My India: Anguish or Anger

Posted on June 13, 2012 by indra

I dreamt of India as emerging, shining and competing China. All my blogs on China vs. India were based on my conviction: If China can do, so can India.

But since last two years or so, things are declining. India has suddenly slowed and slowing further. There is darkness on horizon. The gloom is infectious and exponentially enveloping the people of the country, as those who can do something to stop the slowdown and correct the situation are having different priorities.

I am in anguish. But it is not only me. Deepak Parekh, Narayana Murthy, Premji, and Rahul Bajaj-they all have expressed their anguish. I am sure that Congress doesn’t consider them also anti-national as they consider Anna.

I am in US. However, I can’t detach myself from my country, even though in wonderful company of my sweet grandchildren. The bad news make me moose.

I was surfing the site of New York Times’ Business section. I happened to go through two reports- one related to India and the other to China. I am giving below the first paragraph from both with link:

India related

NEW DELHI — Like China, India has long been eager to showcase the best features of its fast-growing economy on the international stage. But whenever it gets a chance to shine, something almost invariably goes wrong.

China related

GUANGZHOU, China — With China’s domestic economy stumbling badly this spring as construction and retail sales slow, this country is unleashing a fresh surge of exports that is preserving millions of jobs in Chinese factories but could fan trade tensions with the West.

I switched over to the Economist. The Economist had few headlines in the related to India: ‘Stopping the spiral’, ‘Farewell to Incredible India’; ‘A Bric hits the wall’; or ‘Travellers checked’. India is growing less hospitable to foreign investors. Should one stop surfing or watching the news channels?

I had thought Pranab Mukherji had done something great when he had proposed some retrospective tax in his budget this year. Thereafter, I heard many talking against that. I didn’t bother. But when even Narayana Murthy considers that as an action that has gone against India’s investor-friendliness, I rethink over the same. Should not Pranab retract his step?

Ruchir Sharma has warned India in ‘Breakout Nations; S&P report now names India ‘The First Fallen Angel’. Everyone is pointing finger to the way India is getting run by UPA-II government with Manmohan as Prime Minister and Sonia as the defecto power behind it.

No amount of brave face or statement from Pranab or even some gestures from PMO can amend the wrong. It has already created the unwanted gloom. Manmohan must show his magic and Sonia must support. Economy must be the focus without any politics. But there is hardly an indication of change. Congress may survive two more years in government, but the country will lose the opportunity once more and go backward in development by years.

An eminent journalist writes, ‘anybody who cares for India is today in deep, deep anguish’. Why do Manmohan and Sonia not hear the voice of the people?

Some from the opposition gives me an answer, ‘Sonia hardly bothers in real term. Who stopped her to treat her constituency as a model for development and transform that into a model for others to emulate? The same is true for Rahul or for that matter the Congress Party. Perhaps, they are just incapable and they don’t wish to use the services of those who can bring the required effectiveness in the governance.

A journalist writes, ‘Institutionally, the Congress has demonstrated no political commitment towards nor placed any priority on sustaining high growth and deregulating the economy, at least not in the time since 2004.’

“If the India story has fallen off the tracks, does one need to point fingers only at Prakash Karat and Mamata Banerjee — or should one also interrogate the role of Sonia Gandhi and how niggardly she has been in spending political capital on economic reform?”

I was shocked when the economy is so critical the country’s TV channel discusses who meets whom for the forthcoming next President election or the new system of IIT_JEE.

Is the time approaching fast for the Indians to get in to ‘anger’ mood or mode from the present one of ‘anguish’?

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Why is Kapil Sibal so Adamant?

Posted on June 10, 2012 by indra

As reported, at least one of the older IITs, IIT-Kanpur has decided to go for an open war against Sibal’s wish and has decided its own way to pick students for the next academic year. The institute has shot down the IIT council’s proposal of a common entrance test for all centrally-funded engineering institutes and announced its own exam. The IIT-Kanpur’s special senate meeting attended by around 80 members unanimously passed a resolution to that effect.

Why has been Kapil Sibal so adamant? Any such controversy neither builds a good image of the government nor of the globally recognized brand of the institute.

Instead Kapil Sibal should work on some other priorities. It would have been a better service to the nation if Sibal would have gone for the initiative first to have common and agreed curricula for the subjects such as English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology for class XII of all the boards in the country. Interestingly, USA with differing curricula in its 50 odd states is also working on an initiative to have ‘Common Core State Standards’ for English, Mathematics and Science in K-12. Has Sibal surrendered because of the fear of facing so many states?

