The Climate Change Initiative of Youth for Policy & Dialogue, India’s first think tank of young people is proud to announce the launch of their Dream350 Fellowship 2011. The Dream 350 Fellowship aims at nurturing budding environmental activists to pursue climate policy & advocacy at the global level. It is imperative to press for changes in climate policies if we are thinking of bringing down the carbon levels in the atmosphere till 350ppm. The fellowship would be the first step towards building future policy leaders.

At Youth for Policy & Dialogue, we aim to look at the Big Climate Picture and nurture many of the young climate activists into future policy leaders. This fellowship links young climate enthusiasts with organizations, startups & think tanks working in different areas of climate change like Clean Technology, Climate Finance, Environmental Journalism, Research, Auditing, etc.

Through this fellowship, we would like them to work at ground level, know what the grass root

problems are and then enter into the policy loop thereby pitch for a change. After the fellowship, the fellows would be a part of the Climate Study Group of YPD and work on various national climate action policies and plans.The aim is to focus the team completely pitching on changes in policies. In the build up to that, we would be working & lobbying with various NGOs,environmental organizations, etc to mentor the fellows. These fellows would form the basis of the delegation for the COP 17 campaign and other international summits.

Wanna Know more : Dream350 Fellowship

International Youth Forum InterSeliger, Russia 2011

Youth for Policy & Dialogue is proud to be a collaborative partner of the International Youth Forum InterSeliger, to be held in Russia this year.

1) What is so special about Seliger 2011?

Because it’s happening in Russia and that too in one of the most preserved nature parks and environmentally protected lake. Indeed it makes it one of those rare forums where you learn so many things by staying in natural environment with facilities of Internet, Sports like bicycling, sailing, volleyball , gym, dancing ,archery and much more.

2) What are the main Goals of Seliger?

To connect broadminded individuals having ideas and build on those ideas, you will be meeting people who would be experts in various fields thereby making you aware of more knowledge exchange, build a better youth network to facilitate change, to develop new competencies required at International Level, get the overall exposure about what’s happening in world and knowledge of different cultures and above all Represent the INDIAN Talent at International Stage.

3) How about funding?

Seliger is sponsored by Russian Ministry, it is one of the most privileged forums of Russia which has been acknowledged by Russian Presidents, and hence to participate you don’t have to pay any fees and neither for the accommodation in Russia. The transportation and stay is completely managed by Seliger and is FREE OF COST!

Now that’s really cool ;)

The Only thing you have to mange is your Airfare, as per last year even Visas were granted for free

4) How does it help my Career? What are the Outcomes?

Indeed getting selected in elite 700 people from all over the world is commendable in itself. But adding International Participation in your CV enhances your career prospects. The workshops given by renowned people are always enriching, you might meet some people who might give you guidance in career direction. The moments you spend their and the friends you make would be very different from what we have had in India and of course it is an opening door for International Networking. You will even get a chance of Presenting India on the international stage as we did in Seliger 2010.

Interested?

Check out the website for more details: http://interseliger.com/

Direct your queries to : umesh.mukhi@skema.edu or IR Unit at info@youthpolicy.in or president@youthpolicy.in

Join us on Facebook for the latest: www.facebook.com/YouthPolicy

Disclaimer: Youth for Policy & Dialogue is a collaborating agency for publicity & providing information for the Youth Summit. The Organisation cannot be held responsible for any delays/cancellation or any other mishap during the course of the event.

Decoding the Lokpal Bill: International Experience

Backgrounder No. 2 from Youth for Policy & Dialogue

The survey by Andvig et al (2000, 15 ff.) identifies six forms of corruption:

1. bribery, defined as the payment (the bribe) interchanged in a corrupt transaction—according to Rose-Ackerman (1996) bribes are paid to receive benefits or to avoid costs;

2. embezzlement, which is theft of resources by those who have the responsibility to administer them—described in Shleifer and Vishny (1993) as corruption with theft;

3. fraud, defined as an economic crime involving trickery, swindle or deceit, like deliberate falsification, manipulation or embezzlement of information;

4. extortion, that is money or resources extracted by the use of coercion,violence or threats;

5. favouritism, is the abuse of power which implies a corrupted distribution of resources and thus a violation of allocative efficiency, and

6. nepotism,as a special form of favouritism, where decision are biased in favour of family or clan members.

