GOA felicitates Lusofonia 2009 medal winners

GOA felicitates Lusofonia medal winners
HERALD CORRESPONDENT/MAPUSA, JULY 24, 2009

The Lusofonia Games medal winners and coaches felicitated by Goa Olympic Association seen alongwith Sports Minister Babu Azgaonkar, Director of Sports Dr Susan D’Souza, Subhash Shirodkar, President of GOA, Vinayak Naik, Joint Director Sports (SAG), Ashraf Pandiyal, Tresurer of SAG and Gurudatta Bhakta, Secretary of GOA on Friday.


Goa Olympic Association felicitated the taekwondo and volleyball sportspersons who made Goa and India proud at the 2nd Lusofonia Games by bringing medals from Lisbon, Portugal.
The felicitation function was held at Hotel Manoshanti, Panjim on Friday, at the hands Sports Minister Babu Azgaonkar in the presence of Director of Sports Dr Susan D’Souza, Subhash Shirodkar, President of GOA, Vinayak Naik, Joint Director Sports (SAG), Ashraf Pandiyal, Tresurer of SAG and Gurudatta Bhakta, Secretary of GOA.
Speaking on the occasion, Babu lauded the entire Goan contingent saying. He said, “winning a medal is not important, but Goan sportspersons putting a brave face against their opponents who were mostly Olympians is commendable.”
Goa actually representing India is like a state playing country, he said adding this was a good opportunity for Goan players to know international standards.
Mr Shirodkar speaking at the occasion said that by participating at the Lusofonia Games the Goan talent is getting an international exposure.
Goa has got a big opportunity to get required infrastructure as the National and Lusofonia Games will be held in the State, and this will make Goa on par with international standards and bring national unity, he added.
He further said that the government which is felicitating std X students for their excellence in studies will also extend their support in sports.
The following sportsperson were felicitated by GOA:
In taekwondo, Chandan Lakra for gold (Rs 10,000), J Kavita silver (Rs 7000), while Sharol Fernandes, Reema Aranha, Rashmi Naik, and Anand Rajan for bronze (Rs 5000 each).
Taekwondo women’s coach Theophile Leo, men’s coach Gurumayum Sharma and volleyball coach Alex Noronha (Rs 3000 each).
In volleyball: Melinda Pereira, Melissa Pereira, Milagrin Mascarenhas, Monica Almeida, Synora Rodrigues, Kimberly Fernandes, Penny Rebello, Queency Rebello, Clarissa Rodrigues, Betty D’Silva, Sally Telles, and Shamal Gaoncar (Rs 10,000 for team).


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A Mixed Fare

A Mixed Fare
EDITORIAL


The Budget 2007-08 presented today in the Assembly by the Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane is neither inclusive nor populist in nature, notwithstanding the many subsidies, waivers and incentives. The major task before the government is to increase the share of agriculture in SDGP to 7.7% in the Eleventh Plan. The budget promises to provide subsidies to farmers for purchasing pumps, etc but evidence is lacking how these are pushing agriculture. The government intends to motivate farmers for cash crop farming away from rice. The prime task to define the land use pattern for paddy has not been undertaken, notwithstanding the government taking up the exercise of carrying out a fresh survey to update the cadastral maps and records of rights in the background of the recent controversy over scrapping of the Regional Plan 2011. It is interesting to watch that at a time when the government intends to increase the share in the GDP, it has opted for small increases in the allocation which invariably would be consumed by the inflationary trend.

Though the government has announced an increase in the financial assistance under Dayanand Social Security Scheme and has opted for waiving loans outstanding taken by the SC community and loans taken by SC /ST for construction of houses, it does not support adequate allocation. The DSS scheme itself would consume substantial budgetary allocation leaving no fund for other social works.

