UPA - United Progressive Alliance

Over the next few months, the flu caused more panic than infections, even as the Centre swung into action, set- ting up screening centres at airports and gave its nod to public and private testing and treatment centres.

But most people thought the health ministry did not move fast enough on H1N1 and other issues that matter, which led to it being voted the worst performing ministry, bagging 15.3 per cent of the total votes. It was voted sixth of nine best-performing ministries.

As many as 36.3 per cent people polled thought the ministry was "unimaginative and slow" in tackling H1N1, 19.7 per cent thought it was incon- sistent in its response, while another 22.3 per cent said a bolder approach had been needed.

Only 21.7 per cent people polled -- roughly one in five -- thought its efforts had been effective and speedy.

If the Union health ministry failed its first big public heath challenge in public perception, it fared as badly on the roll-out of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the UPA's flagship programme to revitalise pri- mary and secondary healthcare in rural India.

More than one in three people -- 37.6 per cent -- said that it had failed to improve the crumbling health infra- structure.

As many as 12.1 per cent wanted set- ting up of "AIIMS-like" hospitals speed- ed up, on which work finally started after Azad took over in 2009-10, which had been the deadline for the comple- tion of the work. While 26.3 said peo- ple said Azad appears firmly incharge and another 21.8 per cent said he is in the loop on issues, the majority -- 30.1 per cent -- though he needed to be more imaginative.

Source: Hindustan Times Health Ministry - Not In The Best Of Health After All

Latest data released showed that car sales grew nearly 40 per cent in April after having recorded healthy sales in the last few months.

Industrial output grew by 10.4 per cent in 2009-10 and consumer durables production has grow by over 30 per cent in the last five months, perhaps indicative of higher purchases of tele- visions and refrigerators and also grow- ing consumer appetite.

"The economy weathered the glob- al credit storm much better than expected, and the recovery is stronger than expectations driven by a pick-up in private sector-led domestic demand," said Rajeev Malik, Head of Economics Research (Asean and India) of Macquarie Securities. Last year around the same time, when Pranab Mukherjee assumed office as the finance minister, uncertainty had gripped the Indian economy.

Growth of the Indian economy slowed to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 after grow- ing at close to 9 per cent for four straight years before the meltdown. It is set to grow by 7.2 per cent in 2009-10.

The finance ministry responded by announcing a fiscal stimulus package of Rs 1,86,000 crore or 3.5 per cent of GDP to help industry tide over the downturn.

RBI supplemented this by slashing key rates aimed at bringing down the cost of borrowing for embattled cor- porations.

"As a combined impact of various fis- cal stimulus measures and the sup- porting monetary policy the industri- al sector was able to reverse the declin- ing trend in its growth since June 2009," a senior government official said who did not wish to identified.

Things are different this year.

Corporate India has registered healthy growth in profits and revenue for the current fiscal. A quick analysis of 63 companies on BSE 500, which have announced their annual results, reveals that they have posted a profit growth of 26 per cent, their revenue growth stood at 50 per cent.
AGRI & PRICES: KEY CONCERNS Agricultural production is expected to shrink 0.2 percent in 2009-10 as a result of last year's drought, the worst in 40 years. And it has had a major bearing on prices.

India's inflation in April was esti- mated at 9.6 per cent, as food prices continued to remain at elevated levels pummelled by a supply crunch in sta- ple items such as cereals and sugar.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has had to carefully walk the wedge on resource for fiscal consolidation, sus- tain growth, signal a rollback of stim- ulus package and yet keep prices under check.

gaurav.choudhury@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Gaurav Choudhury Finance Ministry: Balance-Sheet Act, Pranab Mukherjee's Quick Action Helped India Deal With Downturn

As a junior minister in UPA-2, Ramesh got rebuked by his senior Cabinet colleagues, agriculture minis- ter Sharad Pawar and science and tech- nology minister Prithviraj Chavan, for imposing a moratorium on the intro- duction of Bt brinjal, after country-wise public consultations. Road transport minister Kamal Nath chided him for delays in clearances to road projects.
Ramesh hit back saying "my job is to protect environment without jeopar- dising economic growth".

