दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Projects delays and Cost overruns: My development dream may seem Utopian. Is it unavoidable? Does it mean lack of better project management and better managers for the projects and that also in this land full with great project managers who compete and excel with world managers in all shorts of projects?

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of The ministry of statistics and programme implementation in its latest notes report that “on 605 projects worth Rs 267,815 crore, about Rs 105,146 crore have already been spent. But around 248 projects are way behind schedule. Another 149 projects, though approved, have not even been commissioned, and 46 other projects are waiting for their completion schedules to be updated. Only a small number of 22 projects are ahead of schedule, while 14 are on schedule. “The overall cost overrun with respect to original cost is 21.5 per cent, mainly because of delays, which range from one month to 13 years!

How can any sane citizen relish this story of government delays and colossal waste of public money on projects ‘for the people’? Why can’t we improve our productivity and complete the projects in time and perhps ahead of the target dates? It is certainly doable.

Conditions for business in India: The World Bank’s study, known as Doing Business in 2005, has come out recently, with a wealth of comparative data showing the ease or difficulty of commencing a business, hiring and firing people, accessing credit, closing a business and firing workers. Just to give one aspect- Singapore requires just seven procedures and takes eight days for a business to be started. In addition, the cost that the businessman incurs is just 1.2 per cent of the income per capita. The corresponding figures for India are 11 procedures, 89 days and 49.5 per cent of the income per capita. Even China, with its suspicion of private industry, takes 41 days in 14.5 per cent per capita income to start up a business.

How can there be more FDI unless these policies are undone? Will the babus in the ministries allow this to happen even though the economist PM or Lawyer FM may wish that to happen and happen fast?

India’s position in knowledge economy: In a study made public recently, the World Bank declares that despite India’s impressive performance in the last few years, its overall position has not shown any significant improvement in knowledge sector. Despite significant advances in telephone, computer and internet penetration, India has fallen slightly behind because so many other countries have advanced even faster. Our tele-density, internet expansion, and computer penetration is far behind. Government is to cut down the tariff and improve the core infrastructure to move fast.

Corruption the biggest speed-breakers of growth: Transparency International in its recent report has ranked India a lowly 90 in a total of 145 countries- India has scored quantitatively 2.8 on a scale of 10. And TI estimates that Indian taxpayers lose a whooping $ 7 billion per year in bribery and similar deals. May be that this estimate is on lower side.

In an article “India Reform Initiative” on why corruption is so rampant in India, Utkarch Kansal describes how impossible it is for a common man to own a roof, provide good education to his children and hope for a peaceful retirement in India using normal and honest means. But how can we digest it, when people behind it are the best brains of the country who start their career with big dowry booty?

Indians form a third of world’s illiterates: The 2005 Global Education Monitoring Report, which incorporates the 2001 census data, has just been released and the India’s ranking slips down one place further – 106th out of the 127 countries surveyed.

” One in every three illiterate persons in the world. With 34% of the illiterate population in the world,

” India has the largest number of illiterates by far, with second-placed China at 11%.

” Enrolment ratio – at 82.3%, almost close to the world average – ranking 94th
” India’s adult literacy ranking, from 121 last year to 105 this year thanks to the change from 1991 figures to 2001 figures. Yet, the adult literacy rate at 61.3% is still way below the 76% average for developing countries and 81.7% global average.

” Survival to class 5 has actually declined marginally to 61.2% from 62% last year, and is way below the global average of 83.3%.

” The gender-specific index is the most worrying. The average years spent in school for boys, at 10 years, is close to the global norm (10.7 years) and the average for developing countries (10.1 years). But, for girls the figure drops to 7.9 years, way below the global average of 9.8 years.

Some remarks: And then I find World Bank president making a remark recently in an article published in “Times of India” -“Despite the impressive gains made by India in the assault on poverty in the last two decades, more than a quarter of India’s one billion people are still below the official poverty line; that amounts to more than 250 million people, about a quarter of all the world’s poor, living here in India. Perhaps a few hundred million more remain vulnerable to slipping back into poverty by a single shock such as an illness or natural disaster.

