For a Change

Posted on March 4, 2013 by indra

I have written against Manmohan a little more only with a hope that he will speed up the development of this beloved country that has remained under subjugation for centuries.

Manmohan though has failed as an administrator, but he remained dreamer and contributed significantly with some clear cut projects.

1. Manmohan established 16central universities including conversion of three state universities to central universities, seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 8 new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education &Research (IISERs), and 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs).

2. Manmohan has initiated and may be completing theNational Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) which aims at providing high speed broadband connectivity to universities and colleges and development of e-content in various disciplines is under implementation. Nearly 404 universities have been provided 1Gbps connectivity or have been configured under the scheme and 19,851 colleges have also been provided VPN connectivity. Over 250 courses have been completed and made available in National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) Phase I and another 996 courses in various disciplines in engineering and science are being generated in Phase-II of NPTEL by IIT Madras.

3. The project planned by the previous government has started the construction of 6 AIIMS-like institutions at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh.

4. For providing the right human resources for the Indian IT industry, the key sector that made India a global brand, the government has also approved setting up of twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) on PPP basis that are targeted for completion in nine years from 2011-12 to 2019-20.

5. Bharat Nirman programme, the brainchild of Manmohan was really a wonderful one, as the time frame for the targets were defined. It would have changed the picture of the rural India, but the execution was very poor. For example as per the programme, my village has been electrified, but it hardly gets electricity for few days in a year for few hours in the day. If MNREGA would have effectively used for building water bodies and canals, it could have provided water for irrigation for a large number of farmers.

I wish Manmohan would have focused on few priority items.

1. Manmohan could certainly improve upon the hurdles of red tape and things required for doing business fast and attracted FDI.
2. Manmohan could certainly gone to implement the reforms suggested by many committees for police adminstration.
3. Manmohan could certainly got built the storage facilities for food grains to avoid wastage.
4. Manmohan could have certainly improved the role of manufacturing sector as strategy for providing more employment. Manmohan could have convinced the defence bosses to get more indigenisation of many equipment required by armed forces by bringing in private sector in it.

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Railway Budget or Literary Marvel

Posted on February 27, 2013 by indra

As reported, it was after seventeen years that a Congressman presented The Indian Railway budget yesterday. It amazed me for few things in it. I wondered why the railway minister must read the whole budget in detail that went on for 75minutes.The poor minister was failing to pronounce even the name of the places and stations. However, to impress upon the members he integrated in it poetic flourishes:

“While I have a feeling of a colossus today, it is only ephemeral and is
instantaneously overtaken by a sense of humility. Democracy gives
wings to the wingless, cautioning us all the while, that howsoever high
or wide our flight may be, we must remain connected to the ground.”

“When it was snowing heavily in Kashmir valley, and suspension of road and air services had brought life to a grinding halt. Photographs in Newspapers showing a train covered with snow emerging from a similar white background, carrying passengers travelling over the recently commissioned Qazigund -Baramulla section instilled in me a sense of immense pride.I recall here the inspirational words of Christine Weatherly”:
When you travel on the railway,
And the line goes up a hill,
Just listen to the engine
As it pulls you with a will.
Though it goes very slowly
It sings this little song
“I think I can, I think I can,”
And so it goes along.
——–
I do believe that one day Railways shall find ways to contribute to its infrastructural projects.”
A bird sitting on a tree has no fear of falling, not because of the strength of the
branch but because of faith in its own wings.
——–
Earlier I had cited Christine Weatherly. I turn to her again.
But later on the Journey….
….the engine’s singing still.
If you listen very quietly
You will hear this little song,
“I thought I could, … I could!”
And so it speeds along.
I was happy and then surprised that even after an estimated loss of Rs 24,600 crore in 2012-13, the minister proposed to set up a number of new manufacturing/maintenance facilities:
i. a new Forged Wheel Factory at Rae Bareli for which an MoU has
been signed with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL);

ii. a Greenfield Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU)
manufacturing facility at Bhilwara, Rajasthan in collaboration
with state government and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
(BHEL);

iii. a coach manufacturing unit in Sonepat district, Haryana in
collaboration with the state government;

iv. midlife rehabilitation (MLR) Workshop at Kurnool, Andhra
Pradesh in collaboration with the state government;

v. conversion of Bikaner and Pratapgarh workshops to undertake
POH of BG wagons;

vi. a workshop for repair and rehabilitation of motorised bogies at
Misrod, Madhya Pradesh;

vii. a new wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi district,
Odisha;

viii. a modern signalling equipment facility at Chandigarh through
PPP

Interestingly, the budget doesn’t mention of all the projects that were announced by previous railway ministers over the years and their status. I don’t know what happened to two factories that Lalu Yadav proposed to be set up in Bihar. What happened to the projects of worldclass railway stations that were promised? Is New Delhi Railway Station now world class?

