Hello and welcome to NewsClick. The egregian crisis has become core agenda of various political parties, many of them promising lone waivers and this is one of the core issues on which this election is being fought. But we should not forget that the AIKS, All India Kisan Sabha, was one of the few organizations who has brought this issue to the front. If you see long marches in Maharashtra, the massive mobilization of farmers in Seeker and elsewhere in the country. To discuss about agriculture, its role in 2019 election and the AIKS itself, we are joined by Viju Krishnan, Joint Secretary of AIKS and the Central Committee member of the CPI. Welcome to NewsClick. So let's start with the Narendra Modi government. If you look at the manifesto that they have brought out in 2019, the points are almost similar. So how do you see the BJP manifesto and its role vis-à-vis agriculture in last 5 years? No actually you see 2014 itself, the kind of hopes it had raised through its manifesto and the speeches of the prime minister, that has been totally billiared. So this in 2019, once again talking about doubling farmers incomes, that the farmers are not going to buy. And this election very clearly as far as the rural masses are concerned, the agrarian crisis is the central issue which is going to determine which way they are going to decide in the elections. So I think it is the BJP is in for trouble, in 2014 they had managed to get a lot of support in some of the states which are more predominantly agrarian states, Haryana and Maharashtra being examples where they could form governments on their own and for the first time. So in all these areas they are going to face a huge setback and I have been going across the country for the election campaign and this issue comes again and again. So if you look at assembly elections which took place 3-4 months last month of 2018, the congress has won in 3 states and they claim that as soon as they have come to power they have done loan waivers and they are also saying in the 2019 manifesto they will bring a Kisan budget when they come to power. But do you think is it feasible if we look at the congress policies vis-a-vis agriculture in last 10 years when they were in power, UPA 1, UPA 2, especially UPA 1 because left was supporting it so they were on they couldn't pursue those policies but in UPA 2 and this deterioration has started even in the regime because if you look at the agricultural output and growth it is at 14 years lowest. So it has started long back so do you think congress manifesto is feasible when it comes to agriculture? No actually you see the last 5 years our allegation against the BJP has been that they have been carrying forward the neoliberal economic policies at a much faster pace. Plus cow. Yeah plus cow and so what we find is it has been promoting corporate profiteering and the market forces have been given a free hand. Now if you look at the congress manifesto it says the congress economic philosophy is guided by open market liberal economy it would be open market liberal economy and it accuses the BJP of actually reversing the clock of reforms and goes on to say that the congress is going to further remove the regulations it is over regulated now. In fact we have been saying that it is because of deregulation that the prices of inputs agricultural input seeds fertilizers pesticides all have been increasing also of other for instance the petrol and diesel and those things but the congress now says that they are going to further remove these regulations and as far as the trade policies free trade policies both have followed the same thing right ASEAN free trade now there is the regional comprehensive economic partnership there is no difference in their policies on these two issues right and also if you look at this say that if you are not able to pay back the loan it won't be a criminal offense it will be a civil offense as if that makes a difference because when it comes to the loans that are given to the farmers I mean there is no regulation on that as well the preharmony facility Bhima Yojna everybody knows what the amount that is going to the corporates so you think there would be any difference in terms of that also because the policies are going to be the same maybe renamed again it is just the same thing in a new package you could find and while BJP is talking about doubling farmers incomes it is sticking to the Pradhan Mantri, Fasal Bhima Yojna and so on and it towards the end it came with the Kisan Sambhan Nidhi right so which is talking about 6000 rupees for a farmer owning up to 2 hectares and that means entire year in a year so that would be about 500 rupees a month 17 rupees a day but let us see if both these manifestos are silent on this C2 plus 50 right it is only the CPIM which is very clear that it is it will legislate it will ensure enforce this C2 plus 50 as the MSP and in both these cases if you look at the C2 plus 50 if that was given in the case of Paddy in most parts of India farmers are getting between 800 to 1000 only though the MSP of Paddy is 1750 per quintal because there is no procurement in Kerala it is 2350 now it has been increased to 2650 so even if you take a hectare of land Bengal or Bihar the production is around 4 tons per hectare so the farmer is getting about 40,000 if it was 1750 it should have been around 70,000 if it was even 2350 let us not take the 2650 2350 then the farmer in Bengal or Bihar would have got about 65,000 rupees more per crop and it is in such circumstances he is talking about 6000 rupees and all these manifestos you do not find a way to address issues of like