POSCO eloquence is a statement of decayed mind

Bimal P Pandia

The Thursday, 16th January 2014, marked two significant happenings. As if there was nothing else to discuss, Prime Minister of India recited the 'POSCO' lyric which was obviously a music to the visiting South Korean President. This was happening in India's political capital. Something else happened in the financial capital of the country. Tata Consultancy Services was declaring its quarterly result - magnificent and stupendous result.

There would not have been many eyebrows had POSCO been just one of many issues during discussion of the Prime Minster and the President. But it seems POSCO was the only thing. This is unfortunate. More unfortunate is Prime Minister's use of terms like 'easing' and 'speed up' etc.

Many people have reasons to believe that those who run the governments, both at the Centre and the State, are stoops of the powerful mining lobby. These companies only aim to loot and destroy, permanently, resources that we have only inherited from our forefathers and - which the government should only protect as the custodian. But the governments are hell bent to sell those resources off while causing further disequilibrium in the social, economic and environmental fabric; and ruining the future.

They cite example of economic growth and employment potentials of these industries through glossy figure. Such arguments have been contested with solid facts and evidences in the past. Taking cue from today's development I will just add some more information about employment potential or profit potential that adds evidence to the destroy the myths that meetings like Indian Prime Minister and Korean President do spread. 

1. Three of India's largest mining and mineral processing companies Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Tata Steel(including Corus) and NTPC together employ only three-forth of what technology major TCS has. The current employee strength of the companies are, TCS - 276,196, SAIL - 103,130, Tata Steel - 80,534, and NTPC - 25,484.

2. TCS on Thursday reported a quarterly net profit of Rs 5,314 Crore. This is nearly 15 percent more than combined second quarter net profit of SAIL, Tata Steel (including Corus) and NTPC. The three companies reported net profit of 1,180 Crore, 917 Crore and 2,439 Crore respectively.

3. POSCO, which a section of our country is so  desperate to get in, employs only 35,094 person for its two plants in Korea which together have 39 MTPA capaciity -  3.25 times more than POSCO's proposed 12 MTPA plant in Odisha.

Now, people will still argue that such figures do not tell the whole truth and we also require power and steel etc. etc. Fine, but then we must not also forget that for power and steel etc we pay a very heavy price - a price that the current generation owes to the future generation and other living beings. We have to carefully find an equilibrium that is just and humane - socially, environmentally and economically.

States like Odisha should not portray an image of 'rich land, poor people'. That is a myth that we must break. Our land is obviously rich. But we do not have a stake to loot and destroy those resources. Rather, we are the custodians to maintain, preserve and passon the inherited resources. States like ours, instead, should focus on more rewarding sectors, which provide more employment and more income for the people and the country.