Innholdsfortegnelse for February 3, 2025 i India Today

THE DRUDGERY For decades, India’s rural heartlands grappled with woefully inadequate road infrastructure. In 2000-01, the country had just 1.97 million km of rural roads. Many villages were connected by muddy trails or khadanja (brick-paved) paths that turned treacherous during the monsoons and remained barely navigable throughout the year. Accessing schools, healthcare and markets was an arduous daily struggle. Farmers, the backbone of rural India, bore the brunt of this isolation. Transporting produce to markets was a Herculean task, with perishable crops often rotting in the absence of reliable and fast road connectivity, slashing incomes and threatening livelihoods. Medical emergencies became life-threatening because hospitals were always very arduous journeys away—even if there were an ambulance facility, the impassable terrain would intervene. This grim scenario epitomised the stark urban-rural divide, leaving…

After the passing of their father two years ago, Chikkaballapur resident Ramesh P. and his four siblings have been working through the process of partitioning their family’s agricultural property. For this, they turned to Dishaank, a smartphone app developed by the Karnataka revenue department. The app provides comprehensive details about any piece of land, including a cadastral map. Using Dishaank, they could draw polygons on the map, measure various permutations, and evaluate options—all from their phone—enabling them to make informed decisions. “We are measuring at home itself and can see who will get how much,” says Ramesh. An additional consideration was a 220 kV electricity line earmarked to pass through their land, requiring an equitable apportionment. “We could calculate that here too,” Ramesh notes. The app, he adds, has been…

THE DRUDGERY Yeh phata hua note nahin chalega (This torn note won’t work).” How many times did a transaction come undone courtesy that one statement, even as you thought the shopkeeper hadn’t noticed it in the sheaf of cash you shoved his way. Or, just when you had taken out friends to a restaurant, you found you had run short of cash, as had the nearest ATM. And were you among those who had saved some Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes for a rainy day, only to find them demonetised in 2016? Or those stuck at home during Covid-19, and discovering the virtue of online payment? If digital payments had a share of 14-19 per cent in March 2021, they more than doubled to 40-48 per cent by March…

THE DRUDGERY Private healthcare can involve ruinous expenses, and millions go bankrupt trying to pay medical bills they can scarcely afford. Most are resigned to never-ending queues at overcrowded government hospitals to get their loved ones medical care, especially since advances in healthcare have meant that many diseases that went untreated earlier can now be cured, whether in a metro or a nearby town. Universal health insurance seemed like a dream for Indians who could only envy healthcare systems in the UK or the Scandinavian countries. Until Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) came along. THE EASE OF LIVING Simply having a public health insurance scheme does not necessarily mean easier access to healthcare. That is why the AB PM-JAY scheme does more than provide health coverage…

THE DRUDGERY Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala and home to 3 million people, is also its most congested city, with vehicles crawling at 9-15 km per hour during peak traffic. It also has a swarm of islands dotting its neighbourhood, some of which, like Vypeen and Cherai, are among the most densely populated areas in the country. Thousands of people ply to the mainland and the interconnected islands everyday for work and pleasure, either by bus or using private vehicles, adding to the chaos on the narrow roads. THE EASE OF LIVING The Kochi water metro project was envisaged to reduce pollution and traffic congestion in the city and also ease access to the mainland for the islanders. To that end, it has identified 15 routes for development, connecting…

THE DRUDGERY A primary reason why agriculture remains a challenging sector in India is the uncertainty over water. In most areas where water is available, poor management negates any potential gains. Farming in India is by the flood irrigation method, where water is released to flow freely in the entire farm, or manually watered. Experts say only 50 per cent of the water is used by the crop, the rest is wasted due to runoff, evaporation or percolation into the soil. The dominant source of water for irrigation in the country is groundwater from tubewells (45 per cent), followed by water from the rivers and their tributaries through canal irrigation method (26 per cent). In both cases, wastage is high, not to mention the electricity cost of drawing water from…