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Education and Bihar

Posted on February 26, 2013 by indra

The country is already having some models of schools such as Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Kasturba Gandhi Kanya Vidyalayas that are faring wonderfully well. It would have better if these can be located in rural Bihar. The centre has also plans for setting up 6000 model schools. Under the scheme, the centre or some from private sector under PPP mode will have a model school at each block headquarters. The state must demand its share as fast as possible and facilitate the programme proactively. Each school will have up to 2,500 seats. The Centre will sponsor a maximum of 1,000 students. For the rest of the 1,500-odd seats, the private management can charge as much it decides.

The Bihar government must approach the departments concerned at the centre for getting more such schools, as many as possible, in Bihar without any bias. Instead of getting some new models of school, Bihar must see the possibility of replicating these models.

Bihar must improve the quality of education at primary school level and that too in its rural regions. With so poor urbanization, if the rural schools don’t get proper and regular monitoring, Bihar will lag behind. It is only through quality education that the deprived categories of the society, be it Dalit or Mahadalit or the minority, can surely come out of poverty.

The Bihar government will have to take up the mission of education on the same footing as it took up for the alleviation of polio. It will have to reach each and every individual to have universal education through 100 percent enrolment and no dropout till the student gets skilled in at least one employable trade.

The preschool care will require special attention. It will be interesting that toddler engineering and management is getting special attention for the educationists all over the world.
Vijay Govindarajan, the Earl C Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, suggests in an article recently using everyday analogies to teach pre-kindergarten 4-5 years children engineering concepts. He has based it on the findings of innovator and thinker George Land.
“In 1968, George Land gave eight tests of creative thinking to children between three and five years old. He found that 98 per cent of them scored in the creative genius category. When the same children took identical tests five years later, only 32 per cent scored that high. Five years later, it was down to 10 per cent. Two lakh adults over the age of 25 have taken the same tests and only 2 per cent scored at the creative genius level. In his co-authored book Breakpoint and Beyond, Land says that the “socialisation process restricts the natural creativity of our thinking potential by assigning value judgments… our proficiency in expressing our creativity gradually drops off as we learn to accept others’ opinions, evaluations and beliefs”.

As Late Prof Indresan pleaded, the proper way to get SC and ST students into higher education was not through quotas but through quality education from primary school itself.

When the world is going ahead so far, how can we afford to lag behind? Anganbari workers need a lot of training and retraining to take care of the preschool toddlers even in rural India. These preschool must go in the vicinity of the habitations of the deprived communities in rural Bihar.

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Bihar: Higher Education

Posted on February 21, 2013 by indra

Bihar after separation of JHARKHAND didn’t loose much on higher education. Most of the reputed colleges and universities are still in Bihar. However, the reputed ones of yester years have lost its glory over the years. Media, as such, hardly cover the educational institutes sufficiently. One hardly find the names of the Bihar’s colleges teaching arts, science, commerce, engineering, medicines, law or management in the ranking lists that ‘India Today’ or ‘Outlook’ normally publish at least once in year to guide the parents and prospective students to select the best of the colleges. I kept on looking for it every time such copy came in my hands.

Why should not the colleges of Patna such as Science College, BNCollege or for that matter, Patna Women College be looked with the same respect and pride as the colleges of Delhi by the students and even employers? Can the Nitish government do something for bringing back the respectability and glory of the old colleges of Patna? Can the government allocate sufficient fund and encourage them to create endowment fund with contribution from alumni and philanthropists? Can the professors be made more accountable and the good ones are given motivational awards and recognition? Perhaps, with the type of stuffs on roll as teachers and the poor interactions between the chief minister and the Chancellor i.e. the governor, it will be difficult.