But Sibal would have certainly assisted IITs to become globally more accepted and sought for institutes. Why can’t the IITs be lucrative enough to draw the best students from all over the globe, as Stanford or MIT does? Can the embassies in different countries sell IITs’ image and encourage parents to send their children to it? Will Sibal work for and ensure that the infrastructure in IITs are improved to world class standard so that the foreign students from developed countries don’t repent for their decision, if some decide for it?

Kapil Sibal however, has succeeded in dividing the older IITs and perhaps in this manner, he might be able to introduce the new system. As reported, IIT Delhi and Bombay could back IIT Kanpur in holding their own entrance test or join it, while Madras, Roorkee, Kharagpur and Guwahati will stand by the Centre’s decision. I doubt if the directors are not divided for certain vested interest and some are siding with the minister for certain personal reasons, perhaps benefiting them somehow.

‘One-nation one-test’ proposal will certainly affect IITs’ exclusiveness. A decision such as this can’t be agreed upon by vote as claimed by Sibal and can’t be executed so abruptly. Sibal would have taken time and convinced all the faculty and alumni representatives. After all, Sibal himself a professional must understand the mindsets of professionals for a major change. IIT-JEE has a long clean history and has been a brand itself.

However, a quick final decision will be necessary for distressing those who are to appear in 2013 examination. It should certainly not suffer from the present policy paralysis in the government. It is unfortunate that the media reports, grouping of the older IITs in two: one with Sibal and the other with exclusive IIT-JEE are also varying. Again, frustratingly, the different bodies from the same institute are expressing different views.

Let the final change be brought in 2015 after due debate and discussion.

Will Mr. Sibal agree or will he push it harder for getting one more feather in his cap of so-called reforms in education?

As one editorial of a national newspaper puts, ‘Leave IITs alone’A former director of IIT-C also plead for the same,

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Education: Neglected Priorities

Posted on June 6, 2012 by indra

In all the hue and cry of IIT-JEE 2013 and RTE, Mr. Sibal and his HRD ministry has overlooked the core issue of education. What must be the priority for education in the larger national interest? WHERE MUST THE GOVERNMENT AND THE SOCIETY FOCUS?

Many and I too, believe that work on education in the metro and urban sector is generally on track. Even if the government schools are not up to the mark, the rise of private sector in education is significant in urban India. Many private institutions, the costliest in the world class category as well as the cheap ones, have come up and are further getting added. Many have started to think differently about the methodologies for imparting knowledge and to find better ways to make the children learn instead of the traditional rote way. Many are getting inspired from the work being done in developed countries. Innovative approaches are being tried. Many agencies, individual NGOs and even corporate houses are actively getting associated with education.

However, the rural India is not getting the due attention from the private sector and without the same nothing significant will be achieved as it constitutes the major population the country. Education in the rural India depends almost totally on the government schools. The system might have covered the population but the quality is suspect with the deteriorated discipline among the teachers and the society getting exponentially disenchanted with the present system of education.

Over the years, the better offs or so-called upper castes with sufficient landholdings and living still in the rural India are not having the same emphasis on the education of their children as they did in past.

Women are still the largest among the illiterate mass contributing hardly anything to the family earning or even managing the home budget. The work on the education or skill training of grown up mothers who had to drop out for many reasons is hardly there. So is the case of SC, ST, handicapped and even Muslim families with no land holding and totally dependent on the temporary engagement for menial work for earning the livelihood. The drive to educate these groups would have been taken up with the seriousness of the project to eliminate polio from the country. For example, Nitish instead of distributing transistor radio sets to Mahadalit would have also ensured setting up of radio stations providing education in an innovative enough manner so that the users of those transistor radios get enlightened and benefited with a change in their mindsets about the necessity of the education that is free and that will take the generations out of poverty.

Unfortunately, it appears the politicians and religious gurus wish to keep these deprived groups in rural India illiterate and ignorant perpetually as otherwise they will go out of job and flouring livelihood. With good education, they will not be brought under their influence and serve their vested interests.

I find hope in two recent news reports: Premji had recently organized a meet of super rich of the country for charity for the society. The government plans to make CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as mandatory. Can the top 100 corporate houses of India and the extended business community focus on quality rural education and skill training for every one?

