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Stampede in Delhi
Cheaper home loans |
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Five-cornered contest
Afghanistan after the polls
Gone with the wind
Political turmoil, insurgency deepen in Thailand
Make youth employable
Airlines turn into Shylocks
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Stampede in Delhi
The
shocking stampede in a government school in northeast Delhi that snuffed out at least six innocent lives and caused injuries in varying degrees to over 30 others on Thursday was a tragedy of errors. It is a pointer to the callousness with which such schools of the underprivileged are run and of the hardships the children studying in them have to contend with. Sadly, it is a reflection of the paucity of schools for the poor that this school had as many as 5,000 students on its rolls in two shifts, with only a 30-minute gap dividing the shifts. When the tragedy occurred, there were 1,200 students in the school with the boys on the ground floor and the girls on the first. What led to the stampede was the announcement for the boys to go upstairs since the hutments where the examinations were usually held were flooded. Since the girls were at that time vacating the rooms upstairs and had to come down by the same narrow staircase as the one from which the boys were going up, the least that the teachers needed to do was to be at hand to control the situation. It was indeed shocking that not a single teacher was there to supervise and that the school did not have any guards. It is small wonder then that with such callous indifference of the school authorities eve teasing was rampant. In fact preliminary reports say that the stampede occurred as the boys began to tease the girls as they were descending. There are also reports that some rumours were spread that the water surrounding the school was electrified, and that created panic. The Delhi administration must get to the root of the tragedy swiftly and act decisively. Responsibility must be duly fixed as to why the school had no security guards, why no measures were taken to stop eve teasing despite past complaints by girl students and their parents and how baseless rumours were given a free run. The terrible tragedy must spur the authorities to ensure basic amenities for all schools and an environment in which the girl students are not harassed and teased.
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Cheaper home loans
The
1 per cent subsidy on home loans up to Rs 10 lakh is intended to stimulate demand for small homes costing less than Rs 20 lakh. A pickup in demand in the construction industry directly helps steel and cement units as well as boosts labour employment. The effect may be seen more in smaller cities than in the metros where house prices have skyrocketed despite inputs getting cheaper. The government’s earlier special home loan package, announced in December last year when the interest rates ruled at 11 per cent, has delivered favourable results. According to the RBI, the housing loan disbursements by banks grew 353 per cent from March to May this year. In the previous three quarters the loan applications had declined by 53 per cent. Making cheaper loans available is one part of the plan to promote affordable houses for the poor. Land prices have risen sharply in the recent past in and around cities. This has inflated the costs for the government as well as the home buyers. If reasonable infrastructure is provided and jobs are created in rural India, the exodus to cities may ease and control pressure on urban land and civic amenities. A holistic approach, therefore, is required to provide affordable houses to the needy. The latest subsidy will save each loan taker Rs 10,000 in a year. There is a catch, however. The benefit of the subsidised interest rates will be available only for one year. Thereafter, the market rates will be charged. Those getting tempted to take loans now must bear in mind the increased cost a year later. For the banks too it is dangerous to lure home buyers into such traps. All terms and implications need to be explained clearly before loans are disbursed to avoid defaults later. Otherwise, the banks would further add to their growing burden of non-performing assets.
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Five-cornered contest
The
Congress had gone in for early elections in Haryana purely on the basis of its good showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections when it captured nine out of 10 seats. Given the advantage it enjoyed, it had seemed natural that the opposition parties would marshal their resources to give it a credible fight. But all talks to form an alliance have failed. Why, even the earlier alliance that existed between the BJP and the INLD has come a cropper. The one forged two months ago between the Haryana Janhit Congress and the BSP too has proved a non-starter. And finally, the talks between the HJC and the BJP too have failed. The end result is that each party would fight on its own. That hands over considerable advantage to the ruling party. Apparently, each party has an inflated notion about its own strength. That is why they even argued that the Chief Minister would be from their party after the election. The situation was quite similar to the tall claims of the so-called Third Front before the parliamentary elections. Opposition parties in Haryana should have remembered that in those elections, the Congress secured 41 per cent votes. How the INLD, the BJP, the HJC and the BSP take on the ruling party in a five-cornered contest would be interesting to watch. It is another matter that there is factionalism within the Congress itself. The predominant position of Bhupinder Singh Hooda is sought to be challenged by Birender Singh, Kiran Chaudhary, Kumari Selja as well as Rao Inderjit Singh. But since the Congress takes all cues from the high command, this friction might get diluted when the election date draws near. The polling is still a month away, after all.
