नयी जगह, नया गीत

Posted on August 27, 2013 by indra

नयी जगह नया गीत

एक और रात गयी
डरने की बात गई
नया प्रात
नयी बात
नयी आश
पाइन और मैपल के
पत्तों के ठोरों पर
लटके ये ओसकण
मोती से ।
रास्ते पर कंही कंही
बृक्षों के पुष्प गुच्छों से
झरते गुलाबी, सफेद
छोटे छोटे हजारों फ़ुल ।

कंही कंही
कभी कभी
स्कूली बच्चों
का मजमा
खिलाता मन ।
साफ धूप
है अनूप
सुंदर सजे
गली शहर
चारो तरफ ।

और बरामदे के बाहर
वह छोटी
सुन्‍दर गौरया सी
पानी पीती चिड़िया
आकर्षक, अनदेखी, रंगीन ।
फिर वे दो उछलते
सामने के जंगल से आते
खरगोस और उनका
टमाटर प्रेम ।
और पड़ोसी के पच्छी
पूरा घर चिड़िया खाना
चारो तरफ बिखरीं
कबिताएं हैं
और मेरी बटोरते रहने की
इमानदार कोशिश ।

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‘Sonia’nomics hurting India

Posted on August 24, 2013 by indra

In Noida, on every Saturday, I find a number of young men coming inside the residential complexes from the villages of Noida and ask for alms for Shani God. Will they not be part of the Food Security Bill and should they be? I feel the government must not take the responsibility of those healthy persons who go for such professions without making any effort to get themselves engaged. And how would have I reacted when I was told during one of my visit to Bihar that many dealt with the providers of NREGA on 50-50 sharing basis without working for even a minute? Why couldn’t India dig or repair thousands of ponds and water bodies for irrigation in draught prone areas with such a large expenditure on the scheme?

As against those Shani exploiters, Hari and many like him in Noida wash clothes, clean cars, supply newspapers or flowers, deliver grocery items to earn their living. A large number of women work as household maids on part time basis and earn or supplement household earnings. The food security bill must take care of these persons. Any system must encourage persons to work harder to live a better life. Unfortunately, I have found that most of such persons don’t get ration through PDS because the system of getting ration cards is cumbersome and requires bribing.

There must be a clear difference between destitute or physically disabled and those who are able bodied but don’t want to work. The nation must take care of the destitute but must not do anything that encourages its citizens to get enrolled in that BPL group because of a corrupt system. The country has already a large numbers of scheme that can take care of the destitute and those who are working for their living but earning petty amount.

How can the number of such poor persons in the country be two third of the whole population for getting food security, when the same government talks of great development work done to bring down the poverty level in millions every year over the decades?

Can India afford to spend lakhs of crores on welfare schemes? Has not Sonia Gandhi’s welfare economics hurt the Indian economy enough with little result?

Before going for this new food security bill, the government must work on making all the existing welfare schemes effective so that there is no leaks before the existing entitlements reach the beneficiaries. I suggest five years holiday for getting any new scheme introduced.Whichsoever scheme hadn’t be implemented efficiently, must be discarded.

Unfortunately, all the social welfare schemes introduced by Sonia Gandhi bearing one or the other name of her family members are hardly effective, For example, MNREGA has hardly helped those for whom it was meant. It will be clear from figures of the percentage of the families that got the work and the average number of days in a year that they got it.

Why does Sonia Gandhi think that she is the only who can think about what is good for the nation? Is she or her sycophant advisors the most intelligent in this country of billion plus? According to Kiran Saw Mazumdar, India can’t afford Food Security Bill in present economic scenario. Arun Shourie advises to stop the food security bill. Even Yashwant Sinha calls the bill rediculous under the present economic condition of the country, even against the policy of his party.Sonia would have heard at least to what RBI opines.

Unfortunately, I do not expect Sonia Gandhi to rethink over pressing the bill, not because it, like the other schemes will bring an immediate relief for all Indians who need it, but sheerly because she thinks it may win her 2014 election. Should not the voters stop Sonia from killing the goose for getting the golden egg?

Let Sonia support and encourage all the states, at least the Congress ruled states to emulate Amma Canteen in Chennai started by Tamil Nadu government or the food security solution of Chhatisgarh.

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Falling Rupee vs. Sonia’s Food Bill

Posted on August 21, 2013 by indra

For Sonia Gandhi, Food Security Bill is important as a means to win the forthcoming general election even after all scams of her government and not the unprecedented falling rupee deteriorating the image of India in the domestic market and that abroad.

