Farmers Need Solutions

Posted on September 14, 2009 by indra

I came across a story from rural India. “Ramabai from Pikjharan village in Bargah district, 370 km west of Bhubaneswar earns Rs 60,000-75,000 a year from. Rambai could manage to convince a large landowner in the village to lease a two-acre farm to her. She grew potato, tomato, brinjal, cauliflower and cabbage – doing all the work on her own, from digging, ploughing and watering to harvesting. She even carried the vegetables to the local market and sold them herself.”

The story is interesting, as most of the farmers have a landholding of around two acres in India. If Ramabai can earn and live a life well enough that can be benchmark for the farmers in general, why can’t the others emulate the way Ramabai operates? Do many of the farmers require a real handholding to show them the way to make their farming viable, profitable and enjoyable? Is the farming loosing its charm and the respectability in the society? I think the disenchantment from farming has many more important reasons and some based on the overall changes in the aspirations and ambitions of the next generation of the rural society. I have seen youths preferring a meager lowly paid job in the urban India requiring much tougher, sometimes even inhuman working condition and pretty poor remunerations and very poor living conditions rather than working on their farm and living in much better accommodation. Perhaps they prefer independence more and so do their spouses. Many a times, the pressure comes from the later for this switch over to any engagement in urban India.

For the people who chose farming as profession, Ramabai model can work only till the family remains small. Unfortunately, the family planning has become an outdated subject. Unfortunately, most of the farmers do hardly get any formal learning from the present education system. The basics of agriculture are not in any school curricula in any state. Why can’t Mr. Sibal or Prof Yaspal do something about its inclusion? But perhaps they can’t appreciate this. Sibal talks of including some content on law.

Will the government or other agencies in rural India come out to help the farmers with the knowledge and information required for farming? Can the government, the corporate houses interested in investing in rural India or NGOs working there help all the farmers with the best solutions to their real problems such as right seeds, best crop combinations on the land available, the soil test desirable to decide the right amount of inputs such as fertilizers and insecticides, and the market giving the best price for their produce? Farmers do require some other assistance too. How can the family manage the financial burdens of emergencies in the household such as marriage, illness, and legal matters? Who can be of the best help in such emergencies?

Hardly few who decide the policies affecting the farmers and work to bring them out from their miserable conditions have the knowledge of the real problems.

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India and NREGA

Posted on September 12, 2009 by indra

I can’t say about Delhi, but Noida has not experienced such monsoon that is continuing since last four days for many years, bettering even my memory of Bengal’s rain.

Since last few months, the media covered the drought extensively. From the reporters and columnists of the pink papers to the finance minister as well as even the prime minister talked of drought’s adverse effect on the country’s economy and its GDP growth rate. The majority of the country’s districts demanded and got the label of ‘drought affected’. The state governments worked overtime to show the exaggerated intensity of the drought. I was surprised when I heard the police taking control on the deep tube wells in the villages from Bihar as well UP. Farmers had to play hide and seek with police informers to start pumps for saving the paddy crops. It was again unprecedented in the region. I don’t know if it was on instruction of the government, as the government had announced subsidy on diesel for running pumps for keeping the crop alive. How can the government pass on such orders? Was that another source for earning for police?

The government also announced extra fund allocation for NREGA. I don’t know if it helped the affected or the effect. Unfortunately, the panchayats have failed to create the list of permanent assets such as its waterbodies or the irrigation canals passing through its control area that are to be maintained regularly.

But now many part of the country particularly West Bengal, Bihar, and even UP are reporting heavy rain, pretty heavy in many places. The rain god, according to the report, has compensated its shortcomings. The steady showers wiped out the rain deficit making up for the almost dry three months of monsoon. Cities are waterlogged. Some rivers are flooding too. Did the agencies responsible to use NREGA worked on some waterbodies to increase the storage capacity of the rain water or all the water poured by the rain god will go down the drain and wasted? Why can’t NREGA take up the construction and repair of waterbodies as the top priority for each of the water scarce habitations?

