Not A Bad Dream

Posted on March 16, 2008 by indra

I love to read Vir Sanghvi’s viewpoints on the national issues. This Sunday he has created a political scenario of India. Can the third front be a reality with Prakash Karat’s conditionality expressed in a rally in Lucknow? Vir writes what happens if it didn’t materialize.

“On the broader thrust of economic policy, there’s virtually no difference between the Congress and the BJP at all. Both parties believe in liberalization. Both are committed to as much privatization as they can get away with. Both regard globalization as inevitable… All that the Congress and the BJP differ on are matters of implementation and personality. But none of this amounts to much more than the normal bear-baiting between the government and the Opposition. On matters of principle and ideology, the differences are so small as to be minimal.”

“Are we heading towards a situation where there will be two ideologically-identical national parties, one anachronistic, communist behemoth and a host of identity-driven smaller parties?

And we will know that Third Front is an impossible dream.”

However, with all the similarity in Congress and BJP, there is one big difference. Congress can effectively function only if someone from Nehru- Gandhi (not Mahatma but Feroze Gandhi) clan leads it. Unfortunately, the model of nomination such as Manmohan Singh has not functioned effectively, nor is being perceived right for a democracy. I wish Rahul succeeds in bringing real internal democracy in the Congress and gives the young men and women of the party the right role that they can play in the development of the country.

I wish these two alliances that has already run the last two governments quite successfully continued. However, the merger of the other regional and casteist parties with either of the major parties, Congress or BJP would have been in national interests. With BJP no more so close to RSS ideology, many of its earlier allies can join it. Nitish Kumar or Mamta are in allusions that keeping distance from BJP can help in forming an effective government in their states.

The biggest problem is from ideology-based leftists. If they remain in the alliance, one can’t dream of any reform that is absolutely necessary. For instance, organized retail sector can’t grow; SEZs can’t come up; PDS can’t be streamlined. Unfortunately, the leftists have failed to set an example of better governance as China has done in the two states under them from many decades. Leftists unless they join the government must not be taken into any alliance.

May be one day BJP and Congress will join hands to form a nationalist government in the interest of the people of the country.

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History, Literature and Religious Sentiments

Posted on March 15, 2008 by indra

Time and again, some affiliates of BJP, the second national political party do something that shames any sane persons. It happened this time in Delhi University. BJP affiliated student activists, sometimes I feel like calling them terrorist, created problem. They found an essay by A.K. Ramanujan, on the many Ramayanas living across languages and narrative genres, as the reason for protest and vandalism.

Many years ago, I procured a book ‘The Ramayana tradition in Asia’ published by Sahitya Akademi and edited by V.Raghavan. It has articles written by many on the different Ramayanas of Asia. It was an old publication dating 1980. Ramanujan has not written anything new. Many years ago, I had read a similar book by Father Kamil Bulke in Hindi “Ram katha ki utapati aur bikash”. Many have written the Rama story in their own way. Valmiki was perhaps the first to write the Epic that forms the basis. But most popular one in India and perhaps the religiously most respected is Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas. It may be one of the largest selling books today in the world. I keep on reading and completing it once every month as a religious ritual. Even Tulsidas has talked about the different poets who have written the story of Rama. Ramanujan has a story that is similar to one Kagbhushundi mentions in Uttar Kanda of Ramcharitmans about the simultaneous presence of Rama in different lokas. I feel like quoting one story from the Ramanujan’s paper.

One day when Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. His trusty henchman, Hanuman, was at his feet. Rama said to Hanuman, “Look, my ring is lost. Find it for me.”

Now
Hanuman can enter any hole, no matter how tiny. He had the power to become the smallest of the small and larger than the largest thing. So he took on a tiny form and went down the hole.

He went and went and went and suddenly fell into the netherworld. There were women down there. “Look, a tiny monkey! It’s fallen from above!” Then they caught him and placed him on a platter (thali). The King of Spirits (bhut), who lives in the netherworld, likes to eat animals. So Hanuman was sent to him as part of his dinner, along with his vegetables. Hanuman sat on the platter, wondering what to do.

While this was going on in the netherworld, Rama sat on his throne on the earth above. The sage Vasistha and the god Brahma came to see him. They said to Rama, “Your work in the world of human beings is over. Your incarnations as Rama must now be given up. Leave this body, come up, and rejoin the gods.” So Rama summoned all his followers and arranged for the coronation of his twin sons, Lava and Kusa. Then he went to the river Sarayu and disappeared in the flowing waters.

All this while, Hanuman was in the netherworld. When he was finally taken to the King of Spirits, he asked Hanuman, “Why have you come here?”

“Rama’s ring fell into a hole. I’ve come to fetch it.”

The king showed him a platter. On it were thousands of rings. They were all Rama’s rings. The king said, “Pick out your Rama’s ring and take it.”

They were all exactly the same. “I don’t know which one it is,” said Hanuman, shaking his head.

