Insensitive Manmohan, Be Effective

Posted on December 27, 2012 by indra

It is another thing that Manmohan is not a great speaker who can impress or convince Indian crowd. But the more worrying is that perhaps the people don’t trust his appeal and promises. So it is not surprising, if his televised address to the nation remained ineffective. The protesters didn’t shun the agitation, and have been continuing it till date. But why couldn’t he be prompt?

I don’t understand why is Manmohan so insensitive or so late in responding every time a crisis comes. It happened in all the dealings, be it with Anna or Ramdev, or for that matter in handling the last year riots between Bodos and migrants in Assam, even though Assam must be special to him, as it is his constituency. It again happened in the chaos created by his policy announcement on the price rise of diesel and FDI in multi-brand retails. For many days, the parliament didn’t do any business. Is he personally responsible for it or the responsibilities lie somewhere else, may be with his officers who advise him? But can he be excused for these lapses?

Naturally the next question is something like this. Does Manmohan wait till Sonia Gandhi clears his plan of action or tells him? Does Sonia also wait for Ahmed Patel or Rahul-Priyanka to clear the decisions on actions?

Who stops Manmohan to take opposition or other parties in confidence? In the present crisis too, the heaven would not have fallen, if he would have called an all party meeting or a special session of parliament. If he has failed to create an informal channel of communication with opposition, how can he make them agree on many important issues facing the country? Is it again the wish of Sonia Gandhi? If the answer is yes then naturally one can’t blame Manmohan. But is he to wait for Sonia to decide to resign or retire too? Is Manmohan also like Sachin unable to make up his mind about retiring for creating some bigger record?

Being a technocrat and so much learned, Manmohan would have been above the ego for the interest of the country. Manmohan is also failing in deciding on the top priorities of the nation.

It would have been really a great thing, if he would have called an all party meet about the nation’s present financial crisis and the way out. Could not he convince and won over all the political parties to have a list of agreeable actions that could overcome the present financial crisis, be it of growth, or fiscal deficit or even the gold import control, or at least the most important of all, the land acquisition and environmental issues that are holding up few lakh crores worth of projects that could have pushed the growth rate. Why will not all agree for at least some of the actions such as land acquisition or education related issues?

Why should the persons in different parties be treated as untouchables and so arrogantly? As we learn in management schools, in present scenario, the participative management is the best. Let Sonia, Manmohan and his ministers not be arrogant and inaccessible. Otherwise as it appears with the protesters continuing for a cause so long, India may see troublesome days ahead, as may African countries are famous for.

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CSR, India Inc. and Rural Education

Posted on December 25, 2012 by indra

The winter session of the parliament passed the new Company Bill that has mandated India Inc. to spend 2 percent on CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility. As per one of the estimates, Indian companies may have to collectively spend close to USD 2 billion (about Rs 8,700 crore) a year on CSR programmes. “There are about 1,227 Indian listed companies who have posted profits for the last financial year. The total aggregate profits posted by these companies for the last financial year works out to Rs 4,37,167 crore,” According to a report.

For long I am appealing to India Inc. to focus fully on educating and skilling the under-privileged children in rural India leaving other fields for the government. I firmly believe with education and education only India can get over all its problems. It will also help the companies in getting better and more productive human resources and committed consumers. CSR can start with a creativity centre, and a library in each of the village schools and with ensuring to develop at least one employable skill in upper classes before any student passes out school final or class XII. Skills may range from nursing, stitching, and hairdressing to driving, masonry, plumbing or fitting or electrical repair.

Indian government has taken up a big task of creating 500 million skilled labour forces. However, it needs badly a proactive support from corporate India. Every company on its own or joining with others in the same or complimenting business sector must set up a training centre to prepare the employees required in future. This practice was quite prevalent in our days in 50s and 60s. I worked for Hindustan Motors and was very much familiar with many companies such as Tata Motors and HMT. All these firms had good training centres that prepared manpower for the industry through training in different trades. Tata Motors that used to be called TELCO in those days used to send the toppers in the training schools to its collaborators plants in Germany.

As reported, even today some of the progressive companies are having well-equipped and manned training facilities. However, the demand of skilled hands is huge. According to a 2010 Economic Times report, construction sector in India is expected to face a potential labour shortage of 170-180 million people by 2022. Moreover, the skilled workmen are in shortage almost in all countries. So a number of companies in the business are setting up facilities to train the manpower in skills in demand in these sectors.

As reported, L& T has established a training institute that is training thousands of workers across several states, and is planning to launch further vocational training for positions such as millwright fitters, transmission line tower erection fitters, tiling masons, and surveyors.

Future Group recently formed a public-private-partnership with the rural development ministry to train – and place – 32,000 below-poverty-line youth from rural areas in 19 states over a one-and-half-year period.

