Create Job in Rural India

Posted on May 29, 2007 by indra

Today morning I was entering the park for my walk. Aryas were coming out from the yoga club of the park. Arya had two packets in hand. On seeing me, he exclaimed, “Mr. Sharma, here is satoo from Bihar.”

“Are you sure it is from Bihar?” I wish it had come from there and not from some basements in Noida packing it.

My thought reactions started. Credit goes to Guru Ramdev who is making the urbanites interested in these rural dietary and practices.

Employment must be created in rural India through many manufacturing shifting there. Once the rural India gets connected with road and electrified, these opportunities will reach sky.

However, it requires a major mindset change of the rural society. Over the period, the lifestyle in rural India has changed. While the workloads of male members of landowning communities have reduced, the women have become totally idle.

Let me tell the story of my village and it must be the same for other villages too. The village has two types of families- landowners and landless. In good old days, the farmers owned and used cattle such as bullocks for farming and transportation, buffalos and cows for milk and butter. Almost all the operations were manual requiring a lot of manpower and so it was time consuming too. While most of the males members of the landowners used to supervise and facilitated the tasks of the manual labourers, some used to work themselves too. Ladies in the households had all the task of rice making and grinding of wheat, beside the cooking and other household works. Mills were scarce. Ladies of the families of manual labourers used to work for rice transplantations, weeding, and harvesting as well as in some of the household work such as drawing water from wells and making, drying, and storing of the cow dung cakes for cooking. With the coming in of tractors, diesel pumps, and even combine harvesters, mushrooming of rice and flourmills, and now the cooking gas, the need of manual hands have reduced drastically. The ladies from the deprived class too have emulated their counterparts of ‘badka log’, and hardly do anything but cooking. Major work of cultivation for each crop in a season hardly takes 15-20 days. For the rest of the year, there is hardly any work in traditional farming of rice and wheat to keep the people engaged.

And the situation of lack of engagement in rural India is getting into the mindset of the people, both male and female of working age. The woman folk are losing interest in stitching and knitting, and many other skills of yester years very fast, and even in the cooking some difficult items that they used to like. The knowledge of the preparations of many of the food items- litti, satoo, gur, tillawa, some seasonal sweets snacks such as haldi, methi, and sonth, and many such items that varied from region to region, will soon be lost and become part of history only. Leave the other things, even the women will soon forget or have already forgotten the folk songs they used to sing while doing any household work. Will it not be a cultural loss? How can the traditional knowledge be kept alive? Perhaps it requires some marketing and innovation to make the old items suited to the present needs. The story of the popularity of satoo in the urban areas is one example. And now think for a moment. The satoo can be made and packed with different additions such as masala satoo, sweet satoo, sweet and sour satoo, to make it tastier. The same can be said for the production of ‘goor’ and related products that used to keep a lot of people engaged in a season. Why can’t some young man take the initiative of getting that done in rural areas, market and supply to the retail outlets in urban India?

A major thrust on milk production and cultivation of vegetables and fruits suited to the local conditions may increase the engagement. Many innovations such as bottling of sugarcane juice or cleaned sugar cane pieces in plastic bags for tasting its juice can be attempted. However, it requires roads for fast transportation to reach market. Direct procurement promised by the big retail houses may make this diversification of crops happen. All other regions must emulate the successful states such as Punjab where the progressive farmers have started farming in a way that a commercial enterprise is run.

As we understand, a person must have engagement of at least 8 hours a day to register a justified contribution to the GDP of the nation. And it is possible to create work in the rural India. Some one is to take the lead. I wish the real smart students from IIMs and other B-schools with their rural projects come out to make this happen for the sake of providing work and eliminating the possibility of getting the fifty percent of the population totally lazy and living on dole either of the government or from the children working far away from the villages. Perhaps one way will be the through the success stories of self help groups throughout the country and getting the whole lot of the unemployed idle population in some useful engagement. There can be hundreds of products that can be innovated, produced in rural areas and marketed too. If a high school drop out can set up a readymade garment unit employing about 70 women in a rural Rajasthan, why can’t it be emulated in other states?

India’s sincere bureaucrats, intellectuals, educationists and its NGOs must look into the ways to change the mindsets of its people regarding hard working over the government favours and doles.
Everything must be aimed at creating jobs in rural areas.

