दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Many a times I don’t understand why don’t the leftists work on improving its performance and if at all they can. In West Bengal, the leftists are running the government for more than three decades. Wasn’t West Bengal was relatively well placed in comparison to other states, when they took over?

West Bengal is the state where I grew, got educated, and spent my whole professional career. I have many friends and a special attachment with the people of the state. I feel really bad that even today Presidency College is not a deemed university. Do the leftists consider education as something of lesser priority?

A report in ‘Times of India’ today tells a sad story. We all know that Bihar is one of the worst in education and other development parameters. For 15 years or more, Bihar was under political leadership that was such that no development happened. West Bengal didn’t have that disadvantages. But as per the report West Bengal is worse than even Bihar.

There are as many as 11 districts in Bihar where out of school children in the age group of 6-14 are more than 50,000. Left run West Bengal has nine such districts. However, the total of out of school children in the 6-14 age group in Bihar is still less than West Bengal’s. While Bihar has a total of 6.96 lakh out of school children, West Bengal tops with a figure of 9.61 lakh.

Overall, there are 24 districts having more than 50,000 out of school children (OOSC). These 24 districts contribute 19.33 lakh OOSC to the total OOSC figure in the country of 70.18 lakh – roughly 27% – as of March 31 this year. More than 70 lakh OOSC comprise 3.5% of the total population of children in the age group of 6-14 which stands at 20.21 crore for the whole country. For a change, male and female children contribute equally to the OOSC figure of 70 lakh.

In Bihar, the 11 districts are West Champaran, East Champaran, Madhubani, Katihar, Madhepura, Samastipur, Begusarai, Patna (rural), Khagaria, Nawada and Gaya.

In West Bengal, nine districts with more than 50,000 children out of school are Malda, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Bardhaman, Uttar Dinajpur, Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum and Murshidabad.

Are these data not revealing enough that the leftists including its top leaders such as Jyoti Basu or Buddhadev Bhattacharya or for that matter, the smart faces of CPM Shri Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri be ashamed of this? Should the data not make them feel the shortcomings of their model of development?

Fortunately, the list of districts does not include the district where I was born in Bihar, but it includes the district where I had my schooling in West Bengal. In fact, the leftists in West Bengal have not done anything but perpetuated its rule by its strong party cadre system. And so they have been winning all elections with so much ease for so many years without doing much for education.

Can’t the people of the states understand this? Should not the MLAs be considered accountable for this and defeated?

Today early morning when Shannon and Puchhu called me from US, it was still the Father’s Day there. Both of them wished me, though they had already sent e-greeting cards. The cards have gone really wonderful with those musical tunes. I go on playing that a number of times and enjoy. Anand provided the link of a wonderful article on Father’s day too.

But what is this Father’s Day. Yesterday Rakesh had called me to wish. I had put this question to him also. As a businessman himself, he had a very realistic reply. ‘Papa! Some says these Mother’s/ Father’s Days are the creations or innovations of greeting cards industry. Actually, it is Thanks Giving Day that is meant for expressing some sort of respect to the ancestors and that is an old practice in American society.’

But as usual I have my own views on these days. On the Father’s Day, the children must remember one incident in their life where they liked the way their father acted. And the best will be if they narrate the story to the father or write to him. I am sure the father will get the maximum happiness that way.

Unfortunately, when the kids are in growing stage the parents, particularly fathers, but now mothers too, are very busy in their professional engagements. Many a times, they fail to give the desired time for the children that they miss for the whole of life. Many of the parental actions even though in the interests of the children get misunderstood.

I feel myself the guilty of the same today. I came from an ordinary rural background and wanted to make a name for myself and thereby for the family. I used to work like a madman for twelve-fourteen hours for many years for a private company that I considered as my own. As a fool, I used to think that I was the best and so indispensable. I get a shock of my life when Yamuna tells me that we could go out on a holiday for only once in the whole of my professional career. Naturally, the children missed many things that were their due.

But as a father, why should I repent? The greater Father looked after them, all are today in US, married with a family of their own and are doing fine. However, June is a great month for us. While June 10, is Rakesh’s birthday, June 14, is our marraige anniversary too.

I am sure they all will be better father.

