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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IIT Teachers’ Demands-My Views

Posted on August 28, 2009 by indra

Pandey and I were in IIT, Kharagpur on the same day in 1957 for final interview to get the department of our choice. While I was with my grandfather, Pandey was with his father. Both the elderly persons were in teaching profession. It was a chance meeting with Pandey, as we both were staying in Rajendra Prasad Hall that night. Pandey is the only with whom I am still in communication. He was till last month in Kharagpur as faculty in civil engineering.

After graduation, Pandey decided to remain in teaching. He joined Patna Engineering College (now NIT, Patna) as lecturer, and then shifted to IIT, Kharagpur. He kept on adding qualifications, Master, and then Ph.D. He published papers, addressed conferences, and also kept on working on some innovations in road construction that got him patent too. He was Emeritus professor in IIT when I had asked him last time.

What should I write about myself? I joined industry and went up to a level in the company I worked. I knew Pandey might have been earning less as remuneration. He had some grievances too. But I had a lot of respect for him. I remember one incident that he narrated. When he went to his native village in Bihar, the neighbours were surprised that he decided to be teacher as his father was also the same. They had dreamt that Pandey would earn a lot of money from all the sources quite usual for a civil engineer in Bihar in PWD or irrigation and in turn he would also be of some help to them or their children too. Pandey didn’t do that. I respect his decision and dedication for teaching. In 1992, I had met Dr. Kamal Dutt, our senior of Presidency College in Delhi University, where he was a professor. Kamal da was all along rank holder in all examinations and so respected among us during the college days. He was also in Eden Hindu Hostel in 1955-57. I found Kamal pretty happy and satisfied as teacher in DU.

I don’t know if Pandey or Kamal da went for any agitation for better salary during their time.

Recently I read about the agitation of the teachers of IITs for getting higher remuneration/ compensation based on certain rationales. One of the arguments appeared very interesting to me. As reported, some leaders of the agitation, must be out of the IIT faculty, “calculated Rs 23,80,321 as the total financial loss of a student who today decides to pursue higher studies necessary to teach at an IIT in six years based on present government salaries. Spread over 35 years – the average career span of a teacher at an IIT – this amounts to Rs 12,114 a month, which the faculty argue should be paid in addition to the IIT teacher’s salary.”

Let me assure the faculty that I am for a higher salary and incentive for the community. I know the salary and perks of the teachers in the institutes for higher professional education are pretty low when it is compared with the faculty in the developed countries. As reported, “The average annual pay for professors in U.S. public universities is $115,509. The professors of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) get annually – a paltry $12,000.” However, I disagree with the industry’s trade union style of their agitation such as mass casual leave and the rational for the higher pay as compensation to the years for getting master and PhDs. There can’t be sillier argument than that. Perhaps the amount of research done for this argument would have gone for some better national problems.

I and many have some distorted perception and related questions about those who are today in teaching profession and particularly for those in IITs.

Were they the best of the students at the undergraduate level when they selected to join teaching? Was it not that they went for masters and then PH.Ds as they couldn’t get entry into industry?

How much are the contributions of the teachers of IITs in the success stories of the IITians who were the cream out of a big mass of students trying to get entry into IITs? If the teachers do contribute significantly, then the teachers in IITs must not complain against the poor performance of the students taking entry in IITs through reservation.

I wonder if IITs are having some reliable system to keep a watch on the performances of its teachers and the proper incentive or disincentive based on some periodical appraisals. I wish the IITs would have been letting the people know about it. The system must stand robust with regular external appraisals of the performances of the teachers.

Let me confess I and many have not very high opinion about most of the teachers that taught us. Many still keep on teaching something that is obsolete in industry since long time. I wonder if the things have changed. The professors of engineering must be as good as those in medical professions where each professor is a good doctor too.

IIT professors must take initiative to let the people at large and those in industry know more about their achievements to clear many perceived misconceptions.

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India’s Agro-sector: Encouraging Trends

Posted on August 25, 2009 by indra

Indian industrialists are increasingly ready to invest in Bharat, term getting popular to represent the rural India. Many philanthropic wings of today’s industry leaders such as the Azim Premji Foundation, the Akshara Foundation and Arghyam Trust are doing wonderful work. Other initiatives such as ITC’s e-Choupal, Hariyali Kissan Bazaar of DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL), or Tata Chemicals’ Tata Kisan Sansars are equally impressive.

Many companies and entrepreneurs are getting straight into agriculture business:

1.Global Green, part of Gautam Thapar’s Avantha Group, has already become the third-largest gherkins player in the world.

2.Bharti Del Monte India, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific has become the largest exporter of fresh baby corn.

3.Abhiram Seth, a former Executive Director of Pepsi Foods, has set up Aquagri Processing to tap opportunities in sea plant agriculture. Seth aims to grow a particular variety of seaweed used to make carrageenan, an edible jelly-like ingredient used in foods, cosmetics, pet food and toothpastes. He has already organised 800 small farmers for this.