Posted in economy, governance | Leave a comment

Productivity and Innovation can make India win

Posted on May 29, 2007 by indra

I was going through an article in ‘Business Standard’ that tells so highly of the success of China and particularly that in manufacturing. I also got the shocking news of Indian government canceling the study tour of China by officers of Indian Administrative services. China didn’t issue visa for some officers from the Arunachal Pradesh, as China considers Arunachal as part of its own territory. Every one visiting China or reading about its growth story gets stunned. Nowadays both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister keep on referring to China in all their public or private speeches. It is understandable if China is to be a benchmark. But why can’t we create the success stories ourselves in whatsoever area we are actively involved?

It is not that the India is standing and waiting. Many are creating the benchmarks that others in the country can follow. Recently I read a story of a textile company in Coimbatore that I shall like people to appreciate and emulate.

KPR Mills on the fringes of Coimbatore has come out with a unique way to improve productivity, according to P Nataraj, MD, KPR Mills.

“We found out that it takes 15 minutes for one person to move around one line in a spinning mill to check for breakages. Therefore to ensure that the time taken be reduced without employing more, one of our employees suggested roller skates. We brought a trainer and on an experimental basis, we taught a few girls to use these skates. We were amazed at the outcome. They were now going around the line in five minutes as against the earlier 15 minutes, without burning much of their energy. For us, the productivity improved by a whopping 60%.

Slowly, we copied this to other facilities around Coimbatore. It has generated tremendous interest amongst other textile mills in the region. Soon, most of the big spinning mills will see people skating around. From the employee angle, the girls feel they have wings to fly and fatigue levels are low. Both the employees and the management stand to benefit,”

And see how they coped with the manpower issue.

“KPR Mills were planning to expand its operations, and wanted more manpower. It employed girls from remote villages on contracts for three years, provided them with hostel facilities inside the factory so as to take care of the absenteeism problem. Allowing them to be idle after the factory work appeared to be dangerous. It decided to enroll the girls with Alagappa University and Annamalai University for distance learning programme.”

The idea of the contract system was to ensure that the workforce is committed to work for the period. “Upon completion of three years, girls are equipped to work on the shop floor and are educationally qualified. Under our societal set up, girls are married when they are around 21 to 23. So, on completion of the contract, we give them Rs 36,000 which they can use to get married.”

Is it not an innovative humane HR approach?

As reported recently, a Kerala company involved in tackling the problem of dumped food waste, and a Karnataka firm has provided thousands of rural families dung-based biogas plants. The two firms are among 10 global projects short-listed for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, popularly known as the “Green Oscars”. Why can’t these firms be made the benchmarks and the IAS officers emulate them in their districts in different states?

Ratan Tata, in his capacity as the chairman of the Investment Commission, recently wrote a letter to the Prime Minister warning that major projects entailing a combined investment of nearly $60 billion are meeting delays and roadblocks for no apparent reason. Does it require a visit of China for the IAS officers attached to the project in any manner to get over these delays and roadblocks? With support from IIMs, IITs, and huge lot of technical and managerial talents in our country itself, all in administrative positions must work to help creating a brand for India in their respective fields.

Basically, India must work on improving its productivity in every area and come up to the world standard, be it road making, shipbuilding, agricultural yield, or distribution and transmission losses in power sector. We can have our own unique way depending on our social setup and requirements. It is bound to give results that many will envy.

And India can keep on creating the success stories of productivity and innovations in every sector and activity. IAS officers, the cream of the educated class, must create their own success stories rather than visiting China to copy their systems and on return to come out with the great and simple excuse that the Chinese system can’t work in our environment, culture or way of governance based on democratic system.

Posted in governance, management | Leave a comment

Booming and Bubbling India-III

Posted on May 27, 2007 by indra

Acquiring World over: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries acquires Israel-based Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, a multinational generic manufacturer, in an all cash deal for $454 million (Rs1, 844 crore).

Rural Connectivity improving fast: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged Rs 480 billion to dramatically step up its spending on roads in rural areas for a four-year project ending in 2009 to connect 66,000 villages.