The revolutionary emergence of private institutes of management, engineering or medicine that happened in southern, western and now even the central and northern India, bypassed Bihar. I was surprised the other day when Sonu called me from Dumraon, Bihar. He is teaching in a private engineering college there. Very lately, some few private engineering colleges and management schools have come up in Bihar. However, during Nitish era, five institutes of importance- IIT, BIT, AIIMS came to and got started in and around Patna. Two other institutes that can make the difference- Chanakya Law University and Chandragupta School of Management became operative again in Patna.

However, I am more concerned about the colleges that teach general subjects. And the government and particularly the chief minister and the education minister must come out with some time-bound solutions of the hurdles in making these colleges respectable academically.

I am amazed to learn that around eight lakh students have appeared for the intermediate examination this year. With high percentage of success these days, some five lakh boys and girls will look for higher education in the colleges. I don’t know the capacity in the 816 colleges of Bihar (I have picked up the figure from a report in Times of India. I don’t know if the number is right and if the number has taken care of the minimum infrastructure required for a good college). I don’t know the number of the candidates who will like to get admitted in those colleges. As I know, most who can afford will send their children to the institutes outside the states. I am also unaware of the total outflow of money every year to different states because of the paucity of good colleges in the state. Many of these youngsters do well but quite a few just drain out the money from the parents or family heads in rural Bihar and return after wasting few years. Can Bihar government or some NGO start an effective and honest counseling for the young men and women along with the parents going outside for studies?

I wish Bihar government promotes the concept of Science and Technology City where a cluster of institutes come up under a model ambiance. The cluster can have facilities such as higher secondary schools, science colleges, engineering and medical colleges with an institute of R&D in different areas. The cluster must be made free for the students from all parts of the country. Someone like Madan Mohan Malviya must pioneer the idea of making Bihar known in the field of education.

Bihar can’t flourish with mere GDP. It must do away with some poor traits that have come to be associated with Bihar. And on that line, Bihar has not changed.

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Education: Some Self-Explaining Data

Posted on February 16, 2013 by indra

There are frequent bad news reports regarding the quality of education in India such as ASER 2012, but there are reasons to be hopeful too. I get elated when I watch some advertisement on TV channels about e-learning such as one from Tata Class Edge or programmes on Topper channels. Even some responsible individuals and institutions such as Premji Foundation or Pratham are doing wonderful work in the area of educating deprived children in rural or slum areas in different parts of this big country.
However, here are some data that may help the policy makers and grassroots workers:

1.The number of school children is a mind boggling 226.7 million school students and as many as 1.3 million schools which means that on the average there was a school for every 173 students.

2. Out of 1.3 million schools, the largest segment was the primary schools (with classes from I-V) which accounted for 0.75 million or 58% of the total schools. Upper primary schools (classes VI to VIII) accounted for 0.36 million or another 28% of the total schools. Secondary schools (classes IX to X) were 0.11 million or 9% of the total schools while higher secondary schools were 0.06 or just 4.9% of the total schools.

3. In the case of primary schools, as many as 670,799 or around 88% of the total schools had proper buildings and only 11,513 were in held in open space.

4. The pupil teacher ratio was at healthy levels with the numbers ranging from 32 students per teacher in primary schools, 31 students per teacher in upper primary schools, 28 students per teacher in secondary schools and 34 students per teacher in upper secondary schools.

5. In the primary schools with out of a total teacher population of 2.39 million teachers as many as 1.84 million or 77.1% were full time teachers. Para or contract teachers numbered only 0.54 million or 22.9% of the total.

6. 12.7% of the primary schools of India had only one teacher while another 39.1% had only two teachers. This means that an overwhelming 51.8% or more than half the primary schools in the country had two teachers or less.

7. Over 90% of schools in India are either run directly by the government or are government funded.
8. For the six to 14 age group, enrollment in private schools across the country has increased from 18.7% in 2006 to 28.3% in 2012.
9. “If this trend continues, by 2018 India may have 50% of children attending private schools even in rural areas.”
10. In the U.S. more than 80% of children attend public schools and in U.K., this number is over 90%.

