fo'o Hkw[k lwpdkad] Hkkjr o Lons'kh jhfr&uhfr&II

¼d`f"k lq/kkj % lekos'kh o /kkj.k{ke fodkl dh iwokZo';drk½

bl ys[k J`a[kyk ds foxr vad ds fn;s izFke ys[k esa Hkkjr esa csjkstxkjh] vYiiks"k.k o dqiks"k.k ls u"V cpiu o mPp f'k'kq e`R;q nj fofuekZ.kh mRiknu vFkkZr esU;wQsDpfjax lsDVj esa QSyrh :X.krk] m|ksxksa ij c<+rk fons'kh fu;a=.k tSlh dqN leL;kvksa dk ladsr Hkj fd;k FkkA ml ys[k ds vUr esa ns'k dks orZeku vkfFkZd leL;kvksa ls mckjus gsrq] Lons'kh dh jhfr&uhfr ij dqN ys[k izLrqfr izLrkfor dh x;h FkhA blh J`a[kyk esa loZizFke d`f"k {ks=] ftl ij ns'k dh 52 izfr'kr tula[;k fuHkZj gS izLrqr fd;k tk jgk gS

हमारी कृषि सामर्थ्य:

     विश्व की सर्वाधिक कृषि योग्य भूमि, सर्वाधिक पशुधन, और सर्वाधिक विविधतापूर्ण 127 प्रकार के कृषि जलवायु क्षेत्र भारत के पास हैं। इसे ध्यान में रखते हुये ही प्रथम पंचवर्षीय योजना में कृषि के लिये सर्वोच्य 15 प्रतिशत व कृषि व सिंचाई पर संयुक्त रूप से 31 प्रतिशत निवेश (पदअमेजउमदज) का प्रावधान रखा गया था। लेकिन, उसके बाद कृषि में सार्वजनिक निवेश निरन्तर घटता ही गया है। प्रथम पंचवर्षीय योजना काल के बाद से ही कृषि में सार्वजनिक निवेश की उपेक्षा से आज देश के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद में कृषि का योगदान 50 प्रतिशत से घटकर 14 प्रतिशत रह गया है और हमारी प्रति एकड़ उत्पादकता अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय औसत की 1/3 से भी न्यून है। देश के पास विश्व की सर्वाधिक 18.9 करोड़ हेक्टर कृषि योग्य भूमि एवं विश्व का सर्वाधिक (6.67 करोड़ हेक्टर) सिंचित क्षेत्रफल है। देश को प्रतिवर्ष हिमपात व वर्षा से कुल 40 करोड़ हेक्टर मीटर जल प्राप्त होता है। उसका अनुकूलतम उपयोग करके हमें देश की सम्पूर्ण कृषि योग्य भूमि को सिंचित बना सकते हैं। ऐसे में हम अपने कृषि उत्पादन को चतुर्गुणित से कहीं अधिक कर विश्व की दो तिहाई (450 करोड़) जनसंख्या की खाद्य आपूर्ति करने मे सक्षम बन, विश्व की क्रमांक एक की खाद्य शक्ति ;थ्ववक च्वूमतद्ध बन सकते हैं। किसान की आय दो गुनी हो जाने पर वह भी उस आय से बाजार से विविध उत्पादकीय उद्योगों का माल प्रचुरता मंे खरीदेगा- यथा उनमें बर्तन, पंखा, फ्रिज, स्कूटर, टी.वी., वस्त्रादि सम्मिलित है। उससे देश में औद्योगिक, उत्पादन, रोजगार, आय, सरकार का कर राजस्व आदि सभी बढ़ेगें और विकास का मार्ग प्रशस्त होगा।

कृषि: समग्र विकास की आधार

        हमारे देश से प्रतिवर्ष जो 20 करोड़ हैक्टेयर मीटर जल बह कर समुद्र में विलीन हो जाता है, उसका यथोचित्त उपयोग करके, हम अपने सिंचित क्षेत्र को 6.67 करोड़ हैक्टेयर के वर्तमान स्तर से, 16 करोड़ हैक्टेयर तक बढ़ा सकते हैं। ऐसा करके देश विश्व की क्रमांक एक की खाद्य शक्ति बन कर विश्व की दो तिहाई जनसंख्या की खाद्य आपूत्र्ति कर सकता है। देश में आज असिंचित भूमि में खाद्यान्न उत्पादकता 750 किग्रा. प्रति हैक्टेयर व सिंचित क्षेत्र में 3 टन प्रति हेक्टर है। वहीं जैविक खाद-प्रधान उन्नत कृषि तकनीक वाले देश नीदरलैण्डस् में खाद्यान्न उत्पादकता 9 टन प्रति हैक्टेयर है। देश में उपलब्ध जल राशि से अपनी सिंचाई क्षमता बढ़ा कर कुल 16 करोड़ हैक्टेयर कर लेने पर, देश का कृषि उत्पादन सवा दो गुना तक सहजता से किया जा सकता है एवं नीदरलैण्ड्स की तरह कृषि जैविक खाद प्रधान व उसमें उन्नत कृषि पद्धतियों का समावेश कर, देश की कृषि उपज को 6 गुना किया जा सकता है। ऐसा करके हम ‘विश्व का भरण-पोषण करने में समर्थ देश’ के रूप में अपने नाम ‘भारत’ को पुनः सार्थक कर सकते हैं। ‘भारत वर्ष’ नाम की प्राचीन निरूक्ति यही कहती है, यथा -

‘‘भरणात् प्रजानाच्चैव मनुर्भरत उच्यते। निरूक्त यवचनैश्चैव वर्ष तद् भारत स्मृतम्।। (मत्स्य पुराण)’’

‘‘विश्व भरण पोषण कर जोई। ताकर नाम भरत अस होई। (राम चरित मानस)’’

‘‘भरणात् प्रजानां सर्वेमहीयां शुश्रुषणं तदैव भारत अस उच्यैते।। (निरूक्त)’’

