Predicting Individual and Group Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Predicting Individual and Group Behavior - Essay Example ndividual and Group Behavior in Schools is vital, Principal Harris went the opposite direction, he should have established a prudent connection with Mrs. Harmon, the other faculty heads and staff in general immediately after noticing the negative vibe emanating from them and considered their alternative proposals closely. The last meeting would have given him an insight about Mrs. Harmon and the likes wants namely; additional pay for the extra task delegated to them and flexible time allocation that would facilitate the research hence improving the schools instructional platform (Senge, 2001). These were important connotations that Principal Harris would have taken care off at the first light to get a better result oriented scenario. Principal Harris lacked a proper time management platform in achieving instructional plan for the school amongst the available human resource at his disposal. He should have effectively delegated the tasks that involved the whole school fraternity; faculty, staff and community so as to be more thorough in obtaining the right information for best model formulation and in the process saving time, a very valuable tool in task execution in any organization. Instead he only gave the task to his immediate deputies Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Harmon leaving out the rest of the workforce and stakeholders. Task delegation scenario is put at risk here because of only entrusting a fraction of the entire workforce and interested parties like the parents and the community at large that supposedly the teachers were against. The internal environment of the school seemed to be discordant and not influential for best performance and productivity. A culture of uniformity in values and the school’s go als and objectives needs to be revisited and the faculty together with the staff trained either through workshops, seminars or webinars, the importance of uniformity in the school’s core value of always improving students’ performance in accordance with the

BBUS 381 A1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

BBUS 381 A1 - Essay Example Take an assumption that employees within a company have their own goals, and personalities. On this basis, employees cannot be perceived as part and parcel of the organization (Dressler, Reka and Cole, 2011). The principles of human resource management hold that the company should enact group and individual psychology for purposes of making these employees to strive in achieving the goals of the company. On this basis, human resource management aims at achieving the strategic goals of an organization by retaining, attracting and developing the talents of its employees. Dressler, Reka and Cole (2011) observe that human resource management acts as a link between the employees and the management of the organization. Human resource management helps an organization to develop strategies that will assess the various needs of its employees, and thereafter develop methods that will make these employees view their positions as part of their everyday responsibilities (Fudge, 2012). On this bas is, human resource management is a very important element in an organization because it creates loyalty amongst the employees of the organization improving their efficiency in their work place. ... For instance, the company has a human resource department, which is charged with the responsibility of identifying talented individuals to work within the company (Chang, 2012). The company has a human resource development center, which is tasked with the responsibility of training its employees on how to meet the objectives of the organization. The center is also responsible for developing the skills of the various employees that the company employs. This is for purposes of ensuring that these skills are effectively utilized within the company (Fudge, 2012). The human resource development center is also responsible for identifying the various needs of the company’s employees, and methods of satisfying those needs. This is because the aim of this process is to create loyalty amongst its employees; as a result there will be an increased efficiency in their roles. Chang (2012) observes that the company has a reward system, where employees are recognized for their performances, a nd rewarded by the organization. The rewards can either be monetary, or take the form of promotions within the organization. As a result of this policy, the employees of the organization are always working hard, with the hope of getting a promotion, or a reward. These human resource strategies by Samsung have made the company to be one of the leading electronic companies in the world. Part B: Samsung Group is a company from South Korea, with a global presence. The head quarter of the company is in Seoul, in a town referred to as Samsung. Samsung has an interest in the food processing sector, the electronics industry, insurance, and the retail industry. In 1987, the company operated under four business groups which are the Hansol

The Importance, Benefits and Issues of Budgeting

