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No bugging
issue, this Secure the
vehicles |
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A
troubled Nobel Laureate
India’s
knowledge deficit
Surprise
in the love of life
Corruption is not new
to this country. However, the way new scams and scandals are coming to
light is indeed alarming. Anna Hazare has started a new movement
against this sorry state of affairs and has been joined by people from
all walks of life. The question remains as to what role must the youth
of India to play in it
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Secure the vehicles
The
Supreme Court is, indeed, right in pulling up officials from Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for failing to comply with its 2001 order to ensure that all vehicles have high- security registration plates (HSRP) which had become mandatory for new and in-use motor vehicles throughout the country after the Central Government amended the rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 in 2001. The reason for the introduction of the HSRP scheme was simply to ensure citizens’ safety and to facilitate police investigations if the vehicle was stolen or used for criminal activities. Now that Meghalaya, Sikkim and Goa have successfully implemented the HSRP scheme and Tripura, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala have done so partially, there is no reason for non-compliance of this order. Unlike some other countries where vehicle registration plates are issued by government agencies, in India the numbers for these plates are issued by the Regional Transport Office of each district. Thereafter, the vehicle owners go to private shops to have the plates made. Since there is no check on who can make such places, there is no control over fake number plates. The HSRP scheme would make it difficult to forge number plates, but it would have to be implemented in the entire nation for it to be effective. It must, however, be remembered that the HSRP scheme is only the first step in setting up a comprehensive police control system. Besides highly trained individuals, it would also need hi-tech devices, high-speed networks and comprehensive as well as easily accessible data bases to work in a synchronised manner. Only then would the system be really effective. The number of vehicles is increasing exponentially in the nation. There is a great need to check their misuse. The state governments must ensure that they remove whatever roadblocks exist to expeditiously provide this service and comply with the Supreme Court order.
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A troubled Nobel Laureate
Bangladesh
Grameen Bank founder Professor Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace, has been in trouble ever since he announced that he was entering politics and formed a party in 2007 to fight elections. His decision to take a plunge into politics to save his country from the clutches of the two squabbling begums — Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — was frowned upon by both woman leaders. Soon stories began to appear in sections of the media that his image as the “poor man’s banker” was not based on reality. He was sacked by the Sheikh Hasina government as the Managing Director of Grameen Bank on March 2, describing his reappointment as the chief executive of the historic micro-finance institution in 2000, after he completed 60 years of age, as faulty. He approached the Dhaka High Court against the government’s order, but his appeal was rejected. He then challenged the lower court’s order in the Bangladesh Supreme Court, but in vain. Surprisingly, all the negative stories about Prof Yunus being the “blood-sucker of the poor” started appearing after Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia described him as the cause for the bankruptcy of a large number of people. The pioneering micro-lending financial institution that he set up in 1983 was now accused of charging a 40-70 per cent rate of interest from those who got loans from it. As against this, his Grameen Bank got funds from international sources at a very nominal interest rate. His troubles multiplied after a Norwegian TV channel came out with a documentary levelling serious charges against him. Later on, the Norwegian government gave him a clean chit, but this had little impact on his detractors. His reputation was tarnished further with a magazine, Weekly Blitz, publishing a series of investigative reports exposing all his claims of having transformed the lives of thousands of poor Bangladeshis. The international community has finally reacted with efforts to save the hard-earned reputation of Professor Yunus. The US is putting considerable pressure on the Bangladesh government to mend fences with the Nobel Laureate. So far, however, Dhaka remains unmoved.