India’s talent crunch a myth: Only 9 per cent of Indian employers found it difficult to fill positions because of lack of suitable talent as against 41 per cent of employers worldwide. Additonally, as opposed to the global trend, the crunch seems to be easing off in India. The global recruitment firm Manpower conducted the study in late January 2007.

Finishing schools for improved employability: Dale Carnegie, one of the prestigious universities in the US, and other agencies are exploring the idea of setting up an IT finishing school in Karnataka and elsewhere for providing specialised training to fresh engineering pass-outs to make their ready for IT industries.

Auto makers partner state-run ITIs: Auto and autoparts makers, such as Toyota and the Sona Koyo group of autopart makers, are partnering state-run ITIs to train students to meet their specific requirements and save on the time spent training workers. The number of workers required in the industry is estimated to go up 10-fold to 25 million. Of this, a tenth, or about 2.5 million workers, are likely to be directly employed in the industry in shopfloor positions such as machinists and technicians.

India Flying High: The mega carrier being created by merging Air India and Indian Airlines – National Aviation Co. Ltd (NACL) – will begin its first direct non-stop Indo-US flight on August 1. While AI and IA have placed orders for 111 new generation planes, their aging fleet would get 25 new Boeing and Airbus by this year-end. In 2006, the aviation industry witnessed a growth of nearly 50% with 16 million passengers buying around 30 million seats. Projected figutes indicate that over 70 million passengers are expected to fly by 2010.

Indian mangoes go to USA and Japan too: After the US, India has started exporting mangoes to Japan with the first consignment of one tonne of Banganpalli mangoes from Tirupati sent to Tokyo. It will be through mango-growers cooperatives and involve women’s Self Help Group to ensure that farmers get better price for their produce.

India as destination: IT solutions and software provider 3i Infotech launched a new Global Development Centre (GDC) in Chennai. The centre will focus on enhancement and development of the company’s flagship insurance solution ‘Premia’ and banking solution ‘Kastle’.

Manufacturing too flourishing: Wärtsilä Corporation has received an order for six turnkey biomass-fuelled power plants from German-based company Bayernfonds BestEnergy 1 GmbH & Co. KG in April for a total value of approximately euro 100 million.

NXP (Next eXPerience) Semiconductors, the new semiconductor company founded by Philips, is partnering with mobile communication service provider Reliance Communications (RCom) to bring out low cost handsets in India. The price of the handset could be around Rs 800 ($20) with features such as colour display, MP3 player and FM radio.

Arham in Sriperumbudur: Arham Plastics has commissioned a new plant in Sriperumbudur, primarily to meet demand accruing from increased requirements of Korean auto major Hyundai. Arham will be thereby doubling its auto components production capacity,

India Fusion research becomes neighbour’s envy: “The Indian programme is very ambitious. I believe $130 million has been spent by the Indian government for this kind of research while we have spent just $30 million so far,” said Song Tao Wu, the deputy director general at the China’s Institute of Plasma Physics.

IT goes superfast: India’s IT exports are growing at more than 30% annually and are expected to cross $50 billion in early 2008. Indian enterprises are expected to invest Rs 8,974 crore on information technology (IT) in FY08 – an increase of 26% when compared with the FY07 expenditure of Rs 7,123 crore. However, IT still has miles to go before it catches up with global giants in terms of productivity. An American IT professional contributes nearly ten times higher to the company’s turnover than his Indian counterpart.

Entry-level salaries increase: Major IT firms and even some mid-size ones have increased their entry-level compensation packages by 10-16 per cent, as competition intensifies to attract the best talent from campuses. TCS is offering annual salaries ranging between Rs 2.7 lakh and Rs 3.3 lakh, depending on the colleges and course streams. Wipro is contemplating a 10-15 per cent hike in freshers’ salaries. For graduates joining in 2007, it had offered Rs 2.4-2.7 lakh per annum. The Infosys compensation package for graduates joining in 2007 stood at Rs 2.75 lakh per annum.

India ahead of China’s offshore market: China’s push to become an alternate off shoring hub for MNCs tackling soaring wages and high attrition rate in India remains a distant dream as its market is developing slower than expected. Despite massive government support and huge visibility on the global arena, China’s offshore market has not taken off as expected and still has a long way to become a potential alternative to India, according to technology research firm Forrester.