The King of Spirits said, “There have been as many Ramas as there are rings on this platter. When you return to earth, you will not find Rama. This incarnation of Rama is now over. Whenever an incarnation of Rama is about to be over, his ring falls down. I collect them and keep them. Now you can go.”

So Hanuman left.

There is nothing religious in it. Why should there be protest and vandalizing of the department for this? Let at least the student community at university level be not play with such an

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Farmer- mania and Rural India<

Posted on March 15, 2008 by indra

To talk about the rural India has become a fad for everyone in intellectual arena. I have been reading some good books (Two Billions of Entrepreneurs, Planet India) by American Indians or NRIs. To be frank, I don’t know the right nomenclature for their national identities. However, they too have mentioned sympathetically about the grave situations in rural India based on their experiences of some conducted tours to some Indian villages of a region arranged by some NGOs. I wish they had based it with wider coverage from nearer quarters. It has also become fashionable for most of the MPs and intellectuals to talk or write about the rural India and its pathetic conditions. After the media-aggravated suicide stories of the farmers from regions of the states such as the rich Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka or even West Bengal and Kerala, the subject has become more popular at all forum and particularly those attended or presided by politicians. The climax has come with waivers costing Rs 60,000 crore for the indebted farmers. Now the heir apparent Rahul Gandhi has come out for the expansion of the scope and delimiting of 2 hectares landholding as criteria for waiver that has already become the major headline on the front page of all the national dailies. I wish those showing concerns about rural India take some night stay in the rural India and don’t firm up opinion about the village life by spending a night in Chokhi Dhani, Jaipur.

There are some intriguing questions. What percentage of the India’s population lives in villages? What are the numbers dependent on farming? What is the number of landholders with holding below 2 hectares? How is the cutoff of 2 hectares decided? Bibek Debroy in an article in Indian Express- ‘What aam kisans want’– points out, ‘figures on the number of farmers are grossly over-stated. People ascribe 72 per cent (or 65 per cent) to the total population (not even the work-force) and derive a rural population figure. Not more than 50 per cent of employment in rural India is agricultural (Economic Survey says 52 per cent) and, barring the principal earner, other members of the household often earn a living outside agriculture. The actual figures are probably like 100 million landless labourers and 125 million farmers. And we have a little over 100 million holdings, 60 per cent marginal (less than 1 hectare) and another 20 per cent small (1 to 2 hectares).’

I have personal knowledge about some villages in my district of Rohtas in Bihar. I have seen the changing rural profiles over the years. Bullocks that used to be the pride of any household have gone. The small village of 2000 population has presently over 40 tractors. One finds only either a buffalo or a cow in the courtyard meant for male members. However, the breed of the cattle is better. Electricity has still not reached, but many houses are having solar power to run the TV and lighting, and even a fan or two. It doesn’t have any medical facility.

I am giving here the profile of a family, I know from near. Every household has changed in the same manner.

In a family X, the land that was owned by one person up to 1970s has been divided into four parts, each getting about 15 bighas (local measure where 1.8 bighas is an acre). Today the four families depend on farming but in different ways:
Uncle A with aunty is going strong even at the age of over 70. But the main work responsibility of the land is with the younger son, a postgraduate in agriculture and his wife. He owns a tractor and cultivates the whole holding with help of one permanent worker and engaging few more depending on need. A family of four is dependent on the farming. The elder son is in a good railway job. He lives in Vadodara with wife and three children studying in graduate courses. He hardly contributes to farming at home. But as per record, he and his family may be part of the rural population.

Uncle B’s son works in Kolkata in a reputed private firm at some junior position and takes care of a family of 7 including his mother, unmarried sister, and an unemployed brother. He leases his whole land in the village to tenants. He comes to collect the money once in a year in summer. The earning from the land makes his living comfortable. But he has to marry the sister that will require a lot of money for dowry. He may have to sell some land or take costly big loan against land.

Uncle C’s son, a Ph.D now, is not employed, but has bought a house in Varanasi (with money received by selling of some land of his share) and lives there. He had built a house in village too. He too leases the land to tenants either on cash that can be about Rs 6000 per bigha for a year or on fixed or flexible amount of grain harvested out of the land. His son is married too and has some frugal employment but lives with him. He has a son to be educated and a daughter to be married.

Uncle D’s son has lost most of his share of land because of the bad habits and today tills some land taken on lease from other landowners in the village for a meager living. He has his one son who takes cares of the family. But the family is in worst shape with just nominal earning.

Over the years, many landholders of old time have sold their land for various reasons- marriage of the daughters, law suites, medical treatments of some family members, building of house, or education of sons, or repayment of previous loans taken from private lenders. Most of the inherited land-owning households in the village have smaller holdings, perhaps less than 10 bighas. Some including few from the deprived class of yester years have bought small plots. The land is still the most aspired item that the people go for buying once any one in the family earn money good enough to do that.