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You can never be too rich or too thin. — Duchess of Windsor
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India’s knowledge deficit
With
a 9 per cent growth rate, a number of Indian-origin CEOs in multinational companies, thousands of engineering and business graduates passing out each year and the Indian IT industry’s outstanding success story, many already see India as an emerging knowledge power. But this euphoria needs a reality check. A recent University of Pennsylvania survey ranked the world’s leading think tanks from a universe of 6,480. Amongst those named, there is one from China and none from India. Among Asia’s top five, China has two and India just one. The Times World University Rankings 2010 includes six universities from China among top 200, but none from India. The Financial Times Global MBA ranking places among the top ten one business school from China and none from India. How crucial is knowledge for economic growth? A look at recent history is instructive. Between 1950 and 1990, Japan’s growth rate was much higher than America’s as cheap labour gave its manufacturing sector a competitive edge vis-a-vis the U.S. But once that advantage ceased, Japan’s economy began to stagnate. China and India have the advantage of cheap labour for a couple of decades more. But in the 21st century, it is ultimately technology and innovation which will provide the enduring edge. Knowledge, innovation and technology enabled the United States to race ahead of Japan over the last two decades. America’s success, till the recession of 2008 at least, is attributable more to its knowledge industry, including Microsoft, Apple, Google and Netscape, rather than traditional manufacturing. China’s leaders recognised long ago that education and knowledge would propel their nation ahead of others. In a speech at Peking University’s 100th anniversary in 1998, Jiang Zemin emphasised the need for higher education. Over the next one decade the number of institutions of higher education in China increased more than twice – from 1,022 to 2,263; its university enrolment increased from one million in 1997 to more than 5.5 million in 2007. Its post-secondary gross enrolment rate is 23 per cent, while India lags behind at 12 per cent. Great centres of learning and research are built by providing high-quality infrastructure, generous investments in research and, above all, by attracting the finest talent from across the world. While India continues to be inward looking, the Chinese have consciously encouraged openness and merit. During the 1990s, 10 per cent of Chinese Ph.D. scholars returned to their country. China has been able to lure back global leaders in their field from the US and the U.K. With world-class working conditions and an opportunity to participate in China’s rise, they are trying to develop a system in which only the best research secures funding, not the one proposed by the politically influential or senior-most researchers. The Chinese authorities are making determined efforts to attract the best global scholars, Chinese or others, to their universities. Universities like Beijing, Tsinghua, Fudan and Denmin are expected to figure among the top-ranking institutions of higher learning in a few years’ time. China is focusing on developing its own lvy League universities, the C-9, by investing significant resources and efforts. For countries of the region, China will soon be performing the role of a magnet for higher learning just as it has done so far for economic development. As a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, China’s R & D spending has increased from 0.6 per cent in 1995 to 1.30 per cent in 2005; and it is projected at 2.5 per cent by 2020. In 1995, Chinese publications in top ranking journals were about half of those published by Indians. From 1995 to 2005, the number of articles published by Chinese scholars in the leading journals has increased by four times. In China, more than 20 per cent of the 18-23 years’ age group enroll in higher education institutions; in contrast, the percentage of such youngsters in India is less than ten. In India, most institutions of higher education are dysfunctional. They are over-regulated, cash starved, hopelessly politicised and their research productivity is low. China also outperforms India in the number of patents taken out and it is expected to have already left the U.S. and Japan behind in applications for new patents in the field of chemical engineering, computers, data transmission and communication. In the chaotic years following the Cultural Revolution, the two-thirds of Chinese people were literate or semi-literate, when nearly half of India’s population was literate. Now, the percentage of illiterate women in India exceeds 50 whereas in China female illiteracy has fallen to around 10 per cent. The number of Chinese illiterate in the 25-29 age group is negligible; in contrast, the number in India is close to 30 per cent. China also has a long and vibrant tradition of think tanks in foreign policy, international relations and strategic affairs. Chinese think tanks provide information, analysis and advice to the leadership, conduct academic research, provide public education and influence foreign public opinion. Unlike in India, they are intimately connected to the government. The Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs was founded in 1949, on the initiative of the late Premier Zhou Enlai, who also served as its Honorary President till his death. Prominent Chinese think tanks have institutional arrangements to access classified documents and their researchers regularly read diplomatic cables, presidential letters and reports of summit meetings. The China Institute of Contemporary International Relations has a staff of 380, whereas the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has professional researchers numbering 2,975. The People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences has 500 full-time researchers. There is not a single comparable think tank in India. Before long, India will exhaust its cheap labour advantage. What will sustain the momentum of its growth is knowledge and innovation and an educated workforce. This will require much greater attention and resources for education, an overhaul of the university system and centres of research and, above all, much greater openness. The foundation for that wholesale reform needs to be laid