The Importance, Benefits and Issues of Budgeting Introduction This report is aimed to evaluate the importance of budgeting, analysis the benefits and problems that brought by budgeting and also discusses the behavioral aspects of budgeting. A budget is a comprehensive, formal, coordinated, detailed, quantitative plan that estimates the probable expenditures for acquiring and using financial and other resource for an organization over a specific time period (Margaret, George, 2011). Budgeting describes the overall process from preparing budget, using budgets during the business operation, and later performance evaluation. It provides us the valuable tools for planning and control of finances and affects nearly every type of organization-from governments and large corporations to small businesses-as well as families and individuals. A small business generally engages in budgeting to determine the most efficient and effective strategies for making money and expanding its asset base. Budgeting can help a company use its limited financial and human resources in a manner which best exploit existing business opportunities such production expansion and acquisition that might otherwise miss. A good and through understanding of how budgeting works is a must for ambitious business executive if he or she wants to run the business with flying colors. What is more, budgeting give access to business owners who intend to assess the managers performance during a specific time assigned. It is of great importance because the managers compensation is quite often tied with his or her performance during the time in charge. There are different kinds of budgets fall into various categories. The financial budget (Genrad, et al., 2002) includes the capital expenditure budget, which presents a companys plans for financing its operating and capital investment activities. The capital expenditure budget relates to purchases of plant, property, or equipment with a useful life of more than one year. On the other hand, the cash budget, the budgeted balance sheet, and the budgeted statement of cash flows deal with activities expected to end within the 12-month budget period. Last but not the least, companies sales departments are often responsible of making sales budget based mainly on their products selling experience last year and future economic conditions. The budget is developed within the framework of a sales forecast that shows potential sales for the industry and the companys expected sales. Benefits of Budgets With careful planning and good execution, a company can reap the benefits of having budgets in many ways, including: Communication of corporate goals Modern corporations consist of departments of different important functions. It is quite hard for the chief executive officer to convey the corporate goals to each employee very well. But on the other hand, in order for corporation to reach its best performance, it is indispensable for employees in different positions within a corporation to understand the corporate goals. The process of preparing budgets actually constructively bridges this communication gap because it engages everyone from managers to front-line staff. Quite often in practice, an CEO will hold a budgets discussion meeting that managers of various departments will come and discuss the companys whole budgets and make adjustments according to next years goal. In this way, budgeting comes a communication tool because the different departments get the chance to take part in future planning and discuss the priorities for where the money and resources should be most suitably spent and allocated. More importantly, the act of making estimates about future economic conditions and about the companys ability to respond to them, forces managers to synthesize the external economic environment with their internal goals and objectives. This whole communication process is extremely crucial given the consideration of the complexity of business in recent years. Warning of potential problems Keeping budgets and constantly comparing it with the running of the real operating acts as an early warning system of potential problems which the management people in charge can make changes before things get out of control which make the company suffer greatly in terms of money and resources. In this way, when a flag is raised, managers in charge can revise their immediate plans such as to change a product mix, revamp an advertising campaign, or borrow money to cover cash shortfalls. Coordination of different segments Having the different departments within the corporation to create budgeting together is the key to resolving the differences and conflicts between various departments when involves in money and resources handling. Often in practice, the chief executive officer asks departments of various functions to make their own department budgets first according to each departments needs and its specific goal next year. Throughout this process, each department correlates each segments goals with corporate objectives. Preparation of a budget assumes the inclusion and coordination of the activities of the various segments within a business. The budgeting process demonstrates to managers the inter-connectedness of their activities and offers them directions to follow. Evaluation of actual performance The budget provides definite objectives for evaluating performance at each level of responsibility assigned (Jan, et al., 2008). Managers in charge are able to have access to do quick and easy performance evaluations with previous established criteria. With the economic conditions rapidly changing, managers may increase activities in one area where results are well beyond their exceptions. In situation like this, budgeting maximizes the objectivity to a great extent and offers a helpful hand for managers in making sound judgments with some indicators to compare. In other situations, managers may need to refer some measurement to reorganize activities whose outcomes demonstrate a consistent pattern of inefficiency, so that they can make timely adjustments to minimize the loss that otherwise might incur. Problems of Budgets As one of the most important steps in running a successful business, there is also some problems that involves with the budgets, including: Overstating projections Companies with strong ambitious of achieving success usually tend to think that their business will do a huge amount of business in a short amount of time which sometimes could be not very realistic in practice. So in this case, they often inflate the budgeted sales figure with possibly wrong sales forecasts. The overstating sales projections resulted from over optimistic future sales predictions most of the time will lead to other financial budgets such as cash flow budget, income statement budget, and balance sheet budget not reflecting the reality. Lack of fairness