The houses built so far all over the country under various cooperative societies under the ages of National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF) and State Level Apex Federations are 1366165 houses. At present, about 435473 houses are under construction.
As part of CenterÆs policy to encourage cooperative housing, the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment has been providing financial support to NCHF. State level Apex Federations have advanced a loan of Rs.4000 crores to primary cooperative societies so far. An equivevlant amount has been contributed by the members of the cooperative societies.
Presently, an amount of Rs.300 crores is being financed annually through the Apex Federations. The housing cooperatives are getting finance from Life Insurance Corporation of India, National Housing Bank, Housing and Urban Development Corporation, Housing Development Finance Corporation, Commercial and Cooperative Banks and other Housing Financing Institutions.
During 1997-98 Rs.20 lakhs as grant-in-aid was released to NCHF.
NCHF was set up in 1969 as the National Level Apex
Organisation speareheading entire cooperative housing movement in India.
High Strength Steels (HSS) may be the area where future consumption potential for Indian steel lies. ‘Steelsite’, the Newsletter published by the Secretariat of National Campaign to Promote Steel says that these steels with high yield strength are used in bridges, car parks, high-rise buildings and also for carrying oil, water & gas under high pressure. India, with its vast geographical boundary, plethora of rivers and teeming population will certainly need more bridges, pipelines, multi-storey houses, commercial buildings and large car parks than many other developing countries.
SAIL has developed SAIL-MA 310 and SAIL MA 410 and both SAIL and TISCO
produce 460 NL, all steel of the High Strength variety. However, HSS of
higher yield strength have to be imported. Similarly, quenching and tempering
facilities for HSS plates are available at Rourkela, but the capacity of
producing such plates is limited to 15000 tonnes per annum.
Steel in Residential Construction Gets a Boost
The Newsletter says that the world is moving ahead
with experimentation in use of steel for residential construction. Quoting
from a report of International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), it says,
"such use cuts across a wide diversity of culture and geography. Steel
roofing has become the standard for the harsh sun climate of Australia;
steel farming is being used to replace brick and masonry in the United
Kingdom and on the European continent; North America, Scandinavia and Australia,
steel offers and exciting alternative to timber framing and combustible
roofing materials. In Sweden, steel frames offer flexibility in multi-storey
residential projects. In Japan, steel is replacing wood because of its
adaptability to automated prefabrication, its seismic resistance and its
permanence. Throughout the world, architects are becoming iterested in
a wide variety of steel products available for residential construction
– cold-formed sections, cold-formed metallic coated and pre-painted sheet."
New Areas for Steel Consumption
The Campaign Committee to Promote Steel Consumption has also identified new areas where the steel consumption can be increased. These are:
Shri Rana visited the state recently at the request of the state government and also the exporters of Jammu & Kashmir and was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Shri R.K. Mathur, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) and discussed with the state government their suggestions for development of the textile sector in the State. These suggestions included revamping of various schemes in the handloom sector, setting up of a Marketing Complex at Jammu, purchase of handloom products of J&K by the Ministry of Home Affairs through ACASH, increase in credit flow to the state and setting up of Weavers Service Centre.
After agriculture, handloom and handicraft sectors
provide maximum employment in the state. While handicrafts give employment
to about 6 lakh artisans, handloom provides employment to over 50,000 weavers
working on over 25,000 looms. The state has about 400 handloom weavers
cooperative societies with a membership of 14,000. Nearly 25 million meters
of handloom cloth valued at about Rs.250 crores is manufactured in the
state. The major handloom products of the state are based on wool and silk
as the base fabric. The state has availed of Rs.6.19 crores and Rs.3.7
crores, respectively from the central government during 8th plan and 1997-98
under various centrally sponsored schemes. The major handicrafts of the
state include carpets and durries, embroided products, wood work, artistic
textile, paper machie work and leather work. In addition to sales in the
domestic market, the state government has informed that during 1996-98,
the exports of handicrafts including carpets amounted to Rs.661 crores.
In fact, during the disturbed period from 1990 onwards, the handicrafts
production has increased three times. This has become possible not only
because of the efforts made by the state government, but also by the major
efforts made by the office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts).
The office runs 175 carpet centres which include about 57 advanced training
centres, 6 marketing centres, located at Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla,
Leh, Udhampur and Jammu which facilitate the artisans in the sale of their
products. One hand-block printing centre is also being run at Samba. At
any time, over 3000 persons, mostly women are being trained by this office.
Each year, expenditure by DC(Handicrafts) on departmental trainee centres
as well as on schemes relating to training, design, development of marketing
assistance etc., amounts to around Rs.8 crores. About 50 NGOs are being
benefited under various schemes of the office of the Development Commissioner
(Handicrafts).