THE DRUDGERY Until recently, obtaining a driving licence in West Bengal was a frustrating ordeal. The state’s Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) were synonymous with bureaucratic sluggishness, operating from disorganised and antiquated facilities. For applicants, stepping into this chaotic system felt like entering a labyrinth—one in which touts loomed large. These middlemen thrived on bribes, offering shortcuts through queues, applications and even driving tests—at a steep cost. Then there was the outdated format of the driving licence itself. Issued as fragile paper documents, these licences were prone to damage and loss, often requiring applicants to endure the inefficient system all over again. THE EASE OF LIVING The West Bengal transport department has revamped the process of obtaining a driving licence, introducing a streamlined, largely online system lauded for its simplicity and…

THE DRUDGERY For a long time, navigating airports before boarding a flight robbed the joy out of any journey by air. The check-in process, often the first hurdle, meant having to stand in long queues and rifling through boarding passes and identity proofs. A simple oversight, like forgetting an ID at home, could completely derail travel plans. For new or infrequent flyers, the process could be especially nerve-wracking. At every stage—from the entry gate to baggage drop and security screening—flyers would be asked to produce documents and subjected to manual checks. It also meant they had to pass through a series of cumbersome touchpoints. The stress of ensuring every document was in order while trying to stay on schedule made flying an anxiety-laden experience for many. A convenient solution to…

THE DRUDGERY For the longest time, the average Indian household was engaged in an everlasting feud—for control of the TV remote. With only 10 per cent of the population interested in and able to go to the cinema, it was a significant battle to win. Stereotypically, dads watched news and sports, moms their mushy soaps and kids had their hours restricted and viewing monitored. By the 2010s, Indians tired of the monotonous TV fare, and hungry for fresher programming, had already been turning to YouTube to get their fix of entertainment. But, barring the odd The Viral Fever (TVF) web series like Pitchers and Permanent Roommates, options for desi fare were limited to watching what had already run on television. EASE OF LIVING This state of affairs finally ended…

THE DRUDGERY Less than 10 years ago, driving on India’s highways was an exercise in patience that would test even the coolest of drivers. Just when you thought you were making good time on your road trip, a toll plaza would loom ahead, with a long line of cars in queue, as drivers fumbled with cash and argued over exact change. Sometimes, there would be violence. Rush hours and holiday season compounded the ordeal, when the long wait could last hours. Trucks and commercial vehicles fared worse, as waiting at the toll plaza not only meant wastage of fuel but also a disruption in delivery schedules. Manual systems meant limited transparency plus revenue leaks. Toll workers grappled with issues like cash handling, fake bills and the constant risk of theft.…

THE DRUDGERY On July 31, 1995, when the then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu made India’s first mobile phone call from Writers’ Building in Kolkata to the then Union telecom minister Sukh Ram at the Sanchar Bhawan in New Delhi, little did anyone know the instrument would become a great leveller in the next few decades. Certainly not when you had to dish out roughly Rs 4,900 for a pre-paid SIM card and pay a calling rate of Rs 17 per minute at peak traffic hours for incoming or outgoing calls, beyond the purse of the aam aadmi. Internet telephony? Beyond the pale of their imagination. The advent of 3G in 2001 brought with it global roaming, email and video streaming on mobile phones, and that of 4G in…

Once a muddy, impassable track, the 1.2 km PMGSY stretch connecting Pure Deewan to NH 28 at Arjunpur is now a smooth, all-weather road. Built a decade ago, it has not only transformed Pure Deewan’s fortunes but has also unlocked opportunities for over 50 other villages in the region. “Earlier, vehicles would frequently get stuck. We relied on khadanja (brick-laid) roads, which barely lasted and became unusable during monsoons,” says Jitendra. Initially narrow, the road was later widened and repaired in 2022.“Even bicycles struggled during the rains,” Jitendra recalls. Today, tractors, trucks and heavy vehicles move easily. Trucks carrying cement and other goods reach the village regularly, leading to the establishment of construction material shops and new employment opportunities. Farmers benefit greatly, transporting crops like sugarcane and wheat to markets…

