Misplaced priority
Forty-one mine workers are trapped in the tunnel in Uttarakhand and are fighting for their lives and the entire nation is worried about them and also their families. The rescue teams are working day and night to rescue them and every citizen is praying for their safe return.
In such circumstances, it was expected that the Prime Minister and Home Minister would pay a visit to the tunnel spot, meet with the rescue team and the family members of those trapped and extend their moral support to them. Alas! It was not to be. The nation was shocked to find Prime Minister Narendra Modi in blue attire and Home Minister Amit Shah among the frenzied- fans enjoying the World Cup Cricket finals last Sunday, at the stadium in Ahmedabad! What is more shocking is that, even after attending the finals, they didn’t proceed to Uttarakhand, but both leaders preferred to visit the election- bound States, Rajasthan and Telangana, to continue with their election rallies and campaigns!
Does it mean that winning the elections for their party is more important for the Prime Minister and the Home Minister than the precious lives of 41 workers in distress?
Tharcius S Fernando, Chennai
GI tag for Goan cashews nuts
The Geographical Indication (GI) tag recently awarded to the locally grown Goan cashew nuts could prevent nuts imported from Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania and other African countries being sold as the real thing. Such unscrupulous traders do not comply with the norms of quality, packaging, weighing, shelf life, etc, and their products are often of inferior quality. The influx of cheaper imported cashew nuts have meant that several processing units in Goa have been unable to sell their produce, some have even had to shut shop leading to loss of jobs and misery for workers. Higher minimum wages and compliance norms than in neighbouring States have also led to decline in production and sales for traditional Goan cashew processors; in fact the number of processing units has dwindled from 40 in 2005 to only 15 now. Industry experts ahead of the National Cashew Day opined that GI status will help carve out a special marketable identity for Goan cashew nuts and would bring the State the same level of global recognition that tequila brought to Mexico.
Worryingly productivity of the cashew crop in Goa has dropped to 453 kg per hectare from @ 600 kg earlier leading to the State producing only 25,800 tonnes of cashew nuts annually. The need of the hour is to introduce schemes which prioritise and incentivise cashew farmers as cultivation is a yearlong labour of love. Cashew nuts are synonymous with Goa, tourists travelling to the State make it a point to carry Goan cashew nuts and use them for gifting. Hopefully with the GI tag in place things would look up for the niz kaju.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Harvest rainwater in abandoned quarries
A 19-year-old boy, a resident of Andheri, Mumbai has reportedly drowned in an abandoned stone quarry at Shirven-Chimbel. Four years after Tuem tragedy, wherein four school students met a watery grave in a laterite stone quarry filled with rainwater, it appears that the authorities concerned have not taken lessons from the incident and have failed to fence the abandoned quarries in Pernem taluka. Forget barricading them, the authorities have also failed to install signboards warning the people of the dangers except for one or two. With no fence or barricade around them, these quarries are filled with rainwater and pose danger to humans.
These quarries are attracting youth, who visit these sites for a swim. The excess water in these pits needs to be pumped out to ensure necessary precautions during the rains. It is pertinent to note that the authorities encourage rainwater harvesting during the rainy season so that this water can be utilised during the dry season when there is water shortage. The rainwater that has accumulated in the abandoned stone quarries could be harvested by pumping it into overhead water tanks by the authorities which can be treated and supplied to areas which experience water shortage every year.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Aim for higher GDP
The nation has to work harder to produce more quality products either for self consumption or export. People normally work a bare minimum of 42 hours a week in the official sector and may be much less in the unofficial one which is not optimally sufficient to grow higher and produce more. Productivity instils innovations and research in every field, which spurs growth to desired levels. Higher remunerations and returns will produce better skills combined with a research oriented work force to create, and manufacture high-end quality products with relatively higher yields which in turn adds to the national GDP.
In highly-populated countries the earnings come down in terms of GDP per capita, so we need to increase productivity by putting in extra hours of work and better skills to produce quality goods. Productivity hinges on the following criteria: 1) Investment capital, 2) sophisticated newer technologies,3) human capital resources with emphasis on skills and education. Agriculture and farming-based countries which are labour intensive produce only 20% of GDP due to downturns in weather patterns consequently affecting yield and production failure. Agriculture, like manufacturing, supports two thirds (or less) of the population, which should be driven by quality intensive strategies. People in rural areas must increase productivity by being involved in small-scale and cottage industries to gradually support or being an alternative to agriculture and maximise income levels to shore up growth. Some countries with lesser population and high resources increase their GDP per capita to higher levels which is not the case with densely populated ones, some of which don’t have sufficient resources to enhance productivity.
Service sector accounts for 50% of the GDP and can grow further with skilled labour. Extra hours of work have to be implemented in the threshold of 49 hours per week should suffice to increase growth and steer an upswing in the economy to higher levels. AI-based economy tends to offset the vagaries of lack of skill, little education, time-bound compliances with resilience, etc, which there is an uptake, more and more being adopted to steer GDP upwards. Female workforce tends to shrink with increase in labour hours, requiring adequate thinking into individual profiling, not amounting to lowering GDP.
Ashley Noronha, Fatorda