Introduction:

In the light of the nation wide protests in favour of anti corruption bill or the Jan Lokpal Bill, Youth for Policy and Dialogue aims at studying various successful anti corruption legislations across the world and recommend to the Joint Committee certain solutions. This article looks into the anti corruption laws in Malaysia, Russia, United States of America, United Kingdom and Germany. It also lists down the recommendations of the OECD and United Nations to combat corruption in developing countries.

Corruption in today’s world is not merely a national evil, but it has it roots wide spread all across the globe. As Indian economy goes global with rampant liberalisation, the threat of corruption becomes even larger. The fact that an anti corruption bill has not seen the light of the day in over 42 years is a proof enough that there is a lot that is desired from the Indian government. Now that the Joint Committee has been formed, after the relentless pressure from the civil society, it only makes sense for the committee to study the issue in whole so as to come up with a foolproof strategy to counter corruption. The bill in its current form has a lot of loopholes and even the draft bill, as suggested by certain sections of the civil society, falls short of the requisite framework. A major source of worry is the fact that the policy makers are looking at the bill only as a form to eradicate the scams and bring to the books the miscreants rather than looking at it as a tool to banish all sorts of corruption beyond the scams. A strategy that would consider various global examples and recommendations from various global organisations would serve us better.

Here is short brief of some anti corruption legislations.

Legislations across the world:

MALAYSIA

1959 saw the Police, Judiciary and the the Prime Minister’s Office join hands to uproot corruption in Malaysia. In 1967, the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) was formed. The ACA was formed to provide more focus to the government’s initiatives against corruption. The agency played an important role in enforcing the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961. In 2008, the agency was transformed into the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission. The agency was transformed into a commission because of various doubts that were casted on the independence and the transparency of the agency. The civil society was turning against the agency and it was desired that the agency should make it’s various acts and functions public. The government intends to counter the negative public perception and by going public the commission now enjoys greater powers and staffing. Also it is supervised better as there are five independent bodies that monitor the MACC to ensure its integrity and to protect citizens’ rights. These bodies are managed separately from other government offices in order to provide an independent perspective. The five bodies are: the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, the Special Committee on Corruption, the Complaints Committee, the Operations Review Panel, and the Corruption Consultation and Prevention Panel.

RUSSIA

Russia’s anti corruption legislation comprises of three laws, 273-FZ, 274-FZ and 280-FZ, which individually establish the general framework of anti-corruption legislation, develop provisions of the main law with respect to certain categories of government employees, such as judges and members of parliament, persons holding state and municipal offices not qualifying as state or municipal service offices and develop the provisions of the main law with respect to state and municipal service and amends the Civil, Criminal and Administrative Codes. Russia has a National Anti- Corruption Strategy that came up with the National Anti-Corruption Plan which seeks to ensure a foolproof legislative and organisational anti-corruption framework, enforcement of legal acts and decisions and compliance with anti corruption provisions. Anti-corruption review is not public in Russia, but the civil society can carry out it’s own anti-corruption review of legal acts and regulation. The institution of the anti-corruption review of legal acts and regulations (their drafts) is being actively developed and over 700 independent experts, both individuals and legal entities have been already accredited. Anti-Corruption Review by the civil society is an efficient tool for enhancing the quality of legislation. It makes obligatory the posting of draft legal acts and regulations on the Internet to allow for an independent review and to ensure the transparency of public authorities’ activities which is close to suo moto disclosures in the RTI act of India. It is a process by which citizens have the opportunity to act as experts provided they have the necessary accreditation.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In 1998 the United States Congress and 33 other countries acted against the bribery of foreign officials, essentially government officials in an attempt to reduce corruption and money laundering through the global financial system. Corrupt political officials and those in high army office were targeted with a view to preventing government officials from exploiting their positions to gain unfair commercial advantage. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is the most comprehensive anti corruption act in USA besides acts and regulations like SOX, USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC regulations, Travel Act, mail and wire fraud statutes, and anti-money laundering statutes.The Money Laundering Control act criminalises all corrupt activities under its ambit and deals with them through criminal investigation. These statutes make it illegal to conduct certain financial transactions with proceeds generated through specified unlawful activities, such as narcotics trafficking, Medicare fraud and embezzlement, among others. As for the FCPA, the act came into legislation in 1977 and was mainly formed to address corruption through stock exchange and businesses involving foreign entities. The act currently covers all public companies, all U.S. companies, many foreign companies, U.S. citizens working anywhere in the world, foreign citizens working for U.S. companies, foreign citizens working for foreign companies that trade on a U.S. exchange, third parties that act on behalf of an entity subject to the statute. To monitor the FCPA, the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission have special investigative task forces and are using traditional law enforcement techniques, as well as cooperation with foreign law enforcement authorities. There is no anti-corruption body per se, but the Department of Justice along with the investigative agencies like the FBI and the CIA monitor the act. In 2009, 130 cases were investigated and fines over $100 million were common.

