a common point. Therefore, the land area that provides water to a river or a loake may be called a 'watershed'. We manage watersheds and the water they produce to provide for agriculture, industry, human consumption, flood control and recreation.
Watershed Development refers to the conservation, regeneration and judicious use of the natural resources as well as the human resources within the watershed area. Watershed Management aims to develop a balance in the environment with the natural resources on one hand and the human beings and other living forms on the other.
The environment does not recognise people-determined boundaries and so a watershed seems to be the perfect natural environmental unit to develop a planning initiative. The environment directly impacts the livelihood of the people and as such any poverty mitigation programme or efforts to improve the SoL of people should be in terms of improving the quality of the environment.
The term watershed management is synonymous to water and soil conservation with the only difference that water shed management focusses on flood protection, moisture control and maximising crop diversity and output. It implies the interactions of ecological, economic and social indicators. It improves living standards by providing earning opportunities and providinf freedom from the fear of floods and droughts by effectively managing the available resources.

Principles of watershed management:

- In-situ water conservation
- Rain water harvesting for supplemental irrigation
- Minimising the silting up of tanks, reservoirs and lower fertile soil
- Alternate land use systems to manage marginal lands
- Protective vegetative cover throughout the year
- Protecting the fertile top soil
- Providing better transport, market linkage and market access to the farmers thus improving their earning capcity
- Improving infrastructural facilties like storage godowns, irrigation projects etc

Land degradation & desertification

Poverty and Land Degradation are the major problems in dryland areas, especially where forests and trees contribute significantly to rural livelihoods. In order to eradicate poverty in these areas, focus should be to prevent land deforestation, fragmentation and drought.

About 228 mha (69%) of India'a total geographical area (328mha) come under drylands (arid, semi-arid, dry sub-humid). Interestingly, these are the highly populated areas and it aggravates environmental stress affects livelihood directly.

In order to tackle the problems of land desertification, degradation and drought in dryland areas, some 22 major programmes are being impleneted throughout the country, including the 'Mission for Green India' - one of the projects under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

The 4th National Report submitted to the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) Secretariat envisages the GoI's initiatives as well as civil society's role in combating desertification and drought.

Highlights of the Report:

- About 32% of the total land area in India is affected by land degradation.

- About 24.8% of India'a total land is affected by land desertification.

Soil and water erosion are the major reasons for land degradation and water erosion is more prominent in agricultural land.

The major anthropogenic facotrs responsible for land degradation are unsustainable agricultural practices, diversion of good agricultural land to development projects, industrial effluents, mining and deforestation.

Unsustainable resource management practices are responsible for land desertification too and contributes towards accentuating poverty....

Natural Disaster Management and Precautions

In recent decades, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters has been on the rise! Disasters are recurrent and therefore national development planning should involve increasing resilience and readiness over time.
Too often, urgent care could not be provided because critical care facilities were no longer functioning or there was no way to access the services. Not too much effort has been made towards reconstruction efforts or ensuring the importance of functioning lifelines - notably potable water and first aid during disasters.
Much can be done in the immediate term by making vital installations - hospitals and emergency shelters more diaster resistant. They should have uninterrupted power supply and secure provision of safe water and sanitation.
The ability to provide urgent care in critical situations has a cascading effect on the entire recovery process. Where basic connectivity to emergency medical care and water continues, it is easier when it is time to pick up the pieces as there would be more able-bodied individuals then.
India has improved its ability to provide early warning systems and hurricane shelters and evacuate areas most at risk. Under a 1990 World Bank-supported cyclone response project, mangroves have been planted on the shores which have saved the lives of many fishermen in Andhra Pradesh during the 1996 cyclone.
Earthquake-resistant building codes, enforcement of construction standards and oversight of material procurement practices are likely to pay off significantly - which is what the Chile earthquake so dramatically illustrated. And, everywhere better land use planning is proving to be essential to ensurong that people are not putting up homes in harm's way.
If we are ready to invest sizeable funds to establish mechanisms to avert financial crisis, we need to do the same with the escalating hazards of nature. Once the tragedy drops off the front pages of newspapers, international donors like the affected countries themselves, find it hard to stay engaged with prevention efforts.
When rebuilding, one must ensure that facilities vital to crisis response are linked to networks that will not fail them. So, when the the earth shakes or the waters rise, critical networks will be disaster-resilient!

A necessary approach to "Energy Security'

With India's economy poised for a robust growth in the next few years, 'energy security' has become the focal point for policy formulation. From domestic finds in oil and gas to acquiring hydrocarbon assets abroad, dealing woth foreign investors and negotiationg trans-national pipelines - all these issues have become key points in India's quest to secure it's energy future.
Energy Security has to be one of the focal points of our diplomacy at least till the middle of this century. Though we have a hydrocarbon deficiency, our immediate and proximate neighbourhood is simply soaked in hydrocarbons. The largest availability of natural gas in the world in in Qatar!
The fact is that thorium based energy would not be useful at least till the middle of this century. There is a need to competitively access oil and gas instead of finding ourselves stranded in a sellers' market.
We have to become 'predators and hunters for energy sources to keep our economy boiling.

An Appropriate Energy Policy.... Few pointers:

1. We need to pursue an aggressive oil and gas diplomacy. We need an effective 'National Energy Policy' and a 'National Energy Security Advisor'.

2. We need to have an explorer-friendly exploration policy if the domestic natural gas outut is to surge. Indeed, the role of natural gas should be given high priority.

3. The number of blocks for exploration as well as the number of awards must be increased for the private bidders. Production-sharing contracts should be unambigously drafted and terms redefined to the advantage of the investor. This is the only way we can encourage both international and domestic investors.

3. Being geographically fortunate, we need to utilise access to the gas reserves of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and other CIS countries. We need to build a network of pipelines to access natural gas reserves in Myanmar and South Korea as well as Sakhalin, where we have a switch deal to transfer gas to Sumatra. We need to find a way towards accessing the enormous gas reserves of Australia too.
The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline or, peace pipeline momentum should not be derailed.

4. Shale gas is catching the global imagination. Europe and China are emerging as the leading producers. We need top quickly assess our reserves, locate them and prepare an open acreage licensing policy.
We need to fully acquire mastery over the 'underground coal gasification technology' too.

5. Nuclear Energy, the future fuel has tremendous prospects and we are doing well in this field, especially, by signing nuclear peace deals with nine major countries. We now need to rapidly develop our mastery over the nuclear fuel reprocessing technology.

6. Research and Development efforts need impetus by way of pumping in more resources. Determined efforts needed to develop knowledge networking across the world. We need to try and bring the ASEAN gas producers and consumers together on one single platform.

According to a US Survey, India is poised to attract $169 billion USD Investments in Clean Energy - wind, solar, biomass, energy from waste, small hydro, geothermal and marine energy projects. It is also indicated that India would be among the top 5 nations in the G-20 group in terms of clean energy investments in the world.
(* India imports 75% of its crude oil requirement and about one-fifth of natural gas needs)