#everydayquiz #theHindu #IndianExpress #economicTimes #BusinessStandard
THE HINDU: Promoting equity with
variable fees
The decision of the Human
Resource Development Ministry to raise the annual undergraduate student fees at the Indian
Institutes of Technology to
Rs. 2 lakh marks another major initiative by these leading education
institutions to realise their real costs.
Continuing with the policy of
affirmative action, students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,
candidates with disability and those from families with a defined low income
will get fee exemption. An upward revision of the annual fees was made twice by
the IITs during the UPA government, taking it from Rs.25,000 to Rs.90,000,
based on expert committee recommendations. Several concessions for candidates
from the weaker sections were offered even then. It is important that fees for
higher education are structured in such a way that the opportunity for the brightest
students to enrol in the best institutions is not linked to their
socio-economic backgrounds. There is also merit in the argument that education
is a basic right that access to this must be widened by every possible means;
enlightened policy pursues this ideal in a variety of ways. The fee revision
scheme to be introduced broadly meets these criteria, and is consistent with
the social deprivations that SC and ST students have faced, although the
deficit they suffer due to a neglected school system remains unaddressed by
overall education policy. It is also important to ensure that the liberal
education loan linkage for IIT students that the Devang Khakhar committee
recommended, with no collateral requirements, is in place.
Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who envisaged the IIT system as the technological
manpower base for a nascent nation, said in his convocation address to
graduating students of the Institute in Kharagpur in 1956 that it would be
“fantastically stupid” to train people for certain ends and not utilise them.
In the decades since, droves of IIT graduates have left for good research and
employment prospects abroad, raising the question whether India derived
adequate social returns for the beneficial and relatively low-cost education that
these institutions offered them. For some time now, though, an open economy
with an avowed policy of encouraging entrepreneurial initiative has offered
technologists greater freedom within the country, although in several areas of
research, such as computer science and materials, the base remains low, and
encourages graduates to migrate. The imperative should therefore be to attract
and retain talent, while protecting academic freedom and the principle of
equity. This can be done through a funding system that does not close the door
on a meritorious student who finds the fees unaffordable. An income-linked loan
scheme open to everyone, tied to the ability of the graduate to repay (rather
than the status of a student’s parents) would be an equitable option. The IITs
should still offer generous assistantships flowing from social and charitable
endowments. That would serve as a model for technical education and research.
dep·ri·va·tion
The damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic
necessities in a society.
en·vis·age
Contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable
future event
nas·cent
(especially of a process or organization) just coming into
existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.
mer·i·to·ri·ous
Deserving reward or praise.
en·dow·ment
The action of endowing something or someone.
THE HINDU: Lessons from the Chinese veto
The Centre’s protests over
China’s move to block India’s attempt at the United Nations to ban
Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar is
understandable. After all, it was Azhar along with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz
Saeed that provided the leadership for most of the terror attacks launched from
Pakistan on India. Even if China awaits evidence of Azhar’s role in the
Pathankot attacks, it cannot be unaware of his long association with terrorist
activity, including the 2001 Parliament assault. Also, it is impossible to
ignore the fact that IC-814 was hijacked and hundreds of innocent lives were
endangered only in order to secure his release. Azhar is the undisputed leader
of the JeM, which has been proscribed by the UN for its links with the Taliban
and al-Qaeda, and it is only logical that he also comes under the ban. Despite
China’s repeated assurances of standing firm on the issue of terrorism at the
bilateral level as well as at multilateral fora such as BRICS and RIC, it has
let India down time and again in the past two years. Since September 2014, when
President Xi Jinping visited India, China has blocked India five times. For
instance, India’s resolutions to have Syed Salahuddin and
Azhar added to the list of proscribed terrorists were opposed. So was the call for
action against Pakistan for
violating the ban on Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. So, while the strong
Indian reaction is justified, it is unlikely that the government is surprised
by it. The takeaway must be that India rethinks its moves to isolate Azhar and
other Pakistan-based terrorists with more effective results.