I had just finished my entry last week when I got a mail from Anand in US giving me a link that was on India’s automobile sector. And within seconds, I had another mail from Mithilesh Jha who is an IITian (Kanpur) from Bihar. After working in many companies, Jha has now his own start-up ‘Masamb Electronics Systems Pvt. Ltd.‘ His area of activity will be chip design. I have requested him to involve the engineering colleges of Bihar and he has promised me to do that soon. All over the country the entrepreneurs of all sorts are busy in pushing ahead the economy in their own way, while politicians are busy in creating speedbreakers to the growth. Here are the boom stories. Some may be bubbles.

10% GDP this fiscal: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram is confident of GDP growth to touch 10 per cent in the current fiscal.

Billion-dollar Indian companies: India has today 71 Indian companies that are in the billion-dollar club league. Interestingly, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the makers of the Amul brand of dairy products, has joined the club, as its revenues for 2006-07 revenues stood at Rs 4,277.84 crore or $1.04 billion. Amul, in contrast, is the achievement of the pooled efforts of 26 lakh dairy farmers across 13 districts of Gujarat.

Vodafone to invest $2 bn in India: Having constituted a new board to administer India’s third-largest mobile firm Hutch-Essar, Vodafone announced its plan to invest two billion dollars in the country this year.

Retail design emerges as hot career: The retail industry is booming. And retail design, as seemingly niche career is in demand with students across the country.

Biotechnology exports up 47%: The Indian biotechnology industry grew by 30.9% during 2006-07 to reach Rs 8,541 crore and upped exports by a massive 47% to Rs 4,937 crore. At the current exchange rate, the industry’s topline works out to be $2 billion and exports $1.2 billion. The industry is confident to reach a topline of $5 billion for 2010.
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Engineering exports are the largest foreign exchange earners and account for 20% of the country’s total exports. Of India’s total exports of $125 billion for 2006-07, engineering exports stood at over $26 billion.

Attrition rate: Because of increasing opportunities and employee aspirations induced by robust economic growth, the attrition rate at 40% is alarming in the services sector, while the same in manufacturing was 20%.

One PC for every 50 Indians: About fifty Indians now share a single personal computer (PC). IDC, the research firm’s India Quarterly PC Tracker for the first quarter of 2007-08 (Q1FY08) pegs the Indian client PC (desktops and notebooks combined) base at 22 million – a figure that has more than doubled from 9.5 million in 2003. By 2015, two out of every seven people in the world will have a personal computer, with India, China, Russia and Brazil emerging among the fastest growing markets.

Robust performance by the manfacturing sector propelled the overall industrial output of the country during April 2007 to a growth of 13.6% as against 9.9% in the corresponding month a year ago. Manufacturing sector grew 15.1% this April, as compared to 11% in April 2006.

India far ahead of China: China is far behind India in the software sector and India should focus its efforts towards leveraging this lead to move ahead in the global market.

Acquisitions: : OVL to buyout Exxon Mobil stake in Brazil: The Government has allowed ONGC’s overseas arm, OVL late last week to invest US $ 820 million to pick up 30 percent participating stake in Brazil’s oil field held by international oil major, Exxon Mobil in the BC-10 project in Brazil. Patni Computer Systems is close to acquiring an European IT in the next two months. Carborundum Universal (CUMI) has entered into a memorandum of understanding to pick up 84.14 per cent stake in Volzhsky Abrasives Works (VAW) located in Volzhsky of Volgograd region in Russia. Reliance Industries is eyeing acquisition of oil refineries in the United States and Middle East. The Mukesh Ambani-run firm looks at expanding its overseas portfolio. ICICI Venture – the private equity arm of ICICI Bank- has acquired majority control in USbased clinical research company Radiant Research. Radiant has 26 other clinical centres. The current deal led by ICICI Venture could have been valued at $150 million plus. Mahindra Systems and Automotive Technologies (MSAT), the auto components arm of Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), is in an advanced stage of negotiations for acquisition of at least four overseas companies in the areas it operates – stamping, composites, forging and gear box. The total acquisition cost may be around Rs 1,000 crore.