Why can’t the central and state governments declare the ancient natural and man-made huge water bodies in different parts of the country as national heritage with extreme penal actions for those working against it? Why are the famous lakes of Udaipur, Bhopal or Hyderabad facing extinction? Will the state government be vigilant against the land mafias such as one reported from Rajarhat Kolkata by Raj K. Modi of the Vedic Village arrested and charged with converting 21 acres of wetland without permission. Unfortunately, even if the court’s judgment asks the plunderers to vacate the wetland, it will not ask them to restore the wetland as it was originally.

The nation must use the opportunity provided by the drought as well as flood and heavy rain to find solutions to mitigate its effect when it again come next time. The one point action plan is to create water storage capacity as much as possible and integrate the maximum possible water harvesting. Through NREGA, it is possible. However, the people at the grassroots level must appreciate it. Provisions of NREGA must not be taken as doles to be distributed to favourite ones.

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Cover-up Sectors Flourish with Nonperformance

Posted on September 11, 2009 by indra

Over the years the governments both at the centre as well as in the states have failed to provide the basic requirements of the people related to power, water, education, and even the healthcare and sanitation. And it is worrying, as it is insensitive and encourages the cover-up sectors, many with vested interests and mean mindsets. Both individuals as well as companies have to generate their own power, provide their own transport, dig for their own water and invest substantially on coaching and training to become employable or make the graduating ones employable. Interestingly, it is not only the government but the private entrepreneurs are also failing. For example, in higher professional education sector where the private institutes produces almost 70% or more graduates and a major percent of the lot, about 50% according to one estimate are unemployable. It has given a necessity to add one more layer of cover up education through finishing schools of all sorts for making them employable. These finishing schools or institutes, some by even the government or social entrepreneurs, are hardly any guarantee for getting employable even after payment of huge fees. Let us have a review of some of the sectors:

Power

According to a survey by a big power company, ‘power outages nationwide cost Indians a staggering Rs 100,000 crore – enough to put up power plants with a capacity of 25,000 MW of electricity, or almost 20% of the present generation level’. India additionally spends Rs 30,000 crore every year maintaining and operating inefficient back-ups like gensets and inverters, which substantially increase the carbon footprint. The study claims back-ups release an additional 1.9m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to one projection, the value of the lost opportunity due to outages in 2008-09 was Rs 2, 89, 000 crore. The Prime Minister talks of austere measures but doesn’t act against the ministers failing to reach the targets set.

Education

As the government schools have failed to meet the demand, the private education for K-12 has become a $19, 6-billion business that will grow to $40.3 by 2018. It starts at preschool stage with private tuitions, goes on for getting selected for entry in the professional colleges and continues even after coming out from the colleges even after paying huge capitation fees and other charges. For example, the company such as Infosys Technologies, India’s second-biggest software services exporter, turns trainer for the nearly 30,000 students it recruits from top engineering colleges every year to fill the gaps left by inadequate college education. As reported, Nasdaq-listed Infosys spent $175 million on training and education in the year to March 2009, at a time when an economic downturn crimped margins. So do the many companies and many social entrepreneurs to provide additional fill-ups. Can it be a quality first time cutting the waste of resources and time?

Drinking Water

As the quantity is not sufficient and the quality of water supply from the municipal and other government agencies is hardly worth consuming, people are paying to buy water, the basic needs of every one. Water filtration systems of all sophistications have grown as a big industry worth multi-crore business. The bottled water industry is now estimated to be worth around Rs 1,000 crore and is growing around 40 per cent per annum. Interestingly, even the governments have started thinking in this term.
The Andhra Pradesh government plans to install a water treatment plant costing Rs 2 lakh in each village and habitat having a population of 1,500; and every person will be given a 5-litre bottle of drinking water per day. Free of cost. I don’t know if the leadership change in the state will affect the plan. year.

Healthcare

Hardly anyone from even the middle class goes to the government hospital. The private healthcare constituting doctor-led nursing homes and clinics, trust-run tertiary care hospitals and corporate multi-specialty hospital (MSH) chains such as Apollo, and Fortis are mushrooming in every corners of the urban India. Perhaps the government healthcare centres will be visited and remain reserved for the BPL families.

Let us hope something better will come out of this.

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In This Great Democracy

Posted on September 9, 2009 by indra

As such the news credited to the politicians and politics are hardly worth reading. But sometimes it’s make me really morose.

