Anant Ambani Creates Vantara An Animal Sanctuary And Hospital In Jamnagar

Vantara or Star of the Forest, the spectacular new Ambani initiative, is inspired by the Sanatan Dharma concept of Jeev Seva.  Anant Ambani, its sponsor and prime mover, says there are specific animals associated with every deity in Sanatana Dharma, and all  creatures, great and small, are precious in Hinduism.

 Family patriarch Mukesh Ambani’s own deep and abiding interest in wild life and visiting sanctuaries in India and abroad with his family over the years, has sparked a grand new philanthropic project. That it is of of world class proportions is all the better, given the aspirations of the New India.

Vantara is Anant Ambani’s passion project, springing from a deep empathy for injured and abused animals. Anant is also a Director of Reliance Industries, his main day job. He is the younger son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani.

Anant also heads the Reliance Renewable Energy Project in Jamnagar designed to make Reliance Industries, heavily invested in petro-chemical refining and production, Net Zero Carbon by 2035.

Like other leading business groups such as Tata and Birla, Reliance has an increasing number of initiatives in the public space now. Other public initiatives include the running of an IPL cricket team, schools, hospitals, a spectacular centre for the arts and crafts, major sponsorship of temples and their betterment. Most of these activities are helmed by Chairman Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita Ambani, their other two children and their growing families, who, like Anant, are prominent in the direction of Reliance Foundation as well.

The Ambanis have also created the world’s largest mango plantation in Jamnagar, a once semi-arid area in a backward part of Gujarat.

This latest initiative that is receiving global attention, is the brain child of Anant Ambani, who is also shortly getting married in Jamnagar. He prefers to live there these days, where he attends to Vantara and a plethora of other Reliance assignments. His bride to be, Radhika Merchant, is also keenly interested in the  Vantara project now.

Currently, Vantara is a sanctuary for over 200 injured elephants and other animal species such as leopards, rhinos and crocodiles. It will eventually breed  global endangered animal species to be released into the wild.

The project began on the ground in 2010, says Anant, with a 600 acre habitat for rescued elephants. It was started with special planting to replicate a space specially for the rescued pachyderms.

Later, a massive international quality elephant hospital, fully staffed with  specialists, including 50 expatriates, was built. It specialises in surgery, healing therapies, and rehabilitation. It has state-of-the art surgical equipment, robotic surgery facilities, giant hydraulic 7 ton lift platforms to raise the pachyderms. Anant visited over 30 ICU facilities abroad to formulate his ideas. The elephant hospital is equipped with portable x-ray and laser machines, a pharmacy, a pathology laboratory, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. It provides Multani-mitti and hot oil massages. There are state of the art elephant shelters in the near area, day and night enclosures, hydrotherapy pools, a large elephant jacuzzi for arthritis treatment. There is a 500 strong team of veterinarians, nutritionists, pathologists, biologists, physio-therapists.

 In addition, there is a separate hospital for the smaller animals, similarly equipped with an ICU, MRI, CT Scan, X-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy, dental scalars, lithotripsy, dialysis and OR1 technology. So far, there are 1,000 crocodiles, and 2,000 animals across 43 species inclusive of felines, herbivores and reptiles.

Both hospitals could become important academic and research facilities for animal ailments, bio diversity, conservation, rehabilitation. Vantara expects to collaborate with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and others. It already works in close coordination with the Forest and Wildlife Departments of Gujarat, various Indian zoos and sanctuaries, and the entire forestry and wildlife universe in India.  

The area dedicated to Vantara is 3,000 acres that could go up to 4,000 acres and incorporate a zoological park for visitors in due course.

Vantara is near the mostly Nita Ambani supervised and built city for Reliance employees. In the rural environs of Jamnagar, a dozen new temples have also been built in the surrounding villages recently, in a region famous for its old temples.

Jamnagar, as the site of the now green-belt Ambani petro-chemical empire, was started by the Ambani visionary and founder Dhirubhai Ambani. He grew up himself some 215 km away in the coastal village of Chorwad, his humble ancestral  home renovated and recently turned into a museum by son Mukesh.

Jamnagar and its facilities and installations have been vastly expanded by Mukesh Ambani. It hosts the Reliance crude oil refinery, the biggest and reportedly the most modern in the world, and other Reliance owned petro-chemical complexes. There are also state of the art shipping export infrastructure in the nearby port.  

Anant’s passion project Vantara gained further momentum during the Covid years, he says, when a new non-profit trust was born. Vantara is closed to visitors for the benefit of the rescued animals brought here, and of course, the wildlife and bio-diversity conservation research it engenders.

