P A G E
Sunday, November 15, 1998
today's calendar
|
E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Sunday, November 15, 1998 |
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
||
|
Doordarshan-style shoddiness
Promoting “Gurukul” type
of schooling |
 |
Lifting of sanctions to help US
investors
Notice |
||||||||
 |
|
“HOW does it feel to join the 200-wicket club?” Tony Greig asked Anil Kumble. The Karnataka spinner modestly replied that records were bound to come provided that one remained fit enough to play enough matches. Kumble had an excellent point. There have been a mind-numbing number of records being set recently. Sachin Tendulkar overtook Desmond Haynes’s record to become the batsman with the largest number of one-day centuries. Javagal Srinath joined his Karnataka mate to become only the third Indian bowler in the elite list of bowlers with 200 scalps to their credit. When Ajit Agarkar took his 57th wicket in his 28th match, he went one better than Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne (each having taken just 56 in the same time). And Azharuddin proved Kumble’s point by setting a record for playing in more one-dayers than anyone else today! However, Kumble was only partly correct; sheer longevity does not always connote expertise. Take a look at Doordarshan for instance. It has been in the broadcasting business longer than any of the Johnny-come-lately satellite channels. But it doesn’t have an ounce of their professionalism. The recent Coca-Cola Cup Championship in Sharjah was a perfect instance of Doordarshan-style shoddiness. Commentators were ruthlessly chopped off in mid-sentence the moment that an over ended for the sake of some utterly banal advertisement. (In fact, Doordarshan’s producers occasionally didn’t wait for the umpire to declare the end of an over!) Sometimes, even interviews were rudely interrupted to sate Doordarshan’s insatiable appetite for advertising revenue. Adding to the general mess was Doordarshan’s determination to impose Hindi on all cricket fans, Hindi-speakers or not. From time to time, the English commentary was broken into — even though you could clearly hear the experts continuing to speak in the background for the benefit of the rest of the world. Why is it so difficult for Doordarshan to understand the simple fact that cricket is an invention of the English-speaking world and that all the terms it uses are English? Even Hindi commentators can’t avoid using English words and phrases. Frankly, the only use of Hindi by Doordarshan’s expert commentators is to describe things we can see for ourselves on screen. Matters wouldn’t have been so bad had Doordarshan managed to find commentators of the calibre of Michael Holding, Geoffrey Boycott, Barry Richards, Tony Greig, David Hookes, Alan Border and Ravi Shastri. Why is it so difficult to find former cricketers who are equally articulate while speaking in Hindi? A hefty chunk of the blame lies at Doordarshan’s own doors. I simply cannot understand why someone of Sunil Gavaskar’s calibre was allowed to slip away and sign up with a multinational group? (Or, for that matter, Vijay Amrithraj.) Worse still, Doordarshan is insisting on giving the phrase “expert commentator” a thoroughly Doordarshanish twist. On ESPN and Star Sports it refers to someone who has a long and a honourable history of proven expertise in a given sport. But to the masters of Mandi House, the term evidently means someone whose forte is the fine art of commentating, which ends up with some ‘experts’ doubling/ tripling/ quadrupling at everything from cricket to tennis to football to gymnastics to.... I shuddered when I read that Doordarshan has secured the rights to the World Cup next year. Mercifully, it turns out that ESPN has joint rights. So we may be spared Doordarshan’s ham-handed chopping for some obnoxious advertisement, the amateurish commentators, and the rotten production values with all those rainbow-edged double images. A word on that last item.