procurement what is going to happen about it the storage part of it because all these things are also important issues even if the government announces MSP if it is not been procured in the market if it is not stored then it does not it is just notional it is just notional it is just on paper and the congress manifesto says it will allow more private players to enter into all these areas whereas we have been very clear that public investment is required cooperatives should play a role and also the panchayats in procurement because the network of procurement it has to be much more wider just like the Kerala government has been trying to implement in last few years right yeah yeah it is the Kerala government has that has helped in production of paddy and all that some of these policies and the and cooperatives play an important role truly because you see in most of the cases there is no other than procurement even where there is procurement there is nothing done by the government in terms of value addition and marketing it is totally again in the hands of the private sector so here cooperatives could play a role where the profits that accrue from it can be can be plowed back to the farmers. So let us come back to the CPIM manifesto that you were talking about what are the thing that CPIM is promising in its manifesto vis-a-vis revival of agriculture revival presentry firstly increase public investment that is a very important aspect because we are finding systematic withdrawal of the government from public investment in agriculture there is cuts in subsidies we are very clear that there would be increase in subsidies and that the inputs would be publicly provisioned to the farmers at cheap rates very importantly the demand of the farmers for a legislation for MSP C2 plus 50 that I think only the CPIM is the only party which has very clearly mentioned that it would be enforced and it would be legally binding to give this kind of a rate as the MSP and we have also taken a position on loan waivers keeping the interest rates very low that is something which we have mentioned loan waivers is unlike what is happening now it is more a palliative it is important in when farmers are in crisis that there is a loan waiver but the way it is implemented we have seen in Uttar Pradesh for instance farmers are getting 1 rupee or 5 yeah so you have the Kerala model where you have the debt relief commission which looks into each individuals what is the loan that they have to repay and how that could be waived in and that led to a fall in the number of suicides in Kerala why not had around 3000 suicides now you don't find suicides in that nature anymore so I mean there has been a argument that why should the loan waiver be given where will the money come from and the way you are suggesting how the Kerala government has implemented that relief commission so I think then this logic doesn't stand that money can be arranged if you can give corporate loan waivers then the farmers can obviously be yeah that is the only what who is your priority whether it is the corporate companies or is it the farmers and agriculture workers and if your priorities the farmers and agriculture workers surely there are ways and if you have a political will that can be implemented now we have seen how from Malia to Modi's how they have been fleeing the country and the Chaukidar has just been sleeping so the people know this so agricultural workers is an important point and no other manifesto seems to talk about it CPIM has put it as a special point in the manifesto what is your see our struggles wage has been a significant issue and we are very clear that it should be at least 600 rupees and even in a NREGA we are talking about increasing the number of days not just 100 increasing it as well as ensuring it is linked to the minimum wage which is linked to the inflation also so that is something which only the CPIM has mentioned very significantly for the small and marginal farmers there is also talk about a labor subsidy which the CPIM manifestos come up with we have been the only organizations which have been talking about comprehensive social security measures for the agriculture workers the landless labor their housing is an issue house sites is an issue which also we have been mentioning about so what would be your concluding note for this entire election you think that the bjp is on a losing turf because agrarian crisis has deepened in the rural areas and that is where the maximum amount of votes are being posed true the this is the agrarian crisis and the way the bjp has handled it is proving to be the Waterloo for Modi and his team and irrespective of different surveys which have been again projecting I think the farmers have decided and that is going to show in the elections also thanks a lot viju for giving us your time thanks a lot that was viju krishnam for you keep watching news click