However, the main thrust of CSR must be on providing good education for the students in rural schools by setting up schools there or through takeover of existing schools. As I have observed at least in Bihar and UP, the government schools are just defunct. Teachers are hardly interested in educating the students. The government may claim anything but the dropouts up to class XII are dismally high and the quality of the output is still more worrying. Some of the industrialists are attempting to attend to the situation through their foundations;

1.Shiv Nadar Foundation has started two schools, one in Bulandsahar Sahara and Sitapur in UP.

2.The Azim Premji Foundation (APF) plans to start 1,300 schools across the country- two per district – which will be free, impart education in the local language and be affiliated to the state board.

3.Bharti Foundation will reach out to more than 2,00,000 children through 500 Primary and 50 Senior Secondary Satya Bharti Schools across the country. Currently 242 Satya Bharti Primary Schools and 5 Senior Secondary Schools are operational, reaching out to approximately 30,000 children and recruiting over 1200 teachers across the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Many more must be running educational institutes.

I wish the private sector and philanthropists realize the dismal situation in rural India, particularly in backward district and take initiative to educate the masses there.

Rural India, particularly the Hindi belt has some unique problem. One most important one is media of instruction. The students have a totally different mother tongue, be it Bhojpuri, Magahi, or Maithili or some other one spoken and heard at home. In school, they are taught in Hindi or English. The language teacher must work hard to make them proficient in them. It can be eased using latest well- designed audio and video aids. Similarly, the imparting the knowledge of mathematics and science, that are the foundation subjects for higher education that the country needs. With Internet coming up to the village scheme, the educating may further ease. May be very some voters will translate the education materials made available free by the reputed Khan Academy to even the kids in even the rural schools.

Let the India Inc must take the mandated CSR with a mission and not only to write a section in the company’s annual balance sheet with data to satisfy the regulatory requirements.

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कुछ यादें, कुछ सपने-४

Posted on December 23, 2012 by indra

इंटर और इंजीनियरिंग के प्रवेश की परीक्षाओं के बाद मैं गांव चला गया था, खड़गपुर का साक्षात्कार के बुलावे का पत्र बिरलापुर और पिपरा में घूम रहा था ।मैं दादाजी के साथ एक अंदाज पर ही बिना उस पत्र के ही खड़गपुर गया, अपनी समस्या बताइ, लिस्ट में मेरा नाम था, साक्षात्कार में प्रश्न साधारण ही थे । प्रो० राजेंद्र मिस्रा भी थे, पूछा ‘खेतिहर हो, कृषि इंजीनियरीगं ले लो’ ।मैंने मेकानिकल इंजीनियरिंग की इच्छा जाहिर की, शाम तक पता चल गया कि मैं ‘लोहा लकड़’ का इंजीनियर बन रहा हूँ, और दादाजी बहुत खुश थे, उनके चेहरे पर एक गर्व भरा भाव था । इसी समय मेरी जाना-पहचान ब्रज भूषन पांडे से हुइ थीं, वे आरा के पास के एक गांव के थे, और उनके पिताजी भी प्राध्यापक थे उस समय सासाराम के टीचर्स ट्रेनिंग स्कूल में । वह दोस्ती आजतक चल रही है । पांडेजी पिछले महीने तक IIT, Kharagpur में ही थे ।’पिता भी अध्यापक बेटा भी’, ब्रज ही बताये थे अपने गांववालों का कहना ।

सबसे पहली याद एक परीक्षा पास कर एक छात्रबृति पाने की आती है। दूसरी याद खाने की तकलीफ की है जिसका ज़िक्र कर चुका हूँ पहले ।  मैं आजाद हाल में था । वार्डेन मुथाना थे, काफी सख्त पर प्यारा सा ब्यक्तित्व था उनका, पर हिन्दी में बोलने संकोच करते थे । रैगिंग हुइ थी, पर कुछ खास नहीं ।यहीं कैलाश नारायणे सिंह से दोस्ती हुइ, जो व्हुत गहरी हो गयी और आजतक चल रही है । सपरिवार रुद्रपुर के पास किछा में हैं ।कैलाश के चलते प्रो० जसवंत सिंह से भी परिचय हुआ ।वे हिंद मोटर्स में भी आये । अभी भी उनकी मां का चेहरा याद आता है और उनकी खातिरदारी भी, गर्म दूध के गलास की ।सिंह अपने वासस्थान में भैंस भी रखते थे ।उनकी मां का चेहरा मुझे हरदम मेरी अपनी परदादियों की याद दिलाता था ।