THE DRUDGERY Not long ago, a “superfast” train journey in India, like Delhi to Varanasi for instance, still meant spending 10-12 hours on the move—food, sleep, and multiple trips to dirty toilets included. Trains that averaged 70-80 kmph over long distances were considered fast enough. Comfort was often an afterthought—passengers endured tight seating, bumpy rides and outdated facilities on most routes. The Shatabdi Express, introduced in 1988, had ushered in speed and comfort, reaching 110-150 kmph, but it still lagged far behind global standards. Automatic doors and modular toilets had yet to make an appearance, and plush interiors could be found only in brochures. Frequent stops and unpredictable schedules made long-distance travel tedious, leaving passengers to find solace in fleeting views of the countryside or conversations with co-travellers. THE EASE…

Sanjivani has been selling baskets and flower pots made out of bamboo and fibre wires for 30 years now. All the adults in their joint family of 12 follow the tradition of making baskets, sourcing the bamboo from the nearby forest and the fibre wires from Baramati and Satara, some 245 kilometres away from Alibaug. On any given day, they walk the 30-minute stretch from their village to the Poynad market or by the side of the highway to Alibaug, a major attraction for tourists due to its beaches and forts dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Sanjivani used to make Rs 500-600 a day, the payments collected mostly in cash. A year ago, though, she began to accept payments in UPI, through a QR code sourced…

THE DRUDGERY Till very recently, eating out was occasion-led and most Indians ate home-cooked meals. Moreover, dining out was considered a discretionary expense, even a luxury. For those who couldn’t or didn’t want to cook, the alternatives were limited to leftovers, instant food, or placing an order over the phone with a neighbourhood restaurant. However, as only a few restaurants offered home delivery, access to different cuisines was severely limited. Even if an order was placed, miscommunication, lack of delivery personnel or confusion over addresses resulted in delays. For instant gratification, such as a late-night snack, people fell back on the trusted instant noodles or a cheese sandwich. THE EASE OF LIVING The arrival of food delivery apps changed all of this. These platforms provided consumers with a much wider…

THE DRUDGERY A vailing government welfare scheme benefits was an ordeal, with rent-seeking at multiple stages—application, approval and distribution. Beneficiaries received shares as low as 30 per cent of the due amount while the rest was siphoned off as cuts by government officials. The welfare ecosystem was also marred by issues such as fund diversions, duplicate payments, complex sanctions, fraudulent claimants accessing benefits and the exclusion of deserving individuals. Not to mention the endless trips to government offices, collating numerous documents, securing multiple sanctions and greasing the palms of many individuals encountered along the way. THE EASE OF LIVING Launched 12 years ago, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has revolutionised the disbursement of welfare benefits, plugging the gaps that plagued the delivery mechanism in government schemes. DBT has become critical for…

A lawyer by profession, Astrid says the best part about the Water Metro ride is that it relaxes her. Earlier, she used to take the bus, spending almost an hour to reach office at the high court from her home in Veli, a suburb in Fort Kochi. Taking the Water Metro from the Fort Kochi jetty, she reaches her office now in just 20 minutes. A first-generation lawyer, she joined her law firm after passing out from Ernakulam Government Law College. “I also love the Water Metro for another reason. It’s green and does not disturb our sensitive marine ecosystems. We need public transport systems that are less polluting. I don’t mind paying more for my daily trip because I know I’m contributing towards keeping the future generation healthy,”…

THE DRUDGERY Citizen-government interactions in India—whether for payment of government fees/taxes/duties, procurement of documents or registering for welfare schemes—had for decades been characterised by inefficiency, lack of transparency and poor accessibility. Heavily dependent on manual processes, citizens faced challenges in availing of government services. There were also endless delays, marked by multiple rounds to government offices, as files inched from desk to desk. Corruption, too, would rear its ugly head all too often. The lack of integration among government departments further hampered service delivery. Awareness about schemes and services remained limited. The outcome? Enormous loss of time and productivity. THE EASE OF LIVING The gradual adoption of electronic governance, or e-governance, built on new infotech tools and aided by a digitalised bank of pre-existing data, is changing all that. In…

Till 15 years back, Lalit Patel would harvest just one crop of cotton a year. Prudent water management, and the state’s Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme have meant he can now harvest up to three diverse crops. His income has gone up from Rs 25,000 per hectare a season to Rs 1.25 lakh per hectare. The Gujarat government first introduced the micro-irrigation scheme in 2005 and Patel was among the first farmers to sign up and have drip irrigation and sprinkler systems installed on his 15-acre farm. By 2010, every farm in the village of 100-odd households, with some 460 hectares between them, had switched to the micro-irrigation systems. “Now, after harvesting the cotton crop in October-November, we grow musk melon for the three months of winter. After that,…