It is the only way that rural India can start participating in the growth of India with least physical doles and subsidies from the government.

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IITs: The Way for Entrance in 2013

Posted on June 4, 2012 by indra

IIT-JEE 2013 will be different. Instead of just one examination, the candidate will have to perform in three, the board examination, as well as one main and an advance test conducted on the same day.

Why should Kapil Sibal and his HRD ministry instead of facilitating IITs to grow and go global keep on interfering with its already well-established system of the entrance examination? Is that so critical an issue for the country? India by now has 16 IITs. The older ones are known and respected world over. The newer ones under the mentorship of old ones, will get assimilated into the brand.

Why has Mr. Sibal stirred the hornet’s nest?

Will the new entrance system improve the quality of incoming candidates?

Will the schools, particularly in rural India, improve the quality of teaching because of the performance of its students of class XII in the board examination is getting weightage?

With the menace of the unscrupulous coaching industry get reduced? Perhaps the answer for all the questions will tilt towards a doubtful yes.

The coaching industry has already prepared itself and communicated well through media. It will improve its margin with hardly any further value addition than it does today. It will be costlier and exclusive for richer section of the population. It will be a further drain even for the middle class.

The media has reported the opposition to the new idea of Sibal. A distinguished alumnus, a former director of an IIT, and many columnists, have expressed their opposition to the new system. The faculty members, alumni associations and the students of IITs and parents have protested and threatened to go to the court.

Mr. Sibal, who couldn’t stand the onslaught on the issue of cartoons in text book recently, perhaps will have to surrender again. As such he has already respectability among the elite groups that matter.

IIT-JEE is an established system, perhaps the toughest one in the world. It has been greatly respected with no scam till date.
Instead of getting into the controversy, the HRD ministry would have spared IITs and let it’s JEE system evolve as it has already done. It should be left to the IIT council consisting of the faculty members, representative of alumni and industry to continue with the task, if necessary.

However, as only small percentages of successful students of IIT-JEE get into IITs, any college including the private ones should be free to admit the students based on the scores in IIT-JEE. If these colleges build an image of its teaching quality and provide world class infrastructure, many students not getting the branches of choice may join them. It will improve capacity in more sought after branches.

The colleges such as BITS, Pilani or BIT, Ranchi and many others that have established a reputation can join the group. It will bring a competition in attracting good students.

Mr.Sibal and his ministry of HRD must focus on facilitating IITs to become the best institute with its quality of produce. Let IITs be more autonomous in real sense of the term. Let it focus on research and development and innovation. Let it have the newer branches of technologies. Let it attract the best teachers from world over?

Will Mr. Sibal create better hostel facilities for students so that an engineering student get a room each as was the case in our days? Can he get a super specialty hospital and medical college serving the community around, integrated in each IIT?

Let Mr. Sibal work for a better industry and institute tie-ups? Let him make it attractive to the best students from the developed and developing nations.

Mr. Sibal! Please let IITs be on its own for JEE.

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Higher Education –Some Myths

Posted on June 1, 2012 by indra

Indians in general must go for a change in perception about education and its various aspects. Some myths must die.

Every student and more so his parents do everything to get his ward admitted in the best college, say IITs for engineering. It’s stressing both physically and mentally. It’s a drain on hard earned money too. Same is the case with those joining medicine or other professional institutes for higher education. Does the name of college that one student attend matter? I shall like to narrate my story. I wish it provides the guideline.

While I graduated from IIT, Kharagpur and my eldest son followed me by getting in there after 28 years, the second one went to BIT, Ranchi and the third one through state JEE got admitted in REC (Now NIT) Kurukshetra. Perhaps as I was in manufacturing sector, they all picked up mechanical engineering. After graduation, while the eldest got a job offer from Bajaj Auto, the second one got into Tata Tinplate and Tata Elexi, and the youngest in L&T. All the three are in 40s today. After finishing their MS in different subjects from Purdue, San Francisco and Arizona University, they all are engaged in US. My eldest daughter-in-law graduated in metallurgy from REC, Jamshedpur, did her MS from Dallas and presently working for an Irish company from US. She might be in the best in status and the best paid among them.

I don’t think the college they graduated mattered nor did the marks they obtained in school and board in the professional careers of all five. Even if they would have decided to remain in India, they would have been well off but for the quality of life. Why do we, Indian parents worry so much about the marks or grade differential even beyond decimals?