रैगिंग से बचने के लिये कभी कभी राजेंद्र प्रसाद हाल चला जाता था, वहाँ बिरलापूर विद्यालय के मेरे एक सीनियर रहते थे और मेरा बहुत ख़्याल रखते थे । प्रथम बर्ष के जिस सेक्सन में था उसमें कुछ अन्यविभागों के छात्र भी थे ।वहीं श्रीकांत से परिचय हुआ, वह माइनिंग में था और उसके मामा भी सासाराम में वकील थे ।
आजाद हाल में मैं केवल पहले साल रहा, इस बीच वहाँ राष्ट्रीय अध्यापक प्रसिद्ध वैज्ञानिक सत्येन्द्र नाथ बोस दो बार और भाषण दिये, बातें भी की ।हॉल में बराबर कुछ न कुछ समारोह होते रहते थे, कितनी बिबिध प्रतिभा थी देश के बिभिन्न क्षेत्र से आये लड़कों में ।मुझमें एेसा कुछ नहीं था ।आजाद हॉल से कॉलेज काफी दूर था, करीब़ सभी सायकिल रखते थे , मेरे दादाजी ने बिरलापुर से घर की हिंद सायकिल भिजवा दी थी । जहां तक मुझे याद है दाम शायद सौ रुपये के क़रीब था । हां, उन दिनों देश की सबसे अच्छी सायकिल ‘सेन रैले’ थी जो बंगाल के आसनसोल में बनती थी ।

पहले साल में इंजीनियरिंग का शायद ही कोइ बिषय पढ़ाया गया । हां, physics के अध्यापक गोखले के open book परीक्षा की याद अभी तक है ।परीक्षा कक्ष में जितनी मर्जी हो किताबों और नोट्स ले जाने की छूट थी । जिनके पास जितना उपलब्ध था, ले गये बिशेषकर जो B.Sc, M.Sc कर आये थे । पर कुछ काम नहीं आया ।सभी को शिकायत थी प्रश्न पत्र के दुरुह होने का । परीक्षा के बाद कक्षा में डा० गोखले आये ।बिना कुछ कहे प्रश्नों का हल बोर्ड पर लिखने लगे । करीब दस मिनट लगा होगा । और उन्होने पूछा, ‘क्या सच में उतर कठिन थे?’ अब सबके शरमाने की बारी थी ।बाद में पता चला वे MIT, USA में चले गये थे ।पहला साल अच्छा नही रहा, छात्र बृति जाती रही । काफी दुख हुआ , हां तबतक नानाजी खर्चा देने लगे थे । IIT में मेरे समय न कोइ किताब पाठ्य पुस्तक की तरह होती थी, न लिखित में विषय की जानकारी । अध्यापक खुद विषय के पाठ्य वस्तु का चुनाव करते थे, और पढ़ाते थे ।  IIT पुस्तकालय बहुत समृद्ध था, पर बहुत कोशिश के बावजूद शिक्षक  के पढाइ वस्तु पर कुछ ज़्यादा नहीं मिलता था ।गनीमत इतना ही था कि परीक्षा के प्रश्न पत्र भी वे ही शिक्षक सेट करते थे और जांच भी उन्ही के द्वारा होती थी, अतः शिक्षकों को प्रसन्न रखना जरूरी पड़ता था ।मुझे यह तरीका कभी नहीं भाया । दूसरे साल में मैं राजेंद्र प्रसाद हाल में चला आया और तीन साल यहीं काटे । प्रो० राजेंद्र मिश्र वार्डेन थे । प्रोडक्सन इंजीनियरिंग के हेड थे और काफी सम्मानित थे कैम्पस में । उन्होने मेकानिकल इंजीनियरिंग का हेड बनना इस लिये मना कर दिया क्योंकि उसी साल प्रो० बेलगाँवकर बिभाग में आये थे, वे प्रो० मिश्र के आध्यापक रह चुके थे BHU के इंजीनियरिंग कॉलेज में ।यह था उस जमाने का सम्मान देने का तरीका ।

दादाजी बराबर आते रहते थे, यद्यपि उनकी तकलीफ का ख़्याल कर मैं बराबर उन्हे मना करता था । रात में लौटते वक्त उन्हे बहुत बार प्लेटफार्म के बेंच पर बिताना पड़ता था उलुबेरिया में क्योंकि हुगली पार कर बिरलापुर जाना पड़ता था और उतनी रात को नाव वाले नहीं मिलते थे ।
अग्गे फिर—-

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Barbaric India

Posted on December 22, 2012 by indra

It is perhaps sixth day after a medical student with her friend waiting to return home became victim of a terrible attack by a group of beasts though they were human beings as the society call such persons. She is fighting for her life. She is from

The whole country is in rage. A large number of youngsters from schools, colleges and offices along with some elders too are on road in Delhi and other parts of India. The protesters want an assurance of security of women from those who are running the government.

TV news channels but for Dec 20 are covering the protests through live reports as well as discussions and debates. One channel transmitted a long interview of the chief minister of Delhi who is herself and woman. The secretary of Home ministry and the commissioner of police of Delhi conducted a press conference yesterday that hardly made the people on the streets feel sure about some actions that could make them confident about their security in future.