11. The government’s spending on education in financial year 2012 increased to 3.35% of GDP from 2.62% in 2005.

12. Over 60 million children will soon be entering colleges and that 700-800 universities need to be founded in the next 10 years.
13. The Indian higher education system has emerged as one of the largest in the world, with 14.6 million students enrolled in more than 31,000 institutions, according to an Ernst & Young report on education. Over the past decade, the number of universities in the country has increased at a CAGR of 7.5% (from 272 to 556) while the number of colleges has grown at a CAGR of 11% (from 11,146 to 31,324).
14. India goal is to get at least 30% of India’s 240 million schoolchildren into higher education over the next decade, up from the 12.4% currently. “Any nation must ensure that a critical mass of people move into the university system — not less than 30-40%.
15. India currently has 480 universities and 22,000 colleges. In the next 10 years, it will need 700 new universities and 35,000 new colleges.
16. China is setting up a new university each month to support between 20,000 and 30,000 students each.

@India still has the world’s largest number of illiterates at over 250 million. 35% of the world’s illiterate people are in India.

17. 46% of India’s schoolchildren drop out before they get to middle school.

18. A research conducted by IMRB for Pearson, in the Indian K-12 segment while almost 38,000 classrooms have installed whiteboards, less than 52% of the classrooms are able to use them due to mismatched content with the textbook.

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खाने में रुचि और खास पसंद

Posted on February 16, 2013 by indra

बचपन से ही खाने में अपना एक अलग शौक था ।हमारे गांव में सबेरे शाम चावल ही बनता था । मुझे महीन और सुगंध वाला चावल ही अच्छा लगता था ।उसिना चावल (boiled) मैं सपने में भी नहीं खा सकता था, आज भी यही हाल है । रोटी नाश्ते के लिये सबेरे बनती थी, फिर कभी कभी लिटी चोखा जो मुझे बहुत भाता था उन दिनों भी ।लिटि में भरा मशालेदार सत्तू गुड घी में मिला बहुत चाव से खाता था । पर गावों में एक और अच्छी लगनेवाली चीज होती थी चबेना या भुंजा, चावल या चिउरा को गरम बालू में भूंज कर बनता था और गुड़ के साथ फ़ाँकते थे । मेरी परदादी कटोरे में भुंजा डाल लयनु या घर में बनाये सौंधे घी का ढेला भी सबसे छिपा कर डाल देतीं थीं ।यह नाश्ता सबेरे, शाम या कुछ खाने की इच्छा होने पर कभी भी मिल जाता था ।हां, चिउरा तो दूध दही के साथ गुड़ या चीनी मिला भी बहुत अच्छा लगता था । और सर्दियों में उसी चबेने का तिलवा बना दिया जाता था । सर्दी में तो हल्दी, मेथी, या सोंठ के लड्डू भी बनते थे जो मुझे बहुत स्वादिष्ट लगते थे ।

बिरलापुर आने पर मेरी मनपसंद खानों का अभाव हो गया ।कहाँ से आये कस्तूरी चावल, मैं रोटी से ही काम चलाता रहा ।चावल जो गॉव से किसी के आने पर आता था, मेरे लिये रिज़र्व कर रख दिया जाता था ।दादी वही कभी कभी मेरे लिये बना देतीं थीं ।आलू मुझे एकदम नहीं भाते थे ।विश्‍वास नहीं होता है कि दादी खीरा का सरसों डाल मेरे लिये सब्‍जी बनाती और मैं रोटी उसके सहारे खा लेता था । १९५०-१९७० तक देश में अन्न की बड़ी कमी थी ।अमरीका और मेक्सिको से गेहूँ आता था और थाइलैंड से चावल । मैं उनमें लाल गेहूँ का आटा एकदम नहीं खा सकता था ।हाँ, उन्ही दिनों मेरी एक पसंद बना रोटी को बारीक बना दूध चीनी डाल खाना ।

