I would ask everybody to take their seat but that would leave some of you out so those that can find a seat please do and those who haven't got one don't worry we won't keep you on your feet too long but welcome everyone it is there's always a risk on very happy occasions of hyperbole but I don't think it's going to be possible to engage in any today this is I say without much fear of contradiction one of the biggest days in Purdue history and it is much more than that it is in the next half hour you're going to I think hear those contentions validated and substantiated it's a very big day in the history of an industry and not just any industry the industry that is probably as central as any to the success of our economy and literally our national security it's an historic day for the state's economy not just by virtue of the size of the announcement that you're about the year but it's nature the kind of investment the kind of economic activity that is coming to our state and it's a huge day for Purdue's future so much that we have envisioned and and hoped for in terms of building at this place a more vibrant and attractive environment so that the brightest minds in the world will want to come and study and teach and research and live here and also what we've hoped to become as a genuine major contributor to a stronger state's economy full of greater opportunities for all our fellow citizens so you'll now hear I believe substantiation of those assertions from the following people they will appear without further introduction you will be hearing from our great governor Eric Holcomb and from then from his secretary of commerce Brad Chambers they are in the middle of a record-breaking year already for new investment new jobs in our state prior to today's announcement then by video you will be hearing from Dr. Dev Chenoy who's the director of microelectronics at the nation's department of defense and following him our own senator Todd Young who literally today is involved in final negotiations for the essential federal legislation which will make this event possible as well as many many others across the country in advancing the the goals that I talked about earlier but first the star of our show with the momentous news that has brought us all together today I'd ask you all to please give a warm Boilermaker welcome Tom Sonderman the president and CEO of SkyWater Technology good morning thank you president Daniels I am so pleased to be here today to announce our plans to build a 1.8 billion dollar next generation semiconductor manufacturing facility and West Lafayette Indiana in partnership with the state of Indiana and Purdue University this collaboration presents a unique opportunity to increase domestic semiconductor production secure our supply chains and lead the way in manufacturing technologies that will support the future of microelectronics there couldn't be a better place for us to announce our new manufacturing facility than here in the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering because today our nation celebrates the 53rd anniversary of the first moonwalk and a speech at Rice University in 1962 President Kennedy roused support for America's mission to the moon with a speech that celebrated the determination of America's innovators stating that we choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard because they demonstrate our will to overcome and achieve and because they lend significant benefit to society and our country the symbolism is striking just like in 1969 today we're making another moonshot this time to reestablish global leadership and semiconductor innovation and manufacturing and just like then we are committing to bring the weight of our innovation and determination together to achieve something extraordinary Skywaters Indiana fab will be the most advanced next generation fab ever built enabling mass customization of highly innovative solutions by using intelligent automation that seamlessly combines r&d with high volume weight for manufacturing this initiative will build more than capability and capacity in the u.s it will also become the blueprint that will define how fabs are built and operated for decades to come our aim is to address the ongoing worldwide chip shortage to contribute to the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing to position america to regain the leading edge and advance technologies and to develop needed technology talent while also creating many high paying jobs here in america's heartland before i continue i'd like to briefly acknowledge some key individuals with us today who are not on stage but are remarkable partners for skywater ajit manosha president and ceo of semi former global foundation's colleague former u.s senator norm colman been instrumental in skywaters evolution and former assistant secretary of u.s department of commerce ian stuff there he is over thank you for your there is no better partner for this initiative than for you for the university we talk a lot about lab to fab in the semiconductor industry the proximity of this new fab to produce and its pipeline of talented engineers will facilitate that ideal i am inspired by produced commitment to the semiconductor industry first semiconductor degrees program which will offer interdisciplinary degrees and credentials targeted at semiconductors and microelectronics in addition to berc nanotechnology center is making impressive strides every day and building a high-tech ecosystem that amplifies produce history of incubating technology i must also acknowledge the scale program managed by perdu and sponsored by our friends at nswc crane the program provides courses mentoring internship matching and targeted research projects for college students in three microelectronics areas radiation hardening heterogeneous integration and system on a chip these three core areas are central to skywaters customer base the overlap is an obvious attraction for our support of the program but importantly getting to work with potential employees who are learning to work in a secure and trusted environment can facilitate their transition to private companies like skywater who have a close intimate relationship with the department of defense skywaters proud to be america's foundry we have successfully executed multiple public private partnerships throughout the course of our company's history and we're ready to do it again with the state of indiana the ecosystem partnership that is developing in indiana is happening at a time when the country is coming together to reinvest at the federal state and the industry level to drive innovation and secure domestic manufacturing much of what is happening here in india today is due to great partners like dr matt k where you at matt right there right in front of course matt and his other great partners at nswc crane we are in an intersection where america can make the choice to invest in our future our slowly fade in relevance as other nations take up the mantle to lead the world in semiconductor innovation we have so much promise and opportunities before us that is why it's critical that congress pass the chips legislation they must act with a sense of urgency because every minute they wait is a minute loss this is an ambitious project but if we could figure out how to send a man to the moon and get him home safely in just over eight years we can definitely do this just like then this is our moonshot i believe against the backdrop of unprecedented semiconductor industry demand indiana's well positioned to cultivate the intellectual firepower and vigorous business environment needed to create an enduring semiconductor ecosystem and i'm so pleased that sky water