in funds allocation When asked to their own budget, different departments often have a tendency to ask more than they need to provide buffer in case unforeseen things that might happen in the future, so that they will not be under budget. This tendency prevent the funds to be allocated to the companys best interest and distorts the real needs and makes the next year funds allocation somehow lack of the fairness it should have, especially for corporations which is at the growing stage when the funds is extremely precious and limited. What is worse, when it comes to the using the budgets, the majority of departments will tend to squeeze the use of the budget at the beginning of the period to save for the later use, while try everything they can to use up the rest of the budget by the end of the period. This lack of consistency in usage actually further wastes the companys resources and money, which is likely lead to inconsistency of the goods and services that the company provides. Lack of operation flexibility While sticking to the budgets provides a roadmap for the running of operation, it can hinder creativity and flexibility of the companys development (Eugene, Michael, 2010). This situation arise often enough the managers cautiously and strictly enforce the operation in accordance with the budgets and give up some opportunity that might open doors to developing innovative products and exploring new markets. This is particularly true for those giant corporations where the managers are more willing to play it safe than taste a new flavor and usually lead them to only look at an annual plan therefore may fail to take a longer term view into account. Behavioral aspects of Budgeting Budgetary control relies greatly on the individuals of a corporation. The human aspect in the budgetary system can be very complicated since the budgetary process involves relationships between different people within the corporation which includes the chief executive officer, managers and staff. Some times budgets affect peoples behaviors and vice versa. Thus the behavioral aspects of budgeting are of vital significance and consist of many different areas that high attention must be paid. First and foremost, we need to know the Factors affecting behavior of budgeting, including: Budgets perceived by employees as being too difficult In situations that lack full participation of all levels in preparing for the budgets, the employees will perceive the budgets as being too difficult to follow. In addition, the punishment that comes along from failing to meet what this budgeted has a tendency to encourage staffs attempts to beat the system. This greatly affects the employees enthusiasm for the job and can knock down their creativity and initiative which might lead to financial and nonfinancial loss for the corporation. In order to deal with this kind of situation, the managers in charge should maintain supportive and cooperative relationships with staff of all levels since it can leads to increase productivity and satisfaction which in turn can raise the working morale of staff. What is more, managers should try their best to make communication open without obstruction, which is extremely critical because the good communication in budgeting can act as a good delivery of corporate goals. Targets that do not provide any challenge In sharp contrast to the previous situation discussed just now, non-scientific and not reasonable budgeting could also result in having targets that do not provide any challenge which leads to no breakthroughs and developments. This happens more often than not when managers only emphasize on the financial goals which is quite detrimental to the realization of important non-financial goals. In order to fix this problem, managers should use the historical data as an important reference and try their best to gain a better understanding of the directions that the future economic conditions. Moreover, it is also of crucial importance for managers to identify the employees ability objectively and truly engage the staff in participation genuinely. Due to a tendency for individuals to become ego involved in decisions which they have contributed, only in this way, can the budgeted goal be set in a way that reflect the real conditions and performs guidance. Insufficient flexibility There are times when strong-minded managers strictly hold on to budgets and overlook the real actual operation performance. Confronted with this kind of situation, what a company should do is to adopt variance analysis in practice. It is encouraged for businesses regularly conduct variance analysis because this allows them to notice if financial plans are inaccurate and therefore make timely adjustments. On the other hand, if businesses fail to analyse variances on a regular basis they will not be aware of their financial performance compared to what is budgeted. Favorable variance is when revenues are greater than budgeted or costs are less than budgeted. In contrary, adverse variance is when revenues are less than budgeted or costs are greater than budgeted. By calculating variances through looking at costs and revenues, managers can make wise remedies to cope with the situation and keep the company running on the right track. Conclusion Budgeting is a very crucial process that can bring numerous benefits to the companies if be used wisely and correctly. These benefits includes: Communication of corporate goals, Warning of potential problems, Coordination of different segments, and Evaluation of actual performance. All of them will increase the managements ability to more efficiently and effectively deploy resources, and to introduce modifications to the plan in a timely manner. However, there are also problems of that might incur when the budgeting is not proper done. These problems includes: Overstating projections, Lack of fairness in funds allocation, and Lack of operation flexibility. In order to truly embrace the benefits of budgeting, managers really should study the behavioral aspects of budgeting.