कालेज के होस्टलों में मुझे कुछ पसंद नहीं आता था ।हिंदू हॉस्टल में दाल और सब्‍जी में भी चिंगड़ी मछली रहती थी उसना चावल के साथ ।किसी दिन पेट नहीं भरता था । पर हर महीने एक फिस्ट का दिन होता था, उस दिन लुचि(पूड़ी), बंगाली चना दाल, पुलाव और खजूर की मीठी चटनी बनती थी, डट कर खाते थे ।खड़गपुर में सब रसोइये आंध्र प्रदेश के थे और रसम, सॉम्भर बनाते थे, उस समय तक हमें वह एकदम नहीं भाते थे । पर कट ही गये छ साल । बिरलापुर जाने पर अच्छे बारीक चावल घी और पकौड़े के साथ बड़े स्वादिष्ट लगते थे और वह आज भी हैं, पर उसमें घी निकल गया है हृदय के बाइपास के बाद ।

हिंदमोटर्स में यमुना के आने के पहले हमारे साथ अच्छे नौकर रसोइया मिले, आलू परोठा, आलू पूरी, टमाटर भंरवा, गाजर हलवा और चिकेन चला ।चिकेन का एेसा बुखार चढ़ा कि २४वें जन्मदिन पर २४ चिकेन का भोज हुआ ।फिर यमुना आ गयीं और एक नये साल के दिन मैं फिर मांंसाहारी से शाकाहारी बन गया और आजतक हूँ ।देश बिदेश बहुत घूमा, पर काम चल गया ।पर आज भी कुछ चीजों की कमजोरी बनी हुइ है: सर्दियों में ताजे मटर की घूघनी, या दाल और भभरा एक दो बार बन ही जाता है, साथ में ग़ाजर का हलवा ।लिटटी तो अब बनती नहीं दाँत टूट जाने के बाद । चलो अगली इनिंग में ।

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India’s Manufacturing- Victim of Corruption

Posted on February 14, 2013 by indra

Indian policy makers agree that only manufacturing can create employment in millions to absorb the population joining the workforce every year. At least the nation’s manufacturing policy sets the same objective.

The Government historically set up many enterprises under various ministries to produce a large number of critical industrial equipment, particularly in capital equipment, where the private sector was reluctant to enter. Except for very few, others are just white elephants and drain on the national exchequer. Frequently, some get allocation for revival too. But the government never tried to see that all those manufacturing units become globally competitive too. With the choppers scam in media, I wondered why a country like India with all necessary resources could not be self-sufficient in producing helicopters of different applications in more than six try years after the independence. Why has the company such as HAL in aviation sector not been able to produce even reliable helicopters? Can someone justify the India’s total dependence on import? Can someone justify that the country that can launch sophisticated satellites and missiles and build nuclear plants on its own can’t develop reliable helicopters for different applications? If India would have been manufacturing helicopters in the country, it could have created a lot of employment in the manufacturing company as well as with many of the parts-suppliers.

The story of Arjuna, the indigenous battle tanks and Tejas fighter are known. Arjuna has taken decades to get into the Indian army. Tejas is still waiting to be introduced in India’s Air Force. The people in authority in all the wings of defence forces make it difficult to accept locally manufactured machines. Millions are wasted in developing technologies and products, but not accepted by the defence executives and politicians. It all happens because import only can provide huge bribe that is shared at the concerned people at all levels. Instead of getting involved in the development of better equipment in the country, the officers create troubles at all levels.

The disease has been contagious and spreading to even all the civil sectors such as Electricity Boards, Railways and Telecom too. Even the private sector is not sacrosanct and many know about it. We heard few months ago BMEL scam of Tetra trucks for army. BMEL would have by now indigenized Tetra trucks. If that couldn’t Tata Motors or M&M would have done it. That is the reason that the country’s capital industry couldn’t reach the globally competitive scale. The nation will have to rethink the ways and means to correct the situation.

India has already lost its first chance to be a low cost manufacturing nation. Between 2001 and 2010, China’s manufacturers captured nearly 45 percent of the global growth in manufacturing exports from low-cost countries, whereas India accounted for a paltry 5 percent. India could become a viable manufacturing alternative to China in industries ranging from apparel, auto components, and high-technology sector such as aviation and might even dominate some new manufacturing sectors in new technologies.

According McKinsey analysis, ‘rising demand in India, together with the multinationals’ desire to diversify their production to include low-cost plants in countries other than China, could together help India’s manufacturing sector to grow six fold by 2025, to $1 trillion, while creating up to 90 million domestic jobs.’