During France ’98 everyone with access to cable
hastily tuned in to Pakistan TV for the matches. They
were showing the same games, with the same commentary,
but with infinitely superior picture quality. Bureaucrats
huffed about blocking PTV; wouldn’t it have been
simpler to improve Doordarshan quality? Or will they be
whistling the same tune about ESPN next year? |
THE US Administration’s partial lifting of economic sanctions against India and Pakistan is clearly designed to bail out Pakistan from its worst economic mess as well as to facilitate US exports to and investment in India and enable American companies operating in India competitive as against the Japanese and Europeans. US officials have made no secret of the fact that the waiver had more to do with helping Pakistan overcome the economic crisis with an IMF rescue package which could total $ 5 billion, inclusive of lending by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The twice-postponed IMF mission will now negotiate the assistance programme with Pakistan and the pre-conditions already set are honouring of tariff agreements with independent power producers with foreign stake in utilities and a firm time-table to bring fiscal deficit under control along with other structural reforms. Pakistan cut domestic electricity rates while IMF was calling for raising them. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee termed the US action as “discriminatory” inasmuch as the waiver does not apply to the blocked lending by international financial institutions like the World Bank and ADB. These institutions would, however, join the IMF in the rescue operation to be mounted for Pakistan faced with an external debt of $ 32 billion immediate repayment obligations of $ 1.5 billion and a reserve of a mere $ 500 million. US officials deny any bias against India and point out that restrictions on financing by US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) and political risk insurance and financing by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), both of which have programmes at present only for India, have been lifted. The waiver also covers activities of US banks in India and Pakistan which had been barred. But what is of utmost importance to India is resumption of multilateral lending with funding by the World Bank/ADB for infrastructure projects already before them. While the World Bank had approved a few loans/credits on “humanitarian assistance” basis after the sanctions were enforced in May last, all other “non-basic human needs loans” stand deferred. These are of the order of $ 3 billion of which $ 1 billion would have been committed in the Bank’s fiscal year ending June 30, 1998. Some of the International Finance Corporation’s loans to private sector in India also remained suspended. Countries like Japan and Germany also postponed new bilateral loans in the wake of US sanctions, and the Group of Seven leading industrial nations reportedly agreed on putting on hold any project loans by the World Bank where they have the decisive voice. It is in this background that the World Bank has not sponsored the annual meeting of the India Development Forum at which aid pledges, bilateral and multilateral, would have been made in June last. Such strong indications in the past had given stability to official capital flows to India. By selectively freeing the US federal agencies in doing business with India, the Clinton Administration has extended relief to American companies which faced the risk of giving way to competitors from Europe and Japan. At the time sanctions were enforced, the Ex-Im Bank had lined up loans and guarantees for US exports to India worth $ 500 million while approximate $ 3.5 billion of exports were projected over a longer period under guarantees which were pending, US firms like Boeing, General Electric and Enron Corporation would now benefit in striking deals in India. Thus, by keeping sanctions in regard to loans from international institutions intact, the US Administration is trying to exert pressure on India to take steps it desires before recommending to the Congress to extend the waiver beyond one year or remove all sanctions. The partial lifting is ostensibly aimed at creating “a more positive environment” for the ongoing bilateral dialogue on issues related to nuclear non-proliferation. The US Administration had laid down several conditions, including the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) without conditions, non-deployment of nuclear weapons or missile systems, halting production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, participating in negotiations for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) and firming up of policies on not exporting nuclear weapons and missile technology or equipment. The USA has also linked progress in Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue on resolving all disputes, including Kashmir, with lifting of sanctions. While Pakistan’s “grave” economic situation has been cited for the exercise of the waiver authority given to President Clinton by US Congress, there is growing realisation that economic sanctions are not a desirable means of achieving political aims and they have often proved counter-productive. There is strong criticism of the mechanism of sanctions even within the USA while the targeted countries keep claiming that they would have no effect on them. In the case of India, which USA acknowledges is economically strong, the sanctions, if continued for long, would affect external capital flows which are vital for infrastructure building for an economy moving into a higher growth trajectory: The resulting uncertainty also hinders freer flow of private investments, as has been the case in recent months. Mandated by the Congress, the sanctions regime remains in force with the built-in waiver authority to the President for a year. US officials maintain that what has been done for Pakistan is a “one-time response” to prevent a financial collapse and that once an agreed IMF programme is in place, the USA would oppose any multilateral lending for the future. Japan is also reportedly intending to lift sanctions on Pakistan imposed after the nuclear tests in May, as an exception, to unlock economic assistance to a country in crisis. The sanctions now in force
against India include termination of foreign aid and
sales of defence articles, opposition to multilateral
loans and prohibition of exports of specific goods and