Europe convinced: Some, if not all West European Governments are gradually realising that offshoring and offshore outsourcing is not a choice for Europe – it is a fact. Corporate Europe is already gearing up. Europe’s top 500 companies could potentially save Euro 50 billion annually, or almost Euro 100 million on average per company, by offshoring many of their back-office activities.

Biopharma growing: In India, biopharma, the largest segment of biotech, grew by 32% to $1 billion in 2005-06. The domestic biotech sector is growing at a CAGR of 35%, and is expected to touch $5 billion by 2009-10, according to estimates. The focus area of leading companies such as Biocon, Dr Reddy’s, Panacea, Shantha Biotech, Workhardt and Zydus, is vaccines and bio-generics.

Sweetening India: Sugar production of India, the world’s second largest producer after Brazil, is all set to touch 27 million tonnes in 2006-07 season with output already crossing 26 million tonnes till 15 May. The sugar production in 2005-06 season stood at 19.3 million tonnes. Sugar year runs from October to September

And the cement industry: The demand for cement in the country is projected to go up to 200 million tonne a year by 2010 from 149 million tonne at present, by which time the capacity will have risen to 240 million tonne a year from the current 165.

Indians excel: Indian-born Srinivasa SR Varadhan on Tuesday accepted the Norwegian Abel Prize, known as the ‘Nobel Prize for mathematics’. King Harald presented the award worth 6 million kroner ($920,000) at a ceremony in Oslo.

Harjit Gill of Dakoha village in Punjab made history by taking over as the 527th mayor of the city of Gloucester in England. He is the first Asian to be mayor of the historic city – famous for its docks, the 1300-year-old Gloucester Cathedral of Saint Peter’s and, lately the locale of the first Harry Potter film.

Indian artists going rich: Indian artists never had it so good – an auction of modern and contemporary Indian art here including those by masters like M F Husain, Francis Newton Souza and Tyeb Mehta – has fetched a fabulous $ 8.809 million. The auction was held by the Christie’s last evening and the highest price of £ 720,000 went for Syed Haider Raza’s La Terre (1985).

India in space: “The Chandrayaan-1 mission is making substantial progress.” The CARTOSAT-2 satellite launched in January this year has special cameras that have a resolution of less than one metre, and is being used for detailed map development applications and disaster management activities. The successful launch of INSAT-4B that has 24 DTH transponders has been a major milestone. The EDUSAT, a satellite dedicated to education, has connected around 10,000 classrooms, benefiting rural and remote areas. Other achievements are the pathbreaking demonstration of the capability to recover an orbiting satellite through the Space Recovery Experiment, the successful ground testing of the indigenously developed cryogenic stage for the Geo-Stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle, and the demonstration of the Supersonic Combustion Ramjet required for advanced rocket systems. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandrayaan-1

Retail on move: Aditya Birla group announced an investment of Rs8,000-9,000 crore over the next five years to start a retail chain. Bharti, Reliance, and Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (ABRL, the name of the group’s company in the retail business) enter the $300 billion (Rs12.3 lakh crore) Indian retail market. According to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which will partner Bharti in a wholesale venture, store chains currently account for 4% of retail sales, but this number is set to increase to 35% by 2015.

Billion Club Expanding: From January this year until now, at least 20 companies now have a market capitalisation of $1 billion taking total number of publicly traded Indian companies with a market cap of $1 billion each to 146 from just 98 companies a year ago. The Indian stock markets are now flirting intimately a combined market capitalisation of $1 trillion.

Exemplary Telecom sector: With an addition of 5.15 million wireless subscribers in April, the total telephone users are now 212.02 million, the world’s fourth biggest and tele-density is 18.74%. Total broadband connections in the country has reached 2.43 million by the end of April with an addition of 0.13 million connections during the month, compared to 0.09 million added during March, a growth of 5.65%. India has many ‘firsts’ to showcase in global telephoney. Just this calendar year, India has had the distinction of having the world’s lowest call rates (40 paise), the fastest growth in the number of subscribers (15.31 million in 4 months), the fastest sale of a million mobile phones (1 week), the world’s cheapest mobile handset (Rs 777) and the world’s most affordable colour phone (Rs 1,234).Roaming tariffs are slashed by 50% and call rates are as low as 40 paise, as against Rs 12 in the UK, Rs 2.5 in Sri Lanka and Rs 7 West Asia. Reliance Communications launched the world’s cheapest phone at Rs 777. In Sri Lanka, a handset costs a minimum Rs 4,000. In most other countries, the minimum price for a handset is $80 (Rs 3,200).