For any country to be manufacturing power, auto sector of the country historically grew strong. In India, it has happened with almost all major auto manufacturers in the country. One Maruti Suzuki has developed and created the base of vendors of auto parts. For example, Sumi Motherson started to supply wiring harnesses to Maruti has spread to 25 countries with 124 plants. And 76 percent of the company’s business now comes from outside India. Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG is the holding company with nine business divisions) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wiring harness, mirrors and plastic parts, among other products.

To take manufacturing to all corners of the country, it has been established that power sector and highway connectivity must be compatible. Researches have confirmed the positive effects of the Golden Quadrilateral upgrades on the organised manufacturing sector. The government must go to remove the drawbacks in its highway building and power generation and distribution.

However, the government will have to find a way to make all of the government manufacturing enterprises accountable and efficient without any politics getting into it.

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कुछ यादें, कुछ सपने-५

Posted on February 10, 2013 by indra

दूसरे साल में मेरी छात्र बृति बंद हो गयी, क्योंकि परीक्षा में अव्वल दर्जा नहीं आया  था । श्रीकांत के साथ मैंने बहुत कोशिश की छात्र बृति बहाल हो जाने के लिये पर कुछ नहीं हुआ ।यही आइ. आइ.टी की खूबी थी । श्री राजेंद्र प्रसाद हॉल से लाइब्रेरी पास थी, पढ़ने के लिये वहीं की किताबों पर निर्भर थे हम सभी , क्योंकि कोई टेक्स्ट बुक तो थे नहीं ।

श्री राजेंद्र प्रसाद हॉल में हमारे साथ के मेकानिकल के चार-पांंच लोग ही थे, उनमें एक मखीजा काफी नज़दीकी बन गया, वह कलकता के सेंट ज़ेबियार कॉलेज से था, उनकी रासबिहारी एबेन्यु पर कपड़े की दुकान थी । प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज के बहुत थोड़े लड़के आइ० आइ० टी में आये थे । अपना सबसे नज़दीकी दोस्त श्री अशोक कुमार सेनगुप्ता बी० ई० कॉलेज शिवपुर से इंजीनियरिंग किया सिबिल से ।

१९६३ में एक औद्योगिक यात्रा का आयोजान डिपार्टमेंट द्वारा किया गया था, हम पहली बार जमशेदपुर, आसनासौल कुल्टी, चितरंजन  और कलकत्ता गये और वंहा के बड़े औद्योगिक प्रतिष्ढ़ानों को देखे । उस समय यह क्षेत्र उद्योग में देश में सब क्षेत्रों में आगे था ।एक रेलवे बोगी रिज़र्व किया गया था । यह यात्रा काफी अच्छी और उद्योगिक ज्ञान बढ़ानेवाली रही थी । टाटा स्टील, टाटा मोटर्स, टेक्स्मेको, बर्न आदि काफी बड़े संस्थान थे और हजारों लोग उनमें काम करते थे । आसनसोल में घटी दो घटनाएं अभी भी याद आने पर हंसी आती है ।हम चार पांच दोस्त आसनसोल स्टेशन के कैफ़ेटेरिया में गये नाश्ते के लिये ।हममें से एक को टमाटर का केचअप बहूत ही भा गया ।वे बोतल का सारा केचअप चट कर गये ।दूसरे दोस्त ने जब बेयरे से केच अप मांगा, तो वह आश्चर्य से बोतल की तरफ देखा, पर कहा कुछ नहीं और एक छोटी कटोरी में ला रख दिया । हम बहूत दिनों तक केचआप की कहानी का मज़ा लेते रहे थे ।उसी दिन शाम को साउथ इंस्टीच्यूट में हम एक मूवी देखने गये ।हम बैठे ही थे कि एक दोस्त ने कहा, ‘ देखो, शर्मिला टैगोर जा रही है ।’ उसी समय उसकी पहली मूवी आइ थी बंगाली में । अब क्या था, हमारे सभी मित्र उचक उचक उसी तरफ देखने लगे और यह सिलसिला तबतक चलता रहा, जब तक हाँल की बत्ती गुल नहीं हुइ ।