        अस्तु! इस प्रकार हम अपनी कृषि-आय, अर्थात् कृषि क्षेत्र के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद में इस वृद्धि से देश की सकल वार्षिक आर्थिक वृद्धि दर में द्रुत वृद्धि और बढ़े हुए कृषि निर्यातों से सम्पूर्ण विदेश व्यापार के घाटे को समाप्त भी कर सकते हैं। कृषि पर निर्भर इस देश की आधी से अधिक जनसंख्या की आय बढ़ने पर बढ़ी हुई आय से होने वाली अतिरिक्त खरीददारी व मांग-वृद्धि से, देश में औद्योगिक उत्पादन वृद्धि दर भी 2 से 3 गुना तक सहजता से हो जायेगी।

सार्वजनिक निवेश के अभाव के न्यून उत्पादकता:

        कृषि में जहाँ प्रथम तीन पंचवर्षीय योजनाओं मंे कृषि में कुल निवेश में सार्वजनिक निवेश का अनुपात क्रमशः 50 प्रतिशत, 50 प्रतिशत व 62 प्रतिशत रहा है, वह अब घट कर मात्र 17.6 प्रतिशत रह गया है। कृषि में सार्वजनिक निवेश जहाँ 1976-80 के बीच हमारे ळक्च् का 3.4 प्रतिशत रहा है, वह घट कर अब 1.8 रह गया है। कृषि अनुसंधान पर हमारा निवेश हमारे कृषि क्षेत्र के ळक्च् का मात्र 0.7 प्रतिशत है इसलिये कृषि उत्पादकता में हम विश्व के उच्च कृषि उत्पादकता वाले देशों के 1/6 भी से पीछे हैं (देखें तालिका - 1)।

टेबल 1: अन्य देशों से उत्पादकता में पिछड़ापन

		Average yield, India (2010)	World's most productive farms (2010)
Rank	Produce	(tonnes per hectare)	(tonnes per hectare)	Country
1	Rice	3.3	10.8	Australia
2	Cow milk	1.21	10.31	Israel
3	Wheat	2.8	8.9	Netherlands
4	Mangoes	6.3	40.6	Cape Verde
5	Sugar cane	66	125	Peru
6	Bananas	37.8	59.3	Indonesia
7	Cotton	1.6	4.6	Israel
8	Fresh Vegetables	13.4	76.8	USA
9	Potatoes	19.9	44.3	USA
10	Tomatoes	19.3	524.9	Belgium
11	Soyabean	1.1	3.7	Turkey
12	Onions	16.6	67.3	Ireland
13	Chick peas	0.9	2.8	China
14	Okra	7.6	23.9	Israel
15	Beans	1.1	5.5	Nicaragua

        Source : Food and Agriculture Organisation : FAOSTAT 2013

            1-  Vu nw/k izfr xk;

इसके अतिरिक्त उत्पादकता में विविध राज्यों में भारी अन्तर है (तालिका 2 व 3)। उचित प्रयत्नों से इसे ठीक किया जा सकता है। हमारे कुल कृषि योग्य क्षेत्रफल का लगभग 2/3 क्षेत्रफल असिंचित है और सिंचित व असिंचित क्षेत्र की उत्पादकता में भी 4ः1 से भी अधिक का अन्तर है हम अपने उपलब्ध जल संसाधनों से सिंचित क्षेत्र को दो गुना अत्यन्त सहजता से कर सकते है। हम नदियों में बह कर जाने वाले 20 करोड़ हैक्टर मीटर पानी में से केवल 2.5 करोड़ हैक्टर मीटर पानी का ही उपयोग कर पा रहे है। शेष 17.5 करोड़ हैक्टर मीटर पानी बिना उपयोग में लाये नदियों में बहकर चला जा रहा है। देश के जलातिरेक वाले क्षेत्रों से जलाभाव वाले क्षेत्रों में, पर्यावरण को प्रतिकुल रूप से प्रभावित किये बिना, यदि जल का अन्तरण कर लिया जाये तो देश का सिंचित क्षेत्रफल 16 करोड़ हैक्टर किया जा सकता है।

टेबल 2: देश में उत्पादकता अन्तराल

	Irrigated			Rainfed
State	Paddy	Wheat	Mustard	Maize	Bajra	Jowar	Groudnut
Andhra Pradesh	123	23			191	231	83
Assam	175	46	144
Bihar	162	74	174	195			25
Gujrat	60	43	124	99	191	541	1
Harayan	55	25	1	3	85
HP	49	163	420	11
Karnataka	132	28			258	292	49
Kerala	166
MP	135	73	89	105	165	231	55
Maharashtra	140	102
Orissa	115	66	63	153			60
Punjab	87	40	25	6
Rajasthan	27	82	130	114	309		106
Tamil nadu	61				163	479	62
Uttar Pradesh	101	93	164	106	92		106
West Bengal	90	19	131	11

                 Source : Agricultural statistics at a Glance, Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

टेबल 3: उत्पादकता में राज्यवार भारी अन्तर

Crop[63]	Average farm yield in Bihar	Average farm yield in Karnataka	Average farm yield in Punjab
	kilogram per hectare	kilogram per hectare	kilogram per hectare
Wheat	2020	unknown	3880
Rice	1370	2380	3130
Pulses	610	470	820
Oil seeds	620	680	1200
Sugarcane	45510	79560	65300

                         Source : Mahadevan, Renuka, Asia Pacific Development Journal (Dec. 2003) P. 57-72

इसलिये ठीक से प्रयास करें तो हम देश के उपलब्ध जल संसाधनों से सम्पूर्ण कृषि योग्य क्षेत्र के 90 प्रतिशत को सिंचित किया जा सकता है (देखें तालिका-4)। अतएव देश को सिंचाई पर दु्रतगति से निवेश प्रावधान बढ़ाना होगा। 

TABLE 4: LAND AND WATER RESOURCES OF INDIA¹

PARTICULARS	QUANTITY
Geographical Area of India Flood Prone Area Ultimate Irrigation Potential of the Country Total Cultivable Land Area Net Irrigated Area Natural Runoff (Surface Water and Ground Water) Estimated Utilisable Surface Water Potential Groundwater Resource Available Groundwater resource for Irrigation Net Utilisable Groundwater resource for irrigation	329 million ha. 40 million ha. 160 million ha. 184 million ha. 6.67 million ha. 1869 Cubic km. 690 Cubic km. 432 Cubic km. 361 Cubic km. 325 Cubic km.