For the first time, here was an approach that could refuse permission to projects opposed by locals -- rang- ing from mining in Goa's fragile eco- system to power plants in a 130 km- stretch of the upper Ganga basin and in the Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra.

"Rarely does the government involve people in deci- sion-making," said Magsasay award winner activist Sandeep Pandey. "Ramesh showed it could happen with Bt brinjal.
To me, it is a lesson for other ministers to involve people in government policy."

Though 30% of respondents found the environment ministry "effective" and "speedy", around one-fourth want- ed the ministry to be bolder.

Ramesh has fast-tracked policy inter- ventions by notifying more stringent air and noise pollution norms, at par with the European standards, and got India's worst-polluted industrial areas rated. To ensure environmental laws get enforced, Ramesh cut short his foreign visit to get the National Green Tribunal Bill passed in the Budget session. In the monsoon session, a bill to set up National Environment Protection Agency is to be introduced.

chetan@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Chetan Chauhan Environment Ministry: Through Green-Tinted Glasses

Pakistan, and the terrorist fallout of Islamabad's policies, easily overshad- ow all other concerns. A plurality of the Hindustan Times-CNN IBN expert panel expressed concern about the direction of Pakistan policy and "inabil- ity to control terrorism" was rated the third biggest overall failing of the UPA.

This is not the same as opposing dia- logue. It reflects a lack of confidence that New Delhi can handle a Pakistan marked by the traits of a failed state and a China wearing the trappings of a superpower-in-the-making. Asked to rate the best-performing ministries, the External Affairs Ministry received less than four per cent of the vote.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna's approval rating was similar to that of Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Singh, who has braved initial skep- ticism about economic reforms and the nuclear deal, is determined to pursue dialogue with Pakistan.
Encouraged by what he experienced in his talks with Pervez Musharraf, Singh sees going the extra mile with Islamabad a gamble worth taking. It won't be easy: the storm that followed the Sharm el Sheikh statement was a reminder of how thin-skinned even the prime minister's own party is about Pakistan, post-26/11.

The UPA has signalled that foreign policy, in this term, will not be about big bangs. It will be about small steps, tying up loose ends, the diplomacy of page 10 rather than headlines. Pakistan and China are obvious hard slogs. But even US relations is today about left- over bits of the nuclear deal and slow- ly building counterterror bridges.

Among the less noted foreign policy accomplishments is India's transfor- mation of its relations with smaller neighbours like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. "Compared to UPA I, the UPA II is yet to have a big ticket item on its agenda. A lot of attention is being paid towards the neighbourhood," says ex-foreign secretary, Salman Haidar.
The ministry likes to tout its Saudi extradition treaty and India's influen- tial role in the G-20.

But the lack of a big picture has led to a sense of an India slipping into passivity. This perception has been especially fed by Afghanistan where policies determining the future of a country strategically important to India seem to being made everywhere except New Delhi. It hasn't helped that South Block's public profile was largest when Shashi Tharoor's rep was at its lowest.

jayanth.jacob@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Jayanth Jacob External Affairs Ministry: Think Local, Act Local, Regional Focus Gives Impression Of Indian Global Passivity

A year might be too short a period to judge a govern- ment. The picture clears up towards the end, closer to elections.

Remember UPA-I's rural job scheme, that gem of an idea that nobody thought could win elections?

It did, and how.

The Congress returned to power without its obstruc- tionist UPA I ally, the Left.

The 2009 mandate was for Sonia Gandhi's inclusive touch, Manmohan Singh's experience and Rahul Gandhi's youthful appeal.

UPA-II has not yet found a winner idea to match the job scheme. But look closer.
The government's robust handling of the overall economy shines in contrast with the floundering NDA under a BJP struggling with its inex- perienced boss Nitin Gadkari.

And there have been solid, highly visible initiatives: right to education, quota for women in legislatures and legal entitlement of Below Poverty Line families to food grains at affordable prices.

Recognition of such ini- tiatives was evident in the Hindustan Times-CNN-IBN poll of experts who rated highly, traditional, well-edu- cated Congressmen: Pranab Mukherjee (Finance), P.
Chidambaram (Home) and Kapil Sibal (HRD).