कलकत्ता में हम मिंट देखने गये जो नया नया बना था, और टेक्स्मैको भी देखे जो इंजीनियरिंग की नामी फैक्टरी थी । हम कुछ अन्य फ़ैक्ट्रीयां भी गये ।हां, कलकता के महात्मा गांधी रोड पर उन्ही दिनों एक नया भोजनालय खुला था इन्द्रपुरी । वहाँ हम दोस्तों में रबड़ी खाने की प्रतियोगिता हो गयी और थापा जीता । 

अगले साल हम मद्रास, बंगलौर और बम्बई गये । बहूत सी फ़ैक्टरियों को देखे ।आज केवल HMT, Integral Coach Factory ही याद हैं । NCC के एक कैंप में भी शामिल हुये, जो मेरठ में था । वंहा बड़े खाने पर आर्मी के एक बड़े ओहदवाले सज्जन से भोजपुरी में बात कर बड़ी खुशी हुइ ।लौटते समय ब्रज भूषण पांडेय साथ थे । उनके साथ ही दिल्ली में घूमे और बनारस में रुक  विश्वनाथ मंदिर और सारनाथ भी देखे ।

दूसरे और तीसरे साल के गर्मी के अवकाश में फ़ैक्टरी में कुछ सीखने के लिये गये और महीने से ऊपर रहे ।पहली बिरलापुर के जुट मिल में और दूसरी जमशेदपुर के टाटा मोटर्स में थी ।टाटानगर में हम पांच उत्कल निवास में ठहरे ।सायकिल लाया गया था फ़ैक्टरी तक जाने के लिये । पर टाटानगर के उँचे नीचे रास्ते पर उतनी दूरी तक सायकिल चलाना बहुत कष्ट का काम था ।सभी की तरह हम भी आटो से जाने आने लगे, खर्चा पड़ता था एक चौअनी जाने में और उतना ही आने में । गर्मी के कारण हम भी बाहर सोने लगे रात को और सबेरे तक ब्लॉस्ट फर्नेस की धूल की एक परत शरीर पर मिलती थी ।खैर, काफी सीखा, जो बाद में भी काम आया । 

फिर कभी…..

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Bihar Must Replicate its Success Story

Posted on February 9, 2013 by indra

Bihar under Nitish has done extremely well if I base my assessment on the reports appearing in print media over a period. A report on its polio eradication programme is an example. Bill Gates, who participated in that through his foundation, talked very high about Bihar’s leadership and Nitish Kumar.

Orin Levine, director of vaccine delivery, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, recently lauded the ‘Bihar model’ and requested other countries to replicate the way it successfully used immunisation programmes to eradicate polio. Levine writes, “In Bihar, I think three critical pieces have come together. You have the perfect building blocks of the system: you have the Anganwadi workers, you have Asha, and the critical frontline workers who are responsible for mobilising communities and delivering vaccines and counselling parents.” According to Levine, the three things — political will, the solid base of building blocks and the feedback mechanism through polio workers — are coming together nicely in Bihar.

However, the quality education, and that too in the rural regions, of the state is nowhere near desired standard. A special drive would have gone into the education to make the teachers and the students proficient in language, be it Hindi or English. Every parent and person would have been touched with the project of education. Every time I come across a teacher, a boy or the girl during my occasional visit to my state, I try to ask few simple questions to access the education that is being imparted and I don’t find any improvement. Naturally, I have many questions flooding my mind:

What I wonder if Bihar can improve itself in so many areas, why can’t the same be done with education?

Can the chief minister as well as the education minister with his bureaucrats, babus and teachers take up the mission of making Bihar a Kerala or better than that in the field of education?

Can there be consensus on the need of universal good quality education and skill training in all the stakeholders? Can the education sector be made apolitical in real sense? Can the whole of the government machinery make it mission in the same way as it did in case of polio?

Can the government find a way out for not engaging the teachers in tasks such as midday meals, census or election? Can the rural schools have its teachers living in vicinity of the school? Can each school create an endowment fund to develop it?
Can the schools, students and teachers be brought in a competitive mode for excelling in all curricular and extracurricular activities of sports, games, creative arts and scientific projects? Can the government look for the difficulties of the teachers and students to excel in their tasks and solve it?
Can there be some frequent exchanges of students between urban and rural schools or with the schools of other developed states? Can even the students of the remotest villages be taken on education tours in the country? Can the school authority arrange interactions of the students with icons in different fields and its own alumni who have created a success story?

