RAJASTHAN GETTING BACK TO BASICS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 NEW DELHI 002666 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR SCA/INS AND EEB USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/OSA/LDROKER/ASTERN/KRUDD DEPT PASS TO USTR CLILIENFELD/AADLER/CHINCKLEY DEPT PASS TO TREASURY FOR OFFICE OF SOUTH ASIA MNUGENT TREASURY PASS TO FRB SAN FRANCISCO/TERESA CURRAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR ECON ECPS EFIN EINV ENRG EPET ETRD IN SUBJECT: RAJASTHAN GETTING BACK TO BASICS REF: NEW DELHI 02110 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: An economic reporting trip to Jaipur and Udaipur Rajasthan the week of September 23-25 revealed a high level of dynamism and engagement in the state bureaucracy surrounding a number of programs geared to "get the basics right" in infrastructure, education, and service delivery. These include the introduction of biometric "smart" cards to 5 million poor households, public-private partnerships in improving basic and vocational education, and leasing of heritage properties to expand tourism and its job creation further through the state. If service delivery and better governance matter at the ballot box, as some say Narendra Modi's re-election in Gujarat this year indicates, then the BJP state party in Rajasthan could win a second consecutive term in November's polls. End Summary. Background -------------- ¶2. India's largest state by land size and home to 25 national parliamentary seats, Rajasthan is one of the states identified as a bellwether state to political and economic change in the country. Historically, Rajasthan has been grouped with other poor, northern Hindi belt states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, collectively known as the "BIMARU" states (taken from the states' names but also meaning "sick" in Hindi). Yet, Rajasthan has been slowly and quietly improving its economic performance, averaging 6.6 percent GDP growth per annum during 1993-94 to 2004-05, the fourth highest among the major states. The government has also embarked on a major investment push which is covered septel. Still, it has a distance to go: Rajasthan is still ranked in the lower band of states by income level, more than half of Rajasthan's children drop out of elementary school and female literacy is just 43 percent. Back to Basics in Infrastructure -------------- ¶3. (SBU) A recurring theme among government officials with whom Econoffs spoke was that the Government of Rajasthan (GoR) is very focused on the basics of infrastructure - ensuring good roads, electricity supply, and water. In electricity, Industry Principal Secretary Ashok Sampatram noted that the GoR had undergone power reforms for the past decade, including a World Bank project to increase metering and decrease power theft. The GoR had also diversified sources of power, so that in addition to thermal power plants, Rajasthan also has hydro, nuclear, gas-based power, solar and wind-generated power. Further, Rajasthan buys electricity from its neighbors Punjab and Gujarat. By next year, Sampatram claimed, the GoR expects to be surplus in power and to sell it to neighboring states. The result so far, officials maintained, was that the government was able to provide electricity in Jaipur, the state capital and largest city in Rajasthan with 5 million residents, for 23 hours a day (a condition corroborated by local businesspeople and consistent with Econoffs' experience while there). (Comment: However, some contacts reported during an earlier reporting trip this year that there was inadequate electricity supply in rural areas, per reftel. End comment.) ¶4. (SBU) Roads are another area where Rajasthan's government, over the past ten years, has sought to improve the network to facilitate both tourism and business. Rajasthan has benefited from the central government's highway program, with parts of both the Golden Quadrilateral (that connects Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata) and the East-West Corridor falling inside the state. Adding to this, the state government contracted with well-known Indian infrastructure company, IL&FS, to build a network of secondary roads to complement the central government's projects. Most of these, Sampatram explained, are toll roads that needed little government funding. These roads are opening up swathes of Rajasthan to commerce and tourism opportunities, Sampatram asserted. ¶5. (SBU) The government has also worked to upgrade its air connectivity, recognizing its importance to the tourism sector. Tourism Principal Secretary Mira Mehrishi told Econoffs that the Government of Rajasthan has approached the Central Ministry of Aviation to get carriers to provide flights from the major metros to Rajasthani tourist towns of Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer. She NEW DELHI 00002666 002 OF 005 noted that Rajasthan's size (equivalent to France) meant that traveling by car or train constrained some of the tourist options that could be increased through air connectivity. In addition, she noted that the Jaipur Airport had received permission from the Center to upgrade to an international airport, expected by March ¶2009. ¶6. (SBU) One of Rajasthan's major challenges is water provision in a state with arid and semi-arid regions. Sampatram called Rajasthan a "water-stressed" state, but noted that the government was adding new infrastructure to address that. Tourism's Mehrishi elaborated, noting that for Jaipur, the GoR was laying underground pipelines to carry water from a dam about 100 miles away, to diminish the local use of tubewells, which draw down aquifers. (Comment: Econoffs saw the groundwork on the edge of town. End comment.) In addition, canal water from the Indira Gandhi canal on the Punjab border is being brought to Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner through a hydraulic lift system. Finally, Econoffs heard in Udaipur, in southern Rajasthan, that the government had already started laying pipelines in another project to draw water from a reservoir on the border with