One such news got busted by the Bengali Babu who practically is the only heavy- weight in UPA-II government. Krishna and his deputy, celebrityTharoor were staying in the suites of a deluxe 5-star hotel paying huge tariffs since they got into cabinet, as their bungalows were not ready to their satisfaction. Why should Pranab Babu be repenting for that? Are the two not rich enough to pay on their own, as claimed? But I am forgetting the norms or code for the politicians in public. They must showcase themselves as aam aadami and ordinary middle class, if possible even as BPL. They can’t spend lavishly their own money too. After all, both of them are multimillionaires. Why should they live in the State Bhawans, if those do not provide the services to their standards? Are not the majority of members of this Parliament crorepatis?

Next news came from Kolkata, my city for years since childhood. We moved to our Salt Lake residence in end of 1996. All these years, I had been hearing about the new city getting developed by the leftist government at Rajarhat that was to be better than Salt Lake City. In January 2009 when we went to Kolkata with Anand and Shannon, we took the route through Rajarhat intentionally while going to AJIRA from the airport to see the progress. Every time the media reported about the big corporate houses getting into the new city, I got excited for a reason not known to me. Perhaps I like the place where I have spent the best part of life. All these years I had been talking about the way Marwari business community is capturing the real estate sector in Kolkata. It started from the era of Jyoti Basu and continues till date. We kept on assuming the left to be more honest and transparent and keen on doing everything for the common people. But basically it appears they were no different. Only goons and mafia rule the day and the economy of the state is in the hands of the marwaris. And so shockingly Bengal is losing the momentum of industrialization that Buddha dreamt and we all wished him to succeed.

What started with Mamta’s maneuver in Singur has become the fate for each project in the state. Infosys and Wipro are out from the IT township project in Rajarhat, the prestigious project of left creating a huge employment for the local graduates coming out of many of the private engineering colleges that have mushroomed in the state. While Mamata enters Rajarhat, Buddha has gone silent. In the meantime, the real face of the realty business of this left regime gets known to everyone, courtesy media. And the cops are busy proving their efficiency in catching the real culprits of the Vedic Village flare-up in Rajarhat on August 23.

Unfortunately, Bengal appears a lost case. And the people are still content with the politicians.

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Education: Raining Reforms

Posted on September 8, 2009 by indra

Kapil Sibal is the most vocal and visible face of UPA-II in media today. This advocate-turned-education-reformer wishes to undo all the decades old wrongs in India’s education. If Kapil Sibal is to be believed, none will have any grievance about the education system in India. And no one can doubt India becoming the Knowledge Superpower.

The Parliament has already passed The Right to Education Bill empowering children through mandatory education till class VIII. It brings 8.1 million schoolchildren of the total 193 million children in 6-14 age group in the ambit of quality school education. It also promises to improve quality of education in government schools.

As the first step to detraumatization of the students, CBSE will abolish its Class X examinations from 2010-11 and will introduce the grading system from 2009-10 (current academic year). The reform will reduce unhealthy competition and stress among students. The system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCS) will challenge the age-old practice of prevalent rote learning and inculcate creativity among the students.

Sibal will fix the ills in higher education too. A collegium comprising experts and eminent academics will start selecting the vice chancellors with no interference from the government side within the next one year. The government through a bill will set up the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) providing the collegium. NCHER will be an overarching agency in higher education that will start working before the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year, and will have the best of both the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission. NCHER will regulate different streams such as technical education, medical education, architecture, general education, research and scholarships. The commission would be an autonomous body like the Election Commission of India

A Central Madrassa Board will also ensure that only non-theological education would be overseen by it and the rest will be from the mainstream education system.

The government plans to accredit all higher education professional institutes within a timeframe with a provision for heavy penalty up to Rs 50 lakh for defaulters. A new law will soon allow the entry of Foreign Education Providers, and another will have provisions against educational malpractices through educational tribunals to settle disputes between different stakeholders.
Sibal’s ministry is also working on removing a legal barrier to attract reputed teachers of Indian origin and Indian citizens working in world-class institutions abroad. Unfortunately, Sibal has not been able to satisfy the teachers at IITs and IIMs.