Vantara provides direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 people who grow the food for the elephants, cook for all the injured animals, feed them, heal them with allopathic and ayurvedic medicines and other therapies, befriend the abused animals, and keep them secure from any threats.

In time Vantara and its expertise aims to improve all the 150 plus animal sanctuaries and zoos in India in terms of training, capacity building, and animal care infrastructure. One day soon, with multiple international cooperation already in the works, Vantara could lead the world in its unique Sanatani Jeev Seva space.

(933 words)

February 28^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Minimum Support Prices Have Outlived Their Utility

Even as the government has called for a fifth round of talks, and the farmer protestors are bent on resuming their push to Delhi, the Minimum Support Price (MSP), remains the central issue.

 MSP was introduced at the time of the Green Revolution in the 1960s. It was in order to spur on the efforts of farmers in Punjab, parts of Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, specifically chosen for the purpose, because their lands were already well irrigated.

India’s food situation was in dire straits at the time, and the country was dependent on America providing wheat, rice, milk powder and the like under their PL-480 food aid programme. Since then, India has come a long way, despite a quadrupling of its population from 1947. It is not only food surplus now but is the world’s biggest exporter of rice among other things.

Over the years, it is farmers from these three states, some 6% of the total, numerically, ruled by a miniscule rich farmer nexus, that have been the principal beneficiaries of MSP.

It is this collection of farmers, that is now demanding even more benefits beyond the existing MSP, free water, electricity, nil taxation, regular increases in MSP rates, and other subsidies and grants from the government.

Of course, the world over, farming is a highly subsidised business, but in the developed countries there has been massive collectivisation of land holdings, mechanisation, modern scientific methods to produce high yields, and some 1-4% of their much smaller populations produce all the food for consumption and export.

In India, by way of depressing contrast, over 50% of the population, some 70 crore people, are engaged in agriculture, and still only contribute some 12-14% to the GDP. It is a highly inefficient sector even 75 years after independence. It is also very difficult politically to reform agriculture and push a majority of the rural population into urban areas for other, more gainful occupations.

The bulk of the crop purchased by the government under MSP still constitute wheat and paddy from semi-arid Punjab and environs. It still uses scarce canal and ground water as it did in the 1960s. Even though there are much better rain-fed areas that grow a surplus of both wheat and paddy today but the Punjab farmers want to corner most of the MSP.

This procurement is, in turn, used to service the public distribution system (PDS) for rations to poorer consumers at subsidised prices, as well as free rations to millions of the poorest.

The rest of these ‘cereal’ crops, if any is left over year to year, after the spoilage from exposure to the elements and rodents,(because of inadequate government storage facilities), is sold in the open market. It is sometimes exported too, particularly rice and wheat. Some of it is retained, as buffer food stocks. Other items like onions, produced mainly in Maharashtra, are also exported. Fruit exports include mangoes. Indian goats are much in demand in West Asia.

The debate on MSP has hotted up once again with a plethora of opinions being offered by a wide selection of people. The ongoing farmer agitation, led by those from Punjab, is picking up where the last episode left off two years ago. In the last encounter, the agitators, led by vested interests determined to maintain the status quo, refused to allow three farm laws from being implemented. These were designed to reform the sector to benefit the vast majority of agriculturists and increase farm income across the board. Emboldened by that success, the same elements are back with a long list of audacious demands.

These include pensions for some 50% of the Indian population engaged in this low output agriculture from the age of 60 and beyond. They are also asking for comprehensive farmer debt waivers. There is also a bizarre demand that India must walk out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The MSP being asked for now must come with a legal guarantee. It is also a much more expensive MSP. The new demand is for implementation of an unrealistic pricing formula, based on suggestions made by the late Dr. MS Swaminathan, the father of the Indian Green Revolution. If implemented, the new MSP would shoot up the retail food prices by an estimated 30%. However, the government is keen to negotiate a veering away from the cultivation of wheat and paddy in Punjab.

The government is in no position to agree to raised MSP for wheat and paddy from Punjab with guaranteed offtake of all that the state can produce. If they do anything like that most other development initiatives will suffer great harm, inflation would run amuck, the fiscal deficit would soar.

It can however buy other crops at MSP in order to encourage a badly needed diversification. It will take time to ramp up in volume terms and may actually strengthen the economy.

Wheat and paddy at high MSP on the other hand, would land India into an internal debt trap worse than what the Chinese have imposed on various countries.

Since MSP has been retained as a political hot potato ever since it was introduced, it is time for it to do some good in terms of present day requirements.

