📰 Earth facing sixth mass extinction
Scientists warn that humans are spurring a ‘biological annihilation’ that is coming faster than feared
•The sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is unfolding more quickly than feared, scientists have warned.
•More than 30% of animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — are declining in both range and population, according to the first comprehensive analysis of these trends.
•“This is the case of a biological annihilation occurring globally,” said Stanford professor Rodolfo Dirzo, co-author of a study published on Monday in the peer-reviewed U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
•Around a decade ago, experts feared that a new planetary wipeout of species was looming.
•Today, most agree that it is under way — but the new study suggests that the die-out is already ratcheting up a gear. It provides much-needed data about the threat to wildlife, mapping the dwindling ranges and population of 27,600 species.
•For 177 mammals, researchers combed through data covering the period 1900 to 2015.
•The mammal species that were monitored have lost at least a third of their original habitat, the researchers found. Forty per cent of them — including rhinos, orangutans, gorillas and many big cats — are surviving on 20% or less of the land they once roamed. The loss of biodiversity has recently accelerated.
•“Several species of mammals that were relatively safe one or two decades ago are now endangered,” including cheetahs, lions and giraffes, the study showed. There are as few as 20,000 lions left in the wild, less than 7,000 cheetahs, 500 to 1,000 giant pandas, and about 250 Sumatran rhinoceros.
Wide impact
•Globally, the mass die-off — deemed to be the sixth in the last half-billion years — is the worst since three-quarters of life on the Earth, including the non-avian dinosaurs, were wiped out 66 million years ago by a giant meteor impact.
•On an average, two vertebrate species disappear every year.
•Tropical regions have seen the highest number of declining species. In South and Southeast Asia, large-bodied species of mammals have lost more than four-fifths of their historical ranges.
•While fewer species are disappearing in temperate zones, the percentage is just as high or higher.
•As many as half of the number of animals that once shared our planet are no longer here, a loss the authors described as “a massive erosion of the greatest biological diversity in the history of Earth”.
•The main drivers of wildlife decline are habitat loss, overconsumption, pollution, invasive species, disease, as well as poaching in the case of tigers, elephants, rhinos and other large animals prized for their body parts.
•Climate change is poised to become a major threat in the coming decades.
•“The massive loss of populations and species reflects our lack of empathy to all the wild species that have been our companions since our origins,” said lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
📰 Malabar submarine drills worry China
They have someone as target: expert
•China is closely monitoring the ongoing Malabar naval exercises between India, the U.S. and Japan, in view of the Indian Navy’s growing clout to detect Chinese submarines and surface ships in the Indian Ocean, using newly acquired weaponry from Washington.
•A detailed article in Pengpai, an online portal, analyses whether Chinese submarines are the unstated target of the large naval exercises, which started on Monday in the Bay of Bengal.
•The article underscores that the presence of three aircraft carriers of three countries in the military exercises is “most noteworthy”.
•It points out that the focus of the drills is anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
•In turn, this has “got people really concerned”, whether the exercise is “targeted at Chinese submarines”.
•“The Malabar exercise used to be a comprehensive drill that had included air defence, anti-ship elements etc. But now the subject of the drills started to show that there is more focus on anti-submarine warfare. It shows that they have someone as the target,” observes Li Jie, a Chinese naval expert.
📰 Monsoon to cover entire country this week
Most regions in India have got normal quota of rains so far
•Monsoon rains are expected to cover the whole country in the next week and are likely to strengthen over central India, according to IMD officials.
•Monsoon rains, which had petered out in most parts of the country after July 4, has now “changed,” according to officials, and are expected to pick up over central India, a key region that determines the fate of the monsoon.
After a lull
•Between June 1 and July 10, India got 248 mm of rains, a mere 1.1% short of the historical normal of 251 mm. Normally, the monsoon enters into a ‘break,’ or a prolonged lull of around a week in the middle of July and sometimes August. If the breaks were to last too long, it could harbinger a drought. There is yet no indication of a such a break so far, DS Pai, Chief Forecaster, India Meteorological Department, told The Hindu .
