India's poor "left" in the lurch in Central government's new urban thrust, as experts allege middle class policy bias

By Our Representative
The recent Government of India decision to make its credit-linked subsidy scheme for urban housing more attractive for the middle income groups by offering them a higher carpet area than what hitherto was the case has come under sharp criticism of the country's top urban experts, who say, it would dilute the "core pro-poor character" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much publicised urban housing thrust.
Called Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U), launched in June 2015 and revised periodically, it was designed to provide interest subsidy for houses offered to different income groups. The scheme was first launched for what are called Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG), but was extended to Middle Income Groups (MIG) on December 31, 2016, post-demonetization.
Finding that things were srill not becoming viable for the private players, who were contracted under public-private partnership mode, MIG housing was further categorized into two -- MIG-I and MIG-II -- for households with annual income between Rs. 6-12 lakh and Rs. 12-18 lakh, respectively. The upper limit of the subsidized loan amount under MIG-I was fixed at Rs 9 lakh with 4% interest subvention, the corresponding figures for MIG-II being Rs. 12 lakh and 3%.
As for the EWS households, with an annual income up to Rs 3 lakh, and LIG households with an annual income between Rs 3 and 6 lakh), they would be getting interest subsidy of 6.5% for loan amounts up to Rs 6 lakh for the maximum period of 20 years, and loans above the stipulated amount would not be subsidized.
To make the scheme further "attractive", again for MIG, last month, in a surprise move, the Cabinet announced increase in the carpet area for the MIG-I category from 90 square metres (sq m) to up to 120 sq m and for the MIG-II category from 110 sq m to 150 sq m.
Attached with the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, Amitabh Kundu and Arjun Kumar have said, in an effort to woo MIG, Modi government appears to have forgotten what the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage, 2012–17 (TG-12) had noted -- that the households from EWS and LIG account for 56.18 per cent and 39.44 per cent, respectively, of the total estimated urban housing shortage of 18.8 million.
"Households with monthly income up to Rs. 5,000 are placed in EWS while those with income between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 constitute the LIG", the scholars said, adding, "EMI amount more than around Rs 1,500 at current prices is not affordable for poor, if the expenditure pattern as given in the National Sample Survey is taken into consideration."
"A loan amount of Rs 3-6 lakh at the subsidized interest rate sanctioned for a period of 15 years would mean an EMI between Rs. 3,000 - 5,000 per month. Thus, repayment of the loan amount with interest, amounting to more than 50% of their earnings, would be a major issue for the poor", they add. experts said.
With MIG apparently becoming a major target of the Modi government, the experts say, "The chances of the targeted intended beneficiaries being missed (both exclusions of intended beneficiaries and inclusion of non-intended beneficiaries) have thus gone up enormously."
This year, said the experts, the budget esallocation for interest subsidy under PMAY-U, at Rs 5,075 crore in 2016-17, has been increased to Rs 6,043 crore in 2017-18, but of this Rs 1,000 crore is proposed for MIG, adding, recent changes seeking to open of a window for middle income housing have "come up due to the lukewarm response of the poor and LIG and low off-take of loans."
While new measures "will spur the house construction activities, attracting private and foreign investments", may have a "multiplier effect on GDP and labour market and benefit the real estate and builder’s lobby and the middle class", the experts complain, "There is a serious risk that the middle-class will corner much of the subsidies offered, with the poor being pushed out, primarily due to the latter’s lack of repayment capacity and failing to meet the documentation and other formal requirements."

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Girl child education: 20 major states 'score' better than Gujarat, says GoI report

By Rajiv Shah
A Government of India report, released last month, has suggested that “model” Gujarat has failed to make any progress vis-à-vis other states in ensuring that girls continue to remain enrolled after they leave primary schools. The report finds that, in the age group 14-17, Gujarat’s 71% girls are enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary level, which is worse than 20 out of 22 major states for which data have been made available.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad "declared support" to two-nation theory in 1937, followed by Jinnah three years later

By Our Representative
One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

Congress 'promises' cancellation of Adani power project: Jharkhand elections

Counterview Desk
Pointing out that people's issues take a backseat in Jharkhand's 2019 assembly elections, the state's civil rights organization, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of activists and people’s organisations, has said that political parties have largely ignored in their electoral manifestos the need to implement the fifth schedule of the Constitution in a predominantly tribal district.

Hindutva founders 'borrowed' Nazi, fascist idea of one flag, one leader, one ideology

By Shamsul Islam*
With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...
*** Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism.
Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-ordained superiority of race, cultur…

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By Rajiv Shah
This is in continuation of my previous blog where I had quoted from a commentary which top economist Prof Kaushik Basu had written in the New York Times (NYT) a little less than a month ago, on November 6, to be exact. He recalled this article through a tweet on November 29, soon after it was made known that India's growth rate had slumped (officially!) to 4.5%.

With RSS around, does India need foreign enemy to undo its democratic-secular fabric?

By Shamsul Islam*
Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

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By Tapan Bose*
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Ships recycling Bill 'allows' India to be turned into a landfill for foreign hazardous waste

Counterview Desk
In a letter to M Venkaiah Naidu, chairman, Rajya Sabha, senior activist Gopal Krishna of the Toxics Watch Alliance has said that the Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019 should be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change to "safeguard country’s maritime environment from harmful and hazardous wastes and materials".

Worrying signs in BJP: Modi, Shah begin 'cold-shouldering' Gujarat CM, party chief

By RK Misra*
The political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra where a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government assumed office has had a trickle down effect in Gujarat with both the ruling BJP and the Congress opposition going into revamp mode.

'Favouring' tribals and ignoring Adivasis? Behind coercion of India's aborigines

By Mohan Guruswamy*
Tribal people account for 8.2% of India’s population. They are spread over all of India’s States and Union Territories. Even so they can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people.

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