That is not all. India’s huge numbers of illiterate people, children out of school, people suffering from communicable diseases, and infant, child and maternal deaths all amount to massive proportions of the respective world totals.”

Some trade practices of Indian businessmen: When I find my trader friends such as Mr. Maheswari following a cheaper and easier way to import textiles or toilet papers to fast buck, I get pained. Surprisingly, Mr. Maheswari is a mechanical engineer himself, but he couldn’t answer my query about the reasons why he can’t get our manufacturers develop the same products at better price.

And then I get a comment on my entry on India”s century. I quoting it below and you may go on my site and access it.
“The Indian engineers I have interviewed have poor fundamentals. Sure there are a few who have spectacular skills. But I believe Chinese engineers on average have better fundamentals in Mathematics and Science compared with the equivalent javascript/ejb/buzzword-of-the-year engineer that is produced by India.”

Who is wrong myself or the writer of the letter? Can’t someone highlight this comparison and provide some factual data based on experience, as I am not qualified enough to disapprove it?

Life teaches us many lessons, if we want to learn. Life gives many an alarm in time, if we can understand. Some of these lessons may help others and they may escape the troubles, if they believe in it fully.

” Hygiene and health: We learn to go in ‘always in haste’ mode, as we grow. We don’t take the necessary hygienic precautions of cleaning the teeth twice properly and after the meals and get into dental problems. I was taught right early in life to brush the teeth before I can get something to eat. But perhaps my guardians never knew or thought it necessary to teach me the right way of brushing the teeth. I got into my professional life which absorbed me a little too much. By the time I learned it, it was already too late and I had lost some precious ones.
I took my job seriously. I was to establish perhaps that though I am from a remote village, but I am the best I started working very long hours forgetting every thing about my own health and never gave due importance for other family matters. After long hours in factory, when I used to return I always went for a walk around in the colony with my wife. Perhaps we were the only couple who kept that practice on even after the onslaught of TV after that historic Asiad that brought colour TV in India. But instead of walking for an exercise, it used to be slow pleasure walk. I would have avoided my heart surgery if I could have been waking at brisk pace. Today, 5 km a day of 35 km every week walking has become the necessary part of my life. When I start in the early morning my chest appears to me very heavy, but gradually it gets normal. I can only suggest that walking must be a part of every one’s life. I am recommending walking as other exercises, workouts, or yoga require stricter self-discipline.

” No substitute for hard work: Let me advise everyone who wish to take my advice. There is no substitute to hard work. Intelligence may have something to do with DNA, but no one can stop you from working hard in your profession. You do not get tired by hard work, if you start liking the work you do. I have worked for 12-14 hours for months and years without a break for Sundays, sleeping hardly 3-4 hours, attending my father in late hours who was sick for a long time either at home or in hospital in my campus, and working on my writings at early hours for an or hour or two every day. I enjoyed everything. Whatever, I could do or attain in my life may not be extraordinary, but it is only because I could work that hard and no one of my colleagues could do that.

” Saving for future: Though I was never in managing my finance, I tried to save and invest for future needs of mine. I might have inherited this from my maternal side. Very early in life, I started saving and it continued. I save by putting the coins in a container made for it that were and are easily available even today. I did that even during my foreign trips. You feel good and sometimes enjoy, when you spend for satisfying your near and dear ones. However, I feel bad after spending. Saving must be made a habit. You must have money; otherwise no one will respect you. Without money you can’t realize your dreams. And it is possible to save and save a good enough amount once you decide. But saving requires some amount of will power. You must not divulge your savings so often and so easily, otherwise it goes willingly or otherwise. Don’t bother even if you loose some. It will come in its own way. You should not to the extent of being called miser, it gives a miserable feeling. If you have helped some one financially and he has not returned, don’t bother and grumble too much, don’t have guilt. After all that was your duty to help someone in need.