4.Global AgriSystem is working with 400-500 small farmers in Bulandshahar to produce European carrots for the domestic market, but has also bagged orders to export pomegranates, mangoes and grapes.

New thrust is to encourage the farmers for producing what the consumer demands rather than the consuming whatever is produced by the farmer.

New technology is going to collapse the supply chain (earlier, there were up to seven intermediaries between the farmer and the actual buyer).

The Agriculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC Act) permits contract farming, direct marketing and private mandis to improve the linkages between the farmer and the agri-business companies.

Hyderabad-based Sri Biotech Laboratories India makes biological and bioorganic products for crop improvement and protection.

Technology partnerships have led to uniformly ripened fruits such as apples and bananas. Safal from Mother Dairy is setting up a plant to sort, ripen and package bananas.

PepsiCo pioneered contract farming in India and has been able to reach out to more than 20,000 farmers in eight states. Global Green is working with 25,000 farmers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, providing them with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, technology and a fixed price for the output. Let us see the roadmaps of some companies:

Jain Irrigation bagged a Rs 27 crore order for dehydrated onion from a European retailer. Frito-Lay is investing Rs 250 crore in its existing plant in West Bengal, making it the largest plant in Asia. Freshtrop Fruits is planning to set up a fruit juice venture near Nashik. Himalya International is setting up an agro-processing unit at Mehsana. Mahindra ShubhLaabh has tied up with the Netherlands-based HZPC for potatoes. Citrus International, a Swiss firm, has inked an MoU with the Maharashtra state’s marketing department to set up a Rs 170-crore orange processing plant. Fresh Del Monte Produce has signed banana production and purchase agreement with Rise n’ Shine Biotech. Nature Fresh Logistics India, in partnership with Fruit World Breda B.V., will set up a Rs 9.5-crore pomegranate processing plant at Someshwarnagar.

Macfries served by McDonald’s India requires Shepody potatoes that were once totally imported. By 2010, all the potatoes will be from India and Indian fries may well be travelling the world. Interestingly, the master crop of Shepody potatoes is grown in the Lahaul-Spiti valley in the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, where the weather is conducive. After harvesting in September, they are rushed 1,000 kilometres to farmers in Kheda district west of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the tubers are replanted. In March, the now massive Shepody potatoes are harvested and sent to the McCain factory in Mehsana to become MacFries.

It is all so much encouraging, but still remains some drops from the ocean of opportunity. Can one think of Chennai growing broccoli and India becoming the largest producer of pomegranate next only to Iran and exporting 35.2 thousand tonnes of fruits valued at Rs 911 million? Six decades on, the dream long cherished by India’s milkman Dr Verghese Kurien to see that India one day exports dairy products to New Zealand is coming true.

Potential of India’s agriculture sector and rural India even after 62 years remain hardly tapped. I wish along with NREGA and food security act, the government works on aggressive empowering of the farmers, field workers, and entrepreneurs in food processing and its infrastructure to bring real prosperity in rural India.

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India Finds Answer for Clean Water

Posted on August 25, 2009 by indra

Water has been the basic necessity for a good quality of life. Over the years, I found drinking water as popular bottled commodity available in almost all corners of the country, be it Badrinath or Nalanda. Is it one of the visible indicators of the India’s stepping in the twenty-first century? All coming from the developed countries today feel relieved with the easy availability of the bottled water.

Bharat Nirman also has a plan to provide drinking water in every habitation. Will that be a safe drinking water or just the water from hand pumps?

Interestingly, K. Anji Reddy, founder-chairman of Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories thought of providing safe drinking water to every Indian household by 2020. Business World has his story.

Reddy pumped in $1 million in a California-based company called WaterHealth International that was in business of water purifying plant – licensed from University of California – that used ultraviolet light to kill harmful organisms in water. A study conducted by Naandi. Reddy’s not-for-profit organization, in the districts of Andhra Pradesh had shown that farmers were drinking water contaminated with faeces.

WaterHealth’s plants were perfect for the job, but expensive – $50,000 each. Reddy arranged the finance from ICICI Bank agreeing to loan another $30,000 for each plant. The balanced was paid by the villagers. Some NRIs also contributed to set up plants back in their village.

The first water plant was set up in February 2005 in Bomminampadu in Krishna district. Water was pumped from the ground, processed by the plant and stored in 5,000-litre tanks, from where villagers came to collect it every day. For every 10 litres, Naandi collected Re 1, which went towards repaying ICICI Bank’s loan. Today, Andhra Pradesh has 350 plants.

Reddy was trying to expand the project to Giddarbah in Punjab, the constituency of Punjab’s finance minister that. The project team faced a different challenge. WaterHealth’s ultraviolet technology only killed pathogens, and could do nothing about pesticides and fertilizers that were present in the water there as the farmers used a lot of it in the cotton fields. Solution came from Tata Projects and that too for just $20,000. The plant could eliminate chemicals as well as pathogens.