A few days ago, I was having a conversation with one of my entrepreneur friends. I told him about my anger whenever I see young people who are not serious about their lives. I told him that I feel that it's not the fault of these young people. Instead, I blame the society that raised them. Then I told him something most people don't know. And that is, some of us consciously changed the society that raised us to the ones we wanted. You do these things by learning from the people you want to emulate. Think about this.  Since I've decided to become an entrepreneur several years ago, I have changed who I listen to. I made it a duty to learn from successful entrepreneurs simply because that's the easiest way to become like them. In today's video, I'll be sharing with you top 7 lessons I learned from 7 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the 19th century. I've previously learned some of these lessons from other sources but learning them again from these great men is a good reminder. If you are new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other exciting videos like this. 1. John D. Rockefeller If you want to succeed, you should strike out a new path rather than travel the one parts of accepted success. If you want to achieve great success in any field, you have to be courageous enough to strike new paths. The reason for this is because you need a lot of eyeballs to be able to be successful in anything and eyeballs only follow new or unique things. This is what I mean by eyeballs, attention, attention, attention. You need massive attention to be able to get people to recognize you as an inventor, for example. You need a lot of attention for your product or services to be able to succeed as an entrepreneur. You need people to know you are there and you are doing something to succeed in that field. And there is no way to get those eyeballs if all you do is what everyone else is doing. You have to be courageous to make a road in the desert if you genuinely want to be successful. 2. Andrew Coneji People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity no matter how impressive their other talents. Most every human being is motivated in some ways. In school, I see many young people reading for long hours and days. Examination and degree is their motivation. That's not self-motivation. Today, I see a lot of people waking up by 5am to rush to the jobs they hate. Salary is their motivation. Yes, I also wake up at 5am many days but nobody is on my neck to do it. Meaning, I can still afford to wake up at 10am and there won't be any repercussion whatsoever for my action. Here's the thing, if you're not able to get yourself to do difficult things except someone has to threaten you or promise you a reward, you can't go far in life. Take for instance, if you can spare 3 hours in a week to read, it's not because you don't know that there are some good books you could read, it's just because you are not self-motivated to read. If tomorrow someone promises to give you 500 dollars for every book you read, you start reading right? You get the picture. Number 3. JP Morgan Go as far as you can see, when you get there, you'll be able to see further. Again, people tell you that they want to start a business and don't know how to start. My answer to them is, start with any silly thing that comes to your mind. When I went fully into the business world, in the year 2008, my first business was a total flop that I lost it within one week. But from there, I could see the next step until I had my first breakthrough. Go as far as you can see, when you get there, you'll see further. Number 4. Thomas Edison Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Some months ago, I studied the biography of Albert Einstein. Ironically, the man wasn't who the world thought he was. If you take time to study the life of Einstein, you'd be surprised to find that he was never a genius. Yes, Albert Einstein and so many other people we envy and eulogize today were ordinary people with extraordinary determination.  Number 5. John Jacob Astor An ounce of practice is what a pound of theory. I have so many friends who said they want to become entrepreneurs and what they do is to read books about entrepreneurship. The problem with this is that you can't know anything by reading about it. That's one of the reason why school is not the best place to get an education. The true education is in the field. Do you need to read something about driving before driving? Yes. But can you become a good driver by reading about driving? No. Now you get my point. Number 6. Nikolas Tesla Our virtues and our failings are inseparable like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more. Think about the most successful man in the history of our world. Think about the man we envied and worshipped all of the time. They fail more than everyone else. So it is that failures and success are inseparable companions. You simply can have one without the other. So if you desire great success in life, you must be willing to sacrifice some of your blood. Number 7. BD Mason If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed for it gives in abundance even as it receives. Whenever we talk about the concept of giving, the very first thing that comes to our mind is giving money. Money is the least important thing you can give.  You can give yourself the world and that's what most people who succeed do. Think about a problem you can solve with your life and be willing to sacrifice the rest of your life for such. You will only be successful in the proportion to the amount of yourself you are willing to give to make the lives of other humans a little better. In conclusion, if you want to succeed, you should strike out a new path rather than travel the one-out parts of accepted success. People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity no matter how impressive their other talents are. Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you will be able to see further. Force is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. An ounce of practice is what a pound of curing. Our virtues and our failings are inseparable like force and murder when they separate, man is no more. If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed for it gives in abundance even as it receives. Thank you for watching our videos. We love you.


