Millet Mission Odisha wins two SKOCH Awards

The Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas (Millet Mission Odisha) has won the SKOCH Award 2017 - Silver, and the SKOCH Order-of-Merit. These were conferred at the 50th SKOCH summit held at Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, 20-21 December 2017.

Millet Mission Delegates with SKOCH Order-of-Merit Award at Constitution Club of India, 20 December 2017.
Left to Right: Ms Diptimayee Jena, Dr Chitta Ranjan Das, Mr Pankaj Kumar, Mr Rameswar Mirdha, Prof Srijit Mishra, Mr Sadananda Majhi, Mr Ramani Ranjan Nayak, Ms Rashmi Rekha Samal.

The SKOCH Order-of-Merit was conferred to the Millet Mission Odisha for being among the top 30 Transformational Innovation Projects in India. From among these, Millet Mission Odisha was selected and conferred the SKOCH Award 2017 - Silver at the concluding session of the 50th SKOCH summit. The selection for these awards went through a rigorous process: scrutiny of application, jury evaluation based on presentation, on-line voting, and experts opinion plus delegates voting at the Summit.

SKOCH Award 2017 - Silver conferred to Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas being received by Prof Srijit Mishra, Director, NCDS on 21 December 2017, Mavlankar Sabhagrih, Constitution Club of India, New Delhi.
Left to Right: Mrs. Manisha Kochhar, Mrs Pratibha Phatak, Dr Gursharan Dhanjal, Dr. DB Phatak, Mr. NK singh,
Mr. Sameer Kochhar, Dr. M Ramachandran, Prof.Srijit Mishra, Prof. VN Alok, Mr. Rohan Kochhar, Mr. Nirmal Bansal.

The innovation for the Programme lies in the institutional architecture where Government of Odisha (through Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment under the aegis of Planning and Convergence Department), Civil Society (led by Watershed Support Services Network (WASSAN) as Programme Secretariat) and Academia (Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS) as State Secretariat) have come together to complement and supplement each other for a people-centric initiative to facilitate nutrition security and address climate resilience.

In this endeavour, Government, Civil Society and Academia have come together from day one starting from conception, to planning, to preparing guidelines, to implementation. The institutional architecture has been designed to draw upon the advantages of each entity, but also by providing space for flexibility that is required for a collective endeavour and to address emerging concerns.

To address the demand versus supply mismatch (or Chicken-Egg paradox), a framework with concurrent emphasis on production, consumption, processing, and marketing has been designed

The implementation of the programme brings together science and tradition. The knowledge of improved agronomic practices (line transplantation and system of root intensification) and use of suitable equipment (for instance, weeder) was superimposed on the understanding of local biodiversity and existing agricultural practices.

In its first year of implementation (Khari 2017), the programme is operational in 28 blocks across seven districts (Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nuapada, and Rayagada) and  Millet production has been taken up in 7,444 acres by 13,457 farmers. The Project Director, Agricultural Technology Management Agency (PD, ATMA) is the nodal agency at the district level who along with the Programme Secretariat work at each block with the Facilitating Agencies (FAs) to implement the programme through the Community Based Organisations (CBOs). The crop cutting experiments have been promising with yield measured at 4-8 quintals/acre for line transplantation and at 6.5 to 14 quintals/acre for system of root intensification. The Government of Odisha is planning to extend the programme to 27 additional blocks in Kharif 2018.

Initiatives are being taken for pilot inclusion of millets in State Nutrition Programmes (SNPs - Anganwadi's, Mid-day Meals and Ashram Schools) and linking them to the Public Distribution System (PDS). An urban internship has been launched to spread knowledge on the health benefits, create awareness on contemporary as also traditional recipes, and provide a market for the produce.

Millet Mission Odisha will be an important partner in the initiative on National Nutrition Mission and in spirit is with the Government of India's call to the United Nations to make 2018 as the International Year of Millets.