” Manage family relations: Under all circumstances, you must find sufficient time for all the members of your family depending on the closeness of the relations. After all, we work and earn only to live a good family life. I feel guilty today that I didn’t spend sufficient time with my family and particularly children. I can’t reverse the time and I can’t get that experience now even if I go out of the way to get it. It is nearness that builds closeness of relation.

I have not made a big list of lessons. But all these have come from very much inside. You may take it or leave it. Decide yourself.

I have some serious complaints with our editors and reporters. As someone said rightly, media is one powerful weapon that can make or break a nation. Why is our media failing? Why is it not creating better tastes for its readers? Why can’t it help in building human resources necessary for Number One nation globally? Why has it been changing to purely commercial affair counting profit every quarterly?

While media go on reporting about Amar Manis and RK Sharmas day in and day out, it hardly bothers to write about about the great managers doing great jobs, great research workers bringing laurels to the country, and great doctors achieving world-class medical standard at much cheaper cost, and other great Indians doing a brand selling of intellectual India abroad.
Why should Kanchi seer’s news be so widely covered when we all know that police may even be much partisan? Say, if he is proved innocent, how much damage has already been done not only of seer’s image, but also of all having faith in him? Can we believe Jayalalita who would have been in prison and not in chief minister chair, if the legal system would have been fast and fair?

Recently two great sons of the country- Dr. Raja Rammanna and Mulk Raj Anand passed away. Hardly any newspaper or news magazine did any honourable reporting about their contributions leave aside bring out a special issue or cover story. Small screen media is busy in covering useless political issues and cheap politicians and building their images. .Sometimes it is Gudia episode, sometimes it is Jaheera turning violent> The hot news goes for days and with same intensity and same importance in all the channels and then then there is a total black out even if the news proves to be total false. Is it not expected that the media becomes a little more responsible?

You go on writing pages about Tehlaka, and coffin scam, but you hardly bother to follow promises made in last national budgets. In last budgets, the FM promised work on renovation of water bodies, and starting of the irrigation projects that are pending. Roads and electricity are other critical sectors. The media can play an important role and bring out the real picture so that the project can keep the cost down and are completed in time. Media hardly report about the progress against the promises. Why can’t the newspapers and news magazines come out with special issues on road sector or electricity power issues or rural development problems? Very lately, the new government had appointed many celebrities to head many institutions of national importance, media hardly give any features on their background for the readers. Is it not important?

The government has two large manufacturing sectors that every one knows- the defence production and railway workshops employing more than half a million people, media hardly talk about them, even though these units are hardly operating at 20% efficiency. Thousands of its employees are taking their salaries and wages without doing any work. Perhaps the outsourcing could have made these manufacturing units trim and efficient. It would have created a large number of self employed people.

Union leaders are extorting money from management just to keep the factories running. Factories are closing down because of these corrupt practices of trade unions and their leaders. At one time Dehri-on-Sone in Bihar and Ranchi in Jharkhand were coming up as industrial towns, but the trade unions played havoc and all the factories are sick or gone. But media hardly write about it and play a role to save the situation.

We all see many of the news magazines publishing the special issues on the best B-Schools. I don’t understand what is that great about them. So many of these special issues are only confusing the prospective candidates. A very pertinent question has been asked by someone about the B-School- Why isn’t there a single Indian B-school in the list of top 40 management institutes of the world (in lists prepared annually by the likes of Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week and The Economist) considering that the CAT is considered a far tougher entrance exam than the GMAT which takes Indians to the US? Why can’t media produce some investigative reports about these so called highly demanded business schools? I know at least some or many are there only for minting money by showing a rosy picture of a good future to the candidates. Many don’t maintain even a photocopy machine in their premises to help the students.

Why can’t the media play a positive role by helping the government in correcting the deficiency of national policies in improving the governance? Media can publish more of success stories. Many people against all the odds of systems and society are doing great work. Media must report it. It can make these religious leaders to correct the evils of the society. It can build image of the right and forthright political personalities instead of those who manipulate to be in media’s good books and get the maximum coverage.

I have been writing about China recently. I found a news item last week that present the interesting indicator of a country’s development. It is quite informative too.