NSE 3rd fastest growing bourse: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has emerged the world’s third fastest-growing exchange in terms of increase in listed companies – outpacing global names such as NYSE, Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange.

“When the history of our time in office is written, I am confident the great strategic leap forward in cementing the Indo-US strategic partnership will count among the most important accomplishments of Presidents (George W) Bush and (Bill) Clinton with Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh and his predecessors”. Nicholas Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

This is booming and bubbling India.
—————————————–
T Thomas: Re-branding India

Posted in economy | Leave a comment

Can China be relied on long run?

Posted on May 26, 2007 by indra

It was 1961 or 62, when I wrote a poetry for the first time after the treachery committed by China. Over the years I have not been able to change my perception about that country. Two news items appearing today again raise the same questions. Will India be able to have an amicable relation with China? Does China take its steps just for fair competition or it wants to show its supremacy and look down upon India?

The first news relates to China insisting that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China. The news reads: “A cross-border study programme for 102 IAS officials from across the country was hurriedly aborted by the Prime Minister’s Office after a bureaucrat from the Arunachal Pradesh cadre was denied a visa by the Chinese government. Beijing is understood to have granted visas to all the other Indian bureaucrats. The Chinese officials are learnt to have said that since Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, the IAS officer from the state was a confirmed Chinese citizen who did not need a visa to visit his own country. China has been consistently maintaining that 90,000 sq km of North-East India, which includes parts of Arunachal Pradesh, is part of its territory. Should it approve a visa to any resident from these parts, it would amount to accepting India’s sovereignty and losing out its claim. In keeping with this policy, the Chinese foreign office is understood to have denied the visa to the Arunachal cadre IAS officer.”

Second news comes from Bangladesh that was basically created by India and Rahul Gandhi takes pride in declaring that.

China beats India again and again in its own backyard. After stalling gas exports and stonewalling a billion-dollar transnational energy corridor to India, Dhaka has invited Beijing to develop its oil sector and build roads and pipelines that will allow China to ship out exports and import crude, respectively, through two ports in Bangladesh. It was only last month, Myanmar committed all gas to China from two offshore acreages, overlooking the fact that two state-owned Indian firms have 30% stake in the fields and have right to proportionate quantity.

How should we take these news items?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Manmohan@3-II Why Sermonize, Improve Government Administraion!

Posted on May 25, 2007 by indra

I am afraid that he is forgetting his basic lessons learnt at London School of Economics and in earlier days in his college. Before sermonizing the industrialists or CEOs, he must look back to his own life and the lives of many of his school, college or career friends with equal and better proficiency. Have they materially got equal remunerations from the life? He must do his own job as PM and let thee industrialists do their own. Sunil Mittal very rightly said that the salaries of the CEOs couldn’t be legislated. It will be prudent if our great PM stops sermonizing and get his ministers working to see the things moving fast to attain the targets. He should get all the chief ministers and see that they all agree to cut down the delays of projects such Posco or Tata or Mittal or those mega power projects without which FDI will be hesitatingly coming.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Escorts Couldn’t Keep Dr. Trehan- Clash of Interests or Ego Wars

Posted on May 24, 2007 by indra

I would have skipped this topic if Krishnan, one time potluck friend, had not crashed on this with me today morning. Escorts meant Dr. Trehan till it was with Nanda. I don’t know if Escorts Hospital became a brand name in heart surgery because of Dr. Naresh Trehan or Dr. Trehan became a legendary heart specialist because of Escorts. Escorts Hospital was basically started as a charitable institute of Nanda Group (HP and Rajan) owning Escorts Industries in Faridabad as its flagship company.