UNITED KINGDOM

The Bribery Act, 2010 of the United Kingdom is considered as the toughest anti-corruption legislation in the world. The Act repeals all previous statutory and common law provisions in relation to bribery, instead replacing them with the crimes of bribery, being bribed, the bribery of foreign public officials, and the failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery on its behalf. It also removes the requirement for Attorney-General consent to prosecution; proceedings may now only be brought at the instigation of the Director of a relevant prosecuting authority. The Act does not have retrospective effect so will apply only to offences committed after it comes into force. Penalties for individuals under the Act will be more severe than they are at present. The maximum term of imprisonment has been increased from seven to ten years, in line with other fraud offences. There is also the prospect of an unlimited fine for individuals or commercial organisations convicted of the two general bribery offences or the offence of bribing a foreign public official and for organisations convicted of the offence of failure to prevent bribery. The Act focuses on improper performance rather than corrupt intent. Yet again, like USA, there is no organisational body to check corruption. Rather the laws have been made more stringent to prevent the wrongdoers from escaping.

GERMANY

Transparency International's 2009 Progress Report on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention rated Germany as having "Active Enforcement" of the treaty, making it one of only four countries with that status out of 36 surveyed. In Germany, unlike in the US (FCPA), only individuals and not the companies involved can be subject to criminal prosecution. The OECD and UNCAC (United Nations Convention Against Corruption) recommendations have been robustly followed in Germany and the German authorities have shown the willingness to cooperate with their international peers. German anti-corruption legislation is already strong but will be tightened in foreseeable future. Germany has signed several international anti-corruption conventions (Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, EU Framework Decision on Combating Corruption in the Private Sector and theUN Convention against Corruption) without, as yet, implementing them in German Law. A draft bill integrating these conventions and the provisions of auxiliary laws (EUBestG and IntBestG) into the German Criminal Code was introduced by the federal government but is yet to be passed.

Recommendations of the OECD Anti Bribery Convention can be found on the following link:

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/40/44176910.pdf

Recommendations of the UNCAC can be found on the following links:

Text - http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/Convention/08-50026_E.pdf

Legislative Guide -http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/LegislativeGuide/06-53440_Ebook.pdf

Conclusions:

1. Malaysia is a classic example where an agency, independent of the government, had to be transformed into a commission because of the growing unrest among the people. So if an organisation or an office, created to look into matters of corruption, attains a a position not under the ambit of the government, it raises serious threat to democracy. In a country like India where people are protesting ‘for’ such an organisation, a day might well come when there might be a protest against it.

2. Anti Corruption reviews is a good way to proceed on the road to tackle corruption. In Russia, the reviews made by the government are not made public and the civil society can carry the reviews at its own expense. The Joint Committee may well think of this as an ice breaker. The government reviews may be made public while keeping intact the rights of civil society to carry one on their own.

3. The FCPA is good example wherein the Act in itself is deemed complete. The amendments in the act are regularly made and an alert civil society with prompt actions by the investigative agencies and the judiciary ensure that the Act is enforced effectively. There is a lesson for the Joint Committee which might want to look beyond the Lokpal Office and see how effectively anti corruption laws can be enforced in the country if the judiciary and the investigative agencies are beefed up.

4. The Bribery Act of UK has a similarity with the demands made by the civil society in India in the sense that it removes the requirement for Attorney-General consent and the proceedings can be instigated by a Director of a relevant prosecuting authority. The Act has also increased the maximum term of imprisonment from seven to 10 years. There is a clear indication that the law that comes into force has to provide the concerned office enough powers to execute strictly the required checks.

5. The Bribery Act stands out because it focuses on improper performance rather than corrupt intent. Such a law makes it mandatory for the holder of any office to execute his duties with the expected level of efficiency.

6. Germany has adopted various international anti corruption laws which has helped fortify its anti-corruption legislation. The Joint Committee might want to go through the OECD and UNCAC recommendations to strengthen its own legislation.

A point to notice here is that except Malaysia, the other four countries did not have dedicated offices to counter corruption. This also raises the question if the concentration of judicial and investigative powers increases the threat to democracy and if setting up of the Lokpal is the way to go. The Committee should look into the issue with a new perspective and should not be afraid to add new dimensions.