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It is the mind that frees us or enslaves. Driven by the senses we become bound; master of the senses we become free. — The Upanishads
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Afghanistan after the polls The
Afghans who exercised their right of franchise on August 20 did so with the hope that only a democratically elected government could change their life, which has been full of misery. That is why they took the risk of reaching the polling booths despite the Taliban threat to chop off the finger that had the indelible ink mark, showing proof of participation in the polls. As expected, the voting percentage was small. But the very fact that people cast their vote even in the Taliban strongholds was not a small achievement. The Afghans have faced one crisis after another for a long time. They saw the Taliban capturing power in the late nineties by using strong-arm tactics. The Taliban ruled the country for a few years by terrorising everybody, including the tribal thugs. They minimised poppy cultivation and ensured that their writ ran in most parts of Afghanistan. But they got intoxicated by power and turned Afghanistan into a nursery of global terrorism. Taliban rule was one of the darkest periods in Afghanistan’s history, but people still refer to it because there was little fear of atrocities by tribal chieftains. They wanted the Hamid Karzai government not only to rein in the Taliban saboteurs but also to deal sternly with tribal warlords. But the warlords continued to prosper during Mr Karzai’s tenure that has ended. There are clear indications that no harm will be caused to their interests in the future also with Mr Karzai almost set to form the new government. Contrary to people’s wishes, Mr Karzai forged alliances with dreaded warlords like Abdur Rashid Dostum (Uzbek), Mohammad Qasim Fahim (Tajik), Haji Mohammad Mohaqqiq (Hazara) and Karim Khalili to win the elections. The incumbent President knew it well that nobody could go against the dictats of these warlords in their areas of influence. The warlords helped Mr Karzai improve his victory chances considerably, but in the process he suffered big erosion in his public image. All the warlords have blood of innocent people on their hands. They have their private militias and control large areas of the country. One can understand Mr Karzai’s problem, as his electoral victory was doubtful this time. There could be no comparison between the situation now and in 2004, when the first democratic elections were held in Afghanistan. In 2004, Mr Karzai was invincible and everybody knew it. But in the just concluded elections, his former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah put up a serious challenge to Mr Karzai’s position despite many factors being in the latter’s favour, including his Pashtun background. Being divided on tribal lines, the Afghans cast their vote accordingly. There were Pashtun candidates other than Mr Karzai, but they could not make much of a difference to his position because he had got the image of being the most formidable contestant. Even Dr Ashraf Ghani, a strong Pashtun candidate, could not do much harm to Mr Karzai. People have a tendency to support a candidate likely to win. They were unhappy with Mr Karzai for his failure to provide an effective and corruption-free government, but ignored this because of the stronger tribal factor. Mr Karzai is believed to have left no trick unused to win the elections. The allegations levelled against him of having indulged in unfair practices tell their own story. How the Election Complaints Commission finally handles the situation remains to be seen. But the charges against Mr Karzai are unlikely to alter the outcome of the polls, which is yet to be declared. The Independent Election Commission’s preliminary announcement shows that he has got more than 50 per cent of the votes polled, whereas the share of Dr Abdullah Abdullah, his main challenger, is over 28 per cent. Dr Abdullah has warned of a massive protest in case the incumbent President is finally declared the winner. However, his threat is being interpreted as a tactic aimed at striking a deal with Mr Karzai from a position of strength. He is reportedly waiting for an opportunity to share power. Dr Abdullah has had solid Tajik support. Since he is half Pashtun and half Tajik, he got some Pashtun votes too. He was one of the confidants of the late Ahmed Shah Masood, who led the Northern Alliance. But he does not have a clean image. He is alleged to have been responsible for the killing of thousands of residents of Kabul between 1992 and 1996. He may do all he can to be in the government in the name of Afghan national unity. Mr Karzai, once he is successful, may also need the support of all kinds of people to take the writ of his government beyond Kabul. But will he be able to run the government effectively with the highly demanding warlords as his allies? The warlords will insist on getting their pound of flesh after the government is finally