India / PM releases Tatas-sponsored report on rural infrastructure

The corporate philanthropy is now a global phenomenon. In the name of benevolence, which allows them to get away with duties and taxes while investing for a business project, they are out to suck the public domain. They are operating under the auspices of different foundations collaborating closely with Prime Minister's Office and other public institutions, by feigning to share the public expediture in order to establish their hegemony in government decisions. All major economic and policy decisions of the State are not devised any more in legislative assembly. They are forged, managed and manipulated by these big corporations. The citizens of India are hence well taken care of by the managers of mercantile entrepreuners like Ravi Kant of "Tata Motors". This is what is called Private-Public Partnership!!!
- International Post

ET, DECEMBER 17

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday released a Tatas-sponsored report, which has proposed government subsidy for encouraging private players to invest in rural infrastructure development that requires a whopping Rs 1,58,313 crore.

Home to 70 per cent of the country's population, rural India requires Rs 92,690 crore (at 2002-03 prices) for providing telecom connectivity, Rs 55,243 crore for power supply, Rs 5,892 crore roads and transport and Rs 4,488 crore for water and sanitation, the study said.

The India Rural Infrastructure Report, sponsored by Sir Ratan Tata Trust and prepared by the economic think-tank NCAER, said resolution to infrastructure bottlenecks suffers from the fact that while infrastructure in villages is largely owned and run by the government, its funds are constrained. On the other hand, private funds are attracted to areas where rates of return are at least reasonable.

Resolving this contradiction requires a Public-Private Partnership model, where the Government provides subsidies to the private players commensurate to the level of development required in particular rural area, the report suggested.

The study highlighted that nine-tenths of rural households do not own telephones, half do not have domestic power connections and even the connected households are without power because of outages for almost 17 hours a day in monsoon months and 13 hours a day in other months.

The report said half of all people living in habitations away from a main village do not have access to all-weather roads and although almost all rural households are covered by a source of drinking water, the quality and quantity of water actually available is often low because of poor maintenance and operation, the report said.

Almost eight-tenths of rural households have no access to sanitation facilities, it said, adding that as many households had no access to sanitation facilities. The report advocated greater decentralisation of regulation and ownership, greater reliance on user fees to recover costs and provide for sustainable operation and maintenance, and greater use of micro-finance to build demand for services.

Low per capita income and density of settlement pose infrastructure problems different from those of urban areas, the report said, highlighting the differences. "Thus, for example, complicated and expensive piped water supply and sewerage systems, which may be cost effective in cities, are inappropriate for rural areas," it said.

Subsidy mooted to woo private players

Special Correspondent
The Hindu, !8 December

Rural infrastructure development estimated at Rs.1,58,313 crore

- Report prepared by NCAER, sponsored by Sir Ratan Tata Trust

- Public-Private Partnership can resolve funds constraint: report

NEW DELHI: A report sponsored by the house of Tatas, released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Sunday, has proposed the payment of subsidy for luring private players into investing in the development of rural infrastructure at an estimated cost of Rs.1,58,313 crore.

The `India Rural Infrastructure Report' has pointed out that rural India — home to 70 per cent of the country's population — would require Rs.92,690 crore(at 2002-03 prices) for providing telecom connectivity alone. This apart, an amount of Rs.55,243 crorewould be necessary for power supply, Rs.5,892 crorefor roads and transport and Rs.4,488 crorefor water and sanitation.

Sponsored by Sir Ratan Tata Trust and prepared by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the report noted that resolution of infrastructure bottlenecks suffered from the fact that infrastructure in villages is largely owned and run by the Government which faced a funds constraint. On the other hand, private funds sought to move into areas where rates of return were "at least" reasonable.

Contradiction

This contradiction, the report suggested, could only be resolved through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, where the Government provides subsidies to private players commensurate with the level of development required in a particular rural area.

Highlighting the plight of rural India, the report noted that while nine-tenths of village households did not own telephones, 50 per cent of the households did not have power connections. Even the connected households were without power owing to outages for almost 17 hours a day in the monsoon months and 13 hours a day during other months.

Even worse is that 50 per cent of the people living in habitations away from a main village did not have access to all-weather roads. As for drinking water, while almost all rural households were covered by a source, its quality and quantity actually available was often low on account of poor maintenance and operation, the report said.

Moreover, 80 per cent of the rural households did not have access to sanitation facilities.

Decentralisation

In such a scenario, the report has advocated greater decentralisation of regulation and ownership, greater reliance on user fees to recover costs so as to provide for sustainable operation and maintenance and greater use of micro-finance to build demand for services.

Highlighting the differences between rural and urban India, the report pointed out that the low per capita income and density of settlement in villages posed infrastructure problems. "Thus, for example, complicated and expensive piped water supply and sewerage systems, which may be cost effective in cities, are inappropriate for rural areas," it said.

Another severe problem in developing infrastructure, the report said, was the fact that rural population largely remained scattered. As a result, conventional networks were often found too expensive and inefficient to be practical.

Besides, incomes being low, households were often reluctant to invest their limited resources in vehicles, telephones, electric appliances or other equipment that could take advantage of new infrastructure developments, the report said.