The menial work of good days is gone, so the village can only provide a limited employment in farming operations for the landless family by those who have land. Some of the landless families do take small plots of land on lease from the landowners and cultivate it for living. Some have their grown up kids working all over the country. They keep on remitting money for those left back in the village.

As on today, because of good irrigation facility provided by the canal and supported by diesel pumps from bored wells, the two crops grown in the village are paddy and wheat. While the earning from paddy is about Rs 12,000, that from the wheat is about Rs 6000. So the difference between the earnings of farming and leasing is about Rs 14,000 in a year, as the landowner can lease a bigha for Rs 6000. But let us see how much the worker who is engaged for the whole year gets. He is given one and a half or two bighas of land beside his daily labour charges in cash or kind. So he gets Rs 30,000 plus his daily earning accumulated as his total annual intake. It is very much comparable to what one gets in menial job in unorganized sector in the country today. Still it is very difficult today to get menial labourer even in villages.

If the state so wishes that the unemployed young men don’t live their villages to create problem for city dwellers. PURA was the answer. However, the present government doesn’t believe in that. The government, the local leaders as well the people themselves don’t do anything to create non-agricultural employment in the villages. The villages today require good education facilities that must include skill building over and above the conventional education. It requires innovative initiatives from some to get work from the urban areas and get it done through the skilled manpower in the villages. The villagers must learn about the entrepreneurial skills and even take up the farming as a commercial business. For instance, the ladies in the villages who hardly contribute in the household earning, can be easily engaged in many productive jobs, if some urban manufacturers outsource some. Milk production as an extra earning could have become a good engagement, but certainly not if it is collected at Rs 8 or 9 a litre when any consumer in the urban area is paying nothing less than Rs 20 a litre.

Those who wish the good for the farmers in rural India must also appreciate that he is consumer too. Except for rice and wheat and perhaps some vegetables, the household buys everything almost at the same price that one pays in the urban India. With the prices of his rice paddy and wheat almost fixed by the government, how can he manage his household’s minimal expenses with ever increasing prices of all the commodities? Even ITC who has got a global recognition for its e-Choupal initiative pays the same Rs 9 or 10 per kg of the wheat that it sells at Rs 16 or more per kg to the consumers in the urban market as packed atta. It is essential that the farmers get the best price for whatever he produces through reduction of the cost elsewhere in the supply chain. Even the buyers such as ITC can think of making the farmers add more value to his produce to pay him more. As for instance, even in the same village some farmers improved their annual earning from a bigha to Rs 30,000 a year from the normal Rs 20,000 by switching over to a commercial crop, peppermint in place of wheat. It is necessary that the corporate houses and the government eliminate the cost of unscrupulous intermediaries that is making the farmers to lose.

One way may be the contract farming, but it must have built-in feature so that the farmer is not exploited. Can one day a farmer get an agreed minimum monthly earning for the crop he puts in his farm and the balance after the harvesting of the crop?

Those who speak or write about the farmers must spend at least few days in moving around the villages in the different regions of the country and learn about the problems from the nearer quarter before suggesting solutions. And the IIMs and other agricultural institutes must use their students to come out with projects that can improve the conditions of rural India on priority. It will be meaningful exercise for the benefit of the country.

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India as Knowledge Society- Dream or reality?

Posted on March 14, 2008 by indra

Last Auto Expo 2008 was unique in one respect. It provided a feel-good factor to visitors about the capability of the Indian engineers working in automobile industry. India can’t only produce automobiles to world standard in scale large enough to meet the demand, but also can develop new globally competitive products that are exportable too to rich as well as poor countries all over the globe.

‘Nano’ created a new perception about India’s design and development capability on the global auto industry. Bajaj Auto showcased its indigenously designed small car that appeared to be pretty mature design, and Maruti Suzuki exhibited its next global subcompact locally designed car. The designers got a lot of accolades from the media and auto experts. DC Design too is making its presence felt with global clients.

India is also becoming a global production base. Hyundai is the most successful among the MNC car manufacturers. Car major Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) has received 60,000 export orders for its small car ‘i10’, which was launched in October 2007.
India has a great potential in R&D. The public sector organizations such as Atomic Energy Commission, ISRO, DRDO, and CSIR have proven its might in different areas, though with the usual shortcomings of public sector. As reported, ‘after losing close to 1,500 scientists to much greener pastures of corporate world just since 2002, DRDO is stepping up its ‘talent search scheme’ to lure NRIs into its fold through some ‘reverse brain drain’. It appears to be good news for the country. Scientists are in demand and private sectors are increasing their investment in R&D. Without innovations and new product development that can come only through strong R&D, it will be difficult for them to survive and grow in globalised market. And it is a new development that reverse brain drain has started and that too with government agencies. DRDO has already netted at least 40 PhDs and M.Techs working in academics or industry in countries like US, UK, Japan and Sweden.

Some data about the R&D of the country may show India still lacking behind in R&D:

Number of core researchers in India was about 1.5 lakh as compared to China’s 8-10 lakh.

