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Remembering Kargil
PDS rot |
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Gold shines again
Post-Mumbai diplomacy
No “News of the World”
Coaching industry – A parallel education system
Students need Timely help
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Remembering Kargil
Twelve years after the Army assisted by the Air Force successfully vacated Pakistani intrusions in the high-altitude Ladakh region, New Delhi and Islamabad have travelled some distance to put the Kargil War behind. Barring occasional violations, both sides continue to honour an agreement reached in November 2003 to maintain a ceasefire along the Line of Control that divides the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
But the year-round permanent deployment of troops in this hostile mountainous terrain is testimony that India cannot afford to let down its guard. Military victory in vacating the intrusions, which occurred due to a combination of intelligence failure and ineptitude on the part of Army formations deployed in the area, came at a tremendous manpower and material cost. Although India also went on to score a diplomatic and moral victory, the war nevertheless raised serious questions on the country’s defence management system which still remains pertinent. In December 2001, India mobilised and deployed its armed forces along the western border with the initial aim of attacking Pakistan to punish it for sponsoring an attack on the Indian Parliament. The deployment, the largest since the 1971 Bangladesh War, ended up exposing India’s lack of preparedness for a war. This was despite the findings of the Subramanyam Committee and the consequent comprehensive national security review carried out by the Group of Ministers that followed soon after the Kargil war that had occurred just two-and-a-half years earlier. A sound higher defence management system is needed for India with its large size, its internal and external security concerns, major territorial disputes, and its regional and global aspirations. Instead, India lacks a centre point for military advice in the form of a Chief of Defence Staff, the creation of which was recommended by the Group of Ministers. There is also need for greater synergy between the armed forces and for creating theatre commands. Even more, there is need for the critical ‘overlap’ as recommended by Carl von Clausewitz, the 19th century Prussian general, entailing a sound understanding of each other by the political executive, the bureaucracy and the military leadership.
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PDS rot The public distribution system is supposed to provide food to the poorest of the poor at a subsidised price, but unfortunately, it has become a clever ploy to palm off barely edible stuff to the vulnerable people. The premise, it appears, is that like beggars, they cannot be choosers. But miffed at the mouldy wheat and worse, those who are supposed to accept it gratefully are no longer doing so, as it happened in Sirsa the other day.
Indeed, the administration has no right to play with their lives by supplying grains which are unfit for human consumption. Still, there is such a mafia in existence that hardly any action is taken even when such scandals come to light. This time wheat, which remained submerged in water during the floods has found its way into the PDS. But even otherwise, the grains provided are of questionable quality. The FCI procures damaged grains under political pressure which become virtually inedible during unscientific storage but still find their way into the distribution system. Since there are large volumes involved, even the slightest compromise with quality yields huge profits and a large number of people benefit from the loot. It is only the public that suffers. It is high time a campaign is started against this mega scam, before which many in the news pale into insignificance. It is surprising that despite such frauds, there has been a major revival of the PDS in several parts of the country, even in states like Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, and it has become a lifeline for millions of rural households. This conclusion has not been drawn by any government agency but by a group of independent research scholars led by well-known social scientist Jean Dreze, who resigned this year from the high-profile National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi. That only shows that if implemented sincerely, the PDS can transform India. Interestingly, the survey has cautioned against any “hasty transition from food entitlement to cash transfers”.
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Gold shines again Indians’ craze for buying gold ornaments is well known and it is usually during the wedding or festive season that the demand for gold soars, pushing up prices. But gold prices touching a new high during the monsoon is unheard of and has left many wondering if prices would rise further or fall from the level of Rs 23,600 per 10 grams.