Early efforts of the government to try and bring about a shift in MSP covered crops from just paddy and wheat towards pulses, maize and cotton have been swiftly rejected by the farmer unions, overwhelmingly from Punjab. But the government wants to enter into a fresh round of talks to nudge this objective forward.

The farm unions from Punjab bent on their wheat and paddy seem unconcerned about the imminent desertification of their state with the water table having gone down by over 25 meters already.

The Trojan Horse of 22 or 23 crop items on the protestor list does not reveal that nearly 70% of the MSP is expended on the procurement of just paddy and wheat from the original Green Revolution belt plus Madhya Pradesh now. This needs to change in favour of some of the other 21 crops on the list and procurement from several other states in addition.

Unfortunately, the government’s procurement system has failed to energise the cultivation of pulses so far. These are imported to make up for the shortfall in these staples, in three types of commonly consumed dal.  The Indian government also imports copious quantities of palm oil for example, and could save a lot of foreign exchange if it could catalyse higher Indian production.

A number of hypothetical calculations on the impact of the various demands are doing the rounds. The MSP as it exists have given rise to several market price distortions.

In some cases, and some crops, the market prices have been higher, implying that the small farmer, for example, may prefer to sell outside of the government procurement system. Likewise, some of the rich agitators too, if they agree to grow anything beyond wheat and paddy. In other instances, MSP is higher than prevailing market prices, involving a government procurement outgo if all the output is to be mopped up. But naturally, prices cannot be static, both domestically and internationally from season to season, year to year.

In the end, and under the circumstances, with the MSP historical precedents in situ, the government is on the right track to use this agitation as an opportunity to  try and incentivise reform. The agitators in turn must realise that their room to force their point of view on the government is actually quite limited.

(1,255 words)

February 21^st, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 A Witch’s Brew:  I.N.D.I. Opposition, Congress, AAP, SP, Canada-backed Khalistanis, Pakistani ISI, Islamic Jihadis, Chinese & Soros Money, Maoists, NE Separatists, Leftist International Media, All Fuel Punjab Farmer Bosses in Farmer Agitation 2.0

The I.N.D.I opposition is in tatters with entire parties and prominent individual leaders deserting it frequently. Rahul Gandhi’s East-West Bharat Nyaya Yatra  is a damp squib. Other efforts from the DMK in Chennai and the Congress in Karnataka, both seeking to promote poisonous and divisive agendas, have also failed to gain any traction.

Meanwhile, the ruling combine has been notching up one success over another, and is poised to win the 2024 elections with a larger majority than in 2019.

 But here comes a significant and emotive disruptor. In utter violation of democratic norms of measured negotiation, Supreme Court directives against demonstrators blocking highways, imposition of Section 144, the Punjab Farmer bosses are about to lay siege to Delhi once again.

This is flying in the face of three union ministers, Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai, camped in Chandigarh, engaged in negotiations with the farmer unions. They have already agreed to the MSP demands but have not got around to the rest. The agitators seem keen on a confrontation rather than negotiated settlements.

Predictably, so far, all attempts have failed to avert the march on Delhi, further Bharat Bandhs and threats of violence. Meanwhile, hordes of turbanned Sikhs have arrived at the barricaded Shambhu border already, and the police are busy dispersing them with tear gas.

Ostensibly, this time, the government is determined to end this agitation at the earliest. It has readied a stadium to act as a temporary detention centre for any protestors that do get in to Delhi.

The agitation named ‘Delhi Chalo’ is a march composed of people of dubious provenance that claim to represent India’s farmers. They  are apparently Punjabi Sikhs in turbans laying a bogus claim to representing all.

Some, from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, held a televised press conference on the 13^th of February, and exhorted other farmer and other groups/ unions affiliated with the BJP to join their agitation. This clearly indicates they are supported by anti-government forces.

They are converging on Delhi with over 1,000 tractors and trolleys, some reports say 2,500, with enough provisions and rations to settle in for six months. The financing for such substantial mobilisation and elaborate bandobast, has come in, most like from the anti-Modi government forces, both in the country, and from abroad. It is absolutely déjà vu.  

Will the central government end up conceding the points raised by the protestors once again? Yes, if the infamous roll back of the Farm Laws is anything to go by.

That controversial, politically calculated capitulation of two years ago, may have emboldened this mobilisation in February 2024. The timing is shortly before the Model Code of Conduct imposed by the Election Commission (EC), goes into force. This could happen by March. After that no major initiatives will be permitted.  But still, these agitators plan to dig in for six months.

The Delhi Police has sealed all the main routes into Delhi with barricades and other elaborate fortifications. But this will disrupt other legitimate traffic, trade and supplies causing heavy losses, like the last time. Some protestors can get in by the lesser routes too.