Unfortunately, Nanda got the charitable institute transformed into a company and then sold it to Fortis group of hospitals, a subsidiary of Ranbaxy, the reputed global drug manufacturing company. Naturally, Fortis didn’t have any personal rapport or full understanding with Dr. Trehan as Nandas had. Analjit Singh perhaps thought to treat him just as one more executive working for Fortis. And now Analjit Singh has sacked Dr. Trehan, the executive director of Escorts Heart Institute, charging Dr. Trehan for misappropriating the Escorts Hospital resources for his own Rs 1,000 crore Medicity planned in Gurgaoan.

But whatever might have been the reasons; Fortis would not have taken the drastic actions against Dr. Trehan in this manner and allowed so much of media coverage. It will damage the brand image of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre in the eyes of people at large. Dr. Trehan has become a well-known celebrity figure of the capital and perhaps of the country as one of the best heart surgeons. The whole episode must have hurt the sentiments of a lot many people like me who have been his patients. What I experienced was unique. Dr. Trehan maintained a personal touch that normally lacks. I found a similar doctor in Dr. Devi Shetty whom I met in my HM days. Both the doctors did consider the financial aspects of patients too, as they had that authority negotiated initially with their masters. That loss due the discretionary power of these doctors might have created a sore point with pure industrialists owning the hospital.

Unfortunately, it seems to be an ego war. Analjit doesn’t want Dr. Trehan to run the institute the way he was doing that for so long. Dr. Trehan perhaps does not want to give up so easily an institute that he has built as its main architect.

Actually, soon after the take over of Escorts Hospital by Fortis or almost near around the same time, Dr. Trehan has announced his mega project of medicity. Fortis wished to be a major player in that because of its financial strength. Dr, Trehan wished to get into entrepreneurship independently and make a mark like some other technocrat. He didn’t agree to Fortis terms. And so is this problem. But Fortis would have handled more smartly.

On Tuesday May 22, 2007, as per the media report, Cardiologist Dr Naresh Trehan’s name has been officially taken off the list of doctors working at the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC). New patients wanting to be admitted to the hospital under Trehan’s care were turned away on Monday by the EHIRC management.

On Wednesday May 23, 2007 as reported in media, a case of trespassing and vandalism was registered today against cardiologist Naresh Trehan for allegedly entering Escorts Hospital forcibly.

An ad issued in the public interest by EHIRCL and published May 23, 2007 in the national media is really bad in taste. It blames Dr. Trehan on many counts.

I get reminded of a similar situation. Dr. Devi Shetty who left BM Birla Heart Institute of Kolkata had established his own Heart Hospitals, and running them well.

I wish some respected persons from the industry close to both the parties would have mediated.
——-
Latest
Doctors seek panel to run Escorts Hospital
Escorts is turning into a jail, fume patients<

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Man Mohan @3: Good Roads, but Many New Speed-breakers<

Posted on May 24, 2007 by indra

Man Mohan Singh has completed three years as Prime Minister of this most populous democracy of the world. Many are trying to grade the performance of this great economist as the head of the government. Expectations were more because of his performance in his last inning as Finance Minister with late Narshimha Rao when he initiated the reform process of Indian economy rolling in 1991. Why has he failed to make a great impact this time? What could have he done with all constraints of his limitations? At least there are some areas where he could have brought about the change with certain administrative reforms? One such area is the removal of procedural speed breakers that make the transportation even on the world-class roads built in last few years slow making the consumables for the most of the population pretty costly.

India ranks globally second in road networks with over 3.5 million kilometres after US. And in last few years, billions have gone in improving its quality including the 6000 km long GQ and in other NHDP projects.

The road transporters carry 70% of the freight traffic. New improved and widened NHDP roads including GQ and other highways would have speeded up the transportation cutting the travel time drastically. However, it has not happened. On one hand, the new roads continue to pass through crowed cities and villages. Bypasses were created and after some years of encroachment even a bypass of the bypass became necessary because of the traffic jams. On the other hand the problem gets further amplified at the toll nakas and “nullifies the gains from fuel efficiency and reduction in travel time due to new roads.”

As reported, for many a logistics companies the toll cost per kilometer has gone up. For example, for one company it went to 90 paises from 10 paises in the last three years.