It is unfortunate that even after so much of anguish and anger expressed by the protesters, none of the political leaders from the ruling and opposition parties living in Delhi appeared and tried to pacify them. Why couldn’t the prime minister along with the leaders of the opposition address the protesters?

1. The whole situation can get changed in just one day. Let the guards and police protection provided to the VIPs and their family members be removed. Once they will be forced to depend on regular police force, the police department will start working effectively and efficiently. Why should they get it at the cost of so many crimes against the commoners of the country?

2. Moreover, the demonstrators have spared the judiciary that takes years to clear even the ordinary cases and provide justice in favor of the criminals at the slightest doubt- real or imaginary.

3. But my real appeal will be to parents and the children to get ready for such a situation by skill physical training as well as using digital gadget such as mobile phones with effective applications loaded in it.Some very useful applications are already available. for mobile phone

The society and its leaders-formal and informal, parents and teachers will have to be serious in building values in the next generation and that beastly behaviors will be heavily punished.

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Ramanujan @125- a nice tribute

Posted on December 22, 2012 by indra

On this great day I pay my tribute to one of the greatest mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan by quoting from anticlerical in Mint by Dilip D’Souza.  

The great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan would have been 125 today, 22 December. Mathematicians all over India—and indeed the world—are celebrating his life. 

This story: he (Ramanujan) was in hospital in Putney, England. In walked G.H. Hardy, his mentor and a fine mathematician in his own right. He told Ramanujan that he had come in a cab whose number, 1729, “seemed to me rather a dull one.” (I get the feeling Hardy and Ramanujan rather liked playing around with numbers.)

The sick Ramanujan disagreed. “Oh no, not at all!” he said. “It is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of two cubes in two different ways!”
Of course he was right. Here are the two ways:
1³ + 12³ = 1 + 1,728 = 1,729
9³ + 10³ = 729 + 1,000 = 1,729
And 1,729 is indeed the smallest such number. And because of this incident, it is now known as the Ramanujan-Hardy number.

What touches me about this story is though Ramanujan was seriously ill that day, he was sharp enough to remember, and tell Hardy, this little nugget about a random number Hardy mentioned. 

It was unfortunate that even the medical practitioners  of England couldn’t save Ramanujan. He returned and breathed his last in his own motherland. 

Ramanujan had not followed the traditional way of researches. I don’t know if there are any Ramanujan in India, but unfortunately there are no Hardys also in present time.

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Rural education: Challenge or Opportunity for India

Posted on December 17, 2012 by indra

I was listening to a discussion on education today in Lok Sabha. Members appeared to be worried. Interestingly, almost all the MPs participating indiscussion were from the states of Bihar, UP, Odisha and Bengal and none from south. I myself wonder if the people who matter in this country, can take up this challenge of providing the right education in rural India, particularly in the backward states of UP and Bihar. Can the education in rural India be at least brought to a normal standard from the present dismal condition? I have written on this earlier too. I have some ideas but it requires involving all the stakeholders and I doubt if it is possible or can be made possible.
Years ago, I had been regularly visiting Japan for professional assignments and trying to understand the Japanese success in producing the world class quality products. China was nowhere on the horizon. I came to know of the use of radio transmission by a body of industry association to propagate the philosophy and techniques of building in quality at the production stage itself by building in the manufacturing process instead of inspecting it at the end of the production line that was usual all over. I am sure the mission of the necessity of the education to the parents in rural India requires a serious campaign. Somehow, over the years, the people in rural India, particularly among the categories of SC/ST/minority/girlchild or even in socially upper categories hardly appreciate the role the education of the children can play in the improved quality of life of the family and ultimately the prosperity for the country on long term.Reasons may be many, but most in rural India have got disenchanted with the necessity of the education. And educaton has become devoid of building any value or bringing prosperity.

It is essential to convince everyone in rural India that educating himself and his whole family –wife, children, parents, and even neighborhoods must be the first wish. It requires a lot of marketing by external agencies without any debate on its need. And all means and every Indian who can help it through any media must participate in it. Just few ads or discussion on TV channels or in a corner of some newspapers is not sufficient. The least that the country needs is the basic education not literacy limited to mechanically writing one’s name. It is possible using any audio or video gadgets but it must be a regular feature rather than kneejerk government programme.
One way of spreading the education must be to encourage every student in the school to learn in group and share the knowledge with each other and with even others, particularly elders in the family. The teachers in the rural schools must pick up the good students and encourage them to form an informal group of four-five students living in neighbourhood and study together helping each other. They must also be inspired to teach the elders in the family, their mothers and fathers too. It will repel the ignorance of their illiterate parents as well as provide the information that may not be having. Even the books in the elementary schools have information and knowledge that the elders lack and must know.

