Monday, April 21, 2014

स्वदेशी जागरण मंच- उत्तराखण्ड (स्वदेशी जागरण मंच के राष्ट्रीय संगठक कश्मीरी लाल द्वारा दिया गया वक्तव्य)

स्वदेशी जागरण मंच- उत्तराखण्ड
(स्वदेशी जागरण मंच के राष्ट्रीय संगठक कश्मीरी लाल द्वारा दिया गया वक्तव्य)

           दिनांक 22 अप्रैल 2014
प्रेस विज्ञप्ति

स्वदेशी जागरण मंच इस 28 फरवरी को जैव रुपान्तरित (जीएम) फसलों के जमीनी परीक्षण की अनुमति देने के केन्द्रीय सरकार के निर्णय का कड़ा विरोध करता है। पर्यावरण मंत्री वीरप्पा मोइली द्वारा अतिरिक्त हड़बड़ी में लिया गया यह निर्णय वनस्पति, जीव व पर्यावरण के लिए अत्यंत घातक है। इसका लम्बे समय से हर ओर से विरोध हो रहा था। अचानक सब विरोधों को दरकिनार कर और इनको सरकार द्वारा केवल ‘अवैज्ञानिक नजरिया’ करार देना किसी के गले नहीं उतर रहा है।
विचित्र बात यह है कि तीन संवैधानिक पक्षों से इसका ठोस कारणों से विरोध किया गया है। पहला, कृषि मंत्रालय की संसदीय समीति ने लम्बी खोज व चर्चा के बाद इसको खतरनाक बताया था। दूसरे, इसी सरकार के दो पूर्व पर्यावरण मंत्रियों - जयराम रमेश व जयन्ती नटराजन - ने इस के खिलाफ आपत्तियां जगजाहिर की थी। तीसरे, सर्वोच्य न्यायालय की ओर से नियुक्त तकनीकी विशेषज्ञ समीति ने भी इसे पूर्णतय नकारा था और लम्बे समय के लिए इसके परीक्षणों पर रोक की सिफारिश की थी। अब सरकार द्वारा कानूनी रुप से बचने के लिए इसे ‘नीतिगत फैसला’ करार देकर इसे अनुमति देना देश के साथ छल है और यह जोर-जबरदस्ती से लिया गया कदम है। जनता के स्वास्थ्य व कृषि सम्पदा से खिलवाड़ करने वाला फैसला इतनी जल्दबाजी में विल्कुल नहीं लेना चाहिए था। वैसे भी चुनाव की दहलीज पर खड़ी किसी सरकार को ऐसा दूरगामी प्रभाव डालने वाला निर्णय लेना नैतिक रुप से भी गलत है। मंच का शक है कि मौंसेंटो जैसी बहुराष्ट्रीय कृषि कम्पनियों के दवाब में आकर ऐसा निर्णय लिया गया है और देशहित को पूरी तरह ताक पर रखा गया है।
मंच इसके विरुद्ध जगह-जगह गोष्टियां, जनजागरण व विरोध प्रदर्शन कर रहा है। आगे एक जून को पानीपत (हरियाणा) में एक राष्ट्रीय स्तर की कार्यशाला मंच द्वारा आयोजित की जाएगी। इसमें देश भर से प्रख्यात कानूनविदों, कृषि विशेषज्ञों व सामाजिक संगठनों को निमंत्रित किया जायेगा और आगे की रणनीति तय की जायेगी।
मंच चुनाव की इस वेला में सभी राजनैतिक दलों से अपील करता है कि इस विषय को अपने घोषणापत्रों में स्थान दे। इसके अतिरिक्त भी मूलभूत आर्थिक मुद्दों पर अपना मत स्पष्ट करने का आग्रह करता है यथा खुदरा व्यापार में प्रत्यक्ष विदेशी निवेश का विरोध, विदेशी बैंक में स्थित काले धन की वापसी, चीन द्वारा भारतीय बाजार पर कब्जे को रोकना आदि-आदि। मंच जनता से भी अपील करता है कि वोट देते समय भी इन मुद्दों को ध्यान में रखें। वैसे भी रुपये के डालर के समक्ष अवमूल्यन को रोकने हेतु दैनंदिन जीवन में ‘स्वदेशी अपनाओं - देश बचाओ’ का उद्घोष आज और भी ज्यादा समसामयिक हो गया है।
मंच देवभूमि उत्तराखण्ड निवासियों से विशेषरुप से अपील करता है कि मत देते समय पिछली दैवीय त्रासदी को न भूलें और सभी राजनैतिक दलों पर प्रकृति-प्रेमी व टिकाऊ विकास की अवधारणा को पुष्ट करने वाली नीतियां बनाने का दबाव बनाएं

Friday, April 11, 2014

नमक के नये दरोगा - आज के चुनाव और समाज की कहानी

मुंशी प्रेम चंद की एक सो साल पहले लिखी कहानी आज भी उतनी ही विचक्षनता से प्राकृतिक साधनों की लूट को उजागर करती है और उसका नाम है 'नमक का दरोगा। बेचारे ईमानदार दरोगा जिस नमक माफिया के साथ शिद्दत से लड़ते हे, भ्रष्ट कानूनी लड़ाई में हारने के बाद उतनी ही शिद्दत और इमानदारी से उसी माफिया की नौकरी करके उस भ्रष्टाचार से कमाए साम्राज्य की रक्षा करने लगता है। प्रशासन और पूँजी का ये त्रासद गठजोड़ ही क्रोनि कैपिटलिज्म या 'याराना पूंजीवाद' कहलाता है जिसका जंजाल आजकल चुनाव में चहुँ ओर व्याप्त है। कहानी का नायक वंशीधर आज का चुनाव में भ्रष्टाचार से लड़ने वाले चेहरे है और दूसरी तरफ इनको तीस हज़ार करोड़ प्रदान करने वाले पं अलोपिदीन है।  वैसे तो अंग्रेजी शासन के जकडन में लिखी कहानी एक सुखान्त है, पर बारीकी से देखें तो दुखांत है! श्री विकास नारायण राय का जनसत्ता में लिखा ये लेख और मुंशी जी की कहानी जिस पर आधारित मैने लिखा है, दोनों पढने लायक हैं।