Source: National Institute of Hydrology                                                Website: www.nih.ernet.in;

¹Water Resource India, National Institute of Hydrology.

अति रसायन प्रधानता के दुष्प्रभाव

पोषक तत्वों का विषम अनुपात: रासायनिक उर्वरकों के उपयोग में असन्तुलन भी आज अत्यंत चिन्ताजनक है। वैज्ञानिकों के मतानुसार नाइट्रोजन, फाॅस्फोरस व पोटाश का अनुपात 4ः2ः1 होना चाहिये। लेकिन, हमारे यहाँ नाइट्रोजन, फाॅस्फोरस व पोटाश (एन.पी.के.) के विषम अनुपात के कारण बड़ी मात्रा में भूमि ऊसर व अन्त-उर्वरा रहित होती चली गयी है। हाल ही में आये संसदीय समिति के एक प्रतिवेदन में कहा गया है कि पंजाब में एन.पी.के. के अनुपात की विषमता 39ः9ः1 पर पहुँच गयी है एवं इसका राष्ट्रीय औसत भी आज 7ः3ः1 पर चला गया है। इसलिये प्रति किलो एन.पी.के. से जहाँ 1970 में 50 किलो अनाज की उपज मिलती थी वह घट कर 15-20 किलो तक ही रह गयी है। पूरे देश में ही पोटाश, यशद (जिंक) की कमी व अन्य सूक्ष्म पोषकों की कमी एवं भूमि की उर्वरता बढ़ाने वाले सूक्ष्म जीवाणुओं के अभाव में भूमि की उर्वरता में भारी कमी आयी है। उसे बढ़ाने के लिये किसान द्वारा केवल यूरिया के अधिकतम उपयोग से भूमि और बंजर होती जा रही है।

जैव विविधता की दृष्टि से कई ग्राउण्ड नेस्टिंग बडर््स अर्थात भूमि पर घौंसले बनाने वाली चिड़ियाएँ लगभग दो फीट ऊंची झाड़ियों व घास में ही रहती हैं। तितलियों व कीट-पतंगों के लिये भी ऐसी घास व झाड़ियाँ अत्यन्त उपयोगी होती है। इन वनस्पतियों में से अनेक पेड़-पौधों की जड़ें, उनसे निकलने वाला ह्यूमस व कई ब्राॅयोफाइट्स भी मिट्टी की जल धारण क्षमता बढा़ते हैं व स्वयं भी बड़ी मात्रा में वर्षा जल को धारित कर उसे धीरे-धीरे छोड़ते हुये जल स्रोतों में वर्ष भर जलापूर्ति बनाये रखने में सहायक सिद्ध होते हैंै। इस प्रकार आज अपने समग्र पारिस्थितिकीय सन्तुलन के संरक्षण हेतु प्रत्येक क्षेत्र-विशेष की पारम्परिक जैव विविधता का रक्षण व संवर्द्धन पर्यावरण प्रबन्ध की मुख्य पूर्वावश्यकता है।

कृषि मित्र कीटों का विनाश: इसी प्रकार आज देश में हम जिन नियोनिकोटिनोइड श्रेणी के कीटनाशकों का द्रुतगति से उपयोग बढ़ा रहे हैं, उन्हें यूरोप ने तो वर्ष 2013 से ही अस्थायी रूप से प्रतिबंधित कर दिया था। उनसे वहाँ मधुमक्खियाँ द्रुतगति से विलोपित हो रहीं थीं, जिससे उनकी विविध फसलों की उत्पादकता तेजी से कम होने लगी थी। अब 2017 से वे इन्हें पूरी तरह से प्रतिबन्धित कर रहे हैं। वस्तुतः, इन नियोनिकोटिनोइड श्रेणी के कीटनाशकों के छिड़काव के बाद उन फसलों के पुष्पों से पराग ग्रहण करने वाली मधुमक्खियों की स्मृति नष्ट हो जाती थी और वे अपने छत्तों तक नहीं पहुँच पाती थीं। हमारे देश में नियोनिकोटिनोइड श्रेणी के इन घातक कीटनाशकों का व्यापक उपयोग हो रहा है और कई कृषि विश्वविद्यालयों में इनकी व ऐसे ही कई घातक कृषि रसायनों यथा एण्डोक्राइन डिस्टर्बिंग कीटनाशकों आदि की ट्राॅयल्स भी व्यापक स्तर पर लगाई जा रही हैं। कृषि रसायनों के ही अति-प्रयोग के कारण, भूमि में पाये जाने वाले केंचुऐ, फसलों के मित्र कीटों व कई सूक्ष्मजीवियों के नष्ट होते चले जाने से भी मृदा, अर्थात साॅइल की उर्वरा शक्ति व जलग्रहण क्षमता भारी मात्रा में प्रभावित हुई है। केंचुऐ प्रति हेक्टर जमीन में वर्ष भर में 6 लाख से अधिक छिद्र कर दिया करते थे। इन छिद्रों से ही पानी रिस कर भू - गर्भ तक पहुँचता था, जिससे सहस्त्राब्दियों से, भू-गर्भ का जल स्तर अत्यन्त ऊँचा बना रहा है। आज कैंचुओं व तत्सम कीटों व अनेक सूक्ष्म जीवियों के विलोपन से देश के आधे से अधिक जिले डार्कजोन में बदल रहे हैं। हमें आज अफ्रीकी कैंचुओं को आयात करके वर्मी कम्पोस्ट बनाने पर विवश होना पड़ रहा है।