will be part of thank you thank you uh tom and just like president daniels said these occasions tempt us with hyperbole and exaggeration some politicians might even embellish from from from time to time but like those occasions where you feel necessary to lightly applause this was uh one of those announcements where i never i didn't feel like stopping applauding and i am going to pile on with with uh praise for what is occurring today and every day here after want to congratulate your crew uh tom for not just planting your flag here in tipica new county but for carrying out this mission and for taking a real leadership role in it this this campus has fostered pioneers for decades and continues to set its sights far over the horizon and today is just a perfect example of that culture uh that you're becoming a crew member of and we couldn't be more proud i think i will just state the obvious and and tell you we thank you chose wisely you mentioned the upwards of 1.8 billion now and the 750 his initial 750 careers his jobs but ever-evolving careers for what comes next it just doesn't get any better than this and to be rebuilding to be assisting our nation in catching up on rebuilding that very foundation right alongside some of the brightest minds in the world today truly sets in motion that here in indiana we're not we're not predicting the future we're defining it and this is a proud proud hoosier day and i'm confident time you came to you came to realize from that very first meeting and every day and meeting thereafter including most recently at our global economic summit that you have committed partners here at the county here in west lafayette and lafayette certainly with president daniels mong and the whole again crew that's been assembled secretary chambers our senior senator todd young who is a hero for what he's been shepherding to date no more work to do this is a big step and first step in the in the right direction for our for our nation and we truly do as much mentioned this is important so much so that it's really our duty to make sure that you are successful in this endeavor there's a lot at stake and to be thinking about hoosier made products that you just don't buy at the convenience store but everything that you do buy at the convenience store is in one way or another tethered to that right here in this semiconductor corridor that is emerging before our very eyes in large part because of president daniels and his foresight and his vision and his follow through and courage when some others may have shirked from that duty and what was at stake to do it here in this hall neil armstrong hall where not even the ceiling or the sky is the limit to put together this semiconductor degree program that's going to be the perfect kind of hand and glove complement to your immediate and ultimate efforts this is where big bold ideas lift off in record time not just put into motion but are realized and that's going to continue to strengthen what is so fragile and that's that supply chain and we're seeing that all over the world and for indiana and for america to step up and answer that call i can't think of anything more important contributing to our connectivity contributing to our as was mentioned national security economic security that's why our task force and i'm so pleased to see so many folks in the state administration here and and part of this day because they're not just here to celebrate they're here for every step of this journey and to have people on the workforce cabinet and to have dr jenner to have chris lowery to have dr elsperman to have people who it is their duty to make sure you succeed we succeed and i can't think of anything that neil armstrong would be more proud of you mentioned 53 years ago that one small step this is a giant leap forward for sky water for prudu for indiana indeed for america and so tom again to you and your crew boiler up and hammer down we're in it every step of the way thank you congratulate good morning good morning thank you governor it is always great to be here at prudu so thank you um president daniels for for your hosting us congratulations tom it feels like it was just yesterday our first meeting in indianapolis to discuss your hopes and dreams for the future of the semiconductor industry in this incredible project frankly the whole year has felt quick it's been almost 12 months since the governor pulled me out of my comfortable private sector job to help grow and steer indiana's economy i haven't had my formal one year review yet governor but with humility i'd say indiana has had a pretty good year with 17 billion dollars of capital investment in our first six months a 350 increase year over year the most exciting of which though is what we're celebrating today welcoming this great company and this great team to the indiana family sky water is a special company tom your visionary leadership and your talented team yet thorough have been a pleasure to work with our visions of building a prosperous future for not just the state but for the nation aligned perfectly indiana is committed and determined to support skywaters future success and profitability i was speaking with president daniels just last week and found myself thinking about the years of prudu leadership that has helped us reach this point and i felt a sense of gratitude gratitude for those at prudu who believed microelectronics was the path ahead and advocated for the industry as an opportunity for our state gratitude for president daniel's vision for discovery park and its uplifting effect on west lafayette and lafayette and prudu generally gratitude for the entire team at prudu and their collective contributions because of clear goal setting and ambitious action prudu like our state generally continues to lead in almost every conceivable way in academics and research and innovation and corporate partnerships but as with any major accomplishment it took a village to get us across the finish line and i want to recognize that village couple hometown guys he and stef recognized earlier thank you for your guidance through this important project and victor smith as well the team at crene naval airfare center thank you phil and matt for your participation and guidance dav roberts and jimmy costa the leaders at idc's new amped semiconductor task force these guys dav roberts has been toiling in this space for years and years and he's rewarded today and you know all his hard work but thanks guys the idc business development team and later brought her and of course jessica tower who is on point on this important project our critically important workforce partners here today tony denhart dr elsperman dr jenner chris lawry chuck johnson among so many others on this important topic of workforce readiness of course prudu led by president daniels and ding chang thank you for all you're doing and have done tom john and the whole skywater team are so darn excited thank you mayor denis mayor roswarski uh and typically new county without your support in partnership this would not have happened today senator tydon young obviously uh leading the charge on bringing semiconductors back to the usa a huge congratulations to senator young for getting chips through just last night governor and the legislature for providing the tools to do this thank you again for being here to celebrate this wonderful announcement for the hoosier state skywater we thank you we are with you and together we'll address america's national security priorities and indiana's economic growth aspirations thank you thank you governor eric hall goman birdie university president mitch daniels for inviting me to this timely event we are here to recognize skywater's