The application for consideration of SKOCH Innovation Award 2017 was submitted by NCDS the State Secretariat for the Mission. The Director of NCDS, Professor Srijit Mishra who is also spearheading the activities of the State Secretariat had made the presentation for jury evaluation in November 2017. He has received the two awards at the 50th SKOCH summit on behalf of all the stakeholders of Millet Mission Odisha.

See two earlier related blogs

Millet Mission at 50th SKOCH summit

Millet Mission Nominated for SKOCH Award

Nir-Aadhaar

In discussing Aadhaar, this note raises concerns on the possibility of abdication of responsibility by the Government, on possible collusion between the executive and the legislature, on silence with regard to exclusion errors, and on violation of a basic concept of jurisprudence. Hence, not ruling out denial of entitlement, or, Nir-Aadhaar.  

I have already written about Aadhaar earlier. These are with regard to Aadhaar, Radiagate and Cablegate,  If a Lie is told Three Times, Right to Privacy, Aadhaar and Democracy (also re-posted at LSE blog), and Aadhaar Interim Order Calls for Some Clarification. All these were written before the Aadhaar Act 2016 and before a nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India gave an unanimous judgement that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right.

The concerns on privacy raised in my earlier blogs have been vindicated by the Supreme Court Judgement. However, the judgement was not linked to legality of Aadhaar, privacy or otherwise, as that is to be dealt by an independent bench. These are matters of procedural propriety. As an aside, one wonders, whether Artificial Intelligence (AI), in a Digital+ world could reduce the associated time lapses. Nevertheless, before we concede ourselves to an AI world (Aadhaar-linked or otherwise), I would like to raise some additional concerns from a human or, should I say, humane perspective. 

The Abdication of Responsibility by the Government 

It is worrying to note that, as in the right to privacy adjudication, it is a motley of individuals who took up the case for their rights. As against them, the Government was arguing that the Constitution of India does not confer any right to privacy. The Government took a position by interpreting an earlier judgement where 'right to privacy' was denied when an individual or entity used it to hide some illegality. It is true that such conflicts can always arise when there are multiple concerns that the Government has to address. But, the question that props up is should it not be the Government's responsibility to have suo moto taken an initiative to address the relevance of right to privacy over policing/regulatory concerns. In such sensitive matters, if the Government takes a one-sided position then should it not be construed as an abdication of their responsibility.

This abdication of responsibility should also be true in the case of Aadhaar because while the Government considers it to be a tool to facilitate provisioning of entitlements, it is designed to address policing/regulatory concerns and in so doing it gives a greater emphasis to aspects that facilitates exclusion over inclusion. I will come to a discussion on exclusion versus inclusion concerns later. But, before that, it is important to raise concerns on a possible collusion between the executive and the legislature.

Collusion Between Executive and Legislature  

There are no two opinions about the need for different organs of the State to complement and supplement each other. But, this coming together should be for the people. Unfortunately, the coming together can also be used to subvert the in-built checks and balances. This is particularly so between the executive and the legislature, as the executive head of the Government also has a command over the legislature. Besides, it can even bypass the Judiciary by amending existing statutes or by making new ones. 

In the case of Aadhaar, the legal sanctity has been provided through a money bill. Its initial articulation for provisioning of entitlements has become secondary as such provisioning also entail monetary transactions. The Central as also the State Governments are all in sync and want to link all entitlements to Aadhaar. 

Advantages argued in favour of Aadhaar-linked transactions is that it would enable direct cash transfer to the intended individual, it would reduce transaction costs with respect to procedures, and it would reduce leakages. This gives the impression that the linking will foster inclusion, but is silent on possibilities of exclusion. This is surprising because, in provisioning of entitlements, greater importance should be given to exclusion errors.  Hence, it does raise eyebrows on whether the silence on exclusion errors is deliberate. Even if the silence is an oversight that is not deliberate and even if the intentions are well-meaning, it does show that through an articulation that is seemingly inclusive there emerges an implicit collusion between the executive and the legislature that is numb to exclusion.

