Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

Changing Climate: Changing Ourselves *Saumitra Mohan There is a wide consensus all around that the problem of climate change stemming from the increasing concentration of green house gases (GHG) in our atmosphere is going to be the biggest challenge to the existence of life on this Blue Planet. And if there were any scruples left, the erratic climatic behaviour all over the globe including the Monsoon Deficit in India has disabused the same. It is also agreed unanimously that we would postpone the solution to this problem only at our own peril. It is believed that the rise of even two degree Celsius shall mean the collapse of the global ecosystem. The global temperature has already risen by 0.6 degree Celsius since the beginning of the 19th century. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes that global temperature shall rise between 0.5 and 2.5 degree Celsius by 2050 AD with an estimated rise of 1.4 to 5.8 degree Celsius by 2100 AD. An estimated 10 bi...

The Refugee Problem: Need for a Coordinated Response *Saumitra Mohan From a population displacement perspective, South Asian region has a unique history. Here, people have been pushed beyond their borders as a result of war or they have left their country of origin on ethnic, racial, ideological or religious grounds. Subsequently, migrations have taken place for environmental or developmental reasons as well. The States of India and Pakistan witnessed massive refugee movements from the time of independence itself. After the 1947 partition, 7.5 million Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan crossed over to India and 7.2 million Muslim refugees from India crossed to Pakistan. It was the largest recorded refugee movement in history. There was little international assistance in this massive humanitarian crisis. Later, in 1971, 10 million refugees crossed over to India during the war of independence of Bangladesh. I...

Creating Newer States: How Desirable? *Saumitra Mohan Given the way demands for creation of newer states keep cropping up from time to time, it seems that the reconfiguration and reorganization of the Indian State could go on for ever. One felt that no such political demands centring around creation of a separate state would be put forward after the last such exercise was undertaken in the year 2000. The same resulted in the birth of three new states namely Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal. The country has witnessed many such demands in recent times as also borne out by the fact that as many as ten such demands are now pending with the Central Home Ministry. These inter alia include demands for a separate Mithilanchal in Bihar, Saurashtra in Gujarat, Coorg in Karnataka, a Harit Pradesh in UP, Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, Gorkhaland in West Bengal, Bundelkhand comprising areas from UP and MP and a Bhojpur carved out of Eastern UP, Bihar and Chattisgarh. The demands have ...

Belling the Naxal Cat *Saumitra Mohan After making a tactical retreat from Lalgarh in West Bengal following the state offensive, the Maoists were waiting for an opportunity to strike back to make their sinister presence felt. The recent outrage resulting in the killing of 36 policemen including an SP in Chattisgarh was an example of what the Naxals are capable of. This takes the casualty toll to 148 this year in that hapless state falling in the so-called Red Corridor. Indeed, the three almost simultaneous attacks were the deadliest of the extremist violence Chattisgarh has seen in recent times. The Maoists seem to have struck with lot of precision and planning. The modality and dynamics of the strike are said to be somewhat reminiscent of the early seventies in West Bengal. The worst strike took place in Rajnandgaon, barely 70 km from the state capital of Raipur. This points to the audacity which informs the functioning of the Maoists these days. They appear intent on moving closer to...

Protecting the Steel Frame *Saumitra Mohan In a recent survey by 1274 experts working across 12 North and South Asian nations, the Indian bureaucracy has been dubbed as the worst and the least efficient in the whole continent, behind Vietnam, China and Indonesia. While the findings are not very shocking and surprising, one has every reason to worry about. After all, the future development does depend on the strength and efficiency of this institution. There is, therefore, an urgent need to grope deeper into the reasons to fix the problem rather than just keep cursing the once famed Steel Frame of India. Among the various reasons responsible for the present sorry state of affairs of Indian bureaucracy, one principal reason relates to the constant interference with its functioning as well as the power of the political class to transfer or shunt the civil servants to inconvenient or insignificant posts. The transfers are often made for the most absurd of the reasons or sometimes for the a...

Employment Guarantee, Not Employment Subsidy Approach Suits Indian Conditions *Saumitra Mohan A liberal welfare state tries to ensure equitable distribution of the development pie by resorting to myriad ways of redistributive allocation of values among its citizens. One of such measures include employment guarantee schemes for the toiling masses to ensure them work for minimum number of days on pre-decided subsistence wages. It is with this objective that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was launched in all the districts of this country. This follows on the back of various employment generation and food for work programmes including Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Community Development Programme (CDP) and Swarnajayanti Jawahar Rojgar Yozna (SJRY). NREGS is actually predicated on the experiences and knowledge gained during implementation of all these previous schemes. Since then, many ...

Indo-Bangladesh Relations: Moving Forward *Saumitra Mohan Indo-Bangladesh bilateral relations have been through many ups and downs in recent times even though one expected the same to be ensconced in better understanding and appreciation of each other’s problems and expectation. The expectations were predicated on the positive and proactive role played by India in Bangladesh’s liberation. Though, it also helped India by reducing the need to fight Pakistan on two fronts because of the latter’s ability to mount a pincer attack on India from two sides. This, however, turned out to be pious wishes merely because of the ensuing political games in Bangladesh. Whatever may be the reason, the fact remains that the present state of Indo-Bangladesh relations actually belies the expectations of the initial euphoria immediately in the aftermath of Bangladesh’s liberation. Now, with a supposedly pro-India liberal government in the saddle, expectations of an improvement in the bi...