investment in a new state of art semiconductor manufacturing facility in the discovery park district at birdie this represents a major investment in the future of us microelectronics and highlights the importance of public private partnerships in fostering a domestic microelectronics industry as some of you know i am the principal director of microelectronics and i'm here today representing honorable mischew to your chief technology officer the u.s innovation ecosystem has long been the driver of our nation's technology leadership throughout the world the u.s government r&d kickstarted the enormous semiconductor industry which enables the innovative products and advanced defense systems that are essential to u.s dominance across both commercial and military sectors however the microelectronics fabrication and innovation ecosystem are increasingly moving overseas driven by commercial demands u.s production has dropped from about 37 percent in 1990 to nearly 12 percent today continued leadership in innovation design and manufacturing capability is critical to maintain technological superiority to address these challenges the office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering or usd r&e trusted and assured microelectronics t&m program is investing in the u.s microelectronics sector to create broader competitiveness and enable defense programs to more rapidly modernize and innovate by keeping pace with commercial technology the t&m program is leveraging commercial and academic partnerships to accelerate and demonstrate new technologies domestically and provide do d programs access to advanced technologies skywater has been a key partner in expanding domestic foundry capability that will serve dual use commercial and defense systems for years to come additionally the t&m scalable asymmetric life cycle engagement or the scale program has partnered with 16 universities including bird you not today and indiana university to provide educational workforce opportunities for over 200 students across five key microelectronics modernization priorities these successful partnerships are leading the way in strengthening u.s microelectronics in summary while i have touched on some of do d's active technology thrust scenarios for collaboration there are many further challenges and opportunities to explore the department is committed to ensuring a robust and thriving microelectronics ecosystem that delivers critical technologies for economy and award fighter at this time want to thank you again for having me tune in virtually i hope we can continue working together and enhancing us microelectronics in partnership with the state of indiana the academia and the defense industry thank you greetings from washington dc i regret that i couldn't be with you in person today to celebrate skywaters investment in indiana this announcements the culmination of months and months of planning and partnership between skywater perdu governor holcomb the iedc and many others i've been doing my part in washington telling anyone who will listen that we must invest in next generation technologies if we are to out innovate and out compete our strategic rivals and win the 21st century i remain in washington today as the senate is on the verge of passing again the bill that will help help make this announcement a reality more than two years ago i began fighting for a major down payment in the future of our economy our supply chain and our national defense capabilities that legislation includes a 52 billion dollar investment for semiconductor manufacturing here on our home soil the united states is almost entirely reliant on other countries for our supply of these critical electronic components when supply chains are disrupted as they were in 2020 and when our rivals threaten the sovereignty of other nations as they continue to do the united states of america mustn't be in a position of weakness no we must lean into what has made our economy the strongest in the history of the world the ability to invent to innovate and to build the products that the world needs right here it's imperative for the success of this announcement and future deals to follow that we get this legislation passed and signed into law when it is the state of indiana will be positioned as well as any state to capitalize on our investments the governor the iedc higher ed and private enterprise have partnered to create a semiconductor corridor here in the heartland perdu was the first university to launch degree and certificate programs in the areas of semiconductors and microelectronics and companies like sky water are investing in our people so i am grateful for all you've done to make today's announcement a reality and i'm looking forward to what the future has in store thank you thanks to all our presenters at the outset i asserted that today i was a significant day in multiple dimensions i hope that the last few moments have documented that claim to your satisfaction this is a major event tom said in reestablishing an industry that's never been so central or vital to our national prosperity and even to our national safety it's proof positive that the governor and secretary chambers spoke accurately as they have talked about not only the superiority of indiana's overall business climate but its suitability not just to the great industries we've always known but to the front-edge industries of today and tomorrow and for us at perdu i hope it's safe to say this is further validation of not of the innovative innovation district concept that we began envisioning just a few years ago it absolutely i must tell you cements its fiscal success the public officials here will be happy to hear this we were already way ahead of schedule well over a third of the way toward the investment necessary to pay back the so the obligations of the so-called tax increment financing district this announcement alone covers the obligation that we still have 16 years to work on and uh john denis i just i have to say as always our mayor mayors mayor roes worsky and john and denis never missed one of these occasions but john this is special and uh when you and i stood in the middle of what was then a state highway bisecting this campus separating us from the town and thought about what could be at the end of what was then um empty space i think we had in mind something like uh what we've seen in that in the interval since i'm not sure even you and i imagined a day quite as big as this this is your day john and finally i i believe that today is a great day of fulfillment in what i've always believed was not just an opportunity but a fundamental responsibility of a land grant university of a stem centric land grant university in a high tech economy of today and that is to do whatever it can do to assist our governor his secretary of commerce all their teammates as an economic engine and driver for this state and i think today we can we can fairly say that we've chipped uh chipped in yet again but i'll end as we always do on days of of advance at purdo university with those two important most important words so far any old saying you ain't seen nothing yet thank you for coming and let's go celebrate


My son Marcus Mason was gunned down right here on this corner.  It just turned 17. Nobody's ever supposed to bury their own child. There is fear in the streets. Whoever did this to my brother is still out there. I would love to have somebody come forward. I just need justice for him. We need to come together. People need to speak up. People need to talk. Call the hotline and tell them. I know who did it. Don't be afraid. We need to do something. We need to stop this. Let justice be served. Let justice be served.