Sibal advocates for a common, uniform science and mathematics curriculum in schools and with doing away with the multiplicity of school boards in the country. I strongly support this, while some pleads for closer scrutiny, as ‘our founding fathers, in their wisdom, had placed education on the concurrent list, therefore giving the states the autonomy to decide on their education system.’ Sibal must work on this issue to have consensus. I am sure that Prof cum Pleader Sibal can explain and argue it out to sell it to the satisfaction of all. It will remove a lot of mess including corruption too that is there with multiplicity of boards, some say 40 plus in the country.

Can anyone doubt Sibal’s sincerity and the speed with which he wishes to go for the reforms? But there are many skeptics and to a certain extent I am also among them. How will Sibal change the mindsets of those who will be expected to implement the changes with positive approaches shaking off the old habits and lethargy? For all practical purpose, India needs a Sibal almost in all the positions of responsibility or a system that removes those who don’t want to change.

However, if one has some suggestion and idea, please pass it on to Sibal. There is some hope for better education for the first time after decades. I expect all the Noida rural schools to come in the line of the branded ones. Will it happen?

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Automobiles Tomorrow and Indian Manufacturers

Posted on September 7, 2009 by indra

SA Aiyar in his Sunday ‘Swaminomics‘ that has appeared as a letter addressed to Ratan Tata suggests ‘about JLR going into hybrids and electric plug-ins not to save the planet, just to save JLR – and may be even Tata Motors – from extinction.’

Aiyar’s suggestion has come because of a new realization among the auto manufacturers. The battery-powered cars are now here to stay. ‘Economist’ in one of its lead articles has similar recommendations: “Over the next 40 years the global fleet of passenger cars is expected to quadruple to nearly 3 billion. China, which will soon overtake America as the world’s biggest car market, could have as many cars on its roads in 2050 as are on the planet today; India’s fleet may have multiplied 50-fold. Forecasts of this kind led Carlos Ghosn, boss of the Renault-Nissan alliance, to declare 18 months ago that if the industry did not get on with producing cars with very low or zero emissions, the world would “explode”. Cars already contribute around 10% of the man-made greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change.”

In addition to the increasing number of petrol-electric hybrids, mainstream manufacturers will soon offer cars powered solely by electric motors such as Nissan’s Leaf and Chevrolet’s Volt. The Leaf’s battery power will have a range of about 160km (100 miles) before it needs to be plugged in for a fresh charge. The Volt will have a small petrol-engine generator to recharge its batteries on trips of more than 65km. Both are medium-sized cars offering decent performance. Electric cars from other mainstream manufacturers are not far behind.

Tesla Roadster, the sports version has been the pioneer. It goes from zero to 100kph (62mph) in 3.7 seconds-not much slower than a top-line Ferrari. However, it costs $121,000, and made for a niche market. The niche markets are the classic way in for a disruptive technology. Tesla’s next vehicle, the Model S, is a more mainstream family car at about $50,000 though still not very cheap. However, the price is high because of its range. According to its maker, the Roadster can travel almost 400km between charges. The Model S should be able to do even better. There can always be a trade off. A lot of researchers are working on making them cheaper and faster to charge.

Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV, expected to be on sale next year and with initial price of ¥4.6m ($49,000), will cut its price by half once the car goes on sale outside Japan. That halving (and potential quartering) of price compared with a Tesla Roadster will be because the i-MiEV’s battery has only 88 Li-ion cells, rather than the Tesla’s 1,800.

Daimler (which also owns 6% of Tesla) in Germany plans to start producing a Li-ion-powered version of its Smart Fortwo with a battery capacity to keep the vehicle going for around 115km.

As reported, China is well on the way to get into electric cars replacing those using gasoline or diesel and may take a global lead. BYD’s Auto launched the world first mass produced plug-in electric car, the F3DM that sells at $ 22,000 in December 2008 unlike the American. The Chinese car company Chery has already followed BYD and launched a plug-in hybrid car in February, and its rival Geely plans to unveil its plug-in hybrid later in 2009.

Aiyar would have suggested Tata to get into electric versions for the mass produced vehicles such as Nano, Indica, Indigo or some new platform in future. With its resources and global ambitions, only Tata Motors and M&M can get into the electric cars for mass marketing.