Gold prices are today driven by external
factors as well. In an uncertain world gold has emerged as a safe
haven for not only individual and institutional investors but also for
central banks, many of which now hold gold reserves. The latest spurt in gold prices is attributed to the breakdown in talks between the White House and leaders of the opposition Republican Party over raising the US debt limit. The US is on the verge of a loan default. If it happens, rating agencies would downgrade the US, which would shake global markets and investor confidence. Earlier, Europe faced a sovereign debt crisis, which forced European countries to rescue Greece just in time. Worries receded after they roped in private banks for a fresh bailout for the beleaguered Euro zone. The US and Europe piled up debt to rescue banks and firms during the financial meltdown and boost consumption. Whenever uncertainties threaten large financial institutions and economic growth, global capital takes refuge in gold, which remains unperturbed by such developments. There are wild fluctuations in currency and commodity markets, and risk-averse investors pull money out to buy gold, which is not only safe but has also given handsome returns in the recent past. While traditional Indians like to lap up gold ornaments, bars or biscuits, more adventurous investors take to trading in gold funds and futures. Gold prices would retreat if global stability returns and growth prospects brighten, and rise further if the US or European crisis worsens. |
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A great artist is a great man in a great child.— Victor Hugo
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Post-Mumbai diplomacy The Pakistan and Indian Foreign Ministers’ talks are the culmination of the post-Mumbai phase of Pakistan-Indian diplomacy which started at the Thimpu-1 meeting in April 2010 between Prime Ministers Yusuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh.
At Thimpu the two — Gilani and Manmohan Singh — made a political resolve to return to the dialogue track. At Thimpu-2 in February 2011 the Pakistan and Indian foreign secretaries firmed up details of fresh rounds of bilateral talks by the eight working groups. In between Thimpu-1 and 2 the Pakistani and Indian Home Ministers met to cover ground on the Mumbai investigation. The significance of Thimpu-1 was that the Indian and Pakistani political leaders together came to the conclusion that the post-Mumbai diplomacy of making substantive dialogue conditional to progress in the Mumbai investigation was counter-productive for both the Mumbai investigations and the bilateral relationship. The Indian Prime Minister’s earlier attempt, through the Sharm-el Shiekh statement in July 2009, to go along with Pakistan’s position of returning to substantive dialogue, fell prey to the wider policy-making opinion in Delhi that India’s post-Mumbai diplomatic posture must say no to dialogue unless Pakistan moved faster on punishing the Mumbai suspects. At the conclusion of the Delhi talks the likely announcements will cover a new visa regime to promote people-to-people contact and additional cross-LOC confidence-building measures (CBMs) to increase travel and trade between the divided Kashmiris. Besides, dates for meetings of the reconstituted working groups of experts on nuclear and conventional confidence-building to consider additional measures to build trust and promote peace and security and to discuss the implementation and strengthening of the existing arrangements will be announced. Perhaps, Pakistan’s agreement to give the most favoured nation (MFN) status, conveyed during the Commerce Secretary-level talks, may also be announced. Beyond the context of a decision on the structure of the dialogue process, the active revival of the Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) will also be announced. The JMC, set up in the eighties, has met intermittently, depending on the state of bilateral relations and the preferred dialogue track of the governments in power. For example, in 2005 the JMC met after a break of 16 years. Its last session was held in February 2007 but will now be formally revived. As was the mandate of the JMC, technical-level working groups on agriculture, health, science and technology etc will also be revived. Reviving multiple-track engagement between the two nuclear states, home to millions of economically, socially and security-deprived citizens, is a welcome development. Equally, Delhi’s decision to opt for a cooperative as opposed to a confrontational approach on Mumbai and Pakistan’s decision to give MFN status to India, are also important steps towards improving the context within which there can be substantive cooperation between the two countries. After all, given the regularity with which relations between the two countries take a nosedive, the significance of improving the context and bringing substantive dialogue back on track cannot be underestimated. Meanwhile, in the context of the changing regional environment, involving major troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, the search for a reconciliation formula for a post-ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) Afghanistan, the