•Most regions in India have got their normal quota of rains (defined as a within a 20% margin of a 50-year average) except for Kerala, south Karnataka, Vidarbha, Gangetic West Bengal and Jharkhand.
•The risk of an El Nino, an anomalous heating of the central Pacific that’s associated with weak rains over India, is low this year. Some international weather models expect it to emerge around winter but the IMD’s models do not expect it to emerge until late next year.
•According to the agency’s forecast on Tuesday, monsoon rains are likely to advance into remaining parts of Jammu division and Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and some parts of Punjab during next 48 hours. The bulk of the rains over the next week is likely to be over Central, East and the west coast. In June, the IMD raised its monsoon forecast by 2 percentage points to 98% of the long-term average.
📰 SC stays cattle sale rules across nation
Some aspects need tweaking: Centre
•The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Centre’s May 26 notification, banning cattle sale in livestock markets for slaughter and religious sacrifices.
•The order came after the government acquiesced that public outcry and objections from the States about the law's impact on livelihoods made it realise that the rules need “tweaking”.
Representations
•Appearing before a Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Additional Solicitor- General P. Narasimha chose his words carefully while saying the government had received a “large number of representations” that “certain aspects” of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Maintenance of Case Property Animals) Act, 2017 were “troubling” and threw up some “sensitive” questions about the Central rules.
•“We realised that certain aspects need tweaking,” Mr. Narasimha submitted.
📰 ‘India-China relations a factor of stability amid global uncertainty’
•Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said while India and China had several differences, PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had “reached a consensus” on two points during their meeting on June 8 in Astana, namely, “At a time of global uncertainty, India-China relations are a factor of stability; and in their relationship, India and China must not allow differences to become disputes.”
•Dr. Jaishankar was responding to questions on the current border standoff in Sikkim after his lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on the subject “India-ASEAN and the Changing Geopolitics”.
•However, he did not refer to the next meeting between the two leaders in Hamburg at the G-20 summit, which China said was not a “bilateral”, though the MEA has said the leaders had covered a “wide range of issues” during the meeting.
•Despite the two leaders meeting each other twice since trouble began when Chinese PLA teams reportedly demolished Indian bunkers in the Doklam plateau (called Doko La in Bhutan, which claims the whole), and then sent in road construction teams, the stand-off has now entered its second month.
•Since then, Bhutan and India have jointly countered China’s claims that it was only operating in its territory, and according to officials, Indian and Chinese soldiers now stand face-to-face on the contested plateau, pitching tents there in an indication they could be there for the “long haul”.
📰 ‘The only way to deal with the Chinese is directly’
• As the Doklam spat between Beijing and New Delhi flares, the former NSA says the neighbours need a new strategic dialogue to recalibrate their relationship
• As the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Bhutanese territory of the Doklam plateau enters its second month, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, who is an old China hand, says Beijing is changing the status quo with its actions in the area, and it is time for a new “modus vivendi” between the two countries. Excerpts from the interview:
You have been Ambassador to China, Foreign Secretary, National Security Adviser and the Special Representative on border talks. How serious is the situation in Doklam?
• I think it is different from previous such occasions. The last most serious one was Depsang in 2013 and we had Chumar after that (2014). But basically you could say that since the 1980s we have had a modus vivendi with the Chinese. It was formalised during Rajiv Gandhi’s visit in 1988 and then during the border peace and tranquility treaty of 1993, which contained both sides to maintaining the status quo and where they had doubts about a part of the boundary, they would actually sit down and talk their way through the problem. And that has helped keep this more or less peaceful for many, many years.
What is different this time?
• It is much more complicated for three reasons. One, it is happening near the western tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China. So it involves three countries. And that’s a tri-junction area where, in principle, all three countries have to agree on the posts. Two, it represents a change in the status quo, and a considerable change, because to build a road represents a permanent presence. Three, I can’t recall this kind of rhetoric for a very long time. The spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Office saying this is very serious, and so on. In the past we have handled this sort of thing with quiet diplomacy. It wasn’t always easy, but both sides were able to achieve a resolution satisfactory to both. In most cases, it amounts to restoring the status quo and then discussing whatever issues either side might have.