What is intriguing is the proposals to slash allocations for tourism and education. Tourism is important to the state’s economy. It is very essential to boost it in order to generate more avenues for small business and educated and uneducated employment. But its outlay is reduced from Rs 27.63 crore to Rs 23.12 crore. The allocation has been reduced when the number of tourists needs to be increased and besides, the department is planning to diversify in other areas like eco-tourism and medical tourism. The budget is silent on the mechanism as to how to keep the flow of tourists growing. The decline of 7 percent in tourist arrivals was first witnessed in 2004, followed by a decline during the last two years.

The budget has spared people from fresh taxation. It also provides more incentives for government employees. However, it has proposed an environmental cess of 0.5 per cent on the gross value of electricity bill for creating a special garbage management fund. But the budget is silent on the mechanism as to how to tackle the garbage problem which has been lingering for years. It also does not offer much to the industry except the entry tax exemption on machinery and equipment for new units and also to existing units who are investing at least 50 per cent or more on expansion and drawing a separate action plan for infrastructure development like roads, uninterrupted water supply and electricity to industries in consultation with the leaders of commerce and industry.

The Right Phrases

The Right Phrases
EDITORIAL


Mr Churchill Alemao’s all attempts to force the Congress leadership to succumb to his pressures have failed, and now seem to be backfiring. The leadership not only rejected his conditions for staying on in the party, but even conveyed to him that he was free to leave the party and could think of a separate future. This came as a jolt to Mr Alemao who made everybody believe that he was indispensable to the Congress and taller than other Congress leaders from South Goa in terms of popularity.

Mr Alemao has no doubt been always an irrepressible and outspoken politician. And like other smart politicos he can mouth the right phrases camouflaging his individual aspirations with public causes. He has been doing that for quite some time while being the Congress MP, but he has looked more like a fish out of water than a Turk who makes the politburo shudder. Choosing “right causes” at the right time is key to the success of a politician. From this angle too, Mr Alemao’s move to convene a meeting of like-minded persons on March 10 to raise the issues of Regional Plan, SEZ land allotment, Roman script and Mopa airport are not going to benefit him much. Even his allegation of misrule under Congress government will not cut much ice. Goa Bachao Abhiyan was formed to fight against the Regional Plan. With government agreeing to scrap the Plan, it would be a tough proposition for Mr Alemao to stretch this. Similar is the case with other issues.

He has not added to his popularity by harping on his demand: Allow me to contest from the Navelim assembly constituency. This has made it sound as though he had some personal scores to settle with Mr Faleiro. While doing so he forgot that it was not at all an issue which should have made the Congress leadership to sit up and think over the pros and cons. How could Mr Alemao forget that any political organisation, based on certain ideology, is above an individual? He should take lessons from political history.

In this background it is doubtful if his plan to lead an organisation that emerges as an alternative would take him very far. The space for alternative is already filled with the BJP and the NCP. It remains to be seen how many will be swayed by his rhetoric. Mr Alemao allowed his aides to float Save Goa Democratic Party in order to put more pressure on the Congress. Would people then have faith in his ideological outpourings? Whose identity the SGDP would try to protect: Goa’s or Mr Alemao’s? Goan identity could have worked for Mr Alemao earlier. In a scenario where all the political parties talk about day in and day out, it is not certain to what extent Mr Alemao will succeed in exploiting this issue.

Mr Alemao must know the success of any issue depends on the people’s acceptability. As it appears that the SGDP is only a forum to contest elections and nothing beyond that. Even the issue of fighting corruption sounds to be merely a boast, as Mr Alemao himself is involved in MPLAD fund scam. How could a leader whose credibility is suspect claim to be in the vanguard against corruption?