4v4 in this area four players are going to be resting on the outside the keepers will always play in the goals But there'll be different conditions on each game be mixed in with a lot of small-sided games with different conditions So most of them were four against four With outside men, but for instance for the first game we played with a high off sideline to make the team stretch Each other out, so then you could try and open up and play through play Blue ball blue ball blue ball He's on side well played Karen Well done use that off sideline stretch the play Finish down finish good finish play Stay high stay high Chris. It's probably you you're the highest you'll have to stay up there stretch them Then we went to one where you could you had to be in your own attacking half to score So once you'd played your past you couldn't stay still you had to keep going on and carry on with your run Everyone had to go forward can also use that as a fitness exercise as well now stop there The rule is what you've got all be in the half So if hang on if you're struggling for your team to get in and that's still building up a play in there What might you have to do?  Let them get your shape then you can build in You can catch them quickly on the break and play in there if what if you've got numbers where?  What was he in must have been close must have been close when the game changes in there That's where you might have to change your game if you can't shoot from distance We might be playing a team who don't shoot from distance We have to make sure we're compact and not let them play through us


Hello and welcome to NewsClick. I am Paranjoy Guha Thakurtha. On Sunday the 17th of May 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sita Raman conducted a press conference, a media conference lasting around two hours starting a little after 11 a.m. This was the fifth in the series and all the numbers were put out and the government is now claiming that it will be spending the equivalent of 10% of India's gross domestic product that is somewhere in the region of 20 lakh crores. India's gross domestic product is 200 lakh crores on various schemes. Now the critics of the government are saying that these are many of these schemes have been repackaged, many of these are really loan guarantee programs and not really new infusion of money. Many many new policy changes have been made but some old policy changes have been sought to be packaged as something new and among the major announcements that were made today was an increase in the allocation or to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme by 40,000 crores to reach about 100,000 crores or lakh crores. So before I go into detail into specific issues let me ask my guest here, Professor R. Ramakumar. He teaches economics at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai. What he sees as a big picture he's been very active on the social media. What according to you Professor Ramakumar is the big message that the government is trying to convey through this fifth media conference and by saying that the government is spending the equivalent of 10% of India's GDP that it cares for the poor, that it cares for the migrant worker and it's doing its level best to revive the working of the economy. Let's have your initial comments before I ask you specific questions. Thank you Parijay. My first two comments are this, it is very clear that the government does not want to open up its purse. It doesn't want to spend as yet. That's point number one. It largely has been using monetary policy and the deposit base of the banks is a substitute for fiscal policy that I think is the one major takeaway from these announcements. The second biggest takeaway from these announcements is that they see this crisis as an opportunity. They see this as an opportunity to bring in a number of reform measures which have over a period of time been extremely contentious, not just with the states but also different groups like Labour for example. So these two are my big takeaways from this announcement. Let me just say this. Across the world if you see governments have opened up their purses to deal with the crisis. They are not necessarily spending in revival packages of the Keynesian kind that we have seen in the past. What they are largely doing is to try to hold on. What I mean by trying to hold on is that until the pandemic is over, till the spread of infections is contained in some form, let us keep jobs safe. Let us keep people healthy and nourished. Let us keep people in a better state. Now that is the focus of the 10% of the GDP measures that you have seen across the world. About $7.5 trillion is being announced as fiscal packages across the world. Out of these $7.5 trillion packages you will see that about $4 to $4.5 trillion are largely fiscal measures, direct spending by the government. What are these direct spending by the government? They pay the companies, small-scale industries and so on. They pay them with a condition that they will keep the workers in their payroll. They will pay them 50 to 80% of their wages so that their jobs are not lost. They are given a large number of grants, subsidies, exemptions, etc. in this period in order to allow them to hold on till the crisis blows over. So about only about $3 to $3.5 trillion out of the $7.5 trillion is monetary policy measures, what is called as below-the-line measures. Now this is the global situation but we, out of this 20 lakh crore that we have announced as part of this Atman-Nibbar package, I seriously do not see a spending of more than 2 or maximum 3 lakh crore. The rest about 17 to 18 lakh crore I largely see as being pushed through banks using their deposit base or asking institutions like NABAR to borrow from the market and spend in some kind of funds and so on. That is the nature of this 20 lakh crore package that I see. I do not see more than 2 or 3 lakh crore being spent from the budget of the government. One sentence worth, even this spending of 2 or 3 lakh crore that we are talking about from the budget of the government is not necessarily fresh expenditure. A lot of this 2 to 3 lakh crore is actually expenditure that is already committed in the budget or it will come by cutting some head of account and then saving money from that head of account and spending in this package. So it's not necessarily fresh budget expenditure, it's going to be some kind of re-appropriation that we are going to see. Professor Ramakumar, I was in fact doing a bit of back of the envelope number crunching with my friend A.K. Bhattacharya, our business