YPD believes that the civil society has a lot to offer to the bill. In this series of documents we intend to bring forward a host of suggestions and recommendations for the Joint Committee. There is clearly a long way to go in this legislation and considering the media attention that this issue has received, we invite our readers to form an opinion and comment.

Your opinion matters.

Authors:

Bhanu Joshi bhanu@youthpolicy.in

Shashank Shekhar Rai shashank@youthpolicy.in

Introduction

The Lok Pal Bill has been taken from the concept of having an institution of Ombudsmen in the Scandavian Countries. Ombudsman is a Swedish word that stands for "an officer appointed by the legislature to handle complaints against administrative and judicial action.

The incumbent, though appointed by the legislature, is an independent functionary – independent of all the three organs of the state, but reports to the legislature. The Ombudsman can act both on the basis of complaints made by citizens, or suo moto. She/he can look into allegations of corruption as well as mal-administration

What is the need for Lokpal Bill?

Organ	Problem with complaints made:
Executive	Higher officers enjoy departmental fraternity with those against whom complaints are made, and both sail the same boat. Therefore their impartiality in judging appeals is always doubted.
Legislature	Speaker of the House should consent to necessary action against legislatures. Contentious as approaching them is not easy, highly biased and little focus on justice.
Judiciary	Rampant corruption prevalent in the subordinate courts and even in High Courts. Enjoy immunity, hence delay.

Lokpal Bill: History

Date	Issue
1960	Mounting corruption in government & Public life brings the concept of Ombudsman
1966	The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) recommends Two tier systems: Lokpalin the Center, Lokayukta in the State.
1968	Lok Pal Bill introduced in the 4th Lok Sabha. Passed & sent to Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha is Dissolved, Bill lapses.
1971,1977,1985,1989, 1996,1998,2001, 2005	Bill is brought in Lok Sabha. Bill referred to Standing Committees which dissolved once the house got over.
2002	National Commission for Review of the Constitution urges for formation of Lokayuktas& Lokpal but asks the PM to be kept out of its ambit
2004	UPA’s Common Minimum Programme promises immediate enactment of Lok Pal Bill. 2nd ARC recommends immediate enactment of Lokpal Bill
2010	18 states have enacted laws to establish Lokayuktas.
2011	Group of Ministers (GoM) chaired by Pranab Mukherjee
2011	Uproar over non –enactment of Jan Lok Pal Bill. Anna Hazare goes on hunger strike.

Present context: What is the point of contention?

Lokpal Bill	Jan Lokpal Bill & other civil society suggestions
Cannot initiate suo moto action	Newspapers articles, complains can be basis of inquiry
In camera hearing	Open hearings (rationale: essential for objectivity)
Lok Pal not to inquire into a complaint if made 5 years after alleged offence committed. Can stop any other investigating agency from inquiring into the same matter	Can go back 10 years (rationale: government tenure is five years and skeletons usually come tumbling out after new government takes over)
If government refers matter to a commission of inquiry, Lok Pal to cease looking into the case.	Simultaneous investigations allowed (rationale: checks and balances make for impartiality)
Can only give its findings, not recommend action	Simultaneous investigations allowed (rationale: checks and balances make for impartiality)
Documents/information to Lok Pal can be denied on grounds of security/ defence/ international relations or of disclosing proceedings of Cabinet meetings.	Lok Pal inquiry cannot be stopped (rationale: government canuse inquiry commissions to limit scope of Lok Pal, delay /scuttle investigations).
No appeal against Lok Pal's findings. Courts, too, to be denied access to such information.	Can go into appeal in the Supreme Court. MPs must file returns within 90 days of taking oath; deterrent action recommended in case of failure.
Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body. Its part is only limited to forwarding its report to the "Competent Authority"	Lokpal will be much more than an Advisory Body. It should be granted powers to initiate Prosecution against anyone found guilty.
Lokpal will not have any police powers. It can not register FIRs or proceed with criminal investigations.	Lokpal will have police powers. To say that it will be able to register FIRs.
CBI and Lokpal will have no connection with each other.	Lokpal and anti corruption wing of CBI will be one Independent body.
Punishment for corruption will be minimum 6 months and maximum up-to 7 years.	The punishment should be minimum 5 years and maximum up-to life imprisonment.

Your Opinion Matters

Authors: Bhanu Joshi bhanu@youthpolicy.in

Shashank Shekhar Rai shashank@youthpolicy.in

Youth for Policy & Dialogue is committed for providing informed opinion to the stakeholders. Engage with us !

