A quarterly newsletter titled as “Making Things Happen” would be brought out by the NCU. This would be prepared in English and designed by the NCU. The English newsletter would be sent by the NCU to every state partner who would use two pages of the newsletter for the local content and translate the whole in its local language. As regards the name of the vernacular versions, the state partners could keep the same name as the one kept by the NCU and translate it in their local languages. This would be sent to the partners by the 15th of the second month of every quarter and the partner organisations would bring it out by the end of the same month.
GRANITE E-NEWSLETTER
2007 issues
GRANITE NEWSLETTER
2006 issues
Alternative media of communication such as audio-visual will also be used. Also, CUTS’ existing literature (for instance Gram Gadar) can be used for information dissemination.
Current Status
First issue of the newsletter corresponding to the period January-March, 2006 has been brought out.
The first issue covers an extensive interview with Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath on the declaration of second supplement of Foreign Trade Policy 2004-09. The section on Agriculture throws light on the initiatives taken by central and state government in India to boost agriculture production through organic farming and second green revolution etc. The section on textile and clothing (T&C) deals with issues on how to increase export of T&C from India through reductions of excise duty, custom duty and regulatory interventions and minimum price support etc.
2005 issues
All four issues of the newsletter corresponding to the period January-March, 05; April-June, 05; July-September 05 and October-November 05 respectively have been brought out.
The first issue giving an overview of the project, talked about the project’s objectives, expected outcomes, partners, advisory committee. It also explained the salient features of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2004-09, besides touching upon the international scenario in trade.
The second issue focused on rural indebtedness as a serious issue of concern and certain state-specific issues in the sectors of agriculture and textiles. It also explained the key recommendations made during the state level project launch meetings.
The third issue carries a cover story ‘Farmer’s suicides in India’, which tries to find out the different policy issues implemented by the state and central governments like cheap import, shift towards cash crop, devaluation etc., which are somehow incidental to the rise in death toll of the farmers for the last few years. The excerpts on Agriculture focuses on the issue related to floriculture, basmati rice, seed bill etc. The section on Textile and Clothing covers issues on non-tariff barriers on the market access and also policy issues on the cotton and handloom sector.
The fourth issue starts with an article ‘Doha Round; Post-Hong Kong is more challenging’, highlighting on what needs to be done to meet the deadlines fixed by the members on the concluded sixth WTO ministerial in Hong Kong in December 2006. Section on Agriculture covers news and views on increasing the agriculture productivity in the country by providing agri loan, creating marketing network etc. The section on Textile and Clothing (T&C) sector emphasises on how to increase the competitiveness of the Indian T&C sector and at the same time stop mushrooming of cheap clothing from abroad.
- Project launch cum training workshop
- State launch meetings
- Field Work in Rajasthan and West Bengal
- Outreach meetings
- Workshops targeting state level officials
- Media workshops
- National seminar
- Advocacy workshop at the state level for STPC and at the national level for NTPC
- Outreach tools
- Briefing Papers
- E- group and e- list
- Monitoring
- Sixth WTO ministerial conference
- Additional activities