According to Transport Corporation of India (TCI), “Toll costs have increased operating costs by 5-10%”. Toll costs used be Rs 1400 per round trip on the Delhi-Hyderabad route a few years ago. Today, it is Rs 3,400 for a one-way trip.

Why can’t an integrated system of toll payments, as suggested by the transporters, that can solve the problem, be put in place? And I am sure this one thing that Man Mohan could have got done. Here is a study that appeared in Times of India:

A study of a truck’s journey from Kolkata to Mumbai on NH 6 carrying a 9 tonnes of cargo is revealing. The truck took 8 days averaging speed of 11 kms per hour to cover 2150 kms, as it wasted 32 hours in just waiting at toll booths (1,940 minutes) and border posts (840 minutes).

After completing the loading at 2pm, it could have departed only after 10pm when ‘no entry’ hours get lifted, but the traffic jam at the city’s exit point made it leave only at 4am. The truck reached WB-Jharkhand border at 6pm, but had to halt, as night clearance was not allowed. It took 2 hours for clearance on WB-Jharkhand and Jharkhand-Orissa borders and Nagpur Naka, and 4 hours at Orissa-Chhatisgarh border. When it reached Mumbai at night, and called octrai agents, it waited all night for processing. Can’t the delays of the journey be reduced or eliminated to attain the global benchmark? An Indian truck manages to log just 7,500 kms every month as against 17,500 kms in USA.

Can’t Man Mohan Singh’s government find a solution in a month’s time or at least during the time left before his term ends? This is one thing that can benefit the farmers whom he wants to help. Fresh vegetables and fruits can reach the consumers faster. This can cut down the inflation. This can cut down the wastage.

Is it not one way the country should grade its economist Prime Minister?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Noida: Destruction in Mayawati’s Name

Posted on May 23, 2007 by indra

We came in Noida in June 1997, bought this house A-54 in Sector 41 and started living in June 1998. We found sufficient frontage that was barren then, Yamuna as usual got busy in building a garden, even though I kept on dissuading her from working so hard and spending so much of money. Over the years, it has grown well with number of trees. Once the Noida authority took over a portion to widen the road. We lost some trees too but then Yamuna again made that up with some additional trees. It serves us well in yond winter. It is enjoyable to sit in sun and waste hours with nothing specific to do. In February 2006, when I was away in Salt Lake, Kolkata, Yamuna got a portion concreted for parking of our small Alto, emulating other neighbours who had constructed nicely built garages all along Block A and Block B facing sector 39. Many of the house owners have spent quite a bit to lay good gardens. Some used for parking the car too. In Noida there is no mandatory provision for providing garage in the house. Every one parks all the cars along the service road in front of the house. With people having more than one car, the parking situation is really critical. For us facing a wide road in the front with some government land for services or social forestry, it was but prudent to use the space for parking. And naturally for safety and easy exit and coming in, gates were also integrated.

All these days, it was going all right. Noida Authority never raised any objection nor even sent any notice directly or through RWA that the householders have gone beyond the rules. Suddenly today Thursday May 23, 2007 there was hue and cry in the neighbours. A large contingent of staffs and some staff members with lot of police men too have appeared with two big bulldozers and are demolishing all the structures around the garden. I went out and wanted to talk with the officer. But he was not only arrogant; he appeared to be a goon. They destructed everything and went back leaving all the materials scattered to tell the story vividly to most of the house owners when they return in the evening after work and see the damages.






But why Noida authority did it and that also without any notice? Is it the arrogancy of the officers or some act to show to new CEO appointed by the new government of Mayawati that they are active? As the media says, each employee of Noida Authority is a billionaire just because of rampant corruption. Why would then they not treat the honest citizens even very senior ones like illegal zhuggiwallahs? But what were they afraid of? The residents had no permanent structure such a walled close garages, as they knew very well that the plot might be required on any day for the road expansion or for laying of drainage or some other service activity. But still they created havoc in the locality for no rhymes and reasons to show that they are in power to do anything wish. This is our great democracy. I am sure if the locality would have just one political goon, the Noida Authority and its staffs would have avoided coming here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Success Stories That Inspire

Posted on May 22, 2007 by indra

I don’t know why the media has given quite a bit of coverage for the success stories of those who succeeded in the civil services exams this year. At least some of the stories present very impressive performance from the boys coming out from just ordinary families with little means and cracking the toughest examination in the first attempt itself. That is really great. Here are some such performers from Bihar.