established. They may create all kinds of problems for Mr Karzai to force him to accept their demands. This shows that the President will have to spend more time on saving his government from being wrecked by his allies than on taking up the problems of people. It will not be easy for Mr Karzai to keep both the warlords and the people happy at the same time because of their clashing interests. There was rampant corruption during the previous Karzai regime. As things stand today, corruption is unlikely to be controlled with the warlords being associated with the government. The masses will be the ultimate sufferers, but who bothers about their interests once the elections are over? The US-led multinational forces in Afghanistan are also contributing to the woes of the new government. The indiscriminate killing of men, women and children in the name of fighting the Taliban is bound to further alienate the people from the government, adding to the instability prevailing in the strife-torn country. The Taliban may find it easier to exploit the situation to their advantage. Efforts may be made to win over some of the Taliban factions to weaken the extremist forces. That will be an interesting development if this really comes about. The international community will have to show increased interest in the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan. There is an urgent need to pump in more money for the revival of economic activity throughout the country. A number of infrastructure-related projects are being implemented, but their pace is too slow. The implementation of these projects must be speeded up to make the people lead a normal life. This is necessary to prevent the growth of the Taliban and other anti-peace forces. However, all the efforts to use development as a weapon against the extremist elements can fail if law and order remains ignored. If people are eagerly looking for opportunities of employment, they also want the new government to take care of the security aspect more seriously. After all, everything is useless in the absence of law and
order.
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Gone with the wind READING about the dwindling avian population, particularly of the local varieties, I broke into a discussion with my friend Ujjwal Jha, a lawyer of the Supreme Court, recently. He was visiting my village in Hoshiarpur district after many years. “Where have the sparrows gone? I remember when we came here during college days, the little birds seemed to me coming out from nowhere,” he said. I chuckled gently: “Not just the sparrows, even crows, doves, parrots and vultures also seem to have shifted their residential colonies from the rural landscape. The sparrows have moved out of the houses because small gaps between the roof berms, in earlier constructions, which seemed natural setting for their nests are gone in new houses. Sparrow population has also been affected by the pesticides and weedicides used in the farms. Ujjwal said: “I remember when we went out to the fields, we would watch a swarm of vultures hovering over our heads searching for their meals, particularly of dead animals. A particular variety of falcons could manage a stationary position in the air and then swoop down on the fields and fly away with their catch, largely a mouse”. He remembered my father cautioning us to tread gently on the earthen erections for partition in the fields in the outskirts of our village during our morning walks. “Remember, uncle used to signal us to stop when he saw a black partridge. He asked us to watch the gait of the bird, carefully, when it started. The bird took two steps and then halted, briefly. It looked left and right, raised its neck and rendered a shrieking sound “Bhagvan teri kudrat.” In retrospect, during my vacations at my village Nangal Ishar, a normal day progressed with the sound of the birds. The ‘che che’ of the sparrows was the first sound that forced me out of the bed. I would walk into the kitchen where my mother sat near the ‘chullah’ (earthen stove). She made small morsels of last night’s leftover ‘chapattis’ for the early morning visitors. Seeing the morsels, the sound of the birds got louder with the mixing of the ‘kaw kaw’ of the crows. As the family rested in the afternoons, the most prominent bird sound was a gentle crooning of the doves. The evening air was rented with chuckle of hundreds of birds flying back to their nests, particularly parrots and mynahs. My father interrupted our conversation saying: “Nature, it seems, has ordained a new cloak of trees and birds. The traditional trees, particularly the ‘tahli’ and ‘kikkar’, have become a rare sight. A large number of birds, including bulbuls and ‘shikras’, seem to be on their way out, as well”. He took us to the ‘haveli’ and opened the gate. A couple of black partridges was sitting on the wall, adjoining a kitchen garden.” Ujjwal said: “Uncle, you said these were the birds which stayed away from the human population”. In a seeming reply, a partridge wailed “Bhagvan teri
kudrat”.