• That’s for the immediate incident, but there is a broader context as well. India-China ties are under stress for some time, whether it is the Chinese attitude toward the membership of the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group), or Masood Azhar’s listing (as a global terrorist by the UN), or the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor), all of which have come up in the last few years. My own sense that both of us must sit down and worked out a new modus vivendi to govern the relationship. We have both since the ’80s been rubbing up against each other in the periphery we share. So we do need a new strategic dialogue to discuss how we should sort out problems. It is in both our interests to do so.
Isn’t it particularly worrying that the Doklam incident is taking place in an area previously considered settled, or at least not an active part of the boundary?
• The Sikkim tri-junction is basically the watershed between the Amo (also called the Torsa river) and the Teesta rivers in the Chumbi valley, so it is clear, and parts of it have been settled. Since 1960, when this was discussed by both sides, both sides have constantly said that this boundary is not such a problem. But the tri-junction remained to be settled, and that is a part of the issue.
It does seem as if China is not only changing the status quo, it is taking control, however temporarily, of a significant part of the Doklam plateau by setting up tents there. What is the message China is giving here?
•I am not aware of what is actually happening on the ground. On the message, you need to ask the Chinese. They are very clear about what they mean to say. And I think you should take what they say at face value. Certainly, what their Foreign Office spokesman says must be taken seriously.
Is there a similarity between what China is doing in Doklam and what is has done previously in the South China Sea… laying claim to certain areas, pushing the boundaries on where its armed forces are placed?
•You can construct beautiful theories, and many people have. But the only way to deal with the Chinese is directly, both on the ground and through a negotiation.
•You mentioned theories, so I want to list some. One is that this is a reaction to India’s new alliance with the U.S. The other is that statements made in India, for example a Chief Minister questioning whether our borders are with Tibet or China, have triggered this…
•There are clearly a thousand such irritants on both sides. I consider them as symptoms of stress in the relationship, a relationship that needs to be recalibrated.
•Some suggest the stress point is internal for China, and President Xi Jinping is showing strength ahead of a possibly difficult Chinese Communist Party National Congress this October-November.
•As a general rule, I don’t think foreign policy affects domestic politics in either India or China, certainly not to the extent most foreign policy wonks [assume it does].
When it comes to the rhetoric from the Chinese side, has India adopted the correct course by not responding, issuing only one statement in the face of the barrage from Beijing?
•I don’t want to second-guess the government, as I don’t know what they know. I presume they are doing what they are on the basis of facts that they possess. The ultimate test of what they do is the end result. Some of these situations take a long time to resolve. The situation at Sumdorong Chu (Wangdung, north of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, that saw action in 1986), for example, took eight-10 years to resolve.
Is it also significant that everyone is speaking of an India-China stand-off, when in fact the area under dispute is claimed by Bhutan, not India?
•It is Bhutanese territory, but we are there because of Bhutan and we have a certain relationship and certain obligations to Bhutan.
A Chinese scholar has suggested that if India could come to Bhutan’s aid, then a “third country” would be justified coming to “Kashmir’s aid”, referring to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Is China playing for a broader equivalence here?
•We have scholars like that too, and let them deal with each other. But I’d rather go by what China does officially, and what they communicate to us officially.
Has China’s decision to invest a considerable amount in terms of resources and reputation in the CPEC also changed the calculations?
•China has gone in different directions with Pakistan in the past. In 1996, for example, President Jiang Zemin stood in the Pakistan National Assembly and counselled them to put political problems with India aside, and work on other aspects of a normal relationship, trade, travel, etc. Pakistan never took that advice. China’s stand on Kashmir has gone from calling for self-determination to calling it a bilateral problem for India and Pakistan to sort out. Today they have a commitment to Pakistan that is explicit, in terms of the CPEC. But let’s see how this evolves… We should be worried more about our own interests with China, rather than with others.
In your recent book ‘Choices’, you have spoken of the inevitability of India and China challenging each other. Is the Doklam stand-off part of that trend?