now. The writer is the Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and
Analyses, New Delhi. e-mail: directorgeneral.idsa@gmail.com
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Surprise in the love of life I
was
shocked to hear that Ruby (Vandana Sharma) was dead. I remembered hearing pleasant anecdotes of uncommon love she shared with birds, during the days she studied in the Hindi Department of Panjab University. In fact, the balcony of the house that she was residing in Sector 21, during those days, was called ‘chidian da chamba’ (an abode of birds). The more shocking part of the news was that she had died because of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) which was caused by an allergy to bird droppings. These droppings harbour the particular fungus that causes the infection. I got a call from Ruby’s brother, Prof Neeraj Sharma, head of the Department of Philosophy at the Baring Union Christian College, Batala. A friend of mine during my student days at PU, we used to talk to each other about her rare bonding with her winged friends. He used to say: “She talked with the birds and the birds too responded with their innocent sounds. Her day was incomplete without her interaction with her friends”. The strong bonding she shared with the avian population, near her residence in Patiala, was well known in the entire neighbourhood. The birds waited for their games with the kind maiden when she came to the balcony in the morning. Some birds would be waiting for their daily feed while others would be screaming to get her attention. Sometimes, a friendly bird would even perch on her shoulders. Her balcony became a closed boundary for her, after the doctors told her that it had been her love that had proved to be her failing. The birds would still come outside her room at the fixed hour in the mornings and evenings. She continued to steal a private moment with the visitors from the sky. I remember one day she had said: “Call me a martyr because I too have kissed the noose that would hang me”. Life is full of contradictions. Another name that I am reminded of, in the instant case, is that of Stephen Robert Irwin, a legendary Australian wildlife expert and conservationist, who died after his heart was pierced by a barb from the stingray. The stingrays are a kind of ray fish related to sharks. Irwin was the man behind the legendary television series ‘The Crocodile Hunter. Irwin spent his entire life introducing the dangerous wild to a common man. His adventures and corresponding findings commanded the standard of an encyclopaedia in wildlife records. He was shooting the wild when a barb entered his heart and he died in the fields where he spent his entire life. As God would have it, Ruby passed away on March 20, which also happens to be World Sparrow Day. That was the last day the birds had come calling on her in the particular balcony of her house. She had been shifted to the PGI. However, the birds had continued to come there till the last
day.
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Corruption is not new to this country. However, the way new scams and scandals are coming to light is indeed alarming.
A
silent
revolution has been brewing in the hearts of the Indians for quite some time. The World Cup win was a welcome detour but the anger remained there, somewhere deep within. Finally, the septuagenarian social activist Anna Hazare has acted as the catalyst for the young and the old to vent out their angst against the system in a true Gandhian way. The incessant revelations of scams and scandals which have rocked this nation in the recent past have only added to our frustration against the system. We do not need the rankings of organisations like Transparency International to realise how grim the situation is. A slanting glance through any newspaper's cover page or a brief view of any news channel while browsing the television is enough for a person to realise its gravity. Every day, there is a new damning revelation that floods the nation, from our homes to parliament and from the coffee table discussions to the news channel debates. — Pramathesh Borkotoky, 29, —Sojo Varughese, 31, — Rashi Vidyasagar, 22, pursuing MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice Administration, University of Madras — Robin Goyal,
25, Business Analyst, Wipro technologies, New Delhi — Tavish Chadha, 25, IT professional, Accenture, Hyderabad —Nethra Anjanappa, 23, pursuing MBA, Bengaluru —Neha Sarna, 29, MTNL, New Delh —Devanshi Kulshreshtha,
18, economics undergraduate, SRCC, New Delhi