You can email the authors or write to: info@youthpolicy.in

Gandhi Dialogue Initiative

“Understanding Kashmir: Past & Future”

|Time & Venue: 10 AM, 28th Feb, Gandhi Darshan, Opposite Raj Ghat, New Delhi |

The tragedy of Kashmir, some say, lies in the fact that this beautiful, almost lyrical paradise on earth is tinged with decades of melancholy and grief. While the history of this land, particularly post the signing of ‘Treaty of Amritsar’, offers a great insight into why the valley is one of the most volatile regions in the subcontinent today, equally important is an attempt to understand Kashmir as its various stakeholders see it.

The Gandhi Dialogue Initiative at Youth for Policy & Dialogue looks at various critical issues and gives a research lead positive approach without undermining the forgotten ‘human’ story to such debates. Through an interactive forum that studies debates as processes and not just as events, the aim of the session is to find solutions after capturing different perspectives of the stakeholders. Named after the man of the century, these dialogue series aim to set dialogue as the precedence to all encompassing solutions.

Therefore, this round‐table talk not only involves Kashmiri students from the valley and outside it, but also a host of academicians, researchers and journalists who have spent major parts of their careers working on the Kashmir issue. The idea is to have a forward‐looking approach, with the aim of discussing and documenting your vision for Kashmir.

SPEAKERS

STUDENTS

• University of Kashmir

• University of Delhi

• Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC)

• Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS)

ACADEMIA

• Prof. Syeda Afshana, Professor, Dep’t. of MERC, Kashmir University

• Prof. Navnita Behra, Professor & Author, Demystifying Kashmir

OTHERS

• Mr. Sanjay Kak, Film Maker

• Mr. B.N. Ramesh, Director General, CRPF

• Mr. Syed Nazaket, Newsweek

Sumegha Gulati Bhanu Joshi

Director, Dialogue Initiative President & Director

For details: info@youthpolicy.in/ +91 98 99692695

Photo Courtesy: Shome Basu (http://shomebasu.photoshelter.com/)

Can microfinance change the hygiene conditions for women?

A woman’s health is at the center of the very being of the family. Because it is the women, who have to cook food, manage children and daily household chores. In rural areas it’s even worse where many women have to go to long distances in the morning to fetch water. In spite of being burdened with so many responsibilities, she still manages to run the family but she also has the responsibility of caring for her own health, which in the majority of the cases, is neglected.

Menstrual hygiene management is an issue that is inadequately recognized and is unable to receive adequate attention especially in rural areas. Hygiene related practices of women during menstruation are of considerable importance as it has a hazardous health impact in terms of increased vulnerability to infection. This is an important sanitation issue which needs to be openly discussed. There have been many pilots done to empower women entrepreneurs to promote low-cost sanitary pads in villages but the worst part is that women are not willing to spend even Rs 1.4/ pad. Even few state governments have offered subsidy schemes for sanitary pads but to make a significant change it has to be something sustainable for long.

The sanitary napkins market is estimated to be worth 12 billion USD/ year. Total women in the age group of 15 - 54 years in India are about 300 million. The consumption would be 58,500 million pieces per year. Present consumption is 2,659 million pieces, Market penetration among Indian female population is very low at 10 to 11% of the total market, while in Europe and USA it is well above 73 to 92%. While awareness on menstrual hygiene in the urban areas would be reasonable at 21-25% given the substantial advertising, the penetration rate in the rural areas is abysmally low at 10%. The awareness on menstrual hygiene and usage of sanitary napkins is virtually non-existent in villages.

A question worth pondering is if a powerful tool such as microfinance which has alleviated poverty for millions help women to get access to better and low-cost hygiene practices?

We haven’t seen much activity by MFIs to promote low cost pads or train women in rural areas regarding the importance of proper usage of pads. It’s not just financial constraints that deter women; it’s also the lack of awareness or understanding the importance of such issues. A very innovative start-up SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises) based in Africa intends to fulfill the unmet needs of women by helping local women in developing countries jump-start their own businesses to manufacture and distribute affordable, quality, and eco-friendly sanitary pads.  This will not only help them earn a livelihood but also stress on the importance of usage of safe sanitary pads among women.

Another really good model is that of the Living Goods, a San-Francisco based start-up which distributes healthcare products by selecting some villagers who go and sell the product in their communities. This not only saves them the supply chain costs but also win the trust of the people since the task is being done by a villager only. Winning the trust of the people is important if you are out to change their lifestyles. Local MFIs have a big role to play in solving this issue because MFIs know the local context and behavior of the customers and they can help to reach out to people.

