3rd Moderators' Union - Mumbai
A home maker's confidence boosted up beyond the four walls of her home, a trainer found the clientele for his training sessions without any marketing or website, a whistler could gather all the performers of this rare art in the country, that is the power of Yahoo! Groups and its Moderators.
To celebrate this power and recognize these moderators, Yahoo! India hosted its third Moderators' Union in Mumbai on June 7th at Sahara Star Hotel. This Moderators' Union was very special because, in spite of heavy rains, there was a great turnout of enthusiastic attendees. Forty five moderators attended the event, coming from Delhi , Hyderabad , Madurai , Bhubaneswar , and Ahmadabad .
The event opened with a welcome message from Mr. I M Swaminathan, Director of Communication & Community Products, India . Following that were interesting introductions from each moderator and some fun quizzes. These moderators were from varied professional backgrounds, age groups and interests. They represented groups from finance, inspirational, professional, adventure, alumni, social cause, hobbies, just to name a few, and the common connection amongst such a variety of people was Yahoo! Groups. Next up was a Groups presentation, followed by product demos of Yahoo! India Local, Maps and a new Yahoo! India search experience. To wrap up, we presented awards for "Best Dressed Moderator", "Best Introduction" and "Most Unique Group" based on nominations from attendees. There were two additional accolades for "Early Bird Guest" and "Guest who travelled longest distance".
To get a glimpse of this event, check out the photo-stream on Flickr.
We plan to continue to host Moderator Union events across the cities of India and will keep you informed on dates and locations. In the meantime, keep enjoying Yahoo! Groups and Happy Moderating!
Best regards,
Shefali Gaur
Groups Community Manager, Yahoo! India
I AM NOT A POLITICAL PERSON-I STILL BELIEVE IN INDEPENDENT SOCIAL ACTIVISM--JAGADANANDA
Jagadananda , is the name to reckon with; as a widely respected social worker and champion of social causes. This maverick and plain-speaking personality of the voluntary sector is known for his politically correct statements and articulations on issues.
Jagadananda, who created a momentum on the need for decentralized planning in the state as a member of the State Planning Board, has been appointed as the State Information Commissioner , the post that had many aspirants.
This much-awaited announcement of the government has surprised many; even his critics have hailed this decision and are eagerly waiting to know his mind and plans.
Sudarshan Chhotoray met him recently to have a realty check and to know his priorities.
Readers are requested here to send their comments at-focusorissa@gmail.com/editor@orissalive.com JAGADANDA has agreed to answer those issues.
I AM NOT A POLITICAL PERSON-I STILL BELIEVE IN INDEPENDENT SOCIAL ACTIVISM--JAGADANANDA
Jagadananda, is the name to reckon with; as a widely respected social worker and champion of social causes. This maverick and plain-speaking personality of the voluntary sector is known for his politically correct statements and articulations on issues. A widely traveled Jagadananda has shaped his activism in a fashion that has many takers. Once known for his leadership and networking skills in bringing together Civil Society Organizations to immediately respond Orissa Super Cyclone in 1999 that led to set up Orissa Disaster Mitigation Mission to up-bringing tribal kids to international forums he has totally transformed CYSD from an organization of youth volunteers of late 80s to a towering institution now. CYSD has now been treated as a hub of Social gatherings and a Development Resource Centre.
Jagadananda, who created a momentum on the need for decentralized planning in the state as a member of the State Planning Board, has been appointed as the State Information Commissioner , the post that had many aspirants.
This much-awaited announcement of the government has surprised many; even his critics have hailed this decision and are eagerly waiting to know his mind and plans.
Sudarshan Chhotoray met him recently to have a realty check and to know his priorities.
His journey so far
Jagadananda has been a social activist for more than thirty years. He heads CYSD (Centre for Youth and Social Development), a non-governmental development organization working to improve the lives of tribal people in Orissa.
He was member of the joint machinery for collaborative relationship between the government and the voluntary sector – the official national forum, headed by the deputy chairman, planning commission, govt. of India, member of the steering committee on voluntary sector for the 10 th five-year plan & currently member of the task force on strengthening Government-NGO partnership.
He is convener of the National social watch coalition (NSWC), a broad-based coalition of civil society organizations working on governance accountability which brings out annual citizen's reports on the performance of the key governance institutions like the parliament, the judiciary, and the executive and local self governance institutions. As a member of the steering committee of the International Social watch, he had participated at the UN world summit on social development and the summit on Financing for Development and its preparatory processes.
He was chairperson of voluntary action network India (VANI), the largest national network of social development agencies in India and currently the chairperson of Sa-Dhan, the national network of community development micro finance institutions.