Sexism in Language Essay -- Language

Language refers to the method that humans use to communicate either through speech or written. It consists of the use of the word in a structured and conventional way. Language has been referred to as ‘our means of classifying and ordering the world; our means of manipulating reality. In structure and in its use we bring out the world into realisation and if it is inherently inaccurate, then we are misled. (Dale Spender, 1980).Language has power that allows us to make sense out of the reality we live in. Sexism is discrimination of a person based on their gender, especially on women. Sexism in language is the use of language which devalues members on one sex, almost always women, showing gender inequality. In the 1960/70’s there was a feminist campaign in Western Countries and a lot of research as conducted into gender inequality. The feminist campaign demanded that gender in equality should be eliminated from the educational system (Shi, 2001.) The existence of sexist l anguage is due to sexism in society and it is also related to social attitudes. There has been a movement amongst feminists to reduce sexual discrimination and it has led to a number of attempts to influence and change in language. Robert Hopper (2003) made a distinction between the terms ‘soft core’ and ‘hard core’ sexist language. He showed that ‘Soft core’ language was less obvious, subtle but still demeaning and patronizing to women. It was found to be more problematic because it was subtle and harder to spot. ‘Hard core’ sexism showed it to be easier to spot. Sexism in language takes many forms, though theses may be reduced to 3 types: language ignores, it defines and it deprecates women. Women and girls are hurt both physically and materially by it. Everyda... ... Language. Developmental Psychology. 20(4), 697-706. Lei, X. (2006). Sexism in Language. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5 (1), 87-94. Mallett, R, Stangor, C, Swim, J.K. (2004). Understanding subtle sexism; Detection and Use of Sexist Language. Behavioural Science Sex Roles, 51(3/4) 117-128. Parks, J.B, Roberton, M.A. (2004). Attitudes Toward Women Mediate the Gender Effect on Attitudes Towards Sexist Language. Psychology of women Quarterly, 28(3), 233-239. Piercey, M. (2000), Sexism in the English Language. TESL Canada Journal, 17(2), 110-115. Turner-Bowker, M. (1996). Gender stereotyped descriptors in children's picture books: Does "Curious Jane" exist in the literature? Sex Roles, 35(7-8), 461-487. Ya-Lun, T. (2008). Child development (Research) Sex role (Portrayals) Children's literature (Educational aspects) Science & research, 45,(3), 310

Causes and consequences of deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest

The Amazonian rainforest is the largest rainforest in our planet, covering most of the Brazils area and extending out to neighbouring countries. The total area of the Amazonian rainforest is approximately 4 million km2, however about 14% of the rainforest has already been destroyed and this process continues at a rate of 20,000km2 a year. The Amazon rainforest in South America covers a huge area and there are tribes of people living there who are living a way of life that hasn't really changed for hundreds of years. There are indigenous tribes in rainforests all over the globe but the Kayapo Indians are probably the ones we know most about. Traditionally the Kayapo have used the rainforest for all their needs. They are hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers. They survive by hunting, fishing and collecting food from the forest. The rainforest can provide them with over 200 different types of fruits as well as nuts and leaves. They supplement this diet by growing sweet potatoes, maize and manioc in small clearings near their villages. As well as food, the Kayapo use the forest to provide them with all their building materials as well as face paints, body ornaments, musical instruments and medicines. The rainforest climate is very hot, wet and sticky very humid. In the rainforest it rains every day. But the rain comes down and stop and comes down again it keep goes on like this nearly every day. The plants in the rainforest have had to adapt to the weather condition in the forest. We can prove this by looking at the trees grows tall, up to 40m through the emergent layer, in order to get sunshine. On this picture we can see that the trees are really tall in order to get the sunshine. This is because trees need sunshine to get photosensitises to get the energy to grow. The rainforests around the world. On this map it shows the rainforest around the world, and we can see the largest rainforest it's the Amazonian rainforest. We can see all the rainforests are happening near the equator line, this is because how weather like around the areas near the equator line. The map shows how the Amazon rainforest spread out to the Brazils neighbouring countries in South America. And as we can see the countries that been involved are Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Bolnia and etc. the Amazon rainforest its all around the Amazon river, this is happening due to lots of water and the weather that u get in them kind of places. Rainforests Political/Country Borders Deforestation: Deforestation is the felling and clearance of forests land. Deforestation still takes place in our planets and it's increasing every year. The deforestation takes place mostly in the LEDC (Less Economic Develop Countries). Deforestation occurs in many ways. Most of the clearing is done for agricultural purposes-grazing cattle, planting crops. Poor farmers chop down a small area (typically a few acres) and burn the tree trunks-a process called slash and Burn agriculture. Intensive, or modern, agriculture occurs on a much larger scale, sometimes deforesting several square miles at a time. Large cattle pastures often replace rain forest to grow beef for the world market. Commercial logging is another common form of deforestation, cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp. Logging