•What I wrote was that China will be increasingly assertive, and so will we. It is part of our development. Our need for the world in terms of trade has gone up many times, and the same is true for China. This is a natural consequence, and India and China have done this faster than any other economies in history.
Is the clash inevitable then?
•That depends on whether we can work out a new way of dealing with each other in this changed scenario. At one stage, both our leaderships would say there is enough space for both India and China to grow. I don’t hear that so much any more, but they haven’t said the opposite either.
•These are man-made issues, and that means there are solutions to them, so long as we respect each other’s core interests and manage our differences.
•Given your own experiences in negotiating previous stand-offs in Depsang and Chumar, what do you think are the chances of de-escalation?
•I don’t know enough about this situation. I think what worked in previous such occasions was the fact that neither side wanted to get into trouble or be embarrassed militarily. The simplest way forward is to restore the status quo ante, which means clearing the area of both armies and then talking about it. We have had stand-offs that have lasted a long time in the past too, so there are no timelines.
But do you think talks are the only way forward, or do you see the risk of a military escalation?
•What would a military conflict solve from either side’s point of view? But both India and China would have to reach that same conclusion at the same point of time to avoid it.
You’re not ruling it out?
•That’s an extreme, but part of any negotiation is also the threat of violence. Some of the rhetoric is often meant to make space for negotiation. So right now, we are working out the terms of engagement, but I don’t see it in either side’s interest to have a military conflict.
Since 1988, there have been incremental improvements on managing the boundary between us. Do you think the clock has been reversed?
•No, not yet. They are clearly signalling that the situation is a new one. We don’t have enough knowledge yet to draw conclusions.
Does the situation require the top leadership to be involved to clear the logjam?
•Well, even when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping meet for the BRICS summit in September in China, there will be some sort of preparatory meetings. We are in touch, we have Special Representatives, and we have had a series of visits from both sides. Our ministers have been in Beijing this month. So I presume they will find the ways and means to talk at all levels.
📰 Sensor network to map and predict pollution, effluents in Godavari
Researchers are developing a cost-effective forecast system using cloud networking & remote sensors
•The Ganga may be the focus of the government’s river-cleaning efforts, but a group of U.S. researchers is working on a system to map undulating pollution trends in the Godavari, India’s second longest river.
•Using a mix of methods, including satellite-monitoring, traversing stretches of the river to collect water samples and using special sensors to measure bacterial and chemical pollution, the researchers are trying to develop a cost-effective forecast system.
•The team’s long-term objective is to be able to inform State officials and citizens of a probable spike in, say, levels of dangerous microbes or effluents, similar to weather and air pollution forecasts. That apart, said Anup Malani, Professor of the University of Chicago Law School, it is to be able to access “raw data” that could be used to inform the efficacy of a proposed faecal sludge treatment plant and whether behavioural interventions — including incentives or punishments — to restrict activities that pollute the river could actually work. “We’ve had debates with town planners who told us that all the pollution gets washed away… Is that true? We need to find out,” Mr. Malani, who is also co-founder of the International Innovation Corps, told The Hindu . “That would help us know whether interventions are needed only up-river or along various stretches.”
Hotspot of pollution
•The project started eight months ago and has so far identified two “hotspots” of pollution, which Mr. Malani declined to reveal, saying he would first inform the Andhra Pradesh government about them. The sampling exercise, being done along a portion of the 1,400-km river spanning Rajamahendravaram (East Godavari district) and Kovvur, Narsapur and Palakol (all in West Godavari), measures parameters such as total dissolved salts, nitrate, pH, temperature, turbidity and electrical conductivity. These are relayed to a website called Thoreau , a wireless sensing network maintained at the University of Chicago to map parameters, for analysis. Some river attributes such as microbial levels require to be measured in laboratories, though the team hopes eventually to be able to use low-cost sensors that measure them, too, in real time.
•“Through cloud-based data collection and real-time mapping systems, the research and implementation teams intend to demonstrate the importance and value of detecting and anticipating pollutants that enter the river in the form of human waste, organic materials, and chemical contaminants,” the University of Chicago research team said in a statement. The exercise is part of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project to support the programme of the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) to provide city-wide sanitation improvements in urban Andhra Pradesh. Sensors to monitor river pollution are an emerging technological approach in India.