I have some more engineers from the private institutes of India in my extended family. The two sons of my cousin in Vadodara studied and passed out from government and private engineering colleges of Gujarat. They completed their masters and now employed. To my surprise, one of them plans to join faculty of engineering college. They are hardworking and leading a pretty well life. Let the parents and the students understand that the institutes contribute pretty little. The important for success is one’s hard work, perseverance, will power and self confidence. My advice is to work hard to get into the best ranking institute. But do not unnecessarily stress yourself and get worried if you fail to get into an institute of your choice. Don’t waste another year for getting into that.

I have seen parents and students both grieving over the branch of study that are available in the institute they have got. It hardly matters if you get into chemical, metallurgy or even agricultural engineering. Why should you not get into three years physics course in IIT, if you have been offered one? Take any branch that you get but do really good in that. What is important is the intense learning of the subject that you are pursuing and be the best in it.

Except for few, all the professional institutes, even in private sector, provide ample opportunity to master the subject and achieve excellence. However, one must get into the best available and affordable.

However, every one today need excellence in certain soft skill on which some institutes are still not focusing. For a successful career or perhaps even for succeeding in one’s own business, the skill in communication (speaking, presentation) particularly in English that has become the language for business, and sufficient working knowledge of computer applications are essential. If the institute doesn’t have the facility, one must join some good institutes in the locality that provide it and be proficient.

I don’t agree with dropping out for getting into business. The examples of Apple’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates or Face book’s Zuckerberg who didn’t pursue the formal higher education need to be taken in right spirit. Education must provide the passion for knowledge and its application. It comes from within. It can happen with anyone.

It is unfortunate that many in industry hardly pursue the passion of keeping themselves in touch with the latest trends in their areas of activity. Indians are worse off.

In years to come, the certificates, marks and grades or the institutions will hardly matter. The selection will be entirely on the basis of the capability to perform the required assignment well.

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Higher Education Sector Needs Re-engineering

Posted on May 31, 2012 by indra

Over the years at this time of the year when in Noida, I get shocked with the news related to the admission menace of the about million or more young boys and girls of the country who out of their aspiration for a secured better professional career seek admission in the institute of their choice after completing their class XII with flying colours with distinctions in many subjects. The policy makers and administrators of the country must answer some .pertinent questions.

Should not a student getting 80% and more marks get admissions in a good college for pursuing the subject of his choice? How can a college decide on 100% as cut off marks?

Why are the students in Delhi with that high a score not getting admission in the colleges? Why are the students from Patna or Kolkata seeking admission in Delhi for even the science, commerce and pure humanity courses?

Why do IITs (15 of them now) only admit the top 10,000 students from an entrance examination in which more around 5, 00,000 students appear? Is there much difference between the intelligence levels of those selected and those falling in between 10,001 and 20, 000? Will the students in the later group if studies engineering in tier 2 colleges be a worse engineer or less successful in career?

Why is the curriculum of the science (math, physics, chemistry) as well as English not the same for CBSE as well as other state boards?

Why shouldn’t IIT-JEE follow the same curriculum of the class XII boards?

Why should after 12 years of schooling, the students can’t master one foreign language, English if the country has decided to have the higher education in that language?

In simple language, after 65 years of independence, the best colleges in the capitals of various states of the country remained the same. Unfortunately, the best colleges have not expanded and added capacity. Because of the political patronage and lack of autonomy, the quality of at least some of those best colleges has deteriorated. Neither the Science College of Patna nor Presidency College of Kolkata is the same as they were in 50s and 60s.

I wish all the educational institutes of excellence-universities, colleges, and professional institutes would have enhanced its capacities by 5% every year along with its infrastructures.

A college like Presidency College or Science College could have by now a separate school for each of the subject it teaches. Imagine of a school of physics teaching the subject from class XI to Master and PhD level.

Imagine of old IITs at Kharagpur, Bombay, Chennai, Kanpur and Delhi with at least fifty schools of different specialized admitting 25,000 students every year.

While the new institutes must get set up but the older must initiate a growth plan of at 2.5% every year with corresponding expansion of all the infrastructure-teachers, hostels, residential facilities and everything else necessary for a knowledge town including incubation centres for start ups.

The capacity expansion must not be thrust upon as it was done by this government to take care of the reservation. I wish reservation could go and the demand for the same must come from the students and other beneficiaries in the institutes rather than parliamentarians.