Number of persons doing research and development in Scandinivian countries is 7,000 per million of population and 4,700 per million of population in US. In India, there are 156 researchers per million of population.

R&D spending as percentage of GDP in India is only 0.8% as compared to China’s 1.23. Developed countries have R&D expenditure of upto 3% of GDP.

Of the 0.8% expenditure in India, 80% is by public sector while the private sector share is only 20%. In China and US, the public sector share is only 30% each while in Japan it is only 18%.

Even the Budget 2008 has taken steps to create an atmosphere for attracting students to science courses and researches. UGC is taking steps to improve the quality of research in education institutes. Even time and again media report about some outstanding by Indian scientists that are inspiring.

Physicist Basanta Nandi, from IIT, Mumbai has emerged as the world’s ‘hottest’ reasearcher for 2007, according to annual the league tables published by academic publisher Thomson Scientific.

American tech guru Amar Bose joins inventors who gave the world the television remote control (Robert Adler), electrocardiograph (Willem Einthoven), hip replacement surgery (John Charnley), and Containerized Shipping (Malcolm McLean) in the national scroll. The only other Indian in the Inventors’ Hall of Fame is Rangaswamy Srinivasan, a former IBM scientist named for his pioneering work on excimer laser surgery.

Shivani Sud , a teenage Indian-American student from North Carolina who began to take interest in cancer research when she was six won the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search, annual competition often termed the “junior Nobel Prize”. Shivani Sud, 17, a Durham high school student, was awarded a $100,000 college scholarship during a ceremony in Washington on Tuesday for her research to improve colon cancer treatment. Sud was among the seven high school students of Indian origin who made the list of 40 finalists in the annual Intel competition that attracted some 1600 high school seniors nationwide.

India can be a knowledge hub for the world, if its institutions get more autonomous, change its mindsets for becoming the best in the world and start demanding all the possible assistance from its alumni and industry instead of depending on government.

PS: Scientists can make money too. Innocentive, an online network that connects companies, academic institutions and non-profit organizations, is known for linking problem-solvers and solution-seekers by granting cash awards up to $1 million for creative solutions in business, entrepreneurship, chemistry, engineering and design, lifesciences, maths, computer science and physical sciences.

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Should India Celebrate?

Posted on March 12, 2008 by indra

The wealth of Indian billionaires is more than 3.5 times the wealth of Chinese billionaires. With 19 newcomers, India has 53 billionaires with a combined wealth of $340.9 billion, according to the Forbes list of world’s billionaires. India also holds the honour of having the largest number of four billionaires in top ten – NRI steel baron Lakshmi Mittal (4th), Mukesh Ambani (5th), Anil Ambani (6th) and KP Singh (8th).

Here is what Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor, NDTV 24×7 opines, “Let’s celebrate because all four men on the global list of the super-rich are men who for the most part, built or expanded their own empires, crawling and climbing their way up. None of them were born to money (not even the Ambanis in the strictest sense). And if they can get here, so can the rest of us. It’s this can-do spirit that the New India is so excited about.” But the best part is that Ambani brothers taken together become the richest in the world today. In absence of icons from other areas of activities except cricket, perhaps it is good that these wealthiest ones are becoming the icons for the middle class youth and the urge of entrepreneurship is getting contagious.

·Foreign exchange reserves moved above the $300-billion mark to touch $301.235 billion for the week ended February 29, according to data released by RBI. Gold reserves increased to $9.558 billion. Indians use 20% of gold in the world and nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India. And surprisingly, it is not only the richest that are getting benefited. Diamond industry provides so much of employment. However, many of these industries are still not run by professionals, but owned and run by traders who become real misers when it comes to pay their workers. How can India bridge the gap between the rich and the poor?

·According to AICTE, India produced 4.01 lakh engineers in 2003-04, of which 35% were computer engineers. The number of graduates swelled to 5.2 lakh in 2005-06 and by 2006-07, the number of colleges had increased to 1,503, which admitted 5.83 lakh students in all. Surprisingly, five Indian states – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala – account for almost 69% of the country’s engineers. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Orissa account for only 14%. Why are the laggard states behind? Do the states not allow the setting up of the colleges or no entrepreneur is interested in going there because of the unique local culture? Why can’t the central government create an equitable condition by providing more of central universities in these states? Surprisingly, at least Bihar feeds most of the colleges in Karnataka and Maharashtra with students in large number. But with all the number that may soon be the highest in the world even exceeding Chinese output, the industry rates only 25% of the graduates as employable. Should the affiliation of the college that has poor record of the employable graduates be withdrawn?

·As many as 12% scientists and 38% doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists in US are Indians. 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians. And the source of information is a minister who announces it as achievement of its department in parliament. Should he or she do that to be proved as hoax? Will it not create a bad-feeling for those in USA in the election year? How are these so called NRIs of help to India? Why should we celebrate?

