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Appeasing the militants At CBI’s doors |
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Medical colleges in a mess
Painful economic slowdown
The result
Costly food Sporting culture in dire need of renewal Chatterati
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Appeasing the militants Despite the US expressing its displeasure, there is no change in Pakistan’s policy of striking deals with militants, particularly the Taliban. Though it was the previous government in Islamabad which had first found virtue in entering into “peace” agreements with militant leaders in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the present coalition regime has gone many steps ahead. It has virtually made it known that the militant leaders can be allowed to control the areas where they have been active provided they stop attacking Pakistani troops and government installations. As part of an agreement with the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi, the coalition government has released its founder, Sufi Mohammad, not bothering about its repercussions on the drive against terrorism. The Tehrik had dispatched thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan to fight against the NATO forces, which ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. The Swat valley had been under the control of Sufi’s son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah, till he was dispossessed of his “jagir” following a massive Army operation some time ago. His writ may run again in the valley if there is no change in the government’s policy of appeasement of militants. Another and more condemnable case reflecting this dangerous policy is that of a deal with Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan. Baitullah has got Pakistan’s troops withdrawn from the area of his operation. This amounts to indirectly allowing the Taliban local chief to continue to retain his hold over the entire South Waziristan agency. In return, his fighters will not attack government forces, which will be hardly seen there in any case. The Pakistan government has also agreed to pay compensation to the Taliban supporters for the loss they suffered during the Army operation against them. And the responsibility of distributing the compensation money, running into crores of rupees, has been given to Baitullah. Is this the way to handle militancy? The Afghanistan government has lodged a strong protest against Islamabad’s moves, but in vain. This is bound to boost the morale of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the terrorists elsewhere in the region. Islamabad, for reasons known to itself, does not realise that appeasing the extremists cannot be of help to Pakistan.
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At CBI’s doors The
sensational Arushi double murder case of NOIDA has neither any inter-state ramification nor does it have an organised crime angle. Still, it is being left at the doors of the CBI merely because it is a tricky case, which the Uttar Pradesh Police is finding too difficult to handle. The shoddy investigation that they have done so far has only singed their reputation. Chief Minister Mayawati should have owned up the incompetence of the investigation team and handed over the task to another investigation team. But she has chosen the CBI route only to wash her hands off its dirt and grime somehow. That is an escapist approach, which in an indirect way only re-establishes her lack of faith in her own police force. She has transferred the Meerut zone IG and DIG and the Gautam Buddha Nagar SSP, but how far it will help unravel the truth remains to be seen. Indeed, the way the local police completely overlooked the body of servant Hemraj lying on the terrace and later came up with incredible and varying explanations about who had committed the crime has presented them in bad light. To cap it all, even senior policemen have revealed details about the personal life of the murdered 14-year-old girl, which almost amounts to character assassination. Arushi is no more and cannot defend herself. So, they have presented records of Internet chats and MMSs to present her in poor light. That is highly objectionable. The job of the police is to catch the killers, not to cast aspersions on the personal life of the unfortunate victim. As if what the police did was not bad enough, even politicians have jumped into the fray to take swipes at each other. Union Minister for Women and Child Welfare Renuka Choudhary said she was thinking like “ a mother” while Ms Mayawati was thinking like a Chief Minister only. The Centre and the state indulging in a slanging match instead of cooperating in catching the killers does not make a very pleasant sight. And where was the need for Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal to first shoot off his mouth that there was no need for the CBI to probe the case and then allow it to take up the case? This is a tragedy where the UP police’s callousness and inefficiency, and politicians’ tendency to score points have shown scant regard for human decency.
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Medical colleges in a mess At
last the Punjab government has woken up to the need to provide some minimum basic infrastructure to the three state-run medical colleges at Amritsar, Faridkot and Patiala. The government could have saved itself much of the embarrassment had it acted on its own and well in time instead of being pushed into a corner following a threat of de-recognition from the Medical Council of India. In April a team of the Medical Council had found “gross deficiencies and manipulation of manpower” in the three colleges. It had threatened to withdraw recognition to their MBBS degrees and stop fresh admissions. Newspapers, including The Tribune, had earlier highlighted the sorry state of affairs in the medical colleges, but the government chose to sleep over the issue. The medical university at Faridkot is still without a building and operates from a guesthouse. Medical college students at Faridkot attend classes in sheds. Recently, they went on strike to demand more teachers and better infrastructure. The medical college at Patiala does not have even an MRI machine though it runs a post-graduation course in radio diagnosis. At Amritsar the dwindling number of patients at the hospital attached to the medical college is hampering students’ training. The most scandalous, however, is the way the health authorities hurriedly shift teachers to the college under inspection to meet the MCI requirement. In March as many as 25 teachers were “transferred” to the Patiala medical college from the other two colleges on the eve of inspection. However, the MCI called the authorities’ bluff by considering only such teachers as had been working in the college since October, 2006. The government does not seem to realise the consequences of poor, low-quality medical training being given to students in the absence of teachers and equipment. Education, anyway, is not very high on the priority list of the state of Punjab — whether it is ruled by the Congress party, or the Akali Dal-BJP coalition.