THE DRUDGERY For generations, India’s fisherfolk have navigated the uncertainties of the sea, only to face challenges onshore—poor infrastructure, post-harvest losses and low incomes. Stakeholders in the fisheries sector point out that despite the industry’s economic importance, employment potential and the nutritional value of fish, it has long struggled due to a lack of modern infrastructure. Key components, such as deepsea fishing vessels, harbours, fish-landing hubs, advanced wholesale and retail markets, fish feed plants and a robust cold chain—essential for preserving seafood from sea to fork—remain underdeveloped. The cold chain, which includes the supply of block ice for fishing trawlers and tube ice for processing facilities, is particularly crucial given seafood’s perishable nature. Yet, ice shortages during the peak fishing season (September to December) drive up prices and disrupt operations.…

Years ago, Uddalak Bose got a driving licence—printed on a piece of paper—issued through a private driving school in Gurugram. To his surprise, when he went to get it renewed in 2023, no government record could corroborate its authenticity. This left Bose, now a banker based in Kolkata, reliant on cabs and public transport until he could obtain a new licence—this time through West Bengal’s newly streamlined system. Bose applied online, receiving a learner’s licence immediately. Within a month, he passed the driving test and was issued a provisional licence. Despite encountering minor issues while accessing the portal, he completed the process mostly “hassle-free”. “One doesn’t have to face the infamous red tapism anymore,” says Bose, though he points out that navigating the RTO office and portal without “assistance” is…

THE DRUDGERY Delving into the pink market listings, tracking stock movements, staying glued to business channels and chasing brokers for insights were once the preoccupation of investors navigating the complexities of scrip trading. Deterred by the unwieldy system, investors had to rely heavily on intermediaries, leaving them vulnerable to questionable advice and delays in executing orders. Opening demat and trading accounts was cumbersome, involving extensive paperwork, in-person verifications and significant delays. The advent of online trading in February 2000 offered a glimmer of hope, but remained an elite domain for years, limited to those with desktops and stable internet connections. For those constantly on the move or from semi-urban and rural areas, barriers persisted, leaving them cut off from real-time market action and burdened by additional costs. THE EASE OF…

THE DRUDGERY Getting up at the crack of dawn. Collecting all the pots in the house and making your way to the nearest well or hand pump, joining an endless queue. An interminable wait for the trickle to fill your vessels. And the long march back home, a tower of pots perched precariously on your head. That was long the fate of women in India, losing 150 million work days every year collecting water, according to the NGO International Development Organisation. Summer brought with it dread, and the prospect of no water. Many bored deep into the ground to strike the elixir of life, but the surfeit of borewells sucked the ground dry. Tap connection was a luxury 82 per cent of India’s rural households had never encountered till six…

THE DRUDGERY Bribes to government officials, land-related fraud, delays, disputes, farmers’ inability to access bank loans…the problems associated with the manual keeping of land records were all too familiar. Aware of this drawback, the central government had launched a pilot programme as far back as in 1989 to computerise land records. But with ground realities varying from state to state, that project proceeded in fits and starts. Even today, computerisation of land records is pending in 24,257 villages across India. The coverage is the lowest in the states in the northeast—Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur—according to data by the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP). THE EASE OF LIVING By 2002, Karnataka’s revenue department had become the first in India to digitise the Record of Rights, Tenancy and…

THE DRUDGERY India’s school education system ranks among the largest globally, encompassing nearly 1.5 million schools, over 9.8 million teachers, and approximately 248 million students spanning pre-primary to higher secondary levels. But foundational learning has been a challenge. The 2023 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) highlights a stark reality: one-fourth of students aged 14-18 struggle to read a Class II-level text in their regional languages. The disparity between affluent and poorer students exacerbates the issue—with their parents thwarted by forbidding private education costs, underprivileged students are marooned in underfunded schools. Online education offers a transformative solution to these structural challenges by democratising access to quality learning resources. THE EASE OF LIVING Digital learning platforms now provide students with high-quality content from anywhere, effectively breaking the constraints of geography and…

THE DRUDGERY The daily struggle of managing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders was once a defining feature of urban households in India. From booking to handling, storing and ensuring timely replacements, the process was fraught with inefficiencies. As a net importer of LPG, India’s reliance on a sprawling distributor network often revealed gaps in the supply chain. Delays, hoarding, corruption and rationing—typically restricted to one cylinder per 45 days—were widespread, leaving rural and remote areas underserved. These inefficiencies discouraged oil marketing companies (OMCs) from expanding into difficult terrains, forcing many to rely on polluting alternatives like kerosene, coal, firewood and agricultural waste for cooking. The complex subsidy structure, with colour-coded cylinders for residential and commercial use, added to the challenges, fostering systemic corruption and draining the exchequer. THE EASE OF…

THE DRUDGERY For rural populations residing in thatched huts and makeshift houses, the challenges of everyday living are overwhelming. Other than the ravages of extreme weather, living practices mostly keep their abode misaligned with health objectives: ill-ventilated rooms and kitchens are common, and toilets, of course, are absent. According to NFHS (National Family Health Survey) data from 2016, when PMAY-G was launched, only 56.3 per cent of the population then had the good fortune of living in a pucca house. THE EASE OF LIVING In 1985, the Indira Awas Yojana was launched to provide housing for the poor, but glaring gaps persisted even after 30 years. Recognising the need for transformative action, the government launched the Prime Minister Awas Yojana-Gramin, or PMAY-G, in 2016. The mission is simple—provide pucca houses…

THE DRUDGERY Driving through traffic, sweating for a parking space, jostling for shopping items amid the crush in a shop, finding what you wanted but not the right size, standing in a long queue for payment… Shopping was a nightmare experience for many. Heat, rain and the cold added to the ordeal, as did festivals or discount shoppers. And heaven forbid if you lived in a small town or village where branded wear was alien, or were a price-conscious customer. For the first, you’d have to make your way to the nearest city. For the second, you’d have to physically trudge from outlet to outlet before you found the right thing at the right price. Things did ease up with the arrival of the shopping mall, with everything under one…

THE DRUDGERY The lack of access to reliable information on market prices, demand trends and buyers directly impacted the incomes of farmers and their ability to realise fair prices, leaving them at the mercy of middlemen. What also complicated matters is that the conventional APMC (Agricultural Produce & Livestock Market Committee) mandis required farmers to bring their produce for the physical auction. This meant incurring logistics costs and, in the event that a fair price was not got, it impacted the farmer’s ability to store the crops. All these factors together made the middlemen/traders/intermediaries dominant in the supply chain. They determined the price of the crop, not the farmer. The inevitable result: price manipulation, aided by unfair practices such as whimsical quality assessments. The farmer couldn’t even complain when his…

Deep in the tribal belt of South Gujarat’s Tapi district, internet was a rarity as recently as 2022. Those who had a smartphone could be seen staring at it restlessly as mobile connectivity was unstable and slow. It was then that the gram panchayat of Sakarda village in Uchchhal taluka got broadband connectivity under BharatNet. One of the beneficiaries was Sakarda Primary School—and its 165 students and seven teachers across Grades 1-8. “Now, all classes have a smart board on which we receive elaborate study material to help teachers with complex subjects,” says Vijay Gamit, the school principal who also teaches Grades 3-5. “Students are far more excited about school now as we show them online videos on laptops to supplement textbook learning.” Children also get to attend online yoga…

THE DRUDGERY As an expanding middle class, driven by India’s post-liberalisation boom of the 1990s, found itself wanting to travel abroad, be it for tourism, business or education, it encountered a frequent barrier to that ambition—getting a passport in time. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) struggled with inadequate infrastructure and outdated systems, with processing times stretching into weeks and even months. A major bottleneck was the police verification process, notorious for inefficiency and corruption. Bribery demands were rampant and refusal often led to deliberate delays or unwarranted hurdles. The limited number of passport offices and serpentine queues forced desperate applicants to turn to touts who made easy money by exploiting the system’s inefficiencies. Despite efforts toward automation and decentralisation, the manual processes persisted, resulting in errors and delays and…