·India is the sixth most popular country in the US, with 69 per cent of the Americans having a positive image about it, while Pakistan finds itself among the 10 most unpopular nations, according to a new poll. Will it help India in any major way?

·The Railways would have a total surplus of about Rs 1,00,000 crore by the next year. It has already generated a surplus of Rs 69,000 crore in the past four years. And when can we have a better timely running railways and a clean safe railway station?

Should we celebrate the wonderful performance of Team India in cricket or shed tears for the shameful loss in hockey?

India wins where there is good governance, where there is good leadership, where there is least interference from the politicians. Look around and see the amount of dirt and dust created by our own people that trips even the national grid. Should we celebrate that?

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India’s Best Managed Companies and Manufacturing

Posted on March 11, 2008 by indra

It is not that it happens. Do they follow some set principles and policies, or use some set tools and techniques? Many look into the evolution of the company and deduce some mantras of management success. Business Today’s list of the best managed companies in India that has appeared in its March 23, issue includes Larsen & Toubro (industrial products), ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries (energy, chemicals & utilities), Grasim Industries (materials), Tata Steels (metals and mining), ITC (retail and consumer products), Great Eastern Shipping Co. (transport and logistics), Bharati Airtel (technology, media and telecom), and Tata Motors (Automotive).

I keep on looking for the manufacturing companies, as that has been my area of engagement. Interestingly, the list includes L&T and Tata Motors that are from manufacturing sector with L&T right at the top. And both are moving ahead fast enough to become global soon with organic as well as inorganic growth. L&T is moving into ship building as well as power equipment manufacturing. L&T can help building a leadership for India in the sophisticated engineering products and large project implementation. I wish it developed world-class vendors using the untapped and unutilized manufacturing facilities of the country that can provide sustainable employment of large number of people.

Tata Motors has grown beyond its traditional mainstay commercial vehicles manufacturing to cover the wide range from ‘Sumo’ to ‘Nano’ and that will get further widened very soon with high end ‘Jaguar’ and ‘Rover’. Sumo, Indica and Indigo, Ace, and then Nano can cater to the domestic market and build a profitable scale. Both Ace and Nano has all the potentials than can increase its scale to make it globally competitive. Tata Motors can also be the prime mover to take India’s auto component sector to a greater height and the sector can become world leader.

But it was not always like that. I was in Tata Motors, Jamshedpur (it was called TELCO) for a vocational training in 1959 with some of my friends from IIT, Kharagpur. It was huge even in those days but with manufacturing only at Jamshedpur. It was a truck company and was also manufacturing locomotive engines. In 1961 I joined Hindustan Motors, as most of my friends from IIT had also joined it. HM paid Rs 400 per month as salary, while TELCO paid only Rs 200 per month as stipend. Over the years, I kept in touch with TELCO, as some of my friends from HM joined TELCO in later years. It may surprise many that I undertook some very successful courses on general machining management and gear technology in TELCO, Jamshedpur in 1993. TELCO even in those days concentrated in building its technical capability and was flexible enough to do anything to excel. It went with Cummins for technology-wise better engines and developed its machine building capability that cut down its investment for new projects. At one time I used to tell my friends in industry that TELCO machine building division can produce better machine tools than even HMT. TELCO had huge technical training facilities to man its manufacturing shops. However, on R&D it didn’t concentrate much in those days.

Fortunately, the strong and successful line of products today provides all evidences for it shifted priority for R&D and innovation. And today it is one of the best managed companies of the country. But will it be one of the top 5 automobile manufacturers of the world very soon? Perhaps one day it may happen. It will depend on the leadership of the person who takes over from Ratan Tata. However, Ratan can live a long active life for Tata Motors to make it a Toyota from India.

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India on the coverpage of ‘Economist’

Posted on March 10, 2008 by indra

India has again appeared on the cover page of the ‘Economist‘ this week.

” In many ways India counts as one of liberalisation’s greatest success stories. Over the past 15 years it has been transformed into a far more powerful beast. Its companies have become world-beaters. Without India’s strength, the world economy would have had far less to boast about.”

It is happening India. The stock might have crashed. In one corner, some insane young and old selfish politicians might be content with creating mental agony and physical skirmishes for few persons for media attention and ego-satisfaction. The pink papers may be forecasting slowdown, but the employment is booming, the cars are selling, and the entertainment industry is getting more and more stable providing the growing middle class what it wants. “Many things restrain India’s economy, from a government that depends on Communist support to the caste system, power cuts and rigid labour laws. An enduring constraint is even more awkward: a state that makes a big claim on a poor country’s resources but then uses them badly.”
Many a times it may appear confusing and annoying, but no doubt India is moving ahead, otherwise Economist can’t keep on writing about India.

The main story deals with ‘the babu raj’.

” On coming to power in 2004, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, said that administrative reform-“at every level”-was his priority. Some economists see India’s malfunctioning public sector as its biggest obstacle to growth. Lant Pritchett, of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, calls it “one of the world’s top ten biggest problems-of the order of AIDS and climate change”. Yet it is hard to find progress on Mr Singh’s watch.