Rural education requires special attention to compete with the education provided in urban India. The government must help the mission by establishing the infrastructure and schools such as Navodaya, Kasturba Gandhi, or Kendriya with hostel facilities. And India Inc under its CSR must not miss the chance of helping the underprivileged and deprived in the rural India by providing quality education through already proven models of schooling as taken up by Nadar, Premji, Bharati Foundations. Digital technology will also make it happen. If Vodaphone can start a news service on cellular phones that have become so popular, others can help in having applications to education to reach everyone in rural India.

As the whole country is going to move faster in getting exposed to the best of quality education with tablets, the rural India must get priority. Let the government free the teachers in rural India from the extraneous work assignments such as election duty or census data collection. Let them be innovative in educating the future citizens effectively. Education among the deprived class is attracting maximum attention in all the nations of the world from US to Uganda; let not India be left behind.
And as a last caution to the teachers who fail to carry out their responsibilities under some pretext or the other, I insist: This time Eklavayas will not excuse them as he did in Mahabharat period to Dronaacharya.

Interestingly, as it appears, for almost all political parties and for even a person such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, the free distribution of laptops and tablets have become an usual feature in its manifestos. Course materials in digital forms are readily available and many education companies have come in the market. Will the rural India get preference? Will Mr. Sibal’s plan to provide optical fibre to each village be completed in time for the broadband required for using the digital gadgets for the education from KG-12? However, will the rural teachers be trained and more so motivated to use this technology to further the quality of teaching and learning?

Many education enthusiasts are trying to use the digital tools. Many are also experimenting in their own way to effectively educate the deprived rural children. However, the problem of education in rural India is stupendous. And it must be the top priority for all educationists, philanthropists, and also for the government, otherwise the thrust on higher education will be futile. The huge capacity built by the private sector for higher education such as in engineering and management will not get students and that of right talent.

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उम्र, इलाज और डॉक्टरों की ब्यवसायिक्ता

Posted on December 14, 2012 by indra

जिदंगी कब कहाँ किस हालात में दगा दे मालूम नहीं ? अमरीका प्रवास में यह प्रश्न बार बार सताया । यह एक अनावश्यक चिन्ता थी , पर निदान मेरे वश के बाहर था । दो बार ऐसा हुअ। ।

बहुत सारी तकलीफें हैं, पर बारह साल पहले हुआ हार्ट आपरेशन और घाव के सिलाइ के ऊपर के कोलवायड की खुजली बहुत तकलीफ देती है । बहुत रातों को डराती भी है।आपरेशन भारत प्रसिद्ध डाक्टर के हाथों Escorts Heat Centre में हुइ थी ।हर साल उनके कहने अनुसार अच्छी फीस दे जांच भी करवाता रहा हूँ ।पर डाक्टर मेरी खुजली का कोई उपचार नहीं बताये । अत: डाक्टर के पास जाने की इच्छा नहीं होती , शायद डर भी लगता है ।

पर अगर मैं अपने को समझदार मानता हूँ तो ऐसा नहीं होना चाहिये। शायद डॉक्टरी सलाह जरूरी है।उम्र तो अपना कारनामा दिखाएँगी ही ।

उम्र के ऊपरांत भी सामने से दिखनेवाले दाँत साथ हैं, खानेवाले कुछ अपने निकल गये, कुछ तकलीफ की शिकायत पर डॉक्टरों ने निकाल दिये । पर खानेवाले दाँत की जरूरत महशुश होती है । कबतक दाँत की कमजोरी के बहाने मन मारा जाये खाने की टेबल पर । कल जब यमुना की मांग पर चिक्‍की लाया तो अपने दाँत की कमजोरी को देखते हुए अपने लिये गज्जक लाया । खाने की चीजों का चुनाव बड़ी सावधानी से करता हूँ जिससे दांतों का सहारा न लेना पड़े । साथ ही खाने में कमी भी आ गयी है, जो सेहत के लिये उचित ही है ।

यही हाल आखों का भी है । पढ़ने में तकलीफ होती है, पर काम चला रहा हूँ । आपरेशन आसान होता है आजकल पर फिर भी डर लगता है और टाले जा रहा हूँ ।समाचार पत्र खरीदना बंद कर दिया क्योंकि पढ़ना मुश्किल हो रहा था । ऐपल का भला हो और आनंद द्वारा दिये आइ-पैड का । उसी की सहायता से सब अखबार और ई-बुक में उपलब्ध किताबें पढ़ लेता हूँ । हां, एक बात और, मंद दृष्टि हो जाने के कारण सभी चीजें ज़्यादा सुंदर दिखतीं हैं ।