standard and I in fact, our numbers are lower than yours. If we look at schemes which have a direct impact on the fisk, then we actually come to a figure that if one is very, very charitable towards the government, a little over 1% of our GDP, that means you have the 40,000 crores on Manrega, you have 8,000 crores which is the viability gap spending for various social infrastructure projects, for the agriculture sector roughly 6,000 crores, for migrant laborers and farmers another 16,000 crores, for the micro small and medium enterprises package, we see barely about 40,000 crores and even if we are very charitable and the Pratamansi, the Yojna which was announced even before these five schemes, out of the 1.7 lakh additional expenditure, even if we take that about 70 or 80,000, the number comes to just a little over 1% of our GDP and we see that the bulk of the money that is being accounted for and added to the number to arrive at this 20 lakh crores is really as you rightly pointed out, the biggest chunk is what the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India 8 lakh crores will really be in the form of various form kinds of refinancing, we find public sector organizations like the Power Finance Corporation, the Rural Electrification Corporation where the distribution companies, the electricity distribution companies there, the bailout package of 90,000 crores, the food corporation of India, about 40,000 crores and of course the state governments, in other words the central government will be spending barely an additional 1% more of GDP but telling India and telling everybody else and telling the country that we are going to be spending 10% of GDP. That's a wrong argument Paranjai, I agree with you, I do not, what I said as 2 to 3 lakh crores, I was being liberal because how we count what is fiscal can differ across different estimates but what in my view direct fiscal, if you count it in that sense, it will not be more than 1.5 lakh crores that's in my view out of these 3 lakh crores, what I see as the rest is largely, for example, the 45,000 crore expenditure that you mentioned as part of the FCI expenditures, it's largely a monetization of food grain stock that you already have with you, so that's, it need not be counted at all as part of a fiscal package, so if you remove all that out, I would agree with you that we would be somewhere near 1 to 1.5 lakh crore, exact estimates are yet to be done but when I looked at the different slides that Nirmala Sitaraman presented today, I do not see direct budgetary expenditures exceeding 1.5 lakh crore but direct and indirect fiscal measures may add up to about 2-3 lakh crores somewhere in between depending on how you measure them. That's what I would say, I agree with you that a Himalayan proportion of this 20 lakh crore is largely not money from the government, it's hard earned money of the depositors and which will be sort of mobilized to create different funds, a fund for NABAR, NABAR for example has to raise 1 lakh crore for a package, now that 1 lakh crore would largely come from market borrowings of NABAR, that's not something that will get reflected in the fiscal deficit of the government, that's another way of borrowing through NABAR and not showing it in the fiscal deficit. So a lot of bookkeeping adjustments are happening of this sort and I do not see that the biggest problem with this kind of bookkeeping tricks is that you end up giving very little directly to people, I think this is the time when you should give money directly to people or in kind or in cash, that doesn't matter but that is the most unfortunate part. Yeah, I'm going to come to you when the Finance Minister was asked question as to why money was not being put directly into the pockets, into the account of people and how she reacted but before that let me look a little bit at some of the changes that were announced in the way in which state governments are going to be like borrowing money. Now the Finance Minister said that their borrowing limit has now gone up from 3% of the state's gross domestic product to 5% that would give them an additional 4.2 lakh crores and they feel that since the burden of taking care of the migrant workers etc has fallen on state government, it's really a very very tough call for them. Now they have a net borrowing ceiling but now they are saying they can borrow more but she's laid down a host of conditions. She said the RBI ways and means advances can can now go up, the number of days a state can stay in continuous, overdraft has been increased from 14 days to 21 days and from 32 to 51 days every quarter but in all fairness she's saying you have to be good boys and then she spells out what are these, said the one is of course the ration scheme, the one nation, one ration card kind of scheme that was one thing that was she said the very very category. Then she also laid out four more things, one was about the ease of doing business, the other one was about the power distribution companies, the other was about how the urban local bodies were and how they were to raise funds and all these are quote unquote reforms but the state government that means would be able to borrow more only if they meet three out of these four conditions and lay down milestones. So whereas it is being said that they can borrow from 3% of GSDP to 5% the unconditional part is only 0.5% so what do you how do you sort of look at this way in which the finance minister saying states no you have to do all the hard work, you have to do more, we will release all the pending money etc etc etc but you must do one, two, three, four reforms to be eligible to borrow. That is further to it Parujay, so let me begin by saying that this is a very unkind way of dealing with the states during the time of crisis if the states were given conditionalities based on how they tackle the epidemic, how they tackle the pandemic depends on how many shelter homes you build, depends on how much food you provide in community kitchens, how much testing kits you are able to procure and so on then it would have been understandable. What is happening here is a slightly different thing while the fiscal deficit limit has been raised from 3% to 5% in the of the GSDP, only 0.5% of this is unconditional, out of the remaining 1.5% let us take 1% and that 1% is going to be divided into four tranches, four 0.25% tranches and one each of these 0.25% tranches are going to be allocated to ease of doing business, the reform of urban local bodies, one nation one ration card scheme and finally the urban local bodies and then power sector