कहानी ‘नमक का दारोगा’ में तत्कालीन पैमाने पर आज के क्रोनी याराने का समूचा माहौल दृष्टिगोचर है। जो स्थिति आज कोयला, लोहा, तेल, गैस, रेत जैसे खनिज पदार्थों को लेकर है, उस जमाने में नमक को लेकर रही होगी। समाज में ‘सच्चाई’ की आज जैसी वस्तुस्थिति- ‘जब नमक का नया विभाग बना और ईश्वर प्रदत्त वस्तु के व्यवहार करने का निषेध हो गया तो लोग चोरी-छिपे इसका व्यवहार करने लगे। अनेक प्रकार के छल-प्रपंचों का सूत्रपात हुआ, कोई घूस से काम निकालता था, कोई चालाकी से। अधिकारियों की पौ बारह थी।’ सरकारी कामकाज में ‘ईमानदारी’ की भूमिका भी आज जैसी- ‘मासिक वेतन तो पूर्णमासी का चांद है, जो एक दिन दिखाई देता है और घटते-बढ़ते लुप्त हो जाता है। ऊपरी आय बहता हुआ स्रोत है, जिससे सदैव प्यास बुझती है।’ और क्रोनी कैपिटल की पहुंच? नमक तस्करी का काफिला सरे-राह पकड़ा गया तो भी क्या- ‘पंडित अलोपीदीन का लक्ष्मीजी पर अखंड विश्वास था। वे कहा करते थे कि संसार का तो कहना ही क्या, स्वर्ग में भी लक्ष्मी का ही राज्य है। उनका यह कहना यथार्थ ही था। न्याय और नीति सब लक्ष्मी के ही खिलौने हैं, इन्हें वह जैसा चाहती हैं नचाती हैं।’
अब आया असल प्रसंग। तस्कर अलोपीदीन की अदालत में पेशी। मोइली-अंबानी का क्रोनी नाच! ‘अदालत में पहुंचने की देर थी। पंडित अलोपीदीन इस अगाध वन के सिंह थे। अधिकारी वर्ग उनके भक्त, अमले उनके सेवक, वकील-मुख्तार उनके आज्ञापालक और अरदली, चपरासी और चौकीदार तो उनके बिना मोल के गुलाम थे। उन्हें देखते ही लोग चारों ओर से दौड़े। सभी विस्मित हो रहे थे। इसलिए नहीं कि अलोपीदीन ने क्यों यह कर्म किया, बल्कि इसलिए कि वह कानून के पंजे में कैसे आए!’ अलोपीदीन बाइज्जत बरी हुए और वंशीधर बाकायदा मुअत्तल। तस्कर ने मौका देख कर दारोगा को अपना मैनेजर बनाने का पांसा फेंका- ‘संसार में ऐसे कितने धर्मपरायण मनुष्य हैं, जो धर्म पर अपना सब कुछ अर्पण कर सकें?’ आज के अलोपीदीनों को भी वंशीधरों की यारी सहज उपलब्ध है; राजनीतिकों और नौकरशाहों का कॉरपोरेट जेबों में होने में नया कुछ भी नहीं।
फिर भी, 2014 के चुनावी संदर्भ में कहानी का पुनर्पाठ तभी संगत कहा जाएगा जब यह शासक और जनता के बीच ध्रुवीकरण के दोनों सिरों, ‘ईमानदारी’ और ‘सच्चाई’, को रेखांकित करे। कांग्रेसी मनमोहन और भाजपाई मोदी जैसे क्रोनी-कैपिटल के विश्वासपात्रों से इतर, दारोगा की एक तीसरी छवि भी कहानी में है- ‘आप’ के अरविंद केजरीवाल की! दारोगा ने तस्कर की गिरफ्तारी का हुक्म दे दिया और मोलभाव की नौबत आ गई- ‘धर्म की इस बुद्धिहीन दृढ़ता और देव-दुर्लभ त्याग पर धन बहुत झुंझलाया। अब दोनों शक्तियों में संग्राम होने लगा। धन ने उछल-उछल कर आक्रमण करने शुरू किए। एक से पांच, पांच से दस, दस से पंद्रह और पंद्रह से बीस हजार तक नौबत पहुंची, लेकिन धर्म अलौकिक वीरता के साथ इस बहुसंख्यक सेना के सम्मुख अकेला पर्वत की भांति अटल, अविचलित खड़ा था।’
पर यह अब भी ‘सच्चाई’ का नहीं, ‘ईमानदारी’ का ही सिरा हुआ। प्रेमचंद को इस पर भी, अलोपीदीन की गिरफ्तारी के प्रसंग में, ‘यथा राजा तथा प्रजा’ का आवरण चढ़ाना पड़ा- ‘जिसे देखिए वही पंडितजी के इस व्यवहार पर टीका-टिप्पणी कर रहा था, निंदा की बौछारें हो रही थीं, मानो संसार से अब पापी का पाप कट गया।’ अंगरेजी राज का कारिंदा प्रेमचंद ‘सच्चाई’ का सिरा एक सीमा तक ही पकड़ सकता था। कहानीकार प्रेमचंद ने यह कसर अपनी विचक्षणता से पूरी की। लीक से अलग उनके दारोगा के समांतर किरदार ने शासन के जन-विरोधी चरित्र को ही बेतरह उजागर किया- दिखाया कि सरकारी अमले का व्यापक भ्रष्टाचार औपनिवेशिक लूट का एक सहज हथकंडा ही तो था! क्रोनी कैपिटल को नंगा करने की भूमिका में ‘आप’ का ‘नमक का दारोगा’ बनने का चुनावी दावा इन्हीं सीमाओं और संभावनाओं के परिदृश्य का हिस्सा है
.
सच में ही कहानी सार्वकालिक और सार्वभौमिक है। अनेको इमानदार आर टी आई के सैनिक एन जी ओ बनाकर रोक्फेलर और पूँजी पतियों की पगार पर पलते है, कही कहीं राष्ट्रीय अंतर्राष्ट्रीय पुरुस्कारों में इसी दरोगाई की दुर्गन्ध आती है।

Thursday, April 10, 2014

DATA 1 (23.2.19)