Rave Culture

Rave Culture
EDITORIAL


THE arrest of 250 youths, including 27 girls and some foreigners at a village in Pune from a rave party has certainly not come as a big surprise for the reason that for youngsters rave parties are the most popular form of entertainment. Rave parties are not an unknown commodity for Goa. The origin of rave parties in Goa can be traced back to the 1960’s with the influx of hippies. However the arrest the these youths makes it explicitly clear that the nature of the rave parties has now changed. In fact the rave parties have been the most sought after destinations for free availability of drugs. If these arrests are the indices of the popularity of the rave parties, this also underlines drug addiction has become a culture for the present day youth. Drug use is intended to allegedly enhance ravers’ sensations and boost their energy so they can dance for long periods. Drug addiction in India has of late emerged as a matter of great concern and there are about 3 million estimated victims of different kinds of drug usages. While the traditional moorings about self-restraint, social taboos and self-discipline are fast eroding, the stress for betterment of life in a fiercely competitive world is forcing youth to take refuge in the world of drugs. This is indeed a disastrous situation and the time has come to launch a crusade against the menace turning the families into crusaders.

Depriving Goa

Depriving Goa
EDITORIAL


Budget is not only an exercise of fiscal management, but for a developing country like India it is also a mechanism to provide a sustained thrust to the growth process. But the proposal of the Union Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram to levy export duty of Rs 300 per tonne on export of all grades of iron ore certainly goes against the budgetary objectives. How could Mr Chidambaram come out with this proposal when he is aware of the nature of the impact his proposal would have at the micro-level growth in a state like Goa? What is really intriguing is Mr Chidambaram has referred to the recommendations of the Hoda Commission to justify his action on the plea of conserving country’s resources and to garner more revenue. In sharp contrast the Hoda Commission has recommended an export duty only for high grade iron ore, that is, iron ore with above 65 per cent Fe content, in lumps only. Moreover the commission does not prescribe any urgent measures to impose any quantitative restrictions on exports: instead it observes that the positions should be revisited after 10 years.

There is no doubt that the budget document does not reflect correct ground realities or real intentions of the government. The share of high grade iron ore to the total iron ore production is not substantial. Obviously any move to raise the export levy would be inflicting injustice to the exporters of the low grade iron ore. Low grade iron ore is not at all used by the domestic steel industry. Once this export duty is levied, low grade iron ore export would turn an unviable business and mineowners and exporters would be left with no other alternative but to disband their business! Obviously it would defeat the government motto to earn more revenue!!

In the era of reforms when other industries are making good profits, why only the mining industry is targeted to collect additional revenue in the form of export duty ? How could it overlook the fact that the cost of low grade iron ore (below 60 per cent Fe content) is below Rs 300 per tonne? Once the export duty is levied the ore prices would go upto $95 per tonne in comparison to $90 a tonne global rate for iron ore. In the existing situation why any country should bother to purchase 26 million tonnes of ore extracted from Goa every year?

No government action could be devoid of a rationale. Since there would be no buyer, the ore would have to be dumped!. It would also have an adverse impact on the tax collection from the state and the employment scene. The Finance Minister ought not to forget that while more than 2 lakh people are directly dependent for their economic sustenance on the mining industry in Goa, it also caters to many ancillary activities. The manner in which the matter is being handled gives the impression that some forces opposed to the interests of Goa are behind it since 60 per cent of the ore is exported by Goa alone to steel companies of Japan, China and South Korea.

It is worth mentioning that most of the big Indian steel producers possess huge captive resource or procure high grade ore but for hiding their inefficiency they have been blaming the higher input cost even though it is lower in comparison to China, Japan, and South Korea. India has huge ore resources, but why is the steel production less than 50 million tonnes? Mr Chidambaram must ensure that the lobby of steel sector which intends to control the ore production does not succeed in its mission.

A Serious Blow for Goa’s Mining Industry

A Serious Blow for Goa’s Mining Industry
by Nandkumar Kamat


As if the injustice done to Goa over the Mhadei water diversion issue was not sufficient the central government has added another insult to the injury. The draconian iron ore export duties announced by the union finance minister is a mortal death blow to Goa’s sixty-year old mining industry. With a single stroke the central government intends to collect about Rs 1100- 1200 crores annually from Goa. Unless it clarifies that the duties are limited to ores with 65 per cent or more Iron content, as originally suggested by Hoda committee, Goa’s mining industry would not get any relief. The logic behind imposition of the export duties is mischievous.