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Political turmoil, insurgency deepen in Thailand In a week of political uncertainty threatening civil war in Bangkok and three terrorist attacks in a week in the South, the only one smiling was Ms Thailand for being declared the most photogenic at the Miss Universe contest. But tourist cameras were out and did not mask the political travails in a country that has faced 18 coup d’etats, the last in 2006 which unseated the charismatic Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is at the heart of the ongoing instability. Described as a fugitive former Prime Minister, he is a self-made millionaire, turned billionaire hopping from the UAE, Eritrea to Montenegro. His supporters who wear red shirts call themselves the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship had collected 3.5 million signatures seeking a royal pardon for Shinawatra from King Bhumibol Adulyadej at 81, the world’s longest-reigning monarch and the real pivot in Thai politics. This surprisingly, after military officers in 1932 ended the feudal era of absolute monarchy. The colour of Thaksin’s opponents is yellow ,they go by the name of People’s Alliance for Democracy and are protesting against any royal clemency. Kick-boxing is a popular sport in Thailand. Contesting the battle for Bangkok are the underprivileged farming community in the red corner and in the yellow, also the colour of monarchy, the elite. The three earlier rounds were fought in the last 12 months on the streets of Bangkok with the yellows prevailing, their unelected Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva riding on their backs. So far he has handled the red protests with firm restraint under the benign gaze of the monarch. But when his bete noir, Shinawatra, appeared on a video link at a Bangkok noodles restaurant before thousands of his supporters, Abhisit saw red. He did not want the planned yellow rally to take place for fear of the unexpected. Surprising his critics who called him weak and indecisive, Abhisit did the unexpected: invoked the Internal Security Act. This allows the Prime Minister wide military powers especially when the incumbent distrusts the police. The ISA has never been used without the declaration of the emergency nor has the army been used to preempt a peaceful protest. The Bangkok Post banner headline of August 28 read : “City Goes into Lockdown”. Prominent dates in the history of bloodshed on the streets are October 1973, October 1975 and May 1992. In each case, it was either intelligence failure or more likely intelligence manipulation that led to a bloody crackdown and a regime change through a military coup. Fearing violence, the Reds postponed the rally indefinitely, probably till the Asean summit in October. The next round in the unresolved class conflict will be decisive, people say. Mr Thaksin, the only Prime Minister in history of Thai democratic politics to run his full term, has changed not just the colour of politics but also forced change in tactics of royal patronage. Two successive pro-Thaksin governments that followed his ouster were brought down by questionable court judgments. While the youthful Abhisit hangs on to power, which is lacking in legitimacy, his influence is yet to be felt. Real power rests firmly in the hands of the Army Generals, retired and serving, and captains of business and industry. Mr Abhisit called on former General and Prime Minister Prem Tisulanonda, President of the powerful Privy Council on his 89th birthday. According to Red Shirts, he’s the man behind Thaksin’s removal. The King has taken a fancy to the Eton and Oxford-educated Abhisit. He is more malleable than Thaksin but he has not shown he is his own man and can deliver. He needs to deal with the Muslim insurgency which has attracted grave charges of abuse of human rights by security forces at Tak Bai. Even a Muslim Army Chief appointed in 2006 could not pacify the rebels who have grown in strength. Attacks on police stations and car bombs have increased in frequency and intensity following the Iraqi model. Lt Gen Pichet Wisaijorn, the Commander of Yala province, has pressed in helicopter patrols to spot planters of IEDs and to jam remote control devices. Three attacks in six days claimed 13 lives in an insurgency where 3,500 people have died in five years of violence. Political instability, a climate of civil war, an ailing economy and festering insurgency are a combustible mixture for conflict. Nick Nostitz’s Red Versus Yellow: Thailand’s crisis of identity encapsulates pictorially the record of Thai protest politics. He identifies with the Reds, he calls the underdogs of Thai society and says unless a compromise can bridge the divide, violence will shatter the fabric of Thai society. In times of crises, the King is known to have applied the healing