But in a mostly unreformed system, rent-seekers have a habit of clawing back. The title of a draft paper by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is apt: “Putting Band-Aid on a corpse: incentives for nurses in the Indian public health-care system”. To encourage a batch of Rajasthani nurses to show up for work-which, on any day, over 60% did not-its authors began monitoring their attendance at village health centres by computer and sending the results to the state health ministry. Threatened with fines, half of the absentees returned to work. Six months later, they began breaking the computers and reporting “machine problems”. After 16 months, the health centres featured in the study were no more likely to contain a nurse than any other.”

It is unfortunate that in his second inning at a higher chair that could have propelled Singh to a permanent prominent position in India’s history, he has not been able to make any great impact but for his integrity. With his personality and knowledge, he could have at least continued and pressed with one single mission of the administrative reforms. Nothing could have stopped India to reach the highest ever growth rate ever achieved by any country, if babus had taken that as their mission. As a management student all along, I think Indian administration needs distruptive innovations. Unfortunatelly, with politics of the lowest order, it is not going to happen. And India will keep on living in various ages of its history from the primitive stone era to the twenty second century simultaneously for decades and perhaps centuries.

It is unfortunate that Manmohan Singh has to resort to blaming the previuos government in the fifth year for the farmers’ debt on the dictate or direction from his master.

And India will have to wait for another prime minister to bring in the disruptive innovations in its administration.

I wonder why can’t the IAS system be done away with. Why can’t the great achievers of IIMs or from the industry fill all the vacancies?

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CM Bihar Sir!

Posted on March 7, 2008 by indra

I know you had and have a tough job in hand. Some of the actions are certainly changing the perception of the outsiders about Bihar. However, Bihar requires some fast track action plans that can make as quick an impact in development as you claim to have achieved in law and order situation in the state. Media have less news about kidnappings. Many of the political parties backed dons are behind the bars and have been convicted too.

Bihar must do something drastic about educating and skilling its younger people, who are to join the workforce. Every village has some retired teachers and persons from the defence forces in Bihar. I suggest using the services of these people who already get paid pensions from the government.

Can’t you request and push all the retired teachers from the villages to attach themselves with the schools of their locality to get their pensions? Let them help in covering up the absenteeism of regular teachers, coaching the students that are weaker than the average particularly those from deprived classes, or initiating adult education in evening shift. Let them be actively associated with ‘sarva sikhsha abhiyan’ in real sense of the term. I am sure your appeal will matter.

As I have observed most of the rural schools are away from the habitation. Will it not be better if at least it is provided with at least residential facility for some teachers and students? Can’t other buildings in government plan of action such as ‘panchayat’ house or knowledge center be constructed in proximity? I am sure you must be planning to provide the facility of computer with Internet also in these schools. Let one teacher from the school get trained in computer on his own and once qualified be paid extra. Let him get a website for the school and help in online teaching that will be the solution to have equity in quality of teaching and education.

Please get one creativity center attached to each of these schools. It will not require very high investment.

Let the teachers of the rural schools be motivated to involve the students in yoga, sports and games seriously. If properly executed it will reduce the drop out problem almost in similar manner as the mid-day meal. The retired defence persons will be able to take up this assignment happily. (They can also be of help in manning he creativity center. Don’t you agree that even with the material available around the school from the fields, the students can learn about horticulture and floriculture or even making terracotta figurines? Will some paint and brushes be so costly that the school or the students can’t afford?)

Please appeal in all your ‘durbaar’ to the people from the rural Bihar to send their children to school and see that they continue education. Today, it has become very easy to make oneself employable. Just a good communication skill gets a pretty respectable job. And it is easy to master it with the digital equipment and readily available course materials even without teachers. Many Dalits have proven that. Some crooks are still exploiting people in rural area. It is necessary to communicate all the government offerings to them through various means.

I wish again if you can use the services of ‘Pratham’ to the best and outsource the inspection of the schools to it and thereby eliminate the department of school inspection.

Please make some fast track changes in education sector of the state. That can be the strength of the state and so its differential factor.

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Powering India

Posted on March 6, 2008 by indra

As confessed in Economic Survey as well as Budget 2008, the growth of power generation has always been lower than the targeted growth rate. Lack of availability of quality electric power has been one of the major reasons for poor industrial growth. The target for 2007-08 was fixed at 12,039 MW, of which 7,263 MW has been commissioned up to January 31, 2007. The total capacity addition during the current financial year would be 10,821.8 MW. A capacity addition of 78,577 MW has been proposed for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. It translates into a growth rate of 9.5 per cent per annum. Will it happen?

The deficit in power supply in terms of peak availability and of total energy availability during the current year was still 14.8 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively. However, the PLF (power load factor), a measure of efficiency has improved over time in the sector as well as in all regions. To improve PLF further, new thermal power plants are changing to super-critical technology from sub-critical ones. The Government is also going for coal-based Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs), each with a capacity of 4,000 MW or above either at pithead sites or at coastal sites envisaged with imported coal. Tata Power and Reliance Power have bagged Sasan, Mundra and Krishnapatnam UMPPs.