The central government has been totally misled on this issue. It intends to project a demand supply scenario for 2019-2020. But by that time cheaper and durable new materials like Carbon composites and nano technology based , rustproof, flameproof intelligent materials stronger than steel would appear in the market. So there is no guarantee that the current boom in the steel market would be sustainable. The Chinese appetite for Iron ore would be reduced after Beijing Olympics and the completion of the massive three gorges dam project. Demand supply cycles for commodities like steel are unpredictable. Besides, over the time span of next 15 years bio-mining, bio-leaching, bio-beneficiation technologies would be so advanced that most of the Iron ore mines would be using environmental biotechnology. In fact, low-grade ore beneficiation is an area which the central government intends to throw open for foreign mining giants. So the fear of depletion of Iron ore reserves is imaginary. India has proven iron ore deposits of 24 billion metric tonnes (BMT). Of these 50 per cent are haematite ores. The government expects a domestic steel production capacity of 180 million metric tones (MMT) by 2020. The iron ore requirements would be 190 MMT. This demand can be easily met without banning the iron ore exports or imposing export duties.

Australia and Brazil continue to use latest mineral prospecting technologies to discover new iron ore reserves. Billions of tones of Iron ore reserves in India are yet to be discovered. So the argument of Indian steel makers does not hold water. But they have used their well organized lobbying power with the government, political parties and trade unions to create a favourable ground for themselves. Union ministers are making apparently contradictory statements. In July 2006, speaking at Bhubhaneshwar, Orissa, the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh had urged the Centre to stop Iron ore exports after 2010. In August 2006, the Steel Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan had also favoured curbs on such exports. Within five months, Mr Ramesh changed his position and took a more realistic view. In his reply to Rajya Sabha question number 201 from CPI-M MP, Mr K Chandran Pillai, on December 6, 2006 Mr Ramesh said: “ India will continue to export iron ore as production outstripped domestic demand and future reserve accretion will suffice to meet projected demand and export obligation. The existing iron ore export policy regulates and promotes judicious use of iron ore for domestic purpose and export of surplus quantity.

Production of iron ore is in excess of current domestic demand. With increased prospecting and exploration and new investment in mining, India’s iron ore reserves will increase to comfortable levels to meet domestic requirement and export obligations. “MPs from Goa must study this statement. India had a surplus of eight million metric tones of iron ore in 2005-06 after meeting the export and domestic demands.

On December 22, 2006 , the Anwarul Hoda high level committee, on the National Mineral policy, submitted its’ report to the Planning Commission. People concerned about the future of mining industry of Goa may download this 307 pages report from Commission’s website. Chapter seven is relevant to iron ore industry and Goa. The Finance Minister conveniently sidetracked all the other issues and only used a single statement from Hoda committee report to announce the export duties. The Committee had concluded: “There is no need to impose any quantitative restrictions on exports but that the position should be revisited after 10 years. However, by way of abundant precaution, the Committee recommends that an export duty may be levied on exports of iron ore in lump form with Fe content above 65 per cent. “Goa’s politicians seem to be making statements without reading this excellent report. Goa government needs to study the Hooda report and do whatever it can do to exclude Goa’s iron ore from export duties and permanently block any move to ban Goa’s iron ore exports in future. There are several favorable points in Hoda committee report to argue the case of Goa’s miners. Hoda report says, “mining sector must grow if the country has to reach a GDP growth rate of above 8 per cent. After many decades of stagnation, international iron ore prices have been at a historically high level over the last two years or so, and the time is not opportune for putting a ban on exports of the commodity.”