📰 Tough times
A coordinated security and civil responseis needed to help peace return to the Valley
•All indications are that 2017 will turn out to be the deadliest year in Jammu and Kashmir in almost a decade, and Monday’s terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims is a stark reminder that a clear-eyed security response is required to deal with the challenges. The attack, in which at least seven persons died, shows the vulnerability of civilians in spite of the dense security deployment in the Kashmir Valley. The bus carrying the pilgrims had fallen behind a convoy when it came under fire. But for the alertness of the driver, the casualties could have been much higher. For a few weeks there had been intelligence warnings about terrorists possibly targeting the Amarnath Yatra, given the tone and tenor of the new phase of Kashmir militancy and the sustained tension along the India-Pakistan border, with infiltration continuing. But finger-pointing about a security lapse would be meaningless before an inquiry is conducted. The attack, significantly, comes around the first anniversary of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani, the fallout of which the security forces and the State government continue to struggle to contain. While militancy in Kashmir began taking a new turn sometime in 2013, it escalated in the wake of Wani’s death. According to informed estimates, since his death, over 250 local youth have taken up arms in the Valley. In comparison, in 2013 only 31 local youth were estimated to have enrolled for militancy.
•Projected estimates suggest that this year the number killed, including security forces personnel and civilians, could finally be more than 400, the highest since 2009, when 375 people were killed in Kashmir. Since then violence had steadily fallen, and in 2012, 117 lives were lost. There are other disconcerting inputs coming from the security agencies. A recent video clip, which is doing the rounds on social media and which the intelligence agencies consider authentic, indicates that the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed are operating together, or at least coordinating attacks. The spike in militant activity has coincided with increased street protests, public mobilisation to help militants escape security operations, and intimidatory tactics such as burning of schools to bring normal life to a standstill. This cycle can only be broken through a coherent security strategy and outreach by the civil administration to foster confidence and reduce tensions on the street. The security establishment needs to step up its response to the new reality. The quality of intelligence-gathering needs to improve, through traditional human skills and technical capabilities. Personnel need better training to handle this phase of unrest, so that they are more alert to the seemingly blurred, but always vital, line between a security intervention and a human rights violation. Containing violence is crucial to guide Kashmir to a peaceful future.
📰 Getting GST right
Why tax exemption on personal hygiene products for women is crucial
•I will always remember the midnight launch of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on June 30/July 1 as the moment when my government let down a girl who died in Assam’s Baksa district. Maggots had found their way into her stomach because she had used a rag during her periods. Her parents refused to treat her as they thought she was pregnant. Eventually it was too late even though she was taken to a hospital.
The road to rights
•When I started my online petition on March 8, requesting the Union Finance Minister to make eco-friendly sanitary pads tax-free and reduce the tax bracket of other napkins from 12-14% to 5%, I found more than three lakh people joining me in my appeal. I also found support from across the political spectrum. The Union Health and the Women and Child Development Ministers also agreed that it was a proposal with merit.
•The Finance Minister readily accepted that it was a cause mooted by activists and non-governmental organisations, but it did not resonate with members of the GST Council that for an adolescent girl, an affordable sanitary napkin is actually essential for her well-being. Over the months, activists, writers and I have thrown pertinent facts and figures at the government trying to convince them that this tax exemption would be an important health intervention. That a woman needs all means possible to help her during menstruation can only be forcefully argued by women.
•I have argued in Parliament on many an occasion to deliberate on issues of women’s empowerment using data on the dismal percentage of women in the workforce, the high percentage of school dropouts among girls, and the rise in gender crimes. These have always been received by the government with sensitivity, and have drawn assurances about the government’s commitment. While we continue to focus on and highlight the problem, the solution is complex. The right to equality is not an easy right to ensure and enforce.
•My empowerment has to be about saving me from damage and not saving me after I am damaged. It has to be about building my ability to seize an opportunity in education, employment or a seat in a panchayat. It has to be about minimising and containing my inherent disadvantages because of my gender, which stand in my way.
