INDUSTRIALIZATION - AT ANY COST (SAMBALPUR – JHARSUGUDA BELT)

By Gopal Ranjan Padhee

I am a capitalistic kind of guy with a touch of socialism. Capitalism and socialism does not go together very well, but I strongly believe that every society needs a balance of both in our lives. And hence I support industrialization.

I belong to Sambalpur, Orissa in India and currently reside in the US. And I maintain catching up with my folks back in Sambalpur every weekend over phone. Recently most part of the hour long discussion was on the unbearable weather condition during summer on the western part of Orissa, especially in the Sambalpur - Jharsuguda belt. A good number of the times, this is blamed on the industrialization that is going on for the last decade.

Benefits and Disadvantages of industrialization

Industrialization brings with it prosperity, affluence, economic development and social changes to the region. As a prerequisite to the industrialization, it needs basic infrastructural development to facilitate the activity. Along with all the benefit that industrialization brings, it also comes as a package with environmental issues, change in social family structure of the region.

Specific to Sambalpur- Jharsuguda belt

The Sambalpur – Jharsuguda belt is the ideal location for the large scale coal fired power plants and metal industries because of the availability of the Mineral ores, Coal, Water from Hirakud Reservoir and cheap labor in the vicinity. Coal fired power plants are one of the most pollutant method of power generation. And per my experience with Steel plants, the most used raw material was not iron ore, but was coal. Coal is used for electricity generation and also for the furnace.

In the case of industrialization in the Sambalpur – Jharsuguda region, along with all the benefit of the industrialization, there are hazardous outcome on pollution, water scarcity, health issues and urbanization.

Facts on hazardous outcome

According to the report issued in Oct 2008 by the State Pollution Control Board, the environmental situation in the region due to the industrialization is grim. With the proposed industrialization plan, Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) is likely to increase by 18 times, SO2 by 13 times and fluoride by 9 times over the period. This will pose significant health risk and potential to cause irreversible damage to property, monuments and vegetation in the vicinity. And due to the increase in the Green House gas emission the surrounding temperature in this region is likely to be at least 2-3 degree Celsius higher than its neighboring countryside.

And the water crisis is evident from all the protest by the 300,000 farmers in the region against allocation of the Hirakud Reservoir water to the industries.

It was quite shocking in my discussion with the local from Jharsuguda, they are exploring the possibility to sell the land of their forefather and move elsewhere as the air pollution and the heat is becoming unbearable.

Need proactive actions

It is good to note that the State Government in May 2010 has allowed the Orissa State Pollution Control Board to implement the interim recommendations of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). Based on this twelve aluminum and power projects in this belt now would have to wait till NEERI presents its final recommendations to Orissa State Pollution Control Board.

But the above steps seems a reactive action by the State Government after pressure from the central agency in NEERI. And the State Government must have been proactive is assessing the environmental risk before signing the MOUs with all the for profit enterprises.

For every execution of a plan there needs to be a feasibility study, not only economic feasibility but also socio-economic feasibility. For the cost benefit analysis, the value/cost that was put on the environment deterioration and water shortages is not to be seen. How much is the valuation in money, for every one degree Celsius increase in the temperature, for every percentage increase in the content of air pollutant.

Conclusion

What is needed in the region is a sustainable economic development activity, which is all inclusive by demography and proper balance of Industrial, Service and Agriculture sectors. In the Sambalpur – Jharsuguda region there had been improper tilt towards the large scale Iron & Steel, Thermal Power and Aluminum production. Now the responsibility lies with the state government towards attracting the service industry and improvement of the agricultural activity in the region.

The industrial companies also should take the social responsibility by deploying the least pollutant methods through innovation in technology.

If this is not monitored and controlled closely by the proper authority in a timely manner than the cost that the people of the region will pay would way outweigh the benefit.

Rampant economic growth and poverty in India – two sides of the same coin

BY GOPAL RANJAN PADHEE

I am an enthusiastic, dynamic, hard working young Indian, part of the India rising and a strong believer in the globalization and liberalization. I am very optimistic about the future economic prospect of India and above everything else I am proud to be part of the Rising India. But the recent media reports about the suicide of debt ridden poor farmers in Vidarbha, starvation deaths in Orissa, and an overwhelming 836 million people in India live on a per capita consumption of less than Rs 20 a day, has startled me to take stock of the situation and introspect.


