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10 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS
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MUMBAI | TUESDAY, 5 JUNE 2018 1

Making India trans fats-free not binding on all nations, most coun-
tries seem to have taken it seriously.
Fortunately, India is also among them.
Some high-income countries have
pati. In fact, many households also use
vanaspati as the cooking medium.
Reheating and re-use of the oils, which
boosts their trans fats content, is also
> CHINESE WHISPERS

The health objectives of the move would only be partially served till the
unorganised sector is brought into the loop
ucts. These are basically trans-unsat-
urated fatty acids which clog the arter-
ies to heighten the risk of coronary
diseases and heart attacks besides
contributing to the development of
type-two diabetes, hypertension and
obesity. They increase the level of “bad
cholesterol” (low-density lipoprotein
or LDL) and decrease that of “good
cholesterol” (high-density lipoprotein
or HDL) in the blood.
FARM VIEW The WHO data indicates that diets
high in trans fats raise the risk of heart
SURINDER SUD problems by 21 per cent and deaths by
28 per cent. Over 500,000 people die
calorie diet, the WHO maintains.
The main natural sources of trans
fats are dairy products and meats of
ruminants like cattle, goats and sheep.
Vegetable oils normally contain only
small amounts of unsaturated fatty
acids. Trans fats develop when these
oils are hydrogenated (by adding
hydrogen) to solidify them and sta-
bilise their flavour. Partially hydro-
genated fats are used extensively in
processed and packaged snack foods to
prolong their shelf life, improve tex-
ture and enhance taste. The trans fats-
rich foods include baked items like
legally barred the production and use of
industrially produced trans fats. India’s
food regulator, the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI),
has capped the permissible content of
trans fats in foods at 5 per cent, lower-
ing it from the earlier 10 per cent. But
this limit is observed largely by the pro-
ducers of processed and packaged
foods in the organised sector.
The unorganised food sector is, by
and large, oblivious of these restrictions.
Besides, though the FSSAI has mandat-
ed the food processors to mention the
actual content of trans fats on the labels
of the products, this is often done in very
small type size to make it hard to deci-
pher. In some cases, the information on
the labels is misleading as well.
common in India. Unfortunately, most
housewives and food vendors, as also Pakoda redux
most consumers, are unaware of the
adverse effects of trans fats.
However, regardless of the poor
enforcement of food standards — which
must be suitably addressed — the
FSSAI’s keenness to purge trans fats from
foods is appreciable. It reportedly
intends to lower the maximum limit of
trans fats in vegetable oils and hydro-
genated vegetable oils to 2 per cent by
weight as part of its goal to make India
trans fats-free by 2022, a year ahead of
the WHO’s target. But the task is not easy.
Even if the FSSAI manages to get the
processed food industry’s cooperation
in this endeavour, the health objectives
of the move would only be partially The humble pakoda has become the
leitmotif of political squabbles today.

B
y fixing 2023 as the deadline to
eliminate health-injurious trans
fats from the food chain globally,
the World Health Organisation (WHO)
has essentially sought to spur the coun-
tries to expedite phasing out these fats
and stopping their use in food prod-
and many times more suffer from
coronary ailments every year due to
the consumption of these fats. The
total trans fat intake should ideally be
limited to less than 1 per cent of the
total energy intake which translates
to less than 2.2 gm per day in a 2,000-
cakes, pastries, biscuits and pizzas;
fried foods like potato chips, French
fries, doughnuts and fried chicken; and
various Indian fried snacks like pako-
das, samosas and tikkies. Some mar-
garines also contain tans fats.
Though the WHO-dictated target is
The typical Indian foods and snacks
vended by the roadside eating joints and
even those cooked at homes are gener-
ally loaded with trans fats. These include
popular desi fast foods, such as bhat-
uras, poories, pakodas and tikkies, which
are often fried in trans fats-rich vanas-
served till the unorganised sector is also
brought into the loop. This cannot be
done through legal means alone. A
massive awareness drive would be
needed for this purpose. .
surinder.sud@gmail.com
Speaking at an event organised by the
Maharashtra Congress unit on Monday,
former finance minister P Chidambaram
mocked the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana
under which loans of up to ~1000,000 are
provided to small/micro enterprises. “The
average amount of disbursed Mudra loan is
~43,000 per person. No major investment
can be done with such low amount, except