BEIJING, NOVEMBER 15: Some 55 years after the Communist revolution, the Chinese government is pulling out all stops to foment a new kind of upheaval: ”Toilet Revolution.” The majority of the Beijing city’s public toilets are little more than smelly holes in the floor. Municipal authorities want to change all that in time for the 2008 Olympics.
”Toilets represent the level of development of a country or region,” says Yu Debin, deputy director of Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Tourism. Yet, More than one-third of all tourist complaints in Beijing are toilet-related. Assisting the mainland in its toilet revolution is the Singapore-based World Toilet Organisation whose mission it is to ”continuously generate awareness of the importance of a good toilet environment.”

There are no flushes and the mess piles up until evening, when a ”pump truck” makes the rounds of the neighbourhoods, sucking up everything from the pits. Small wonder then that a multi-million dollar toilet renovation of the city’s public toilets is underway. According to Beijing municipal authorities, over $10 million a year will be spent till 2008 on transforming the city’s bathrooms into ”luxurious lavatories.” The city has come up with a rating system of 1 to 4 stars for its public facilites and government figures show that the capital already has 88 four-star toilets. By the time of the Olympics, visitors will never be more than an 8-minute walk from a star-rated toilet.

The situation in Bihar is deteriorating fast. It is worse than that in J&K and N-E states. In J&K and N-E states, at least it’s public knowledge that there are terrorists there and armed forces have accordingly been deployed. Bihar, on the other hand, is enjoying the patronage of the present UPA government as the party that rules is part of it. How can we forget the cold brutal murder of Dr. Agrawal, and the kidnapping of Dr. Nagendra merely for extorting money? And now the news of the kidnapping of NHPC engineers working on road projects only adds to the climate of utter lawlessness. The police has failed to find the culprits. Two political stalwarts are fighting like street dogs with each other while serving the same ministry at the centre. Some are shedding crocodile tears. The state government is announcing huge award to anyone who can provide clues leading to the arrest of the culprits. The central PSU unnecessarily undertook this project knowing fully well that this was not their area of expertise, perhaps because the chairman, who hails from Bihar, wanted to help out his home state. Now it has come forward with additional reward for finding and getting back his employees safe. The Central government is keeping quiet, as it does not want to annoy Laloo Yadav. Meanwhile, the kidnappers continue to have the audacity to call the houses of these kidnapped employees and demand Rs 50 million as ransom money. What disappoints and angers me the most is to see our Central government, which showed so much concern (and rightly so) at the kidnapping of Indian drivers in Iraq, seems unperturbed at these kidnappings inside our own country. Can the officers in Home Ministry imagine the nightmare of the family members of these Engineers?

Now what should be done? NHPC and the employees of Central government must stop working on any and “all” Bihar projects until the Law and Order situation of the state improves. The intellectuals of the country are also sitting quiet. I hate to say this, but there is a part of me which feels that these self-proclaimed intellectuals and pundits seem to take some sort of wierd pleasure in the deteriorating condition of Bihar. Here’s what I think ought to be done:

All Indians should boycott Bihar. No vehicle should feed them their requirements. No work of Bihar government should be entertained by the outsiders. We all know that the rest of India can provide for themselves just fine without inputs from Bihar. Do I like saying this? Do I think I am being too harsh? Yes. Lest you forget, I am a Bihari too and a proud one at that. And it pains me deeply that the State Administration for years have been fleecing the people of the state while the rest of the country continues to turn a blind eye to the problem. Let’s face it: All who can afford are fleeing Bihar. No one wants to settle down in Bihar. And the ruling party is mute watcher of the things. What right does the Bihar government have to be in power? I cannot put it any more succintly:

The state of Bihar is in trouble and needs our help!

