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Farmers in Maharashtra’s Backward Regions Face New Challenge of White Grub Beetles

Farmers in Maharashtra’s Backward Regions Face New Challenge of White Grub Beetles

by | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, News

The white grubs have apparently spread from the western part of the state where they have played havoc over the years, destroying sugarcane crops.

The white grubs have apparently spread from the western part of the state where they have played havoc over the years, destroying sugarcane crops.

While Covid-19 continues to play havoc in the state’s least developed regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada, soyabean and cotton farmers are now confronting a new pest that threatens to destroy their crops

Ashok Kumar | Mumbai

Farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada, two of the most backward regions of Maharashtra, who have been battling the Covid-19 crisis are now facing a new challenge – the rapid spread of a relatively new pest to the region, the white grub beetles (Holotrichia serrate).

The immature larvae of several species of scarab beetles, the white grubs have apparently spread from the western part of the state where they have played havoc over the years, destroying sugarcane crops. The state’s agriculture department had said that the pest had infested nearly 15 per cent of the 11 lakh hectares of cane area about two years ago in the western part, especially Pune and Solapur districts.

Devanand Pawar, general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Kisan Congress (MPKC), told Clarion India on Tuesday that the farmers cannot see the white grubs as they are underground most of the time. “It is only when we dig that we find them,” said the farmer-leader. “But these beetles destroy the roots and soyabean and cotton crops in Vidarbha and Marathwada get damaged badly.”

The Sugarcane Breeding Institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research had in its report on white grub as a pest of sugarcane and its management noted that the grubs can withstand drought conditions by remaining dormant; deforestation is also responsible for its extensive spread. Many districts in both Vidarbha and Marathwada face drought-like conditions every year.

Interestingly, Shree Vighnahar Cooperative Sugar Mill, a Pune-based outfit, has for years encouraged farmers in western Maharashtra to launch a campaign against the pests and to catch the beetles. It proved to be quite a success, with farmers trapping nearly 30 lakh beetles and handing them over to the mill, which paid them almost Rs10 lakh. The Maharashtra government plans to replicate the programme elsewhere in the state.

But with Covid-19 continuing to rage across Vidarbha and Marathwada, government officials feel that this year it would be difficult to tackle the white grubs menace. In Vidarbha, which covers 11 districts including Nagpur, more than 1,200 people have died because of Covid-19. More than 800 of them succumbed in August. Marathwada has seen more than 1,300 deaths in its eight districts.

Time to Assist Micro- and Nonemployer Businesses

Time to Assist Micro- and Nonemployer Businesses

by | May 25, 2021 | News, Opinions

[This blog is based upon findings from research into small business related COVID-19 assistance. For the full report presenting the findings based upon that research, .]

The economic impact of Covid-19 has been devastating for most American businesses. It has been especially so for small businesses.

Frank F. Islam

Frank F. Islam

This is an existential problem because small businesses are the heart and soul of the American economy. If many of them disappear due to the coronavirus, it will greatly diminish this nation’s strength and spirit.

That’s not just our opinion. It is the opinion of more than 100 CEO’S of large companies, major trade associations and small businesses  to congressional leaders advocating a major intervention on behalf of small businesses.

Small Business by the Numbers

The  prepared by Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy reports that in 2017 there were 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S. Nearly 6 million of those businesses had employees. 25.7 million were nonemployer firms.

For the employer firms, over 5.3 million had 1–19 employees and nearly 640 thousand had 20–499 employees. These businesses employed nearly 60.6 million people — 47.1% of the private sector workforce — and generated 1.6 million net new jobs. Firms with less than 20 employees added 1.1 million of those jobs.

Those numbers attest to the central importance of small business for this country and its economic future. The coronavirus pandemic is putting that future at risk.

The extent and nature of that risk was documented in various small business studies and reports in the initial months of the pandemic which showed:

The bottom line is that the impact of Covid-19 on small businesses has been and will be staggering. Millions of active small businesses have closed temporarily.

Now, as the pandemic is in the second stage of its initial surge and blanketing the entire United States, it appears likely that eventually millions could close permanently as a consequence of the virus. Who are they?