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One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. — Jane Austen
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Painful economic slowdown
Important
government personages have dismissed the low industrial growth of 3 per cent in March 2008, which is at a six-year low, as a mere blip. They think it could be an aberration and is probably due to last year’s “high base” problem. Whatever it is, a low industrial growth does not auger well in a rising inflation scenario. If the optimists prove to be right, the situation will correct itself and industrial growth could rise again to double-digit levels which could lead to a high GDP growth of 8.7 per cent in 2008. In any case, a lower industrial growth means slowdown in the creation of jobs in the economy and, combined with rising inflation, it could mean hardship for millions of people (India’s labour force is around 460 million) as many jobs will be shed during the slowdown. On the inflation scene, it seems that despite all efforts at controlling inflation by fiscal measures like duty reduction on essential commodities and metals, there has not been much impact and the Wholesale Price Index notched up to 7.8 per cent recently. It means that the government’s other tools for cooling off inflation are also not working and the common people have been left to face rising prices in the coming months. Procurement of foodgrains has been very good, we are told, and so there is some hope that the prices of basic items will come down by September 2008. Industry will also have to take its decisions to invest, expand and innovate against a background of rising inflation, and it is difficult to expand production when demand is low and prices are rising rapidly. A common diagnosis for the problem at hand-slow industrial growth and inflation is that the Indian economy is facing stagflation and that the manufacturing sector growth specially is slackening. It is possible that industrial production is being constrained by high input and raw material costs and high interest rates, all related to the present inflationary situation. Imports on the other hand have been flooding in because of the strong rupee against the dollar in the past few months. Thus, competition from cheap imports is also responsible for the low industrial growth rate. It was slow growth in metal products and parts (except machinery and equipment) that has led to the low growth figures in March. The low industrial growth could put further depreciating pressure on the rupee because of lower export prospects and more imports. The rupee has depreciated against the dollar by 6.5 per cent since April 20, after the Reserve Bank of India said that it would not use the exchange rate to control inflation (the RBI was buying dollars in the market to maintain the dollar-rupee parity) because by doing so, it was stoking inflationary pressure. The depreciating rupee has basically nullified the duty cuts on essential inputs and costs are up again! In the industrial sector, there has also been a large dip across all activities, especially manufacturing, which constitutes 80 per cent of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) . Manufacturing grew by only 2.9 per cent in March 2008 as against 16 per cent in March 2007. Electricity and mining also grew below their trend rate at 3.7 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. Capital goods grew only by 8.6 per cent from 18.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year. The slowdown in the capital goods output was probably due to more imports of such goods and was aided by a stronger rupee in the past few months. But the fall in the production of capital goods is a bad sign because it means that the production of important machinery and equipment that enhance the productive capacity of the country is slowing down. Sale of consumer durables has also taken a dip since last year and it has registered negative growth. The worst affected has been the two-wheeler industry which has suffered due to the lack of retail financing. There is also a production dip in basic chemicals, metal products and apparel and readymade garments, and this could be due to lower exports and domestic sales. For boosting the demand, the domestic situation has to improve (more disposable incomes, easy financing, etc.) and a lot would depend on the international situation also. And if the US, the EU and the UK go into a recessionary mode, there would be problems for India as well. Domestic demand will be robust once inflationary fears recede because when people fear a high rate of inflation, they cut their non-essential expenditure which can cause a chain reaction and lower the demand for many consumer goods and services. Much hope is being pinned on the increase in sales in the future months due to the Pay Commission fallout. Together with more money in hand of the salaried employees, and lower excise duties announced in the last Budget, there may be a spurt in demand and increased production of consumer goods. If it leads to an industrial revival it would help to create more jobs. As for the global demand, it is no doubt that the recession in the US is already affecting the Indian IT industry though not drastically as yet. It would certainly lead to a slowdown of the IT sector in the future. Similarly, the pharmaceutical sector has been impacted by the slowdown in the US economy. The domestic stock market, which indicates the health of industry, has already been affected by the recent inflationary fears and the current industrial slowdown and the sensex took a significant dip recently. Unless investment is stepped up by the public and private sectors, problems of industrial slowdown may be compounded. But because the savings rate is still high and companies are making profits, it would be possible to encourage investment, especially in infrastructure. Otherwise infrastructure is going to become a big constraint in raising the efficiency of industrial production and keeping the costs down. The other option of an interest rate cut for boosting investment will have to wait till the inflationary fears are gone. There is bound to be a rise in unemployment in the future months if the industrial slowdown becomes a trend (rather than a blip) and various industries are affected. Industries that are doing well like wood, wood products, furniture, fixtures, jute and other vegetable fibres have to be encouraged by giving them special help in marketing and production. The slowdown in textile products, transport equipment and parts, paper and paper products and printing, publishing and allied industries has to be reversed as soon as
possible.