He is a member of the state planning board, Orissa and former member of the state social welfare advisory board and youth welfare board, Orissa.
Member of the civil society advisory group of the commonwealth foundation – an inter-governmental organization instrumental in bringing out the guidelines for good policy and practice for NGOs and participated at the commonwealth heads of the government meeting (CHOGM) held at Edinburgh, Abuja, Auckland and Harare.
In 2005, he was a senior visiting fellow at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and worked on the issues of legitimacy, transparency and accountability within civil society at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and his publication is widely available in French, Arabic and English language.
He comes from a family of social work. Manjushree, his wife is a special Educator and teaches Cerebral Palsy Children and works amongst differently abled people.
What would be your priority?
My priority action and initial thoughts: – there are two areas in which I would like to intensify my work. I will explore if there is a possibility to first track the grievance redressal process to make it citizen friendly and to enhance the accessibility of the instrument by illiterate and neo-literate masses especially tribal brothers and sisters. I would like to break the language barrier and want to explore this possibility sincerely.
Secondly, at the official level to remind the various organs of the constitution of their great responsibility on the part of the government and other related institutions who come under the purview of RTI to understand the urgency and obligation to share and supply information. They have to re-engineer the process and reorganize the information in order to make it accessible. It is time to modernize the records management and to change the age-old archaic rules and timelines of decision making process and embarrass a culture of transparency from a culture of secrecy.
As so many cases are pending for speedy redressal and the post has been lying vacant for more than six months, how will you cope with this new challenge?
Disposal of pending cases itself is a huge challenge as proper procedures are to be followed to ensure natural justice both in letter and spirit. However, I will try to see how other commissions in the country are functioning and in consultation with the Chief Information Commissioner try to bring some best practices as is done elsewhere. Also at the same time I will explore various innovation possibilities to first track the decision making process.
You mean Camp Courts?
I would also like to examine possibilities of Camp Courts in rural, remote and in accessible areas. Possibilities of Special rappourtiers as practiced at NHRC and UN to monitor specific issues such as sou-moto disclosure by various authorities and ensure intensive training and orientation programmes for public authorities for better availability and accessibility of information at various levels.
As we have observed the Soochana Commission is functioning like a Civil Court and applicants are hiring advocates; and moreover this will cost them extra burden. In this way how common people can get information?
The act and procedure followed in the RTI cases does not warrant representation through legal professionals in each and every Case. Even the participation and attendance of the appellant is also not mandatory. This aspect needs to be popularized. Cases can be decided on its own merits, even in the absence of the appellant.
The way State Soochana Commission functions; it is increasingly becoming difficult for people to travel Bhubaneswar ?
It is the apex court under the RTI at the state level, however; I will certainly look at the existing procedure and processes being followed at the commission, after taking over my responsibilities there.
It has been proposed by few activists that applicants (for whom getting information delayed) should share with penalized amount?
The act itself is an act enacted by the parliament and the state government level has formulated rules and procedures. The act is in implementation since last three years only. Hence amendment in the act and changes in the procedures and rules have to comprehensively and carefully think.
As an eminent social worker of national repute you had other priorities, why you have accepted this offer?
I have got the offer only recently and have decided to accept it after careful examination of various pros and cons of the offer. However, as a social activist, better governance accountability has been a great interest and passion for me all through out and I consider this instrument of RTI as a wonderful tool in the hands of the citizen. I strongly believe that it can change the existing power relationship between ordinary citizens and the institutions of the governance to a great extent; if used properly.
It has been alleged that, because of your proximity to BJD-BJP alliance Government you have been made State Information Commissioner?
This position is an independent position and therefore the nomination process is a rigorous exercise as enshrined in the act itself. I am known as a social worker and surely not as a political person belonging to any political party. I have maintained equi. -Distance from all political parties ever since the beginning of my activist career. I also strongly believe that independent social activism is a key necessity process to bring pro-poor policies and better accountable practices in our country.
In a landmark judgment Karnataka Information Commission orders for disclosure of reports – under RTI, send by the Governor to the President of India recommending imposition of President's rule in Karnataka? Due you think information like these should be available with people?
See………. In my opinion, information, which out weighs public interest, should be made available to the public. The RTI has been recognized as a fundamental right of a free citizenry. So no government that claims to be democratic can deny its people the ability to participate in governance or itself refuse to be transparent to its citizens.
There are many interesting case rulings, which are coming out of this act, and I will take some time to study the recent trends.
Even after three years of its implementation RTI has been out of reach of common people?
