| ben moretti on Wed, 26 May 2004 20:19:29 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Fwd: [bytesforall_readers] Chandrababu Naidu, Consulting Firm McKinsey, Britain, Vision |
from the great bytes for all list - also probably the guardian or someother lefty rag b --- satish jha <[email protected]> wrote: > To: [email protected], > [email protected] > From: satish jha <[email protected]> > Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 06:10:45 -0700 (PDT) > Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Chandrababu Naidu, > Consulting Firm McKinsey, Britain, Vision > > Subject: Chandrababu Naidu, Consulting Firm > McKinsey, > Britain, Vision 2020 & Formula 1 > From article 'This Is What We Paid For' > > by Britisher George Monbiot in OutlookIndia.com. > > Chandrababu Naidu, the state's chief minister, was the West's favourite > Indian. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton both visited him in Hyderabad, the state > capital. Time magazine named him South Asian of the Year; the governor of > Illinois created a Naidu Day in his honour, and the British government and > the World Bank flooded his state with money. They loved him because he did > what he was told. > > Naidu realised that to sustain power he must surrender it. He knew that as > long as he gave the global powers what they wanted, he would receive the > money and stature which count for so much in Indian politics. So instead of > devising his own programme, he handed the job to the US consultancy company > McKinsey. > > McKinsey's scheme, "Vision 2020", is one of those documents whose summary > says one thing and whose contents quite another. > > (1) It begins, for example, by insisting that education and healthcare must > be made available to everyone. Only later do you discover that the state's > hospitals and universities are to be privatised and funded by "user charges". > > (2) It extols small businesses but, way beyond the point at which most people > stop reading, reveals that it intends to "eliminate" the laws which defend > them, > > (3) and replace small investors, who "lack motivation", with "large > corporations". > > (4) It claims it will "generate employment" in the countryside, and goes on > to insist that over 20 million people should be thrown off the land. > > (5) Put all these - and the other proposals for privatisation, deregulation > and the shrinking of the state - together, and you see that McKinsey has > unwittingly developed a blueprint for mass starvation. You dispossess 20 > million farmers from the land just as the state is reducing the number of its > employees and foreign corporations are "rationalising" the rest of the > workforce, and you end up with millions without work or state support. "The > State's people," McKinsey warns, "will need to be enlightened about the > benefits of change." > > (6) McKinsey's vision was not confined to Naidu's government. Once he had > implemented these policies, Andhra Pradesh "should seize opportunities to > lead other states in such reform, becoming, in the process, the benchmark > state." > > (7) Foreign donors would pay for the experiment, then seek to persuade other > parts of the developing world to follow Naidu's example. > > There is something familiar about all this, and McKinsey have been kind > enough to jog our memories. Vision 2020 contains 11 glowing references to > Chile's experiment in the 1980s. General Pinochet handed the economic > management of his country to a group of neoliberal economists known as the > Chicago Boys. They privatised social provision, tore up the laws protecting > workers and the environment and handed the economy to multinational > companies. The result was a bonanza for big business, and a staggering growth > in debt, unemployment, homelessness and malnutrition. > > (8) The plan was funded by the United States in the hope that it could be > rolled out around the world. > > Pinochet's understudy was bankrolled by Britain. In July 2001 Clare Short, > then secretary of state for development, finally admitted to parliament that, > despite numerous official denials, Britain was funding Vision 2020. > > (9) Blair's government has financed the state's economic reform programme, > its privatisation of the power sector and its "centre for good governance" > (which means as little governance as possible). > > > (10) Our taxes also fund the "implementation secretariat" for the state's > privatisation programme. The secretariat is run, at Britain's insistence, by > the far-right business lobby group the Adam Smith Institute. > > (11) The money for all this comes out of Britain's foreign aid budget. It is > not hard to see why Blair's government is doing this. As Stephen Byers > revealed when he was secretary of state for trade and industry, "the UK > Government has designated India as one of the UK's 15 campaign markets." > > (12) The campaign is to expand the opportunities for British capital. The > people of Andhra Pradesh know what this means: they call it "the return of > the East India Company". This isn't the only aspect of British history which > is being repeated in Andhra Pradesh. There's something uncanny about the way > in which the scandals that surrounded Tony Blair during his first term in > office are recurring there. Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula 1 boss who gave > Labour pounds1 million and later received an exemption from the ban on > tobacco advertising, was negotiating with Naidu to bring his sport to > Hyderabad. I have been shown the leaked minutes of a state cabinet meeting on > January 10th this year. > > (13) McKinsey, they reveal, instructed the cabinet that Hyderabad should be a > "world class futuristic city with Formula 1 as a core component." To make it > viable, however, there would be a "state support requirement of Rs400-600 > crs"(4 billion to 6 billion rupees). > > (14) This means a state subsidy for Formula 1 of pounds50million to pounds75m > a year. It is worth noting that thousands of people in Andhra Pradesh now die > of malnutrition-related diseases because Naidu had previously cut the subsidy > for food. Then the minutes become even more interesting. Ecclestone's Formula > 1, they note, should be exempted from the Indian ban on tobacco advertising. > Mr Naidu had already "addressed the PM as well as the Health Minister in this > regard" and was hoping to enact "state legislation creating an exemption to > the Act". > > (15) The Hinduja brothers, the businessmen facing criminal charges in India > who were given British passports after Peter Mandelson intervened on their > behalf, have also been sniffing round Vision 2020. Another set of leaked > minutes I have obtained shows that in 1999 their representatives held a > secret meeting in London with the Indian attorney-general and the British > government's export credit guarantee department, to help them obtain the > backing required to build a power station under Naidu's privatisation > programme. > > (16) When the attorney-general began lobbying the Indian government on their > behalf, this caused yet another Hinduja scandal. The results of the programme > we (the British) have been funding are plain to see. During the hungry > season, hundreds of thousands of people in Andhra Pradesh are now kept alive > on gruel supplied by charities. > > (17) Last year hundreds of children died in an encephalitis outbreak because > of the shortage of state-run hospitals. > > (18) The state government's own figures suggest that 77% of the population > has fallen below the poverty line. > > (19) The measurement criteria are not consistent, but this appears to be a > massive rise. In 1993 there was one bus a week taking migrant workers from a > depot in Andhra Pradesh to Mumbai. Today there are 34. > > (20) The dispossessed must reduce themselves to the transplanted coolies of > Blair's new empire. Luckily, democracy still functions in India. In 1999, > Naidu's party won 29 seats, leaving Congress with five. Last week those > results were precisely reversed. We can't yet vote Tony Blair out of office > in Britain, but in Andhra Pradesh they have done the job on our behalf. > > > www.monbiot.com > > References: > > 1. Vision 2020 > 2. Vision 2020, Page 96. > 3. Vision 2020, page 42. > 4. Vision 2020, page 195. > 5. Vision 2020, page 170. This is worded as follows: "However, agriculture's > share of employment will actually reduce, from the current 70 per cent [of > the population of 76 million] to 40-45 per cent". > 6. Vision 2020, page 158. > 7. Vision 2020, page 333. > 8. The figures have been tabulated by Tom Huppi in the document Chile: the > Laboratory Test, which can be found here. > 9. Clare Short, 20th July 2001. Parliamentary answer to Alan Simpson MP. > Hansard Column 475W. > 10. The full list can be read here. > 11. Government of Andhra Pradesh, ?2002. Strategy Paper on Public Sector > Reform and Privatisation of State Owned Enterprises. > 12. Department of Trade and Industry, 6th January 2000. Byers to Help UK > SMEs Foster Export Links with India. Press release. > 13. Government of Andhra Pradesh. Minutes of Cabinet sub-committee > meeting on 10th January 2004. > 14. ibid. > 15. ibid. > 16. Clifford Chance solicitors, 3rd June 1999. Vizag - Meeting with the > Attorney-General. Fax transmission. > 17. Eg P. Sainath, 15th June 2003. The politics of free lunches. The > Hindu. > 18. Eg K.G. Kannabiran and K. Balagopal, 14th December 2003. Governance > & Police impunity in Andhra Pradesh: World Bank urged not to make loan. > Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties and Human Rights Forum, Andhra > Pradesh. > 19. Government of Andhra Pradesh. Draft Report of the Rural Poverty > Reduction Task Force. Cited in D. Bandyopadhyay, March 17th 2001. Andhra > Pradesh: Looking Beyond Vision 2020. Economic and Political Weekly. > 20. P Sainath, June 2003. The Bus to Mumbai. > > ===== > ________________ > satish jha > www.dpindia.org > www.jamesmartin.co.in > c: 202 368 2688 > c-in: 98913 79191 <...> > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > --------------------~--> > Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 > http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/C7EolB/TM > --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> > > Yahoo! Groups Links > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/ > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email > to: > [email protected] > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ===== ben moretti e: [email protected] w: http://www.geocities.com/benmoretti t: +61 0438 822 196 # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]