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The result
The
newspapers this morning were full of the brilliant results of the board exams, my school figured quite prominently. I could not help thinking of the sacrifices the children had made in order to achieve these spectacular figures: turning down the lead part in the school play, giving up a chance to play national level basketball, opting out of a high altitude trek etc. I wondered, too, what would happen to the children who had worked equally hard but failed to scale these dizzying heights. In the old days a good school education meant an all round development of the personality. Now a good education means breaking the 95% barrier in
the board exams even at the expense of physical, moral and emotional development. While concentrating on developing the mind we are completely ignoring the heart. This aspect of a child’s development used to be looked after not only by the school but also through religion and a healthy family
life. I remember going regularly to the gurdwara, primarily for the delicious ‘prasad,’ but also, in the process, imbibing values from the sermons and the ‘janam sakhis.’ At home, too, the family spent a great deal of time together, playing cards monopoly and carrom, sharing stories
and memories and discussing problems. Now religion has lost its hold on people – visits to the gurdwara are limited to ‘bhogs’ and wedding ceremonies and even here, the effort appears to be to arrive late and spend as little time as possible. Family life too has become increasingly unstable. Caught up in the rat race of getting more and more, parents have
little or no time for family life. In an alarming trend, more and more parents are drifting apart and because they do not want to be together, their children no longer get the benefit of this important aspect of their
upbringing. There seems to be no one, other than a few teachers, who will take on the responsibility of the nurturing of human warmth in the child, of taking care of the heart. A teacher I know gave each of the children in his class a little earthen piggy bank. The brief was that at least once a week they would forego a luxury: a packet of chips, a coke or a second ice-cream and put the money thus saved into the piggy bank. At the end of six months the piggy banks were broken and the money collected was offered as a modest contribution
toward the medical expenses incurred by a member of the subordinate staff. Years later the teacher received a letter with a cheque for a hundred dollars: “I have no piggy bank,” the writer said, ‘but I got my first pay and I am enclosing my contribution towards the day when your current class breaks their piggy banks.” I hope to wake up one day and see the newspaper headlines screaming loud and clear about such results, results more real, more valuable to society, than the lop-sided, selfish achievement of mere marks in an
examination.