Mahabharata would have got a twist in the story if Drona would have accepted Karna and Eklavya, and interestingly they would not have sought any reservation for their entrance or promotion.

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Amir Khan’s Show: Horrid Healthcare

Posted on May 29, 2012 by indra

I had watched the first two episodes of Amir Khan’s ‘Satyamev Jayate’ though presently in Cary, North Carolina, US, courtesy Internet and U-tube. I was really impressed by Gen-Y young Indians- men and women. They are really bold to share their horrific personal experiences in public that the people of our generation would have not done. I got to the third episode on dowry menace through automatic recording of the programme by Anand. But I watched the fourth one on healthcare live at 10 PM yesterday night. The information pained me. It must be tallying with personal experience of every citizen of the country who has the misfortune to get into such trap. I am also one such person.

But the most impressive information that enriched my knowledge was about the generic medicine and how the doctors are colluding with medicine manufacturers and sucking or even killing the common persons. In the programme, Dr. Samit Sharma from Rajasthan talked about his endeavour to get the cheap generic medicines available for people at very cheap cost by prescribing generic names in prescription rather than the branded one. The Rajasthan government has set up shops selling generic medicines across the state in an effort to make good quality medicines available to people at the lowest possible rates. I shall quote just the example of one medicine from Amir’s article in Hindustan Times, though it has mentions of some more:

“When a student sits for his/her MBBS exams and is asked to name the drug that is to be prescribed for a patient suffering from diabetes, he might write ‘glimeperide’. This is the salt commonly used to treat diabetes. When that same student becomes a doctor and a patient suffering from diabetes comes to him for treatment, he might prescribe the medicine Amaryl. So is that young doctor giving the wrong medication? No. Amaryl happens to be one of the brand names by which the salt ‘glimeperide’ is sold. So what is the difference between the two, apart from the names? Well, a strip of 10 tablets of Amaryl costs around Rs. 125, and a strip of 10 tablets of the salt ‘glimeperide’ costs Rs. 2. Both are essentially the same thing. We pay approximately Rs. 123 more for the brand name.” (Please follow the link read the article and watch the u-tube too, if not difficult.)

I wish the people at large will request the doctor to prescribe the generic medicines. At least, I am going to ask my doctor on my return from USA, as between two of us in family we consume medicines costing about Rs 4000 a month. I shall also ask the doctors in the extended family if they also are practising the same sins.

Interestingly, I came to know from Anand and Shannon that the situation is same in USA too.

Another pleasant surprise came from Dr, Devi Shetty who was on the show. I had met Dr. Devi Shetty in HM days. He was heading BM Birla Heart Hospital in Calcutta. The information that Dr. Shetty provided on Amir show made me ask a simple question: When the contribution of Rs 10 a month by a person can cover the healthcare insurance in Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with the government support of a contribution of Rs 30 to those persons, why can’t the same be emulated by the governments of other states such as UP, Bihar and Orissa, or for that matter by West Bengal? Why can’t the doctors of these states come out to help the teeming million with the serious healthcare troubles taking some lessons from Setty?

I wish the social activists such as Anna, Aruna, Arundhanti Roy and Kejriwal would have worked on these issues of healthcare that is horribly anti-people. Can the enlightened one in the society rise against the devils among the doctors?

PLEASE PASS ON THE LINKS OF THE EPISODE 4 TO AS MANY OF YOUR FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE.

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Petrol Price Rise: Protest or Fuss

Posted on May 27, 2012 by indra

Once upon a time, say some 30 years ago, there were only two car manufacturers in India, each manufacturing only one model of car. Every time, the petrol price would increase, that too by a fraction of rupee, the car sale would drop. And interestingly, the annual car sales between the two were, even in the best year, not more than 30-40 thousands. Today, the dozens of car manufacturers sells around two million cars of all sizes and models. India exports cars. Car industry significantly contributes t0 the trillion dollar economy of the country.

Cars and/or particularly the two wheelers are no more luxury but the necessity. Expenditure on fuel for the vehicles for even many common families is significant.

The last summer session of the parliament ended on Tuesday. Wednesday in afternoon, the oil companies announced the increase in petrol prices by an unprecedented Rs 7.54 per litre effective that midnight, just hours after the celebratory dinner of Manmohan Singh for completing its three years of UPA-II. The gas stations all over the country saw almost a riot with all sorts of vehicle lining up for getting the tanks filled. And the reactions of the car driving public were as usual interesting. Should those who use car park it in the garage and buy a cycle? Some with rural background suggested buying of a horse without knowing its unaffordibility today.