डॉक्टरों से डर लगता है ।बड़ी फीस, सब तरह के महंगे लैब टेस्ट, और दामी दवाइयों की लम्बी फैहरीस्त । लोग कहते हैं, पाकेटमार भांप जाते हैं की शिकार के पास कितना माल है । डाक्टर भी समझ जाते हैं आसामी कितना मालदार है ।मैं बटुआ कभी नहीं रखा । पर डाक्टर के पास जाने पर हजार, दो हजार जरूर रख लेता हूँ पाकेट में ।सच कहता हूँ – दो बार ऐसा हूआ, डाक्टर ने मेरे पास का सभी पैसा अपनी बिल के एवज में ले लिया । पहला डाक्टर आयुर्वेद के थे और काफी नामी, राष्ट्रपति के डाक्टर होने का बिल्ला था उनके पास ।दूसरा वाक़या नोयडा के एक प्राइवेट अस्पताल का है जहां के मालिक डाक्टर को पहले मैं मिला चुका था ।दोनों ही बार गनीमत था कि पैसे पूरे पड़ गये, नहीं तो लज्जा जनक बात होती ।
आश्चर्य हुआ और प्रश्न आया दिमाग में कैसे डॉक्टरों को मालूम हो गया मेरे पास की धनराशि की बात ।

पिछले हफ्ते मैंने हृदय सम्‍बंधी सब जांच कराइ थी, पर बहुत दिनों तक किसी डाक्टर के पास नहीं गया ।सोचता रहा, कोइ सब रिपोर्ट ले जाता और एक अच्छे डाक्टर से दिखा इसबात की पुष्टि कर देता कि सब ठीक है । ऐसा कोइ नहीं मिला । अब न मैं कोइ इस शरीर पर आपरेशन कराना चाहता हूँ न बहुत सारी दवाइयों का सेवन । खाना कम और सादा कर दिया हूँ । और बस ऐसे ही जीना चाहता हूँ ।

पर आखिर मैं हार गया । पिछले हफ्ते मुझे एक दिन वही तकलीफ हुयी जो अमरीका में आनंद के साथ रहते हुए एक दिन हुयी थी ।सबेरे जब घूमने जाने के लिये तैयार हुआ तो मेरे पैर ठीक नहीं पड रहे थे । डाक्टर का आसरा लेना ही पड़ा, आखिरकार हर साधारण ब्यक्ति की तरह मैं भी डरपोक ही हूँ । तीन गोलियां पहले ही खाता था, चार और बढ़ गयीं ।

जितना ही डॉक्टरों से बचना चाहता हूँ उतना ही कठिन होता जा रहा है । किसी समर्थ सहायक का अभाव मेरी चिंता को और बढ़ा देता है । एेसे जीवन की कल्पना भी न थी ।

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Potatoes and Parliamentarians

Posted on December 6, 2012 by indra

As usual, I was very much excited to hear the real good debate on FDI in multi-brand retails in Lok Sabha. The subject had been covered very extensively since the government policy announcement permitting it. Some of the MPs really speak very well. For anyone who wish to hear a good debate and that too in Hindi, Sushma Swaraj must be one of the best. She does a lot of home work too. In the same way, for English I love to hear Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley. There are few others too. These debates provide a lot of unknown information too.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj, while moving the motion claimed that the Indian operations of McDonald’s Corp. was buying its potatoes from abroad rather than from local farmers: “The farmers of Agra produce the highest potatoes, they are forced to throw them on the road but McDonald’s does not buy potatoes from them. From where do they get potatoes? Airplanes full of potatoes are imported from abroad,” The Company promptly refuted through a statement in media.

However, the potatoes came on coming. Even Kapil Sibal mentioned about it soon after Sushma: “The market price of potato is Rs.3 per kg, Pepsico gives Rs.7 per kg.” However, Kapil Sibal would have also provided the price of the finished product that Pepsico sell made out of a kg of potatoes and if that conversion cost is justified. I mention this because we as consumer always buy potatoes at any outlet for more than 5 times that the farmer gets. .
And Congress MP and son of the chief minister of Haryana wished to correct the leader of opposition about the sourcing of McDonalds’s potatoes for fries from the farmers of Gujarat while speaking against the motion. You can hear in the clip of one TV channel.

NDTV got interested in the potato references and in the evening of December 5 showed a humorous clip on potatoes as brought in different speeches by MPs of various parties.

I had read earlier in ‘Business Today’ how the right quality of potatoes was developed in India for the McDonald. As I understood, the local researchers and the farmers assisted by the foreign companies had developed the potatoes of right quality. The seed potatoes produced in cold condition in hills in Himachal are planted and grown by the farmers in Gujarat. And if any foreign vendor follows such policies, it will be always in the interest of the farmers of the country and must be welcomed. Suzuki did the same in auto sector and developed hundreds of vendors for auto parts that are now even exporting too.

However, I was surprised by a report in Hindu Businessline that confirms what Sushma Swaraj said in the parliament about the import of potatoes by the company.

“Official import landing data accessed by Business Line suggest the company imports fairly substantial quantities on a regular basis. In November alone, MacFries (McDonald’s trademark French fries) worth Rs 3.5 crore were imported through Nhava Sheva port. Data show that the company imported a total of Rs 6 crore worth of frozen French fries since January-November 2012. (Rs 1.4 crore worth of frozen fries in January, Rs 58 lakh worth in August and Rs 59 lakh worth in October), through just that one port.”