re-entry of the Taliban as a factor and Pakistan’s own comprehensive counter-terrorism thrust in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the budding problem of home-grown Hindu and Muslim militancy within India and India’s vying for a permanent UNSC seat, have all contributed, though in varying degrees, to encourage Islamabad and Delhi to re-engage and insist that in this round they want a “sustained and meaningful” engagement. Indeed, “meaningful” will require not only no war, no diplomatic and political antagonism and no interrupted dialogue process, but it also means the resolution of outstanding problems. The score card on resolution is weak. The agreement on holding a composite dialogue, on its modalities and the eight issues was first worked out and announced during the Sharif-Gujral governments in the joint statement of June 23, 1997 announced by foreign secretaries Shamshad Ahmad and Salman Haider. Working groups were to be set up to deal with eight issues: peace and security, including CBMs; Jammu and Kashmir; Siachen; Wullar Barrage Project; Sir Creek; “terrorism and drug trafficking” — not “cross-border terrorism”; economic and commercial cooperation; and the promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields. The Foreign Secretaries were to deal with peace and security and Kashmir, while also co-ordinating and monitoring the progress of work of all the working groups. Significantly, this is the structure that has still survived. Yet 14 years into this, albeit with an interrupted process, solutions on less complicated matters like Siachen and Sir Creek seem distant. While this latest round of post-Mumbai diplomacy has improved the context of bilateral relations, the socio-economic, ideological and security challenges that Pakistan and India are confronted with, require movement on resolving outstanding problems. Clearly, unless there is serious intent on both sides to resolve the outstanding issues that perpetuate suspicion and hostility, substantive bilateral cooperation and the revision of respective threat perceptions are unlikely. And against the backdrop of acute economic, ideological and security crises, our two States will gallop ahead towards greater, yet ill-advised, militarisation of the region.n The writer is a Pakistani national security analyst and host of TV programme “Policy Matters”.
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No “News of the World”
YOUNG reporters are often told at the beginning of their career that “dog bites man” is no news but “man bites dog” is.In an interesting parallel of sorts, the 170-year-old popular British tabloid “News of the World” made news instead of carrying one earlier this month.
It closed down amidst a hacking scandal involving its former editor Andy Coulson, its former Royal correspondent Clive Goodman and a few other senior editors. British Minister David Cameron who had appointed Coulson his communications adviser, was made to face relentless questioning by the opposition in Parliament over his “indiscretion”. So was NOWT boss Rupert Murdoch by a parliamentary committee. TV viewers around the world saw Murdoch being grilled and Cameron questioned on media ethics and government accountability. Parallels are being drawn between the scandal and other infamous ones, including Watergate that led to Republican Richard Nixon becoming the first US President to resign from office in 1974 for the bugging of the offices of the Democratic Party before the 1972 elections which he won. Interestingly, John Dean, adviser to Nixon during Watergate days, sees the parallel telling. According to him, Watergate was provoked by Nixon’s ruthless and shameless manner of doing business. News Corp. is now mired in a political and business scandal because of the brutal and coldblooded way its boss has conducted business. Both may not have been directly involved in the scandals but the two created norms and standards within their respective organisations where such conduct was not only considered acceptable, but actually encouraged, says Dean. It may be tempting to see a parallel in India too in the Niira Radia tapes that exposed the media-corporate-politician link. Yet, none apologised in this case. But there was a time when the editor-owner-politician team worked for the nation’s cause. One instance that springs to mind is the trio of Arthur Christiansen, Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill during World War II years of 1939-45 in Britain. Christiansen was the editor of Daily Express and Beaverbrook its owner. In his celebrated book “Headlines All My Life”, Christiansen describes how the three would discuss the projection of the progress of the war in the newspaper every morning. No wonder, Daily Express carried many exclusives those years and proudly printed Churchill’s inspiring speeches in the House of Commons. No doubt, in this relationship, the role of the journalist is crucial and he should be a man of absolute integrity. At his 85th birthday celebration two weeks before he died in June 1964, Lord Beaverbrook gave his definition of a journalist: “First, he must be true to himself. The one who is not true to himself is no journalist. He must show courage, independence and initiative.”