IMPORTANT DATA COMPLETE
1. Railway Vacancies: (About one Lakh)7’200 in loco pilots and 89,000(96,200) in various safety catergories, exam leakage, so no possibility in the next year. Central govt employees 65 lakhs, 1. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Long reviled for being bloated, India's Central and State governments in fact have just a fifth as many public servants as the United States, relative to population. (2011 census ), India 1,622.8 government employees for 1 lakh population and Amerika has 7,681. (Any how Railways has 44.81% of total Central Govt. Employees so the data dips lower. Central Govt. Has 3.1 million employes,Means 31 lakh employees ( and now tavleen Singh writes that there are 34.1 lakh employees and annual expenditure is 1.15 lakh crore Rs.)thus has 257 serving 1 lkh, US has 840. (Hindu: 30.1.12, reports by Delhi based Institute of Conflict Management ICM.
Our Postal Dept: 1.55 Lakh post offices, 89.76% in the rural areas, one post office serves 7,715 people, and covers an area of 21.21. sq kms. Started in 1882, now on March 31, 2009 it has 206 M saving accounts and 56,369.77 crores Rs. with it. Now banking to be started in the ninth plan.**** In India, in the total seven lakh villages and only 12,404 police stations. (in 2008 (13,421, and about 13,984 as on 1.1.2011 police research Bureau, no. of police constables…14,45,122. i.e. less than 15 lakhs and and plus police officers etc 20,64,370 i.e. more than 20 xlakhs. Ratio per one lakh population..173.5, in Netherland 354, in Austria 420 police ratio per hundred sq kms area 65.2,but in delhi it is 1 sq. km per policeman. and total population required to be looked after by one constable is 576. Police districts affected by extremists and terrorists. 195 and total 602.. of the total
2. TOTAL EMPLOYMENT FIGURES: TOTAL EMPLOYMENT FIGURES; 65 LAKHS,Govt. Employees 2%, .. and in organized sector 4%, 1.32 crore, remaining 94% with unorganised sector. Agriculture 55%,
doctors, 7.5 lakhs registered with ima, advocates of 35 state level bar associations: 6.5 lakhs, construction industry 4 crores, trucks are 6,33,771 multiplied by 4 as drivers, cleaners, giving employment to a quarter of crores, i.e 25,35,084 to be exact, 1.60 lakh CAs, SMEs 7 crores,
2.
3. Financial derivatives, regulatory measures, computer juggleries, securitization, hedgemoney,
4. India is one: 07
31 States, 1618 languages, 6400 castes, 6 religious groups, 29 major festivals….ONE COUNTRY.
5. What Globalisation has given us: 50 years ago American mothers used to advise their sons, spare something from their plates, otherwise poor Indians will remain without food. NOW, they are advising their off springs, Study math and physics well otherwise these Indians will take away your jobs and you will be without food!, and that we were asking for computer chips and they were providing us potato chips. (Cryogenic engines, super computer and then param computer… hoax of capital, technology, employment, and management.
6. Our Postal Dept: 1.55 Lack post offices, 89.76% in the rural areas, one post office serves 7,715 people, and covers an area of 21.21. sq kms. Started in 1882, now on March 31, 2009 it has 206 M saving accounts and 56,369.77 crores Rs. with it. Now banking to be started in the ninth plan.
7. ATOMIC BOMB; 6 and 9 August Heroshima and Nagasaki bomb explosion. 1,40,000 people died, not a single reference to it made in any bollywood films, and in one made, only good light was shown, no corpses, house burning and shrieking. No regret made even now after 65 years. Justifies that with it II WW came to an end. Openhymmer and Gita 11:12,32. BHOPAL TRAGEDY.
8. MELAMINE; an Industrial chemical used I the production of melawares and interior decoration, US water resistant boards, and in milk imp. Factor is protein, in melamine NITROGEN, cancer, first detected in 2007, 13,000 children of china still hospitalized, Barcode for China in 690-695.
9. SUPERBUG: NDM-1, New Delhi metallobeta lactamase, Journal Lancet, found in 3% of patients, resistant to all known antibiotics…82 years ago Charles Flamming made a chance discovery of antibiotic - penicillin..16 years ago News Week published an article - End of Antibiotics by Sheron Begly..1992, about 19,000 killed in US and 58,000 outside, in 2005, 2M in US affected 90,000 died of them an infection caused by STAPHYLOCOCCUS ARVIUS. Dr. Tomaz found five strains of virus, so not the end of antibiotics but before it never any virus anem on any particular country or city, first time on delhi, business of face surgery rousing, Dr. Kumaraswami, of Chennei, co-author of the article dissociated himself from the research.
10. ECONOMIC DISPARITY: (75-1000, 20-2000, 4-5000 , ½_ 10000, 0.0009-10,000 ABOVE)Asian Development Bank, our middle class engine of growth, Poor Rs 1035 per head per month, 74.95%, 25 M, lower Middle class 20.45% and Rs. 1035-2070, Middle class 4.15% Rs. 2070-5177 and 45 M upper middle class 5177-10,3540.45%, and 5 M, and UPPER CLASS..Rs 10,354 and above, 0.0009%. 1 Million ADB Key Indicator for Asia and the Pacific, 2010, and middle class earning $2 to 20$ per month, growth engine.
11. MNCs 14,000 crore company which sells datuns to Indian earning from here and 300 spending on us for anesthesia in the form of advertisement. Bhanupratap Shukla data of 1992, 15000 crores for agriculturists, 200 crore rs. Goden temple budget 30,000 free langer daily. He Rajeev Dixit adds that 5,500 crores is taken away by PepsiCoke every year. ICE CREAMs, 60%, soaps, detergents and bathing: 65%, and buiscuits and chocolates:2/3.