आज कई पैरासाइटाॅइड कहे जाने वाले, फसलों के परजीवी-मित्र कीटों के विलोपन से भी हमें उŸारोŸार, घातक कीटनाशी रसायनों का प्रयोग करना पड़ रहा है। इन कीटों का जीवन चक्र फसलों को नष्ट करने वाले कीटों व कृमियों पर ही पूरा होता है। इसलिए वे अनादि काल से विविध फसलों की रक्षा करते आये हैं। किसी भी फसल या फलों के बगीचों पर उसे नुकसान पहुँचाने वाले कीटों का प्रकोप होने पर उस कीट प्रकोप-ग्रस्त फसल या फलों के वृक्षों में प्रकृति-जन्य ऐसे सुगन्धित जैव रसायनों का संश्लेषण होता रहा है जिनकी सुंगन्ध से वे पैरासाइॅटाॅइड श्रेणी के परजीवी कीट आकृष्ट होकर आते थे व उस फसल या फल के नाशक कीटों को समाप्त कर देते थे। परिणामस्वरूप, वह फसल या फलों के बगीचे पैरासाइटाॅइड श्रेणी के मित्र कीटों के सहयोग से बच जाते थे। कई कीट अपने अण्डे ही इन फसल नाशक कीटों पर देते थे, जिनसे लार्वा निकल कर उन फसलनाशी कीटों को समाप्त कर देते थे। ऐसी ही कई चींटियाँ व चीण्टे भी भूमि से बाहर आकर इन फसलों की रक्षा करते आये हैं। ये सभी आज अति रसायन प्रधानता से समाप्त हो रहे हैं।

पर्यावरण असंतुलन: इस अवसर पर यह भी स्मरणीय है कि कृषि विकास के हमारे सभी प्रयास यशस्वी तब ही हो सकेंगे, जब हम अपने पारस्थितिकी-तंत्र अर्थात् इकालाॅजी को भी सुरक्षित रख पायेंगे। हमारी फसलों की 15-18 प्रतिशत उत्पादकता में कीट परागणकत्र्ताओं अर्थात् इन्सेक्ट पाॅलिनेटर्स का विशेष योगदान है। हमारे परिवेश व पारिस्थितिकी-तंत्र में ऐसी परागणकत्र्ता मधुमक्खियों, तितलियों, भृंग, भ्रमर, मोथ, बीटल आदि कीट-पतंगों की संख्या तेजी से घट रही है। विश्व के कुल तीन लाख से अधिक प्रकार के एंजियोस्पर्म श्रेणी के पुष्पित होने वाले पेड़-पौधों की प्रजातियाँ और इन पर सहजीवी डेढ़ लाख से अधिक प्रजातियों के कीट-पतंगे परस्पर अवलम्बित हैं। कई बागवानी फसलों की आधी तक उपज में इन कीट परागणकत्र्ताओं का अहम योगदान है। बादाम जैसा पेड़ तो कीट परागित पादप ही है। लेकिन, देश में घटती हरीतिमा, तेजी से विलोपित हो रही जैव विविधता, अत्यन्त सीमित प्रजातियों का पौधारोपण व अनेक आधुनिक कीटनाशी रसायनों से पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र का यह सुकोमल सन्तुलन विनष्ट होता जा रहा है। कई मधुमक्खियाँ व कीट-पतंगे आदि आधा किमी. की परिधि से आगे नहीं जा सकते हैं। कुछ पक्षी भी 2-3 किमी. की परिधि से आगे नहीं जा पाते हैं। इसलिये, ऐसी प्रत्येक आधा किमी. से 2 किमी. की परिधि में कीट-पतंगों एवं पक्षियों को आवास व आहार के लिए हर मौसम में पुष्प व फल देने वाली सभी पारम्परिक पादप प्रजातियाँ का होना व उनका सतत् संरक्षण परम-आवश्यक है। एक ही या सीमित प्रजाति के पेड़-पौधे हमारे पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र का संरक्षण नहीं कर पायेंगे। उदाहरणतया - केवल नीम का ही पौधारोपण करने पर नीम में पुष्प मात्र 15-20 दिन रहते हैं व उनमें निम्बोली भी 15-20 दिन तक ही रहती है। उसके बाद कई किमी. तक केवल नीम की बहुलता की दशा में, पराग व फल की खोज में कीट-पतंगे व फल-भक्षी पक्षी भूख से ही मर जाते हैं।

पारम्परिक प्रजातियों व उनको दुर्लभ जैव द्रव्य का विलोपन: भारत विश्व का सर्वाधिक जैव विविधता वाला देश रहा है। लेकिन 3-4 दशकों में हमने अपने आधे से अधिक जैव द्रव्य व पारम्परिक बीजों को कृषि की मुख्य धारा से विलोपित हो जाने दिया है। भारत पाये जाने वाले तृण, अन्न, फल व सब्जियों की अनेक प्रजातियाँ व उनका जैव द्रव्य विलोपित होता जा रहा है। अनेक वन्य वानस्पतिक प्रजातियों के विलक्षण अनुवांशिकीय गुण भी जैव विविधता के महत्व को कई गुना बढ़ा देते हैं। अफ्रीका में पाये जाने वाले वन चँवले या काऊ-पी की एक प्रजाति में कीटाणुरोधी या रोग निरोधक गुण होने से उस पर कोई कीड़ा, फफूंद या अन्य के रोग नहीं लगते रहे हैं। काऊ-पी की इस प्रजाति में रोग प्रतिरोधक गुण देने वाले वंशाणु अर्थात जीन को चिह्नित कर, उसे मक्का व सोयाबीन में प्रत्यारोपण कर मक्का व सोयाबीन के रोग प्रतिरोधक बीज तैयार किये गये हैं। भारत में ऐसी वन्य प्रजातियाँ असंख्य हैं। यथा, में एक अमेरिकी खरबूजे पर लगे फफूंद पर कोई भी फफूंदरोधी रसायन प्रभावी नहीं होने पर उसमें एक भारतीय प्रजाति की जंगली खीरा ककड़ी में पाये ऐसे वंशाणु का प्रत्यारोपण कर उस खरबूजे की प्रजाति को बचाया जा सका था अर्थात उस भारतीय खीरा ककड़ी का वह फफूंदरोधी वंशाणु एक अनमोल जैव द्रव्य कहा जा सकता है। इस प्रकार प्रकृति में फैली हमारी जैव विविधता एक अनमोल उपहार है, जिसके संरक्षण के प्रयास हमें हर कीमत पर करने होंगे। राजस्थान में पाया जाने वाला ‘चीणा’ भी विलक्षण गुणवाला ऐसा अनाज है जिस पर किसी कीड़े, घुन, इल्ली आदि का प्रकोप नहीं होता है। चीणा में कीट या रोग प्रतिरोधकता का यह गुण उसके जैव द्रव्य को अरबों डाॅलर तुल्य मूल्यवान बना देता है। इसलिये हमें अपनी पारम्परिक प्रजातियों, उनके बीजों व जैव द्रव्य का यत्न पूर्वक संरक्षण करना चाहिये।