Tata’s innovative approach for Nano made a ripple in the auto world globally after its launch and well recognized. Unfortunately, Tata Motors has failed to get it turned into the storm. That would have come only with the scaling up both the quantity and the unique quality features through some real innovations. In years to come, the companies will win the competition more and more with its innovative approaches.

It is sad that the professors of IITs and IIMs have gone for trade union style of agitation, but they hardly collaborate with the industry to come out with some breakthrough innovations. Can they come out with some of the innovative ideas that can make Indian automakers win with Chinese?
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PS:

However, the fresh air of hope comes from a little known company of the country. Interestingly, by the next year, Reva, the only electric car manufacturer of India plans to introduce the NXR in around 24 countries across Europe and Asia. The NXR plugs into a home outlet and will go into production in the first quarter of 2010. With lithium-ion battery, it can run at a top speed of 104 kph, more than twice the speed of current Reva and can cover a distance of 160 km per charge. The Reva NXG or next generation, a sporty two-seater, will go into production in 2011. It has top speed of 130 kph and can cover 200 km range per charge.

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Noida- Potential Knowledge City

Posted on September 4, 2009 by indra

I wish some of the Sibal’s plans for increasing access for education touches Noida too.

I appeal to Sibal to get a central university with innovation as the mission for Noida too and to help setting up a grand library to become ultimately the best in India. With much better connectivity, the Noida facilities can be used by the whole of the NCR. I have a dream that some HRD minister initiates to set up a university that has a college each from all the best universities of the world, an unprecedented showpiece of knowledge.

My appeal automatically must be taken as one to Mayawati too. I wish she participates and diverts some fund from her huge treasure for setting up this project, at least the world class library that can attract knowledge seeking people from far and near to Noida. Can’t that become a memorial immortalizing her name in history? Let her name it after herself that none, certainly not me, will mind.

On education front, Noida is pretty ahead. It has many top brands public schools. For example, every sector around mine has a big name. While sector 40 has Khaitan, sector 41 has Millennium, and sector 50 has Kothari International as well as Ramagya. There are many more-DPS, Cambridge, Bal Bharati, Mahavir, DAV, and others too. I do not know the exact capacity of these schools that teaches up to class XII with almost every sector with at least one.

According to a report, the highest number of seats for MBA and Engineering per capita in the country is in Noida. Noida with Greater Noida is an education hub besides many educational institutes for higher education in Ghaziabad and all along NH-24 with colleges of engineering and management. For house owners in this NCR, renting their houses for students has become a good business and part of economy.

Noida residents and the people from the towns and villages surrounding areas will get benefitted if a central university focusing on higher education and researches in all possible areas is set up in Noida. The library will be an additional attraction for the retiring intellectuals too to settle in Noida.

Hospitals calling themselves research institutes are also numerous. I wish some medical colleges with different specialty also get established

Surprisingly, Noida also has one of the worst literacy rates. Noida requires a large number of social entrepreneurs. Neither NGOs nor the corporate houses in Noida have done anything to see that all the children of temporary and migratory workers attend schools. With one of the most affluent population in Noida, can Noida Authority or associations of the public schools of Noida or some social entrepreneurs initiate a project to see that all its kids including those from its villages are in schools through a special door-to-door drive and see that they get educated? I do also foresee a lot of scope for some formal or even informal education programmes for the illiterate adults, particularly the women folks, serving the sectors in many ways. I am sure that will be a long term solution to the extremely poor law and order situation.

According to a survey based on well-thought forty measures published in ‘Business Today’, Noida ranks sixth among the best cities of India and above the coveted Bangalore and Pune.

With a little more effort and will, Noida can easily turn itself into a knowledge city and become envy of other satellite townships in the country.

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Sibal’s Dream: Free and Compulsory Quality Education

Posted on September 3, 2009 by indra

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill hopes to cover the 10 crore children between the ages of six and 14 who are out of school through a neighbourhood school. How will this neighbourhood schools look like? Who will get it set up and commission?

As per the act, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, Sainik schools, and unaided schools will admit at least 25 per cent of their students from disadvantaged and economically weaker groups.