12. INDIAN DEBT: Rajeev Dixit says: 5000 MNCs now, and take away Rs. 3 lakh crores per year, and because there is national debt of Rs.40 lakhs crores since independence, so another 3 lakh crores is taken away as interest and toothpaste foreign companies take away Rs. 20,000 crores per year. Average Debt of an Indian is Rs. 38,000 on every Indian, or his 10 months income, by Central Statistical Organisation.(17 feb 2009). .PER CAPITA INCOME 23-2-11 Ashwani Kr State Planning Minister told Loksabha Goa’s PCI 1,32,719 Rs. Chd. 1,20,912, Delhi: 1,16,886 Average National 2009-10 Rs. 46,952, UP’s 23,132 and Bihar 16,119.
13. DASHRATH MANJHI; mountain, 16 ft wide 12 high way of 350 feet, in Gehlore village in Gaya distt.reduced distance to distt. Hospital from 50 miles to 8 miles, in 20 long years, singlehandedly completed, 1959 to 1981.
14. Arnold Toyanbee: It is clear that a chapter which has an Western start will have an eastern ending, if it is not to end in itself. And also wrote that Khalsa of Gurugobindsingh, established in 1699, was the forerunner of Lenin’s claim of classless society.
15. Swami Ram Tirath on 28 June 1930 in America prestigious audience: O Americans, I request you to let India remain India, and don’t make it America.
16. The countries whose economy was shattered because of globalization in the last 15 years: Thailand, Malasia, South Korea, Indonesia ( all the four of Asia), Maxico, Russia, Argentina, and Turkey. (In Paul Krugmen’s book there is some reference to these countries.
17. POVERTY: Harsh Madar, 5 crores have been displaced in the name of DEVELOPENT.That poverty can be seen anywhere in streets, in malin bastis, roadsides, and at red traffic signals, but it is difficult to realize their condition, and it is more difficult for economists busy in defining poverty all the time. One says that 1% is occupying 57% of the total assests of the world, some say 40% occupy 94% of worlds assets and remaining 60% have to content with only 6%
18. POVERTY INDIA; CG has ordered to give 25 lakh tons extra foodgrains to states for distribution. 61,000 tonnes of wheat of food grain is rotting in various storehouse – Sharad Pawar. State Agri Minister KV Thomas told RS last month: 11,708 tons foodgrains is either rotten or not fit for distribution. 6 1000 lakh people can be fed by this for 10 years. Rs.50,000 CRORES foodgrains is rotten every year due to lack of storage facilities. The foodgrains which is wasted en route from farm to storage is equal to what is grown in AUSTRALIA. Amritya sen’s book in 1981: Poverty and Famine: the reason of hunger and famine is not lack of foodgrains but inequality and lack of public distribution system( compare it with famine of 1800)5016 grams consumption per head per day.G
19. Famine State prompted: In Desher Gatha, the story of the country, written by and translated by gives an important data: there was famine in our country in the 19th century. From 1800-1825, 10 lakh died, from 1825-50 about 40 lakh died, from 50-75 about 50 lakh died, and from 1875-1900, 1 crore died. What was the then government doing In that period, distributing.. NO, it was EXPORTING THE FOODGRAIN TO THEIR COUNTRY to their own country and the data…..
20. COMMITTEES ON POVERTY: Justice Wadhwa Com,20 crore,Tendulkar,8.25 c, state gov. estimates:10.5 c, Arjunsen Guta:20, Planning com. 7 crWB:7.5 c Poors inIndia., Every fifth man poor in the world is Indian, Global Hunger Index: out of 88 countries fighting with hundger Indian is 86. In the year 2000 BPL selection schemes : for giving benefit of Rs. 1, the cost to be borne was Rs/3.65, Moreover even then 61 circle of CSSO , half the BPL houses do not have the desired Ration cards, Justice Wadhwa comm.. reported that 80% of foodgrains is diverted to other sources;
21. IMPORTANT DATA ABOUT PHILANTHROPHY; ARAB AND BILLION SYNONIMUS; Basic education of the world requires: 6 arab (B)dollars and money spent on American cosmetic items: 8 arab dollars, Water and Sanitation require only 9 Arab dollars whereas in Europe money spent on Ice cream is 9b annually, Women reproductive health related problems require 12 arab dollars, but the money spent in American on merely perfumes and fragrances is also 12 crores in Europe and USA,(Every eight minutes a women dies in our country due to pregnancy-related problem. Basic health and Nutritonal problems require 13,and mone spent or wasted on pets food is 17 and the total of all reaches only 40 Arab dollars, Cigarette Europe amouns to $50 b and Alcohal amounts to 105 arab dollars is spent (Europe) and 400 on drugs and to cap it all military expenditure of the world annually is $780 billions.
22. ENVIRONMET: In Rio de generio the developing countries wanted developed countries to give a mere 0.2% of their cross-border trade as a contribution to eradicate poverty from the developing countries. THEY REFUSED!
23. BERTOLT BRECHT : Those who have eaten their fill speak to the hungry of the wonderful days to come. ( JO unke hisse ko kha gaye, vahi unke din sudharane ki baate karte hain.
24. POPULATION OF THE COUNTRIES: 143 COUNTRIES HAVE below 1 crore population, e.g. we listen more about Bostwani, but population only 20 lakhs, and we feed very easily 77 lakhs sadhus of our country.
Above 1 crore but less than 10: 47, 11 countries are above 10 crores but less than Arab: four of Asia, Pak, Bangladesh, Indonesia In Europe: Russia, America, Nigeria, North America, South America, Brazil, and Only 2 above one hundred crores: India and China.
25. Loans facility: only 27% get loans from formal sources like Banks etc. and 22% from informal sources, and the remaining 51 don’t get loans from any source at all.
26. America: Out of 1000 marriages solemnized, 504 are broken, out of 30-34 years women 19.3% are unmarried, 20% with single parent family 5% whiTe American have 88% property and 50 blacks are below poverty line in that country. SOCIAL SECURITY; Paul Krugman currently 4.8% of GDP in 20 years upt 6% in America ( difference with GM data)
27. WATER WASTAGE BY MNCS: Five big companies of the world use 575 billion literes of drinking water every year, enough to satisfy the daily drinking water needs of the whole planet. The names of companies are Coca Cola, Nestle, Uniliver, Anheuse, and Busch ( from the Economist, quoted by Davinder Sharma.
53% of the global seed market is controlled by three companies. With the proposed new law putting threat on small and medium scale seed producers we are likely to see a larger share of the market go to these three companies. By putting more trust into fewer companies we are reducing our food security.
28. SWISS BANKS: 108 lakh crores, sufficient for taxless budget for 13 years, jobs for all the Indians, and free education of all , 1456 Billions ours, 470 Billions of Russia, 390 UK, $100 of Ukraine, 96$ of China, and equals also to 13 times the India’s total debt, 45 crore poor people of India can get Rs / 1 lakh eac, and moreover easy to detect: 80,000 people of our country travel to Switzerland every year, and 25,000 travel frequently.
29. Important DAYS: 12 Jan National Youth Day, 15 March world consumers’ rights day, 22 March world Water Day,15 May World Family Day, 31 May, No Tobacco day, 5 June World Enviornment Day, 5 Sept. Teachers’ Day, 16 Sept. Ozone Day, 69 August, Hiroshima and Nagasaki day,1 Oct World Wildlife day, 17 Oct. World Anti-Poverty Day, (Sudama Jayanti also viz-a-viz),2 Dec. W. Human Rights day, 14 FebMothers day, 10 May Fathers Day, why not in the Pitri Paksh or /shradh day. Also March Budget Analysis Day, similar for state Budgets also.25 Sept -2 Octo Swadeshi Week, 10 Nov 1920 DP Thengadi Memorial Day, 14 Oct. Birth day, 12 Dec Babu Genu Balidan diwas, or swadeshi Day, 19 August Dr. Bokare Memorial Day, Feb lst day: Union Budget and in March all the budgets. June July for Vichar vargas or National Seminars, Nov-Dec for National Sabha and Sammelan days.