Media must wake up and do the thing it does best. Expose the corruption and decay that seems to have permeated through the very fabric of the State. This chaos must end in Bihar. How can any responsible person continue to see this go on and pretend that everything is ok? All the shameless IAS and IPS officers of Bihar must resign or fight it out. The DGP concerned should follow the examples of Gill and Robeiro and get all the bad elements finished in encounters without bothering about their credentials and pedigree, or the relations with political parties. The army should be present in similar number and manner in Bihar as it is being done in other terrorist infested states. And let the message be sent loud and clear to everyone who engages in this lawlessness – Either you abide by law or prepare to be held accountable for your actions. And for God sake, let’s not put local Politics above the humane needs of the people of Bihar.

I still remember the time when the NDA government had putforth a Bill to impose President’s rule in Bihar. At that time I had written personal letters to all the Senior leaders of Congress party including Sonia Gandhi and Man Mohan Singh to support this Bill and save Bihar. But the Congress party chose to oppose the move at that time. As much as I would love to see them take some bold moves in the wake of this spurt of lawlessness in Bihar, I am too old to know that nothing will be done this time either. I guess it’s time for the “good” people of Bihar to stand up for their most fundamental rights – a right to live a dignified and decent life where there are honest State-run institutions for improving education and law and order, to say the least.

I request my readers to push this case more vehemently.

It seems today rural development and prosperity of those living in rural areas has become the concerns of all. Even most of the columnists in pink papers have made it a popular subject for their write-ups. But most of these people are having only academic interest and have bookish knowledge of the rural conditions and difficulties. Most of them might have their roots in the villages, but they and their kids have come far away from the roots and they do not any more enjoy the rural living. If the situations force them to live in villages, perhaps they can no longer survive in that atmosphere and will run away. Look at the representatives of the rural mass coming to the legislatures. Today hardly they spend any night living in their villages. Either they are afraid of their life or they can’t live in that condition without electricity and all other fixtures, gadgets and facilities. How can a minister live in his ordinary village house when he spends a million or more on refurbishing of the bungalow allotted to him?

But then what can be done to improve the conditions of those living in villages? How can they be made to improve their earnings? I have been writing about it in my blog. I have also been suggesting some of the things to my uncle who still lives there with his youngest son and his wife to look after the agriculture. He was Mukhia for many years and has done a lot for the village. Unfortunately, he lost last election, as he couldn’t understand the undercurrent of opposition of his own people. To boost his morale, I keep on suggesting some or the other project. I do also ensure the financial support, but he does not show any interest. I wish I can find some one who can work on my suggestions.

I feel, the spread of the concept of outsourcing can only help the village economy. I am sure the villages will be connected by good roads and will have power in every household in next five years. The younger generations will take up some jobs that can be easily executed from the villages. After I came to know about the outsourcing story of Sasaram (see through archives my entry on October 20,2004), I am much more convinced that the outsourcing can be moved even to our villages if some entrepreneurs take initiative. The villages can provide the cheapest solutions for the business of call centres.

Another area of outsourcing is the apparel manufacturing and knitting based clothes-cardigans and sweaters. To start with, it may be for the domestic market but very soon the quality of produce can be improved for all markets, even exports. Can you think of some young men opening telephone booths, and internet café? Can you think of smaller food processing units, say an Atta Chaki that supplies a quality coarse healthy atta from a crop that used only organic manure to the health conscious urban elites? Can you think of commercial tree plantations and supply of standardized parts of fixtures and furniture for the building industry? Can you think of or promote an apparel making unit for the unemployed boys and girls or women? Can we imagine a cyber café financed by the business malls in the nearby city to expand its home delivery of customers’ orders right up to the village household? Can you think of a public school outsourcing its primary education through qualified housewives of a village, who prepare the rural kids to their standard at affordable fees? Business malls can also serve as buyers of the produce from the farmers. The malls are to decide what they want to buy from the farmers with what level of value additions.