This itself a challenge for the government, civil society organizations, peoples' institutions, community based organizations and citizen forums, so that, this instrument is popularized and used appropriately. I also believe that no society can claim to be truly free unless it has both the instruments and necessary mechanism of providing its people with access to information. The RTI is a great instrument introduced only in the recent past and it's too premature to make such a judgment.
You have been part of the national campaign “Drive Against Bribe”, now how can the corruption be driven out?
As a part of the national campaign on “Drive against Bribe” I always felt that RTI is not a panacea to eradicate corruption and all problems of mal-governance by itself. But certainly a wonderful instrument and if used properly can minimize corruption to a great extent.
RTI Act is a historical instrument through which active citizenship is possible. Corruption is thriving in our country because passivity has creped amongst the citizens. We need to work hard to change this chemistry.
I will try to bring some synergy between various players such as government, civil society organizations and the private sector-for a state wide campaign on strengthening social accountability practices using RTI and other tools such as social audit, citizen report cards, Expenditure tracking, social watch, Budget monitoring and decentralized people centered planning. When this process is deepened, it will make a huge difference to corruption in public institutions.
EDITOR'S NOTE: YOU CAN SEND YOUR COMMENTS (focusorissa@gmail.com) ON THIS INTERVIEW and JAGADANDA HAS AGREED TO ANSWE THOSE queries.
Focus Orissa Summit 2008
Theme paper: Orissa in a globalised economy: Challenges ahead
Organised by Focus Orissa in association with Agamee Orissa
On April 25th & 26th , 2008 at Hotel Bari International, Bhubaneswar
Presented by Mr Nageshwar Patnaik with Mr Sai Prasan
Introduction
Globalisation and economic reforms have made a direct impact on all
the segments of the backward states like Orissa. The industry,
agriculture and the financial sector have been impacted alike. The
market forces have forced several small and medium scale industries
and Public sector undertakings out of race. The rural sector is also
not getting a proper price for their agricultural produce because of
the traditional farming. And, the poor economic factors have led the
financial sector specially the banks to squeeze their operations.
The globalization has led to economic disparity between the rich and
poor states like Orissa. The economic backwardness at the
geographical level and the gulf between the rich and poor at the
social level has its social cost – increase of violence in the civil
society and the manifold growth of the radical left extremism in the
State.
In this backdrop, it is advisable to analyses each segment of the
State one by one.
Industry
The unrestrained market competition was responsible for the closure
of several state owned companies in the state. According to the
state economic survey for the year 2007-08, only 32 state owned
companies are working out of the total number of 66. The total work
force in the organized sector has dipped from 7.98 lakhs in 2000 to
7.41 lakhs in 2006. There is no proper data available on the status
of small and medium scale industry in the state.
Contrary to this, a new trend has emerged in the state over the
year. The abundance of natural resources and cheap labour has
attracted the global players like Posco and Vedanta along with local
mega players like Tata to set up their shops in the state. The
government has signed more than 60 Memorandum of Understanding
(MoUs) with different players. The setting of new projects has led
to a large scale displacement of the marginal farmers because of
their land being snatched away with the collusion of State machinery
and the corporates. Local people are still putting lot of resistence
in these areas.
The State government should analyse whether these projects will
benefit the people of the state or it will further worsen their
misery before allowing the work to continue in these projects.
Orissa government must take a leaf from the experiment of Enron led
Dhabol Power Project in Maharashtra before entering into MoUs one
after another. The Rs 13,000 crore power project in Maharashtra is
still hanging in limbo because of the unreasonable conditions put
forward by the Enron company which the bureaucracy could not
understand while signing the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in 1992.
The dollar linkages with the total cost of the project and fuel
prices were the two main reasons for the non-operationalisation of
the project.
It is a challenge for the government to safeguard its own industry
from getting further effected due to the opening of the economy.
And, it must be very careful while entering into any MoU with any
mega player. The government machinery must take the advice of the
professionals in accounting and legal sector while giving a final
shape to the project.
Agriculture
The agriculture sector is the second causality in the globalised
economy. The agriculture produce is not able to compete within the
domestic market leave the global market due to the absence of a
proper rural infrastructure and commodities market.
Here, challenge lies before the state to develop a proper
infrastructure for the development of agriculture sector of the
state. The farmers need a proper warehousing to keep their
agricultural produce which demands a regular supply of electricity.
Proper roads are also required to transport these agricultural
produce.
Orissa should learn lessons from Gujarat and Maharashtra which has a
very strong information network to provide the market prices to the
farmers on hourly basis. This helps the farmers in getting the right
price for their produce.