Exclusion versus Inclusion Errors  

An exclusion error happens when a deserving person is excluded whereas an inclusion error happens when a non-deserving person is included. Between the two, the former is considered serious, that is, no deserving person should be excluded even if in the process of ensuring this some non-deserving persons get included. Now, if a programme or scheme is universal (for instance, mid-day meals in schools for each and every child) then every child is included and there is no exclusion error. As against this, if a programme or scheme is not implemented (say, no mid-day meals in a school because there was no ration) then there is no inclusion error (no possibility of a non-student partaking mid-day meals). 

In reality, both errors are possible. Sometimes inevitable. For instance, some students could not get mid-day meal because they came to school late just at the mealtime and food was not cooked for them and there could be instances where some authorities partake mid-day meals cooked at schools to ensure that quality is maintained. But there can be situations where these errors are intentional - denial of mid-day meals to some children so that authorities can partake.

It is even possible to show additional ghost entries in school attendance and siphon-off funds apportioned towards mid-day meals. Technically, this is an inclusion error. But, in plainspeak, this is a matter of corruption. It is touted that an Aadhaar-linked attendance system can address such concerns. Well, and good! But, then, what about the possibilities of exclusion errors. What if a student does not have Aadhaar? What if a student's Aadhaar does not match? What if there is no electricity or no internet connectivity? And, so on and so forth.

Invoking A Basic Concept of Jurisprudence

A basic concept of jurisprudence is to err on the side of innocence, that is, many culprits may go unpunished, but no innocent should be punished. This is akin to being lenient for inclusion errors but there should be no single case of exclusion error. In other words, no deserving person should be excluded from the intended programme or scheme.

Privacy or not, there are umpteen evidences where Aadhaar-linked transactions can lead to exclusion. It may be argued that a system trying to correct irregularities may have some costs. Unfortunately, these costs are to be borne by those for whom the entitlements are intended.

For instance, in the mid-day meals scheme nearly 10 crore (or 100 million) children are entitled to receive noon meal every day. Now, if for whatever reason there is one child for every 100 who is denied food then it implies that one lakh children would be denied food per day. Such exclusions could be higher for children in schools without access to electricity or internet where, incidentally, the incidence of under-nutrition are relatively higher. Even if such exclusion is limited to only one child per day then also it is akin to punishing an innocent. In other words, Aadhaar cannot rule out exclusion, and hence, does fail the test of a basic concept of jurisprudence. It is about denial of entitlement, Nir-Aadhaar.

Conclusion
A reading of the path taken by the Government with regard to Aadhaar (or, even privacy) conveys that there has been an abdication of responsibility. It is worrying that this path surmounts to a collusion by the executive and the legislature. This is so because in its efforts to do away with inclusion errors it is silent on exclusion errors. Even if unintentional, this violates a basic concept of jurisprudence, as it could deny entitlements. Or, in the guise of Aadhaar, it is Nir-Aadhaar.

[The views expressed are that of the author and not that of the institutions/organisations that the author is associated with. Comments are welcome.]

Millet Mission at 50th SKOCH summit

The Millet Mission Odisha (Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas) has won the SKOCH Order-of-Merit, which will be conferred during the 50th SKOCH summit being held at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, during 20-21 December 2017. This was based on Jury evaluation from a presentation (also see SlideShare and video from 24 minutes onwards).  The Mission is also in the race for SKOCH Award 2017, which is also dependent on the delegate votes. Hence, this is a request to delegates at the summit on why you should at least visit our booth (#24) and be a part of the millet mission.

• The programme is based on an Institutional Architecture that brought together three pillars of progress - Government, Civil Society and Academia for a people-centric initiative to facilitate nutrition security and climate resilience.
• It will be an important partner in the Government of India's call to UN to make 2018 as the International Year of Millets and in the initiative on National Nutrition Mission. 
• To address the demand versus supply mismatch (or Chicken-Egg paradox), a framework with concurrent emphasis on  production, consumption, processing, and marketing has been designed.
• It brought together science and tradition. The knowledge of improved agronomic practices and use of suitable equipment was superimposed on the understanding of local biodiversity and existing agricultural practices to facilitate climate resilient agriculture that is sustainable.
• Initiatives are being taken for pilot inclusion of millets in State Nutrition Programmes (SNPs)  and the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• There is scope to scale these initiatives both within and outside the state and also to converge it with other agricultural schemes.
• Its urban internship is meant to spread knowledge on the health benefits, create awareness on contemporary as also traditional recipes, and provide a market for the produce.