Small Businesses Most at Risk of Closing

The small businesses most at risk of closing are:

  • Smaller small businesses — with fewer than 20 employees which constitute the bulk of small business employer firms
  •  that have no paid employees except the owner. About one-third of these businesses are owned by minorities and 40 percent are owned by females.
  •  in the retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services and hospitality sectors
  •  with employees owned by African Americans, immigrants, Latinx, Asians, and females
  •  with fewer than 5 employees in older historic urban neighborhoods and in cities and towns with fewer than 10,000 residents across the country

Federal Government Covid-19 Small Business Assistance: Round One

 (PPP) implemented by the Small Business Administration (SBA) was the federal government’s primary response to assist small businesses in coping with the economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Less well publicized,  on misuse of some of its funds, was the SBA’s (EIDL) for businesses impacted by Covid-19. These are low interest loans of up to $150,000 at an interest rate of 3.75% for up to 30 years. By May 18, the SBA  at an average of close to $100,000 each.

The PPP had two tranches of funding. It went into effect on April 3 with an initial tranche of $349 billon for low interest loans. This initial funding was almost completely burned through in only two weeks, with many large loans made to bigger small business and smaller business not faring nearly as well.

Congress approved a second tranche of $310 billion on April 26. These funds were distributed more equitably and with more flexible terms.

Through July 6, when the SBA , nearly 5,500 lenders had distributed 4.9 million loans at an average of $106,000 totaling $521 billion — close to 80% of the available PPP funds.

A  found that 39 percent of businesses with fewer than six employees who had applied for loans received them compared to 64 percent with six employees or more. And a  disclosed that “…the smallest businesses, particularly those with annual revenues less than $250,000 were significantly less likely to apply to the US Small Business Administration Paycheck Program…”.

Federal Government Covid-19 Small Business Assistance: Round Two

While not perfect, the PPP — especially as modified through the Flexibility Act — created some breathing room for millions of small businesses. And when Congress finally agrees on what should be in the next stimulus package, it will be getting additional assistance.

At this point it is difficult to determine exactly when that will be. There are some significant differences between the House and the Senate about what should be in the next stimulus package to respond to the impact of the coronavirus.

The House, under the control of a Democratic majority, passed a $3+ trillion stimulus package in late May. And after resisting doing anything, the Senate, under Republican majority, reluctantly and after much internal squabbling put together a $1 trillion package in the week of July 27.

Democratic leadership met with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on July 31, but were deadlocked. Talks continue but progress has been slow and as of this posting, on August 4, no deal has been cut. The good news for small businesses is that from the outset both Republicans and Democrats agreed that t through the PPP.

The  on businesses that were struggling to survive, with a focus on businesses with 300 employees or less and businesses in low-income census tracts and seasonal businesses. The Democrats  on business owners of color and females who were under-represented in the first round of PPP funding, and include a carve-out for small businesses with 10 employees or less.

Regardless of the content of the final bill, the smaller small businesses will still have unmet needs. Many, and possibly the vast majority of them, will be in survival mode.

Microbusinesses and Nonemployer Businesses Assistance Recommendation

As we have discussed, Covid-19 has wrought significant negative changes on small business in less than one-half year. In general, microbusinesses (firms with 1–9 employees) and nonemployer businesses (firms with no paid employees) have suffered the most from these negative changes.

Given this, and our understanding of the covid-19 assistance the federal government has provided to small businesses to date through PPP and EIDL, and the future plans for assistance, we recommend that Congress complement and support that assistance by authorizing and providing funds to the SBA to implement a direct loan program targeted at microbusinesses and non-employer businesses.

This should be a direct loan program and not a guaranteed federal loan program such as that recommended in  cited near the opening of this blog. A federally guaranteed loan would most likely not reach the smallest small businesses and that is why they will need direct loans.

The program should place a priority focus on the businesses within these two categories that have been impacted most greatly by Covid-19:

  • Businesses owned by females, African Americans, Latinx, immigrants, and Asians.
  • Businesses in the retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services and hospitality sectors
  • Main street “mom and pop establishments” in rural and disadvantaged urban neighborhoods

These direct loans should be long-term, low interest and modeled after the EIDL. The loans should require no payment for the first six months after they are given.

The direct loan program should provide an initial grant that can be used for the operational support and sustenance of an ongoing business, for a business to re-start an enterprise that was caused to close by the pandemic, or to enable an entrepreneur to start-up a new venture to replace a business they have lost. It should also provide technical assistance to business owners and entrepreneurs to help them revise their business models and develop business plans for taking their businesses forward.