अतएव, कृषि जो आज आधी से अधिक जनसंख्या का जीवन आधार है, सम्पूर्ण देश के लिये खाद्य सुरक्षा का सुदृढ़ स्तम्भ है और समग्र अर्थव्यवस्था को द्रुत गति से आगे बढ़ाने की सामथ्र्य रखती है। उसके विकास की प्रभावी रीतिनीति बनानी आवश्यक है। कृषि के समन्वित विकास के मार्ग में आने वाली प्रमुख बाधाओं का विवेचन इस श्रृंखला के आगामी लेख में किया जायेगा।

Unmasking Tax Havens

स्वास्थ्यकारी A2 बनाम रोगकारी दूध A1

Higher Education: Need For Consultative Regulation with Negotiated Rulemaking

Higher Education: Need For Consultative Regulation with Negotiated Rulemaking

High quality teaching-learning is critical to creating future leaders and problem solvers for the nation and society. Quality in education needs fine tuning of diverse aspirations of all stakeholders, comprising students, parents, industry, education providers, society, government and the nation. In view of the plurality of stakeholders and their aspirations, the regulators need to tread their path very cautiously to ensure quality and excellence in teaching, invoke world class standards in research, maintain sectoral sustainability and uphold confidence of different stakeholders in a country like India characterised by heterogenity of differentially circumstanced education providers and education seekers. Only a consensus-based regulatory mechanism can provide fair, just and equitable playing field for the differentially circumstanced education providers and education seekers in the country, with genuine autonomy and reasonable academic freedom, imperative in a country like India composed of highly stratified range of education providers comprising the IITs, NITs, IIMs, Central Universities, State (Public Funded) Universities, State (Privately Financed) Universities, Government Colleges, aided colleges, autonomous colleges and unaided private colleges. The Euro-American tradition of consultative regulation and negotiated rulemaking can offer a suitable alternative over the existing "approve or reject" style of regulating education providers in India, based upon officially mandated rules. Thopugh strange to hear in India, the negotiated rulemaking is not very new in the US, where it was mandated long ago by law. It was in vogue even earlier since 1983, and thereafter the US Congress has formalized it in 1990, by enacting Negotiated Rulemaking Act on January 23. The Act was reauthorized in 1996 and thereafter in 2013. In the US all changes in the regulations for programs, authorised under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 of the US are brought only through regular annual negotiations among the stakeholders. So, in the US consensus based regulation is a normal practice.

Likewise, now in Europe the regulators, instead of insisting over "one size fits all", endeavor to customize norms for equitable playing field for differentially circumstanced education providers and education seekers. The Higher Education Commission of UK, in its report on higher education, has even devoted one full chapter, the Chapter 6 on how to replace level playing with an 'equitable playing field', by encompassing the realities of all categories of education providers. The UK government's higher education white paper also therefore, states that "all higher education providers, whatever may be the type of course to offer, must be able to compete on a level playing basis". The Higher Education Commission further underlines the need for placing the traditional institutions and alternative providers as well, on a 'level' footing. Instead of a 'one size fits all' criteria, duly customised regulatory requirements are applied to institutions, on the basis of status of the institution and the courses designated for different sections. David Willets even therefore asserts to create a "genuinely open system that can offer the student, real choice and exciting institutional competition leading the overall race to the top."

Indeed, the consultative regulation, based upon consensus of all stakeholders, arrived through negotiated rulemaking in Europe and US has inter alia helped the Euro-American education providers to monopolize over most of the top slots of world class universities. The UK and US alone hold 9 slots out of top 10 universities of the world and almost half slots, numbering 48, in the top 100 universities of the world. In the total 959 top QS slots, the Europe and US alone have cornered 523 slots, with US having 144, UK 76, Germany 45, France 39 and so on. The US and Europe together have 79 slots out of 100, whereas, population-wise we are 128% of the combined population of the US and entire Europe. But, we have only 20 slots out of 959 and they too towards the tail end. The US and UK therefore, also enjoy the prestige as the top destinations for international students. India does not figure anywhere in the top 20 international destinations, despite of a very vast network of higher education system, comprising IITs, IIMs, NITs, Central Universities, State (Public Funded) Universities, State (Private Funded) Universities, Deemed Universities and 45000 colleges including autonomous colleges. The top 20 destinations are the US, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Russia, Canada, China, Japan, Italy, South Africa, Austria, Netherland, Singapore, Ireland, UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arab. Countries like UK, very proudly assert that "the UK has very significant global prestige in the academic world, when they say that the UK is making up only 1% of the world's population, yet has been earning 12% of international research citation. The US ranks at number one in the international research citations, followed by China at number 2, with the UK at number 3 in international research citations. India has around 3.4% of international research citations, while we constitute 16% of the global population and equally large student populaion. India has 3.5 crore students in higher education, almost equal to the population of Canada, enrolled in more than 800 universities or similar degree awarding autonomous institutes, along with 45000 colleges. So, there is an urgent need to revamp and broad base the regulatory mechanism, capable to nurture, support and enable the institutes of higher learning to enhance the standards of education and the level of competence of Students graduating from each of the universities Central or State, public or private and deemed or full. Indeed the existing 'Approve or Reject' style to regulate or score based ranking process cannot take care of the 'Capability deficit' of any category of education providers.   