R&D: :Motorola India: India will be the hot spot for the $42.7 billion telecom giant Motorola for coming out with new technologies suited for the emerging markets from Motorola India Research Labs situated in Bangalore, which was set up in 2005. Agilent Technologies, a $5 billion measurement solutions provider, plans to ramp up its R&D presence in the country significantly in the next two years, tripling the R&D headcount in the country from the present 150 to more than 450 by 2009. India will launch its first dedicated military satellite in August this year providing it the capability to monitor missile launches in its neighbourhood. India is likely to capture 15 per cent of the over $54 billion market in the upcoming Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (KPO) industry by 2010. The average expenditure of pharmaceutical companies on research and development has increased four times in the last five years. “There are at least 20 R&D heads with leading pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organisations (CROs) in India earning salaries of over Rs 1 crore a year.” India has emerged as the largest R&D centre for Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), a provider of personal wireless technology, including Bluetooth and FM receivers, outside the UK. ‘Renault to design $3,000 car in India’ French car manufacturer Renault is to create a USD 3,000 car in India within three years, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Wednesday. Renault planed to open a third “techno centre” in India and hire 1,000 engineers to create a super low-cost model that would not be sold in Europe.

Manufaturing: Hero Motors prefers to call itself an “integrated engineering solutions” provider and is already a major component supplier to companies in Europe and the US. It recently got an order for gears to be fitted on 800-cc BMW transmission units.

FII inflow hits $4 bn mark: Foreign institutional investments this year has crossed the four billion dollar mark.

Pulses production: India is expecting to reverse a decline and actually record a 14% jump in pulses production to 17 million tonnes (mt) in 2008-09, as the high-yielding, hybrid variety of pigeon-peas (arhar) is expected to push up their yields by 25%.

India starts producing ethanol from sweet sorghum: The country’s first plant for commercial production of ethanol from sweet sorghum, a rainfed multi-benefit crop, has gone on stream at Mohammed Shapur village in Andhra Pradesh. Sweet sorghum is like any ordinary sorghum but with a high content of sweet juice in its stalks. While the juice is used to produce ethanol biofuel, the grains can be used as food or feed.

India’s AIDS not epidemic: India, which has been repeatedly accused of denying the size of its AIDS epidemic, probably has millions fewer victims than has been widely believed, according to a new but unreleased survey.

Biotechnology starts to sprint: In two years (2005-07) the biotechnology industry has virtually doubled in size to reach $2 billion and is confidently looking forward to a $5 billion benchmark by 2009-10. India has now overtaken China in acreage under Bt cotton.

Railways in topgear: By 2015, passenger trains will move at an average of 100 kilometres per hour from 55 kmph currently, slow-moving goods trains will ratchet up their speed from 24 kmph to 60 kmph; and passenger traffic will soar from 6 billion annually to 10 billion.

Speed Post from home: To compete better with private courier companies, the Department of Posts has decided to set up call centres in eight cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad – with toll-free numbers that customers can ring and get their packets picked up from home.

WB clears Salt Lake to Howrah Metro project: The much touted East-West Metro, the Rs 5,000-odd crore project, to connect Kolkata’s twin city Howrah in the west with IT hub Salt Lake in the east, was cleared by the West Bengal cabinet today. It would require a tunnel under the Ganges. Will I be able to see this project running?

Renewables contribution increasing: The share of renewables in the 10th Plan power generating capacity addition is 20%, double the initial target of 10%. The capacity addition during 2006-07 has been 1,191 mw of which wind power 933 mw, biopower 199 mw; small hydro power 69 mw. Renewable power capacity addition in 2007-08 is expected to be 2,000 mw.

Captive power supply delicensed: The Centre has delicensed the supply of power produced by captive power producers to overcome peak shortages through an amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003 via the Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2007 coming into effect from June 15. Power shortage is only holding the GDP growth below 10%.

India may stage Formula-1 Grand Prix: The Indian Olympic Association has reached an agreement with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to stage a Grand Prix in New Delhi by 2009.

Indian excels: Subra Suresh, an IIT Chennai alumnus, who is currently the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, will succeed Institute Professor Thomas Magnanti as the next dean of the School of Engineering, MIT provost Rafael Reif announced Thursday on July 23. Knighthood for Rushdie Salman Rushdie, whose Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize, will be knighted while Indian-origin rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti also figures in the Queen’s honours list this year.

Indians hiring in America: Now Infosys and other Indian outfits are hiring aggressively in the U.S. Wipro Ltd. is scouting U.S. locations for two big software centers that eventually could employ hundreds of programmers each. “The Indians are doing to the world’s IT processes what the Japanese did to manufacturing,” says analyst John McCarthy of Forrester Research Inc. And now, like Japan’s carmakers before them, the Indians are becoming major employers in the U.S. as well.