Noting that Prof. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate, had pointed to the ineffectiveness of State intervention in social sector development, the Prime Minister said that universal primary education was critical to the socio-economic development of India. More than money what is required is strong political commitment from all concerned to the cause of primary education to go a long way.
While the Government was fully committed to advance the cause of education, a greater involvement of the community, business and industry was very essential. The Prime Minister also focussed on the problem of finding adequate financial resources for education. In this context, he posed the question whether it was not possible to make higher education pay more for itself than is the case now.
He said more than money, primary education needs better administrative and managerial skills and of course a far stronger political will. It is said that this most important area of nation building does not attract the best and the brightest administrators; other departments are considered more glamorous. Primary education is often not the first choice of those who are assigned there. This must change. The most important thing that we can do to improve primary education is to ensure that the best administrators are applying their minds to improving the system. The P.M. said a synergy has to be created between formal and the non-formal education. As education is a State subject, he proposed the transfer of administrative control over village schools to village Panchayats, Mandal Panchayats and Zilla Parishads.
The Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi in his welcome address said all suggestions and recommendations must be discussed and debated to arrive at a general consensus on issues that confront primary and elementary education. He said there is obviously no question of taking any hasty or pre-conceived decision or chalking out any strategy or implementation of any plan on such suggestions without any clear consensus. Since certain misgivings have been arrived in the Press and outside, he said he is making the position absolutely clear.
The education secretary, Shri P.R. Dasgupta said, the Prime Minister is a strong votary of the welfare of the people. The society also has an important role to play in improving primary education, he said.
The conference is being attended by education ministers
and secretaries from various states and union territories. It will discuss
among other things, measures to improve primary and elementary education
besides removal of illiteracy.
Inaugurating the Conference of Education Ministers and Secretaries of States and Union Territories here today, the Prime Minister emphasised the need to devise innovative ways so that local communities and businesses could contribute to the upkeep of primary schools and the brightest administrators with managerial skills could be attracted to improve the primary education system. While the Government was fully committed to advance the cause of primary education, a greater involvement of the community and business and industry was very essential, he said.
Referring to the criticism of Prof. Amartya Sen that Governments in developing countries had not intervened enough in the social sectors of health and education, the Prime Minister said that the Centre and the States must reaffirm their commitment to the social sector especially education.
Pointing to the neglected area of the working and teaching environment, the Prime Minister said that the teachers’ views must be given importance in education, planning and parents and communities should be made more responsive about the schools in their midst. In the spirit of decentralisation brought about through the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution, the Prime Minister proposed that the administrative control over village schools be transferred to Panchayats, Mandal Panchays and Zila Parishads.
Underlining the need for improving the higher education system so that the universities and colleges could be run as well as their counterparts abroad he suggested a crash programme to improve the condition of universities. He also stressed the need to de-politicise and de-bureaucratise the functioning of universities and colleges so that teachers could feel that they have a sense of fulfilment and achievement. Can we not ensure that at least one university in each State becomes a Centre of excellence and that at least a dozen Indian universities build a global reputation?
Commending the role of private sector companies in the area of quality and management and Indian companies that are in the education business especially those which are in the computer education business and were doing extremely well, he cautioned about excessive commercialisation creeping in which, he said, was undesirable and would have to be curbed. He said there was need to create a synergy between the formal and the non-formal sectors in education in order to pool their respective strength. It was equally important that we looked at what was taught apart from how it was taught. He said the schools must impart value education so that every student has an understanding of and respect for all the faiths in India and pride in the country’s national culture. There must be no place for religious bigotry and intolerance, he said. While promoting unity, we should keep in mind our diversity of religion, language and ethnicity, he said.
Referring to the goal of giving free education for women up to the graduation level as set out in the National Agenda for Governance, he said, in the case of women, which is by far the largest disadvantaged group, we should not talk of departmentalisation and the commitment of the National Agenda would be more effective if it was combined with other programmes on maternal and child health, rural development and the ICDS. Educating women is the most profitable investment that a country can make, he said.
The following is the text of the Prime Minister’s speech :
"I am pleased to inaugurate this Conference of Education Ministers and Education Secretaries. Very important issues concerning education will be discussed and deliberated upon here by both the Central and the State Governments, in the spirit of partnership and democratic federalism.
Human resources development is the most critical area in nation building. After all, national development depends on having educated citizens. Rural development, the productivity of workers, women’s empowerment, health and nutrition, social justice, sustained economic growth – I could go on adding to this list of national tasks where education is the common denominator.
At the turn of the century, Swami Vivekananda had diagnosed the ills that plague our society and had said, "A nation is advanced in proportion as education and intelligence spread among the masses …. If we are to rise again, we shall have to do it, by spreading education among the masses. Educate and raise the masses and thus alone national revival is possible".
After independence, India has posted significant achievements in education. Yet, our efforts have fallen short of what nation-building demands.