Why can’t there be a drive that all children (6-14age group) out of school during school hours are taken to the school? How can the percentage of dropouts that is at 3.7%, a pretty high number if it is expressed as actual number of children, be tolerated?

Why is the government trying to do everything itself and not involving the interested private persons in the education sector?

As reported, “More than nine lakh students would take the Bihar board’s Intermediate exams this year scheduled to commence from February 18. Another 14 lakh students will take the Bihar board’s Class X exams which will start on March 12. ”

Why is there so big a difference between the number of children appearing for high schools and that for higher secondary examination every year? Why can’t this gap be bridged by introducing professional courses for those who can’t pursue higher education? A majority of the lot doesn’t find schools for their intermediate education near the school from where they appeared for class X.
Bihar must transform all high schools into school for higher secondary course and provide all infrastructures.

Hardly any college teaching humanities, commerce, science in Bihar appear in the list of the country’s best colleges. The government must appreciate that the students of Delhi University are as hot in demand as the students from the professional colleges by the industry. There is hardly any effort in improving the image of the education in Bihar. Can the state open its colleges to the students from anywhere in India and see how many come to it? Students from north eastern region would have come to Bihar but hardly any one comes.

Bihar has missed the mushrooming wave of engineering and management colleges as it happened years ago in Southern and Western part of the country. UP, Uttarakhand and Himachal have experienced that in the last decade. More than few lakhs of the students from Bihar go out of the state for higher education. Bihar must work to improve the image of its educational institutes at all cost.

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Another Season, My Repeat Appeal

Posted on February 7, 2013 by indra

It is again the season of final and entrance examinations at various levels in various streams. I will sincerely repeat my appeal to the students going for IITs and other institutes of higher education for professional subjects.

Let the candidates appearing for IIT-JEE and other examinations for admission in thousands of the engineering institutes and management schools realize that they must have the aptitude and interest in the subject and will join the profession that the completion of the courses provides.

India needs great engineers for the various sectors, be it civil for skyscrapers, convention centre, super-specialty hospitals hotels and malls coming up in every part of the country or be it metallurgists for the steel plants and be it chemical for the pharmaceutical industry where India leads.

The country spend huge amount in educating and training them in these world class institutes. They are expected to innovate new products and processes in various industries so that the country can compete with other nations in the world. When these brilliant students after four years of training join management institutes or go for competing for union public services, the country is looser.

Let the prospective engineers realize that it is not necessary that only a person with MBA diploma can only become managers, they will be managers even if as graduate engineers they join and remain in the industry for few years. And let me try to convince them that they will be better managers. How can an MBA with no domain knowledge of the sector become a good manager?

Please don’t create a situation where the regulatory bodies are forced to stop the entry of the fresh engineering graduates to regular management courses provided by IIMs and other schools if they have experience of at least five years in the industry.

The bosses in the industry are the worst culprit for the situation as it is today. They pay much higher entry packages to the management graduates in comparison with the graduates, post graduates, or PhDs in engineering. They must realize their mistakes and mend or reverse the system. Please appreciate that the management as major subject was pioneered by US and today even with the great managers, the US economy is going down the hill.

How is the country benefited by selecting a doctor and putting him as district magistrate or an engineer as financial analyst? What is the use of his education and training as medical graduate or engineer?

Can a management graduate look after the R&D function, or maintenance of a power plant?

When we around to the successful economies of the countries such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, and now China, we find that rapid industrialization and growth in exports have been driven by the hundreds and thousands of innovations in product and process development that was furthered because of a powerful coalition between government, industry and research and academia.

After your higher secondary examination, you can even join applied science and humanities graduate courses such as physics, chemistry and mathematics or even geology as well as economics and geography or social science or any of the newer ones that many of the good colleges are providing.

Please give due weight to my appeal, focus on the domain knowledge and be a practical person and innovator wherever you work. Only with great engineering and scientific skills, we can come in league of developed nations as Japan did and China is on the way.
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PS Nitish Kumar, chief Minister Bihar expressed surprise over several IITians aspiring to become civil servants:“This is the age of specialisation and only those who have interest in serving the people should opt for such examinations. After all, they have to serve the people and it should reflect in their behaviour.”

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