In this regard, it would also not be out of place to mention that in the US proper benchmarking and quality of intake is ensured by redressing capability deficit even at the school level, through the 'Every Student Succeeds Act' (ESSA) of 2015 and its precursor "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLBA) of 2001, which mandates 'intermittent' and 'exit-time' assessments of school students from 3^rd to 12^th standards, to ensure that all students touch the benchmark of knowledge, intellect, linguistic skills and mathematical capabilities even at the time of entry into higher education. The federal government disburses liberal grant to states and local education agencies for remedial support, without discriminating between public or private institutes,  wherever the students are found to be having academic and intellectual deficits. So, by virtue of the ESSA in the US, every student passing out from the schools is well capable and above the national benchmark at the time of entering into higher education. In India, to the contrary, probably while emulating the American ESSA, under  the Right to Education Act, made it other way mandatory to pass every student without regard to his/her performance in examinations up to 8^th standard and allowing the option to take school level exam in 10^th standard, instead of sitting in the examination of the central board. So, we had moved in opposite to quality benchmarking.

Today, when India is experiencing a strong revolution of privately funded universities, the entire higher education system, is poised to churn out largest stream of graduating students in the world. The students has a choice to exercise. So, at school level around 62% and at higher education level around 50% of the students are opting or seeking admission in unaided private institutions. Moreover, with over 1.8 million sanctioned engineering seats, by virtue of which, India tops worldwide as the largest producer of technical manpower, the 3/4^th of these seats come from the privately funded institutes/ universities. But, almost 50% of these seats (0.9 million) are lying vacant for want of paying capacity with the students, unless a system of subsidising or reimbursing the fee is evolved. At a time when, half of the students enrolled in higher education are in the private unaided institutes, some mechanism has to be worked out to reimburse or subsidise such students too, who seek admission in cost based institutes or who forego higher education for want of capability to pay cost based fee. In lack of fiscal support to education seekers pursuing education in private unaided institutions, almost half of the students’ community pursuing studies in self financing institutes are devoid of any fiscal support of their education. students are the best judge of quality and opt for the best of the available options hence such students should also get fiscal supports coming back to the issue of regulatory mechanism, where there is vast heterogeneity of education providers, the regulatory mechanism, instead of a rejection criteria support the institutes with capability or academic deficit. In a country with paucity of resources and extremely low gross enrolment ratio (GER) in place of the colonial style of approach of ‘approval or rejection’, ‘support programme based regulation’ has to be put in place. Looking at the vast number and heterogeneity of education providers, a consultative support and mentoring system for counseling and monitoring of education providers for ensuring quality becomes imperative to make them sustainable and competitive. For strengthening consultative support system, unilaterally enacting, promulgating or mandating regulations cannot be of any avail. All regulations need to be more realistic and consensus based. So, consultative regulation, with negotiated rulemaking can enable the education providers to scale up and escalate on the quality ladder. As a prelude, for evolving regulatory consensus a hexapartile brainstorming of representatives of education providers, faculty-fraternity, regulatory authorities, parents, industry chambers, and research bodies of the country along with the Union HRD Minister at the centre and with the state level education ministers at respective state levels can be made an annual feature. All the stakeholders need to be more pragmatic inter se, instead of contempt towards any. Various categories of education providers too should have reciprocity in recognizing the dignity of every category of education providers. The tendency to view different categories of education providers and their graduates, with contempt through a colonial or feudal stratification should also cease to exist, even when we have a heterogenous mix of institutes comprising the IITs, IIMs, NITs, Central Universities, State (Privately Funded) Universities, Deemed Universities, Government Colleges, Private Aided Colleges and Private unaided colleges. The regulators have to be more considerate and supportive counsel for all kinds of institutes, whether public funded or privately financed one. Indeed, if education is aptly leveraged with appropriate policy interventions, at a time when a strong revolution of privately funded education-providers is strongly supplementing the well laid network of fairly developed public funded institutes or universities, with rich experience and heritage. 

A new tradition has to be set for counseling for a proper blend of pedagogical, andragogical, heutagogical and peeragogical approaches of teaching-learning, along with advisory and expert support for institutional capacity building for quality teaching and research is more imperative for institutes with deficit. So, in place of mere inspection based regulation to approve or reject, a system of counseling based regulation for capacity building is more imperative to support the differentially circumstanced education providers to scale up to the top. In this regard, all inspections, whether for affiliation, accreditation or approval, may be also be made participatory, with one or two members of the institute concerned. The rules as well as regulations too need to be made, after open discussions inter se all stakeholders. The project specific grants, research grants, conference grants and scholarships as well may be thought to be made open-competition based and be disbursed on the merits of the proposals, without discrimination between privately or publicly funded institutes. Idea of ESSA type of assessments of students in the mid of a course as well as at the time of

exiting may also be introduced with supportive grants for remedial programmes to overcome the academic deficit. Idea of self regulatory councils, with a fair representation of the stakeholders, including the teachers and education providers on the pattern of the Bar council or Institute of Chartered Accountants of India can also be thought of, for better participatory regulation. India has reached at the threshold to take a quantum leap, with its vast demographic dividend. The universities of Madras, Mumbai and Calcutta were founded as early as in 1857 and the Nalanda, Taxshila, Navadeep etc. have a heritage of more then two millennia. India has to aspire to regain the same historic glory. It can be achieved with consultative regulation, negotiated rulemaking and self regulatory councils.

