<b>T N Ninan:</b> What the talkathons missed

Yashwant Sinha, finance minister in the Vajpayee government, used to tell Delhi journalists who quizzed him on his Budgets that their concerns had nothing in common with the concerns of his voters in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh. Likewise, the many reports, debates, interviews and newspaper articles that have numbed our consciousness with overkill on the subject of the Modi government's first year, are remarkable for how they ignored what one would have thought were some very real issues. Here's a short list of what was missed:

The human resource development minister attracts sound-bytes, eyeballs, and controversy, but no one has focused on a forgotten fact: when 15-year-old students from two states that do relatively well on education (Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh) took part for the first time in 2011 in the Programme for International Student Assessment (known as Pisa), they performed worse than students from all countries other than Kyrgyzstan. Yes, Kyrgyzstan. The tests cover literacy in reading, maths and science, and are designed to see if those tested have the knowledge and skills to function as successful members of society. The students' performance was yawning gaps behind that of their counterparts in some other Asian countries, and therefore did not say much for what passes for our school education. That disastrous showing finds an echo in domestic surveys by Pratham, which have shown repeatedly that half of Class 5 students cannot cope with Class 2 level of reading and arithmetic. Is this issue vital for the country's future? Dead silence on the subject during all the anniversary talkathons.
 

The other subject which did not figure was water, except when there was talk of a possible monsoon shortfall. The truth is that India is headed almost inexorably for a massive water crisis. The Asian Development Bank, surveying water security in Asia, has reported that India ranks near the bottom on the subject. Only three countries fare worse: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Kiribati. Meanwhile, water availability per person has dropped well below the standard requirement of 1,700 cubic metres per head. It used to be 5,000 cubic metres when the population was much smaller, but is now about 1,500 cubic metres. By the time the size of the population stabilises, it could drop below the 1,000 cubic metres at which point a country is considered water-scarce. But we don't hear from the agriculture minister (know who he is?) about how farming practices are being modified to reduce water use - and farming accounts for the bulk of water consumption.

Talking of agriculture, perhaps the only person who mentioned it in the last couple of weeks was Ashok Gulati, who pointed out in an article in Indian Express that the government had not paid much attention to the issue. The fact is that Indian agricultural productivity is way below world averages in almost every major crop. In cases like paddy, output per hectare could be doubled. It so happens that poverty levels in the country fall fastest when agricultural growth rates are good, and farm product prices low. Also, while there has been a lot of talk of making in India, and of jobs to be created in manufacturing, the fact is that more employment can be created through diversification of farm crops than one can hope to create during even the medium term in manufacturing. The resulting surge in rural demand could sustain a great many urban industries, including in manufacturing. It would seem that the government and most of the commentariat have missed an obvious trick.

School education, water availability, under-developed agriculture, employment… these are not "must watch" or "must read" subjects on your average weekday evening. Summit razzmatazz in world capitals, defence acquisitions and tax terrorism are so much better for holding a studio audience. But somewhere, everyone might miss the point about what could win the next set of elections.