can occur selectively-where only the economically valuable species are cut-or by clear cutting, where all the trees are cut. Commercial logging uses heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, road graders, and log skidders, to remove cut trees and build roads, which is just as damaging to a forest overall as the chainsaws are to the individual trees Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in. The darker the area, the more forest that is remaining. Deforestation presents multiple societal and environmental problems. The immediate and long-term consequences of global deforestation are almost certain to jeopardize life on Earth, as we know it. Some of these consequences include: loss of biodiversity; the destruction of forest-based-societies; and climatic disruption. Although all consequences of deforestation are potentially serious, perhaps the most serious consequence is that of climate change due to the loss of trees. Earth has an atmosphere which contains a variety of gases, all in a delicate balance, to ensure life on Earth. One of these gases in Earth's atmosphere is carbon dioxide; a gas which helps moderate heat loss to outer space. Insulating gases such as carbon dioxide are called â€Å"greenhouse gasses because their function is much like that of the glass in a greenhouse. As you can see in this graph, it shows that the deforestation in Amazon still remains high. As you can see the graph goes like a mountain it keeps goes up and down we can see at the beginning it started decreasing for a few years but then it started to go up and down and then it went up really high in 1996 to 1998. This what the Amazon rainforest like in most of the areas. Although all consequences of deforestation are potentially serious, perhaps the most serious consequence is that of climate change due to the loss of trees. Earth has an atmosphere which contains a variety of gases, all in a delicate balance, to ensure life on Earth. One of these gases in Earth's atmosphere is carbon dioxide; a gas which helps moderate heat loss to outer space. Insulating gases such as carbon dioxide are called â€Å"greenhouse gasses because their function is much like that of the glass in a greenhouse Does deforestation affects the people. There are local and global effects of deforestation in the Amazon. On a local scale, the indigenous tribes that have lived in the rainforest for many years are seeing their traditional way of life and their environment destroyed. Rivers have been polluted due to the mining in the area and soil erosion is a serious problem as the protective canopy of trees is removed. This then means the land cannot be used for growing anything else. The global effects are significant. Of the 30+ million known species on Earth, 28 million of these are in the rainforest. Deforestation is destroying habitats and species at an ever-increasing rate – one estimate is that an area the size of 15 football pitches is destroyed every minute! Some of the rainforest species have proved to be valuable to mankind. For example, we obtain ingredients for over half our medicines from the rainforest. If we continue to destroy this environment we risk losing these species forever. Deforestation is also contributing to climatic global change. Fewer trees means less evapotranspiration and therefore less water vapour in the air. This means reduced rainfall, possibly leading to droughts. At the same time, the burning of the forests releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, one of the main gases causing global warming Groups that been affected by deforestation Native people The native people are the oldest inhabitants of the South American and the Amazon rainforest who lives in the forest for over 500 hundred years ago. There was approximately ten million native who lived in the Amazonian forest. But now days the population getting smaller and smaller, this is because the native people been affected by the deforestation. The native people who survive and depends on the forests for foods, water, shelters and etc, we can see why the native people getting less and lesser, and the reason why is because the deforestation in South America increasing and it affects the people by cutting or burning down the forests, and this will destroy their homes and the way they living (culture). The native people can not live with out the forests, because they get medicines from the plants, and make shelters from the trees plus when there is forests tree is animals which useful for foods. Farmers Ones the trees have been made into timber they exported to generally MEDC*s. where it is used in industry for various obvious reason. Although tree are a renewable resource this is only achieved when done in a sustainable way with the appropriate are put in place and practiced. In the current day situation this is rarely practiced and therefore the inevitable consequence of deforestation is taking place. Farmer will benefit from deforestation because they will have more land for growing anything that they want. Homeless people People all around the country might find themselves every where due to many factors for example people in brazil always looking for better place to live this is the low class people because the government keep pushing them out of a place that is not belong to them, and most of these people turn to the cities to find better place. (push and pull factors). Earth The deforestation affects our planet. This is because the carbon cycle. Forests act as a major carbon store because carbon dioxide (CO2) is taken up from the atmosphere and used to produce the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that make up the tree. When forests are cleared, and the trees are either burnt or rot, this carbon is released as CO2. This leads to an increase in the atmospheric CO2 concentration. CO2 is the major contributor to the greenhouse effect. It is estimated that deforestation contributes one-third of all CO2 releases caused by people.