Today, Punjab and Haryana have 300 and 50 water plants, respectively. Naandi has also set up 20 plants in Rajasthan, with another 20 plants planned in Karnataka. The families used to pay far more to the doctor every month than what it pays now for the purified water.

While Tata Projects provide the plants, Vadodara-based Permionics and a Norway-headquartered firm, Malte Winje service the plant. Reddy is hopeful of covering 2,000 villages within 12 months and, in another 11 years, the rest of India.

I wonder instead of discovering the wheel again and again, why can’t the Reddy’s solution of pure water be supported by all the states and the centre. Let some more philanthropists or industrial houses or the NRIs come forward to solve at least the critical problem of drinking water in the rural India.

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Drought Proofing

Posted on August 24, 2009 by indra

The government has assured having sufficient food stocks for next 13 months, and resolves to import grains if required. Some have also suggested using NREGA to handover more money in the hands of the deprived ones and opening of Janata hotels to provide cheap food. Is it the right approach? How can a human being predict what can happen with the next monsoon or ensure that it will not fail. How can a government and its administrators keep on overlooking the reports such as one from Nasa: “A team of hydrologists led by Matt Rodell of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, found that northern India’s underground water supply is being pumped and consumed by human activities, such as irrigating cropland, and is draining aquifers faster than natural processes can replenish them.”

It is unfortunate that hardly any have come out with some action plans to take some measures to minimize the loss of production of grains or maintain it in the next drought. Has the government and NGOs taken steps to educate the farmers and the public about saving water that has become so important in this drought? What can be done to improve water availability for future? How can the underground water level over the regions under farming be maintained and improved? Are we creating or taking care of the existing water bodies to store rain water? Are we going to incorporate water harvesting and water recycling as essential built-in features for all our development projects everywhere in the country? Can we keep our water resources desilted and maintained on regular basis? In many parts of the country, even the irrigation canals are hardly maintained.

Can the farming community go for some self regulation and constraint even if the electricity is free? Is it not a shame that in many states such as Bihar the seasonal rivers create sudden flood and flow away. After few days, there is no water for irrigation. Why can’t we learn from our ancestors who had created huge water reservoirs such as Jaishmand and Rajasmand even in Rajasthan and that is much easier today with mechanical equipment? Suggestions of linear reservoirs in Bihar to control flood and drought must be weighed or a serious attempt must be made to find the best technically feasible solutions.

What can be done to use less water such as drip irrigation? Can we discover or develop better farming processes or seeds requiring less water? Can we skip water guzzling crops and go for less thirsty rice? Can we switch over to other crops that can fetch same or better earning with less water? We have examples of these endeavours. An erstwhile grower of water-guzzling sugarcane in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, now grows bananas. Tha grower sells bananas to corporate buyers and earns Rs 67,000 per acre. Kharif crops are largely rain-fed, the use of drip irrigation measures has reduced water requirement by 50 per cent.

I wish the government channels as well as experts agriculture scientists and technocrats work for and come out with some technical solutions to minimize the effect of such droughts in future. First thing first, the Indian farmers and their patron politicians must appreciate the need of water and the seriousness of the prevalent misuse by almost everyone in the society. And the technocrats must provide a checklist for everyone. We can’t neglect it any more.

It requires sustained media efforts to create awareness among rural people about the importance of water. I wish the media would provide a page for the rural India in their bulky newspapers full with commercial advertisements.

A columnist in Hindustan Times rightly points out, “It is time to launch a thousand new revolutions. It is time to address the weaknesses of a system that keeps India dependent on the vagaries of the rains – especially in a world beset by the meteorological uncertainties forced by global warming. It is also time to find someone to lead this grand agricultural overhaul.”

Unfortunately, there are people in the country who have way out for the drought proofing the investment but no one to drought proof the farming sector that employs 70% of the population.

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PS: Interestingly, the reputed environmentalist, RK Pachauri also has similar viewpoints: “Solutions lie in managing the uses of water rather than focusing only on enhancement of supply. In this regard, pricing of water for a range of uses including agriculture is of critical importance. Highly subsidised electricity tariffs not only promote inefficient pumpsets but also overexploitation of groundwater resources.”

“In towns and cities there is substantial wastage in transportation of water, and in the domestic, industrial and commercial sectors. Industrial recycling of water could be achieved through appropriate regulations as well as price incentives and disincentives. Research on new crops and practices should also be undertaken to make agriculture drought proof.”

Government must shake off its lethargy. No one knows what happened to the setting up of the Rainfed Authority of India that the Prime Minister had announced some years ago. More than 400 irrigation projects are stuck due to lack of funds. Except for some significant investments by Andhra Pradesh, the media never reported any major investment in the irrigation sector. The irrigation departments require complete overhaul to stop leakages and improve water-use efficiency. Indian agriculture remains hostage to the monsoon.

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