The Millet Mission initiative also resonates in spirit with most of the Jai Hind Keynote lectures of the 50th SKOCH summit. To wit:

• Millet Mission will facilitate 'Naya Grameen Bharat' being envisaged by Narendra Singh Tomar, Honourable Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Rural Development and Mines.
• It will transform tribal areas, similar to the story of 'Transforming Madhya Pradesh' by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Honourable Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
• It does combine science and technology to facilitate new agronomic practices and in that sense is also about 'Transformational Technological Changes for India 2030' by YS Chowdary, Honourable Minister of State for Science and Technology.
• It is about climate-resilient sustainable agriculture along with a new institutional architecture to facilitate governance and hence does echo 'Sustainable Development and Indian Economic Governance' by Ashok Chawla, Chairman, TERI.
• Being a pro-people agricultural intervention, it also echoes the sentiments of 'Agricultural Growth and Poverty Elimination' by Ashok Gulati, Infosys Chair Professor, ICRIER.
• Focusing on interventions that are knowledge-intensive, it is also about 'Enhancing Indian Investments' by Suresh Prabhu, Hounourable Union Minister for Commerce and Industry.
• With a focus on marginalised population, it will have some lessons from below for 'A Macro Economic View for India for 2030' by Indira Rajaraman, Economist.
• Bringing together a host of civil society groups and volunteers working pro bono, it does reflect 'Legitimising Lobying and Advocacy' by Dilip Cherian, Founding Partner and Group Chairman, Perfect Relationsc.
• In enhancing of livelihood for tribal farmers the mission will also contribute to 'The Road to a $10 Trillion Economy' by Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
• Emphasis on capabilities of local population and small enterprises would be in sync with 'Job Generative Economic Agenda' by Bijayant Jay Panda, Honourable Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.
• A programme that by design is inclusive does have an audience for 'Universal Basic Income' by Haseeb Drabu, Honourable Finance Minister, Jammu & Kashmir. 
• The proposed urban internship may draw on lessons from 'Urban Development India 2030' by M Ramachandran, Former Urban Swcretary and Distinguished Fellow, SKOCH Developmet Foundation.
• Protection of tribal livelihoods from unforeseen influences is akin to 'Protecting Virtual Borders' by Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator.
• Concern for people (or, economy) may get echoed in 'Monetary Policy and Fiscal Framework: The Route of India 2030' by Ashima Goyal, IGIDR and Part-time Member, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister. 
• A people-centric policy initiative for the excluded cannot not be part of 'Political Economy: Requisites for New India' by Lord Meghnad Desai, Founder and Chairman, Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics.
• The need to engage with multiple stakeholders and an approach that acknowledges diversity in cropping patterns and agro-climatic conditions would in some tangential sense may benefit from the lessons from 'Multilateralism and India 2030' by Shaktikanta Das, G20, Sherpa, and Member, 15th Finance Commission.
• The plans to pay farmers through direct benefit transfer after validating practices through mobile apps would fit into 'A Digital Path to India 2030' by Pranjal Sharma, Member, Advisory Board, PACI, World Economic Forum.
• To go beyond urban and to bring in the excluded could be important concerns for 'FinTech Power India' by S Ganesh Kumar, Executive Director, RBI.
• Larger concern for the excluded, or as we say on scheduled crops for scheduled population may have important lessons for 'Fiscal Federalism and India 2030' by NK Singh, Chairman, 15th Finance Commission.

In summary, one may mention that the Millet Mission is a people-centric initiative involving Government, Civil Society and Academia for climate resilience and nutrition security. In doing so, it also gives us lessons on a host of other things that include inclusiveness, convergence, and governance among others. 

An earlier note on the Millet Mission that also discussed about challenges and the strategies to overcome these challenges is available here.