Let me talk of the real situation of education of the children of the age in Noida. Noida must have two extreme. While each of the villages integrated with Noida such as Agarhpur, Morena and many are having good buildings for schools, but the standard of teaching in these government schools is just dismal noway better than rural schools. There are some other types of schools such the two I know that are being run by Sai Temple and Shakti Mandir in Sector 40 with a large of boys and girls from the bottom of pyramid attending it every day morning. These kids are from the families of rikshapullers, security men, lowly paid migrants working on construction sites, janitors and those who work as domestic maids. Some are run by NGOs. Many private schools are also in business that charges some fee too.

And on the other hand are the high end schools perhaps at least one in each sector with the very best facilities and charging pretty good amount as fee. The standard of teaching in these schools is certainly of world class. And so, many finding difficulties in getting admissions in Delhi’s good schools may soon be looking towards these schools in Noida.

How can Sibal’s Act bring equity in the education standard of all these schools and how will he ensure that no one in the age is out on the streets of Noida or working at home or with some petty employers rather in schools? The execution of the act requires involvement of the civil society. The high-end schools must come forward to find ways and means to attract 25% of its students from the underprivileged class. NGOs must look to locate the deserving students from the category and get them in the high-end schools.

Why can’t the high-end schools of Noida or the whole of NCR adopt the rural or temple schools in the region, get involved with its students and teachers to improve the quality of education there and set example for the rest of the country? Can Mr. Sibal see this happening?

I am really excited about the speedy reforms that Sibal is carrying out in education sector. I wish to see Sibal’s vision of free and compulsory education realized throughout the country. I shall be trying to gauge it by observing the students queuing to get into the school premises in the temple complex while going for my morning walk in Noida. I shall also be in touch with my cousin in my village in Bihar to find the change the act brings in quality of the teaching there. I don’t know how fast Sibal’s neighbourhood schools mentioned in the Act will come up, but there are many who are ushering a kind of revolution in education that gives hope. One such enterprise is Gyanshala, the school at the doorstep. Can’t the provisions in the Act become complimentary with gyanshalas or similar institutes?

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Destination India: The Factory of the Future

Posted on September 2, 2009 by indra

India is no more a sourcing destination for only software and BPO, pharmaceuticals, or textiles and leathers. India now also exports automobiles, auto parts, and more importantly components for major aerospace industry such as Airbus and Boeing. Dynamatic Technologies recently exported the first batch of flap track Beams (FTBS), a mechanical component used in the A320.TAL Manufacturing Services, a Tata company makes floor beams for Boeing. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), the consortium that owns Airbus, set up its India sourcing office in 2007, the first outside Europe. By 2008 EADS had sourced Euro 100 million worth of components from India. By 2020, it is targeting Euro 1 billion. EADS has presently 15 Indian suppliers, including HAL that makes passenger doors for its A320.

India is the largest two-wheeler manufacturer and the fifth largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world. India is the number one not only in manufacturing of bicycles but also of motorcycles.

Almost all the major global players in automobiles, be it commercial, passenger cars, have set up the manufacturing facilities in India both to tap the large Indian market as well as for using Indian facilities for exporting, as India masters the technique of frugal manufacturing. The beginning that started with Maruti in 1982 is getting matured. India is becoming hub for manufacturing small cars. Maruti, Hyundai, Tata Motors are already increasing its export even in a recessionary market in developed world. Toyota Kirloskar Motor is planning to make India an export hub for small cars by 2012.Honda and Nissan may follow soon. General Motors and Ford have firmed up the plans to manufacture minicars in India for the developed countries. Should not the credit go to Tata motors Nano that has started coming to the consumers at a rate of about 2000 per month?

But the more interestingly almost all auto manufactures have set up the R&D centres in India to use the India talent for innovations that was proved with the launch of Nano with about 40 odd new patents. I vividly remember my questioning Maruti’s CEOs in many conferences about the reasons for not localizing the transmission gears. The answer used to be the high technologies involved in manufacturing. The same Maruti Suzuki has announced a $310 million investment to set up a research and development unit in India that would eventually serve as a R&D hub for small cars for the company outside Japan. Even all high end manufacturers such as Mercedes, Porshe, and BMW are also in India.

Among the Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Tata and Mahindra & Mahindra are the leaders and have shown intentions to be global players with important acquisitions, upgraded technologies and superior-designed vehicles. Tata Ace, Indica and Nano, and Mahindra’s Scorpio and now Xylo have drawn the global attention about India’s capability in the products development after painstaking market research about the specific needs of the Indian consumer. Indian manufacturers are taking advantage of the slowdown in developed countries and trying to attract the best brains available there today for the engineering and development work.

