Manufacturing India: Walmart and Others

Posted on August 6, 2013 by indra

Will liberalising FDI in multi-brand retail be good for Indian manufacturing sector and result in growth of manufacturing of low tech, mass produced products and in increased employment that India badly needs?

At one time after the very first long stay in US in 2005 when I studied extensively about Walmart, I was really impressed by that company and the way it has become one of the largest company of US . I was in favour of the entry of Walmart and the like in India.

When the debate of opening India for these MNCs in multi-brand retails started few years ago, I failed to appreciate why there was so much opposition to these entries. It would hardly affect the small retailers all around our households in cities, towns and villages. MNCs in retails would hardly have any significant penetration in India so easily and so fast. It may certainly cut down the intermediaries who take away the maximum share of the difference of price paid to the producers and the price paid by the consumers.

But after visiting US for about fives times and staying for longer duration, today I am against allowing the big retailers such as Wall Mart. In every visit I have found the penetration of the Chinese products in American households increasing. Today perhaps most of the things, be it toys, furnitures, furnishings, gardening or garage equipment, kitchenwares and particularly the clothes that an American household and its members use are Chinese or from similar sources. America can afford it, as it has not that big a population that depend on the employment in manufacturing of these mass produced low tech items.

India must ensure that its population engaged in manufacturing does not decline with the entry of these global retailers rather these global players in retails boost up the development and manufacturing of the household items for the domestic consumption as well as for export. It can’t happen without certain conditions imposed on these retailers so that they develop and sell or export the products indigenously manufactured, as it happened in auto component sector when Suzuki entered India in early 80s. That was the reason for the government’s conditionality of sourcing 30 percent of the items from the SMEs for allowing these global retailers in multi brand products. Unfortunately, because of the pressure of the MNCs retailers, the government seems to be yielding to their demands.

All these big retailers have already developed the sources of all types of wares at the cheapest price. Majority of the manufactured products that it sell comes from China and similar countries. These companies when in India will import those products from the same sources unless it become too costly for them to import and sell in India. It saves them from many difficulties. However, the concession will be against the interest of the manufacturing sector in India.

It will be great, if India provides and markets the possibility of involving these MNCs to encourage manufacturing in India.

Will the government do that? Will these MNCs such as Walmart be like Suzuki to help the Indian manufacturing sector to grow? As reported, “Walmart and “Made in China” are practically synonymous; Walmart imports some 70 percent of its merchandise from China.”

Can Walmart in India mean some proportionate figure from here? Or will Walmart promote only “Made in China” in India?

Posted in manufacturing | 1 Comment

Manufacturing India: News and Views-5

Posted on July 31, 2013 by indra

Here are some more news in media from the manufacturing sector:

1. India will have to radically transform its manufacturing sector by focussing on large-scale labour-intensive factories producing exportable goods, reducing the share of employment in agriculture from the present 58% to 25% by 2030, with industry doubling its labour demand.

India needs a competitive manufacturing sector if it is to earn enough dollars to fund its imports, especially its thirst for oil and more so for gold.

2. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and IITBombay have helped Rolls-Royce develop low-noise technology for aircraft engines that are fitted in longhaul planes such as Boeing 747s and Dreamliners.
With increasing R&D in India, we may hope a better scenario for manufacturing too.

3. The recently announced new hatchback ‘Datsun Go’ car of Nissan Motors will be powered by a 1.2 litre petrol engine that has been ‘fully engineered in India and will be produced at one of the newest Renault-Nissan Alliance factories at Oragadam, in Chennai.The Datsun Go goes on sale in the Indian market from early 2014.
As reported, Renault-Nissan, a global alliance between France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd, is planning to expand the capacity of its Oragadam’s plant near here to 500,000 units a year from the current 400,000 units as it eyes an ambitious 15 per cent market share in India.
Nissan will set up a new manufacturing line, which will eventually take the plant capacity to 600,000 units per annum.

4. GE’s John F Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) in Bangalore which has been at the forefront of developing technologies in the field of healthcare, energy, aircraft engines in the GE scheme of things, has said that it is working to create engines for aircraft of a smaller scale, such as a 90-120 passenger aircraft, something which would be the right fit for the planned regional transport aircraft (RTA) in India.

5. Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland unveiled its Stile, a multi-purpose vehicle in the light commercial vehicle segment (LCV). Slated for launch this year are Ashok Leyland’s Partner, and N-truck, and variants of Dost and Stile. The product, developed by a joint venture (JV) between Ashok Leyland and Nissan-Renault alliance, is the second product of the JV after Dost, a 1.5-tonne LCV, launched in September 2011. It is set to hit the roads before the festival season. Stile will be manufactured at Nissan’s manufacturing unit at Oragadam.

6. A Business Standard analysis of the status of equipment order placement and the time required for commissioning of power units reveals the 12th Plan’s capacity target of 88,537 Megawatt (Mw) is likely to be met with only minor slippages.

7. The auto components industry may invest around Rs 7,000 crore over the next three years on new projects, although its revenue growth will remain weak in the absence of domestic demand and an uncertain global economic environment, rating agency ICRABSE 2.83 % said today.

8. India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil, riding on its domestic automotive sales, according to IHS Automotive, a global market information provider.

9. Foreign manufacturers were willing to sell the buses cheaper, though he did not spell tout the price difference. Safety and quality issues with the current fleet also prompted the government to invite foreign manufacturers for the bus tender.

10. Tata Motors and M&M are competing with its MNC- counterparts operating in India.

India is to go miles before becoming a manufacturing power.

Posted in industry, management, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Economists and their Marketing Gimmicks

Posted on July 29, 2013 by indra

It is something unprecedented happening. Two highly respected economists collaborating with one close associate of their own have published two books on India’s economy.The two books are:

Amartya Sen’s An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, co-authored with development economist Jean Drèze, appeared less than a week ago. Penguin Books India is its Indian publisher.

Jagdish Bhagwati’s recent book (co-authored with Arvind Panagariya), India’s Tryst With Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges, published in late 2012 by HarperCollins.

Never did one see so much of coverage of two groups of authors on digital as well as print media of the country and never did it took so much of political colour. Both Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya have written about the drawbacks of the propositions of Amartya Sen in print media.

Amartya Sen and Jean Dereze have appeared with their interviews on all rival English channels and national newspapers such Forbes India, Times of India or OutlookIndia and Business Standard. Many columnists such as Sandipan Deb and Prof. Sumit K Mazumdar have expressed their views on this debate in newspapers and magazines.

Jagdish Bhagwati holds that an economy should be allowed to run freely and the state should not take much out of it and ‘redistribute’ it to the poor.

Amartya Sen believes that without strong public spending on nutrition, health and education, a robust economy with long term growth isn’t possible.

“Sen thinks that the starting point for achieving the desired goal must be an immediate massive attack on illiteracy and ill health.” Who can question the importance of education and healthcare and that these are very important for business as well?

I shall like to give education a little more weightage and the priority. By education, I mean good education and skill building based on the aptitude of the individuals. Because of the prevailing deprivation in the society for different reasons over centuries, even education will require huge resources, good planning and effective execution. I don’t believe any entitlements should be based on any deprivation criterion based on caste and community. It must be for all deprived. My preference for education as first is as it can help even the healthcare and without education, investment on healthcare may not yield the desired result. However, I don’t believe that education should be or could be the sole responsibility of only government. It must be the national mission and all, particularly the political parties, must join this movement. For many years, many small and big families and some individuals dedicated their lives and wealth for education both in villages as well as in urban areas-towns and cities or metros. That must be encouraged. All the resources of CSR would have gone for it.

As it is being said, while Jagdish Bhagwati preferred Gujarat Model, Amartya Sen likes Kerala Model. I would have preferred if they would appreciated the specific success stories of different states, as many states have done something outstanding in one or other areas that could be emulated by others and benefited. Why can’t they look at Andhra Model and the establishment of largest number of engineering colleges that have helped it becoming largest source of manpower in US and that made Hyderabad so important for thousands of engineers from all parts of the country?

How can one believe in the Nobel Laureate who couldn’t help his own state, and messed up a nationally important project such as Nalanda International University by getting appointed an ordinary woman associate professor of a Delhi College as its Vice Chancellor with Rs 5 lakh as monthly remuneration , as many believed? Was it not something of taking advantages of his nearness to person such as Manmohan Singh who unfortunately happens to be the prime minister of this great country? How does it matter if the prestigious university does not come up at all? There will be thousand of excuses for the failure of the project in which quite a number of Asian countries are participating.