And the brilliant leaders of opposition doesn’t budge from their demand that the PM should come and talk on missing files of Coalgate, when they would have demanded PM to come and make a statement on his plans for facing the serious financial crisis or resign or call election. How can the Indian politicians be so immune to the crisis? India is no where today in the game plans of the foreign investors with deep pockets.

Since July 15, when the government appeared to wake up and started taking measures, the Indian Rupee currency has depreciated 5.40 per cent, falling from Rs.59.89 to Rs.63.13 to the dollar. Is it not a crisis? And even this depreciation of Rupee has not meant a sustainable boost to exports.

The current account deficit (CAD) is not so much to do with monetary policy as with prolonged neglect of the real sector of the economy such one by failed to create a conducive environment for investment in manufacturing.

Domestic manufacturing and agriculture are the only activities that can sustain the growth of the country with so huge a population to consume.

How can the revenue collected from the tax payers be wasted in unproductive way in name of redistribution through doles? How can those making and running the policy formulations keep themselves happy in a country that they have created with sixty six percent poor class requiring a support such as food bill after sixty seven years of independence ?

Why should our exports not exceed imports? Except for crude oil, India can be self-sufficient in production of coal, if mines are managed well, and farmers are technically supported and encouraged for producing the vegetable oils and pulses. Why the government is failing to do that. What can be the logics of exporting cotton and iron ores or importing of apples and exotic fruits and vegetables or toys and electronics? Why should all nonessential items, for examples, Lakshmi and Ganesh and fancy decorative lightings be freely allowed to be imported from China and other countries? Why can’t the government machinery be proactive rather than reactionary? How depressing it is to hear of the man-made poor state of affairs of Indian economy for any nationalist?

For a person of my background and many like me, it is really worrying. We thought the money from the sale of the inherited properties and our savings from the forty years of good enough professional career after the IIT qualification would be sufficient to gift some for the higher education of our grandchildren.But perhaps with the highly inflationary economy and weak Rupee, it will just be a dream. I still remember that in 1966, when I went to UK first time, I took 500 dollars from an American friend of mine who was working with me and paid him Rs 2500 at the rate of Rs five for a dollar. Today, it is around Rs. 64 a dollar.

It is interesting that with top class brains of Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh, P Chidambaram, the economy of the country has gone to this level. Are their stakes no higher in it than that of Sonia Gandhi? How long the country will have to bear with a third grade mind in the most powerful position of the country, just because she is wife of a grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru?

Posted in economy, governance, industry, management, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How can PM excel with FMs failing?

Posted on August 16, 2013 by indra

I am fortunately in US, otherwise I would have been highly depressed. With grandchildren at hand, I can bear all the worst that I come to read from Indian media sites that I can access from here about the great fall of Indian Rupee and Sensex.

I got a shock of life after reading the prime minister’s speech on Independence Day that I would have also in India. I failed as I could be on internet at right time. I do’t find any use of watching it after reading the speech for a person with zero oratory skill and impression-less face.

Why should a prime minister keep on comparing some few performance data of his time period with that of Atal Bihari Bajpai who was the first only person of opposition party to rule the country? For example, “In 2004, only 7 percent of the people had telephone connections. Today, 73 percent enjoy this facility. In rural areas, this figure has gone up from 2 to 40.” Would not the prime minister give an inspiring speech that can keep the hope alive with more details on ways and means to revive back the economy? And if at all Manmohan is concerned about the present condition, why didn’t he take the proactive steps to avoid today’s situation? How can the present finance minister blame indirectly the previous finance minister for the failure caused by some policies enunciated by the subject finance minister?

Will Manmohan give back to the new government likely to be of other party a good strong economy that he got from the NDA which his the then finance minister confessed publicly? If Manmohan has belatedly taken certain steps to correct the track why can’t some implementation be expedited as required for say a national financial emergency? Many economists are pronouncing that India is fast moving to an economic misery of 90s. Why can’t a special session of parliament discuss the issues related to dismally slowing economy and what measures the government has taken to build a consensus with opposition on this national crisis-in-making? How can the nation keep on believing that the economist prime minister can save it from the crisis or only his finance ministers are responsible for the misery?

Has the prime minister forgotten all the lessons of economy because his boss will neither replace or sack him? How can a country afford to have prime minister that does not act and don’t rightly advise his ministers?

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Manufacturing India: An Unique Achievement

Posted on August 13, 2013 by indra

In last few days at least two events reported in media tell some thing great about Indian manufacturing.

The Indian navy launched its first indigenous aircraft carrier on Aug 12 at Kochi, making the country only the fifth in the world with capability to build such vessels.