Professor Amartya Sen, this year’s Nobel prizewinner in economics, says that governments in developing countries, including ours, have intervened a lot to solve problems in the economic and business sectors.
However, they have not intervened enough in the social sectors of health and education. This is a valid criticism.
To remedy this imbalance is our collective task. The Centre and the States must reaffirm their commitment to the social sector, especially education.
You will agree with me that what needs most attention is primary education. It is the base of everything. Primary education is the most neglected area in the entire education system. We must restore primacy to primary education in our education policy and planning.
Primary education needs more money, yes. More money to build and maintain proper school building; equip them with books and blackboards, and other instruments of teaching. And, money also to convert single-teacher schools to multiple-teacher schools.
Money is always scarce. A large part of the education budget goes to pay teachers’ salaries. With the recent increases in their pay, there will be even less money for the other, equally important, items.
We, therefore, need to look at other sources of funding. Private enterprise is now entering professional education. Can we not come up with innovative ways that attract local communities and business to contribute to the upkeep of primary schools? Can we not make higher education pay more for itself than is the case now, so that primary education is better endowed?
More than money, primary education needs better administrative and managerial skills, and, of course, a far stronger political will. It is sad that this most important area of nation building does not attract the best and the brightest administrators. Other departments are considered more "glamorous". Primary education is often not the first choice of those who are assigned there.
This must change. The most important thing that we can do to improve primary education is to ensure that the best administrators are applying their minds to improving the primary education system.
I have some other thoughts that I would like to share with you on this subject.
While govenments have done a lot to improve teachers’ salaries, they have neglected the task of improving their working and teaching environment.
Teachers’ views are often ignored – or not even sought in education planning. The bureaucrats in the education department have an upper hand and often boss over teachers and principals. This is wrong. All those associated with education should understand that a good teacher does not look for a good salary alone. He values even more a better working environment, where he feels that he is valued and has a say in the running of his institution.
The quality of municipal and other government schools is inferior to that of private schools. One reason, of course, is that richer parents pay for and then demand better service from private schools.
In government-run schools, where the parents are too poor and themselves uneducated, they cannot demand better service. This places a bigger responsibility on us to run our schools better in the absence of parental demand. Can we face up to that responsibility?
How do we make parents and communities more responsive about the school in their midst? This is one of the greatest challenges before the education sector.
If we want the villagers to consider the school to be "theirs" then they must have a sense of responsibility and ownership. Here I have a suggestion.
Education is a state subject. The 73rd and 74th Amendments have decentralised powers to the panchayats and municipalities. In this spirit of decentralisation, I propose that we transfer administrative control over village schools to panchayats, mandal panchayats and the Zilla parishads.
The teacher’s qualification and salaries and the syllabus can still be set by the State Governments but let the panchayat bodies manage the primary schools. Funds for this can be transferred to the panchayats from the State government.
One of the reasons why developed countries have become so, is their superior universities and technical institutions. India’s higher education system also needs improvement so that our universities and colleges are run as well as their counterparts abroad.
We need a crash programme to improve the condition of our universities. Can we not ensure that at least one university in each state becomes a centre of excellence and that at least a dozen Indian universities build a global reputation?
We also need to draw up a plan to enable the best NRI talent in the education sector to come back and teach in our universities.
One reason for the falling standards of our universities and colleges is that the best and brightest people seem no longer interested in teaching. Their low salaries used to be the reason, but the Government has recently raised the emoluments of college teachers to partly solve this problem. Here again, the big challenge is to de-politicise and debureaucratize the functioning of our universities and colleges, so that teachers feel that they have a sense of fulfilment and achievement.
Our regulatory bodies the University Grants Commission, the All India College of Technical Education, and the Medical Council of India are all doing good work. However, their functioning needs to improve, especially in their relations with State governments.
Our formal education set up could learn a lesson or two from the private sector companies in the area of quality and management. Indian companies that are in the education business, especially those who are in the computer education business are doing extremely well. They are now worth hundreds of crores. There is, of course, excessive commercialization, which is undesirable and must be curbed. However, let us look at the positive side.
Their success in creating a relevant syllabus, attracting students, training them and now their global forays should be emulated by our universities. They too need to be as dynamic and enterprising as these companies. We also need to create a synergy between the formal and the non-formal sectors in education in order to pool their respective strengths.
Apart from looking at "how " people are to be taught, we also need to look at "what" is taught. We must update our syllabi, at all levels, to reflect the rapidly changing world. We must also provide modern tools which would help in promoting a scientific temperament in our children.
Our school must also impart value education. They must let every student have an understanding of, and respect for, all the faiths in India and pride in our national culture. There must be no place for religious bigotry and intolerance. While promoting unity, we should keep in mind our diversity of religion, language and ethnicity.
One problem that haunts our entire education system is the much- less-than-proportionate participation of women.