1. Agriculture: He emphasized that agriculture is the sole basis of people residing in our 6 lakh 40 thousand villages, and though 50% population depends directly, yet in total 85% depend indirectly on agriculture.
2. by 44 Agricultural Universities in improving and developing the indigenous varieties of seeds are ignored and suddenly Bt Brinjal seed is brought to the fore. Where is the scope of brinjal except in a few countries in the world Though total agricultural production has voluminously increased from 52 to2. 27 lakh tones, but the deteriorating condition of farmers has not improved.
3. Strangely enough, the annual budgetary share on agriculture which was upto 32%in the first Five Year Plan has receded to a mere 3.5% at present! The result, he emphasized was visible in the form of 2 lakh farmers resorting to suicide and this tally is, woefully increasing every day.
4. He thundered that in our country, despites availability of 16 lakh 45 thousand sq fts of water - 60 to 70% of our land is still without irrigation. He criticized that while falsely eulogizing the increase in production due to BT cotton, the contribution of Sardar Sarovar Dam and efforts done by Cotton Board are conveniently forgotten! sHARAD NIMBALKAR:
5. P Sainath on Budget in7 March, 2010, A Budget drafted for and perhaps drafted by corporate farmers, and agribusiness. 5 Lakhs crore write off, direct and indirect taxes to the Big Boys of Industries, 57 crore in a single hour on average, and almost A CRORE A MINUTE. Remember that last time I was 30 crore per hour and recently brokedn by 70% increase. 70% of our farmers ar also purchaser of foodgrains, 55-0% of the income of our farmers income is spent on food-grains……. 70,000 crores were given to farmers in 2008 for waiver of loans and that too once in many decades, whereas 2 lakh 80,000 crore freebees to industrialists in 30 months. ….COST OF PRODUCTION OF VIDARBH: Rs. 2,500 to cultivate an acre in cotton in 1991, 13,000 in 2006-7, whereas now it is 28,000.
30. MP’s Pay hike: Out of total 543 Mps, 315 are crorepatis i.e. 60%, Their average declared asets are 25 crores each and average Lok Sabh MPs assets value was 1.86 crore last Sabha, to 5.33 crores RS. i.e. more than 200 increasesd…..RULING party: 7 out of 10 MPs are crorepatis, BJP 5 out of 10, in BJD, DMK, RL, BSP, SHIV SENA, NCP AND SP. More than 60, and in smaller parties: SAD, TRS, JD(s) all are crorepatis without exception, a real socialism. Poor CPM one in 16 MPs is a crorepatis, and Mamata Bannerjee TC 7 out of 19…..GROWTH IN ASSETS WHILE MP, who won and fought in 2004 again, income grew by 300 per cent, 33% of those who declared assets above /rs/ 5% won the last election while, 99.5% of those whose assets were above 10 crores won the elections and the poor fellow who declared less than Rs. 10 lakhs…all lost!......Working days in parliament 60, 150 elected last time have criminal cases against them and 73 have very serious charges, getting 104 times the average of Indians’ earning. Pay hike by 300% but wanted 500 increases.
31. GANGA: Total length from Gomukh to Gangsagar: 2525 kms. And about 100 big and small cities on its banks. From Gangotri to Dev Prayag: 270 kms, only 35Kms will be visible, and remaining 160 kms in tunnels, and 75 Kms in dams. Govt. has prepared 300 hydel projects. Acc to Rajendersingh that 18% animals and other species, and 12.5% (65 crore Indians )ofn'!m. human race of the world depend upon the water of Ganga. 30.2 kms long gangotri glacier is receding by 23 meters per year, and by 2020 it can completely elope! On 20-4-1917 a Order No. 1002 between English Govt and Madanmohan Malviya.
32. WATER POLUTION ANDGANGA: Once England’s Thames River was considered a dead river, 1858 House of commons meeting had to be dropped due to bad smell, and then resurrected. (2) In 1960 America’s Potomac river called an open sewer, and President Lindon Johnson called it a black spot, now a Heritage river. (3) In 50 Ryne river several thousands fishes died, Europe stood for it and new life, and same is about France’s Seine river! We put 25 Crore house hold water of 234 cities,and 45 crore liter polluted water in Ganga EVERYDAY. From Goomukh to Gangotri a bacteria called coliform is found where as in Kanpur a poisonous virus containing e-coil bacteria is found, which arises from human and animal excreta. BACTERIOPHAGE is the bacteria which is beneficial. Due to dams in Ganga 5.5 crore people unsettled,44 lakh hectare land went in water, 2lakh crore spent on these project, nothing satisfactory emerged. JITENDRA BAJAJ: 360 MILLION (3 crore 60 lakh tones?)tons of alluvium is brought by Ganga every year. Ganga-yamuna plain is 3,000 kms long and width of 250 to 400 kms nourished by Ganga, enough to feed the entire world. Rs. 1500 crore spent but no results.
GURU’S DATA
6. The American families’ addiction to stocks was brought about partly by cutting the interest rates on savings from over 20 per cent to just over a couple of percentage points in 2001. Result. The households shifted from stable and safe banks to unstable and unsafe stocks. The divide between Wall Street and the Main street was 95:5 in 1980; it narrowed to 75:25 in 1990; and it further narrowed 51:49 in 2001. In contrast just 2 per cent of Indian savings, just 6 per cent of Japanese savings is locked in stocks! The obsession of the US economy with stocks was also assisted by the disintegration of families — and the emergence of single parent families. Today over half the families in the US are headed by single parents
7. Instead, they have all incentives to spend; even to borrow to spend. In his book “The Age of Turbulence” (2007) the ex-US Fed chief Alan Greenespan had glorified this quality of developed economies like the US to borrow to spend as the test of consumer confidence. Result, American families are in debts of $2.8 trillions on some 1.2 billion credit cards, and the US is in debts of over $12 trillions to the rest of the world. Over the years the US banks have saddled on to Asia and Europe trillions of dollars of its sub-prime debts. That is how, as the French and German governments have accused, the US crisis has been exported as global crisis.
8. To save America from instant bankruptcy the George Bush regime had to step in to support the Wall Street. Even if Obama were where Bush is, he would have done only what Bush has. Yet, labelling Bush and McCain as mere Wall Street extensions, Obama turned the US Presidential poll into something like Indira Gandhi’s Garibi Hatao election of 1971 — a “Rich vs the Rest” contest.
9. Just a couple of months ago, Chidambaram even chided those who insisted that India was a prosperous economy before the advent of colonialism. But is that the truth? See what the open online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, says: “According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book “The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective” India had the world’s largest economy in the first century and 11th century, with a 32.9 per cent share of world GDP in the first century and 28.9 per cent in 1000 CE.” The next book “The World Economy: Historical Statistics” by Angus Maddison (published in 2004 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) affirmed what his earlier book on world economy had asserted about India as the lead economy of the world.
10. The Wikipedia adds, “Among other things, it (Maddison’s new book) confirms Adam Smith’s view that China and India were at a level with Europe in the late 18th century, but also static whereas Europe was fast progressing.”