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Costly food PARIS – Uncertain weather, rising demand in developing countries and the increased use of grains for biofuel will likely keep food prices higher than average over the next 10 years and make it harder for the world’s poorest countries to feed themselves. In their latest annual assessment of global agriculture, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the current record levels for grain, milk, oils and other staples will likely fall as drought conditions abate in major grain-producing countries and as higher food prices encourage production in others. But, for a variety of reasons, the agencies said that high food prices are likely here to stay: Between 2008 and 2017, beef and pork are likely to cost about 20 percent more than they did between 1998 and 2007; milk, wheat and corn are expected to cost as much as 60 percent more; vegetable oils as much as 80 percent more. Those projections do not account for inflation. When overall price increases are taken into account, the cost of some types of food may actually fall, the agencies said. However as the balance between the global demand and supply of food becomes tighter, the effect on prices “will differ across commodities.” The higher nominal cost of staples, meanwhile, will lead to “increased vulnerability” for the world’s poorest, the report concluded. “There is strong reason to believe that there are now also permanent factors underpinning prices that will work to keep them both at higher average levels than in the past and reduce the long-term decline in real terms,” the 72-page report said. “For the Least Developed Countries ... the projections thus show greatly increased vulnerability and uncertain food supplies during an era of high commodity prices and high price volatility.” Record-high food prices in recent months have touched off riots in some countries, prompted others to consider curbing exports to ensure domestic supply, and led consumers in even the developed world to change how they shop and eat. Some of the reasons for the recent price spikes are short-term, the report noted, including adverse weather conditions that hit some of the world’s major grain producers. Other dynamics affecting prices are likely more permanent. The demand for alternative fuels produced by agricultural products is expected to continue rising. And as incomes increase in developing nations such as China and India, people are switching from such traditional staples as rice and toward meat and dairy products, which require more land to produce. Overlaying these basic issues, the report says, are other variables that could strongly affect whether and how fast food prices fall from their current levels – including the record price of oil and the possible impact climate change could have on future food production. “Before recent price increases ... hundreds of millions of people were going hungry because they could not afford food. With higher prices, the numbers of people suffering from extreme hunger has increased even further,” the report said. While high prices help food producers, “the poor, and in particular the urban poor in net food importing countries, will suffer more. In many low-income countries, food expenditures average over 50 percent of income and the higher prices contained in this Outlook will push more people into undernourishment ... “Rising food prices mean an erosion of the capacity to meet basic needs, and this is likely to become a potential source of political tension and even violence.” The report outlined the effect rising food prices have had around the globe in the last year, jumping more than 20 percent in China, Kenya and Sri Lanka; more than 18 percent in Botswana and Pakistan; and from 11 to 14 percent in Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt, Haiti and Bangladesh. No country has been immune. In the last year, according to the report, the price of butter was up 50 percent in Poland, 40 percent in France and 36 percent in Jordan. The price of eggs rose 34 percent in the United States and 30 percent in Britain. The cost of vegetable oil – a key commodity in the diet of developing countries – rose 47 percent in Botswana and 18 percent in India. The report questions the rush to divert food products to energy uses, saying biofuels are a major factor in driving up food costs, but asserting that they have little demonstrable benefit on energy production or the environment. “Biofuel demand is the largest source of new demand in decades and a strong factor underpinning the upward shift in agricultural commodity prices,” a trend that is expected to continue, the report said. It estimates that 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop could be destined for energy production by 2017, even though the energy, environmental and economic benefits of biofuels “are at best modest.” With better weather, larger stockpiles of food, steady improvement in production techniques and an expected strengthening of the dollar, prices are expected to come down and, when adjusted for inflation, perhaps actually even decline. But the report’s discussion of oil prices shows the uncertainty involved in its projections. Along with affecting farmer’s production costs, the price of oil can also increase the demand to divert crops to biofuels. The report estimates the average cost of oil at $90 a barrel this year and next, gradually rising each year after to $104 a barrel in 2017. But with speculation already pushing the price of oil as high as $135 a barrel – up from about $60 a barrel a year ago – that estimate may itself be optimistic. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Sporting culture in dire need of renewal The
recent attempts to disrupt the Olympic torch run on Rajpath, Harbhajan Singh’s slapping of S. Sreesanth and consequent match expulsion, the TV sting on Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) official K. Jothikumaran and KPS Gill’s unceremonious removal as IHF head, all point conclusively to the fact that Indian sport requires an urgent and major shake up before it succeeds in strangling itself to death. With sport getting mixed up in politics and the custodians of the game themselves allegedly involved in murky, money-making deals, the day is not far off when Indians are shunned by every sporting nation worth the name and we are all left to ourselves to just play the village game of ‘gulli-danda’ or just beat each other up. Even though not directly connected with the holding and conduct of each and every sport in the country, the national Sports Ministry will have to evolve a monitoring system embedded with suitable checks and balances, where wayward Associations and Federations that today flaunt their