technology subject to export licensing by the Commerce
Department. US bilateral aid to India has been
insignificant for several years now and in fiscal 1998
the budget had provided for $ 51 million of bilateral
assistance. — IPA |
RARELY has a person in the spheres of education and culture kicked up controversy of this magnitude as Purushottam Das Chitlangia, a Calcutta-based industrialist whose hobby appears to be educational reforms in his own style. He wants to liberate the education system from the stranglehold of the western tutelage and replace it with “Gurukul” type of schooling based on the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand, Krishnamurthy and Gandhiji. They were, no doubt, great men of their time, respected in India and abroad and their ideas and thinking do find place in the education system. More lessons of their teaching and philosophy can be added in the history books. But the proposal of switching over to “Gurukul” type of education in which members from the community take the responsibility of providing basic education is, apparently, out of place. Despite its greatness, India has lagged behind in education and it has to learn a lot in literature, science, technology and other spheres from the West. There is no point in basking in the pristine glory. The ideas of the Calcutta-based industrialist look somewhat crankish and may have been dismissed in education circles as freak but for the fact that he was asked to give a presentation at the recent Education Ministers’ conference by no less a person than the HRD Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, himself. He could not deliver his prepared speech because of vociferous protests by Education Ministers who believed there was a design behind the move. The paper was later published by the BJP-owned journals. Chitlangia claims he has acquired experience and knowledge spread over 10 years of promoting non-formal primary education in remote tribal areas. Ten years’ experience in the field of education may not be good enough to evolve a new system. A bit of research, however, in the career graph of the Calcutta industrialist, a pure Marwari, heading the biggest plywood company, makes interesting reading. How come a person who has struggled in life to reach the top in business become such an eminent educationist that he was invited to address the Education Ministers’ conference? The HRD Minister can probably explain. Chitlangia’s association with the BJP dates back only to 1991 and his claim that he never had any connection with the RSS or Vidya Bharati, the education chain controlled by the RSS, does not appear to be convincing. According to reports, he held important posts in Vidya Bharati which manages 13,000 institutions, employs 74,000 teachers and educates 17 lakh students. Irrespective of Chitlangia’s association with the RSS, top BJP leaders when they visit Calcutta stay in his mansion-like house. They included Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, Mr Pramod Mahajan, Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Madan Lal Khurana to name only a few. He is a good host. Though Chitlangia occupied important positions in the BJP unit of West Bengal, his role as the main fund raiser in the eastern region brought him close to the party’s top leaders. He is respected in Calcutta’s business circles as an honest and straightforward businessman and, unlike other industrialists, has interest in the field of education. Also, in contrast to many of his fellow traders, he is not stingy. He is the owner of the biggest plywood producing firm of the country — Sarda Plywoods — and his business also spreads over to plastics and real estate. Originally Chitlangia hails from Kanpur. Though his father was a small shopkeeper who later joined a textile mill, he educated his son well, enabling him to obtain a degree in jute technology. Meanwhile, the father got a job with the Bangur-owned Hastings Mill in Calcutta where subsequently the son too was absorbed. The family shifted to Calcutta in the late fifties and since then the capital of West Bengal has been Chitlangia’s home. The break in Chitlangia’s career came after his marriage. His father-in-law was dealing in plywood and wanted the son-in-law to help him. With hard work, planning and foresight Chitlangia turned the plywood business into a roaring success. Side by side, he took a lot of interest in education, particularly in tribal areas. His association with the Friends of Tribal Society, an NGO engaged in opening schools in remote tribal area of Orissa and South Bihar, began eight years ago. The NGO came to him for donation and he agreed to pay Rs 5 lakh annually to enable it to set up 100 schools. He is now President of the society. Chitlangia is reportedly
happy at the turn of events of the Education
Ministers’ conference. This has given him wide
publicity which he would have never got and also
projected the cause for which he has been working. The
Calcutta industrialist may be a well meaning person but
reform in the education system has many dimensions.
Education cannot be entirely religion-based in a secular
country like India. The madarsa type of education, as we
have seen in Pakistan, prepares only fundamentalists and
religious fanatics. |
Notice The Municipal Committee, Lyallpur, have in their resolution No. 4 passed in the Ordinary Meeting, held on November 10, 1923, resolved to invite the public of Lyallpur to take a bulk supply of electric energy from the government in the event of the Punjab Hydro-Electric Scheme being carried out as this town will come within the radius of supply of the above scheme. This notice is hereby given to invite applications from local individuals or group of individuals for a licence under the Indian Electricity Act, who should put in their terms or proposals for electrification of the municipal area stating, that in the event of the above project being sanctioned the local individual or group of individuals would be prepared as soon as possible to proceed with the erection of a local distribution system, suitable for alternating current and to enter into an agreement to take so much power for this purpose as soon as it becomes available, subject, of course, to the usual reasonable conditions as to price, rate and continuity of supply, etc. Further particulars can be had from the Municipal Office, Lyallpur. Mohammad
Din |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