Academic Integrity: Policy and Regulations

Academic Integrity:  Policy and Regulations

The draft regulations issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on September 1, to curb plagiarism in the country are most welcome and a timely step, in view of the rising plagiarism and ubiquity of other kinds of unethical academic practices. An elaborate academic integrity policy at university level, coupled with the aforesaid stern regulations at the national level, as issued recently by the UGC¹, can well curb the menace of all kinds of ongoing academic dishonesty, including plagiarism. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently released these Draft regulations entitled, UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations 2017 for discussions and invited responses of stakeholders till September 30, on curbing plagiarism. The aim of these regulations is also to create requisite academic awareness among the scholars and faculty members. The UGC has revealed its concern towards plagiarism and is also endeavouring to invoke responsible conduct in all researches, and prevent misconduct, including plagiarism, in the academic writings².  Penal provisions have also been proposed in these proposed regulations. The draft, indeed also seeks to establish institutional mechanism for the promotion of academic integrity and develop systems to detect and prevent plagiarism. The draft proposes to  direct every Higher Education Institute (HEI) to instruct students, faculty, and staff about proper attribution, seeking permission of the author wherever necessary, acknowledgement of source compatible with the needs and specificities of disciplines and in accordance with rules and regulations governing the source.’’³ Stern punishments are proposed in the regulations for the candidates as well as for their supervisors for acts of plagiarism. However, certain other forms of academic dishonesty also need to be covered in the regulations and be curbed sternly. Some such dishonest policies are-data fabrication, contract cheating, availing of paid services, professional misconduct, false and non-confirmable experimental or trial results, frivolous or fraudulent reports, sabotage, dry-labbing and bribed reports.

The quality deficit syndrome, infesting dimensions of academic performance in the country, including the teaching, examinations, research, publications, faculty recruitment & development, poor employability of passouts, poor intellectual property creation,

mediocracy and poor world ranking of Indian universities as well as of the elite institutes, can largely be remedied by combating the academic dishonesty, prevalent in various forms in certain quarters. Recently, some persons, holding high positions in some of the Indian Universities, including the Central Universities, too have faced charges of plagiarism, and have invited stern action for plagiarism, even including dismissals from job. Still, the growing incidents of plagiarism are very unfortunate and disappointing for the current educational scenario and the standards in the country. Plagiarism is considered as an academic sin by the universities all over the world. So, stern law and regulations are needed in India as well in this regard. A large majority of Euro-American and Australian universities already have elaborate Academic Integrity Policies and Copyrights Policies for the purpose.

Plagiarism:

Basically the “Plagiarism” has been derived from the Latin word “Plagiare” means “to kidnap or abduct”. Indeed to plagiarize means stealing and passing off the ideas or words of someone else as one’s own. It is a form of literary or scientific theft and be taken at par with theft or fraud because it contains both, elements i.e., stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterwards i.e. commitment of fraud. So, to use or incorporate someone else’s work into one’s own work, without an acknowledgement is known as “PLAGIARISM”. It is one of the most severe violation of the Academic writing, and bane of quality in education, research and publications.

Need to Stress for Paraphrasing with Citations: If proper Paraphrasing is done in any written work and the source of the work has been cited to avoid attracting of charge of plagiarism or cheating, then it does not fall in the category of plagiarism. Paraphrasing is restating another person’s work in our own way, so the credit must be given to the real owner of the intellectual property in the work. For this purpose ‘’The Higher Education Institutes are therefore also required, under these new regulations of September 1,  to conduct sensitization seminars and awareness programmes on responsible conduct of research, project work, assignment, thesis, dissertation, promotion of academic integrity and ethics in education for students, faculty and other members of academic staff.’’⁴  It would caution all the stakeholders.

Growing Menace:

The plagiarism, whether wittingly or unwittingly, is spreading across all academic pursuits, viz, course work assignments, summer internship reports, project dissertation for PG or Ph. D programmes, articles, research papers, books being authored and so on. Complaints against plagiarism are on the rise. But, due to lack of formal norms and provisions of penalty or punishment against plagiarism being proven beyond doubt also used to go unpenalised, leading to decline in the quality of research and publications in the country. Therefore, ‘’The institutes have also being instructed through these new and proposed regulations to implement adequate software and other mechanisms which would ensure that thesis, dissertation or any other such documents submitted are free of plagiarism.’’³ ‘’The UGC has asked all the State and Central universities to use anti-plagiarism software to check duplication of Ph.D. theses. Making it mandatory for the university to use anti-plagiarism software before awarding Ph.D.s, the UGC has recommended ‘URKUND’ software.’’⁵

Plagiarism is not confined in academic field alone, recently an allegation of plagiarism was leveled even against the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court by the Spicy IP blog on December 1, 2015. The Delhi High Court Bench was alleged by the complainant, of having plagiarised thirty three paras in its judgment in Roche V. Cipla case from a law review article written by Swetashree Majumdar and Eashan Ghosh in the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property. The Delhi High Court acknowledged plagiarism in the order passed on 8th December, 2015 and apologised to the authors⁸. The responsibility of the plagiarism has devolved upon an intern who had written the precise facts of the case. Though such an instance is only single. However the copyright law needs to be revamped to take care of such incidents. But, rapidly growing incidents are most worrisome in the academic circles. What would be the ultimate fate of our Education System, having chronic quality deficit if plagiarism would perpetual.  So, the growing incidents of plagiarism in the academic field are quite worrisome, and the UGC has taken a right step.

Reflection on Quality

Rapid spread of this sinister termite of plagiarism has been eating the quality of our academics and has been perpetuating unabated for want of any formal norms, penalties or punishments for incidents of such rising academic dishonesty. For stealing a petty sum or any material property or on kidnapping, the culprit is liable to be penalized and imprisoned. But, on stealing or kidnapping another person’s intellectual property, comprising ideas, inventions, original work, authorships or findings etc largely the culprit goes unscathed and unpenalised, for want of any relevant law. Further, the students, scholars and even faculty members using other person’s work as their own work for self enhancement, extinguish real work and scuttle quality. The plagiarism has not been confined to students and fresh scholars alone but, many high profile academic luminaries, have also attracted prosecutions. Today, the quality deficit in academics is so severe, that India ranks at 60^th rank in the Global Innovations Index (GII)⁷ and has hardly 20 universities in the top 959 QS World University Rankings, and only towards the tail end. In the Global Research citations frequency India has 3.1% share, inspite of being home to 17.8% of world population and 20% of global youth, wherein 3.5 crore students pursuing higher education in India, are almost equal to the entire population of Canada. To the contrary, UK has only 1% of the world population. Yet, it has 15.8% share of the world’s most highly-cited articles⁹. International research citations.