Are these debates and TV shows not meant for marketing their books where the media in collision with them?

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Mid-day Meal scheme: My Views

Posted on July 23, 2013 by indra

The story of mid-day meal scandal in Bihar was just shocking. And more shocking were the stories from different parts of the country that appeared in media just after that incident. However, why does it happen in India so often? One reason is certainly the degradation of the moral values in the mind and heart of the people at large who want to make money at all cost from every possible source. Unfortunately, the most affected are the poor and deprived lot of the society.

The idea of mid-day meal is great for at least two reasons.It provides a minimum amount of nutritious food for the deprived and it also serves as an incentive to come and be in the school at least till the meal is served. But the idea that gives birth to a policy but be followed with the design of the scheme with built in quality control system through clear cut fixation of the responsibility of the different persons responsible in carrying out the task. Quality design and control must follow some sort of FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis) to ensure that all possible means of failures have been considered in advance. Next in the chain of actions must be the detail working of policy deployment that fixes the responsibilities for the operative aspects of the policy. Without the well thought out detail design, no policy of entitlements even with best intention can be successful in a country like India. The government and the leadership must learn to appreciate these management techniques that have been successfully used in the industry.

However, after visiting some schools in Bihar in my last visits to Bihar, I have an opinion of mine about the way mid-day meal scheme is run. It would have been nice if the mid-day meal would not have been cooked right in the school premises with headmaster as its head administrator. How can the headmasters who are not able to motivate and manage their teachers to teach effectively, can take responsibility of the mid-day meals too?

For providing a mid-day meals to a good number of school children as a regular way, a suitably organisation with its manpower to look after all the necessary operations and the infrastructure for purchasing the inputs, cooking (hygienic kitchen), feeding, and trashing for keeping the overall hygiene under control, must be in place for every school. The extent of work will depend on the number of students to be fed. Is the administration ready to do all these or just wish to keep on passing the buck to someone when the problem arises or a massacre happens?

A suitable woman entrepreneur of the nearby village can be selected and encouraged to get prepared and supply the mid-day food to the school children. Even a trained women cooperative can take up the task. The panchayat head can appoint some very senior man or some ex-service man to help and supervise the task.

All the schemes require the accountability of its execution fixed to right persons who are paid to carry out the responsibility. The scheme is necessary for a country such as India with so much of poverty and malnutrition, but it requires a good management too, as even ministers responsible are considering it impossible to control the quality of food provided in mid-day scheme.

We must learn lessons and take the corrective measures.

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Amartya Sen on Bihar and NaMo

Posted on July 22, 2013 by indra

I wish Amartya Sen would not have gone for remarks on Gujarat and Narendra Modi. It is known to all Indians that the politicians of the two states are almost battling about its growth models. Why shouldn’t a person such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen remain aloof? On Sunday Sen backed Bihar’s growth strategy,though Bihar had only managed to reduce the proportion of people below the poverty line from 54.4% in 2004-05 to 53.5% in 2009-10, according to the Planning Commission.

Sen further stated that without education and proper health facilities, it was difficult to achieve balanced growth. “Educated labour force is the biggest guarantor… Education and healthy labour force is able to produce everything from IT to auto parts.”

Bihar has performed very poorly even in Nitish era for providing good education. Neither the government schools are effective in educating the students nor the private sector has participated in education sector as it has done in other states. While the education in primary, middle and high schools are non-existent with no interest shown by the teachers and its so called working committees, most of the young persons are to move to other states for higher education at higher cost. Students from the poorer families canot even dream of that. Facilities for professional education is lagging badly and are of very poor standard. Unfortunately, the present government has hardly done anything for it.

Healthcare is in dismal condition as much as I know. My own village or panchayat with all the effort and the villages that I have relationship of some sorts could not get even a primary healthcare in last so many years. Bihar Model which is one built over the years Nitish has ruled is only much better than what it happened before him, but certainly it is nowhere near those of the other states and I mean it can hardly be compared even with other Bimaru states.

It is unfortunate that the impressions about Bihar is being built by the ratings of those sitting comfortably in cosy conditions far away from Bihar.