Sujit Kumar Singh stood 132nd in the civil services exams. His father, Bhagwan Singh, is a BMP-5 (Bihar Military Police) havildar, who comes from a village in Rohtas. Sujit could do what his father dreamt. Sujit graduated from Hindu College. He missed UPSC last year by five points. As reported, his police father was his inspiration to become an IPS officer, and Sujit aspires to do something for his village. I wish Sujit kept up the promise about his village. Interestingly, Sujit is one among many who leave Bihar for better education environment and excel.

Sanjay Kumar Singh is another student from Bihar is from Paiga village in Bhojpur district. Sanjay ranked 43rd. His father Dadan Prasad Singh is a court clerk in Sasaram.

Interestingly, both Sujit and Sanjay are from the same region of the old Shahabad district of Bihar.

Deepak Anand, who stood 55th in the merit list is the son of a farmer from Sitamarhi district and Deepak was a post-graduate topper in philosophy from Patna University.

I don’t know how many of the successful candidates are from Bihar, or for that matter, statewise. Media in Bihar and other state must cover their stories with all details and publish. That will certainly be service for the students and parents of the states.

Two things are certain that the opportunities are there and the spirited young men are availing. Finance is no more a big problem for an aspiring person to attain his goal.

Some other success stories from the other parts of the country are equally great in dimensions.

Narayan Prasad Jaiswal gives out rickshaws on contract, and does not know what IAS means. His son Govind Jaiswal qualified for the civil services, coming 48th. It was difficult for his father to believe that ‘Govinda’ would become a “collector saheb”.
Living in a 12×8 sq ft rented room on the first floor of a house at Usmanpura, Varanasi, for the past 35 years, his father had been spending most of his earning on his son’s education. After graduating from a local college in 2003, Govinda shifted to New Delhi to prepare for the civil services and has cracked it in his first attempt. Is it not a great performance?

Mohammed Qaisar, 29, is son of power loom labourer Abdul Haque, of Malegaon, Mumbai. He ranked 32nd and all this without attending any coaching classes. ”However, he failed in the personality test in three previous attempts, but then made up this time.”
The family stood by Qaisar, fourth among 11 siblings, when he failed in initial attempts.

Vinod Bahade, the son of an illiterate father and Class-III pass mother, and from a poor family of Visapur village on Chandrapur-Ballarshah road in Vidarbha cleared civil services exam and got 254th position. His family owns a tiny shop selling biscuits and candy. After clearing class XII, Vinod got admission to Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital to become a doctor. Vinod was posted in the interior of Gadchiroli district, but soon he quit the job to qualify for the civil services. Here is one doctor charmed by the lust of civil services.

I am sure if they happen to meet our President, Kalam to take his blessings after getting into this coveted service, his advise would have been:

“Promise that you shall not get allured to do a wrong thing against the interest of the people and the nation against all temptations of cash and kinds offered by the vested interest.”

And if they ask me, I shall tell them, particularly those from Bihar:

“Don’t get yourself sold and resist the temptation of dowry.”

“God has bestowed on you an opportunity to serve the country and its people. As a collector of a district, you get a responsibility bigger than the CEO of any big company of the country to change the destiny of the people there.”

“Be an example.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dragon of China

Posted on May 20, 2007 by indra

Usually everyone gets afraid of a dragon. Is that the reason that the word dragon is so popularly used with China?

The two news from India and US may provide the clue for the fear of dragon and China.

“The import prices of truck and bus tyres from China are even lower than our raw material costs, and we are convinced that a lot of dumping happens in India,” says an ATMA official in India.

And a NYT feature says, “An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis Weeks after tainted Chinese pet food ingredients killed and sickened thousands of dogs and cats in the United States, this country is facing growing international pressure to prove that its food exports are safe to eat. But simmering beneath the surface is a thornier problem that worries Chinese officials: how to assure the world that this is not a nation of counterfeits and that “Made in China” means well made.”

How much of these are genuine a complaint? Is it because of free trade and globalisation?

Is China using American tool to be on the top in trade?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment