दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Many years ago, I had heard him at a musical function in Netaji Auditorium in IIT, Kharagpur. Again, at Hind Motor auditorium too I could get a chance to hear his divine shehnai and talk to him. I was happy, as he told, ‘I am from Dumraon’. His simplicity moved me. Dumraon was a small kingdom once. It is near my mother’s village. He talked for quite some time. I started tracking news concerning him. Perhaps he lived like one phakir, unlike other Bharatratnas. It was evident from the photographs appearing in media. He kept on saying, “So long as the shehnai is with me, what need do I have for anything else?’

‘Telegraph’ called Bismillah the Saraswati devotee who lived for his Ganga.

On the fifth and eighth day of every Muharram, Ustad Bismillah Khan would come to the Fat-main burial ground, sit under a neem tree and play the shehnai. “Even the average onlooker who did not understand music would be moved to tears,” a local resident said. The open space under the neem tree where Bismillah Khan mourned the grandsons of the Prophet became his final resting place on Monday.

Ustad had played the shehnai when Pandit Nehru unfurled the Indian flag at Red Fort to mark India’s independence in 1947. The devotee of Saraswati, and “a true symbol of our composite culture”, played the shehnai – an instrument that he took out of marriage pandaals to heights of global glory – at the temple whenever he could. Can’t the government build a suitable memorial in form a national institute of Indian traditional music at Dumraon, that still remains rural? Can’t Nitish Kumar, the CM take a lead?

PS Even the gods were happy to listen to his shehnai by Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasiya
Village, maestro waited for each other

PS When Shehnai silenced the Sitar
A controversy deemed to have been settled in 1950 by SWAPAN DASGUPTA
The Piper Of Banaras: Khan Sahib’s religion was his shehnai’s sweet swaras, his truest namaaz

Indian economy is booming. The world envies India’s IT strength. And it gives a superior quality of life for almost a million of the younger generation. Why should we keep on looking down upon everything that India achieves with a big ‘but’?

India will prosper under these odd contrasting beliefs and faiths. Last week Mahim creek’s water near the Baba Maqdoom Dargah started tasting sweet. And the crowd became unmanageable and tasting of the water was expected to cause some serious health problems. As we are too many with too little work to do, it results in crowding and its problems including that of law and order. And then after 11 years all our Hindu gods and goddesses in north India became thirsty for milk again. Is it the same country that because of its scientific manpower wishes to be the global leader in knowledge sector?

And 300 million Indians may be among the poorest in the world, but the huge collection of offerings at the temples says some different story. The Shirdi Sai Baba temple trust plans to install an Rs 22-crore golden throne for the saint. Is Sai Baba feeling uncomfortable on the silver throne? What a waste of resources of a poor country for a man who would never have allowed his disciples to do that? Sai Baba will be more than satisfied if the trust uses the money for setting up coaching centers for the poor students and trade schools for empowering them to a better life.

And I read Respected Bukhari giving a ‘fatwa’ that ‘Vande Mataram anti-Islamic’. And then the community in Kerala is boycotting a Muslim family as the daughter of the family has interest in classical dancing that is again anti-islamic. Is it the same country of Akbar the Great or Ustad Vismillah Khan and Ustad Alladin? Where is religious in the divine art of dance and music? Why can’t the community denounce such fatwas more vehemently so that they dare not do it? And it is the same country where the people of both communities have helped building shrines of each other.

And I keep on getting some more interesting news. Laluji after failing as CM and husband of the CM for three decades suddenly becomes the Management Guru. IIMs invite him for lecture instead of researching in depth into the reasons of the breakthrough in railway’s performance. And then we read another news of sycophancy or misuse of authority. The railway ministry proposes to connect the native villages of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife, former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi soon by train. Does the democracy mean only this? Can’t there be some checks on this sort of misappropriation of taxpayer’s money?

India lives in many centuries simultaneously. It doesn’t matter till it doesn’t affect the national interest. But it also says clearly that the quality of education that the system is providing is not creating an intelligent society. The education must provide the ability to reason out for rational behaviour.

The laughing Buddha in the photograph holds my small savings. With the other objects in the photograph, one can estimate its size. I put the Rs 5 coins that I save from my regular spending in various purchases. It is possible, as we in India still pay cash for our purchases ranging from ‘mother dairy’ milk and vegetables to groceries of all sorts.

I have this funny way of saving through coins since my school days. Once I showed (and gave) an earthen pot of my saving to my grandfather in village, he was very happy. His happiness was a great satisfaction for me in those days.

On all my foreign trips, starting from the first one in 1966 to Vauxhall Motors, UK, I saved the coins that I used to get during the day. While returning, one of my colleagues pressed me to buy a ‘Gerrard’ (?) record changer deck out of the money. That was the only major purchase of mine in that trip, as I spent all my money in traveling in Europe and Egypt.

I had the habit of this type of saving even in my HM days. My sons as kids also participated with greed prevailing over the righteousness once or twice, when the money vanished with chance breakage of the earthen pots.

Perhaps, for the new generation of the plastic age, this may appear as useless. But for me it’s an old habit that does not die. However, I shall like my readers to estimate and predict the amount that the laughing Buddha will be holding in Rs 5 coins, when I shall open it in December 2006. And I promise if some one can do that exactly, I shall share the collected amount.

Can you do that? But still I appeal for small savings regularly. It may be a poorman’s way of saving, but it surprises sometimes and more than that comes very handy in some awkward situations.

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The Independence Day Anniversary issue of ‘Outlook’ presented some data compiled by Paromita Shastri in her article- ‘Best of Times, Worst of Times’. I have chosen the best ones here:

Income: India’s per-capita gross national income is $3,120, measured by the World Bank in terms of purchasing power parity or by equalising prices of commodities in different countries. The average Chinese earns $5,890 and the average American $39,820. The Economic Survey shows that an average Indian now earns six times more than in 1951, or over Rs 20,000 compared to just over Rs 3,500 in 1951, even if the rupee were to have the same purchasing today as in 1951.

Savings: The rate of savings has almost tripled-from a little over 10 per cent in 1950-51 to 29 percent today.

Foreign exchange reserves: From $1.9 billion in 1951 India’s forex reserves are now over $156 billion, and more than cover our external debt of $125 billion.

Indian MNCs: Between January and June 2006, India’s outward FDI flows for acquisitions and other purposes amounted to over $5 billion
Billionaires and Millionaires: India has 27 billionaires (Forbes) and are ranked eighth in the world with 70,000 millionaires (Merrill Lynch). In contrast, China has lesser number of billionaires (10), but more local millionaires (3,00,000).

NRI Remittances: Overseas Indian workers send home $21 billion every year, the highest among all countries. For China, it is $5 billion.

Women’s literacy and life expectancy: The female literacy rate is today at 54 per cent from 8.86 per cent in 1951. Female life expectancy was a mere 32 years in 1947. It has gone up to 67 years.

Food production: From 60 mt (million tones) in 1947, India produces 205 mt of foodgrain now. Globally, India is the largest producer of milk-over 200 ml per person per day-and the world’s second largest producer of vegetables

Infrastructure: From only about 10 lakh passengers in 1960, the airports ion India today handle over 60 million passengers. From 20,000 km of national highways in 1951, India has about 60,000 km now. The number of registered vehicles on road was just a little over 3,00,000; now it is 80 million.

Communications: There are 10 phones, including mobiles, for a 100 people, compared to less than one a decade ago. The cost of a one-minute call to the US is the same as a Delhi-Gurgaon call five years ago, and that of a national long-distance call is 1/15th of what it used to be in 1999. Even mobile rates have halved in the past two years. For a 1,000 Indians, there are 60 newspapers, 12 PCs, 45 TVs and 32 net users. India has one post office for about 6,000 people, compared one for 20,000 people in China.

Stock Exchange: India’s National Stock Exchange is the third biggest in terms of number of transactions, after the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The total market capitalisation of Indian firms is $550 billion.

Jobs: The IT sector alone created 1 million jobs since 1999. And the salary increases in India are higher than all the competing countries.

Can’t all these pride us and give us a sense of where India has reached today?

It was in the beginning of this month that Sunita Narain‘s Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) after a fresh study claimed the presence of ‘pesticide cocktail’ in 11 brands of soft drink giants Coca Cola and PepsiCo, three years after the same brands were found to have contained pesticides. The 57 samples collected from 25 manufacturing units across 12 states were a ‘cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides’ which was 24 times above the standards finalised by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Kerala banned production and sale of colas of both Coca Cola and PepsiCo; and some other states too banned its distribution in schools and hospitals.

As expected, the associations representing industry in general such as CII and FICII came out heavily against the actions of the governments. While CII President R Seshasayee considered the government action as arbitrary, avoidable and one that has caused unnecessary panic; FICCI President is going to write to Kerala Chief Minister, appealing to him to ‘please follow the due process and let the regulator substantiate the violation as per existing laws before taking action’. Will CII and FICII heads permit their grandchildren to get addicted to Colas? Are these heads of associations afraid of MNCs?

Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola did come out with big ads helping media revenue and listed out the processes adopted by them to ensure that all the key ingredients were well within the permissible limits according to the BIS and international standards. Why and what are then the cola companies afraid of? But then comes the unique part of the government action. The Health Ministry had sent a letter to the BIS to defer setting of standards till its national level expert committee met over the issue.

Narain charges that cola companies, in collusion with Health Ministry officials, had deliberately blocked the final notification of the BIS committee. Perhaps this is the way big billion dollar- companies in free economy work. And over and above, the American media including the prestigious NYT almost are giving some threatening calls that the Kerala’s action may affect FDI in negative manner. And the media is relishing the different stories from its reporters.

I have some very simple questions. Can’t all the food technologists, health specialist in India and scientists decide if the standards of BIS for ingredient contents are stringent enough to be dropped as useless? Will the MNC companies having advertising and promotion budgets running in billions raise questions about their capabilities too and or buy them, if necessary? Why can’t the cola companies write on the wrapper the nutrients’ contents in the drink? If there is no nutrient good enough for children or patients, why can’t they put it on the wrapper too? If there is no problem with these drinks, why should my cardiologist doctor ask me not to drink the drinks? Why do the American housewives not permit their children to take it?

And then comes the news that must have elated all Indians. PepsiCo, the multi-billion MNC on Monday named Indra Nooyi, 50, as its new chief executive, succeeding Reinemund, who will retire in May 2007. And all the newspapers and magazines are agog with this news. Every one is vying to prove this the achievement of India management skills. What I wonder, has the PepsiCo put a lady of Indian origin as CEO to smoothen the conflicts in India business created by another feisty lady?

And then a question crops up and confuses me. Who is serving India’s cause better- Sunita or Indra?

A handful of rice = 34,180 colas

This one character of Dwapar Era has been a very complex character to understand for many. Krishna with his thousand names has influence over all classes. Perhaps, it is difficult to associate him to a narrow identity such as a caste. His life as all Indian know has been unique. Most will love him but some- say moralists, may even hate him
Let us look at the phases of his life and his deeds;

Childhood- Krishna as kid was very friendly and helpful. He had a lot many friends of both the genders. He is strong and brave. He, even though young in age, kills many giants who were sent to murder him. He did also kill some who used to be a terror such one at Kaliadah in Yamuna. He saves the community from the fury of Indra by raising Gobardhan or taking his clans into some caves at the top of the mountain.

Romantic Youth- Krishna as a young man gets into friendship with many of the girls including one that was married. His tales of romance and music that is symbolized by ‘rash’ as dance and ‘bansi’ (flute) as musical instrument have become example of divine love. Somewhere, it may appear to be even vulgar, but with no intention of harming the consorts.

Exemplary Statesman– Krishna is shrewd, smart, and manipulative. He tolerates the abuses of Shisupal, his own close relative for hundred times, and only after that he kills him in presence of all so that it creates a lesson for others. He sends the whole army to Duryodhan, and remains alone with a condition of not using any weapon for them on Pandava side. And he wins a war for the weaker side by providing the tactical knowledge and information to the Pandavas.

And A Saviour of Humanity- However, the best contribution of Krishna to humanity is what he conveyed through ‘Bhagwad Gita’. There can’t be anything better than that to get a salvation. And today the whole intellectual world all over the globe recognizes that.

But what a natural end! As a commoner, he dies pierced by an arrow of an hunter in a distant forest.

And I was really excited, when I read in ‘The Times of India’ editorial, “He (Krishna) may be said to embody the essence of Indian managerial talent because no matter how adverse the situation he has to deal with he’ll come up with an out-of-the-box solution”.

Yesterday, I was at my advocate friend’s place. As usual, he showed me a piece of writing where he had denounced the relation of Krishna with Radha. It is all up to an individual’s interpretation. One can take positive and the other a negative one for the same.

India wishes to be a leader in the ‘Knowledge Economy’. But here is the status through some statistics.

Rs 920 gross expenditure on R&D for every citizen (Rs 2,612 in China and Rs 46,751 in the US)

Rs 116 cr royalty and licence fee for patents received by India in 2004 (Japan’s Rs 72,964 cr)

119 R&D researchers per million people in India (China has 663)

Rs 13,200 cr India’s high-tech exports in 2004 (Japan exported worth Rs 5,76,340 cr, China Rs 7,50,842 cr)

231 patents granted to India by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2001(China got 298)

Rs 14,800 cr exported from the pharmaceutical sector in 2003-04. India ranks fourth in the world, and accounts for 8 percent of world production

3.72 India’s score in innovation (4.74 for China)

11,076 articles in scientific and technical journals published by India in 2001 (20,978 by China)

2.61 India’s score on the World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Index (4.21 for China)

15 nuclear reactors with an installed capacity of 3,087 MW constitute 2.8 per cent of India’s total energy production (20 per cent in the US, and 78 per cent in France)

2% India’s share of 55 satellites launched between 2001 and 2005, compared to China’s 9%

125 of the Fortune 500 companies have research bases in India (400 in China)

13 the number of successful space launches till now (The US 424 and China 52 (1981-1999)

2,378 biotechnology patent applications were filed in India between 1995 and 2003

Rs 13,250 cr India’s allocation for the Department of Space in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. NASA, by comparison, was allocated Rs 9,52,718 cr in the 2006-07 US Budget alone

32 Internet subscribers for every 1000 people (73 in China). India has only 0.6 broadband subscribers per 100 people (16.5 in China).

–From ‘India Today’

India will soon have three more institutes in Kolkata, Pune, and the other in Punjab similar to IISc, Bangalore. However, the education and industry must emphasise on innovations. Only through innovations, India can take a lead.

Read
PM’S INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH, 2006

It is heartening to hear and read that the exhaustive poll conducted across 19 states with over 14,000 samples covering a large section of rural India by CNN-IBN and Centre for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS) found you as the most popular chief minister in the country. As the report goes on, ‘Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was Number 1 after being elected in November last year, and the honeymoon period continues for him – he is still at Number 1.’

There are some more good media reports. The Central Road Transport and Highway Minister T. R. Balu, on Friday, acknowledged that things had vastly improved in Bihar since the NDA government assumed power in the state; and there was no complaints of any disruption in the construction of roads due to road mafia.

And finally, we heard and read mentions of Bihar in the President’s Independence Day address right in the beginning. “In the agriculture and farming sector, more than doubling the productivity of Rice and Wheat in areas near RP Channel-5 in Bihar has been achieved through the TIFAC mission using innovative integrated farming and marketing methods. These results have spread to many areas through people’s efforts and are applicable to the whole of Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and other areas, which have similar agro-climatic conditions. These regions could be transformed into the granaries of India ”

However, I keep on looking for good news from Bihar with a microscope very day in a hope to some great happenings as the media gives from other states, I get disheartened. Perhaps, we shall have to wait for more time.

I am certain with persons like NK Singh in State’s Planning Commission the things to change soon. I have few suggestions. You can follow a little different but useful path.

Bihar has a huge human resource. Can we not ensure that all of them are skilled in one or the other trade? Can we not use the excellent masons, carpenters, electricians, and other technicians to train our children in the age group of 10-16 years if we can’t have 100% trade training for these boys through it is because of capacity constraints there? Can’t the government start a set of skill awards at paanchayats, blocks, and district levels for the artisans and for those who part with their skills with the younger population freely? Unlike other states, can’t Bihar lead the country by having a large number of high standard trade training schools with capacity that will be sufficient to take all the children of age between16-18 that wish to get into them? If necessary, educational pre-qualification must be relaxed for children of craftsmen’s community.

Can you not ask each of your DM to take initiative for an education hub in their district head quarters? They are smart and young enough to do this work all on their own. They can create a campus. They can contact industrial houses to have quality schools including some for specialized trade training. Some of the facilities such as playgrounds, conference hall, and laboratories can be common to cut down the cost. Can’t these DMs be the PMs of their districts as you once told them? Can’t they be kept to head the district for all the time you wish? Why can’t their performance be judged by some development parameters of their districts such as all the central projects of ‘Bharat Nirman’ or ‘Sarv Shiksha Aviyan’? Why can’t there be a strong competition between the DMs of districts for various achievements?

If agriculture sector is the strength of Bihar, why can’t the farmers be encouraged to go for ‘contract farming’ for established corporate if it cuts out the unscrupulous intermediaries? Let the farmers prosper.

Bihar must market the advantages of cheap labour to the investor. However, you are to ensure the employment flexibility. Investors are also scared of Bengal type trade unionism or maphia in industry. Can you isolate the investors from them? Why can’t Bihar focus on labour ecosystems that attract investment and in turn create jobs?

‘Business World’ has come out with ‘The TeamLease Labour Competitiveness Survey’. Unfortunately, Bihar ranks at the bottom. Very soon ‘India Today’ will publish the rankings of different states on varying development parameter. Will your ministers ensure improvements over the rankings?

You are fortunate to have access to all successful developmental projects. Your ministers and officers can follow them. But one thing is sure unless they are really ambitious, they can’t bring about a perceptible change in Bihar.

Can your government decide on 10 major projects that your government will like to be remembered for and that it is sure of completing in next 4 years so that we can gauge its performance?

On this day when I have gone 67, my wife hands over a packet of gift at 4AM, when I quietly left bed and came to sit with my laptop. I am overjoyed, but show only my humility. Why do we not say what is the truth?

And I start the day with my Bhagawat Gita’s selected slokas meant to keep one healthy. I surf and find a news item. Someone had been ahead of me.

I wished once to create a website for my village ‘PIPRA’- a typical and remote in Bihar with no electricity and metalled road even after 59 years of independence. I started writing the history of the village as I have heard from the old people there. But someone has scored over me. HANSDEHAR has gone on web before someone could help me in getting ‘Pipra’ uploaded. And this is the way rural India is moving forward to have access to everything happening in the outside the small places.

Can I not see Handehar as my PIPRA and be satisfied?

But why do I require a website? Perhaps, these website can display the name and cellular phone numbers of skilled people in the village so that those needing them can contact them. It will certainly improve the useful employment of those who can’t live in towns and cities because it means expenses on self. It shall also improve the quality of life in rural areas.

India’s worst concerns and the best of achievements relate to education. Present education system that has great institutions such as IITs and IISc has produced some unique results. When we look at the primary schools, particularly the governments ones in rural India, we get the shock of our life. And that is the biggest concern. Many feel the education system must change to suit the present requirement of the nation. And its quality must improve to meet the need of the knowledge sector that India plans to excel at.

Statistics below will highlight many different aspects of the education in India.

17,189 colleges and universities in India (4,182 in the US)

93,000 elementary schools with computers in India (1,10,000 in the US)

19% primary schools in India with single teachers

25% schools with electricity in 2004, compared to 21% in 2002

76% primary and secondary schools with drinking water in 2004, up from 71.9% in 2002-03

87% schools in villages out of a total of 9,00,000 schools in India in 2004

70% schools with pucca buildings in 2004

5,00,000 become doctors in India every year (1.5 m in China which produces the largest number)

9,070 doctoral degrees awarded in 2005 (42,700 in the US but 6,000 in China)

3,50,000 engineers produced annually (6,00,000 in China)

8,00,000 complete MBA every year (2,00,000 in the US)

5.7m school teachers in India (2.2 m in China)

1:41 the teacher-pupil ratio in primary schools in India (1:21 in China)

400 medical colleges in India (125 colleges in the US)

2,00,000 science degrees are awarded every year (6,00,000 in China)

73% literacy rate in India among males (95% among males in China)

Among women literacy rate is 47.8% in India (86.5% in China)

13 m children do not attend school in India according to an SRI-IMRB survey

16% out of 3,00,000 children between 6 and 14 years study in private primary schools in villages

25% government primary school teachers in India are absent from their work annually

10,500 students studied at the world’s first university at Takshila in 700 BC

9.9 m students enrolled in various colleges across the country

It clearly shows where India lacks.

Read India — the land of people’s power