Gujarat. Education a Major Focus -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Shubhra Singh, Commissioner of the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI),described the program, which seeks out private sector partnerships with government elementary schools to leverage resources. Singh explained that the genesis for the program was Chief Minister Raje's trip to the World Economic Forum in 2005, where she learned that several Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan and Egypt, had begun such programs. For Rajasthan, the government has so far secured support from Microsoft, Intel, and an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),among others, for a total of 33 partnerships across 6000 schools. In the arrangement, the corporate sponsor devises pilot programs focused on training, curriculum development and pedagogy. Last month, the Raje government also announced free education for all students up to class XII in government-run schools. ¶8. (SBU) Singh identified several other new education efforts underway in Rajasthan, including providing school vouchers to families to enable them to enroll in private schools. Another program used buses installed with computers to bring computer training into urban slum areas. One last program that Singh described was a school adoption program conducted by Bharti Foundation (funded under the corporate social responsibility aim of Bharti Airtel, a large Indian company). To date, the Foundation has adopted 100 schools, where they fund and place additional teachers and develop new curricula. The Foundation is identifying 250 more schools to adopt, and have indicated they would support a total of 500 schools. (Comment: While the Raje administration has successfully pursued public-private partnerships in the public sector, some worry that the growth in privatization at all levels of education has crowded out public investment and affected the poor/working class's access to education, per reftel. End comment.) ¶9. (SBU) Rajasthan is also courting higher educational institutions as well, seeking both liberal arts and vocational/technical colleges and universities. Atul Kumar Garg, currently chairman of Rajasthan Financial Corporation, most recently oversaw Rajasthan's higher education efforts. He told Econoffs the GoR had recently undergone a big initiative to bring in 10 private universities, with another 30 in the pipeline. These included a chapter of Manipal University, the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, and one of the new IITs the central government has pledged to build. ¶10. (SBU) Garg stated that the GoR was not imposing regulations on the colleges and universities regarding fees or the selection of students. Garg also claimed that Rajasthan's relatively better law and order than some states made it an attractive university destination for parents concerned about the security of their children. He cited Chittore University, near Udaipur, where parents from villages in Uttar Pradesh sent their daughters, because they saw it as safer than many towns in UP. He also pointed to the Rajasthani community across India that had left the state in prior years in order to pursue economic opportunities. Those families NEW DELHI 00002666 003 OF 005 were eager to send their children to Rajasthani schools. Garg estimated that the number of students in universities in Rajasthan had more than doubled in the past five years, going from 350,000 to one million enrolled students. On-campus recruitment was up, with major companies present, as well as the IT association, NASSCOM. ¶11. (SBU) Companies are also assisting in establishing or upgrading technical or vocational schools as well, part of a Mission on Livelihoods, Sampatram explained, to help degree holders top off the skills they need in today's marketplace. Garg noted that ICICI Bank had committed to assist twenty Rajasthani colleges in building 3-month courses in banking, finance and insurance, with an eye towards campus recruitment of graduates. Similarly, US-based BPO Genpact has set up five knowledge centers with three-month courses, from which Genpact can select graduates. Finally, Garg described new courses being provided by companies in the hotels, restaurant and transport sectors, in order to source new graduates with the skills the companies needed. An English-language Rajasthan magazine called Rajasthan Mirror claimed that Jaipur is becoming the 4th largest engineer hub in the country, after Bangalore, Pune, and Noida. While Bangalore and Pune graduate 15,000 engineers a year, Jaipur graduates 5500, but with 35 engineering colleges in the pipeline through Public-Private Partnerships, it is expected to rise to 10,000 engineering graduates a year. Improved Service Delivery Top Goal -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Mr. Subhash Garg, Principal Secretary (Finance) identified governance and service delivery as a major reform focus for the Raje Government. He described the new Bhamashah, or Financial Empowerment Scheme, that was just announced in March 2008. The scheme plans to provide a smart card (capable of biometrics) for a no-frills local bank account to every Rajasthani household that is below the poverty line (BPL) or is a small or marginal farmer. In addition, scheduled caste/scheduled tribe families who are not BPL or a small or marginal farmer may be eligible, based on other indicators of need. Garg estimated that the government had already enrolled 4.6 million households out of five million believed to be eligible (Note: The total number of households in Rajasthan is roughly 8 million. End note.) ¶13. (SBU) He also pointed out other elements of the Bhamashah program, including that the bank accounts are opened in the name of the woman of the household, and that the card is envisaged as a "multiple benefit" card. As such, the government planned to disburse health insurance, national rural employment guarantee program (NREG) wage payments, eligible school vouchers, and pension benefits through the card. The GoR was also providing a starting balance