touch. Thais fear Prince Vajiralongkorn, who is the heir apparent to the throne. Unlike his revered father, the Prince is believed to be fun-loving and carefree. Thailand has traditionally been looked upon as a role model for South East Asia, being one of its leading economies. Last month, India’s Look East Policy was consummated with the signing of the FTA with Asean. The main thrust of our LEP is economic integration and energy security, besides helping evolve a more even strategic balance given Chinese predominant shadow over Asean. The restoration of political stability in Thailand during the reign of King Bhumibol is essential for strategic and economic well-being of the region. A free and fair election at an opportune time is vital for
this.
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Make youth employable India takes pride in its demographic dividend and the people factor has propelled India into a new opportunity landscape, thus creating a niche for itself in knowledge services. The population issue, which has been seen mostly as a burden, is now seen as a positive parameter, if we can find a smart way of turning this to our advantage. According to the BCG report, in the year 2020, when most countries in the world would have a shortage of talent, India will have surplus talent accounting for the highest number, i.e. 47 million. The moot point is: how is India going to be able to take advantage of this surplus and service global shortage for talent? The answer lies in making such resources equipped with skills that are in short supply today and are likely to be in demand in the next decade. In order to make the resources employable, systematic planning and implementation involving various agencies and building a whole new ecosystem to support this would be essential. While Indian professional talent has been recognised the world over, the reality is when it comes to skills, its track record has been far from satisfactory. The population percentage amongst youth that is single skilled is 96 per cent in the case of Korea, 28 per cent in the case of Mexico and 22 per cent in the case of Botswana. India’s skill base stands at just over 5 per cent amongst youth and that is a cause for concern. What is also of interest is to take a look at the sectored employment status in India over the years. The slant is now towards the manufacturing and service sector with the share of agriculture dwindling. This clearly highlights the urgent need for creating a robust skilled framework — one that would enable youth to become employable and more productive. Historically, skills in Indian society have been passed on from one generation to another in a trade or profession and the need for formal training and education in imparting skills has been limited. With industrialisation, the need for technical and manufacturing skills was felt which resulted in the setting up of industrial training institutes and polytechnics. Training that is being imparted through these institutes is either limited to a few people or the quality and contents of programme do not meet the requirements of the industries. As far as the requirements of the service sector are concerned, the education system is not geared to anticipate and proactively address them in time, leaving a yawning gap between supply and demand. This gap has been seen in almost every sector of the service industry — be it IT, ITES, retail or hospitality. Organisations have had to spend huge amounts of money on repair and rework on already trained/ educated resources once they are brought into the fold of the corporate sector, thus delaying their productive contribution towards economic value creation. Further, in many industries, due to a limited availability of talent pool, it leads to attrition and increase in compensation, thus adding to the costs of operations. While there is a concern about the size of the talent pool available, quality is equally an important issue. For example according to NASSCOM, out of 10 lakh IT professionals trained each year, only 20 per cent are really employable. There are many reasons for this, some of which are enlisted below: l Lack of integration of industry needs with the academic curriculum l Inability to find good teachers in various parts of the country in large numbers l Input quality is far from satisfactory, making it infeasible to make the output of reasonable quality l Lack of proper planning in developing the framework of education for the services sector, leading to thousands of students graduating as MCAs or B.Techs, or MBAs whereas the need is more for skilled resources in specific areas rather than generalists in the field of study If India wishes to emerge as a front-runner in the new world, it has to strategise how best to make use of the huge resource pool and provide the right skill sets to make them