Powering the last house

one wants to run a pakoda stall,"
Chidambaram said in an apparent reference
to an earlier comment by the Prime Minister
that a person earning ~200 a day by selling
pakodas is also employed.
Electricity access for all villages is an achievement. Connecting households and providing customer service are bigger challenges
enabling infrastructure, such as trans- el administrators. Each state, each dis- Question of ethics
formers and electricity pylons, in trict and each village will face a dif- The fight between Bihar Chief Minister and
place. If 10 per cent of households in a ferent set of implementation issues. Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar and
village have a power connection, and And even after the last-mile con- his former party colleague, Sharad Yadav,
public places such as schools and pan- nect, the next challenge (stage three) is has become personal. Last year, Yadav
chayat offices have power, that village to keep the network regularly and pro- had rebelled against Kumar’s decision to
is defined as electrified. fessionally serviced. It makes little ally with Bharatiya Janata Party. On a plea
The bigger challenge now relates sense to talk of village electrification if from the JD (U), Yadav was disqualified
to the next two stages — connecting households are connected to the grid, from the Rajya Sabha. Now JD (U) Secretary
every household in the village to the but face power blackouts for days on General RCP Singh has moved the
grid, and finally, putting in place a sys- end because a faulty transformer has Supreme Court requesting Yadav be
tem of regular customer service, not been repaired, or electricity poles, thrown out of the Lutyens bungalow he
INFRATALK billing and maintenance, which will damaged in a thunderstorm, are occupies. Singh has argued that Yadav is
ensure that rural families actually get left unfixed. "using the official bungalow to further
VINAYAK CHATTERJEE
electricity on a regular basis, are fair- It also makes little sense to talk of damage the JD (U)". On his part, Yadav has
ly charged for it, and have access to village electrification if power distri- argued the JD (U), at the behest of the BJP,
is victimising him because of his efforts

A
t end-April 2018, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announced that
the electrification of all 0.64
million villages in India had been
completed. It was a truly landmark
achievement, not just for the govern-
ment of the day, but in the history of
independent India. In 1951, only
3,000-odd villages had electricity. A
dream that began over 70 years ago
finally got realised.
Till the early 1960s, village electrifi-
cation remained below 5 per cent, but it
picked up dramatically after the green
revolution. By 1990, on the eve of
reforms, around 80 per cent of villages
had been electrified. A renewed push
for rural electrification in the post-
reform years occurred in 2005 with the
RGGVY (Rajiv Gandhi Grameen
Vidyutikaran Yojana) programme.
But, we have now only completed
the first stage of a three-stage journey.
Without belittling the effort of all the
funding and political and bureaucrat-
ic energy invested by not just this gov-
ernment but all previous ones, this
first step, frankly, has been relatively
the easiest. The gradient gets progres-
sively steeper henceforth.
What has been achieved, to put it
very simply, is to pull a wire up to the
entrance of the village, and put the
an effective and prompt mechanism to
fix problems of supply.
The magnitude of stage two — con-
necting households (rather than just
the village) to the grid, can be under-
stood from a simple statistic.
According to saubhagya.gov.in, a gov-
ernment site which tracks household
electrification, around 31.5 million
households (14 per cent of total house-
holds) are still to be electrified.
Fourteen per cent may, prima-facie,
seem a small gap to be filled; but we
should not underestimate the size of
the task. Across infrastructure sectors,
the so-called ‘last-mile problem’ is
often the most difficult and intractable
to solve.
It is one thing to build that nation-
al highway — quite another to build
multiple village roads connecting the
highway to nearby villages, thus
enabling the farmer to move his per-
ishable produce from farm to mandi in
the shortest possible time. It is one
thing to build that advanced, techno-
logically sophisticated, and modern
urban metro system — quite another
to ensure a regular and effective sys-
tem of feeder buses that will connect
the metro station to houses in sur-
rounding colonies, thus ensuring that
women can travel home late at night
LET THERE BE LIGHT Once connected to the grid and ensured of a regular
supply of electricity, households will see the value in paying the economic
costs of electricity
without worrying about their person-
al safety on the road from the station
to their front door. Indeed, the electri-
fication of rural households has con-
sistently lagged the electrification of
villages by 35- 40 percentage points
since the early 1980s. As of Census
2011, 55 per cent of rural households
had been electrified.
Such last mile problems cannot be
solved simply by more money, or cre-
ating a centralised organisation that
can build that infrastructure (the way
that National Highways Authority of
India can build a national network of
highways, for instance). Village roads,
or urban bus transit are the task of
local governments. Connecting every
village household to the electricity
grid will involve extensive coopera-
tion among centrally sponsored
schemes, state utilities, the relevant
local electricity distribution compa-
nies, their contractors and village lev-
bution companies resort to load shed-
ding in the face of mounting losses on
each unit of electricity generated and
because an effective and corruption-
free system of metering and billing
has not been set up. And if, to offset
high costs of power, tariffs are
increased, with little focus on actual-
ly improving power supply and service
to consumers, then it would have been
an exercise in futility.
However, overcoming such chal-
lenges brings along huge benefits.
Once connected to the grid, ensured of
a regular supply of electricity, and
prompt redressal of consumer com-
plaints, households will see the value
in paying the economic costs of elec-
tricity. Households will see even
greater value, if they are given quick
and convenient methods of paying for
electricity (such as electricity cards
which can be used to charge prepaid
electricity meters) and get the service
and respect they are entitled to as pay-
ing customers.
Only when that happens, will we
truly achieve the target of electricity
for all.
The author is chairman, Feedback Infra
“vinayak.chatterjee@feedbackinfra.com”;
Twitter: @Infra_VinayakCh
towards Opposition unity. He reminded
that a veteran Parliamentarian like him
was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha
without the case being referred to the
Ethics Committee.
The long and short of it
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction
at the Nanyang Technological University
(NTU) in Singapore during his visit to the city
state has evoked much comment on social
media. At the beginning of his interaction
after Modi answered a question in Hindi,
the interpreter started translating the PM’s
answer in English, which was much longer
than his Hindi reply. This prompted specu-
lation that the interaction was scripted.
“The first Indian PM who takes 'sponta-
neous' questions that the translator has
pre-scripted answers to! Good that he
doesn't take real questions. Would have
been a real embarrassment to us all if he
did,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi said
on Twitter. On Sunday, Congress leader
Shashi Tharoor had tweeted, while tagging
a news report on the NTU interview, "Oh
dear. When the translator says what the PM
was supposed to say, but didn’t”.

INSIGHT > LETTERS

Pranab babu’s RSS visit: Seven dimensions
Indians should follow his example, not question his motives
TARUN DAS
The former President of India, Shri
Pranab Mukherjee, has sparked off a
spate of TV discussions and print arti-
cles, as well as social media views, fol-
lowing the announcement of his vis-
it to RSS headquarters in Nagpur. The
number of views are probably equal-
ly divided, “for” and “against”. This
article attempts to outline a reasoned
approach to this issue which requires
consideration.
First, there is a need to recognise
and accept that the 1 billion plus peo-
ple in India are very diverse in every
way. Food, language, customs, reli-
gion, ceremonies, rituals etc. The
diversity is unparalleled in the world
and, therefore, makes this nation of
ours complex to the extreme. The
challenge of bringing people together
and keeping people together, in one
nation, is unprecedented and humon-
gous. Especially so, when divisive
forces are moving the agenda in a very
different direction.
The visit of Pranab babu to the
RSS headquarters has to be seen in
this overall context.
Second, it follows directly from
this that there is a need for dialogue
among and between Indians. Talking
and, more important, listening. The
Sweeping conclusions? rity reasons forcing Prime Minister LBS were initiatives aimed at financial
Manmohan Singh to concede. inclusion, ensuring wholehearted par-
Saran also avers that Prime Minister ticipation of all stakeholders. At no
Singh always regarded the IPI pipeline stage, LBS was conceived as an exclu-
former President’s visit to Nagpur will not to be ignored. RSS is to be as only possible if it demonstrated eco- sive responsibility of the PSBs, as the
enable dialogue, two-way, and this is engaged. Meeting the RSS is to under- nomic feasibility and lower geopolitical implementation of the scheme needed
critical in India. Also, it is much neg- stand this fact of life. risk. However, then Petroleum Minister policy support from the Central gov-
lected. In fact, public discourse has Sixth, who is this man, Pranab Mani Shankar Aiyar’s resolute dismissal ernment, the RBI and state govern-
degenerated to name-calling and Mukherjee? What is he all about? Is he of US Ambassador David Mulford’s ments, and the involvement of all banks
insults, criticism and dissent. an Indian who cares for his country? sanctions threats (as evident in the and several government and non-gov-
Dialogue is sorely needed to arrest Is he a policy maker of immense expe- leaked cables) specifically citing ernment organisations.
this decline and bring dignity back to rience? Is he an administrator par Cabinet support for the IPI pipeline Just as the banking system is strug-
the table — Pranab babu will do this. excellence? Is he a master strategist? complicates the narrative. The nuclear gling with the incompatibility of the
Third, dialogue implies respect for Is he a leader acceptable to, and deal was India’s rhetorical nuclear size and dimensions of currency notes
different points of view. And, dialogue respected, by most people in this Mahabharata and multiple interpreta- issued by the RBI, the absence of a uni-
has to help find a common ground. country? Is he a man who has experi- tions are possible of this comprehen- form procedure in the collection and
Respect is an essential part of this enced much pain? Is he a man who is sive nuclear debate. compilation of ground level data on
process. Not looking down on people, open to all points of view? Is he a good Chaitanya Ravi via email credit needs and credit off-take has
not being arrogant, not being dis- listener? Is he a good communicator? been a major impediment in fixing tar-
dainful. The only way for dialogue to If the answers to these questions Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran’s gets and their monitoring under the
succeed is through respect for all are “yes, yes and yes”, then shall we candid review of my book on May 29 Revamp LBS LBS. Post-computerisation, diverse
points of view. From this perspective trust him to do the right thing at the (“Alternative Facts on the Nuclear software used by different banks pose a
the response of Pranab Mukherjee is right time for India? In fact, question- Deal”) contends that my failure to inter- This refers to the report “RBI criticises real problem in the collection and use of
just right. His decision to visit the RSS ing him, asking and advising him to view key actors involved in day-to-day PSBs on Lead Bank Scheme” by data. Unless these issues are addressed,
HQ does not reflect agreement with cancel his visit is far from respectful. negotiations over the nuclear deal Namrata Acharya (June 4). Though the periodic revamps and reviews will
any point of view. It only reflects a Seventh, and the final point. Let’s resulted in “sweeping conclusions”. major portion of the responsibility in remain raw material for preparing back-
willingness to respect “a” all wish Pranab babu the Multiple attempts were made to secure implementing the Lead Bank Scheme ground notes for future ‘Review
point of view. Former President very best of success in his personal interviews via email, tele- falls on the shoulders of public sector Committees’, with not much improve-
Fourth, to decry or Pranab visit to Nagpur. In his dia- phone and a key intermediary but were banks (PSBs) as these banks have over ment at the ground level.
object to or criticise his Mukherjee’s logue with the RSS. And, we unsuccessful. Consequently, the author 70 per cent market share in banking M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram
acceptance of the invite decision to visit should understand that relied on a close reading of Indian business, interpreting RBI’s circular
from the RSS is to, actually the RSS HQ does dialogue is not a one-off media articles, interviews with knowl- dated April 6, 2018, on revamp of Lead Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
underestimate the wisdom, not reflect exercise. It is a process. edgeable but indirectly involved Indian Bank Scheme (LBS), as a criticism of The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
the knowledge, the com- agreement with And, the process of dia- elites including former Atomic Energy PSBs alone, exposes the media bias
New Delhi 110 002
mitment to the nation and any point of view logue will only be positive Commission (AEC) chairmen, key Bush against the public sector. Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
its people, that the former for India and Indians. administration personnel and leaked Historically, the nationalisation of All letters must have a postal address and telephone
President has. This is a time for him to There is no alternative. American diplomatic cables. banks in India and the introduction of number
go, to listen, to speak, to engage in The larger point, going beyond the Saran strongly refutes my thesis of
dialogue. It is in the national inter- visit of the former President to disagreements between the Ministry of
est. His visit is not to be seen in any Nagpur is that dialogue on multiple External Affairs (MEA) and the > HAMBONE BY MIKE FLANAGAN
other light. issues and challenges are the need in Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
Fifth, clearly many many people in India. More dialogue, more interac- over the contours of India’s separation
India have strong, differences with tion, more exchanges, not less. plan and the fast breeder reactor’s
the RSS. And, therefore, the appeals to Indians should follow the example of (FBR) status. If the MEA and the DAE
the former President to cancel his vis- Pranab babu, not decry and not ques- were indeed on the same page every
it. But, they forget that the RSS exists. tion motives. single time, it does not account for DAE
That the RSS is a force. That the RSS Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar’s surprise
cadres are a huge resource. That the The author has served as the chief executive, public interview in early February 2006
discipline within the RSS and its director general, and chief mentor of in which he declared that the FBR’s
cadres is unique in India today. RSS is Confederation of Indian Industry should not be placed under safeguards
for energy security and national secu-