11. The OECD has accepted the Angus Maddison work. This is how, based on Maddison’s findings, the OECD website (www.oecd.org) now captures ‘who’s who’ in the global economic leadership of the past. In 1750, India was the world’s largest economy, followed by China. In 1725, it was China followed by India and France. This order continued till 1825. It lost its position gradually under the weight of colonial exploitation which is, by now, a recorded fact. When India was leading the world in 17-18th centuries, today’s America was being built on the funeral pyres of the Mayan and Red Indian races. Obviously, George and Condoleezza are short on historic knowledge about India, and the world. Let them look at the website of OECD, of which the US is a constituent.

12. The data on per capita availability of foodgrains and pulses during the years 1961 to 2006 shows : the figure was 469 gms in 1961.

13. It fell 408 gms in 1971 — remember the PL 480 days! It rose again to 458 gms in 1981; to 510 gms in 1991; fell to —yes fell again — to 454 gms in 2000. Thereafter it oscillated between a low of 416 gms (2001) to a high of 494 gms (2002). These numbers make it evident that there is no huge consumption rise in India as Mr Bush seems to fear.
14.
15. To ensure availability, India had to import foodgrains from 1951 to 1980. It imported some 114 million tonnes of foodgrains — an average of 2.8 million tonnes a year. But this stopped from the 1980s. India became a net exporter from 1981 to 2006.
16.
17. Due to inadequate procurement and stocking, and not due to shortage of production, government had to import 7.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2006 and 2007.
18.
19. FAMILIES: In Britain the cost of `dad-left' families and of `dad-less' and `mom-less' children _ $20 billions, (in rupee terms Rs 90,000 crore every year!) _ is met by the State. This is 20% of Indian Government's gross income! Duncan says that more than half of the cohabiting couples separate before their child sees its fifth birthday, but njthe rate of separation before the fifth birthday of the child in a wedlock is one in twelve marriages. Despite being mocked as outdated by more and more living without wedlock, tradition still offers hope
20. RESULTS: On the quality of children coming out of broken, single parent families, Duncan says that if a child is not brought up in a two-parent families it is 70 per cent more likely to be addicted to drugs, 50 per cent more likely to have alchohol problems, 40 per cent more likely to have bad debts, and 35 per cent more likely to be unemployed.
21. This American model is not only unviable for the world, it is not suitable for America itself. There are 20 crore people who can drive cars, but there are 26 crore sturdy cars in America sufficient for the next 10 years but even then they are producing new cars just to create employment. To allure people into purchasing new cars $5000 is provided free, for anyone who purchases a new car, and banks will give a loan of $9,000 !
22. Similarly 22 crore population has 120 crores credit cards and they have taken loans to the tune of $2.7 trillion (Rs. 135 lakh croress), which amounts to Rs. 6 lakh debt per head). Once America, which was the biggest lender at one time, is the biggest borrower from the world at present.
23. Contrary to our indigenous model, they have privatized the governmental works and nationalized he family affairs. He averred that this model is impractical, unnatural and unsustainable. In India, in the total seven lakh villages and only 12,404 police stations,
24. 37% of our GDP accrues from family savings. He quoted Goldman Sachs report of Sept 2009 that India needs a huge amount of $1.7 trillion (85 lakh crores of Rupees) to create the needed infrastructure, but for it there is no need bring in foreign money. Our internal savings of the society are sufficient for it.
24. INDIAN FINANCING MODEL. Gurumurthy as opposed to Anglosaxon model, ( stock based) ......

Are things likely to change in future? Doubtful, if the study on Indian infrastructure financing (Global Economic Paper No 187) by Goldman Sachs is any indication.

The study says that household savings is the main source of funding the $1.7 trillion infrastructure investment need in India over the decade ending 2020.

Adding that the “thrifty” Indian households “prefer bank deposits”, it says that the annual financial savings of the household sector in India would top $800 billion by 2016 which is 150 per cent of the total current bank lending. How true is the Iowa State University study that the focus in bank-led economies is high rate of capital formation!

And more. India is not just bank-led. Financial inclusion in India is not limited to banks. According to the Global Financial Stability Report 2005, bank credit to private sector as a percentage of GDP was 38 per cent in India, 140 per cent in China and 156 per cent in the UK.

How then do the Indian businesses get funded? It calls for a deeper probe into small business financing India — without which India would collapse. There is a rainbow model of funding businesses in India, much of which is beyond the reach of organised banking. The National Economic Census 2005 found some 41.8 million non-farming enterprises operating in India providing livelihood and employment to 101 million persons. They grew annually at 4.7 per cent during 1998-2005. Of this, 90 per cent (37.6 million) is financed by families and local sources. They are not financially excluded. They are very much financially included, though not through the banking system. Therefore, financial inclusion in India does not mean banking.
25. GOLD CRISES; A decade ago i.e. in 2001-2 we imported 4.1 Arab dollars gold and silver but last year in the initial 11 months only we importe the twin metals 54.5 arab Dollars( half the value of our total oil imports!) That means there is an increase of 14 timeses in 10 years and in the form of rupees, it is 20 times! If the report of ASOCHEM is to be relied: after three years itwill reach a 100 arab dollars mark – a kind of foolish craze for a developing country like ours. AMERICAN economy is just 10 times stronger than us and even then the demand for silver and gold is only one fifth compared to us. It is associated with blackmoney, and hence an increase in Blackmoney is associated with import of gold. The money which comes for these twin metals accrues from household savings and is spent in production activities abroad as well as employment generating productive activities. So it is a doube danger for our country. Three measures have been adopted: The tax which was only on Branded jewellery has been extened to all types of jewellery;msecodly no.2 is tha transactions above 2 lakhs TDS tax and informations of this is to be given to the department. Third , the and the hardest step is custom duty has been raised from two percent to four percent, and thus an increase in the prices of gold is exempted.
26. RTI AND SHYAM LAL YADAV: The number of trips 71 ministers did in just three and half year was commensurate with 256 rounds of whole of the earth (even then 7 ministers excluded them were such which did not do any foreign trips. And after the publication of this report all the ministers reprimanded him time and again that you are only blaming us and leaving the officialdom who is doing such trips more then us. Then they again did homework on these yatras with the help of this RTI and found that: 1500 directors and upper level officers who were mostly IAS did foreign trips which were equal to 74 up and down trips of MOON. ( why if they do four trips with the money fifth trips ticket is given free of cost which they give to their family members and relatives!
27. Austerity of Sh. Montek singh Ahluwalia. Man who says tht one who eares 22.50 per day is above the poverty line in rural india: spent may to ovct ony 6 months 2.02 lalhsper day.Padam Vibhushan manyavar spent on 18 nights in foreign only rs 34,40,140 means 34 and half lakh, he has no purpose of going outside and just for the every time permission was granted by PM himself.
28. Indians behind us progress: more than 50 per cent of patents filed in US have predominantly Indians brains behind it, says a study conducted by IINdian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad)
29. P.sainath data of India pa ge 435.
Even after four decades of development these facts remain.
1. One out of three persons lacking safe drinking water is an Indian,
2. Nearly one in every two illiterates in the world is an Indian,
3. Nearly one in every three children outside school is an Indian
4. We have forty four million child labours in India
5. Every third lorocy patient in planet is Indian
4. Over thrr fourth of all tuberculosis patients are Indian
5.no nation has more people suffering from tuberculosis than us.