Food Security Bill Essay

The bill was truncated from the NAC version at the first stage when the government finalized it and then the parliamentary standing committee went along similar lines and recommended further paring down of the benefits. Sources said concerns were raised by the Congress leadership about reducing existing benefits under the Antodaya Anna Yojana to the 2. 5 crore poorest families as well as the recommendation of the standing committee to remove the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) from the mandate of the bill, which was advised by the women and child development ministry. Sources said the party leadership was unhappy with the move to reduce existing entitlements under UPA’s flagship scheme instead of providing larger benefits. The government is likely to revise the bill keeping these views in mind and look at a much higher coverage in at least the 250 poorest districts of the country. The standing committee had recommended providing 5 kg of rations per person to 75% of rural population and 50% of urban India – a formula the government was happy with till the party leadership intervened. The standing committee had recommended doing away with two categories of beneficiaries with differential benefits – a move the government had contemplated anyway after having sent the bill to Parliament. But curtailing the total number of beneficiaries and reducing the benefits to the poorest has not found acceptance with the party leadership, sources said. The government could now consider restoring the monthly allocation to the poorest back to 35 kg of rations per family. Under an apex court order, the poorest and most disadvantaged are provided 35 kg rations at present. With the party keen to see the bill in Parliament during the budget session, a revised version could see the ICDS scheme coming back under the purview of the bill as a legally guaranteed right along with other food delivery mechanisms such as community kitchens. The UPA has already been caught on the back foot with opposition-ruled states providing cheaper rations to greater numbers under their own schemes following the lead of Chhattisgarh. The delay in pushing the bill through, coupled with the constant and often publicly expressed differences between different arms of the government and the UPA on the shape of the legislation have taken the sheen off UPA-2’s big ticket scheme Food Security Bill is affordable The subsidies meant for the poor are always under attack, while the rest are able to retain their privileges. The additional allocation in grain and money terms will neither distort the grain market nor place a burden on the fisc. Many recent commentators have portrayed the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) as an â€Å"unbearable burden† on the exchequer. The facts, however, do no substantiate the claim. The NFSB has been trashed from time to time in the English dailies. For instance, Business Line (March 21, 2013) published an article titled â€Å"Food Security Bill will torpedo Budget†. Another national daily claims that the Bill has a â€Å"fundamental flaw† that places â€Å"an unbearable burden† and â€Å"distorts agriculture† (Indian Express, March 19, 2013). Quite often, the claims are partly due to a misconception that the government is making new financial and grain commitments under the NFSB. In fact, the NFSB does little more than turning into legal entitlements pre-existing food security schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme, Public Distribution System (PDS) and maternity entitlements. Some commentators have said that it is precisely the legal commitment that will lead to problems in the future — for example, the fear of the emergence of a government monopoly in the grain market. This fear is not borne out by the facts. Under the PDS, ICDS and MDM, the government currently allocates about 58 million tonnes of grain. To meet this commitment, the government currently procures about 30 per cent of grain. The NFSB commits 62 million tonnes, i. e. , an additional 4 million tonnes. The Budget of 2013-14 allocates Rs. 31,000 crore for two children’s food schemes — school meals and the ICDS which reaches children under six. The Budget allocation for the food subsidy in 2013-14 is Rs 90,000 crore. According to our estimates, the food subsidy will increase from Rs 80,000 crore (in 2012-13) to Rs 1,11,221 crore, under the NFSB. Thus, the NFSB implies an increase of just over Rs 30,000 crores in financial terms and 4 million tonnes in real (grain) terms. Can India afford this? Speaking at a panel discussion at IIT Delhi in February, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said â€Å"it would be dishonest† to say that we cannot afford the Food Bill, and that the subsidies that we need to target are those enjoyed by the middle classes (e. g. , fuel). Speaking at the same discussion, Amartya Sen made a pertinent point — that the reason why it is more difficult to reduce subsidies enjoyed by the middle classes (fuels such as LPG, petrol and diesel) is that the beneficiaries of those are more vocal than the rural poor or children under six who benefit from the food subsidies. This point is well illustrated by the events following last year’s Budget. The Budget 2012-13 announced a 1 per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery and doubled custom duty on gold to 4 per cent. Gold is the country’s second biggest import, after crude oil. This burden on the current account deficit was an important reason for doubling the customs duty. Following this, the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation and others initiated a strike which went on for 21 days. They argued that the industry, including the â€Å"large† number of people it employs, and buyers of gold, would suffer. A massive media campaign was launched, following which the Finance Minister withdrew the excise duty. According to the revenue foregone statement presented along with the Budget 2013-14, the revenue foregone from the gold and diamond industry for the previous financial year was Rs. 5,000 crore. Such tax breaks are often justified on the grounds of the employment potential of the gems and jewellery industry. According to Invest India, a website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, â€Å"The sector provides employment to around 1. 