AMBIGUOUS...

pared to 2017 according to FSI.

Independent experts said fragile biodiversity rich areas like the North-east states and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (both specifically named in last week’s cabinet note) will bear the brunt. And the fear is that much like in other parts of the world (West Papua, a province of Indonesia is a case in point) , primary forests will be replaced with oil palm ones. “Oil palm plantations are not being proposed on empty lands. They have to negotiate prevailing ownership or use rights, irrespective of the land being forest, revenue, hill council, private or any other form of ownership. In countries where oil palm has been pushed through there are many documented cases of serious injustices and land conflicts (both individual and community level). What also needs to be emphasised is that conversion of land for oil palm or any other such large-scale commercial plantations in India do not require an Environment Impact Assessment based environment clearance as is mandated for highways, dams or industries,” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher, Centre for Policy Research. According to a paper by TR Shankar Raman and Jaydev Mandal, which was published in May 2016 in the journal Ornithological Applications, oil palm plantations in Mizoram had just 10 species of birds, followed by teak plantations (38), jhum (50), and rainforests (58). According to Nature Conservation Foundations, jhum is a rotational system of organic farming involving the cutting and burning of forests for farming. type of assets that would be made available in the market.

“Success of the plan could also enable recycling of funds, which will be critical for revival of the infrastructure investment in India. However, meticulous planning, project packaging, and coordination will be needed to address the underlying structural and legacy issues. It would be important for the government to get the first few projects in each sector right to set the ball rolling in the right direction. Therefore, smooth implementation of the first ₹10,000 crore will determine the fate of the ₹6 trillion monetization plan,” he added.

If executed well, NMP can be one of the biggest and boldest reforms initiated in the infrastructure sector for a long time, said Manish Aggarwal, head, infrastructure, KPMG in India. “Structuring of projects and ensuring a ‘balanced’ risk framework is very important before these deals are launched. Making a specialized centralized agency such as DIPAM or NITI work in ‘tandem’ with line ministries will be very critical. A ‘well-intentioned and working’ regulator is also very important for the sectors where there is no regulator to provide confidence to the investors,” he said.