reforms. According to the notification that has come afterwards it says that the implementation of one nation one card system will depend on whether the Aadhar seeding of all the ration cards and beneficiaries in the state are completed and number two automation of all the FPSs in the state are completed. So these two are the conditions that are listed in the one nation one ration card scheme system. Second in the ease of doing business what they are saying is they need the implementation of district level licensing reform. So each state has to complete the first assessment of the district level business reform action plan as listed by the department of industries at the union level each state will eliminate the requirements of renewal of certificates and approvals and licenses obtained by the businesses for different activities. Each state will implement computerized central random inspection system under the different acts of department of industry and so on. In the strengthening of local bodies at the third point they'll say to enable better public health and sanitation they basically with the view to augment the resources of urban local bodies it has been allowed this 0.25% the state will notify a flow rate of property tax in urban local bodies it will give flow rate for user charges and store and then finally power sector reforms which are very contentious. My point is this is something to do with the pandemic all these are primarily linked to a certain set of reform measures that the government has been trying to implement over the years and this is being seen this pandemic is being seen as an opportunity to force the hands of states to do certain things that's okay that's most completely against the principles of federalism in my view. Alright so you made your point very clear that the pandemic is being used to force state governments to undertake certain so-called reforms at a time when the central government should be giving much more to the state governments because they have to bear the burden of taking care of not just migrant workers but the entire economy which is in terrible terrible shape on which there's no disagreement. Now in the name of an economic stimulus package the government has undergone a series of policy initiatives now some of these are old policy changes which have been sort of repackaged and sought to be passed out as something passed on as something new I mean I'll just give you one example for instance all the changes in the coal mining and the coal sector deregulation were all it had been enacted in March on the 12th of March it had been completely enacted I mean you know about agriculture on the agriculture prices agriculture produce marketing committee changes the relaxation that the essential commodities act a lot of what has been announced is really a recycling of old policy schemes but I want you to focus a little bit on something which was announced earlier in the day which I believe is of great significance the government is now going to privatize state-run enterprises and what are called non-strategic sectors and allow private firms in all other areas they can invest in every every every other area and this is supposed to be a new coherent public sector enterprises policy that will define we do not know the definition is yet to be given we do not know the list of sectors which will be termed strategic where the presence of a public sector undertakes will be absolutely required and this is all supposed to ensure minimizing risk will administrative costs and it says the number of enterprises in strategic sectors will ordinarily be only one between one and four and every word all the other enterprises would be privatized or merged or bought and are holding companies and this is all supposed to be a part of atma nirvana part of the self-reliant India now please what are your views that we still don't know what are these strategic sectors what are these going to be will it be oil distribution will it be oil and gas exploration will it be what do you call defense I mean we already see an attempt to say private sector we are depending on you and public sector do your best to survive is this the message that's coming through in the name of a new atma nirvana or a self-reliant India the two messages in my view one is one is what you said that is use the private sector to to overcome the crisis address the crisis rather than get the state back in which is the trend the world over the second is another thing which is that the government has to spend at this time during the pandemic now in order to spend the government has to either borrow more or it has to print more money it has to monetize the deficit it does not appear that the government is ready for either of these measures what the government is probably trying to do in my view is to embark on a massive disinvestment program and to generate the resources that should otherwise be generated through borrowing more or monetizing the deficit it is there is there appears to be an ideological opposition typical of a neoliberal policy framework where you are worried about a higher fiscal deficit you're worried about what foreign investors would think of your economy and you basically get into an alternative mode of selling off all your public assets in order to generate more revenue I think it's a very reactionary move at a time at a time when there is an enormous attack on labor and labor rights the whole embarking on a disinvestment program is is completely is completely reactionary in my view this is not the time world over the trend is for the state to get back into the economy to get back into controlling the levers of the economy including nationalization measures are being adopted across the world to address the economic crisis caused by the pandemic India appears to be walking in the opposite direction and that's appear and that in my view is a is a highly suicidal sort of path to take and in my view the government should be basically generating the sources through either borrowing or monetizing its deficit to spend more in the social sector because particularly in health you need urgent investment of about 1% of your GDP in the health sector to develop a public health system which can meet the challenges posed by the pandemic but that that does not appear to be the the focus of this government instead of spending they appear they appear to be more eager to invest in this whole private hospital based networks by introducing 8000 crore into viability gap funding and so on and not quite investing in public health centers or a narrative or that kind