Naturally, the media that night in India was full with the criticism of government and those in government had all the excuses of slowing economy, ballooning fiscal deficits, falling rupee with respect to dollar, and the necessity of overdue reform as the reasons for the rise. None talked about the effect of this price rise of petrol on all the ills of the national economy?

As I have spent my life in car industry, I had many questions in my mind. Why did the people crowd the gas stations? Does one time filling that will save few rupees for this month matter? Will the price rise provide answer to the poor governance of the government that runs by excuses? Is the government policy that keeps taxation on the raw crude oil as well as final product heavy increasing the final price, prudent? Should the government bother so much about the profit of the oil companies? Is it not collecting the money from a class of people and trying to offer it to the vote bank in the name of being inclusive and equitable? Why doesn’t it look into reducing taxes and optimizing the other parameters of the cost? Can it decisively say that there is no scope? I wonder why the price of petrol in many other countries with similar lack of indigenous resource are so less?

The breakup of the final price charged to the customer consists of central government and state taxation-excise duty, education tax, dealer commission, VAT, crude oil custom duty and transportation and storage cost besides the business administrative cost. As estimated, the price of crude is only around 36-40% of the price that the customers pay at the pumps. The government must also look into cutting down the cost.

It is interesting to look into some other effects of the price rise. The auto companies that manufacture primarily diesel vehicles get the advantage of the petrol price rise, as the differential between the fuels has gone to Rs 33 per litre. Knowing the government of the company, many companies are expediting the manufacturing or import plans for diesel engines and other related parts to roll out more diesel models. As estimated and reported, while the pending orders for diesel cars have swelled to about 2 lakh and increasing, the already manufactured petrol vehicles are being offered at heavy discounts up to Rs 75,000.

The price rise of diesel will be coming soon and that will get in to the inflation figure. The government instead of working on other priorities must be busy in finding ways to make it visibly acceptable to the vote banks.

I don’t believe that the opposition parties and their protest matter. Unfortunately, social activists of the country hardly bother about these issues, and aam adami is leaderless.

Interestingly, the global crude prices were at a seven-month low on that Wednesday, hovering at $91 a barrel.

In next few days, the petrol price will be cut by few rupees to provide psychological relief. Price of Diesel and LPG price will also get a raise though not that high. Excise duty on the diesel cars may get enhanced taking the advantage out. What can be a better solution for a government, bankrupt in ideas and will?The government will never touch the kerosene that only creates black money through adulteration mainly at the gas stations.

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Manmohan Failed India

Posted on May 25, 2012 by indra

I am yet to reconcile with a question, how and why Manmohan failed India, his country that had a potential to race ahead. I am, by nature, intolerant for inefficiency and ineffectiveness. And after seeing India and Indians shining in many fields that none could even imagine just two-three decades ago, it pains to see the present condition of the country’s economy and more so the helplessness of the people who matter in academic, media, industry, people at large.

I am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat, but I totally agreed with his view expressed recently in one of the article in Times of India: “Many of us unfortunate enough to be educated and emotionally invested in our country are in pain these days. We see our nation being plundered and mismanaged by the politicians in power. Even as the rupee collapses and industrial production growth turns negative, our top leadership discusses 60-year-old cartoons in Parliament.”

UPA-II still celebrates. Mulayam and Lalu are still important. BJP, the only opposition party that could have been an alternative is still in malaise of personal ambitions. A person such as PA Sangma, Pranab Mukherji, or Abdul Kalam can’t become the president of India as Sonia Gandhi needs a loyal person such as the incumbent one. Rahul Gandhi still lacks the confidence of his father necessary to get into the driver seat.

Pranab, time and again, expresses his concern of falling rupee and increasing deficit and expects austerity. However, Manmohan instead of providing the way out from the malaise, taking major political parties in confidence for some hard actions and taking actions to remove the cause of wrong signals to domestic and foreign investors, still finds its government’s performance good enough for celebration with sumptuous dinner party.