There are numerous reasons for developing a targeted micro- and nonemployer businesses direct loan program. They include the following:

  • These businesses are an essential part of the small business fabric. In 2016, –nearly 75 percent of all private sector employers. In 2017, there were 25.7 million , constituting over 80 percent of small businesses.
  • These businesses have the most difficulty securing traditional loans from banks and other lenders.  showed the “Access to capital continues to be a driving factor that disproportionately affects minority-owned businesses, especially those owned by Blacks and Hispanics.”
  • Nonemployer businesses tend to .
  • Although there is no definitive or conclusive data at this time,  suggest small, small businesses have been the least likely to receive Covid-19 PPP or EIDL assistance.
  • These businesses are on the corner block, in the neighborhood home, and spread throughout small, towns and cities across this country.
  • These businesses are truly main street businesses and would not qualify for the inappropriately named , which is open to medium and small businesses which have up to 15,000 employers or fewer and annual revenue in 2019 of less than 5 billion.
  • For these businesses, the pandemic economic disaster has been the equivalent of a natural disaster. That is why a program modeled after the EIDL would be appropriate. Data on the nature of the SBA’s Covid-19 EIDL loan recipients is currently not available. It is highly unlikely, however, given the loan size of approximately $100,000, that many of the recipients of these loans were micro- or non-employer businesses.

This targeted direct loan program will ensure there are millions of small businesses in existence across this country in the years to come that would not be there otherwise.

Those businesses will be revitalized. In return, they will help revitalize this nation.

Small, small businesses have made that contribution in the past. Properly supported, they will make that contribution in the future.

They will pay back the investment in them in dollars and cents and by keeping America whole and the American dream alive.

A Million Indians Live in Fear as Kuwait Plans to Cap Number of Expat Workers

A Million Indians Live in Fear as Kuwait Plans to Cap Number of Expat Workers

by | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Muslim World, Overseas

Kuwaiti visa ban on 5 Muslim-majority countries, including PakistanThe Kuwait government has yet to approve the bill, but the prime minister said last month he wants to cut the expat population of about 3 million.

KOCHI/NEW DELHI/AMMAN — With no job or savings, Indian electrician Shibhu Clemance had hoped to return to work in Kuwait – until he learned of a proposal to drastically cut back on migrants in the country.

The 38-year-old, who lost his job in February due to the coronavirus pandemic, is among more than a million Indians in Kuwait, the largest expat group in the Gulf country of 4.4 million.

But after the coronavirus hit oil prices and local jobs, the country is considering new limits that could force about 800,000 to leave and slash their remittances – a crucial lifeline for families back home.

The proposal is in a new bill that would cut the total number of migrant workers in the country by 40% and require that the number of Indians should not exceed 15% of the Kuwaiti population.

“I came to the Gulf and toiled hard to provide a better life for my children. The COVID-19 crisis and now the new Kuwait law have shattered my dreams,” Clemance told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from the coastal city of Mangaf.

Before he lost his job in February, he sent 40,000 Indian rupees ($530) to his wife and two children who live in a cramped house in the southern Indian state of Kerala with his in-laws and six other relatives.

Without a home of his own in Kerala and with little hope of finding work in a state that has been receiving India’s largest influx of returning migrants, Clemance fears going back to his family.

The government has yet to approve the bill, but the prime minister said last month he wants to cut the expat population of about 3 million.

Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem has proposed a gradual reduction in foreign workers, starting with a 5% cut in numbers and indicated the country needed fewer low-skilled migrants.

Parliament will finalise the bill before the current session ends in October, before sending it to the government for approval.

‘Can’t even sleep’

Indians working in Kuwait sent home almost $4.6 billion in 2017, about 6.7% of the country’s total incoming remittances that year, according to World Bank data.

But a global recession in the wake of COVID-19 has decimated jobs and slashed cash flows. The World Bank estimates remittances to India will drop by 23% from $83 billion last year to $64 billion this year.

For Litty Shibhu, Clemance’s wife, managing the household and taking care of her large family without the monthly transfer from Kuwait has been tough.

“We are in real trouble since the money stopped coming … Every day Shibu calls me and shares his sorrows. I’m planning to sell my gold to help him,” the 29-year-old said.

“We will virtually be on the street if my husband is compelled to return. I can’t even sleep thinking about this.”

Her concerns are echoed throughout the southern state of Kerala, which has the largest number of people working in the Gulf at about two million, according to a 2018 migration survey by the Centre for Development Studies.

State data shows 70% of the Indians in Kuwait are from Kerala.

Since the 1960s, remittances from the Gulf have been the backbone of Kerala’s economy, making up nearly 20% of the state’s gross domestic product, according to the survey.

If Kuwait passes the bill, it could further overwhelm Kerala at a time when it has been scrambling to reintegrate nearly half a million people returning from overseas and other Indian states, migration experts say.