of programs which are which are supposed to be focusing on public health that's a very sad part of the story okay professor Ramfubat you have specialized in in agriculture sector and you have studied deeply the way the farm economy of our country works now the various schemes that were announced especially in the third tranche of the announcements made by our finance minister this was today Sunday this was made on Friday on on the food micro enterprises the the fisheries program the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampad Yojana top to total the operation green agriculture in infrastructure from this the biggest item this is about a 1 lakh crores plus of course smaller amounts for animal husbandry herbal cultivation beekeeping etc now if you look at that combining with the additional allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee program of 40 000 crores what impact do you see these schemes having on the agricultural economy of our country at a time when large numbers of people have moved from areas which were traditionally the the green surplus parts of the country Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh two states which have been traditionally deficit in eastern India including Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengola, Saab, Orissa, Chakrishkar how do you see these schemes playing out and how do you see the rural economy and the farm economy getting impacted in the time to come? Paranjai there is an absolutely no new investment in agriculture no new spending in agriculture on in that third day's program that is if you take the that's why I mentioned this earlier the 1 lakh crore fund that NABAR will create it's completely through market borrowings of NABAR there's no fiscal expenditure involved there the micro food enterprises it's an ongoing scheme which is already there of the government the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampad Yojana it has an outlay of 20 000 crore from 2018-19 itself that is nothing new in that allocation in fact the expenditure finance committee in january has already passed that scheme much before the covid epidemic hit the national animal disease control program that's been in existence from 2018 the animal husbandry infrastructure development fund again has been in existence from 2019 herbal that's nothing but 400 crore herbal and medicinal plants be keeping 500 crore herbal 4000 crore and this is 500 crore I'm sorry so these are these are these are not new initiatives at all these are these are like five-year plans these are like four-year plans and not something not the measures that are directed to alleviate the distress that we have at present at present the farmer is looking for either a significant cash transfer made to him that you have I'm a critic of PM Kisan but you have PM Kisan so use it use it to at least frontload the second installment of 2000 rupees of PM Kisan into a direct cash payment today or you increase the MSP or you give them some kind of debt relief not moratorium debt relief because in moratorium you have to pay that interest rate later and sometimes yeah that's right sometimes you also have to pay interest or interest when pre-structuring happens so that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about that direct cash relief to the to the farmer who is reeling under the impact of sharply falling farm prices at the time harvest are happening he also needs liquidity for the Kharif season so these are measures that are required but instead you have extraordinary vague announcements with the old schemes being rehashed into new announcements absolutely no new allocation one small point there are some legal measures also that have been suggested by her which is related to a long pending demand of neoliberal economists which is the the repeal of the essential commodities act and also the sort of bringing in a central law to free interstate trade and interstate trade of all kinds of barriers that's in my view in my view all that is not going to happen in that's not going to happen anytime soon number one number two it's also going to be not of any use to the farmer why am I saying this because begin with the problem of the farmer yes there are problems in the marketing side but the real problem has been facing over the many years in the past in the recent past has been a sharply right costs of cultivation and that is something that has been that has been really burdensome to the farmer so I don't think they're going to be beneficial to the farmer in any way because private trade has has proven to be inferior to the APMC market system in every state where APMC laws have already been repealed and amended. Professor Ramakumar I was reading an article in business today where Nevin John has made a list of all the large corporate conglomerates in India that are likely to benefit from the policy changes that have been made and these are policy changes pertaining to coal mining, electricity distribution, defense production and these are the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group the Tata group Adani Power, JSW Steel, the airport yes those who are in airports besides Adani there is GVK, GMR, there's also Hindalco and in defense production there's also the Kalyani group of Pune. So these corporate conglomerates are likely to be beneficiaries of the government's policy changes am I correct? Yes absolutely I think the whole agenda of the reform program that is being suggested is thoroughly procorporate in its focus people poor people, migrants, farmers, workers they are not in their agenda for the last few years whenever growth was coming down in India, economic growth was coming down in India the effort of this government was not to try and boost public investment but instead to provide all kinds of SOPs and exemptions including a huge corporate tax cut to the private corporate sector in order to sort of incentivize them to generate the growth that was lagging behind. So that there's a continuity there but across the world that there's discontinuity across the world what you see is the state coming back in into regulation into ownership into how governance is conducted while that is the trend the world over, the neoliberal policy being discredited the world over and the state coming back in India is walking in the opposite direction. We are trying to and therefore the cronies and the oligarchs the government seems to be depending on them to revive the economy having failed to intervene to initiate measures to boost the economy to create jobs to put money in the pockets in the hands