A strong political will is required on the part of the government to
develop a local market place where farmers can sell their produce on
the lines of rayatu bazaru in Andhra Pradesh. At present, the
marketing of paddy only is being done in Orissa which can be
extended in other agricultural crops like rice, oil seeds etc.
Financial Sector
The globalization has weakened the financial sector to a great
extent. The tough competition has wrecked the financial conditions
of the co-operative banks. According to the "Report of the Committee
on Financial Inclusion January 2008" prepared under the chairmanship
of Dr C Rangarajan, chairman, economic advisory council to the Prime
Minister shows that only two districts out of 30 have a strong
presence of the commercial banks.
The overall indebtness to formal sources of finance is only 20% in
the Eastern region including Orissa meaning thereby the grip of the
traditional money lenders is very strong in the state.
A strong banking networking is a must for the overall growth of the
state. Because, they help in credit delivery and bringing
transparency in the financial dealings of the people. The popular
government schemes can be successfully implemented only with the
presence of a strong banking network.
The implementation of Basel II in the year 2009 will further make
the weak banks difficult to operate in the State. The weak banking
network is responsible for the mushrooming of the micro-finance
institutions in the state who charge abnormal interest rate ranging
from 20% to 28% as against an average interest rate of 15% by the
banking network.
The state government should convince both the Union finance ministry
and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take special measures so the
banks will open new branches in the backward regions of the state.
Social Sector: The state allocation on social sector too has come
down drastically.
(A) Education:
• Allocation for School and Mass Education as a share of total
state expenditure reduced to 10.66 percent in 2008-09 from 12.20% in
2005-06 and as a share of GSDP it hovered around 2.5%. It is worth
mentioning here that the expenditure on education sector should be a
minimum of 6% of GSDP. During 2006-07, Rs. 1341.86 cr was allocated
to this sector and in the current budget estimates, this has gone up
to Rs. 1837.62 cr., which is a meagre 1.78 % of GSDP.
- As a percentage of total state expenditure, the projected
expenditure on elementary education decreased to 6.58% in 2008-09
budget while it was 6.94 during 2006-07. During the last 5 years the
allocation towards elementary education as a percentage of total
state expenditure has been decreasing which in turn will affect the
quality of primary education in the state.
- Allocation for higher education decreased from 2.27 percent
of the total state expenditure in 2005-06 to 2.04 percent in 2008-09
budget estimate. As a percentage of GSDP it gives no such
encouraging increment (0.53 percent during 2006-07, 0.55 during 2008-
09)
The State government should pay proper attention in developing good
professional and vocational workforce for a competitive market
place. It should work with the private sector for imparting English
language and IT education which has become a pre-requisite for
getting a job in a market economy.
(B) Health
• During 2006-07 Rs. 590.51cr. was earmarked for health and
family welfare department and this has increased to 1004.79 cr. in
2008-09 BE. The total allocation is less than 1% of the GSDP
(0.97%). To achieve the target specified in Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) declaration towards health sector, that the expenditure
on health sector should be a minimum of 3% of the GSDP.
• What is worse is that the distribution of funds within the
health department in 2007-08 is quite discriminating towards the
rural health services. The share of rural health expenditure has
decreased to 30.55 percent in 2007-08 from 41.29% in 2005-06. There
is a scope for changing the prioritization of rural health over
urban health in allocation of fund to the health sector at the stage
of passing of the budget. Rural health sector needs prioritization
to overcome the problem of high Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), which
is now 75 per 1000 as against the national average of 58.
- Health status is an essential part of people's well being
and health shocks are a major cause of sinking into poverty. One key
way of making growth inclusive is helping the benefits of economic
growth and prosperity translate into concrete gains in survival of
children and their mothers, improving their nutritional status; and
reduced exposure of households to economic vulnerability from health
shocks.
The must pay enter into public and private partnership for meeting
the expectation of the people in the health sector.
Conclusion : Participatory Democracy is the Need of Hour
The state government needs to meet the challenges in different
fields. All the concerned agencies – state government, media, NGOs
and other similar agencies - must launch a massive awareness
campaign related to various issues. The change of mind-set is
important to overcome all the challenges.
Only a participatory democracy can help in meeting the challenges
of the globalization. And, the participatory democracy can be
possible by intensifying the democratic process and bringing
transparency across the board.
A paradigm shift is also needed from an individual centric
operations to the structural-functional functioning to establish a
just social order with double digit growth with equity or what they
call Inclusive Growth in the state.
"Economics is not just politics….There is more to human progress
than aggregate statistics of growth. We have to ask the right
questions and concentrate on what matters to
people.
Amartya Sen