Solutions

  1. Irudaya Rajan, a member of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs’ research unit on international migration, said the expat bill was a knee-jerk reaction that would fizzle out after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Even if Kuwait means business it will not have a huge impact on expatriates since most of them concentrate on the 3D jobs — dirty, dangerous and demeaning,” he said.

“These are categories that local nationals are unlikely to step in and take.”

A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry said it was monitoring developments in Kuwait and the foreign ministers of both countries had discussed the bill.

Robert Mogielnicki, resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, D.C., said the impact on remittances would depend on when and how Kuwait enforces the expat quota.

“We’re talking about a tremendous demographic transformation. What is clear is that that’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.

He said Kuwait had historically been slow to enact economic reforms, but the current pressures had brought a sense of urgency.

Last month, the Indian government created a database of the skills and experience of returning migrants to help fill jobs in Indian and foreign companies.

Kerala has already devised a plan for the reintegration of incomers, said Harikrishnan Nampoothiri, chief of NORKA-Roots, a state government agency for the welfare of expats and returnees.

It includes upgrading skills to help people migrate again in the future, a financial scheme of up to 3 million rupees ($40,000) so they can start their own businesses, subsidised loans and mentoring camps.

Yet Vinoy Wilson, a father of three who works as a department store supervisor in Kuwait, had little hope of finding a job in India that would pay enough to fund his children’s education and repay the money he borrowed for a new home in Kerala.

Although his salary was slashed by 25% a few months ago, the 40-year-old said it was still enough to cover monthly expenses and send money back home to his mother-in-law.

He said he worried that he would be among the first low-skilled workers to be packed off, meaning he would have to sell his “dream” home.

“I don’t know where I will go if I lose my job. I have loans that I can’t repay without a steady income,” he said.

— Reuters

Covid 19 and furthering of sectarian agenda in education

Covid 19 and furthering of sectarian agenda in education

by | May 25, 2021 | Opinions

Image - ET

Image – ET

By Ram Puniyani

As Covid 19 has created havoc all rounds, the rulers of certain countries are using it to further intensify their set agendas. The democratic freedoms are being curtailed in certain forms, the reaction to which has come in America in the form of a campaign, which is opposing “stifling” cultural climate that is imposing “ideological conformity” and weakening “norms of open debate and toleration of differences”. In India similar intimidations have been intensified. In addition the occasion has been used by the sectarian forces first to link the spread of Corona to Muslim community and now in the name of reducing the burden of curriculum certain chapters on core concepts related to Indian nationalism are being deleted from the text books.

It has been reported that chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism, Human Rights, Legal Aid and Local Self Government and the like are being dropped. Education has been an important area for communal forces and they constantly keep saying that leftists have dominated the curriculum content, it suffers from the impact of Macaulay, Marx and Mohammad and so needs to be Indianized. The first such attempt was done when BJP came to power in 1998 as NDA and had Murli Manohar Joshi as the MHRD minister. He brought the changes which were termed as ‘saffronization of education’. Their focus is more on social science. Some of the highlights of this were introduction of subjects like Astrology and Paurohitya, and chapters defending caste system, nationalism of the type of Hitler was praised.

With defeat of NDA in 2004, the UPA did try to rectify some of these distortions. Again after 2014 the RSS affiliates working in the area of education have been active, interacting with MHRD officials to impress upon them the need to change the curriculum matching with their Hindu nationalist agenda. Its ‘Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas’ has been asking for removal of English, Urdu words in the texts. It has asked for removal of thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on Nationalism, extracts of autobiography of M F Husain, references to benevolence of Muslim rulers, references to BJP being Hindu party, apology of Dr. Manmohan Singh for anti Sikh pogrom of 1984, the reference to killings of Gujarat carnage in 2002 among others. This they call as Bhartiykaran of syllabus.

As RSS is a multithreaded hydra one of its pracharak Dinanath Batra has set up ‘Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan Samiti’ which has been pressurizing various publishers to drop the books which are not conforming to their ideology. One recalls their pressuring withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s ‘The Hindus’, as it does present the ancient India through the concerns of dalits and women. Mr. Batra has already come out with a set of nine books for school curriculum, giving the RSS view of the past and RSS understanding of social sciences. These have already been translated into Gujarati and thousands of the sets of these books are being used in Gujarat Schools.

The present step of deleting parts of curriculum which gives the basics of Indian Nationalism, secularism and human rights is a further step in the same direction. These are the topics which have made the Hindu nationalists uncomfortable during last few years. They have been defaming secularism. They removed it from the preamble of Indian constitution, when they put out an ad on the eve of Republic day in 2015. From last few decades since the Ram Temple movement was brought up, simultaneously the secular ethos of India’s freedom movement and secular values of Indian constitution have been constantly criticized. Many an RSS ideologues and BJP leaders have been asking for change of Indian Constitution for this very reason.