30. AMERICA: The United States has a GDP of around $13,000 billion. More than a third of the population, comprising of households earning less than $30,000 accounts for only $650 billion or 5% of the national income. A recent article in Businessweek pointed out that people in this bracket have accumulated debt of almost $700 billion, or more than their collective annual income. Thus, the great American dream driven by globalisation is neither great nor a dream. It is the unfortunate reality of a miserable life for 40 million households living under heaps of debt, now trying to seek succour in fundamentalist religions.v
31 INEQUALITY : It is simply impossible for substantial portions of people to participate in the global economy simply because population is increasing at a much faster space than opportunities. In 1825, the world reached its first 1 billion mark of population. It took almost 150 years for population to treble by 1960. It has since doubled to cross 6 billion. Thus, in 50 years to 2010 the world population will have increased by 4 billion. During the same period almost 800 million people will have improved their life. Thus globalisation can help a maximum of 20% of people to change their life. Even today out of 6.6 billion people living on the earth less than 1/5th or l.1 billion have access to internet.
The big question of our time is therefore not whether globalisation is good or bad. It obviously helps 20% of us. It carries with it some anomalies that can be corrected. The big question is about the remaining 80%. Since it is unrealistic to expect globalisation to help them come up in life.
32. Monsanto: KP Prabhakaran Nair, scientist
By the 1980s, Monsanto was being hit by a series of lawsuits. It was one of the companies named in 1987 in a $180 million settlement for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange. In 1991, Monsanto was fined $1.2 million for trying to conceal the discharge of contaminated waste water. In 1995, Monsanto was ordered to pay $41.1 million to a waste management company in Texas due to concerns over hazardous waste dumping. That same year Monsanto was ranked fifth among US corporations in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, having discharged 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, land, water and underground. In 1997, The Seattle Times reported that Monsanto sold 6,000 tons of contaminated waste to Idaho fertilizer companies, which contained the carcinogenic heavy metal cadmium.
Then in 2002, the Washington Post ran an article entitled, “Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution, PCBs Drenched Alabama. Town, But No One Was Ever Told”. Today PCBs are considered one of the gravest chemical threats on the planet. Monsanto produced PCBs for over 50 years and they are now virtually omnipresent in the blood and tissues of humans and wildlife around the globe. EPA is quite emphatic about PCB as a cancer producing chemical in humans. But, the lure of money made Monsanto stay put with PCBs. Human life was no concern to its business interests. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as ‘CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy’ -- show that for decades the corporate giant concealed

33. Legal : There are over 30 million cases pending in the Indian courts. The Supreme Court of India has over 66,500 cases pending, according to a recent report. Property quarrels drag on in the courts for decades and in some cases, litigations continue for several generations. Assets that could have been productive lie unused because of

34. KOFI ANNAN'S Astonishing Facts!

THE HAVES -- The richest fifth of the world's people consumes 86 percent of all goods and services while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3 percent. Indeed, the richest fifth consumes 45 percent of all meat and fish, 58 percent of all energy used and 84 percent of all paper, has 74 percent of all telephone lines and owns 87 percent of all vehicles.

NATURAL RESOURCES -- Since 1970, the world's forests have declined from 4.4 square miles per 1,000 people to 2.8 square miles per 1,000 people. In addition, a quarter of the world's fish stocks have been depleted or are in danger of being depleted and another 44 percent are being fished at their biological limit.

THE GANGES -- The Ganges River symbolizes purification to Hindus, who believe drinking or bathing in its waters will lead to salvation. But 29 cities, 70 towns and countless villages deposit about 345 million gallons of raw sewage a day directly into the river. Factories add 70 million gallons of industrial waste and farmers are responsible for another 6 million tons of chemical fertilizer and 9,000 tons of pesticides.

THE ULTRA RICH -- The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.

AFRICA -- The average African household today consumes 20 percent less than it did 25 years ago.

THE SUPER RICH -- The world's 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are Americans with total assets of $311 billion, have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion -- equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the entire world's population.

A.COSMETICS AND EDUCATION -- Americans spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics -- $2 billion more than the estimated annual total needed to provide basic education for everyone in the world.

B. ICE CREAM AND WATER -- Europeans spend $11 billion a year on ice cream -- $2 billion more than the estimated annual total needed to provide clean water and safe sewers for the world's
THE HAVE NOTS -- Of the 4.4 billion people in developing countries, nearly three-fifths lack access to safe sewers, a third have no access to clean water, a quarter do not have adequate housing and a fifth have no access to modern health services of any kind.
D. PET FOOD AND HEALTH -- Americans and Europeans spend $17 billion a year on pet food -- $4 billion more than the estimated annual additional total needed to provide basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world.

All combined....$40 BILLION A YEAR -- It is estimated that the additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly $40 billion a year -- or less than 4 percent of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world.

MEAT -- Americans each consume an average of 260 pounds of meat a year. In Bangladesh, the average is six and a half pounds.

THE FUTURE -- By 2050, 8 billion of the world's projected 9.5 billion people -- up from about 6 billion today -- will be living in developing countries.

SMOKE -- Of the estimated 2.7 million annual deaths from air pollution, 2.2 million are from indoor pollution -- including smoke from dung and wood burned as fuel which is more harmful than tobacco smoke. 80 percent of the victims are rural poor in developing countries.

WRISTWATCHES AND RADIOS -- Two thirds of India's 90 million lowest-income households live below the poverty line -- but more than 50 percent of these impoverished people own wristwatches, 41 percent own bicycles, 31 percent own radios and 13 percent own fans.

TELEPHONE LINES -- Sweden and the United States have 681 and 626 telephone lines per 1,000 people, respectively. Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have only one line per 1,000 people.
population.

AIDS -- At the end of 1997 nearly 31 million people were living with HIV, up from 22.3 million the year before. With 16,000 new infections a day -- 90 percent in developing countries -- it is now estimated that 40 million people will be living with HIV in 2000.

LANDMINES -- More than 110 million active landmines are scattered in 68 countries, with an equal number stockpiled around the world. Every month more than 2,000 people are killed or maimed by mine explosions.



Posted to PEN-L by Jim Devine

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.

There would be:

57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans
52 would be female 48 would be male
70 would be non-white 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual 11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer.
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for both acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.



35. From Left Business Observer

The richest 1% of people in the world receive as much as the bottom 57%, or in other words, less than 50 million richest people receive as much as 2.7 billion poor.
Someone with an income equal to US$25,000 is richer than 98% of the world population.
The poorest tenth of Americans have average incomes higher than 2/3 of the world.
The richest tenth of Americans — about 25 million people — have aggregate incomes equal to the poorest 43% of people in the world, almost 2 billion people.
The ratio between the average income of the world’s top 5% and world’s bottom 5% increased from 78 to 1 in l988 to 114 to l in 1993.
Figures compiled by Don Sloan, M.D. for the People's Daily World

Number of people in the world, (pop. 5.5 billion) that live in abject poverty: 1.4 billion
Number of people currently expected to die from starvation: 900 million
Percentage of those that live in the undeveloped nations: 97
Number of children in world dying each year from controllable illness: 12 million
Number of people in world that died each of the five years of World War II: 10 million
Number of people in world that die each year of preventable social causes: 10 million
Cost of one new Osprey aircraft (50 planned): $84 million
Annual cost of treatment to eliminate world's malaria cases: $84 million
Money set aside annually for malaria control by organized world health: $9 million
Money set aside for Viagra pills per annum by organized world health: $40 million
Number of children in world blinded yearly from lack of Vitamin A: 500 million
Number of women who died during childbirth last year in world: 650,000
U.N. estimate of yearly expenditure on war: $800 billion
U.N. estimate of yearly expenditure on health services: $25 billion
Number of children in world that die by age 5 (yearly): 12 million
Percentage of those that succumb to routine preventable health causes: 90
Ratio of African-American to white new born deaths in U.S. last year: 2:1
Number of reported pediatric measles deaths in U.S. last year: 45
Amount of money not allocated by Congress for measles vaccines: $9 million
Average amount of 1999 year-end bonus paid to Oxford HMO execs: $6 million
Time it takes the Pentagon to spend annual federal allocation for women's health: 15 minutes
More figures from the People's Daily World

The numbers-it's enough to make you cry

* The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans (2.6 million) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million). By contrast, the bottom 35 percent had nearly twice as much after-tax income as the top 1 percent in 1977.