Hoda committee opposed ban on iron ore exports. It was of the view that “A restriction on exports would straightaway hit half the iron ore mining industry, and many mines, particularly in the south-western region, may have to close down. In addition, export of iron ore provides employment on a large scale to the people of Goa, Karnataka, as well as in the SME (small and medium enterprises) and larger mines in the eastern and central parts of the country and is a significant catalyst of socio-economic development in the backward and tribal belts.” The committee had assessed the increase in production over the last three years has been mainly from the non-captive SME mines and is export-driven. Apart from mining proper, associated sectors such as transportation, ore handling, minor and major ports, and service providers such as shipping lines and vessel yards all gain from the export activity. Employment-wise, if exports are banned 70,000 persons will become jobless, and due to tertiary sector linkages, at least half a million more would lose their livelihood. For this reason alone, any severe restriction or ban on exports of iron ore is not conceivable.”

As for Goa, the NCAEOR report of 2002 had shown that the net social profit from mining is between Rs 183 to 202 per tonne. For 2005-06 this works out to be Rs 675 crore, or Rs 50000 per capita. The export duty would kill the local mining industry. Trade unions and political parties must therefore oppose the draconian duty. The Goa assembly must pass a strongly worded resolution on this issue to send a right message to the Centre.

The Goan Web

The Goan Web
EDITORIAL


THE Governor, Mr S C Jamir’s address to the Assembly does not provide a clear picture of where Goa is headed. He talked of environment-friendly industrialisation, balanced growth and sustainable employment but did not tell us how his government was going to achieve these objectives. These objectives were a part of Industrial Policy 2003. The 2003 policy document had identified ‘thrust areas’ such as pharmaceuticals, biotech, food processing, agro-based industries, IT and IT-enabled services, tourism and entertainment. For rapid development in these thrust areas, the 2003 document envisaged setting up of pharma, food, wine, biotech, apparel and IT parks and SEZs.

Now that the SEZs are scrapped, we hoped the Governor would give a new direction to the industrial policy in light of this. His statement underlined that giving due respect to people’s feelings and aspirations, the government had written to the central government to denotify the SEZs which are already notified; but he evaded mention of any alternatives for industrial development of the state.

The ‘thrust areas’ specified in the 2003 Industrial Policy were all environment-friendly industries. The present Digambar Kamat government and the preceding Manohar Parrikar government were encouraging development in those thrust areas, but now even these thrust areas are facing opposition – such as IT, food and pharma parks. Where do we go from here? Mr Jamir should have provided us at least the outline of a perspective, if not a full picture, on how industrial development should proceed from here onwards.

Agriculture in the state is on a life support system. Industrialisation is the only formula for meeting the objectives of balanced growth and sustained employment. But what kind of industrialisation, the government is not clear. The government’s vision seems to have been clouded by the omnipresence of vigilantism against any industry. The vigilantes work from the fundamental premise that there is no unemployment problem in the state. A major part of this illusion is created by the history of out-migration of Goans to the Gulf, ships and other locations. The lack of basic wants even among the relatively low-income resident Goan families adds to the illusion. So, we have this great contrast between Goa and other states: while students and youth in other states periodically set up agitations for employment opportunities, those in Goa do not.

The no-unemployment illusion, the anti-industry vigilantism, and now the directionlessness of the government – all taken together will go on transforming Goa fundamentally, without anybody doing anything to stop it. The fundamental transformation that is going on and will go on under these circumstances is characterised by: one, out-migration of Goans for better-paid jobs. When we say better-paid jobs, we do not mean jobs of managers and executives but jobs of lower categories only paid more. What this has done is strengthen the belief in a large mass of Goans that higher education is useless when you can get a good pay for having lower education. This means persistence of low levels of educational and cultural development in the state. Two, the lower categories of jobs in Goa, not taken by Goans, are being taken by in-migrants. Three, as higher education and the competitive examinations that come along with it are despised by a large mass of Goans, even the higher categories of industrial jobs go to in-migrants. The sights of these in-migrants being there up and being there down cause nightmares to resident Goans, preparing fields for vigilantes to step in and reap their emotions. This is a complex web, which is silently transforming Goa bringing in unrecognisable features, and nobody seems to care how to untangle it.