Is not the going is great?

The recently held election to 118 local bodies that ranged from municipal corporations to nagar panchayats, and involved a total of 2,864 posts in Bihar have been remarkable in many ways:

 
The election was held on a non-party basis. Can one imagine of this in Bihar?

 Candidates backed by political stalwarts and dreaded dons such as Mohammed Shahabuddin, Surajbhan Singh, Saryu Paswan, and Sunil Pandey got rejected.Was it an uprising against those who have built up their fiefdom in various regions, hijacked development funds and took everything for granted?

 The government reserved 50 per cent posts in all categories for women, 20 per cent for OBCs and extremely backwards, 15 per cent for SCs and one per cent for STs in all panchayats and urban bodies.

 Women mostly under 30 captured 70 per cent of the posts, and more than half of the remaining posts went to the youth.

 “Neither caste nor religion worked this time.”

 State Election Commission could manage the entire exercise with just unarmed state home guards backed by the local police, without summoning battalions of central paramilitary forces for poll duty.

Could one even dream of such a change in Bihar with long history of booth capturing, bogus voting, mayhem and even murder?

The dream of cleansing the system of crooks and political mercenaries may become a reality soon.

Women contested not just the posts reserved for them but also staked on unreserved posts. And won. For the first time, even the candidates from the lower class contested and won.

Voters braved the heat wave sweeping the state. Over 55 per cent voted, which was higher than the 2002 polls and Assembly polls in 2005.

It started with the last year’s panchayat elections. Bihar was the first state to reserve half of all seats and posts for women. It seems, now onwards women alone would control grassroots politics and conduct developmental works in Bihar. From zila parishad president to pramukh, mukhiya, panchayat samiti, sirpanch and panch, there are 2.62 lakh elected representatives and out of these 1.31 lakh are women.

Beena Devi, 31, a poor woman, had fought criminals and landlords in Nawadah to become mukhiya of Loharpur, would soon be joining a delegation of 50 women to Lahore. Nitish Kumar hopes to replicate this model to change politics based on caste, creed, gender and religion.

And what all it means? The Comptroller and Auditor General has agreed for auditing of the funds being channeled to panchayats. This again would be first in the country. Unscrupulous local legislators will soon lose control of the funds for panchayats and local bodies.

Will it not have far-reaching impact on politics of the state?

Let other states emulate the last ranking Bihar.

I wish, the government with help of some reputed agencies organized an orientation camp for the elected members to acquaint them about their potential contribution to the devlopment of the state. The government must ensure to educate those who are not through various means. One way out may be through group visits to developed states such as Kerala and Punjab.

Generally, the communists never say anything rational about the Hindu mythology and the epics. It was surprising to read Sitaram Yachury in a lead article in ‘Hindustan Times’ June12, 2007 coming out with a remarkable explanation of Dashawatar (ten incarnations) that relates to Vishnu, the protector among the Tridevas (the other two being Brahma, the creator, and Shiva, the destroyer):

Consider the following interpretation of the mythological Das Avataras. We are told in the Mahabharata that in every yuga (epoch), God descends on Earth to uphold dharma and to cleanse it. At the end of the present yuga, God is supposed to appear in the form of the tenth avatar, Kalki.

The first avatar is in the form of a fish. Science has now confirmed that the first life forms evolved underwater. The second is the tortoise, an amphibious creature capable of living both on land and in water. The third is the boar, able to live only on land. The transition of life from underwater to land marks this stage. Next in line is the Narasimha avatar reflecting the transition from the animal to the human form. This is followed by the Vaman avatar, representing the evolution of the human form in its dwarf size. This is followed by Parasuram, who wields the axe as his weapon. This represents the stage of the clearing of forests for human settlement. Rama who follows wields the bow and arrow as his weapon, i.e. a weapon that can protect human settlements by attacking the enemy from a distance.

Balaram, who comes next, wields the plough. This is the stage of evolution of human civilisation to the levels of an agrarian economy. Krishna represents the further advance of human civilisation in the stage of domestication of the cow and the development of the dairy economy. Farther down the line, Kalki, who is yet to arrive, is portrayed as riding a horse representing the stage of the domestication of the horse.