Amartya’s opinion expressing his views against Narendra Modi as the prime minister was not expected out of him. Jagdish Bhagwati never expressed his views in favour of Narendra Modi or otherwise. India is a democracy of 1.2 billion Indians. Hardly few of the voters will even know about Amartya’s views unless he goes on the digital media and campaign against Narendra Modi.

I think there is difference between Gujarat and other states historically too. How can the sensitive people of the state forget the seventeen invasions and massacres of Somnath. Amartya surely can’t appreciate that.

Posted in bihar, economy, education, indian politics | 2 Comments

Amar Bose- What Indian Professors can learn?

Posted on July 19, 2013 by indra

I wish IITs could have produced some teachers such as Amar Bose.And if I am wrong, let someone correct me. Bose was the only Indian name in US who was a great academician but for persons like me known for establishing a successful corporation that still remains unique in acoustic products and known world over. The brand ‘Bose’ is globally known something like ‘Sony’, though Bose focused on acoustics. Bose proved that one can be an excellent teacher as well as very successful business entrepreneur too. Particularly, for those educated and then pursuing a career in pure engineering, Amar Bose became a legendary figure just by his own merit.

It is unfortunate that Indian media had reported very little about the contribution of this great man of Indian origin. As Business Standard reports, “Amar Gopal Bose was born on November 2, 1929, in Philadelphia. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was a Bengali freedom fighter who was studying physics at Calcutta University when he was arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to British rule in India. He escaped and fled to the United States in 1920, where he married an American schoolteacher.” In that way, he was not really an Indian as most of the people understand it. But it appears his father played the dominant role in deciding about his son’s name that was typically Indian. And it makes me to think over if some day some in extended family will question India ness of Emma and Zach with Sharma as the family name. Technically they will be American only. It will hardly matter. But I will always wish them to become someone like Amar Bose.

“Dr. Bose received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and he accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001.
In 1964, Dr. Bose started Bose Corporation based on research he conducted at MIT.
In 2011, to fulfill his lifelong dream to support MIT education, Dr. Bose gave to MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of nonvoting shares.”

I had written about Bose during my earlier visits to US. I could read about his death only in US when Anand referred me to the article that appeared in MIT News.

Some of his interesting observations from Bose were as follows:
“I never went into business to make money (but) so that I could do interesting things that hadn’t been done before.”
“I would have been fired a hundred times at a company run by MBAs.”

And I can’t but agree with what Narayan Murthy has said about Bose, “He is the only person of Indian origin to have established a global brand.”

But more than anything else, Bose was a legendary teacher, as many in MIT confessed.“His course on psychoacoustics was jam-packed, at times with only standing room.” How many teachers can claim such popularity?

‘Business Week’ very rightly concluded, “Bose took things that were previously considered complicated and esoteric and sold them right down the upper-middle. In doing so, his company became more than just a speaker maker; it became a brand name.”

Interestingly, the media has reported deaths of three persons- Bollywood actor Pran, Ottavio Quattrocchi, and Amar Bose on the same day. For me, Amar Bose, even if he was American was important as his success story makes him icons for the children of many middle class Indians in US as well as in India.

Posted in Tecchnology, usa | Leave a comment

On the way to US again

Posted on July 15, 2013 by indra

At this age, it is really arduous to take a flight at 1.45AM. We prefer Air India as it is a straight flight of a little over fourteen hours, and it departs at this early hours. We are to leave our Noida house at least three hours before the departure time from Indira Gandhi International Airport of New Delhi.

The driver of Jalandhar Taxi reported at 9.00PM of July 11. It took some time to lock the house and come out. The family of the neighbour was at the gate to see us off. Interestingly, they had come to know about the same day.

I have left the the security of the house this time to Shiv Kumar, the field officer of one of the many security companies that have flourished in Noida. Most of the security men that these security companies engage are neither trained nor physically very able. Shiv Kumar is charging Rs 12,000 per month. Thus I shall be spending Rs 48, 000 for the four months that I shall be away from the house. Shiv Kumar had requested me to provide my contact phone number in US, but I refused asking not to disturb me in any condition. I shall not like to take any tension when I can’t help.

I had asked the airline for a wheel chair for Yamuna. This time I found all the persons pushing the wheel chair very young unlike the crooked one that we got last year. It’s a big help in getting through the various queues for the different checks at the airport because of the special attention it gets.