‘Frugal Engineering’ has become the hallmark of the Indian automotive industry. The Indian lead in cost-effectiveness and the advantages with a highly-skilled human resource pool to bring down the product development cost have made. Global OEMs now look at benefiting from the India advantage by using India-based design and development centres.

Additionally, the auto components manufacturers have built in competencies to develop, and manufacture for the domestic as well as global OEMs at competitive cost with unmatched speed and assured quality. For example, as reported, in Ford’s small car, the brake system will be from an Indian supplier and the instrument panel comes out of collaboration between an Indian supplier and Ford’s engineering studio in Australia. However, everything is not rosy with many major manufacturers switching over and relying more and more on the Chinese sourcing for cost advantages.

The Indian manufacturing story doesn’t end with the cars and its parts. India will leverage its strength in many areas. One such clear case is that of manufacturing Nokia’s cell phones at its Chennai plant. Interestingly the unique innovations made at these plants are finding worldwide applications.

India will have to expand its manufacturing exponentially in every field from simple products to more and more complex and customized high tech parts to employ the huge workforce joining the job market. It requires innovations from product developers both from the grassroots as well as from the R&D centres of the country. But the main thrust, the encouragement and finance for the innovations must come from the government policies and the mindsets of the executives in big, medium and small business enterprises.

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Education: Teaching and Teachers’ Qualification

Posted on September 1, 2009 by indra

Years ago during my Presidency College days, I had heard an anecdote about a professor in Calcutta. Prof Ladli Mohan Mitra was a very reputed professor of chemistry in one of colleges in Calcutta. He had a textbook on chemistry perhaps for intermediate science course too. As the story goes, after his M.Sc he came for a teaching job in Presidency College but was rejected as he didn’t obtain first class in his examination. After Mitra became famous as professor, the authority of presidency wanted to employ him and sent a message for the same to him. Prof Mitra refused saying that he still was not first divisioner. I don’t know who was the looser Prof Mitra or Presidency with that rule of first division as entry restriction.

Looking back, I find some of the best teachers didn’t possess doctorate, and some who had Ph.D were really bad teacher. I still remember Prof TP Mukherji and Dr. Subodh Chandra Sengupta who taught English. TP (Tara Pada babu) was excellent while teaching Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Ceaser’, Dr. Sengupta’s performance as teacher was just dismal.

And in IIT, we hardly had any Ph.Ds. Perhaps Prof Chandiramani of mechanical engineering department who used to teach machining practices was the first professors to get Ph.D against his name. Even some of the Professors from US universities including Prof Seyfarth who taught me machine design as specialization in final year, were not having Ph.D. Prof. R Misra, the head of production engineering had joined IIT from the industry, and was perhaps one of the most inspiring teacher.

Recently I came across a news report: Some three decades ago, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) decided for selecting Ph.Ds as faculty. Currently, none of the IITs has faculty members who are non-PhDs, barring a few of them who joined the institutes in the 70’s when the PhDs were scarce. However, as reported, the HRD ministry has now allowed 10% non-PhDs to join as lecturers. And that is causing some controversy and heartburning for the faculty and directors. I fail to understand why Ph.D should be a criterion for becoming teacher in IITs for undergraduate courses.

Should not the teaching capability be a criterion in selection of teachers based on the classes or courses they are expected to teach? Teachers must be inspiring the students to acquire the knowledge required for the course, and to make them inquisitive enough to think holistically and innovate. Teachers’ educational qualification doesn’t ensure his ability to inspire and even impart the knowledge to his students. The most important aspect for the selection must be the aptitude for teaching. He must work really hard to get the best out of his students and from each and every one of them without any bias. The institutes no more require Dronacharya who may refuge teaching Eklavaya the tricks of archery or Parashuram who will not impart the best to Karna as he didn’t belong to his caste.

Today if we look at the qualifications of the teachers in primary schools, most of them may be qualified, but hardly some are dedicated and good in teaching. And that must be the urgent concern of the government.

I wish on Teachers’ Day, the media publish special issues on the best teachers at all levels in every field in the country.

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