* If families in the bottom fifth had received the same share of income in 1994 as they did in 1977, each family would have had $2654 in additional income. Instead, the income of each family in the top 1 percent increased by $132,955.

* Despite several years of economic growth, the poverty rate declined by less than half a percentage point * 13.7 percent to 13.4 percent * between 1995 and 1997. But this is still higher than the rate in 1989 (13.1 percent) shortly before the recession of the early 1990s.

* In 1997, the average poor family fell another $200 further below the poverty line, until their income is now $6,602 below the poverty level.

* In 1996, the number of "very poor" Americans * those making less than half the poverty line * increased by a half million, up to 14.4 million people.

* Between 1995 and 1997, the decline in the number of people receiving food stamps was five times greater than the decline in the number of people living in poverty.

* The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans enjoy nearly six times more income than those in the bottom 10 percent, a ratio double many countries and 60 percent higher than average.

* According to a Luxembourg Income Study comparing purchasing power in 15 countries, low-income Americans are worse off than low-income people in every industrialized country but the United Kingdom.

(This comparison does not take into account the fact that low-income households in the U.S. must spend more on services such as health care and child care that are more heavily subsidized in other countries.) At the other end, rich Americans have 42 percent more income than the rich in the other nations.

36. A Few of Nader's Favorite Stats (from alternet.org)

According to Nader, the top 1 percent of the richest Americans have wealth equal to the combined wealth of 95 percent of other Americans: "It used to be said a rising economic tide lifts all boats. Now a rising economic tide lifts all yachts."

Twenty percent of American children live in poverty; in the Netherlands that figure is 3 percent.

The minimum wage today is lower, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than in 1979.

Today's worker works 160 hours longer per year than 25 years ago.

Bill Gates' wealth equals the combined wealth of the poorest 120 million Americans, or 45 percent of our population. "This is a failure of the political system to defend the people."

Less than one in 10 workers belongs to a trade union in the private sector.

Two million Americans are in prisons, 500,000 more than in communist China, which has a 1.3 billion population.

Forty-seven million people work for less than $10 an hour -- this in a decade of sustained economic growth. "With a wage like that, people can't be considered employed despite the fact that they have jobs."

37. CORPORATE POWER...IPS Facts About Global Inequality

1. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations; only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GDPs).

2. The Top 200 corporations' sales are growing at a faster rate than overall global economic activity. Between 1983 and 1999, their combined sales grew from the equivalent of 25.0 percent to 27.5 percent of World GDP.

3. The Top 200 corporations' combined sales are bigger than the combined economies of all countries minus the biggest 10.

4. The Top 200s' combined sales are 18 times the size of the combined annual income of the 1.2 billion people (24 percent of the total world population) living in "severe" poverty.

5. While the sales of the Top 200 are the equivalent of 27.5 percent of world economic activity, they employ only 0.78 percent of the world's workforce.

6. Between 1983 and 1999, the profits of the Top 200 firms grew 362.4 percent, while the number of people they employ grew by only 14.4 percent.

7. A full 5 percent of the Top 200s' combined workforce is employed by Wal-Mart, a company notorious for union-busting and widespread use of part-time workers to avoid paying benefits. The discount retail giant is the top private employer in the world, with 1,140,000 workers, more than twice as many as No. 2, DaimlerChrysler, which employs 466,938.

8. U.S. corporations dominate the Top 200, with 82 slots (41 percent of the total). Japanese firms are second, with only 41 slots.

9. Of the U.S. corporations on the list, 44 did not pay the full standard 35 percent federal corpo-rate tax rate during the period 1996-1998. Seven of the firms actually paid less than zero in federal income taxes in 1998 (because of rebates). These include: Texaco, Chevron, PepsiCo, Enron, Worldcom, McKesson and the world's biggest corporation - General Motors.

10. Between 1983 and 1999, the share of total sales of the Top 200 made up by service sector corporations increased from 33.8 percent to 46.7 percent. Gains were particularly evident in financial services and telecommunications sectors, in whichmost countries have pursued deregulation.

Institute for Policy Studies (http://www.ips-dc.org)
James Ridgeway, Village Voice, Week of February 6 - 12, 2002

A survey of public records and private advocacy groups yields the following financial portrait of the American recession:

Number of millionaires: 2.5 million

Number of billionaires: 298

Richest family: the Waltons

Size of their Walmart fortune: $85 billion

Second richest: Bill Gates, $63 billion

Annual take for Enron's Ken Lay: $49.8 million

Percentage of Americans without pensions: 53

Average percentage lost by a 401(k) last year: 10

Number of people without health care: 43 million

Highest-paid CEO: Michael Dell

His total annual compensation: $235.9 million

Dollar ratio of CEO pay to that of minimum-wage workers: 728:1

People filing for unemployment: 390,000

Number of people who go hungry every day:31 million (including 12 million children)

People spending more than half their income for housing: 5.4 million

Percentage of people who own their own homes: 68

Number of properties owned by Ken Lay: 18, valued at $30 million


http://jagranepaper.com/ePaperArticle/20-nov-2013-edition-Delhi-City-page_8-4746-11814-4.html
38. Land acquisition...*हर सेकेंड एक फुटबाल के मैदान के बराबर अर्थात लगभग 0.72 हेक्टेयर जमीन विकासशील देशों में बहुराष्ट्रीय कम्पनियों द्वारा अधिगृहीत की जा रही है।
**

39. Arms sale: The booming arms sales — rising in barely one decade from a measly $100 million to billions of dollars yearly — have seemingly acquired an independent momentum. Nothing better illustrates this than the fact that, at the height of the Khobragade affair, India, far from seeking to impose any costs on America, awarded it yet another mega-contract — a $1.01-billion deal for supply of six additional C-130J military transport aircraft. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the White House last September, among the gifts he took for President Barack Obama was a commitment to purchase $5 billion worth of new arms

40. Human resource Dhanpat ram ..Sh. Dhanpat Ram ji detailed the global economic senario and the working of WTO and FTAs. Describing the importance of human resource, he told that World Bank has reported that for measuring the country's total wealth the portion of financial assets is 16%, and natural resources 20%, where as the human resource is counted 64%. India being rich in human resource should concentrate on this point.