The apparel and textile industry is one of the largest industries in the world, with an annual revenue of over $2.5 trillion US. At this critical time in our planet's history, people are buying more items of clothing per year than ever before, often without much concern for what it is doing to people in the planet. We know that these prices for t-shirts are simply too cheap to be the true cost. Think of the production of the cotton, which includes an incredible amount of water and pesticides, the shipping of the cotton to the mill, the creation of the knit fabric, the chemicals used to dye it, the cutting and sewing of the t-shirt, the wages of the workers, the distribution of the final product, the advertising and the overhead of the retail store, etc. And clothes keep getting cheaper. This is from the same giant mega retailer four years later. In fact, the business philosophy of big box retailers is simple. To increase their sales and profits by bringing the lowest possible prices to their customers. But at what cost? Big box chains require their suppliers to lower prices year after year, putting huge pressure on them to be leaner and faster, cutting costs by laying off workers, moving production overseas and using unethical labor practices. In the past 20 years, our global population has grown by 28%, but clothing production has far outpaced population growth, doubling in the same 20 years. This incredible growth of fast fashion has had massive environmental and social impacts. The overconsumption of fast fashion comes with a high price to pay in four main areas. Pollution, waste and disposal, workers' rights and workers' safety. Let's look at each of these individually, then look at some of the solutions that need to happen in the ready-made garment industry. One of the first problems to look at is the massive use of water. How many liters of water do you think it takes to produce a simple t-shirt? 10, 100, 1,000? If you consider the growing of the cotton, the production of the textiles, the bleaching or dyeing and mercerizing, it actually takes about 2,700 liters of water to make one t-shirt. What about a pair of jeans? It's an astonishing 7,600 liters of water. So this simple outfit then totals 10,300 liters of water. If you think of that in terms of drinking water at the recommended rate of about 2 liters of water a day, it would take a person more than 14 years to drink that much water. Multiply that by an average of 20 new garments per year times 7.9 billion people and the result is billions of cubic meters of water being used in the ready-made garment industry every year. And the problem is that this huge amount of water is not just returned to the hydrologic cycle to be safely used again. It is polluted with toxic chemicals at each stage of garment production. The production of cotton accounts for 16% of insecticides used worldwide. And these pesticides enter the soil, groundwater and nearby rivers. And of course other fibers besides cotton are produced in massive quantities as well. Also wreaking havoc as they are bleached, dyed and printed. Adding more toxic chemicals to nearby water sources. These chemicals are difficult and costly to remove from water. So textiles factories usually dump untreated wastewater into rivers and streams. This water is then used to irrigate crops. So of course toxic chemicals can be found in fruits and vegetables meant for human consumption. Unfortunately, the negative environmental impacts of our clothing do not stop once we purchase them. In the case of synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, each time we wash them, hundreds of thousands of microfibers are released into the water system. This includes of course microfiber bedding, which has gained popularity because it is less expensive than cotton. An estimated half a million tons of microfibers leach into oceans each year. They can accumulate in the bodies of fish which we then eat. The impacts on our health are not yet known. Even when we stop wearing an article of clothing, its disposal can have harmful impacts on the environment. Approximately 92 million tons of textile items per year globally are dumped into landfills where their dyes, finishes and microplastics can continue to contaminate soil and groundwater. Of the 98 million tons of clothing produced each year, approximately 85% ends up in landfill or is incinerated, often within a year of purchase. Due to economies of scale, it is often cheaper for a manufacturer to produce more than is actually needed. If a company needs, for example, 800 items, it is sometimes cheaper to produce 1,000 of the item and discard the extra 20%. To maintain brand exclusivity, the remaining items are burned, buried or shredded. In 2018, Burberry was among the first producers to admit to this practice. It's not that they are worse than other companies. In fact, declaring this makes them one of the few brands that is transparent about it and they have since stopped the practice. Fast fashion has created a throwaway approach to clothing. The 80 billion items of clothing that do get sold each year are worn an average of only seven times before