The assembling of apparently over a 100 farmer unions, some reports speak of 200 unions, from Punjab, supported, allegedly by an equal number of labour unions, have suddenly sprung up.  Each of these unions however must necessarily be quite small. This prompted the government ministers to question their representativeness, before going on to discuss their demands.

This is not an all India stir by any means, and is principally centred  in Punjab. There are no people purporting to be farmers from other states at all, except some opposition led elements from Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh who may turn up like last time, as this goes on. This is trying to grow into a replica agitation of the one to protest the three Farm Laws two years ago. The laws were rolled back by the central government under immense pressure.  

Ostensibly, this agitation is to demand guaranteed Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for a large number of crops, farmer and farm labour pensions, debt waivers, compensation for those killed in the clashes of the last farmer agitation at Lakhimpur Kheri, possibly a ban on privatisation of farming if it is being contemplated, other lesser demands. The fiscal impact of conceding all these demands could be considerable and impact the GDP growth projections.

The entire crowd so far seems to consist of Punjabi Sikhs. Punjab is ruled by the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is supporting the agitation. Is this then merely a political stir encouraged by the AAP?

The AAP is embroiled in a liquor Scam and multiple other corruption? Several of their ministers are in jail including the Delhi deputy chief minister. Chief Minister Kejriwal has been dodging summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The Congress Party, in competition with the AAP in Punjab for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, is also offering a degree of support to the Delhi Chalo agitation, motivated perhaps by the pressure that is being applied on the central government.  

The BJP, and even the Akali Dal that may be thinking on rejoining the NDA, have little electoral possibilities in Punjab.

In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh however, BJP is in a strong position. So, the central government has no great reason to cave in to these gun-to-the-head tactics. Of course, the public relations fallout of a renewed and prolonged farmer agitation is a relevant political factor.

Given the prominence of the Punjab Sikhs in this stir, most probably financed and supported by a bouquet of anti-NDA forces, the question arises, are they the only farmers in India? Why are they routinely pampered ever since the Green Revolution engineered by MS Swaminathan, even though many other states have become major agricultural contributors since.

The anti-India forces that could be behind this stir include Canada based Khalistanis, drug dealers and underworld forces from Punjab and Canada, the Pakistani ISI and their Islamic jihadist assets in the country, Chinese moles in-country, Maoists, some North East separatists, Chinese money and arms, the Congress Party, The Samajwadi Party, George Soros and his money, Kashmiri separatists abroad, the foreign leftist media such as  The Washington Post, New York Times,  The Guardian, Economist, the BBC, Time, Newsweek, Al Jazira, some academics in America, parts of the OIC and Turkey.

As one can see, the list is quite long, and not necessarily exhaustive. Many of these people think the prospect of a third consecutive term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist NDA is a threat to their world view, particularly with India’s current buoyant economic prospects. Strategically, a weaker central government in India would make it more biddable for the Western forces and China alike. These apparently agricultural agitators at Delhi’s borders, are regarded as convenient cat’s paws by such forces.

(1,110 words)

February 13^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Interim Budget 2024 Stresses Growth, Reduction of Fiscal Deficit & Inflation

No, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not runaway with the ball. This, for an interim budget and vote-on-account with its constraints and conventions.

Sounding, for all the world, like she was presenting the Economic Survey, not done this year because of the impending general elections, she slipped in as much self-advertisement for the government as she could, that would not attract special notice or criticism. Everybody kept their remarks short, from Sitharaman to the prime minister. Many other government big wigs didn’t speak on the interim budget at all, leaving it to the denizens enjoying the CII lounge.

Still, like a good shepherd, the government, acutely aware it has the fastest growing economy in the world now, intends to keep it safe, with all its gains intact. It also aims to keep all its emphases and thrust areas on course and has upped the ante slightly in all of them.  

There is an effort to broad-base the growth drivers to various other parts of the economy such as dairy farmers, fisheries, housing, 600 crores more for the hydrogen mission, 8,500 crores more to Solar, more aviation and aeroplane orders, more airports. This, in addition to the infrastructure main thrust areas of connectivity, roads, railways, bridges, metros, ports. Include therefore the people-friendly many yojanas, with several mentions of Nari Shakti with attendant incentivisation.

The BJP must be surveying the reception to such yojanas for efficacy -but for the media-reading public, much of it appears like a propagandist jamboree that somehow delivers more BJP votes. Playing it close to the chest is practically DNA to the top brass.