Secularism is part of the concept of Indian nationalism. In the name of religious nationalism, sectarian divisive nationalism they have been attacking various student leaders in particular. When we study Nationalism, the very genesis of Indian nationalism tells us the plurality of our freedom movement with its anti colonial roots. The struggle was for Indian nationalism and so the Muslims and Hindu communalists kept aloof from this great struggle against colonial masters, it was this struggle which built the Indian nation with all its diversity.

Similarly as we have equal rights as citizens the chapters on citizenship are being dropped. Federalism has been the core part of India’s administrative and political structure. As the dictatorial tendencies are becoming stronger, federalism is bound to suffer and that explains the dropping of this subject. Democracy is decentralization of power. Power reaching the lowermost part of the system, the villages and average citizens. This got reflected in Local self Government. The power is distributed among villages, cities, state and center. By removing chapters on federalism and local self government, the indications of the ideology of ruling party are on display.

While we are not dealing with all the portents of the planned omissions, one more aspect that related to dropping of chapter on Human rights needs our attention. The concept of Human rights and dignity are interlinked. This concept of Human rights also has international ramifications. India is signatory to many an UN covenants related to Human rights. The indications are clear that now rights will be for the few elite and ‘duties’ for the large deprived sections will be put on the forefront.

In a way this incidental ‘Corona gifted opportunity’ to the ruling Government is being fully used to enhance the agenda of ruling party in the arena of Educational Curriculum. The part of curriculum with which the ruling party is uncomfortable is being removed. This act of omission does supplement their other acts of commission in changing the shape of educational curriculum, which are reflected in RSS affiliates’ suggestions to MHRD regarding Bhartiyakaran of contents of syllabus. As per this the things like regarding the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata as History, the things like India having all the stem cell technology, plastic surgery, aviation science etc. will have a place in the changes planned by communal forces!

Muslims Want Eid Al-Adha Celebrations With Obligatory Animal Sacrifices

Muslims Want Eid Al-Adha Celebrations With Obligatory Animal Sacrifices

by | May 25, 2021 | Halal Industries, News

Qurbani, Goat, sacrifice,Syed Ali Mujtaba 

EID AL-ADHA is one of the most important festivals in the Islamic calendar and obligatory upon faithful Muslims to perform animal sacrifices. This ritual marks the end of Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam.

This year the festival is to be celebrated on August 1, but so far no decision has been taken by the central or any of the state governments. The rumour mill is agog with news that there will be no prayers held in the mosques for Eid Al-Adha and the animal sacrifices will be banned under the pretext of Covid-19.

This kind of anti-Muslim anti-Islam propaganda has unnerved the Muslim community. They are in a state of confusion.

In May, the community had celebrated Eid Al-Fitr virtually remaining at home as the Covid-19 pandemic raged. But now Muslims want Eid Al-Adha celebrations to be held as usual with obligatory animal sacrifices.

This line of thought gained currency because the Odisha government had allowed Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra to be held with usual fanfare on June 23. Over 10 lakh devotees took part in the Rath Yatra in spite of the Covid restrictions.

The Maharashtra government has also permitted the upcoming Ganeshotsav festival on August 22 though with stringent conditions.

It is in this context that the Muslim community also likes to have a clarity on the celebration of Eid Al-Adha. They want to go to the mosque to pray and then perform “Qurbani” or the customary sacrifice of the animal as it’s obligatory upon the faithful to do so.

However, there is a malicious campaign going on in the country that Muslims should not be allowed to make any animal sacrifices as the country is reeling under Covid 19 pandemic and the government can make such rules in this extraordinary situation.

Commenting on the issue of sacrificing the animal on Eid Al-Adha, Supreme Court Lawyer Syeda Hena Rizvi said the Supreme Court in 2015 judgment had refused to interfere with religious practices and said the judiciary could not stop centuries-old traditions of sacrificing animals by different communities.

A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy had said, “The Act itself carves out exceptions for animal sacrifices carried out for religious purposes. That is why the legislature while framing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has provided for the exception. We cannot shut our eyes to centuries-old traditions,” the lawyer said quoting the judgment.

The Muslim community is keeping its fingers crossed. So far no decision has been taken as to how Eid Al-Adha will be celebrated this year.

The community urges its leaders to take this matter to the government and get a decision on priority basis to enable the community to celebrate Eid Al-Adha with the same religious fervour as it has been doing before.