being discarded. The average Canadian throws out 36 kilograms of clothing a year, the equivalent of one and a half full suitcases each year. When an item is thrown away, it is not only the item itself going to waste, but also the natural resources required to create it. This means 2,600 liters of water for every T-shirt or 7,600 liters of water for every pair of jeans that are sent to the landfill. It's definitely better to donate textile items, but again the problem is scale. We simply purchase and discard too much. The third part of the problem of the global fashion industry is labor regulations and workers' rights. The industry is notorious for paying below the already low minimum wages of the poorest countries in the world. In these images from EcoWatch, we can see that the garment worker makes about 1% of the retail price. The low pay is barely enough for three meals a day, so workers often sleep in cramped spaces in the factory. If they try to organize, workers are fired and often blacklisted. Bangladesh pays the lowest salaries in the world, about $76 a month. This is not even based on a 40 hour work week. When there is a large order due, workers often work six or even seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 or 3 a.m. Bangladesh's garment industry is now the second largest in the world, second only to China. There are thousands of factories employing millions of adults and also millions of children, an estimated 5 million 10 to 14 year olds. Since 2013, factories have become more regulated and conditions have improved. But what often happens is that a fashion brand gives their business to a regulated factory, then the work is subcontracted to an unregulated factory. This makes transparency and accountability impossible. This is one of the unregulated factories where not only are wage standards not necessarily followed, but neither are safety and fire regulations. Quite often workers don't even know if the factory is registered or not, if they have an illegal protection or not, or even the name of the owners or the factory itself. In 2006 in Bangladesh, Rana Plaza was built on a filled in pond without proper approvals as a four floor building with mixed retail and office space. It was not designed for industrial use, meaning that its structure was not strong enough to support industrial machinery. Four more floors were then added, again without proper approvals, and five garment manufacturers were operating in the plaza. In 2013, a ninth floor was nearing completion to accommodate another large manufacturer. Many well-known fast fashion brands were being produced in this building. In April 2013, news clips showed workers who said that they had seen and reported large cracks in the building and had tried to refuse to work, but were told that inspectors had declared the building safe and that workers would be fired if they did not return to work immediately. On April 24th, 2013, the Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1,134 people and injuring hundreds of others. There have been multiple deadly fires and other industrial accidents in Bangladesh before and since Rana Plaza, but we don't hear about these less newsworthy tragedies. It was the scale of Rana Plaza that made it a tipping point that moved the issue into the mainstream. Since the Rana Plaza disaster, many new regulations have been put into place, and things are slowly improving. And many activist groups emerged that are doing great work to support workers and the environment, including Clean Clothes Campaign, a global alliance dedicated to improving working conditions and empower workers in the global garment and sportswear industries. Fashion Revolution has grown to become the world's largest fashion activism movement, mobilizing citizens, brands, and policymakers through research, education, and advocacy. There are also many exciting new technologies that promise to make the production of textiles safer and cleaner. Calls have been made to transform the fashion industry into a circular model with non-toxic biodegradable clothing that is designed for minimal harm to the environment with sharing, reusing, and recycling as important elements to be planned in the design stage. But these changes take time, which we don't have a lot of. So what can you do in the meantime? Here are six suggestions. Dramatically reduce the amount of new fast fashion you purchase. Set a reasonable limit for yourself, say five pieces of new clothing per year. Buy from local shops and ethical fashion brands whenever possible. Buy as much secondhand clothing as you want. Have fun thrifting. Wear your finds as many times as you like and then re-donate them. Share and swap clothing with friends. Maintain your clothing well through gentle laundering. Learn to sew on a button and fix a torn seam instead of discarding your old clothes. Learn to sew. Rescue some donated fabric and create your own unique wardrobe. Small immediate changes like these can help us buy the time we need to make bigger changes. Together we can bring the beauty back into fashion. Links to key articles are in the description below. Thanks so much for watching.