Only the US, Russia, Britain and France have capacity to design and build aircraft carriers of 40,000 tonnes and heavier. It has been designed by Indian Navy’s design organisation and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL). The construction has used high-strength steel developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Steel Authority of India Ltd.

Dimensionally, it is about 260 metre in length and 60 m in breadth and capable of attaining speeds over 28 knots (56 km per hour). The carrier will be able to accommodate about 25 aircrafts with a crew of about 1,450, and power generation capacity of 24 MW.

Interestingly, on the indigenisation levels, the aircraft carrier is 80 to 90 percent in the float category (fabrication) and 50 to 60 percent in the move category (propulsion and related machinery). The carrier’s production commenced in 2006 and its keel was laid in 2009.

Bhilai Steel Plant and other plants of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) — at Rourkela, Durgapur and Bokaro — have manufactured 26,000 tonnes of high-grade “warship steel”.

However, it will undergo extensive trials till 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end. Fighter aircraft–Mig-29K, Light Combat Aircraft and Kamov-31 helicopters–will deployed on board the carrier which will also carry an array of other weapons

This is certainly an example of great prowess of Indian manufacturing sector and skills of the workforce including engineers.

The second story relates to the miniaturisation of nuclear power plant for indigenously built nuclear submarine INS Arihant, that reached criticality, that is, became capable of fully powering the vessel. As reported, “India’s private sector helped out the $2.9-billion project in significant ways. The hull for the vessel was built by L&T’s Hazira shipbuilding facility, Tata Power built the control systems for the submarine, while the systems for the steam turbine integrated with the reactor are supplied by Walchandnagar Industries, reported DNA newspaper in 2009.”

Though the public sector units have achieved through the above two examples a huge mileage in manufacturing, but a lot is to be done to be as competitive as the advanced nations. India must develop, design and manufacture more of the high technologies products and sell them as a global player.

There are miles and miles to go, and for that big private companies must also join the R&D as well as manufacturing race of the country.

As we all know, the manufacturing in India still remains neglected and
in marked contrast to the great majority of emerging nations, the share of manufacturing in GDP has stagnated at around 15-17 per cent for decades in India. Perhaps, the PSUs in manufacturing such as BHEL, BMEL, BEL must be encouraged to go global, but on its own strength of R&D, and business practices.

Posted in industry, management, manufacturing | 1 Comment

केरी प्रवास, कुछ अनुभव, कुछ बिचार

Posted on August 10, 2013 by indra

शनिवार,केरी(Cary), हारमनि(Harmony), अगस्त ३ ।हम आज के सबेरे का नाश्ता ले आये थे डनकिन डोनट्स से ।बरामदे में बैठ नाश्ता और इधर उधर की बातों में मग्न थे । अचानक नज़र घर के सामने खड़ी एक बुजुर्ग महिला पर गयी सलवार कुर्ता में । मुझे लगा वे बात करना चाहती हैं, मैंने यमुना को जा बात करने ओैर पूछने को कहा ।यमुना सकपका रहीं थीं, इस बीच मैं ही चला गया । पता चला, वे लाहौर की हैं और अपनी लड़की के पास आइ हैं।रोज़ अपने नवाजे, नाती को स्‍कूल छोड़ने आती हैं । आज छुट्टी थी, रमादान भी चल रहा है, सबेरे उठीं तो सोचीं थोड़ा घूम ही लें ।पर रास्ता पर चलते चलते दिशा भ्रम हो गया, घंटे भर से परेशान थीं, घर खोज नहीं पा रहीं थीं, किसी से पूछ भी नहीं सकती थीं भाषा न जानने के चलते, किसी हिन्दुस्तानी को खोज रहीं थीं ।मेरे पूछने पर पता चला, उन्हे अपने घर का नम्बर भी नहीं पता । सैनन को पता चला तो वह रेज़िडेंट एसोसीयेशन से सम्पर्क करने लगी । आनंद महिला को ले स्‍कूल तक गये । अचानक उन्हे दिशाज्ञान आ गया ओैर वे ख़ुशी से नाच उठीं, फिर भी हमने आंनद को साथ जाने को कहा । वे उन्हें घर तक पहुंचा आये । आश्चर्य तब हुआ,जब आनंद बताए कि कोइ घर के बाहर आ पूछा तक नहीं ।मुझे याद है यमुना के साथ भी यही हुआ था, उस समय आनंद प्लेज़ेन्टन, कैलिफोर्निया में रहते थे । यमुना को जब राश्ता भूलने का अहसास हुआ तो एक अमरीकी सज्‍जन से सहायता मांगी और बताया कि आनंद का घर स्वीमिंग पूल के सामने है । उस दिन हम भी काफी डर गये थे ।आज भारत, नेपाल, बंगलादेश, पाकिस्तान से अपने बच्चों के अमरीका में आ जाने के कारण सभी तबकों के लोग आते हैं तो ऐसी घटना हो ही सकती है । पर एक पाकिस्तानी महिला को थोड़ी सहायता कर बहुत अच्छा लगा ।