I also think of outsourcing of different types that will improve the conditions of the villages. Today, in metro and towns, we find people conscious about their health attending gyms, yoga, naturopathy, meditation camps and religious discourses. Morning walking is getting more and more popular. Women are joining some or other groups from kitty parties to kirtans. For the older people there are many missionary institutions organizing religious discourses and functions. Unfortunately, the life style is changing fast in villages. They are blindly following their urban counterparts. But there is total lack of health consciousness. The old practices of morning exercises and wrestling in Akharas have disappeared. Even the evenings of group singing of Ramayana or folk songs or staging of Ramlilas are missing from the villagers activities. Rural values and cultural strength and uniqueness are getting badly polluted. Why can’t some institutions such as Chinmaya mission and gurus like RaviShankar and Ramdeo cover the villages in their activities? Certainly, financial gains for their institutions will not be the same as in the towns and cities. But after all they pretend to serve the mass. And by going to the villages they can do it better. The religious and cultural institutions must give preference for the rural areas. All these institutions must have at least one sanchalak in every village that can take care of the healthcare through yoga, exercises, or naturopathy. The same person may organize different cultural functions and festivals, periodic discourses on religious topics from Geeta or Ramayan.

The quality of life in village must be restored to a respectable level. The panchayats require exposures as well as empowerment. By doling out subsidies for food and fertilizers or fuels, we can bring in sustainable prosperity for all.

I found a letter credited in my name in Financial Express letter to the Editor column. http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=74610:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Outsourcing manufacturing

The new concept of outsourcing and concentrating on business of core competence has to be extended by the bigger manufacturing companies of India including PSUs. Companies like Bhel and HMT must outsource as much as possible and create a manufacturing culture in the country as has been done by automobile companies. Big companies can also outsource the engineering and design of the products and production toolings, prototypes manufacturing, accessories manufacturing.
India has certain basic advantages in manufacturing such as raw materials and the required technical skill. With focus on the basics of manufacturing, many of Indian manufacturing companies are showing the way to becoming globally competitive in high end manufacturing. Let the thrust continue.
– Indra Roy Sharma

I wrote my entry “Manufacturing Sector- a road map” on November 10, 2004 in this blog. I had also emphasized on the outsourcing by the huge numbers of defense and railways manufacturing units that are managed or mismanaged by the government and ministries. A large scale outsourcing there will boost the manufacturing sector to a great extent by creating or strengthening a large number of manufacturing enterprises in the country and bring in better utilization of the constrained resources of the government too. I only wish this aspect is appreciated and some effective action is taken if the manufacturing sector is to be encouraged to come up in big way.

Diwali has just gone. We got in for Chhat Parva that is a Vedic puja where the milk is offered to Sun God after almost four days of fast. And that has also gone. Let us have some lessons from some of the symbols that we use.

Does a candle lose anything by lighting other candles? Apparently, it does. It is no longer the only torch in the neighbourhood. It seems to have lost its exclusivity. But this loss is temporary. Moreover this loss is minuscule in comparison to the gain that follows for this candle, by its being a part of a well-lit neighbourhood. Its solitude is now replaced by the camaraderie of torches around it. Its environs are now brightly illuminated. The loneliness is gone and it is light al over. And this candle has the satisfaction of having made all this possible. And the sun provides the example in infinitely bigger way. Perhaps that is the reason than Vedic seers gave so much of importance to it.

Neale Donald Walsch, in Conversations with God, says: “A true master is not the one with the most students, but one who creates the most masters. A true leader is not the one with the most followers, but one who creates the most leaders. A true king is not the one with the most subjects, but the one who leads the most to royalty.” In fact you can’t receive without giving. Omanshu Sharma, a naturopath, tells me that you cannot inhale deeply unless you exhale strongly. This isn’t just a logic that applies to the process of respiration. It is almost a cosmic cyclical law which governs all our transactions. Wealth creators all over the world know that money grows with circulation. This law governs not only the field of wealth but also that of ideas. This thought finds its echo in Gurjief’s words when he says: “Whatever I shared is still mine, the rest I have lost.”

The only rider here is that one can’t share unless one has. And to have one needs to accumulate. So your accumulation and sharing should form a cycle. Accumulate-share-accumulate-share and so on.