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Coaching industry – A parallel education system India has ‘an examination system but not an education system’, is what C.N. Rao, the Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister feels. Just a couple of months after he made this observation in a letter to the Prime Minister, we now hear of 100% cut-off for a particular course in a reputed college of Delhi University. Kapil Sibal, the Union Human Resource Development Minister has called it ‘irrational’ while the main opposition party calls it the ‘failure of the government’. Whatever it may be, there is no doubt that the net gainer out of all this hysteria is the coaching industry which has emerged as a parallel education system in India in the last two decades. With the competition becoming tougher day by day and the plethora of examinations to attend to, the students are left with no choice but to look for newer alternatives to get an edge over their peers. The regular classes in the schools and the colleges have failed to make them feel secure and the coaching classes have conveniently filled this void while filling their own lockers. A news report in 2007 placed the coaching industry in India at Rs. 5,000 crore with 20% growth per annum. Another estimate by ASSOCHAM in 2008 gave even more startling figures by claiming that the coaching for admission to the IITs and other engineering colleges alone has acquired the status of Rs 10,000 crores industry. The coaching industry can be divided into three sections; first pertaining to private tuitions meant to supplement the regular classes at schools or colleges, second catering to the competitive examinations where technically speaking the syllabus is same as the school or college curriculum and finally those preparing the students for such competitive examinations where the syllabus is different from the regular curriculum. Private tuitions at school level were initially meant for the academically weak students and were more common in the classes which culminated in board examinations. However, today private tuitions have become a fad rather than loathsome even at the elementary level of education. Here the blame has to be shared by both the schools and the parents. With no time to devote to the children during the office hours, the working parents find it convenient to send the children to private tuitions to keep them busy during the day. However, these days it’s also common to see children from economically weaker sections attending private tuitions in the neighborhoods. This stems from the apathy being shown by the teachers at government schools and the falling standards of these schools. Helpless to guide their children themselves, even these parents are left with no option but tuitions. However, even the organised coaching institutes are just becoming coops where more and more students are being admitted with no concern for students-teacher ratio. Hence, to further supplement this classroom coaching, now we hear of ‘take-up’ coaches or ‘co-coaches’ who help the students just before their examinations by visiting their homes and listening to what all they have revised. With such new innovations, there seems no end to this phenomena. The scrapping of board examinations at secondary level and the introduction of grading system might ease the pressure on the students momentarily; however it is doubtful if it will play any role in fading away the influence of private tutors. One must not forget that the ultimate aim of the students remain admission to a good graduation course and with the type of competition and high cut-offs we are seeing today, parents will definitely want their wards to make an early start. This brings us to the competitive examinations like the ones to engineering and medical colleges where though the syllabus is largely same as the one for the board examinations, but still there remains a huge gap in the level of preparation meant for the two. It is incomprehensible that why must the students prepare for two parallel examinations at the senior secondary level. Though the IITs have brought in certain reforms and with the introduction of AIEEE and other such integrated competitive examinations, the situation has improved but still a lot more needs to be done. CBSE and the other boards must work together with the institutions conducting the entrance examinations under a proactive regulatory authority to bridge the gap between the two. Moreover, public-private participation is the way forward to counter the private-private innovations made by the coaching industry where students get enrolled into some coaching institute and automatically get enrolled into some private school where there are no qualms about their attendance. There are also other examinations where the candidates from different academic backgrounds compete against each other. Here there is no subject specific syllabus and the candidates are tested on aptitude and general awareness. The idea behind such papers is to give the students from different backgrounds a fair chance to compete. Moreover, it is felt that aptitude paper will require no training. However, this assumption has turned out to be pretty naïve. The biggest share of the market in this segment is held by those preparing the students for CAT and other MBA entrance examinations. Even UPSC’s latest move to introduce an aptitude paper in the preliminary stage of the Civil Services Examination in place of an optional subject paper was meant to target the existing coaching industry. While this half-baked reform just increased the burden on the aspirants as they still have to prepare for two optional papers in the Mains examination; it also inadvertently allowed the coaching institutes dealing with MBA entrance examinations to enter the lucrative market of Civil Services Examinations. Many such institutes tweaked their existing study material and classroom programs to cater to CSAT aspirants without much brainstorming into the expected pattern for the paper. The end result was that when the actual paper was held a few days back, the aspirants realized that the paper required more of common sense than any coaching. You name an examination and there exists some institute to train you for it. Law entrance, fashion designing, NDA, Hotel Management, Bank PO and even tests being conducted by companies during their placement drives are all largely based on aptitude. With the amount of competition the students have to face and the lack of motivational training at the schools and the colleges, they are left with no option but to seek coaching and guidance from outside. This industry is just filling the void created by poor educational facilities and poor policy making by those in power. One must remember that most of the competitive examinations take a toll on the students and they need a guide to take them through. The onus lies on the government and the educational regulatory authorities to bring in more pragmatic and thoughtful reforms to strengthen the existing educational system of the country which will automatically lead to the withering of any parallel structure. The author is the former Centre Manager of a reputed coachinginstitute based in
Chandigarh.