आनंद का घर नौर्थ केरोलिना के राज्य मार्ग ५५ पर थोड़ा हट कर हारमनि कॉम्प्लेक्स में है । बीच में यहाँ का टर्नर क्रिक एलाइमेन्ट्री स्‍कूल है ।नयी बस्‍ती है, और काफी भारतीय रहते हैं, केरी में करीब ६.५ प्रतिशत रिसर्च ट्रायंगल पार्क के चलते ।सभी प्रदेशों के लोग हैं पर दक्षिण भारत, खासकर आंध्र प्रदेश के ज़्यादा । दस बारह हमारे तरह के बुजुर्ग भी भारत से आते जाते रहते हैं ।इसबार तीन एेसे लोगों से परिचय हुआ, दो आंध्र के और एक पुणे के । उन तीनों की लड़कियाँ रहतीं हैं दामादों के साथ ।कुछ और लोग भी हैं जो रास्ते पर घूमते हुये दिख जाते हैं, पर सभी सम्पर्क नहीं बढ़ाने में रुचि रखते, भाषा का अंतर भी कारण होता है ।कुछ अन्य देशों के बुजुर्ग भी दिखते हैं, पर बात नहीं होती । भारतीय नयी पीढ़ी के यहां काम करनेवाले लोग बुजुर्गों से कतराते हैं । एक दूसरे के घर जाने का रिवाज नहीं के बराबर है ।इस बार लग रहा है काफी भारतीय महिलाएं भी काम करने लगीं हैं । उनका बड़ी बड़ी गाड़ियों को चलाते हुए आना जाना अच्छा लगता है ।हम अपने बरामदे में बैठे यह सब देखते रहते हैं ।

आनंद का घर हारमनि में प्रवेश करते दाहिने रोड पर बायें का पहला है । आनंद के पड़ोसी एक भारतीय युवती हैं जिन्होने एक अमरीकी युवक से शादी की हैं । यह दम्पति मिलना तो दूर कभी आते जाते भी नहीं दिखते ।घर के ठीक सामने एक अमरीकी परिबार का घर है, दम्पति और उनके दो बच्चे, बड़ा लड़का कॉलेज जाता,छोटी लड़की स्‍कूल में । वे तीन चार पक्षी पाल रखे हैं अफ्रीका एवं दक्षिण अमरीका के बिभिन्न देशों के ।एक तो तोता की तरह रंगीन है पर बहूत बड़ा ।कभी कभी किसी पक्षी को कंधे पर ले घर के बाहर भी घूमता दिखता है । काफी मिलनसार है हमारे यहाँ भी आता जरूरत पड़ने पर ।मुझसे वायदा किया है अपने पक्षियों को दिखाने का । उसके अनुसार एक पक्षी तो तीन भाषा बोल लेता है । वे टी भी प्रोग्रामों का लुत्फ भी लेते हैं और उनके प्रिय चैनल को बदलने पर मना भी ।

शाम को घूम कर आने पर अधिकाँशत: हम पीछवाड़े में बैठते है, वहीं एमा, जैक खेलते है, हम भी कभी कभी उनका मन बहलाने के लिये उसमें भाग लेते हैं । हारमनि का क्लब और स्वीमिंग पूल का नजारा भी देख मन बहलाते हैं । पर सबसे अच्छा होता है दूर बादलों के बीच सूर्यास्त का रंगीन दृश्य दिब्य, अनूठा ।

हां, इसबार यहाँ सभी छिड़काव के बावजूद भी मच्छरों का पर्कोप है, वे इतने छोटे हैं कि दिखते नहीं पर गहरा घाव करतें हैं, फुनसी से शुरू हो लाल छोटे घाव बन जाते हैं । और ख़ुजलाता जाता है, ख़ुजलाना अच्छा लगता है और यह तीन चार दिन चलता है ।
पर सबसे मज़ेदार अनुभव तो एमा एवं जैक के कारनामों के हैं जो संजीवनी बन जीने का आनंद प्र्दान कर रहे हैं ।

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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?

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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.

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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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