Much of the
problem, as the government’s statement itself acknowledges, stems from the
insistence of the United Nations Security Committee on Terrorism on “unanimity”
and “anonymity” for all decisions on listing terror entities, which allows
China to overrule India’s efforts with a “technical hold”. It is no secret that
while India-China business and people-to-people ties have improved over the
past few years, the security relationship has flagged. A series of border
incursions by Chinese troops, followed by India’s forging maritime military ties
with the U.S. for coordination in the South China Sea, have increased distrust
between New Delhi and Beijing, which has widened due to lack of meetings at the
designated Special Envoy level for more than a year. Added to this is China’s
renewed closeness to Pakistan, and growing interests in the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor, making it more difficult for Beijing to hold Pakistan
accountable on tricky issues such as terror. The answer is clear: India must
show that terror is not a zero-sum game and that it is willing to work with
every world power in order to isolate the terrorists that continue to threaten
its people. Airing of frustration is one thing, but what is really required is
deft diplomacy behind the scenes and a continued engagement with Beijing. Both
countries after all have a shared concern about terror, with China having its
own problem in Xinjiang.
a·wait
(of a person) wait for (an event).
fo·rum
A place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a
particular issue can be exchanged
u·na·nim·i·ty
Agreement by all people involved; consensus.
an·o·nym·i·ty
The condition of being anonymous.
in·cur·sion
An invasion or attack, especially a sudden or brief one
zero-sum
used to refer to a situation in which any win by one personalways means a loss to another person involved:The stock market is now a
zero-sum game, in which one partygains what the other
loses.
INDIAN EXPRESS: IPL
vs drought
With just a day left for the inaugural
match, the shadow of the Marathwada drought has fallen on the Indian Premier
League (IPL). On Thursday, the Bombay High Court cleared the inaugural match to
be held in Mumbai on Saturday, but the fate of 19 others, scheduled to be held
in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, will be decided only after April 12. A day earlier,
the court had asked the government: Should the cricket tournament be held when
people in drought-hit areas are going without drinking water for days? In framing
the question in this manner, the court may well be doing injustice to the
serious issue it actually seeks to address.
It is true that pitch maintenance
requires enormous amounts of water — on an average, one lakh litres of water is
used up per day in the run-up to a match. But so do many other activities that
may appear less compelling when compared to the water needs of households and
farmers. It is facile to draw a link between drought relief and socio-economic
activity-as-usual and insist that the latter be summarily brought to a halt for
the former. Such a demand encourages false oppositions which eventually
distract from the search for the real solutions. Water, especially in times of
drought, needs to be used judiciously and the Maharashtra government has done
well to initiate some steps to regulate its supply and consumption in the
context of the crisis in the state. In the longer run, the economics of water
extraction, distribution and consumption is a complex phenomenon that defies
one-stop prescriptions. The IPL is a massive economic activity that provides
livelihood to thousands of people and its scale necessitates meticulous
planning. To disrupt its organisation so close to the event would lead to
logistical problems — without delivering on the real intent, which is helping
Marathwada overcome its water crisis.
The immediate drinking water supply
issue must be met by improving the delivery of potable water using more
tankers, water trains and other delivery channels. Going ahead, localised water
conservation measures, including check dams and farm ponds, should be
encouraged. Meanwhile, debate on drought should steer clear of two-minute,
too-tidy solutions.
fac·ile
(especially of a theory or argument) appearing neat and
comprehensive only by ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial.
ex·trac·tion
The action of taking out something, especially using effort or
force.
me·tic·u·lous
Showing great attention to detail; very careful and precise.
BUSINESS
STANDARD: Standing up to
prejudice
The "Stand Up India"
scheme for scheduled castes (SCs), tribes (STs) and women that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi launched on Tuesday serves a good purpose, even if it is timed
ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh, with its powerful Dalit vote. A programme
focused on entrepreneurship and empowerment for excluded groups within the
market economy is certainly a more practical way of helping these sections than
reserving jobs in government institutions, especially given the shrinking
market for such employment. Mr Modi clearly understands this when he described
Stand Up India as a programme that is aimed at turning "job seekers into
job creators," ensuring that these marginalised sections of society, which
collectively account for nearly a quarter of India's population, integrate into
the "mainstream economy". True to this government's approach, the
project has time-bound deliverables: 250,000 approvals in 36 months for loans
between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, repayable in up to seven years. The programme
involves refinancing options via the Small Industries Development Bank of India
for which the government has put in an initial amount of Rs 10,000 crore and,
later, a Rs 5,000-crore corpus is to be created for credit guarantees.