Waiting outside the departure gate 22 and then 24 was torturous. For ensuring security, additional security check has been added just before the departure lounge that started only at 11.45PM. As arranged by Rajesh we had got 29b and c seats. But when it appeared that many seats would remain vacant, I asked the steward if I could use the middle row of three seats and sleep if no passengers reported for it, he agreed. Yamuna was also offered one such facility. And so after the snack provided by the air
line staffs, I slept. It was already 2.30 AM but slept well upto 7.30 Am IST. Quite a good number of passengers could get similar seats for sleeping. Commercially it must be very poor for Air India. Strangely, though the flight was for New York, there were hardly any white Americans in it. Perhaps Air India is not considered worth travelling by them. Quite a large number of the passengers were persons like us perhaps going to US to stay with their children. The rest were perhaps those who had been visiting India during marriage season to attend some marriages in the family.

Another strange thing that I noticed while sleeping was the regular announcements of bad weather and request to fasten the belt, though none was complying. How can one sleeping on three seats do that. I don’t know if it happens in the same way in foreign airlines too. With nothing much to read and as I never liked to watch the TV, I preferred to jot down this note.

Air India served snack, breakfast and then lunch, and all were of good quality. But it was difficult to enjoy it at odd time of the night and when you don’t know the time.

At JFK NewYork airport, the decision of taking a wheel chair for Yamuna has been very helpful. I still walk along with her but get all advantage of special treatment at immigration checks and even in security checks. We were overjoyed after finding Tom waiting for us in the meeting place at JFK. Rajesh had engaged Tom for helping us getting transferred to terminal 8 from terminal 4 where Air India had brought us. Tom made the transfer fast and without trouble. Tom almost did what Rajesh did when we had visited last time. Tom was very good.

We had a great experience at terminal 8 where we met two ladies from Kolkata. Anuradha, a scientist at SNBose Institute was going to Boston to attend a conference where she was to present her paper. The other lady was a doctor educated from RGKar College and her husband was working in Boston. Both the ladies came on their own and started talking with us. I felt so good when Anuradha touched my feet before leaving for her flight. I wished her t o become a great scientist. Anuradha has already found a suitable match for her in her institutes itself and will be married in coming December.

And after awaiting for almost five hours or more, finally we got into small American Airlines Eagle aircraft to come to Raleigh where Zach and Anand received us. All tiredness vanished.

We are here in US for the next four months.

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Manufacturing India: News and Views-4

Posted on July 10, 2013 by indra

1. According to a new plan,Triumph Motorcycles will start assembling completely knocked-down (CKD) kits at a factory in the Gurgaon-Manesar area in Haryana. The company’s manufacturing plans in Karnataka will also be implemented . Almost all the high-end models are to get launched in India.

2. Using the expertise of its nearly 2000 engineers at Philips Innovation Centre (PIC) in Bangalore and three other R&D sites in India, and aligning the marketing and sales teams with them, Philips, the Dutch electronics company in India has launched a complete set of products that also create a new segment under its Critical Care Unit. It is branded as Philips Efficia and consists of infant Warmers and Incubators and a sophisticated, first-of-its-kind, respiratory device – NeoPAP (neonatal continuous positive airway pressure) delivery system.

3. Isuzu Motors India Pvt. Ltd, which started selling its utility vehicles in India this year, said it had entered an agreement with Hindustan Motors Ltd for contract manufacturing of sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks.I wish Hindustan Motors would have been a serious player. I still think that the news is for share market.

4. Fiat Group India has a manufacturing facility near Pune with a capacity of producing 1.60 lakh units and three lakh engines.Italy-based Fiat group, which has tied up with the US-based car maker Jeep, will launch the first model under the brand in the country during the last quarter of 2013 as a “completely built unit”. Reasons unknown, Fiat failed to be steady player in India with many of its attempts that failed.

5. Exports from special economic zones (SEZs) grew by about 31% year-on-year to Rs 4.76 lakh crore during 2012-13, compared with shipments worth R3.65 lakh crore in 2011-12. As per the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs (EPCES), out of 389 SEZs notified, 170 are operational and these exports are helping in the reducing the widening current account deficit (CAD). During 2012-13, SEZs have attracted a total of R2.36 lakh crore investment and provided direct employment opportunities to over 11 lakh people. SEZ could have pushed the exports tremendously, if the government would have been proactive and consistent with its policies.