employable. The enormity of challenge and opportunity ahead is immense. Therefore, it is imperative that bold and innovative approaches and solutions should be considered for quick wins and creating a significant impact. Delivering quality with scale would be important as opposed to making small changes over a period of time. The trend of industry and academia partnering should continue and should also lead to an active interaction on curriculum adaptation as well as internships and on-the-job training. The use of technology to deliver quality and standardised content at remote locations without total dependence on teachers would be necessary. Unique formats of learning need to be developed in order to make learning come alive and be enriched with simulations of real life experience. The formats of entertainment that youth are comfortable with should be explored in making learning fun, especially with Gen X students being exposed to computers, games and television even before they come to school. Thus, there is a need for exploring new paradigms in imparting learning that would also have to factor in the implications of social networking and how collaborative working and sharing of information would impact students’ mindset about career choices and resultant desire for acquiring right skills. Tomorrow’s employers will increasingly become comfortable with employees working from remote or from their homes in large numbers and this will pose a new challenge to knowledge workers to adapt to the organisation culture which they will have to learn to experience virtually most of the times. Finally, parents have to encourage students to value their skills much more than their degrees or diplomas as skills alone will be the currency of the
future.
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Airlines turn into Shylocks Those
who thrive on public misery during a situation of shortage and scarcity are called black marketeers. Normally, petty hoarders indulge in this abominable practice. But during the recent strike by Jet Airways pilots, many other airlines also turned into Shylocks. They charged thrice and even four times as much fare as they normally do. On the Delhi-Mumbai sector, Kingfisher charged up to Rs 17,000 during peak hours for a ticket which otherwise costs Rs 4,500. What is worse, even Air India emulated it, charging up to Rs 14,000. A Kingfisher Delhi-Bangalore ticket peaked at Rs 18,000 versus the normal Rs 5,000. Air India charged between Rs 6,000 and Rs 20,000. Kingfisher, which usually charges Rs 4,500 on the Delhi-Chennai sector, charged between Rs 6,000 and Rs 18,000. Prices of Air India were also up equally drastically. This was exploitation pure and simple and presented the air carriers in an extremely poor light. Nor was this the first time that such a situation had developed. During the 2007 strike by Indian (Airlines) exactly the same tactics was employed. If such high-profile companies become mercenaries, can the traders be blamed for jacking up prices in an hour of crisis? The exploitation became so brazen that on September 10, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had to issue notices to all domestic airlines to charge fares on a par with those of the week ending September 6. After all, the cost of operation of scheduled airlines had not undergone any significant change in this week as compared to the previous week. Mr Lalit Gupta, a director at the DGCA, admitted that the steep fair hike was “excessive in nature”. This was for the first time that the DGCA had to invoke Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules of 1937. It is good that the provision to apply this rule to domestic airlines was made recently, otherwise they would have continued to milk the harried passengers. Their argument that it is all a question of demand and supply is totally hollow. It is understandable if they charge full fare instead of discounted on a day when the demand is heavy. But to jack up the price three to four times on various metro routes on a day when there is strike in one airline and hundreds of flights are cancelled amounts to daylight robbery. They get away with such activities merely because they cartelise their operations. Even in normal times, they charge exorbitant fares on sectors where only one or two airlines are in the picture. Yet, when they are in the red themselves, they have the cheek to rush to the government pleading for a bailout from the taxpayers’ money. Why should the public pay for their inefficiencies and extravagance? While the DGCA is expected to watch the interests of the public, the passengers too must hit back by not succumbing to their arm-twisting. The Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) established in 1990 must step in to safeguard the interests of the
passengers.
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