Spoiling the report card were UPA's loose-tongue cow- boys. They make the coaliti- on resemble a rave party do- minated by mercurial tem- peraments, unpredictable allies and newfangled politi- cal recruits such as Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh.

One has lost his job for bring- ing the regime into disrepute.
The other is in trouble forev- er for a runaway tongue.

The Prime Minister could sort them out because they belong to his party. But he can do little to discipline trou- blesome allies with key min- istries: Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool), M.K. Alagiri and A. Raja (DMK).

They symbolise the aberrations of mixed regimes where absen- teeism has to be condoned, incompetence ignored, cor- ruption tolerated and gover- nance given a go by.
Occasional disconnect with allies can perhaps be explained.
But blame lies at the Congress's own doorsteps for the Telangana muddle and the cross-connections about tack- ling the Naxal threat.

The 2009 poll victory saw the party taking for granted the support of past and potential rivals -- the SP, BSP and RJD -- who have since come to demand their pound of flesh. A ringside observer attributed it all -- including Sharm-el- Sheikh and the controversial caste census -- to perfunctory political management and the PM's "lovable illusion" of mak- ing peace with Pakistan.

vinodsharma@hindustantimes.com

THE row over the women's reservation Bill has made the government develop cold feet over its commitment to increase representation of women in central government jobs.

Officials said the controversy generated by the Bill has emerged as the main stumbling block for the Centre in providing job quota for women.

" There are legal implications of setting aside one- third of all government jobs for women. But divisions within the political class over the Bill have emerged as the principal hurdle," a senior official said. " There is no forward movement on the matter." The Congress' election manifesto had proposed 33 per cent job quota for women. Later, the President's address to joint session of Parliament firmly committed itself to providing job reservations for women. It promised to make " concerted efforts to increase the representation of women in central government

jobs", evidently through the quota route.

The President's address forms the UPA government's official agenda. It clearly states: " Some concrete steps that are proposed to create equal opportunities for women are reservation to elected bodies at all levels, reservation in jobs and a National Mission on Female Literacy." The UPA government proposed three measures to enhance women's representation in public sphere -- increasing panchayat quota to 50 per cent, enacting the women's Bill, and providing reservation for them in central government jobs.

Source: Mail Today Cong In A Fix On 33% Women Job Quota Wow

Commentators were extolling the strategic genius of Sonia Gandhi for the ` historic' move that was going to forever transform Indian politics. A week later, things look somewhat different. In a double whammy, the government has been forced to put off the women's Bill for the time being, as well as defer the tabling of the Nuclear Liabilities Bill, a measure close to the heart of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The coalition that appeared solid a year ago looks shaken, if not shaky.

With the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party withdrawing support from the United Progressive Alliance, newspapers and magazines have been once again counting the numbers in the Lok Sabha. Given their ideology and the existing parliamentary arithmetic, no party or combination of parties, appears to be able to replace the UPA. But the very articulation of this issue, a year after the UPA was brought back to power with a near- majority bespeaks of the serious flaws in the political management of the coalition and the competence of the government.

Liability
Take the Nuclear Liability Bill. The entire episode: the decision to table it, the absence of 35 Congress MPs despite a whip at the time of tabling, and its sudden withdrawal, has hamhandedness written all over it. It would have been a good idea for the government to have circulated a draft of the bill, explained its provisions, encouraged some debate and discussion, built up political support and then finalised it. Instead, it used the stealth approach and the provisions of the Bill that we are talking about are those leaked by environmental groups.

Everyone knows that in India, the judicial system does not give the kind of humongous damages that can bankrupt a company or an individual.

On Tuesday, for example, the Delhi High Court awarded a compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the family of a truck driver who was shot dead by a policeman in a fit of rage.

manoj.joshi@mailtoday.in

Source: Mail Today By Manoj Joshi Congress Is Shaken And Strired, UPA Government Needs To Get Its Act Together

Opposition BJP considered a press meet to critique the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's second edition that completes 100 days in office on Saturday but gave up the idea. Riven by internal fights, mounting an offensive against the government is beyond the BJP.