6. A car production line is typically divided into three sub-lines — a weld line, followed by a paint shop and a final assembly line. “The assembly line typically needs the most number of workers. At Maruti’s newest line in Manesar, the weld line is 100% automated, while the paint shop has about 70% automated. Customers are demanding better quality products today and higher automation helps in maintaining consistent quality.

7. On July 15, everybody who matters in Nissan Motor Company will be in New Delhi for the global unveiling of the Datsun by Carlos Ghosn, 59, chief executive officer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.The 500-odd engineers at Renault-Nissan Technology Business Centre, located south of Chennai, are rushing against time to put together the final touches to the Datsun they will unveil before their boss in July. Given the potential size of the sub-Rs 4,00,000 car market, Nissan wants to grow its dealerships more than three-fold, from 97 right now to about 350 by 2016. The Datsun (priced under Rs 4,00,000) is going to be the new entry-level car in India.

8. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) Private Limited would enhance the production capacity to 4 million with the commissioning of its Narsapura plant in Karnataka. Motorcycles remain the biggest success story for India’s manufacturing strength. Other sectors must take lessons.

9. Himachal based forgings and gear maker Him Teknoforge together with another Baddi-based autocomponent maker Globe Precision Industries Pvt Ltd and other associates has entered into an agreement with Vadodara-based gear maker Gujarat Automotive Gears Ltd (GAGL) to acquire 55 per cent stake in the company. Smaller manufacturers are also doing their bit.

10. According to the proposal, the design and development of the aircraft is expected to cost Rs.4,355 crore and series production would entail further expenditure of Rs.3,200 crore. The aircraft is to be built through a collaborative venture of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and DRDO. It will be take some years to be ready for flight.

11. Audi, the Volkswagen Group-owned luxury car maker, is considering manufacturing certain models of its luxury cars in India instead of assembling them here, reflecting its confidence in the Indian luxury car market.

12. With an aim of boosting manufacturing and exports amid sharp fall in the rupee, the government has decided to take a slew of steps, including enhancing steel production capacity to 300 million tonnes and raising textile exports by 30 per cent this year.

Indian manufacturing sector is slowly and steadily moving to find its place. It is high time that Indian government creates a ministry for manufacturing sector after defining ‘manufacturing’ correctly. One could take lessons from China even if one doesn’t want to compete.

Amitabh Kant, CEO & MD of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation narrates in a lead column in Times of India, ” The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, Foxconn, is holding trade union “elections” at its gigantic factories in China which employ 1.2 million workers. This is a radical change demanded by an increasingly restive workforce. The company had moved from Taiwan to Shenzhen at the end of the 1980s. They are beginning to reverse the process and are now opening factories in Brazil and Indonesia. As wages rise and China evolves into a high-cost economy, will India be able to fill the vacuum to become the global centre of manufacturing?”

India has the potential to be one of the top three manufacturing nations, but for its very peculiar mind sets of the politicians who decides the government policies.

Posted in industry, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Education and Nitish

Posted on July 7, 2013 by indra

Nitish boasts of his growth model. His education minister P.K. Shahi highlights the issue of poor quality of education. “Bihar is “sitting on volcano” and corrective measures must be taken to improve the system.”

Nitish, an engineer by education, could not do much in so many years for educating the deprived class to come out of poverty in real term. But why should he? The school children are not voters, nor their parents appreciate what good education means. They are happy enough with midday meals. The boys and girls in the rural primary schools of the state hardly learn even the basics reading and writing of the languages taught, may it be Hindi or English. Arithmetics end with some numbers and tables. However, I give Nitish credit for building school buildings that are pretty visible because of its shade of paint. But all these buildings miss a boundary wall with gates and locks and do not have security arrangement to avoid pilferages. Under the present conditions, no school can have a library or laboratory of any kind. Panchayats in Bihar are only on paper. There are hardly any meeting where all the villagers assemble and discuss the issues such as education in the local schools or other development plans of the village.