I have heard a story about a corn farmer in Canada, who won all the quality awards, year after year. Researchers who went to study his methods and to check out what differentiated him from the other contestants were amazed by their findings. They found that he shared all his best practices with his neighbouring farmers. When asked, why did he do so? He answered, “Because corn is a cross-pollination product. So it is important that the pollen grain coming to me from the neighbouring farms should be of good quality. It is for this reason that I share all my secrets with my neighbours. See how much I benefit.

So let us SHARE.

Sumant Sinha- President, Finance, Aditya Birla Group recently participated in a panel discussion on ‘India vs China: is the tiger on the dragon’s tail?’ The topic intrigued him. He gives the reasons and writes to give his opinion:

The topic intrigued me for the following reasons. Is India really on the move? Does the same question occupy policymakers, or the public at large, in China as much as it is beginning to in India? And which is a better model in the long-term? While making forecasts to answer particularly the last question is hazardous business, I shall nevertheless risk my reputation and give it a shot.

We Indians should really stick to the tiger analogy as the perceptual connotations are more favourable. Moving on to the second question of whether India is on the move, I think the answer to that question has to be an unequivocal ‘Yes.’ India has averaged growth of over 6% for the last two decades and the future looks bright. Anything less than 6% is simply unacceptable and any government that does not target and deliver at least 8% should voluntarily step down. Reforms have taken root across the political spectrum and the consensus behind the whole process is quite strong. The momentum is on India’s side now.

Other evidence is available in the way the world is waking up to India’s potential. Ten years ago, India figured in the western press only in terms of what I would call “disaster” reporting-earthquakes, riots, gas leaks, etc. However, a remarkable change has occurred over the last three to four years. Given its market potential and increasing role in services exports, India has increasingly begun to be mentioned along with China as two potential economic powerhouses. Now it is everywhere “China and India” where earlier it was only China.

Is this newly-acquired confidence and the new-found global interest in India beginning to perturb the mandarins in China? From all accounts, as yet the answer is ‘No.’ The reality is that China is miles ahead of India and we are only now showing up as a speck on the competition horizon. Unless we sustain this momentum and even increase it substantially, we will not worry the Chinese unduly. The Chinese are also a somewhat arrogant people – they will never formally acknowledge any worry about India as an economic competitor.

Now, is the Chinese model of top-down growth a more viable one than the more bottom-up Indian model? If you examine the situation, Indian growth is taking place in sectors that the government is either vacating or is somehow able to create a conducive regulatory environment in. In India, therefore, growth is taking place almost despite the government, than because of it. In fact, over the last 50 years the government has proven to be an extremely inefficient allocator and user of capital.

In China, on the other hand, it is the government which has been making the major capital allocation decisions. Whether in the long-term Chinese policymakers prove to be more efficient capital allocators and capital users is difficult to say, but the fact is that almost no other country in history has been able to pull this off over the very long-term. It will be surprising if the Chinese can emerge as the sole exception. Already, the first signs of weaknesses are being seen with vast infrastructure development having taken place but the financial sector being stuck with large amounts of non-performing assets. Whether China is able to manage the difficult task of keeping its financial sector in good shape, while at the same time developing a functioning private sector, removing government subsidies, and managing the aspirations of its people is really the question of the decade.

However, the reality is that China has taken such a large lead over India in terms of economic advancement that we are unlikely to overtake it. Having said that, our growth path, though slower, is less risky with less potential for large-scale disruption. In the context of another analogy, maybe in times to come India might end up being the tortoise to China’s hare! (This was used in one of my earlier entry too).

However, I firmly believe that India must learn from China as its many entrepreneurs in auto components industry have learnt some good lessons from Japanese are today reaping the benefits. I only wish that India must come up well in infrastructure sector with all its villages connected through roads, electricity and telecom. It must learn lessons from Chinese at least in building of huge nuclear, hydel and thermal power plants and roads if in no other things. It should also learn lessons if any from the rural sector that can provide employment there. It must learn how to control the population from the Chinese. There is no justification of allowing unabated population growth in below poverty class and providing incentive for that.