of the poor so that you have a demand side effect. Am I correct? Absolutely, the effort is to disinvest and generate money and not raise budgetary resources the sort of privatization of minds allowing private sector to even go to space to probably start a quarantine center there in space create an Elon Musk in India probably sort of allowing private sector in the defense sector where the ambanis have a serious presence the allowing for example the opening up of FDI in defense even in the same breath you speak about making India in defense and in the very next breath you say that you are raising the FDI in defense. So all these measures are very clear in their focus they are pro-corporate the agenda is to sell off public sector enterprises create a thoroughly anti-labour regime and to transfer the burden of the pandemic on to the working people and provide a sort of a smooth exit route for corporates out of this pandemic that appears to be the focus of the package of the government. Professor Ram Kumar you know just as you say you know the government says one thing but its actions are have a completely I mean have a different impact the opposite impact we see the same thing I mean today the finance minister Nirmala Sita Raman she got particularly aggressive I would say she got aggressive but she was also on the defensive at one level she said we can't do enough I can't see I mean that however much we do do it is not adequate at the same time she's saying we are putting money in the in the accounts of people and then when people say you know the migrant workers are having to pay for their full railway ticket she says no that's not correct 85% is being borne by the government of India and 15% by the state government and then she says it's up to the states to ask for more you know for more trains and she says at one level we have taken on board all suggestions and then she says we are not splurging we are spending sort of responsibility and then she says we don't we don't want to politicize it and no too too but actually she ends up only doing the same thing let me just quote you verbatim what she said instead of wasting the time of migrants and sitting with them walk along with them and carry their suitcase she's meaning to she's meaning she's referring to what Rahul Gandhi did she says in congress rule states we request for more trains so that migrants can reach home they call us drama bars what about yesterday that is drama basi i mean she this is what ned malas sitar aman said and then she says let us more deal more responsibility with this issue this is my humble request to Sonia Gandhi so is she on the defensive is she sort of inadvertently by her aggression revealing how nervous the ruling regime is because their actions can be interpreted to have been too little too late as far as the poor and the migrant laborers are concerned what we are perhaps witnessing is the biggest internal migration in the history of humankind as we talk yes let me say this i saw that press conference in the morning and i admire the journalist who asked that question by i would have preferred if he was better prepared with a supplementary question to her answer her response was appalling appalling it was it had it had it was completely insensitive and appalling and i'm shocked that the finance minister gave such an arrogant response to a to a problem that is so so much in front of us and falling in front of us uh the the what is the what is the point here the point is that there are about 14 crore internal migrant workers in india out of those 14 crore if i assume very conservatively there are about 10 percent of them want to go back home uh to their villages it will be about 1.4 to 1.5 crore people who want to go back home but as by her own admission her government has transported only about 10 lakh people back to their villages that's a trick in my view that's been one absolutely the second point is the following that that whole controversy around the ticket fare it's a total hoax i think this is the this is what the government is saying the government when it says that we are meeting 85 percent of the cost what it is saying is historically primary even before the pandemic hit us there was a 57 percentage of subsidy being given on railway tickets now that is based on some internal calculation within the railways so that 57 percent stands and on top of it we are giving a 28 percent additional subsidy so 57 plus 28 becomes 85 and the rest 15 percent is to the state government now the interesting part is nowhere nowhere has the central government provided us with any official communication to this any state government in india where they are told that you meet 15 percent we meet if not 85 at least 28 percent there is no communication on ticket fares between the center and say state governments so all this talk about 85 percent is an absolute nonsense it has no basis i we should challenge the minister to provide at least one letter written to the chief ministers in this regard the point is that we have tickets all how much is one migrant worker paying say from southern part of india to the eastern part of india the total transfer to the total fare that the migrant worker has to pay is between 800 rupees and 1000 rupees that's higher than the normal rate that he would pay for a ticket during this time of the year now that means that it's it's an enormous outcome the railways is profiting out of this migrant workers crisis why can't they simply forget all these all these complexities and say we're going to run the trains free we will the tickets will be free whoever has ticket can go and can can enter the train and travel that's a very simple way of doing it instead of that it is a completely convoluted argument being put out 57 percent that we are already giving plus 28 percent new plus 15 percent state government and no official communication on any of these appalling okay professor Ram Kumar we've run out of time thank you very much for giving us your views and time alone will tell how many people are convinced by what the government has been claiming that it's going to be spending 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product to to revive the economy to take care of the underprivileged to take care of the migrant workers or whether sooner rather than later people will realize that behind all these numbers all these claims what is actually happening on the ground is is a shadow it is a it is a pale shadow it is a small fraction of what the government is claiming that is the reality on the ground once again thank you very much and keep