Booming economy and market – One side of the coin

India a country not so long ago known only as a highly spiritual, fascinating third-world country has embraced the globalization and liberalization of the economy in the past two decades. This is yielding high economic dividends with a flourishing and competitive service sector and a moderately growing industrial sector. This has the effect of constantly changing urban landscape with glittering and swanky shopping mall, high quality and comfy multiplexes, classy and glossy advertisement board, one of the fastest growing aviation sectors, grand and glassy commercial complexes, world class residential real estate, internet and cell phones at everybody’s reach and the list goes on and on. Now India is the second fasted growing economy of the world, fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, and part of so called future tri-polar world along with China and United States as the superpowers. The awe-inspiring economic progress has awakened the world to India’s potential as a global player. The rich and middle class with ever increasing disposable income are demanding high quality services and facilities fueling the growth of prominent sectors such as infrastructure, telecom, real estate and banking. But achievement creates new challenges and one of the most important is expending the benefit of this exponential growth across demography and geography.

Poverty - The other side of the coin

The media reports in the last few days have startled me.

In an American channel I saw the documentary film about an enormous toll of cotton farmer suicides at a rate of about one every eight hours - three per day in 2006. The farmers take loans from private parties for genetically modified seeds, fertilizers and pesticide for higher productivity rather than the self grown seeds. And hope for a good monsoon and resultant harvest. Even if they get a good monsoon, the prices the produce fetch is low to make a living. So eventually in the absence of good government support systems the debt ridden farmers commit suicide in despair.

Then I read the article about how the villagers in part of Orissa grappling with the poverty, food and contaminated drinking water also had to suffer the outbreak of diarrhea and gastroenteritis that had already claimed more than 100 lives. Along with that there is shortage of doctors in that area. There are only two doctors where the sanctioned number is twelve.

After that there was another article on the statistics that 836 million Indians live on less than 20 rupees per day. This is the findings of the Arjun Sengupta report on the Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganized Sector. And between the period 1993-94 and 2004-05 this number rose by 100 million.

A recent World Bank report documented the persistence of extremely high levels of malnutrition in India: among the middle-income group more than half of children were underweight (less than two standard deviations below the norms of weight for age)

Expending the benefit of this exponential growth

So in one hand we have the booming economy and in the other hand we have the abject poverty. They are like two sides of the same coin, different but coexisting in the same set of environment. The growth story of India is mostly urban centric and the rural population is still derived of the basic necessity such as food, cloth and shelter. Rural population in India is 72.22% and the contribution to the GDP from the agricultural sector is 19.9% (2006 est.) where as 60% of the total labor force is employed in the agricultural sector. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the growth story has been the performance of the agricultural sector. In the period 2002/03 and 2004/05 the agricultural sector grew by 1.3% - against the Tenth five year plan target of 4%. With the rapid growth in the service and industrial sector there will be continued migration of the rural population to the urban areas in search for better livelihood. This migration is claimed to be the largest ever migration in known human history. But migrating majority of the rural population to urban areas is simply a nonstarter, considering the humongous 742 million (2001 census) rural populations. So how do we extend the benefit of this exponential growth to the rural population and poor?

India is now a booming economy with growing gaps. The government really needs to address the imbalances in the pattern of growth. There are too few jobs; some of the states are lagging behind, section of the population not part of the growth story, abysmal performance of the agricultural sector.

Reviving the agricultural sector

There is a slowdown in the agricultural sector and it has lopsided effect on the rural economy, employment and wages. The yields on many crops in India are still half or less than half of the comparator countries. Major policy initiatives are needed in the following areas to accelerate the productivity on agricultural sector:
Intensification of the crops with irrigation, mechanization, agro-chemical etc.
Shift to more profitable crops i.e, fruits, medicinal plants etc and livestock.
Emphasis on value addition: Agro processing, trading etc.
The increase in productivity would reduce the number of people to be employed in agriculture. And hence long term strategy in off farm activities.
Fair access to the market and social security measures such as Insurance and micro credit facilities.

Equalize growth

The success of India is not shared equally. And hence along with the actions required for rapid growth there is need for actions that are required for promote rapid growth in areas that needed the most. There are constraint factors that concern the equitable and aggregate growth are;
Infrastructure both social (such as education, health) and larger physical ( such as road, power supplies and water),
The fiscal deficit,
Labor laws,
Financial sector.
The government should take necessary policy decisions to overcome these obstacles.


With achievement comes challenges and with every challenge there are opportunities. The economic reforms were supposed to have the trickle down effect on all sections of the society. There is need for proper governance, fiscal accountability and the political will power along with all the development initiative to foster the equalizing accelerators to overcome disparity and promote inclusive growth. We as citizen of this young nation would not like in the long run to have (a) rapid economic growth and (b) Poverty, to be two side of the same coin.