And despite all these discussions and deliberations, there is always a new scandal waiting to be revealed- telecom spectrum allocation, commonwealth games, Adarsh society, cash-for-vote, CVC appointment, black money - that it's becoming difficult to keep a count.So when India Against Corruption led by Anna made a call to the nation, the people poured out in thousands all across the nation, demanding the government strengthen the anti-corruption mechanisms, symbolised by the Lokpal Bill which has been pending for more than four decades. For a nation, which is thriving on its young population and aspires to tap this favourable demographic dividend, it becomes important to know, what the youth feel about all the scams and the unholy mess they have created. Shashaank Shekhar Singhal, 25, a Gurgaon-based entrepreneur has a candid admission to make, "Well honestly, I haven't thought through a lot about these scams." However, in case one puts a little thought in deciphering the causes behind corruption, they can be reduced to just two rhyming words - need and greed. When an underpaid traffic constable or an office peon with a large family to support demands a bribe, one can justify their greed to some extent in the terms of their need. However, what kind of justification can we have for the greed being shown by the well-fed politicians and rich businessmen? As Shashaank adds exasperated upon a little contemplation, "I'm surprised how people can be so greedy and unethical. At the end of the day they cannot even use that large amount of money." The dystopian society of George Orwell's conception in his novel '1984' borrowed its stability from three basic tenets; one of these being - 'Ignorance is Strength'. It will be far-fetched to compare today's India with that society. However, the way the things are going, one tends to question oneself if it's worth getting frustrated at this sorry state of affairs? According to Ankit Sakhuja, a 26-year-old MBA student from Chandigarh, "The extent and frequency with which we get to hear about these scams makes the youth wonder that is it really worth being honest any more. A majority of them may feel that it is now a common thing and it does not matter even if they indulge in corruption as long as their own greed is satisfied." Just when, such doubts were creeping in many minds, this anti-corruption movement has come as a new beacon of light. In the recent past the media, judiciary and certain autonomous authorities like CAG have demonstrated remarkable activism in bringing to light various scams and scandals. However, now it is the time for the civil society to take up these issues. A recently released tagline of an Indian business group reads, "There are those who accept things as they are and those who rise to change." When it comes to change, rise is an over-rated word. The first step towards change is to just realise. It's the realisation of one's basic rights and the realisation about what's right and what's wrong. Ignorance can never be strength. To feign ignorance is to shirk responsibility. Despite all its shortcomings, the Indian polity has been supplying certain tools to the citizens for raising their voice against corruption. Right to Information, Public Interest Litigations, Lokayuktas and social audits are just some of these mechanisms. While demanding new and stronger mechanisms as enumerated in the Jan Lokpal Bill, it is important that the civil society realise the importance of spreading awareness about the existing mechanisms among the masses too. In this context, one can't ignore the fact that after all, it's the youth of India that forms the largest chunk of our nation's civil society.. Rajeshwari Reddy, 35, a Hyderabad-based sociologist notes that, "The way youth has responded to Anna Hazare's call not just across the country but in other parts of the world too, by being physically present at the marches and the gatherings or extending their support through social networking sites is unprecedented." We can only hope that this zeal and commitment is there to stay and will not wither away with the maneouvrings and manipulations of the politicians, inside and outside the Parliament. Vipul Grover is a popular blogger and a soft skills trainer based in Chandigarh
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Scams hardly affect today's youth unless they come face to face with it. It is our upbringing and education that will decide our reaction to such situations. 
We get the kind of leaders that we deserve. If we don't proactively engage in politics, no matter what media does to bring corruption to light, we are going to see more of it. 
Apathy breeds corruption and it is high time we stopped being ignorant about all this. All of us need not know the details of all the scams but definitely all of us need to stop slipping 50s and 100s with our driving license when we jump a signal. 
The multi-million corruption scams which are happening around us amount to poor use of tax paid by the common man. All this will have long-term impact on development of facilities in the nation, especially for the underprivileged. 
We do tend to turn a blind eye to the corruption these days. But by doing that we cannot absolve ourselves from it. Just small actions on our part can also cause a significant change. 
In the short term, protests might create ripples and subsequent resignations but finally one lot of ministers will be replaced by another corrupt lot. If the youth desire change in the long term, they must enter the system and actively participate in meaningful politics. 
Juggling with my own family life and the office, the scams and scandals do take a backseat. However, working in a government undertaking, I get the satisfaction from a simple fact, that I keep myself clean of corruption. 
What's happening affects me, for it affects my country. It shakes my confidence in our leaders. It affects how the world sees my country. This could well be the start of change, where people realise the need to elect better candidates and call for transparency on part of the government.