Every Indian- here and abroad is concerned about the lack of quality education at primary level. What has gone wrong? Who are to get up and start working for it? Why had the same schools and the teachers with a salary of Rs 15 per month produced brilliant students? Why is it not happening today when the overall income of the households has increased manifolds and the salary of teachers 100 to 500 times? And then the teacher absenteeism in primary school is a dismal story. We all know that. Why should an International body report is required to understand the condition? The 2005 Education For All Global Monitoring Report focuses on the theme of “quality of education”. As per report, in 2003, investigators in a World Bank study who made random visits to 200 primary schools here found no teaching activity in about half of them.

All the rural villages or most of them do have a primary school. A solution can be found to establish school, if it is not there, in every village with a population of 1000. But the critical issue today is about ensuring and improving the integrity of the primary teachers. Today these teachers can’t and should not talk of low salary. A system of motivating them to carry out their duty is necessary. But what is more needed is incorporating of some accountability factors with measurable parameters. Those who fail to give the necessary results through dedicated teaching should be fired. A fear of loss of the cozy job must be a part of the primary education system. Simultaneously, the teachers must not be involved in all the unnecessary tasks such as census or electoral rolls except for the period when the school are on long vacations.

Perhaps it is lack of government jobs that has dissuaded the parents in rural areas from sending their wards to school. This could have been overcome by extensive and even compulsory adult education in night in the same school by the same teachers with extra payment as incentives. Education is necessary for any work even for agriculture.

Unfortunately, the affluent ones in society have gone on building temples and other charitable institutions but shown hardly any interest in building schools and arranging good educations at primary level. I was surprised to know that the number of religious constructions in the country is more than the residential dwellings. As it appears, the primary education must be taken up by small entrepreneurs both as charitable missions as well as investment in future. Let the rich people building temples understand that the educational centres are better temples of knowledge

The country requires some 600,000 local managers or entrepreneurs to upgrade the standard of primary education in rural areas to acceptable high standard. The user-parents must shake off their indifference and show interest in educating their children and those who themselves are illiterate must be made to join the same school in night and upgrade themselves to educated group. Simultaneously, the industrial houses or associations such as CII must also come forward in big way to help the government to improve the standard of education in government primary schools. Ultimately, it will benefit them.

As another thought, the high schools may go out of primary education, outsource that to the primary schools of the area and keep a watch on the quality of teaching. It will help them too, as their prospective students will come from those schools.

Perhaps one way out may be to remove the anomaly regarding the gender distribution in the teaching profession pointed out in the report mentioned above. While female teachers constitute a huge 90% at the pre-primary level, this ratio is only 36% at the primary level. In contrast this ratio is 80 in Western Europe and 54% even in China. At the secondary and tertiary levels as well, female teachers constitute just 34% and 37% respectively of India’s teacher population. We must have more rather if possible hundred percent female teachers up to class VI level. It will certainly improve the quality of education. The qualified and willing daughter-in-laws of the villages may work as better teacher than the outsider male teachers who absent frequently to go back to their villages to look after their family responsibility or farm.

Interestingly the student-teacher ration in India is also pretty high and may be one of the causes of poor quality. India has a student teacher ratio of 40:1. Though there is no standard available for this ratio, the lower is the better. The global average at the primary level is 22:1, while developing countries average 28:1. Here I feel the best ratio for a quality teaching should be 10. I wish more and more of housewives take up this task. The educationist and government must come out some means to remunerate them.

But the whole education system particularly up to class VI requires a change of mindset and must come out of the clutches of political interference. It is unfortunate but true that most of the teachers today in West Bengal and Bihar are ruling party’s active member. I was told in one of my visits to a village in West Bengal that the primary school teacher has employed another boy to substitute his work at a salary of Rs1000 per month, as he has to remain busy in political activities. And it is quite a normal practice in many schools. How can you think of a good education with this short of thing going on?

PS: As I was writing this entry, I came across a news item in Business standard that really was pleasant:

More private players planning to start schools in Andhra: Vijayawada November 18, 2004. Private institutions in the state are going in for the next big thing in education – schools. These institutions, some of which have already opened over 100 schools, are planning to open thousands of schools all over the state in the next 10 years.