The GRANITE project being implemented by CUTS (Consumer Unity & Trust Society) in eight Indian states, is a two- year project (beginning from January 2005) aimed at capacity- building of civil society organisations (CSOs), media, grassroots groups, government officials, etc to address complex issues of globalisation and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and their relationship with economic development and governance in India.  

CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART), Jaipur – project partner for Rajasthan – to launch the project in Rajasthan organised a day long meeting on April 14, 2005 at Pink City Press Club, Jaipur. The meeting began with an inaugural session chaired by Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International and addressed by T Srinivasan Srirangam, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries, Government of Rajasthan. This was followed by two panel discussions on the sectors of agriculture and textiles & clothing, focusing on the ‘Opportunities & Challenges’ in both the sectors in the context of Rajasthan’s economy. The panellists were from media, CSOs and government departments. The meeting was attended by over hundred invitees including members of ‘State Reference Group’ that is an informal and interactive body at state level, members of Advisory Committee of CART, resource persons from the local media, representatives of CSOs, donor agencies, various departments of the state government, banking institutions, research institutions, grassroots groups, academicians and members of National Coordinating Unit (NCU) of the project & CART staff.  

Objective

The objective of the meeting was to formally launch the GRANITE project in Rajasthan. It also aimed at bringing all the relevant stakeholders to a common platform, to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the sectors of agriculture and textiles with reference to Rajasthan. 

Key Addresses in the Inaugural Session 

Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International laid emphasis on the National Foreign Trade Policy (NFTP) 2004-09 with its stress on greater export and employment opportunities. He also spoke of the increased role of states in export promotion and stated that the recently proposed Inter-state Trade Council, in the annual supplement (2005) to the NFTP, is an initiative in this direction. The GRANITE project would further advocate for state involvement in export promotion. He also elaborated upon the background of WTO and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with special reference to India.

T Srinivasan Srirangam, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries, Government of Rajasthan, highlighting the key characteristics of the state’s agrarian economy, stated that the key issues of concern in the agriculture sector are food security and livelihood issues. He also stated that policy formulation is now following a more participatory approach, wherein experts are being consulted and asked to identify the potential employment areas prior to the actual policy formulation process. He also mentioned about the WTO cell in the state, which served as an interface between the government and the traders; and elaborating upon the basic characteristics of Rajasthan’s textiles sector said that the dismantling of the quota regime has opened a market of increased competitiveness and the system to be able to meet the changes at the global level should be vibrant enough. 

Highlights of the panel discussion on Agriculture sector  

Moderator: C S Barla, Consulting Economist, Jaipur
Panellists: A K Pachori, Agriculture Research Officer, Government of Rajasthan, Krishna Kumar, CECOEDECON, Jaipur and Sunny Sebastian, Special Correspondent, The Hindu. 

• It was stressed that the sector has to be competitive enough to be able to meet the challenges posed by the international market. However, the competitiveness of small and marginal farmers to face the challenges posed by the international market was debated upon.

• Certain issues that could be taken up as a part of the GRANITE project were identified. These included- scarce water conditions, small and non-viable landholdings, crop diversification to water-intensive crops and lack of awareness amongst farmers as regards their rights. Educating farmers about organic farming, which is beginning to take place in Rajasthan, was also an issue of concern. Nearly 70 percent of the farmers are small and marginal and produced merely for self-sustenance. Thus, the relevance of contract farming for such farmers as well as for others needed to be looked into.

• A divergent viewpoint presented by one of the panellists stated that in view of the scarce water conditions in the state, farmers needed to curtail the agricultural production. Also, a strict monitoring of the cropping patterns was required. In this context, agriculture extension was identified as a missing link in the agro-climatic zones in the state.

• The participants also laid emphasis on the agriculture policy to follow a participatory approach and thus take into consideration all the stakeholders.

Highlights of the panel discussion on textiles & clothing sector 

Moderator: Professor Kanta Ahuja, Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.

Panellists: L C Jain, Incharge, WTO Cell, Rajasthan Secretariat, Government of Rajasthan and
Vimal Jain, Rajasthan Patrika, Jaipur. 

• They discussed the impact of dismantling of the quota regime and the competitiveness of the Indian textile industry to survive in the new competition regime. This new regime has posed opportunities as well as challenges before the industry. The biggest opportunity is that being a labour-intensive sector there would be a significant increase in the number of employment opportunities. However, the biggest challenge is the rise in the levels of competition and the competitiveness of our industry to face the situation. Herein, concern was expressed for the small scale industries (SSIs) that are not competitive enough to survive in the new regime and thus call for special assistance.

• The state’s strengths as well as factors in favour of the industry were identified. These included decrease in the customs duty that has led to an increase in textile exports, greater availability of funds at reduced interest rates, the country’s broad multi-fibre base, 10 percent subsidies given by the government on modern processing machines, etc.

• Similarly, certain areas of improvement were also pointed out. Some of these were – requirement of greater infrastructural support, increase in generation of captive power and lowering of electricity rates. ‘Duty Entitlement Pass Book’ (DEPB) required rationalisation. Effective coordination between power loom, handloom and mills sectors was needed so as to ensure that one does not suffer at the cost of other sectors being promoted.

For more details, please contact:
George Cheriyan
CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART)
D-222, Bhaskar Marg Bani Park, Jaipur 302 016, India
Ph: +91.141.5133259
Fax: 91.141.2282485
E-mail: cart@cuts.org