According to education department sources, though the enrolment rate of students in government schools is as high as 90 per cent, the attendance is less than 50 per cent. In some districts, it is even less than 30 per cent. “The biggest reason behind poor quality education in government schools is lack of insufficient teachers. The student-teacher ratio in high schools (classes IX, X) is 163:1, which is huge. Moreover, contract teachers account for more than 70 per cent of the total number of teachers in Bihar.”

In last May, I was in few villages of Bihar. As usual, I kept on talking about the education with many acquaintances who are teachers. As I understand, the students of the poorer families get themselves enrolled in government upper schools in the towns, but they are hardly any teachers taking classes in these schools. In most of the cases, the students are prodded to join the coaching centres there manned by the same teachers who are employed in the schools. The government education system is dead. It has become a business where there are coaching centres that take responsibility for getting the attending students passed in various examinations, board or competitive ones. Unfortunately, Nitish Kumar whom everyone in Bihar thought will contribute in improving the quality of education in Bihar didn’t contribute significantly.

And the lesser is said about the institutions of higher education in Bihar, the better it will be. There are hardly any state colleges of engineering worth any value. It is only Bihar that could not get good private professional colleges of management, engineering or medicine established, so a large number of the students are to go out of the state for higher education and are forced to spend much more that what they would have done with those institutions in their own state.

Bihar under the two term rule of Nitish Kumar could have done a lot for skilling its young men and women by establishing a large number of private training schools, but Nitish couldn’t go beyond few ‘Hooner’ established for the girls of minority community. I don’t understand why

I know it will hardly bother Nitish. Nitish knows how to collect fund for his party’s election fund. Bihar’s growth story is that of construction sector and roads carried out by the contractors. Each contract contributes to the election fund, as I was told by someone engaged in this job. Recent grant by the centre of Rs. 4130 crore for rural road construction will be a boon for the survival and prosperity of Nitish’s party and party men. I don’t if it is bribe of a sort by the party ruling at the centre.

I wish Nitish takes some lessons from the teleconferences used by his today’s political opponents and use the technology in extensive way for rural education- formal for the poor and deprived students and informal for their parents.
—-

Posted in bihar, education, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Manmohan’s Era: Vote vs. Growth

Posted on July 5, 2013 by indra

I don’t blame Manmohan Singh. This government failed to do much during its last 9 plus years. It must be a great opportunity lost for a person if he is of a mental faculty of Manmohan Singh. But it doesn’t appear that Manmohan minds it. After all he has created record of a sort by holding the highest post of the country for the maximum number of years by a non- Nehru-Gandhi Indian.

Unfortunately, Manmohan has not left a stamp of his own on any of the economic reform. Manmohan could have saved the country with his prudent and authoritative decisions from the low growth rates of the last two years. But he had been forced to follow the dictates of Sonia that are focused only for getting her government back in power. Latest of her dictates is the decision to go ahead with the right of food security that is hundred percent for getting the votes.

Would not an ordinance on the land acquisition have pushed up the growth of the country better by accelerating the setting up of new projects worth Rs few lakh crores that are languishing for getting the land? That might not have the similar impact on garnering the votes. That was the reason the subject of land acquisition didn’t get the priority.How can there will be development if the land acquisitions for any project is so difficult? Let us see the examples of these delays. Odisha took eight years to acquire 2,700 acres to enable South Korean company to set up the first phase of the project, of 8-million tonne steel capacity. It took seven years for Tata Steel to start work on the Kalinga Nagar steel project and almost two decades for Utkal Alumina to construct an alumina plant in south Odisha.

Food security is certainly an excellent idea, but all similar entitlements must somehow be linked with work responsibility too for the benefectors, otherwise what will be the incentive for working sincerely and hard enough to get better remunerations and improving the quality of living.

Sonia has gone by her advisors to see her party voted to power again through the food security and cash distribution legalising the bribes of a sort.

And as I completed this write-up, the confusion over the signing of the ordinance is over. The President has signed the ordinance, the game changer as per the prince of the ruling party. It gives a legal right to monthly food handouts to 67% of the population – about 800 million Indians – at a fraction of their market price. According to experts, including Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the actual cost of implementing the right to food and putting in place a sustainable food security programme could be as high as Rs.2 trillion per year for the next three years.

Is Congress nearer to winning 2014 general election?

Congress or UPA may come in power again through these doles, but the country’s economy will be under serious strain and cost thousands of development projects that create employment for millions.

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