The good sign is that the Planning Commission wants to propose a policy for ensuring low cost sanitary pads during the 12^th Five Year Plan. The ball is now in the court of the civil society and various policy watchdogs to make certain that amid all the brouhaha in this circus called Micro Finance the little important things are not forgotten.

MARKET REFORMS

Approaching market reforms with the motive of inclusive growth presents challenges that are ubiquitous, but hitherto ignored. To promote financial security and better service delivery the modus operandi of the government procedures and regulations need to be altered in both the commodity and the financial markets. While regulatory methods seem to be archaic in the case of commodities, the financial segment of inclusive growth suffers from the lack of public –private partnerships (PPPs) and lesser investment options for the marginalized, and with lower returns.

That regulatory bodies need to loosen their grip on the markets and introduce competition to enable better delivery of services and efficiency in the markets is something that all policy makers agree upon. But how far would the subsidization, and various forms of it, go in ensuring access and availability continues to be a matter of debate. There cannot be a single clear cut solution to the challenges because reforms are generally a derivative of market driven changes aimed at opening up of markets and using competition to drive up efficiency. Regulatory flaws in the commodity markets have proved to be a bane for the ultimate goal of food security. There is a whole variety of regulatory bodies which are sector specific and others like CCI that cut across sectors that perpetuate a lack of unification, harmonization and streamlining across the powers that these regulatory bodies have and cross country there is no consensus whether the sector specific regulators are superior to something that cuts across sectors like the CCI. In fact, there is no real regulation per se. The APMC may cut across states, but most of the procurements are still not borne by the APMC. Moreover there is no single regulatory framework for agri-commodities and the only systems that bind the markets are the commission agent system and physical tender system. The obvious questions that arise henceforth, are, should the government at all be involved in the procurement procedure and should it be mandatory for the farmer to market his produce through the mandis? Furthermore, there is no standard for the taxation of the agricultural commodities and hence there is a need for bottom up approach to regulation to induce a bottom up approach to inclusion. The current systems were evolved for a deficit economy. But as we stand today, with our surplus economy, the distribution channels need to be revisited to ensure food security and at each step in the value chain there is a requirement for increased efficiency which also makes a case for liberalized markets for agricultural produce. Better availability of markets means that the farmers today can earn more by approaching the markets without PDS. So does that imply PDS should be done away with? Or should it stand as a backup for the farmer? In that case, what happens to the MSP? As for consumer side reforms, through the history of PDS, we know where the pockets of inefficiencies lie. Free markets have as much to do with the demand side issues as with the supply side problems and certain areas with no markets have to be brought under the ambit to ensure availability of food grains in all parts of the country.

The financial products available in the markets also make a huge difference and loans and saving facilities are not just the only tools to evade financial exclusion. While savings and credit play a major role in lifting the poor above the poverty line, it is tools like pensions and insurance that help maintain a standard of living and provide an individual an opportunity to take risks. It is important to have that cushion, provided by pensions and insurance, to absorb financial shocks to stop them from slipping back into poverty. From an investment perspective, it is essential to have equity linked insurance policies that provide an overall higher interest rate than the inflation levels. The retirement funds form an important source of capital that the economy can make use of. The objective of the whole exercise must not be to link the individual with the markets directly by promoting trading, rather, to indirectly promote investments in the markets through insurance and pensions which could be equity linked. As things stand, most of the pension funds are invested in public sector, thereby denying the investors the opportunity of earning maximum returns through investment in private equity. Also as any sort of growth demands investment in physical infrastructure, we need to increase the domestic capital investment in such projects. On the policy front, to achieve inclusive growth it is necessary to incentivize insurance companies and pension funds to operate in the rural areas and provide customized products for investors who can invest only in small amounts. So while on one hand there is a case for the involvement of the private sector in the pensions and insurance, there is also a need for careful regulation to ensure that product pricing, risk assessment and investments are up to the mark. Having said that, it is the imperative of the government to ensure that private investments are not stifled out due to over regulation. Since innovation is central to creating the right product, the growth of these sectors and the influence in inclusion will depend a lot on our ability to support innovation but without increasing systemic risk. Financial literacy, and more so, financial education holds the key to make people aware of the various investment options and secure them against making bad choices due to growing sophistication in the financial markets. So we have a ready structure for financial inclusion wherein the building blocks and the core essentials are in place. What we need is to build on these and use the vibrant market and technology to good effect in ensuring better outreach of the financial services. Innovation and public-private partnerships along with appropriate regulations will go a long way in ensuring the same.