Studies have shown that educating women is the most profitable investment that a country can make. The return on this investment - in better health and hygiene, slower population growth, empowerment, financial independence, and the transmission of all these values to the next generation of girls - is more than the returns of building a power plant or a road or any other spending that the government does.
The National Agenda for Government has committed my government to giving free education for women to the graduation level. This commitment will be more effective, if it is combined with the other programmes on maternal and child health, rural development, and the ICDS. Let us not have departmentalization when we talk of our largest disadvantaged group - our women.
Literacy is another curse that India suffers from. The National Literacy Mission has taken many steps to remove it. I believe that the formal education system should be used to support its efforts. Teachers, students and other in the education system can and must participate in the programmes of the National literacy mission so that literacy in India is removed as fast as possible.
Education in India has many problems. The most important requirement for finding the right solution is perfect coordination between the Centre and State governments based on a common approach and common goals.
I am confident that all of you together will come up with workable solutions and that you will go back to your states with a strategy to implement them in the shortest possible time.
Thank you."
The book "Public Distribution System in India – Reassessed"
written by Dr. S.M. Jharwal is an attempt to bring out an economic analysis
of the data on Public Distribution System and the functioning of rationing
in various parts of the country.
The centrally sponsored scheme for construction of godowns and purchase of mobile vans has been extended to all areas in the country. Earlier the scope of these schemes was restricted to 1775 development blocks identified for the erstwhile Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS). A decision to extend the scheme was taken at a recent meeting of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) of the Department of Food and Civil Supplies.
Under the extended coverage of these schemes the Committee has cleared a proposal of Government of Haryana to construct one godown at a cost of Rs.18.04 lakhs. A proposal of Rajasthan Government for construction of six godowns with a capacity of 10,800 tonnes at a cost of Rs. 185.3 lakhs has also been cleared by the Committee. For Uttar Pradesh two godowns at a cost of Rs. 103.34 lakhs have also been approved.
Under the scheme for ôPurchase of Mobile Vans/Trucksö the Committee has approved a proposal for purchasing 10 mobile vans for Himachal Pradesh. Another proposal for buying 30 vehicles for delivery of PDS commodities through Mobile Fair Price Shops in Mumbai at a cost of Rs. 180 lakhs has also been approved.
Under these schemes financial assistance is given
to the States/UTs in theform of 50% grant-in-aid (subsidy) and 50%
loan for construction of small godowns upto the capacity of 2,000 tonnes
and also for purchase of mobile vans for doorstep delivery of PDS commodities.
The schemes aim to strengthen the PDS infrastructure in the States /UTs..
The Indian Railways are introducing a new weekly train "Buddha Parikrama" which will cover all the important Buddhist sites in the country. The train will run between Howrah-Gorakhpur and will cover Gaya, Rajgir, Sarnath(Varanasi) and Kushinagar(Gorakhpur). The Railway Minister Shri Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the train at Gorakhpur tomorrow. The Tourism Minister of India Shri Madan Lal Khurana will attend the function as Chief Guest.
The train will leave Howrah at 12 noon and reach
Gorakhpur next day morning. Then it will halt one day each at Varanasi,
Rajgir and Gaya. It would start from Howrah Station every Thursday,till
April 15,1999.
The Buddha Parikrama Express is a joint project of the Railway Ministry and Ashok Travels and Tours, an inhouse Travel Agency of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). The tickets will be available with Ashok Travels and Tours, ITDC, 3rd Floor, New Delhi House, 27,Barakhamba Road, New Delhi.
Offering the finest Indian hospitality, the train has been especially
commissioned to make the journey most memorable. The package includes rail
fare, travel by luxury coaches, site seeing with guides and meals.
The general view was that the overall situation has improved considerably but there is no room for complacency and that the Security forces would have to consolidate their gains. State Government and security forces would take all steps required to sustain the atmosphere of confidence so that total normalcy could be restored at the earliest.
The meeting also took stock of the special measures required for the coming winter season. Accordingly it was felt that all our ongoing efforts need to be both sustained and dynamic in nature. We also need to clearly identify the areas of shortcomings in our efforts so that remedial action can be thought of and undertaken in a systematic and determined manner.
It was agreed that the requirement of Rs.118 cores in the current financial year out of a total amount of Rs.560.47 crores required to implement the Action Plan for tackling militancy would be released by November, 1998.
Emphasis during the meeting was on effective pre-emptive steps to deal with the militants on the border and in the hinterland and to keep up the tempo of effective action against the militants, especially the foreign mercenaries. It was noted that 677 militants have been killed so far this year (till 30 September, 1998). Out of this, 216 were foreign mercenaries.
It was decided that the progress would be monitored regularly at various levels including at the level of the Home Minister.
A meeting regarding economic development in J&K
and regarding the problem of migrants would be convened by Home Minister
in November, 1998.