It appears, the leader of opposition must have taken information from similar sources. I don’t expect her to make irresponsible statement against a company. But perhaps the government must provide the real status.

Will someone among the MPs ask the government to let the people know the truth?

———
PS:
And if you wish to know more about the potato story, here are some:
1. FDI pan sizzles: If only potato could fry ’em
2. All about potatoes

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Manufacturing India and McKinsey

Posted on December 4, 2012 by indra

India may not be as good in manufacturing as China is, however, its manufacturing sector is moving steadily ahead. India has risen into the top ranks of global manufacturing and is one among the world’s 15 largest manufacturing economies by share of global nominal manufacturing gross value added. As per the recent McKinsey report, while the rank of China moved from 7 in 1980 to 2 in 2010, India improved its rank from 15 in 1980 to 10 in 2010. Surprisingly, US is still number one. In the world’s 15 largest manufacturing economies, the manufacturing sector contributes from 10 percent to 33 percent of value added.

A report of Cisco India confirms the new surge of India’s manufacturing: “India is witnessing a wave of growth in manufacturing after its decline in the late nineties. The current surge in the manufacturing sector is touted to be much more promising than the first wave. With this new manufacturing opportunity slated to be more skills intensive, the industry leaders foresee India as well poised to take advantage of this shift.”

Further, India is likely to emerge as the second most competitive economy in the world after China in terms of manufacturing competitiveness in the next five years, as per the 2013 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index compiled by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the US Council on Competitiveness.

McKinsey supports the endeavour of India to get into the manufacturing sector, and everyone who matters in this drive must go through the “Manufacturing the Future”, a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute and take clues from it and find out how India must move ahead effectively with speed:

“Building a manufacturing sector is still a necessary step in national development, raising incomes and providing the machinery, tools, and materials to build modern infrastructure and housing. Even India, which has leapfrogged into the global services trade with its information technology and business process outsourcing industries, continues to build up its manufacturing sector to raise living standards—aiming to raise the share of manufacturing in its economy from 16 percent today to 25 percent by 2022.”

It will be interesting to know some data about the manufacturing sector from the new report.

Globally, manufacturing output (as measured by gross value added) continues to grow—by about 2.7 percent annually in advanced economies and 7.4 percent in large developing economies (between 2000 and 2007).

The manufacturing sector generates 70 percent of exports in major manufacturing economies—both advanced and emerging—and up to 90 percent of business R&D spending.

Manufacturing also drives productivity growth, innovation, and trade, and also plays a critical role in tackling societal challenges, such as reducing energy and resource consumption and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

The Report infers, ‘as countries get richer, manufacturing tends to account for a smaller share of their GDP. The point at which this decline starts varies (the share usually peaks at 20-35%), as does the rate of decline. In the 15 largest manufacturing economies, manufacturing’s share of GDP ranges from 33% in China to 10% in Britain. India is at position 10.

According to McKinsey report, the potentials of five different groupings of manufacturing are different.

1. The largest group is global innovation for local markets, which is composed of industries such as chemicals (including pharmaceuticals); automobiles; other transportation equipment; and machinery, equipment, and appliances. These industries accounted for 34 percent of the $10.5 trillion (nominal) in global manufacturing value added in 2010. Industries in this group are moderately to highly R&D-intensive and depend on a steady stream of innovations and new models to compete.

2. Regional processing industries are the second-largest manufacturing group globally, with 28 percent of value added, and the largest employer in advanced economies. The group includes food processing and other industries that locate close to demand and sources of raw materials; their products are not heavily traded and not highly dependent on R&D, but they are highly automated.

3. Energy- and resource-intensive commodities such as basic metals make up the third- largest manufacturing group. For these companies, energy prices are important, but they are also tied to markets in which they sell, due to high capital and transportation costs.

4. Global technology industries such as computers and electronics depend on global R&D and production networks; the high value density of products such as electronic components and mobile phones, make them economically transportable from production sites to customers around the globe.

5. Labor- intensive tradable, such as apparel manufacturing, make up just 7 percent of value added. The group’s goods are highly tradable and companies require low- cost labor. Production is globally traded and migrates to wherever labor rates are low and transportation is reliable.

And a careful study of the categories will confirm the possibilities for India to become a large manufacturing power. India has attained significant progress in the category of the largest group- chemicals (including pharmaceuticals); automobiles; other transportation equipment; and machinery, equipment, and appliances.

India has both MNCs as well as domestic players in those industries. Many MNCs such as automakers have made India their manufacturing hubs for some of their products, producing for the domestic consumption as well as export. Quite a good number of them have set up their R&D centres developing product for the local market as well for sales in similar markets all around the world.