India has an estimated hydro power potential of more than 1,50,000 MW. However, only 21.14 per cent of the potential has been developed till date and 9.53 per cent is being developed. Private sector participation that was negligible till recently has been increasing in the recent past. 10 Schemes with an installed capacity of 3991 MW are under construction while States have allotted 67 Schemes with an installed capacity of 18,030 MW to private developers.

A new initiative of Merchant Power Plants (MPPs) is also under consideration. Merchant Power Plants fill different niches in the market; some provide steady supplies to the power grid, while others fire up to meet peak loads when the demand is at its highest.

And what is happening on power generation front all over the country? Some news reports provide hope, because of its breadths:

Tata Power, India’s third-biggest utility by value, will spend Rs 17,000 crore ($4.2 billion) on a plant at Mundra in Gujarat to generate 4,000 mw of electricity. Tata Power has tied up Rs3,115 crore debt to develop a 1,050 Mw coal- based power project in Jharkhand.

Reliance Power is expecting necessary clearances from the governments within 90 days for its 4,000 Mw Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh and plans to make it fully operational in 50-60 months.

NTPC Ltd would invest $1.84 billion in setting up a 1,320 MW power plant and is to set up and maintain a 1,980 Mw coal-based thermal power project at Nabinagar, Bihar.

Godawari Power and Ispat (GPIL), an integrated steel manufacturer based in Chhattisgarh, is mulling foray into commercial power generation with projects in Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand with capacities ranging between 300 to 1,000 Mw with coal and coal rejects as fuel.

Vidoecon proposes a thermal power plant with a capacity of 1,000 Mw and investment of about Rs 4,000 crores in eastern UP. Venugopal N Dhoot may set up a photovoltaic (PV) factory somewhere in Varanasi for an estimated Rs. 1000 crore investment.

Kolkata-based Jain Energy plans for setting up a 1,000 Mw coal-based thermal power plant at Balpur of Janjgir-Champa district in Chattisgarh and expects to commission it in 2011 at an estimated investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd plans to invest over Rs 20,000 crore to implement three pit-head, coal-based power projects totaling 4,300 Mw in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The firm also proposes to venture into hydel power production with plans to establish a 1,000 Mw project in North India at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore.

Hyderabad-based GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) is setting up a 660 Mw thermal power project Amritsar at a project cost of about Rs 3,000 crore, and has also plans for a thermal power plant at Talwandi Sabo (1,800 Mw) and another coal-based thermal power plant near Rajpura (1,200 Mw) for an investment of Rs 12,000-14,000 crore.

Adani is targetting a power generation capacity of 10,000 Mw that will be operational in a phased manner.

Steel-maker Prakash Industries will set up a 600 Mw thermal power station in Chhattisgarh with an investment of about Rs 2,400 crore.

And similar initiatives are going on for hydel power too.

NHPC, the country’s largest hydel power company will double the power generation to become a 10,000 Mw-plus corporation by 2011-12 envisaging an investment of Rs 28,000 crore.

The Himachal Pradesh government has signed deals with private companies for building eight hydel projects, including two mega projects and six micro-sized projects.

Initiatives to remove the darkness do also cover alternative sources of energy.

More and more entrepreneurs are trying in different ways to tap solar energy to light up homes in rural hamlets

Moser Baer India is investing about $1.5 billion in increasing its thin-film photovoltaic capacity to 600 Mw over the next two years from the existing project capacity of 40 Mw.

After successfully starting its pilot wind energy project in Gujarat, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is now planning to invite bids for its second pilot project in Karnataka. ONGC will invest nearly Rs 600 crore in the first phase of its wind energy foray for generating nearly 15000 Mw of power. The total installed capacity for wind energy in India was about 7114 Mw.

And naturally the entrepreneurs are moving into equipment manufacturing too. BHEL can’t remain the sole supplier and the excuse for not meeting the target.

L&T is seriously getting into power equipment manufacturing. L&T is being officially promoted as the BHEL-II for manufacturing power equipment required for large super critical thermal power plants.

Lanco Infratech Ltd is planning to set up one of the country’s largest wind turbines manufacturing facilities, to take advantage of shortage of wind turbines in the global and domestic markets.

The interesting development is the increase in the number of power projects based on imported coal, which will be shipped in from countries such as Indonesia and Australia. “Of the 78,577Mw (of power generation capacity) that is to be added by 2012, around 4,000Mw will be from imported coal-based projects on the coasts.”

Delays in timely forest and environmental clearances for 30 thermal power projects, with a combined generation capacity of around 22,000Mw, may make it difficult for India to meet its already ambitious power generation targets. India must learn to complete its power projects within a timeframe that must match the best international standard, and move to cut down the electricity losses on war footing. Electricity losses in India are about 30% of output; in Bangladesh, it is below 10%. Will the initiatives make India power sufficient and efficient, if not power surplus?