in the new accounts of Rs 1500 (roughly $31) per family. Subhash Garg explained that the government intended the program to cut down on intermediaries (an NREG program officer noted the direct payments would help cut down on "misappropriation"). He contrasted the program with the common tendencies of states to give away "free" power or wheat, which he said was not effective. The government has also planned a second phase of financial inclusion, where ration shops for BPL families would be replaced with direct cash transfer of food coupons or food voucher to the families on the smart card. ¶14. (SBU) A tour of two NREG sites outside of Udaipur also showed the GoR's efforts to improving service delivery to Rajasthan's poorest. First, the state government has hired new state employees to implement the program and placed them as program officers in each of Rajasthan's 33 districts. (Comment: One criticism of the NREG program is that it puts the burden on the state governments to fund extra personnel to implement the administratively detailed programs. When Econoff visited a district in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, it had not hired extra staff, forcing the extra burden to fall on the district and block development officers, already overburdened from other government schemes. End comment.) Kirti Rathore, Program Officer for the District of Girwa, on the outskirts of Udaipur, showed Econoffs two projects that the villagers had requested, an "all-weather" road between two villages and the creation of check dams to stop soil erosion and flooding of other roads. ¶15. (SBU) Rathore explained that she had a staff of six to seven junior engineers who monitored progress on the chosen projects, NEW DELHI 00002666 004 OF 005 providing the basis for how much the NREG participants were paid. She used 2001 Census data to identify BPL families as the main targets of the program, noting that over the three years of the program in her district, awareness about the program had grown considerably, with more than 90% of eligible households registered. Rathore stated that the daily wage had risen from Rs 50 three years ago to Rs 100. Further, she claimed that the workers were now demanding higher wages during the agricultural seasonal work, to match that of the NREG program. ¶16. (SBU) Women are a targeted beneficiary of the NREG program and the NREG sites that Econoffs visited reflected that. Roughly 80% of participants were women. Rathore explained that the men go to Udaipur for daily work, since it pays higher wages than NREG, and their wives work the fields as agricultural laborers and participate in NREG for the additional income. As part of the Bamashah financial inclusion program, Udaipur District officers recently opened basic savings accounts for the NREG participants in close by regional rural banks. Enhancing Tourism Sector -------------- ¶17. (SBU) Principal Secretary (Tourism) Mira Mehrishi highlighted for Econoffs several new initiatives being undertaken. First, she cited the initiative to get more four and five-star hotels in Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital and a favored tourist destination. She mentioned that there are 7-8 high-end hotels which will be completed within five years, adding roughly 1200-1500 more hotel rooms to the city. Mehrishi also estimated that each new hotel room generates six new jobs. ¶18. (SBU) Mehrishi stressed that her office's approach to increasing tourism potential in Rajasthan (already one of the largest tourist destinations in India) was to invite the private sector in where she could, since the private sector can "do many things better than the state." For example, she noted that the GoR owns 72 heritage forts in the state, but 40 of them are loss-making. Her office is now planning to lease the forts with land to the private sector across the state for converting into hotels. Likewise, the government has launched an "Adopt a Monument" scheme for 15 monuments so far. She pointed to Jaipur's Wind Palace as an example. (Comment: Located in the center of town, the Wind Palace has clearly undergone outside renovations and makes the other nearby buildings look decrepit. End comment.) ¶19. (SBU) Other innovations that Mehrishi identified include adding a deluxe "Royal Rajasthan on Wheels" to the other already popular (and expensive) "Palace on Wheels", developing Kumbhalgarh, reportedly the second largest wall outside China, and hot air ballooning in Jaipur and Udaipur. She also said her office is focusing on smaller towns as tourist destinations, since the new national highways have decreased travel time. She also noted that the GoR has asked the central government to open up more sand dunes on the border with Pakistan, outside the fort city of Jaisalmer. Mehrishi then described the introduction of several new "light and sound" shows at key tourist destinations and the creation, already underway, of an "elephant village" for providing shelter for the 100 elephants that are used to draw tourists up to Jaipur's Amber Fort and Palace. Comment -------------- ¶20. (SBU) Econoffs were struck by the level of engagement and even enthusiasm evinced by the bureaucrats with whom they met. Drawn from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS),these state top bureaucrats seemed empowered and challenged to introduce innovative programs aimed at raising investment and job levels and improving service delivery across Rajasthan. These senior bureaucrats often mentioned Chief Minister Raje as the source of new program ideas and goals. And as Econoffs traveled around Jaipur and Udaipur, the signs of infrastructure and urban improvement were visible. But when roughly three-fourths of Rajasthanis still live in the rural areas, it is there that improvements will be critical. Steps like the establishment of more schools and the creation of smart-card based benefits transfers could make an important difference to the majority of Rajasthanis. Election results in November may well NEW DELHI 00002666 005 OF 005 indicate whether these programs are working. WHITE