Unlike China, none of the public sector companies performed have gone to become globally competitive company such Hawaii or Haier, though BHEL and NTPC have done pretty well.HMT could have become the largest machine tools company, but could not because of it being a public company. BEML is another government company that could have taken big stride, but it couldn’t indigenize even Tetra trucks for the defence forces. And the country has kept on importing its major parts. Many other public sector companies also had potential.

However, some of the Indian private companies such as Tata Motors, M &M, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Ashok Leyland are on track to become MNCs. Almost in every sector Indian manufacturers have their significant presence, but somehow, I find them lacking the drive, focus and vision required to become ‘Made in India’ brand globally recognized. Some the top valued Indian companies are from varied sectors automobiles (Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai), earthmoving (BEML, Caterpillar auto-parts (Bosch, Bharat Forge), pharmaceuticals (Sun Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Biocon), engineering (L&T, BHEL, Siemens, ABB), home appliances (LG, Samsung, Videocon, Voltas, Godrej), metals (Tata Steel, SAIL, Sterlite, Hindalco), electrical (Crompton Greaves, Havells India) and even computer hardwares (HCL), jewelery or watches (Titan, Gitanjali) and even cell phones (Nokia, Samsung) as well consumer goods (Unilever, Godrej, ITC, Dabur, P&G), or eatables (Nestle, Amul, Britannia). However, perhaps the biggest of the contribution to manufacturing in India is coming from small and medium industries that must be around half a million.

The government has ambitious targets in its manufacturing policy mentioned above. Its huge R&D organization such as CSIR, DRDO etc can help India in accelerating the growth of manufacturing sector. It requires some re-engineering of the government units. For example, all the research institutions such as the Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Central Machine Tools Research Institute can work in liaison with each other to assist the manufacturing sector.

I am still dreaming of a day when even every village and hamlet will have some sort of involvement in manufacturing the way Gandhiji wanted through cottage industries and the way Chinese succeeded with its village enterprises.

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Shameless Government and Paralyzed India

Posted on December 2, 2012 by indra

Railway Minister Bansal informed Lok Sabha few days back that the Indian Railways have thousands of projects that will require an investment Rs 4 lakh crore or perhaps more but are getting implemented in piecemeal manner. Because of the shortage of fund, some amount is allocated in each budget for each project to see it alive on paper to satisfy the MPs and their constituencies but not enough to get it implemented within a time frame. Is it not a mockery of the development planning?

Many opine the India’s extraordinary growth in the recent past coming in spite of the poor governance. And as one gets into specifics, it becomes clearer and stunning questioning the country’s governance…

All of us in our school learnt about the immense mineral wealth in the form of huge natural deposits in the country. Over the years, all the mining operations got nationalized. The government became the sole owner of the coal mines through companies such as Coal India and so the minister of mines became the big boss. The company went on working on the mines with coal available on the surface. It shunned going underground for mining coal using advanced technology. And let us see how the country suffers today for this shortsighted policy.

Earlier the country lacked generation capacity and the reason was, the government kept on depending only on one public sector company that manufactured the power equipment such as boilers and turbines etc. The policy got some change. The private sector came in for setting up the power plants. The government allowed the import of the power equipment. Even a number of private companies joined the manufacturing of the equipment. It resulted in significant addition of power generation. Now the power plants are not operating to the capacity because of the shortages of coal because of the inefficiency of Coal India and indian Railways, India is to import coal in huge quantity. Both public as well as private power companies are importing and even buying mining companies abroad to run the power plants.

Coal India has neglected underground coal mining. Indian coal seams have a vast Coal Bed Methane (CBM) potential in various coalfields but the government doesn’t wish to invest to bridge knowledge gap and non-availability of suitable technology.

And surprisingly, it is not only the coal that India will have to import. Even iron ores and bauxites or for that matter all the ores available in plenty in India will need to be imported, because of the poor policies of the government and the trouble faced in land acquisition and environmental clearances. The final draft of the proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill is still under consideration and modification to suit political whims. The government and the politicians have hardly shown any concerns.

Recent curbs on mining of iron ore in many regions rich in this natural resource have prompted Indian firms to import this key input for the steel industry. The Goa-based Sesa Goa, which has a pig iron plant in the state, has already finalized an order to import 80,000 tonnes of iron ore. Essar Steel has recently imported half a million tonnes of ore for its steel plant located in Gujarat. Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), which is facing a challenge to run its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh (Odisha) beyond December 5, hopes to get some bauxite from external sources.

Interestingly, India’s import of gold is only next to the crude oil that it lacks. However, its shortage is only because the country doesn’t wish to invest or collaborate on the latest technology to explore the present mines. Shockingly, it wanted to use the kolar mines to dump the nuclear wastes. A BBC report (Please read) is eye opener on this issue. India has explored only 7-9% of their mineral resources, while countries such as Australia have achieved almost 100% geophysical and geochemical surveys. India produces three tonnes of gold a year, while Australia mines 280 tonnes.

How can this sort of governance be tolerated?

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