The Das Avataras can, thus, be seen as a remarkable recording of the evolution of human life and its civilisational advance till the Aryans mastered the horse and majestically moved across lands.

However, Yachuri forgets that horse has a mention in mythology. One famous name among horses is that of ‘Syamkaran’. And the Mahabharat and Ramayana stories cover almost the whole of India and perhaps beyond too, with a lot of authencity

RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad with a host of leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh celebrated his 60 birthday by cutting a “multi-layered” multi-metres long cake wishing him “long, healthy and successful life”. The celebration had all the items that made it royal, a ‘kavi sammelaan’ (poets gatherings) and then a Kawali to entertain the guests?

Indian people must be thankful to TV news channels that provide the information, otherwise how could they know how their representatives or present days kings are enjoying their life. While Lalu’s chamchas were enjoying the show and gossiping about the greatness of their leaders, his wife Rabri Devi expects Lalu to become the prime minister of the country one day, as per the wishes she expressed to the media. And the gurus like Ramdev feel delighted in blessings Lalu and wishes him going up the ladder that takes him to the highest chair. So Lalu is one prospective candidate for the PM post. I am sure Rabri Devi was not making the remark as a joke. Laluji has already expressed his wish publicly.

Mayawati is another who has a strong aspiration for the top chair that she has publicly announced. With her recent grand win, even after Taj Corridor scam and cases pending in Supreme Court, she is really bubbling with confidence. And there is one Mr. Misra, who is playing ‘Chanakya’ for her to make her dream realize. Mayawati has put all her strategies in place to become PM.

Mulayam was another who with assistance from unscrupulous Amar Singh wished to occupy the PM chair. I don’t know if with the defeat this time, his ambition will get a brake.

It all says that these three leaders claim themselves the grassroots’ leaders from Hindi belt. And as it appears any one who joins politics in north India aspire to become PM as here before most of the PMs have come from North India. At one time, Ram Vilash Paswan, and Ajit Singh also were the prospective ones.

But one thing common with three new aspiring ones is their dependence on the caste factor and their state. Lalu and Mulayam have lost their states. Will they make a come back in a manner good enough to support their ambitions? But more important will be another question. Will they be acceptable to the leaders and the people of the South?

Though I don’t like any of them, some in the may become the PM following the democratic route. However, the Manmohan Singh model for making PM is certainly not democratic.

Future PM of India can be any one.

The undergoing process of selection for two positions: the next president of India, and the coach of cricket team, must be in knowledge of almost all Indians. The reasons are obvious. Indians are politically very active and knowledgeable too. So is the case with the madness for cricket that engulfs almost all Indians these days.

For many others and me, Kalam has been the best president of whom every Indian can be proud. He could have been given one more term. Left to people at large, they will select him. There was a drive to do that by netizens too. But in constitution, it is by election and that too by the people representatives belonging to political parties. And those representatives can’t vote by their conscience, but as directed by their parties.

Congress is selecting Shivraj Patil as its candidate. It shows the bankruptcy and meanness. The first citizen of the country must be as great and respectable as the country itself. He must be the best available. Does Congress wants the people of the country to believe that there can’t be a better candidate than Shivraj Patil for the post in Congress or in the country of billion plus population? Perhaps, even ND Tiwari would have been a better candidate. Why should Congress restrict its choice to its loyal members? Why can’t Congress be a broadminded and select from among all the parties a right candidate? Why can’t it pick up IK Gujaral or for that matter Manmohan Singh (Manmohan Singh will be a better president than a prime minister)? But why should the President be a politician? Why can’t it be some ex-Chief Justice, Vice Chancellor, writer, poet, professional CEO or social worker or even artists such as Hussain or Satish Gujral, or Rajnikant?

The selection of coach has been messed. Ford of South Africa was given the job. After few days, he expressed his inability to take up the task. Perhaps, the remunerations were not attractive enough or the challenge of the assignment was real difficult. First of all I don’t understand why the coach must be a foreigner. After almost hundred years in cricket, why can’t the country have an Indian coach? Is it because the players listen to white skinned people better because of our legacy of slavery?

Both the selections are raising some questions that the nation must answer. And if it can’t find a respectable way of selecting the right person for the positions, the dream of a developed nation is just a nightmare.