Need to Broaden the Scope

The scope of the regulations on promotion of academic integrity need to be further broad based to cover other forms of academic dishonesty. The regulations must take care of certain other acts of commission, stated henceforth:

(i)        Fabrication: Another major act of academic dishonesty, quite prevalent in the country is fabrication which means concoction or falsification of data, information and citations. It is nonetheless than a grave fraud to give false empirical data in support of unsustainable and false claims responsible for misleading conclusions, away from any reality. All such claims of so called fake researches can play havoc, if used in reality in the area of wealth care, agrochemicals etc. as they would be totally misleading. Fabrication is an easy and quick method of falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal academic exercise with an intent to skip real work. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations. Fabrication predominates in the natural sciences, but not alien to social sciences as well, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments work. It includes data falsification, in which false claims are made about research performed, survey conducted or experiment claimed to have been conducted, including selective submitting of results to exclude inconvenient data for generating bogus data.

Bibliographical references are often fabricated or copied or imported from other works, especially when a certain minimum number of references is required or considered sufficient for the particular kind of paper. This type of fabrication can range from referring to works whose titles look relevant or whose titles are quoted by other researchers, but which the student concerned did not read.

The most sinister category of fabrication is signing of reports, provided by the companies sponsoring trials of their pharma or agrochemical molecule(s) by the academic fraternity, without actual trail or without regard to their own real trail results.

(ii)            Dry Labbing: There is also a growing tendency of dry-labbing in physical sciences and other lab related technical courses or experiments, in which the teacher expects that the student’s experiments, should yield results, which confirm the established law or principle. ‘’In the most benign sense, a “dry lab” refers to a facility in which computer simulations of scientific hypotheses are performed. This term is in contrast to a “wet lab,” a facility in which equipment and personnel exist to perform hands-on scientific research and experimentation. However, most of the time, “dry lab” is used as a verb, and means that supposed lab data was actually created on paper only, usually to conform to some desired result. In other words, to dry lab is to cheat, plain and simple. As you might expect, there are varying degrees of this practice’’¹⁰. Unscrupulous student sometimes start from the results and works backward, in the style of reverse engineering, calculating what the experimental data should be even sometimes adding variation to the data. In some cases, the lab report is written before the experiment is conducted—in some cases, the experiment is never carried out. In either case, the results are what the instructor expects. Even when the season for that experiment to be conducted and data are manipulated.

(iii)       Other Kinds of Dishonesty: There are several other dishonest copycat project reports by replacing the academic practices like contract cheating and engaging or hiring third party commercial agencies to complete a project or write a dissertation. Deception, bribery, impersonation, sabotage of others work are also quite frequent these days. Professional misconduct, including harassment of feminine scholars all need to be curbed.

Legal Position and Action Required

There has been no law, regulations or policy to curb academic dishonesty in the country hitherto. Whereas, in several countries majority of the universities have their own elaborate Academic Integrity Policies. In view of the rising incidents of all kinds of dishonest practices, need was being felt for a national law or regulations to be invoked. So, the draft regulations of the UGC would go in a being way to deal with the situation. As on date, there is no such defind right for the creator of any intellectual property to be protected against plagiarisation, as it is not recognised by any law in India. Though, the section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 gives authors inter alia, the right to claim authorship. Section 63 of the same Act considers infringement of copyright as a criminal offence and awards punishment.  On conviction, the infringers may be awarded imprisonment. They have also to compensate the aggrieved party in monetary terms for the act of infringing. But, ordinarily, Plagiarism is not dealt under copyright laws. So, culprits go unscathed.

So, it is most appropriate, when the UGC has already took the initiative to come up with a comprehensive Draft Academic Integrity Policy and Regulations, with suitable preventive, remedial and penal measures. At a time when, plagiarism and other dishonest practices are acquiring alarming proportions, a national law to amend the existing copyright law, to curb such practices, with elaborate rules would also be a most welcome step. To remedy the present quality deficit syndrome from higher education, including research, publications and innovations, vis a vis global standards, the scope of regulations may be broadbased to cover data fabrication, contract cheating, availing of paid services, professional misconduct, false and non-confirmable experimental or trial results, frivolous or fraudulent reports, sabotage dry-labbing and bribed reports.   

References

1.      UGC circular No. F.1-18/2010 (CPP-II) dated the 1^st September, 2017 accompanied by the Draft regulations at www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8864815_UGC-Public-Notice-on-Draft_Regulations,-2017.pdf

2.     UGC UGC draft new policy to check plagiarism in academic research, http://www.ndtv.com/education/ugc-drafts-new-policy-to-check-plagiarism-in-academic-research-1745424

3.      ibid

4.      ibid

5.      ibid

6. UGC mandates universities to check theses with anti-plagiarism software, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/ugc-mandates-universities-to-check-theses-with-antiplagiarism-software/article7938979.ece

7.      Economic Times, June 16, 2017, India climbs global innovation charts for second year in a row.

8.      Ashok KM, Live Law. in, Delhi High Court apologizes to authors for copying their article in the judgement; takes corrective action, December 9, 2015

9.      Iris Kisjes, Elsevier Elsevier Connect Report: How do the large research nations compare? The  UK ‘punches above its weight,’ surpassing US in research quality Posted on 10 December 2013

10.  By Michael D. Shaw Dry Labbing And How It Might Be Affecting You April 23, 2012, Interscan Corporation www.gasdetection.com/interscan-in-the-news/magazine-articles/dry-labbing-might-affecting/