There is now a general call for greater private sector participation in various areas to introduce competitiveness, efficiency, design, style. But, apart from Adani, Ambani and Tata, we cannot be sure whether they will attend. Congress will carp on crony capitalism, but why don’t they get one of their own to come forward.  DLF, anyone?

The habit in the private sector, is to ask for interest reduction and other concessions, never mind what it does to the budget deficit. They could miss the bus of course, with the sarkar continuously doing all the heavy-lifting.

But, as Nadir Godrej said, the private sector will first build additional capacity, if required, in whatever they are involved in.  Unsaid is the fact that the last time the private sector went into infrastructure, the projects were stuck for funding, as were their bills. But this was when their favourite ideological UPA government was in-charge, corrupt but ruling, and  well before Modi Raj began in 2014.

Development of Lakshadweep has found mention here for both tourism and strategic reasons, this prominently, for the first time.

Manufacturing, slated to grow into another 5% of GDP, will get a basic, enabling thrust, with a large, Rs. 1 lakh crores for research and development (R&D), for the first time. Repayable in 50 years, making it practically a grant.

With automobiles accounting for about 50% of manufacturing in India, this R&D funding could come in handy for the development of components and other items in the value chain both for industry consumption and export. Companies like Volvo, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Toyota, Suzuki, Hyundai, which are ensconced in automobile manufacturing and assembly in India, need to be further encouraged to become global hubs operating out of India. Will the government take Arvind Panagariya’s advice in July, and lower tariffs at least in line with the ASEAN countries?

The overall logistic costs are to be brought down from 14% to about 8% with the ongoing efforts of this government on road, rail, air, port infrastructure. This is commendable, dramatic, because it is now credible, and will have profound consequences on the confidence generated amongst foreign investors in India-based manufacture and export.

The stress on government capex continues, will another Rs. 11.1 lakh crores allocated.This was the biggest announcement, and is indeed less than the 13 lakh crores it would have been, if the momentum of the present fiscal was to be maintained into 2024-25. However, the sector accounts for almost 4% of GDP now, and is the main growth driver.  

The government is cutting its market borrowing programme in fiscal 2024-25 to reduce its debts, as the private sector investment increases, compared to before. This indicates greater confidence in the economy. Some of the government’s friends, big boys all, are not afraid.

Meanwhile the government’s fiscal deficit, at 5.9%, is to be reduced to 5.1% in 2024-25, en route to meeting the target of 4.5% in  FY 2025-26. Will this mount 5.1% lead to interest rate cuts? RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, most likely, will not react to intentions, and wait for the attainment of 5.1% first.

All changes in direct and indirect taxes remain untouched for now, but the implication is that there may be some benefits announced in the full budget of July 2024.

Prominent mention of rooftop solar for one crore households to generate 300 units of free electricity, with connectivity to sell overages, has enthused the energy stocks such as IREDA, Websol Energy, Suzlon Energy and Sterling and Wilson. However, this initiative may do better in the countryside and new construction in smaller towns and cities. The technology associated with solar panels also needs to evolve.

Likewise Electric vehicle (EV) stocks rallied on the reiteration of adoption of EV in public transport. India is also working hard on green hydrogen technologies as an alternative to EVs.

Interestingly, divestment targets, after the success of returning Air India to the Tatas, have actually been reduced. There are more important things for the government to concentrate on, with a dramatic turnaround in many PSU stocks connected with aatmanirbhar initiatives and defence manufacturing.

The middle class will be helped to build their own houses or purchase their dwellings. But there is no indication that the government intends to ramp up the real estate sector in general, despite its potential of becoming a massive employer of skilled and unskilled jobs, if it goes up from the $ 120 billion at present to $ 1 trillion by 2030. Millions of people, men and women, from the rural surplus could be absorbed, apart from those who go into management, sales and so on. It would need incentives, loans, industry status.

Small disputed income tax demands, some going back to 1962, and subject of much contention, have been withdrawn for up to Rs. 25,000  till FY 2009-10 and Rs. 10,000 up to FY 2014-15. This is a welcome thing, but a curious and somewhat trivial item to introduce here.

Defence stocks, Railway stocks, declined somewhat, probably not excited by the steadiness of gait. Where are the huge bump-ups in expenditure? However, the announcements showed that investments are slightly enhanced and are continuing. Railways will get more trains. Defence manufacturing gets more money, the budget upped by 4.4 %.

Unexpected money is going into Solar, EV, Nari Shakti, middle class housing, and all this has been well received.  The large-scale induction of the female population into the work force could add 1 to 1.5% to the GDP. Can this be achieved in the period 2024-2029?

 

(1,184 words)

February 1^st, 2024

For; Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee