Reality Bites Hard V....Old Tradiitons... Old Curses

Yes in some ways India is really going places these days. But along with the new generations point of view, there are the old curses that we have been forced to put up with and with politics making it a more ugly and grim picture...... casteism in India..... and the fallout is still felt loud and clear even today..... it is being promoted by young minds... a section of which are being applauded as they are instrumental in bringing India to where she is right now.
I was completely dumfounded to read this article (Caste wars in AIIMS):

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070026330&ch=9/16/2007%2011:22:00%20PM

And another raging example which is currently grabbing the headlines is that of Ram Setu which underline the ugly nexus between religion and politics... hampering the highlighting of the real issues like ecological damage in case the setu is modified and dampening the growth of trade.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=17125 (Video on We, the people episode aired on September 16, 2007)

Reality Bites Hard - IV - Isn't it in-evitable?

For how long should we keep the tinted glasses on and pretend that India is well on its way to becoming a super-power and is poised to become a force to reckon with in world economy. In various articles in this blog I have clearly and concisely discussed why this is a fallacy... a dream that would require major re-organization and restructuring for it to work as it should. And there are miles to go before we acheive the dream that we claim is already fulfilled.

It is to be noted that news channels like the BBC have started questioning the claim that India is making.... isn't it time that someone did so? In an article where it discussed the booming retail market in India and the mushrooming of elite stores selling fresh vegetables and fruits for the growing Indian middle class, it also highlighted the plight of the un-educated marginal road-side fruit vendor who got directly hit by the opening of such stores. To read the complete analysis click here.

So, India's maladies might as well become the reason for its failure to becoming a super-power in the near future. The great divide between the middle and upper classes and the lower classes is very significant. The lack of education has been poined out as the major cause of this divide. So inspite of being such a populous country there is serious lack of skilled labor to support the mushrooming of MNC's who are ready to put up base in the Indian sub-continent. Click here to read a very well written article on the subject.

The BBC is talking about it. Some of the most knowledgeable people are also talking about it. How long would it take the whole world to talk about the fact that Indians had been grossly over-rated and that the state of the infrastructure in India does not warrant such huge expansion?

Isn't it time we really start doing something to save our dream????

Reality Bites Hard - III - Indian IT Hotspots - Are we really ready?

India has been one of the major hotspots for multi-nationals to setup base for their back-office work. Bangalore has been a favorite destination for these multi-nationals. But these days the there is a very grim picture coming to out where in Bangalore's lack of infrastructure is making multi-nationals looking further into other cities within India. This article published on the BBC tells a very grim story.

IT companies are looking towards Hyderabad and Kolkatta for spreading their wings further. And in the process of attracting more MNCs to India, the Government of India has identified Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the entire length and breadth of the country. These SEZ are a point of concern since they eat into quite a bit of fertile agricultural land of the farmers. Some farmers are protesting like the ones in Nandigram, West Bengal. But other farmers are simply making huge amounts of money by selling their lands. Suddenly all farmers in the outskirts of all major cities like Hyderabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad have struck it very rich. Land prices in these areas have escalated beyond imagination. You can spy a couple of brand new vechicles like scorpio, tata inidica etc on roads that are not wide enough to hold these vehicles and are majorily kuccha in nature. Posh houses, cars and luxuries have made in-roads in areas lacking in basic nfrastructure like 24 hour water and electricity supply. If the basic infrastructure is not taken care of then each of these 'cities' including Chandigarh will head in the same direction that Bangalore is heading towards.

Wont the MNC's over a period of time simply become fed up with all the red tapism and beurocracy that exists in the Indian sub-continent and simply go elsewhere????? (Just to point out a simple example....India is closer to some countries that it bids for to export foodgrains to. But it looses the bid everytime.... to Chile... all the way around the world.... and the reason... that despite the huge difference in distance to be covered while exporting the total cost of exporting from Chile is much cheaper than exporting from India......)

So should we not really think about improving the basic infrastructure of the cities before trying to attract more multi-national organisations to setup their base here. Water, electricity, roads, hotels, telephones, internet connectivity..... the list of infrastructural improvements that has to be done to justify and encash on foreign investement seems to be endless. Correspondingly, India has to increase its base of skilled labor force too to cater to the demands and requirements of the multi-national companies.

Time to think hard and act faster... dont you think? Can we really afford to miss the oppurtunity to give useful employment to the un-employed millions in India?

Another Ray of Hope!!!!!!!!!!!

A lot has been said about the political condition of the country. And as Indian citizens we have accepted the political condition of our country. But some people are strving towards making a difference and improving governance in India. A group of 11 highly motivated professors from IIM, Ahemedabad formed an organisation called ADR - Association of Democratic Reforms in the year 1999. Since then this organisation which is headquartered at Ahemedabad, Gujarat have made attempts to improve the governance in India simply by ensuring that they screen the backgrounds of the political candidates and by ensuring the accuracy of the voter's list in the state of Gujarat.

As was expected they met with quite a bit of resistance from almost all political parties apart from Congress. Congress was the only party which gave ADR its full support.

ADR won two landmark judgment from the Supreme Court mandating disclosure of criminal, financial and educational background of candidates contesting elections. They made good use of the Right to Information act for getting this one passed. It worked with the Election Commission to ensure that ordinary citizens have a right to access the information declared by candidates. It also worked with the media since October 2002 and has played a significant role in bringing this issue to light. It has built up a network of partner NGOs in different states and has been actively involved with them in doing Citizen Election Watch work exposing the criminal and financial background of candidates. So far, this has been done on Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. Click here to see the kind of work that ADR had done for the General Elections in Delhi in 2004. They have stated clearly the candidates who have criminal cases pending against them and the assets that they have and the tax that they pay. These are things that every Indian Citizen should know in order to choose a deserving candidate. Unfortunately, in many parts of India, citizens still do not have access to this kind of information.

But the right steps are being taken. The progress is slow and dismal but progress is there. I, as a normal Indian citizen hope to see some good changes being brought about in the process of electing the leaders of our country. It's a small start but a start nonetheless.

In the meantime, the Indian constitution has also empowered the Indian citizens with the power of deciding not to vote. It is a matter of debate as to how many Indian citizens are actually aware of this kind of a provision that has been made for them.

It is a gentle breeze right now... but a breeze nonetheless... hoping that it will soon turn into a major force which will re-shape Indian politics forever. So, definitely.... I can say that ADR is another ray of hope..... in the jungle of politics...

Supreme Court 's Decision - No Roadside Cooking

In my previous blog I had talked about the impact of the same. My views are shared to a certain extent....

Hot Debate on NDTV:


http://www.ndtv.com/debate/showdebate.asp?show=1&story_id=246&template=&category=National

Ray of Hope

Despite the multitude of maladies that are deep-rooted in the subcontinent of India there are a lot of things that Indians have reasons to cheer about. May it be simple, small efforts put in by individual families to provide help to their maid’s children or the collective effort of the neighborhood to keep the surrounding areas clean, healthy and hygienic; or the silent campaign run by the urban middle class in support of justice for Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Matttoo and Nitish Katara; or the Supreme Court taking a tough stand on the illegal premises of businessmen occupying opposite ends of the economic spectrum. These are very small steps which have been taken over a period of time. Steps which have a long term impact on things that are important for India to fulfill the dream of becoming a super-power. These small steps convey the importance of perseverance, discipline and belief and trust in their dreams and silently say ….. ‘Hum Hongey Kaamyaab’ (‘we will succeed’).

And ‘kaamyaab’ (successful) we are in some areas. In recent years two institutes have become the case study for the IIMs and IITs in India and many non-indian universities as well. One is a small city level business powered by thousands of un-skilled labor. Its ingenuity lies in the complete lack of technology for delivering lunch boxes to lakhs of hungry office-goers by using simple color coding schemes to achieve the desired results. And the two things that they emphasize on are the value of time and the value of customers. They have become famous as the Dabbawallas of Mumbai. A lot has been written about them and they have been studied by the some of the bright brains in the Indian subcontinent and abroad to learn a few lessons in management… the Dabbawallas put into practice what is taught in the management training classrooms. And the startling fact that stands out is that most of the workforce of this institute is un-educated. They just have a high literacy rate about their own trade….. and that is to collect the lunch boxes from the residence of lakhs of office goers all over the city and deliver them to respective offices before lunchtime and without making a mistake. They ensure that their company has an annual turnover of Rs. 10 million. To read a study on them click here.

The other is an organization of a National level – Indian Railways. One of the oldest organizations run at the national level it gives employment to the highest number of people (1.5 million)… both skilled and un-skilled. It had been run as a social institute for a long time and was always in the red financially despite the annual fare hikes that the railway minister introduced in each railway budget. Indian Railways saw a complete turn-around in its fortunes when the highly tainted Chief Minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav took over its reigns. Under his leadership the Indian Railways has grown beyond everyone’s expectations and financially the Indian Railways is now firmly in the green. All Indians and the rest of the world has taken nptice of this fact. Washington Times found it worth mentioning it. Lalu’s ingenious methods on achieving the impossible have been included as a case study in IIM and have been studied by many abroad. The first one to highlight the fact was IIM, Ahmedabad. It had grabbed media attention. This year in his opening speech about the railway budget Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav said:

“Presenting my fourth consecutive Railway Budget, I have a tremendous sense of pride and gratitude. Pride in the fact that without imposing undue burden on the common man, the Railways are poised to create history by generating a cash surplus before Dividend of Rs 20,000 cr as against Rs 14,700 cr in the previous year. This is the same Railway that defaulted on payment of Dividend and whose fund balances dipped to Rs 359 cr in 2001. I express heartfelt gratitude towards 14 lakh railway employees who in the face of stiff competition have conquered all odds with an indomitable spirit displaying matchless zeal, vigour and teamwork.”

Mr. Yadav has declared this year as the ‘Year of Cleanliness’.

For all those who are interested click here for the highlights of the Railway Budget (2007-2008).

As Indians we feel like standing up and giving Lalu Prasad Yadav a standing ovation and be proud that a minister who had been labeled as corrupt and im-moral has been the reason for so much of pride. He has given us the reason to say ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’ a little loudly… definitely higher than a whisper. Hard work, perseverance and discipline certainly pays and how…
And after a long hard days work, this group of Gujratis show how to de-stress and retain the motivation to give one’s best to their jobs and life as a whole. Nicknamed the “8:52 Group” they show the importance of little things in life go a long way in leading a better life. The group also contributes towards national causes like they donated Rs 11000/- for the victims of the earthquake that had rocked Bhuj. To read more about this super-cool group click here.

I will finish this blog with a lot of sense of euphoria and feel-good. They come from the fact that we are teaching the values that made an organization successful so that the future bright minds of India can build a successful nation. Though the claims that we are making about being a super-power are still very tall, we are taking important and significant steps in the right direction to make that tall claim a true one.

Reality Bites Hard - I - When will we acknowledge the reality?

Every one loves to dream... dream to acheive big things in life and make a considerable impact on things that matter to them most. And we hope to acheive the dream. But is it not necessary that for the dream to be acheivable one needs to be aware of certain hard facts and also be willing to deal with them? In other words, don't you think that dreams which have their feet planted on firmly on the ground are more acheivable?

Indians have also dreamt a dream. A dream to be one of the super-powers of the world. We claim to have nearly acheived the dream. We have witnessed that India is claiming to have arrived on the global scene with a huge bang. But have we really? Most of the articles published on this blog previously has pointed out this very fact.

Recently, I had a chance to read an article by Pankaj Mishra. He writes literary and political essays for the New York Times, the New Statesman etc etc. Although the article penned by him - The Myth of New India - is dated July 6, 2006, I feel that it still holds good. Here are some excerpts from this article that I think hold significantly true even today:

"Since the early 1990's, when the Indian economy was liberalized, India has emerged as the world leader in information technology and business outsourcing, with an average growth of about 6 percent a year. Growing foreign investment and easy credit have fueled a consumer revolution in urban areas ................. "

"................. the alleged rise of India barely mention the fact that the country's $728 per capita gross domestic product is just slightly higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa ..... even if it sustains its current high growth rates, India will not catch up with high-income countries until 2106."

"Nor is India rising very fast on the report's Human Development index, where it ranks 127, just two rungs above Myanmar and more than 70 below Cuba and Mexico. Despite a recent reduction in poverty levels, nearly 380 million Indians still live on less than a dollar a day. "

"Malnutrition affects half of all children in India, and there is little sign that they are being helped by the country's market reforms, which have focused on creating private wealth rather than expanding access to health care and education. ..... and facilities for primary education have collapsed in large parts of the country ........."

"The potential for conflict — among castes as well as classes — also grows in urban areas, where India's cruel social and economic disparities are as evident as its new prosperity. The main reason for this is that India's economic growth has been largely jobless. Only 1.3 million out of a working population of 400 million are employed in the information technology and business processing industries that make up the so-called new economy. "

"No labor-intensive manufacturing boom of the kind that powered the economic growth of almost every developed and developing country in the world has yet occurred in India. Unlike China, India still imports more than it exports. ........"

Some very hard hitting facts... but can anyone of us refute them???? I agree that there have been some amount of progress that has been enforced by the urban middle class these days but is it enough? Is'nt this progress restricted to only a select few?

Is'nt it time to review our dreams and our claims to have acheived our dream???

No Roadside Cooking by Vendors - Its Impact

In the week that TOI is celebrating the soul and essence of Delhi as a part of the India Poised campaign with a series of spicy food festivals, music concerts, dance and drama; the Supreme Court has decided to pull out another rabbit from its hat and announced the ban on street side food vendors who cook on the spot and sell their wares hot to the hungry Delhites. They are the essence of the culture as it exists in Delhi today and all Delhites irrespective of their social status have enjoyed exercising their social networking skills over a plate of hot samosas and tea. From office gossip to dating to de-stressing everything happens over a plate of street side hot and spicy fast food. So, enjoying a plate of hot choley bathurey with your friends while enjoying the sun-shine in a bitterly cold day will not be as common a site in the future as it is today. So, Delhites will face a cultural shock. Imagine the North Delhi University devoid of its sumptuous food stalls and Paranthey-wala gali without its paranthas and jalebis. The impact of the shock is something that only time will tell.

The reason for the decision is easy to see. With its decision to seal the un-authorised and illegal business establishments it had started the process of cleaning Delhi of its various maladies. With the high profile people being hit by the now in-famous sealing drive it comes as no surprise that the hawkers who have their business establishments on a wooden table or a wooden cart will be the next target. Looking at the sequence of events that have taken place the Supreme Court has very neatly robbed the people in the lower economic group to raise their voices in protest. They have seen that the higher economic group had been hit before they had been hit and therefore that argument of partiality becomes null and void. They have also witnessed the un-relenting stance that the SC has taken with respect to the sealing drive and therefore are forewarned that there is a very high possibility their protests will also fall on deaf ears. This would force them probably to tackle the new ruling in a positive manner than a negative one.

The impact on cleanliness and health will be a very positive one. Gone would street corners piled with used dishes, plates, cups which more often than not attract a multitude of pests and prove to be a death knell for the drainage system contributing towards the high levels of pollution. The entire populations of rats, flies, cockroaches have to give up the luxury of going to their brand of 5-star hotels. Health concerns arising out of eating in greasy plates, eating food cooked in oil of dubious quality, eating food cooked and served with un-clean hands, eating food which is made tastier by the dust of the road settling on it would be reduced. This would also ensure that the general health factors governing the overall health of the Delhites will also improve since these delicacies would prove to a little more difficult to purchase and hence see a decline in the consumption frequency. So the early morning walks will suddenly start having a better impact on the health and the fat around the bellies will start melting with a little less effort than what it requires currently.

Amidst all the good that is being done because of the decision, there are a lot of concerns too. Suddenly, a man who makes a decent, honest living by cooking and selling his wares in a road-side cart will be without a job. He has to spend quite some money to re-establish himself in the alternative places that would be allocated to them by MCD/NDMC provided they do keep their promise of doing so. The time required to do it and the additional cost of bribing the officials for having the right to earn a living might as well prove to be a death knell for his intentions of earning a living by honest means. It might as well prove to be a major factor in deciding whether the man is able to continue sending his children to school or does he have to pull them out of school and put them to work; whether he is able to pay the doctors' fees for illness of a family member. So a family that might be just on the margin that defines poverty in India might be pushed below that line. So the whole vicious circle of maladies like poverty, lack of child education and lack of proper health care for the family will be fuelled further. And the gap between the rich and the poor will widen a little more.

So, the fine balancing act that has was being done between the wellness of a citizen vs. the wellness of the state as a whole gains a more sensitive dimension. The businessmen in the higher strata of the society were able to withstand the toughness of the Supreme Court albeit with a lot of loud protests. It remains to be seen what the impact of this decision will have on the lives of the people who have been at the helm of defining the 'Delhi Culture'. Only time will tell.

Read the viewpoints of a BBC correspondent here.

PS: This article is in response to an article published in the TOI. To read the article in TOI click here.

India Poised....

In my previous article I had made a sarcastic comment on what is India Poised considered as by its originators.

I read an article on the BBC which outlines the achievements of 3 children in a village in Andhra Pradesh. This is what I would term as India Poised and wanted to share this with everyone. Here is the link to the article on the site. Wont you too call it the same?

Soft Power: What message are we conveying????

Despite the myriad problems that India is facing in the current times it is as un-deniable fact that India is well on its way to consolidate it’s position in the world map as a powerful country. The super powers are sitting up and taking notice of the power of India.

Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary General of United Nations has been writing a lot about two interlinked concepts of Brand India and Soft Power in the Times of India since the beginning of January 2007. Tharoor has acknowledged the strides that India is making in making its presence felt across the globe and has underlined the fact that India needs to consolidate its position and promote Brand India only through the use of Soft Power.

The term Brand India is self explanatory. The term Soft Power needs to be defined a little more for this article to be understood. Wikipedia lists the following definition of Soft Power:

“Soft power is a term used in international relations theory to describe the ability of a political body, such as a state, to indirectly influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies through cultural or ideological means. The term was first coined by Harvard University professor Joseph Nye. Soft power has since entered popular political discourse as a way of distinguishing the subtle effects of culture, values and ideas on others' behavior from more direct coercive measures, such as military action (hard power) or economic incentives. The resources from which soft power behavior is derived are culture (when it is attractive to others), values (when there is no hypocrisy in their application) and foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others). Unless these conditions are present, culture and ideas do not necessarily produce the attraction that is essential for soft power behavior. Popular culture and media is regularly identified as a source of soft power, as is the spread of a national language, or a particular set of normative structures; a nation with a large amount of soft power and the good will that engenders it inspire others to acculturate, avoiding the need for expensive hard power expenditures.”

Tharoor has given quite a few accolades to the Indian media for promoting the image of India as it is today. It is an acceptable fact that media plays an important role in shaping the psyche of not only the citizens of India but also that of the rest of the world. The term media encompasses not only the print media but also the small as well as the big screen, the internet etc.

As a very ordinary Indian citizen I am compelled to ask the kind of message that the media is passing to the world citizens. Does it show the true picture of Indians? In an article titled ‘Making the most of India’s Soft Power’ which was penned by Shashi Tharoor for the Sunday Times on January 28, 2007 there is a huge surprise in store. Kyunki Saas bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi has been lauded by him as one of the daily soaps which has grabbed the attention of many around the world. Two of the major resources of soft power are culture and values. So, does it mean that we are merrily conveying the fact that it is normal for Indians to get married 3-4 times in their lifetime; it is normal for Indians to deal with in-numerable look alike; it is normal for Indians to battle death for in-consequential reasons; it is normal for Indian married girls to wear only sarees; …… Are Tulsi and Parvati a true representation of mothers of India today? I guess the world thinks that all the above set of ‘culture and values’ are normal to Indians as Shashi Tharoor ends that particular article by saying ‘Tulsi Zindabad’. That is the kind of image that Balaji Telefilms has given about Indians to the world.

The print media does not lag too behind in promoting Brand India. For a newspaper that has launched the ‘India Poised’ campaign it is quite sad to note that the front page of the Sunday Newspaper dated January 28, 2007 is occupied by huge colored photographs of cine stars – one of whom is poised to marry the son of a film legend and another who is poised to win the controversial Big Brother show in UK. I guess that is what it means by saying ‘India Poised’. The good work done by Monojit Dutta in bringing the street kids back to school gets a mention only in the second page since I guess his contribution in shaping the lives of young Indians does not fit into the scheme of India Poised campaign. That is why probably media sites like BBC and NDTV are like a cool breeze.

Apart from this what the world perhaps would find attractive about India are probably high literacy rates, abolish of poverty, decrease in corruption in the politico-judicial systems etc etc. Once developed these will weild a considerable amount of soft power over the world citizens.

Irrespective of what the media is projecting and looking at the waves of change that are being generated by the Urban Indians I would like to say ‘Indians Zindabad’. Lets all toil together and be justified in saying ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’.

Mera Bharat Mahaan?????

Mera Bharat…. Two words which are very emotive for all of us. And most of us proudly say Mera Bharat Mahaan. But is it really so….can we claim that distinction? Most of us would say a definite… YES. Looking at some of the urban cities in India there is no doubt that India has progressed quite a bit in the six decades after its independence. Take a look at the National Capital Region and one would be likely to agree with the statement and proudly so. Advancements – social, economic, political – are abounding. People here are flourishing. High rise buildings, multiplexes, flyovers, infra-structural developments can be seen and we can be justifiably be proud of it. The income of an average person has also risen and so has his spending power. Urban Indians came together and made themselves heard loud and clear as they demanded justice for Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Matto and Nitish Katara.. and they did it successfully too. The urban Indian is having the time of his life. NCR is not the only region in India that is flourishing. Look at Hyderabad, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, ….all the metropolitan cities can boast of inflow of international companies wanting to set base there and give employment to the Indians. So we have a lot of grounds to say… Mera Bharat Mahaan.

But there is a reverse side of this coin and this side is not as rosy … in fact it is positively ugly. India woke up to a bright new year with the news of the morbid sexual harassment and killings of in-numerable children….. and some women too…. by a maniac called Pander and his Man Friday. And the place … NCR…….one of the parts of India that we are so justifiably proud of. The nation witnessed the callous attitude of the UP police. The comment of it being a ‘chota mota crime’ by the CM’s relative was as shocking as the crime itself. Is it a reflection of the in-human attitude that we are developing towards fellow human beings and their mis-fortunes? I would definitely say a YES to that. The serial killings have left people gasping and has been made murkier with the possibility of organ trade also being thrown in. We started comparing the reaction of the UP police – their reaction when the son of Adobe’s CEO was kidnapped vis-à-vis their reaction when the common man registered complaints with the police regarding their missing children… who had been killed by Pander. The police as well as the politicians have shown their callous side… and how!!!!!

The callous attitude of the politicians has also been highlighted recently by NDTV. NDTV is currently doing a campaign titled ROH (Republic of Hunger). In its article date January 23, 2007 and titled ‘India grapples with hunger pangs’ it has emphatically pointed out that the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) has failed in states like UP, Maharashtra, Orissa while Chattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have fared very well in providing food and health facilities to the under privileged children. And the blame has been laid squarely at the politicians door steps. NDTV has also published a separate article by Sutapa Deb titled ‘Rampant corruption in ICDS scheme in UP’ where it has been pointed out emphatically that the food for children are being used to feed the cattle – such is the corruption. So lakhs of children are mal-nourished since we have to keep the cattle healthy. How would you feel when you read a 112 page document titled ‘Hamara Uttar Pradesh Ban Raha Hai Adarsh Uttam Pradesh’ after you read the article by Sutapa Deb????.......

A similar contrast can be seen when I compare the spread of 1700 dishes on Annakut Diwas which was celebrated at the Akshardhaam Temple in Delhi to the beggar begging in front of the temple to fill his hungry stomach.

So in spite of the economic prosperity being witnessed by the Indians lakhs of people are denied the basic necessities of life like food, health care, security.

These are just tips of the iceberg. There are many more similar incidents that are taking place across the length and breadth of India. If I merely stated incidents which are closer home and are in sharp contrast to the rosy, prospering urban Indian. Do you still feel like saying Mera Bharat Mahaan??????