The country still doesn’t know if Manmohan approves of the retrospective taxation proposed in the last budget that has been considered as one single reason affecting India story so badly dissuading the foreign investment. Are all sane thinkers of the country antinational? Why are the domestic business houses focusing on investing abroad? Why Manmohan could not put his personal weightage on passing the land acquisition bill in session that has just ended as he did in case of Nuclear Bill? Doesn’t he know how huge numbers of key development projects all over the country are not moving ahead because of that?

How can a person without a fire in belly can take the country on the path of development and see the aspirations of a billion plus men and women?

Perhaps, Manmohan is languishing in an old mantra of some Indian sage, ‘santos hi param dharam’ with the India economy gradually moving towards a situation where the envious nations will say, ‘Punah muShiko bhava’:

The fiscal deficit ballooned to 5.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011/12, up from 4.9 per cent the previous year.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth averaged 2.8 per cent in 2011/12, compared with 8.2 per cent in 2010/11.

The current account deficit has grown to $19.6 billion in the October to December 2011 quarter, from $10.1 billion a year earlier.
Inflation is back at 7.23 per cent in April this year, rising from 6.89 per cent in March.

The rupee has undergone a free fall. Even with RBI assistance, it is down near Rs 56 against the US dollar.

And then my question: why has so much revered Manmohan failed India?

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Higher Education: Yes or No

Posted on May 23, 2012 by indra

Americans are unique. One created a history by creating a company of $1000 billion last week. In process, he also created about 10 more billionaires and some millionaires too. One among them is a second generation Indian also. Peter Thiel, the other billionaire Peter Thiel questioned the need of college education. Interestingly, Thiel also got enriched by about $ 2.14 billion through his holding in Facebook.

Interestingly, Thiel is paying 20 young people under 20 $100,000 a year to drop out or not go to college in order to pursue new business ideas.

CBS “60 Minutes” last Sunday had a story on the issue. It had Thiel to put forward his ideas and presented Vivek Wadhwa to comment on Thiel’s proposition. Vivek Wadhwa teaches at Duke and Stanford universities

Thiel has made his fortune as an Internet entrepreneur. He has founded “The 20 Under 20 Fellowship” as an alternative to higher education. His critics have called it an “elitist ploy.”

In the “60 Minutes” interview, Thiel was very much forthright and told CBS’s Morley Safer: “We have a bubble in education, like we had a bubble in housing. … Everybody believed you had to have a house; they’d pay whatever it took…Today, everybody believes that we need to go to college, and people will pay – whatever it takes.”

Parents all over the world endeavour to pay whatever is required for the higher education of their wards. My daughter-in-law has been working real hard pursuing the higher education in medical profession since almost last 10 years. I presume the profession of doctor in US is very high earning one. I was amazed to hear Thiel saying, “There are all sorts of vocational careers that pay extremely well today, so the average plumber makes as much as the average doctor.” And then Thiel said to my utter surprise, “only half of recent college grads are employed full-time and tuition has quadrupled over the past 30 years,” and believed “the system is broken and its promises are hollow.” “We now have $1 trillion in student debt in the U.S. … Cynically, you can say it’s paid for $1 trillion of lies about how good education is.”

I don’t know if it was intentional. Wadhwa in the interview appeared to be very soft in countering Thiel’s proposition.
Wadhwa told Safer. “What I worry about is a message that’s getting out there to America that it’s OK to drop out of school, that you don’t have to get college. Absolutely dead wrong.”

Wadhwa conceded that the people chosen for the “20 Under 20” have good ideas, but he insists a college education is needed to “turn those ideas into inventions and companies/” However, he said, “The majority of them will fail. And they’re going to regret not having completed their education.”

In the programme, Wadhwa was not made to debate Thiel face to face. I wonder if the debate could have been on the line the US presidential candidates debate.

Unfortunately, the situation in higher education sector is becoming grim. While the higher education in reputed US universities is becoming unaffordable, with outsourcing employment has shrunk. One going for education loan would certainly relish its burden for the rest of one’s life.

US has many examples of the top few entrepreneurs such Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Facebook’s Zuckerberg who didn’t have any formal higher education. Similar stories may be there in other countries too, including India and China. However, the dream of every young person becoming entrepreneur is equally elusive. Perhaps the route to the entrepreneurship may go through the institutes of higher learning. And that only can provide the opportunity to a larger mass to get into entrepreneurship that can be more sustainable.

With India following everything that US does, higher education is getting costlier and education loans are becoming popular.

I see higher education different today after more than 50 years that I left IIT.

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