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Students need Timely help How
many school teachers know about various career options after + 2? How many college professors go out of their way to guide students for various competitive exams? How many teachers have time to identify the strengths of the students and mentor them for the right career path? Well they are not to be blamed. They are just paid for completing the time-bound syllabus, as required by our education system.
Coaching institutes these days are run by expert teams of academicians and industry experts who have diverse knowledge and relevant expertise and experience. They are in a better position to provide proper guidance and correct information. No doubt schools and colleges provide the basic education, but to succeed in today's cut-throat competition, strategic inputs are required. The qualified faculty members with their experience can guide the students at formulating the strategy for cracking even the highly competitive examinations like Civil Services, MBA, BANK PO, medical and various other entrance examinations. Most of the coaching centers in India concentrate on providing regular classes and relevant study material to students, hence instilling in them a sense of discipline. Apart from pointing out the most important topics and probable questions, they provide strategies for shortcuts, hints and other strategies to sail through various exams easily. Many good coaching institutes have the necessary infrastructure and technology to enhance learning. From lab facilities to well-stocked libraries, online labs to audio video aids, all are provided by coaching institutes to make learning an enriched experience. Unlike schools and colleges, coaching institutes prepare the students to confidently face exams by taking simulated tests. These days these institutes not only focus on completing the academic aspects but also go beyond to provide other value added inputs. These institutes provide various sessions on personality development, soft skills, general knowledge and other industry-related modules in which experts from diverse fields are invited to interact with students which is not a common phenomenon in schools and colleges. Coaching institutes bring students with the same goals and diverse backgrounds on a common platform, so the best advantage I see is that this enhances the student's awareness level, instills a sense of competition and confidence. It gives them an opportunity to interact with peers and share their anxieties, doubts and strategies, thus mutually benefitting all. These institutes have also emerged as a good career option for academicians and professionals as they provide a good salary package and flexibility. Not the least, they are definitely contributing to India's economy and are giving a boost to other allied services like printing and software market for educational products. Overall, the coaching industry in India is doing a great job at helping the students in optimum utilisation of their limited time. They not only help the average student but also fine-tune the skills of an intelligent student by constant motivation and timely guidance. (The writer is a Senior Academic Trainer with a reputed coaching institute with an experience of 12 years in the industry) Samridh
Amla, 18, recently appeared for competitive examinations in non-medical stream, Jammu Ashima
Singla, 21, M.Sc. (Tech) Information Systems student, BITS Pilani, Rajasthan Naveen
Kumar, 21, B. Tech student, Punjabi University, Patiala Dimple
Grover, 22, Management student, Amity University, Noida |
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Through good coaching, we can acquire the real knowledge of the subject and can lay more emphasis on the basic concepts rather than just cramming. However, its drawback is the excess pressure on students. So this system can be easily rectified if good faculty is provided within the schools itself and syllabus of all the competitive examinations is made identical.
Somehow the entire process of learning is flawed in India where students learn because they have to learn and not because they want to learn. Hence, blaming just coaching institutes, schools, parents or student won’t be justified in true sense. Keeping the level of entrance exams in mind, it becomes mandatory for a student to take extra coaching. However, as far as an average student is concerned he has just become the source of funds for the booming coaching industry where little concern is shown for such students.
One must always bear it in mind that hefty amount of fees cannot assure a higher rank and the hard work has to come from the student’s side. However, coaching institutes with the help of professional faculty and streamlined curriculum do put us on the right trajectory which definitely helps us in achieving our goals.
In my opinion coaching as a profession has reached a stage where young scholars prefer it as a form of employment over the formal educational institutes. I see no harm in both these structures coexisting as both have their own space and purpose in the educational system of this country.