Around the same time in 2004, the BJP had paralysed the first Manmohan Singh government, forcing the PM to say: "We're living in abnormal times.
Never in the history of any government, the first 100 days have been characterised by the daily turmoil that we witness in Parliament."

With the BJP in tatters, the Left fighting for survival and allies dependent on the Congress more than ever, UPAII doesn't have to worry about its longevity, unlike 2004. But that doesn't mean it has nothing to worry about.

Sixty-two per cent of those who exercised voting right in the 15th Lok Sabha elections voted for UPA's return, but only 57 per cent of the HT opinion poll respondents rate its first 100 days either excellent or good.

The sample size is too small and exclusively urban to suggest any national swing against it, but the drought and spiralling prices indicate turbulence for the UPA.

UPA-II has tried to consolidate and expand the inclusive growth agenda by passing the Right to Education Act and promising a national law for food security. However, lower growth -- expected to be around six per cent this year -may come in the way of grand ambitions.

During the UPA's first tenure, economy grew at more than eight per cent annually.

Politically, UPA-II has effected a paradigm change in the debate of inclusion. Unshackled from erstwhile allies who acted as pressure groups for caste and linguistic interests, the UPA's second innings target groups are women and youth.

The new education law, 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies are the steps in the direction. With such measures, the Congress hopes to make caste politics redundant.

The government has scored as far as internal security is concerned, with even the BJP chief ministers praising Home Minister P. Chidambaram for his quick understanding and action. Of the two other sectors the UPA wanted to give an extra push to, road construction appears to be on track but health looks a bit wobbly.

The first electoral test of UPA-II is only weeks away -the Congress will be seeking another term in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal.

The Congress has identified three issues -- drought, price rise and swine flu -- for the UPA Government to tackle in the next few months. The party is aware that Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh are round the corner and the Opposition can take advantage by making these poll issues. Ironically, the party is also trying to distance itself from the Government, expecting it to handle these issues on a war-footing.

When the UPA began its second term, the Congress was upbeat after a creditable victory in the Lok Sabha election. Riding to power on the slogan of `aam admi' , the party and the Government are now in a quandary as how to deal with price rise and drought which directly affect the common man. Adding to the Government's woes is the recent observation of the Supreme Court which has described the situation as "terrible" and wanted the Government to tackle it effectively. While the wholesale price index remains negative, prices of essential commodities have shot up in the past few months. The Reserve Bank of India, while updating the monetary policy for the fiscal year, has warned that the inflation could even slip further due to lower monsoon.

Rising prices of food items dominated the just concluded Parliament session when the Opposition gheraoed the Government over the issue. The proverbial `dal, roti' is no more within the reach of the common man as prices of pulse, sugar and other commodities and vegetables are touching sky. No Government can afford to ignore this situation.

The Government should not only think of short-term measures to contain price rise but also chalk out a long-term strategy. In spite of high gross domestic product growth, the production of essential commodities have not gone up. Pulses and sugarcane have showed severe shortage of supply. The production of vegetable oil and paddy are also causing concern.

Source: The Pioneer Tough Times For UPA

Out of the six programmes that were launched under the scheme Bharat Nirman in 2005, only housing and rural telephony are likely to meet the targets.

Irrigation, which was targeted for a 10 m hectare between 2005-09, had achieved a target of only 56 per cent. The Congress-ruled states Andhra Pradesh, which had set a target of 1566.49 thousand hectares has achieved only 583 thousand hectares. Another Congress ruled state Maharashtra was given a target of 821.81 thousand hectares but has achieved 338 thousand hectares in the past four years.

UPA ally Tamil Nadu is the only exception in terms of achievement in irrigation, out of a target of 23.55 thousand hectare, it has achieved 224 thousand hectare. UPA ally Left, which rules West Bengal has shown a dismal performance of the targeted 699 thousand hectares, of which only 15 thousand hectares has been achieved.

Source: The Tribune Bharat Nirman may miss target

With a slew of measures to help a slowing economy and win over voters, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government extended Rs325 crore of help to exporters in employment-intensive industries, promised a further cut in fuel prices, raised spending on urban development, increased entitlements to protect government employees against an increase in the cost of living and offered subsidies to build one million homes across the country.