8 million people. In the next five years, the sector is expected to create additional employment for around 1. 1 million people. † According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, 2009-10, the size of the Indian workforce is between 430-471 million persons. If the gems and jewellery industry employs 3 million people as per the Ministry’s target, this would be 0. per cent of the workforce. An industry that employs less than one per cent of the Indian workforce is currently enjoying tax benefits amounting to Rs 65,000 crore (nearly 20 per cent of all revenue foregone). The Food Bill will benefit 67 per cent of the population at an additional cost of Rs 30,000 crore, yet it is said that it will â€Å"torpedo† the Budget. If anything, the NFSB does not go far enough. The NFSB tabled in Parliament in December 2011 included special provisions for the destitute and other vulnerable groups (e. g. , community kitchens and social security pensions). These have been discarded in the version cleared by Cabinet on March 19, 2013. In many rural areas, the Block is already too far to go to complain, yet for violations of rights under the NFSB, grievance redressal only begins at the District level. Viewed in this comparative perspective (for example, it is approximately 1 per cent of the GDP), few can question the affordability or desirability of the NFSB. In absolute terms it is not a small amount. One might argue whether such expenditure is worth it, given the â€Å"fact† that the programmes in its ambit, for example, the PDS, are â€Å"dysfunctional† (Indian Express, March 19, 2013). However, recent data from the National Sample Survey of 2004-05 and 2009-10 suggest that while the functioning of the PDS is far from perfect, we do need to update our â€Å"facts†. In joint research with Jean Dreze, we show that the implicit subsidy from the PDS eliminates 18 per cent (14 per cent) of the â€Å"poverty gap† — or the difference between the poverty line level of income and the median income (or monthly per capita consumption expenditure) of poor households — among poor rural (urban) households. Again, there are marked inter-State contrasts — in Tamil Nadu the corresponding figure is 60 per cent and in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh it is nearly 40 per cent. The real question then is not whether India can afford to have a right to food but as the Food Minister said in a recent interview, â€Å"Can we afford not to? † Food as a right In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are undernourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that incremental measures at targeting the needy are a poor substitute for a cohesive, rights-based universal system of food entitlements. There are, no doubt, many positives to the new legislation, such as coverage of up to 75 per cent of eligible priority households in rural areas, the importance given to women as the head of the household for issue of ration cards, inclusion of pregnant and lactating women for free meals (some in government wanted to take away this entitlement from women ho bear more than two children but the idea was sensibly dropped), and setting up of State Food Commissions to investigate violations of entitlements. Under the proposed law, it will be up to the States to frame criteria and choose the priority households for food entitlements, an exercise that will inevitably be accompanied by the well-documented troubles associated with targeting any welfare scheme. Exclusion of any deserving household is unfair and divisive. It poses a challenge to States that wish to provide universal access, an issue that is bound to be felt acutely in urban areas attracting tens of thousands of migrant labourers. The Centre is unwilling to countenance a Universal Public Distribution System on the ground that too much money is involved. Even under the latest Bill, it is argued, the exchequer would have to bear a heavy expenditure of Rs. 1. 24 lakh crore. Yet, the government has not hesitated to build up expensive food stocks over the years, some of which is left to rot, mainly to pay the high support prices demanded by influential sections of the farm lobby. Moreover, the policy orientation is disproportionately favourable towards some sectors such as infrastructure, compared to food and health care. Evidently, the Food Bill can and should do a lot more, to become near-universal and win over sceptics such as Tamil Nadu, which has opposed it on the ground that it is inferior to the universal PDS in the State. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act has done better than the Centre’s proposed law in some respects — by supplying subsidised pulses and covering 90 per cent of households, for example.