Transforming the lot of these sections of society, however, does not lie simply in loan disbursals. In fact, one institution to do so already exists - the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation was set up as far back as 1989 without noticeably changing the state of Dalit entrepreneurship. A Mahila Bank for women had so little impact that it faces closure. Stand Up India does provide for a certain amount of hand-holding of borrowers from the pre-loan to the operating stage. This is critical given India's labyrinthine and complex rules for doing business. In areas where tribal societies may need to lose land for industrial projects, schemes like this can be invaluable for creating the kind of small entrepreneurial framework that accounted for China's growth. But even if it is assumed that the scheme works to its full potential, it will at best be a halfway house. To genuinely integrate into the business mainstream - in the way, say, African-Americans have done in the US within three decades of winning the right to vote - these groups need to be able to operate within the business environment without the artifice of intervention by state institutions that are often controlled by upper castes anyway.
Handing out loans is also fundamentally different from empowering people with the connections needed for successful businesses. Indeed, when the doing business environment is still far from optimal for big businesses, and decidedly unfriendly to the small and medium entrepreneur, it is unlikely to be welcoming to sections of society that have been prey to ingrained caste and gender prejudices for centuries. This is an opportune time for Mr Modi, a powerful and influential symbol of caste mobility in himself, to align his regime's social agenda to a more inclusive platform. Only a progressive political messaging can make the change a durable one.
Transforming the lot of these sections of society, however, does not lie simply in loan disbursals. In fact, one institution to do so already exists - the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation was set up as far back as 1989 without noticeably changing the state of Dalit entrepreneurship. A Mahila Bank for women had so little impact that it faces closure. Stand Up India does provide for a certain amount of hand-holding of borrowers from the pre-loan to the operating stage. This is critical given India's labyrinthine and complex rules for doing business. In areas where tribal societies may need to lose land for industrial projects, schemes like this can be invaluable for creating the kind of small entrepreneurial framework that accounted for China's growth. But even if it is assumed that the scheme works to its full potential, it will at best be a halfway house. To genuinely integrate into the business mainstream - in the way, say, African-Americans have done in the US within three decades of winning the right to vote - these groups need to be able to operate within the business environment without the artifice of intervention by state institutions that are often controlled by upper castes anyway.
Handing out loans is also fundamentally different from empowering people with the connections needed for successful businesses. Indeed, when the doing business environment is still far from optimal for big businesses, and decidedly unfriendly to the small and medium entrepreneur, it is unlikely to be welcoming to sections of society that have been prey to ingrained caste and gender prejudices for centuries. This is an opportune time for Mr Modi, a powerful and influential symbol of caste mobility in himself, to align his regime's social agenda to a more inclusive platform. Only a progressive political messaging can make the change a durable one.
lab·y·rin·thine
(of a network) like a labyrinth; irregular and twisting.
prey
An animal that is hunted and killed by another for food
in·grained
(of a habit, belief, or attitude) firmly fixed or established;
difficult to change.
Apr 08 2016 : The Economic Times
(Bangalore)
Jobs, Not Syndicate, for Bengal's
Future
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Sabyasachi Dutta is not apologetic
about his links to the `syndicate.' Speaking to media, he said this
organisation pays for the livelihood of thousands of young men, which
accumulates to hundreds of thousands of households across Bengal. It sounds
Robin Hood-ish, but signals deep economic, political and moral decay in a state
that was the most advanced around Independence and is now among the poorest.
The syndicate that Dutta refers to -and every resident of Bengal is familiar with
-is a terrifying mutant of something 34 years of Left monopoly left behind.
After five years of TMC rule, this `syndicate' dominates every aspect of
economic activity . Its members, invariably unemployed and unemployable youth,
act as enforcers, agents and subcontractors in real estate, transport networks,
mining of coal or riverbed sand and trade.
Annual
syndicate revenues from just real estate projects on the eastern fringes of
Kolkata, called New Town, are an estimated Rs 450 crore. Across the state and
other activities, the number will easily be many multiples more. The
transactions are in cash, so they do nothing to repair Bengal's awful fiscal
situation. Instead, they finance the political machinery of the ruling TMC in
the state. This must change. Here is what the new government must do. Dismantle
the syndicates and the extralegal powers that now govern the state. Strengthen
the rule of law.
Appointments
and transfers cannot be on political patronage, but on merit. Party loyalists
cannot have the upper hand over systems of the state. Free educational
institutions from state control. Finally , bring investment and jobs back to
the state: without this, there is no hope for the future. Patronage and
underdevelopment will lead only to syndicates.
mu·tant
Resulting from or showing the effect of mutation.
dis·man·tle
Take (a machine or structure) to pieces.
No comments:
Post a Comment