autonomous nature, can be reined in, before they self-destruct. Those tasked to formulate and execute national sports policy will need to be constitutionally empowered and have ample teeth to set right errant organisations and personalities who deem it their god-given right to run sports in the country according to their own whims and fancies. In each of the instances mentioned earlier, there is a story to be told and a lesson to be learnt. The Tibetans in India do have a grouse and possibly even a moral case with the Chinese occupation, but surely Rajpath was not the place to demonstrate their ire on a matter purely political, having nothing to do with a universal movement of all humanity where sport and sportsmanship is the only benchmark and gauging index. On another plane, in the run up to the torch run, the IOA, quoting International Olympic Committee rules, had enforced a sponsorship package engineered by multi-nationals and business concerns who, having paid large sums, were only interested in selling their own brand names and products. To compound matters, most of the sports persons, who should have been carrying the Olympic torch, were substituted by Bollywood actors and company honchos who could barely walk straight, and kept handing over the flame at virtually every second step. For the future, there is a case for the government and not so much the IOA to adequately fund and administer such weighty world events, and rescue such memorable occasions from the clutches of the greed of the corporates and their one-point agenda of commercialisation. Most of our autonomous sports bodies and federations, having proved their incompetence many a time will need to be reined in for fairer player selection, match- winning performances commensurate with our 1-billion population, and unblemished fiscal management of the funds placed at their disposal, which would need to be audited and monitored at each step. The recent happenings in the IHF have shown that people at the helm do tend to stick on to their posts like glue, and are often averse to any kind of advice or suggestion from any quarter. The IOA’s decision to appoint distinguished sportspersons and proven administrators to run the IHF is a step in the right direction, though one had only wished that they had woken up to reality a little earlier and not needed the Sports Ministry to chase them. The other matter that merits some concern is the interface and relationship that various boards like the BCCI and other similar, so-called autonomous bodies have with the central nodal agency, the Sports Ministry of India. The ‘khuli mandi’ where cricketers are being bought by rich actors and business houses is little different from the slave markets of yore, and the tight schedule of the matches, as also the burning desire to always win like some Roman gladiators, has often lead to heated tempers between former colleagues of the national eleven. Is money everything and should the government sit unconcerned when Boards and Federations run by well-entrenched politicians, bureaucrats and policemen continue to mismanage sports? More funds should be provided to the Sports Ministry to promote neglected games like hockey, football and volleyball. There should be a fixed tenure for managing committees of sports federations with the government having the power to dissolve them. A fair selection process, necessary sports facilities like grounds and kit, free board and lodging, top-of-the-line coaching and practice tournaments held abroad, with liberal government funding at the school and college level where promising sportsmen can be picked up, can bring in the gold medals that India has always yearned for.
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Chatterati Everyone seemed surprised at the invitation to the SP to attend the UPA’s fourth anniversary dinner. The invite had gone to all UPA allies including common enemy Mayawati. As expected, Mayawati turned down the invitation. Four years ago, Amar Singh dined with the Congress, when he went there as a guest of Surjeet. But now, Amar Singh was invited by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself. The process has been going on for some time now. Samajwadi party general secretary Amar Singh, who once was persona non grata for 10, Janpath, was the main speaker at a conference on health services at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation recently. Amar Singh arrived 40 minutes late and it was the PM who engaged him in a long conversation. At the PM’s table were Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad Yadav and others while Gandhi had Prakash and Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury, T.R. Baalu and ministers from regional parties, for company. Will the Congress-SP relations blossom? Of course, this relationship is to keep the BSP in check and ensure the dynasties are not dented. Also Mulayam will not field candidates at Rae Bareily and Amethi where Yadav votes could cut into the majorities for Sonia and Rahul. The Congress is also expected to do the same for Mulayam and son Akilesh in their constituencies. Sonia preferred silence, so Rahul Gandhi had to talk to the media. But Sonia was aware of all that was happening around her. She was worried about Brinda Karat’s son being kept away from his dinner. A surprised Karat stared back at the Congress President. “Mothers worry, you know.” Mismanagement The loss of the Congress party all over the country is not due to price rise. It’s about the mismanagement of the Congress – it is about not being able to sell your various Aam Admi schemes to the Aam Admi. There is no one at the ground level to educate the people about the benefits of these schemes. Wrong people, bad judgment and money playing a larger role are the key factors. Well, as some one said, “Congress is a poor party today but the Congress leaders are rich”. The in-fighting, delay in decisions, and no CM candidates being portrayed in time contributed to the losses. Central leaders with no mass base are sent as PCC presidents, to local opposition. The general secretaries in charge of these states also don’t know much about local issues. Till the last date candidates are not announced, and the choice of people is wrong. Party workers who desert the party during tough times are taken back and given preference over loyals who stuck around. And no hard worker, proud chief minister, minister or party worker feels the need to feed non-performing, egotistic people who surround the high command. I do pity the Maharashtra CM who has always got a sword hanging over his head. How can you work effectively if you don’t know whether you will be Chief Minister tomorrow morning when you get up?
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