The export sops were extended in the interim trade policy announced on Thursday by commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath while the other decisions were taken by the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA).

The government also announced a politically sensitive policy of modernizing slaughter houses in the country to help commercial processing of meat to facilitate bovine exports from India.

CCEA also announced a Rs3,070 crore revival package to wipe out the accumulated losses of all primary cooperative agriculture and rural development banks, and state co-operative agriculture and rural development banks. Losses on agricultural credit will be borne by the Central government while losses from non-agricultural business will be shared by the state governments and the cooperatives concerned.

"The cabinet committee is yet to decide on the diesel price cut. It is for the party and the government to decide. I personally feel that there is a scope to reduce diesel prices. We will try again tomorrow," Murli Deora, petroleum and natural gas minister told Mint.

The government is betting that the step-up in spending on urban development programmes and housing will stimulate construction activity.
CCEA increased the outlay for the Centrally-sponsored Rs50,000 crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) by more than one-fifth, to Rs61,000 crore. Of this, Rs6,000 crore will go to the Urban Infrastructure and Governance, part of JNNURM, which provides grants to 63 large cities and Rs5,000 crore will go to a scheme that administers grants for some 5,098 small towns. Earlier, Rs24,000 crore had been earmarked for the large cities and Rs7,000 crore for the small towns.

Source: Live Mint Fresh doles from UPA

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• Scheme extended to upper primary classes

• Increase in school attendance

• Reduction in school drop-outs

He maintained that a big stimulus package would be required to revive growth in the Indian economy, but propriety demanded that this could only be effected by the next govern ment, expected to take charge in June after the conclusion of general elections.

“We have weathered the crisis, but there is no room for complacency,” Mukherjee said in his budget speech in parliament, the first 45 minutes of which were devoted to de tailing the government’s eco nomic track record between 2004 and 2008.

The stock market reacted negatively and the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex ended the day lower by 3.4% at 9,305.45 points.

“This is an interim budget. I had constitutional constraints,” Mukherjee said after his speech, on his inability to unveil more far-reaching fiscal measures.

Source: Live Mint Tough times ahead: UPA

Employment generation in the midst of a global meltdown will be the central idea of the Interim Budget that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will present on February 16 just ahead of the general elections.

Among other proposals to give the job market a leg-up, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Interim Budget speech is likely to see larger fund allocations to skill development programmes in the rural sector and subsidies for training schemes for one member of rural Below Poverty Line (BPL) families (in which adult members of the family earn less than Rs 10 a day). Under this scheme, the government will provide a subsidy to companies for training on condition that the member of the BPL family is given a job once he completes the programme.

A pilot skill development project is already in place in some states. To roll it out fully, as the government intends, the cost of the project over the next eight years would be Rs 2,26,400 crore or an average of Rs 28,300 crore a year. The budgetary allocation for the pilot project was Rs 5,650 crore.

Top government sources have made it clear that the Interim Budget will not be a routine statement of accounts for immediate government expenses. Instead, the Union government will use it as an opportunity to announce a slew of “pro-people policy measures” just ahead of general elections.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said there was no “constitutional bar” to announcing policy measures in an Interim Budget but added that he couldn’t say what the government was planning.

Source: Business-standard UPA To Focus On Rural Jobs In Interim Budget

In an interview to a TV channel, he pointed out that some UPA partners have also stated that they would fight the elections under Singh's leadership. "Congress President Sonia Gandhi also endorses the view," he added.

The Congress party's main troubleshooter also sought to clarify his recent remarks on Rahul Gandhi being the candidate for the PM's post.

"I was responding to the questions from the NRIs at the Pravasi Bhartiya Sammelan. Someone asked my why India has an ageing leadership. I gave a number of examples such as those of Praful Mahanta, Omar Abdullah...I said Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister when he was 40. And then I said that who knows, may be one day Rahul Gandhi may follow in the footsteps of his father.''

Mukherjee said the parties in the UPA government would remain part of the alliance in the elections. As far as the post-election coalition was concerned, it would depend on the numbers without compromising the basic principles of the party.

"We will not tie up with communal parties," he added. Asked what was his future, he said, "We cannot foresee what will happen. However, I will remain in politics.''