•The Constitution recognises this and allows women a head start in life. Yet, girls have to drop out of school because menstruation is a stigma; they have to stay away from education because they have no restroom in school; and there is female foeticide because a girl is considered to be a liability. The real empowerment of women does not need doles and handouts. It needs interventions that tackle the problem.
•We are a country where many women are still dependent on cloth-based products as they cannot access high quality, expensive personal hygiene products or lack sufficient information about sanitary pads. If a woman has to use hay, ash, sand, wood shavings, newspaper, dried leaves, or even plastic as a substitute for a hygiene product, despite subsidised napkins being distributed under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) in many States, I hope the government is compelled to think about the limitations of their prevailing interventions in this regard. Their system of distribution is failing to ensure last-mile delivery.
Ensure last-mile access
•In India, 70% of women say that their families cannot afford to buy sanitary pads. Distribution of free or subsidised napkins in schools by States is a good step but cannot solve the problem. If the government has to push the social campaign ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, it tells us that there are more girls out of school than in them in India. A government that champions the idea of disinvestment/privatisation of its own businesses in the name of greater business efficacy should have realised that commercial, private sector entities can deliver better in rural and remote markets if the product becomes cheaper and within the purchasing power of the economically weaker sections.
•The celebrations of the midnight GST launch have numbed many. The harsh truth is that ultimately, every manufacturer shifts the burden of cost to the consumer. If a huge budget of the NRHM and its network can’t ensure last-mile delivery to the women of rural India or the urban poor, it could have been achieved at a lesser cost by reducing the tax on sanitary napkins, where only 12% of women use sanitary napkins. This could have worked as an incentive for private manufacturers. It could have been a significant intervention.
•Where some 11,000-plus products were discussed by the GST Council, I have no doubt the members did have women in mind — bangles and bindis have been exempted from GST. Whether they had women empowerment in mind, I don’t know.
📰 Startup India’s slow pace worries Govt.
Only 39 start-ups have qualified for tax sops even 18 months after its introduction
•The Centre is concerned about the minuscule number of start-ups becoming eligible for tax benefits under the Startup India programme, with just 39 start-ups qualifying for such concessions even 18 months after the flagship initiative was introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•“Till March (2017), only around 10 start-ups were found eligible for tax benefits,” a senior government official told The Hindu . “In the last three months, though, this number has gone up to 39, we feel this is too low given the programme’s high ambitions.”
•With the norms specifying that in order to obtain tax benefits, a start-up should be a private limited company or a limited liability partnership incorporated on or after April 1, 2016, few companies qualified for tax benefits in the initial period as there were not many corporate entities incorporated on or after that cut-off date.
Norms relaxed
•The passage of time is mitigating this problem with several firms becoming eligible, said the official, who did not wish to be named. The recent relaxation in norms that include doing away with the requirement of ‘letter of recommendation’ from an incubator/industry association for recognising a company as a start-up or for tax benefits will also help increase the number of start-ups that will qualify for tax benefits.
•With the changes in norms, which include broadening the scope of definition of start-ups to include ‘scalability of business model with potential of employment generation or wealth creation,’ the Centre has decided to reappraise all rejected applications to give all applicants a “fair chance,” the official said. The aim is to cross 100 by end September.
📰 ‘Banks should give more loans to SHGs’
Move to generate employment: Jaitley
•Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that banks should divert loans to self-help groups in order to help generate employment in the unorganised sector in the country.
•“People who look for work in the unorganised sector are much more than those in the organised sector,” Mr. Jaitley said at the 36th Foundation Day of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. “So, if the banking system, through various schemes, diverts loans to this sector, there will be creation of more jobs.”
•He said that although India had grown over the last two-and-a-half decades, the distribution of this development has not been equitable. “In the last 2-2.5 decades, our growth has increased,” he said. “When the economy improves, in the development, some people are left behind. The number of people left behind is not small. More benefit is received in cities, businesses and [the] organised sector. The urban slums, tribal areas, people on the margins, they do not receive much benefit.”
•It was keeping this in mind that self-help groups were devised 25 years ago, so that those in the unorganised sector could get loans, he said.