I wish the government could design some robustness in administrative system that can build clear accountability to ensure timely executions. Simultaneously, a time bound programme for power conservation through disciplined use and technologies (preference and incentives for energy-efficient equipment and CFLs) must also be in place.

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IITs and IIMs: Demand to Dilute

Posted on March 4, 2008 by indra

During my school days in Birlapur, I had heard of how Dr. BC Roy, the then chief minister, who was also a very reputed physician wrested the first IIT to get established at Kharagpur in West Bengal that was going to Bihar. People in those days could have hardly imagined that IIT, Kharagpur and then IITs as brand would go so famous. During our time even Shibpur Engineering College, Engineering college of Jadavpur was equally famous. My friend Ashoke had preferred Shibpur for his civil engineering. Indian School of Mines was also a very highly preferred institute in eastern India.

Today every state craves for getting an IIT and IIM. Political parties are making the demand of setting up an IIT and IIM in the state as part of its manifesto. Assam got one on political ground.

And appreciating its importance, the FM in his every budget speech includes the plan or progress on setting up of IITs or IIMs. “An IIM at Shillong; three IISERs at Mohali, Pune and Kolkata; and an IIIT at Kanchipuram have started functioning. In the process of establishing one Central University in each of the hitherto uncovered States, the FM proposed ‘to make a beginning in 2008-09 by establishing 16 Central Universities’. Besides, we propose to set up three IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan; two IISERs at Bhopal and Tiruvananthapuram; and two Schools of Planning and Architecture at Bhopal and Vijayawada.”

While Andhra has cleared the location of IITs, the selection of the sites for IITs in Rajasthan and Bihar is still not zeroed. Beside the state, the choice of sites in the state is causing political chaos.

In his Independence Day speech last August, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised of eight IITs in the pipeline. As reported, the government has also given the go-ahead to set up Indian Institutes of Technology in Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. 15 states are also vying for them.

Even Shashi Tharoor thinks that India by now would have established more number of IITs by now. “When I left India for post-graduate studies in 1975, there were perhaps 600 million people in India, and we had five IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology). Today, we are nearly double that population, and we have seven IITs. To keep up with demand – and the needs of the marketplace – shouldn’t we have had 20 IITs by now of the same standard as the original five? Or even 30?”
As it appears, crave for IITs will not stop till every state will have one IIT and IIM. But perhaps before that IIT and IIM will get its brand image diluted down where the demand will be meaningless.

I agree that more of engineering colleges providing technical education of the quality standard of IITs are essential for the country, but that doesn’t require setting up of IITs. Two other avenues can help meeting the demand of industry for good technical manpower. However, IITs are not the only answer.

Each of the IITs can become a hub for imparting education and get into a network of affiliation of six other state or private colleges of the region and with help of e-teaching and virtual laboratory already created by IITs for different branches of engineering and improve the quality of education to IIT level. An effective interchange of teachers and students can further the quality of education of the affiliated colleges.

More of the corporate houses must get into the business of engineering education, as in good old days Birlas did with BITS, Pilani and Ranchi that are no way inferior to IITs. Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and Great Lake Institute of Management, Chennai have already set examples of world-class institutes of management education outside the government control. Vedanta, Jindal, Ambanis are already going ahead. Thrust must also be on upgrading the facilities and quality of education at the existing facilities at both, the state and private colleges. Industry must play an active role in getting them affiliated more effectively with the reputed foreign universities of developed countries.

Instead IITs must further get into specialized and contemporary branches of technologies for its M.Tech levels to cater to various requirements of different sectors of the industry. Why can’t one IIT set up a School of Automotive Design or School of Tooling Design with help of experts in the sector? It is unfortunate that many of the sector-related knowledge remains with some pioneer companies and gets lost once the companies get into red and close its door. Some such areas for instance are gear design, machine tool design, and bearing design out of many in the industry.

It may sound a little trivial. However, whenever I visited mechanical or production engineering departments of IIT, Kharagpur; Jadavpur University; Pantnagar University, Institute of Technology of BHU, Varanasi or NIT, Kurukshetra, I got shock of my life about the gap between what were being taught and what are or going to be the need of the industry. Lack of knowledge and information about the industry even among the best of the teachers is dismal.

Can’t the academician sit with some knowledgeable people of the industry to narrow the gap? Unfortunately, there are psychological barriers among the people on both the sides that don’t allow them to interact freely for mutual benefits.

Further, the politicians with inferiority complex are damaging the great institutes by interference in the name of democracy and inclusive growth. Is it not the case with Presidency College, Bengal Engineering College, and Jadavpur University?

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PS: Read
!. ‘Instant IITs no growth recipe‘ by P. V. INDIRESAN former Director, IIT Madras
2. Online Education Takes Off in India in Business Week by Nandini Lakshman<

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