Indian Education a flawed or a business centered System?

The present statements of Mr. Kapil Sibal, the union HRD minister regarding the present education system prevalent in India aroused a sense of happiness in me and also pushed me into the immediate past, a few months back into my memory lane…
It was a sunny Friday in Norcoss, Atlanta, I was chatting with my friends who were online from India. All of a sudden I realized that I need to visit Bank of America (BOA) for transfer of my funds back to India. So I started out my walk to BOA, it was past noon; as earlier I had been there, I knew it would be a long walk of over two miles. The thought of it marked my walk with brisk and swiftness, after walking for a distance I saw a school, The Norcoss High School. It had a nice looking building with good open space around it and a huge parking lot. The school sported a deserted look, may be the class sessions were going on. Thinking not much about it I went on to reach the BOA, unfortunately my work didn’t happen. Started my strenuous walk back to the room, while I reached the school again this time it was the parking lot first. I saw two high school girls walking towards their car they got into it and drove away, their mannerisms made me to compare them with the rich kids in the top notch schools of India. Though my swiftness had reduced, I continued walking while I was observing and comparing the same with back home at India.

Then I saw another girl in her jogging costume running around the school, few other students playing basket ball. Looking at the school kids playing and enjoying the most precious life, I forgot about my unfortunate times for a second. A few more strides got me at the crossroads of the school and as the school traffic was more I pressed the walk button; was waiting for the walk signal to be flashed. The cars where zooming past me and most of the drivers where barely into their teens, few among the huge looking cars honed loud music with the school kids in it enjoying to the most. When I turned my face to the other side of the road I saw plenty, again huge looking trucks lined up; well no a second look at it made me realize that they are school buses, looking like a hybrid between truck and bus. The liveliness of that atmosphere and the way the school children’s are being treated and nurtured, that wonderful moment buried my other worries.

But soon when I started to compare the situations back home with this, the happiness soon faded leaving me depressed. Yes, we find the similar situations here in India too but in very few high society schools where only the rich and power of the society can set their foot into. The Norcoss high school is any other school in US to my comprehension. It’s time that we realize that we have failed to provide if not the same environment at least a similar situations for children in India. Here I stress upon situations and not the infrastructure, we might lack the infrastructure due to lack of funds, but still we can provide a lively environment to the students where in they can live the life and not run for it.

Over the years we have followed marks or result centric system, where only grades are valued skipping the other valuable assets of a student. There might be lot of reasons for this; I try to figure out few of them:

Ease of Management:
We have not been able to try out more rational methods of evaluation, or even if we did we dared not to change our conventional methods of testing a student i.e, through marks. By flashing the marks/grades on one’s score card, make things easier in differentiating between the students. Here, we have to note that this system makes things easy but it’s not a full proof righteous system. It’s our failure in inventing more appropriate means of evaluation or it’s our failure in implementing better ways. We need to remember that we have failed in this and we the failures are gauging a student’s performance with draconian medieval systems in place.

This, marks system also helps the business to churn out millions sorry billions from the innocent parents in the name of education. Creating a slab system and fixing up the fees based on these slab’s in turn based on the marks. Unfortunately if a student has not been able to secure a rank or marks there lies a business opportunity for these chain institutions.


Conventional Outlook towards performance:
In India right from our childhood we are taught to compete with the rest and competition always is seen only by the means of marks sheet. Due to this over pressure the child will start losing out his basic talent in other fields and concentrate more on gaining marks, as if he is some marks printing machine. We nurture the children based on job/market situations. Once we had a great IT boom going on, everyone was forced to take up this field even without knowing the basic nuances of it. And the result is we produce a huge number of IT professionals who know nothing other than following the directions from the boss and put in the lines of code based on his boss thinking.

The real programmers are a rare commodity who visualize, who think, who solve, who execute and who create the meaningful applications out of his own ideas. We are proud of number of IT professionals that we have been producing over the decades, but why do we still not able to make a google, an ebay, an amazon, a yahoo, a skype many to it but none from India? Why? We have huge and huge base of software personnel but almost every one doesn’t really put his thinking cap and create; most of them work for the service sector dancing to the tunes of the foreign client and desi manager. Lately we are seeing a good number of start up’s trying out new ideas and taking risks, but our IT giants the great Indian IT companies each with tremendous employee strength and huge capital reserves doesn’t really encourage new ideas or new creativity. They are very much happy generating business through maintenance and support activities and caring little about their employees and innovation.

Our culture teaches us to obey the elders and not to say or act against them. And we keep carrying this all our lives, in classrooms we say nothing when we don’t understand, we say nothing when we don’t agree, we say nothing when we have better theories, yes we say nothing in front of elders let alone opposing it. The same thing is carried forward to the work areas; we are the most loyal employees an employer can have in this world. For us Boss is always right and we take pride in doing, YES BOSS! Here the bosses too forget that this kind of employee though might be perfect for the momentous work but in long run, they are doing more harm than good to the organization.

Talking about our conventional outlook towards the life, we think that only the highly educated with high marks are successful in life; I want to add an example here. If Bill Gate’s were to be in India, I guess he would have remained a school dropout without creating the huge Microsoft Empire. I might be wrong too, but the amount of pressure that we put on the children and our over care to secure their future in a highly paying job makes us to pressurize them. And if a brilliant student like Bill Gates drops out from ‘A’ grade school in India, his family would be the first one to start pestering him and his ideas then it would be the society eventually the challenge that he poses in his work will look miniscule when compared to these outwardly pressures.

Huge Population:
The present reforms suggested by Mr. Kapil Sibal have created uproar in certain sections of education community. They are more concerned about the glitches in implementing the reforms going by the fact of our huge population. According to them it’s not easy in execution. Excuse me but who has asked you to trade in an easy path? You are not being paid to follow an easy route in your comfort zone!

Education a mere Business:
I have no second thoughts in saying that Education in India is nothing but a business opportunity for many. Both education and health sector enjoy the status of being humane and very few think of compromising in these. This is where the real exploitation has begun in our country, realizing the importance of these fields in our life’s the businesses in these fields, running operations on the names of chain and corporate are squeezing the money from the innocents.

Right from the schooling to engineering to management no profession is untouchable to these businesses. If I have to talk about schools, the corporate and international schools are way out of reach of a common man. Here the school managements apply all kinds of business tactics which can be taught in B-Schools as case studies. To cite something the schools restrict the parents to buy the books from only one vendor and will not accept if then get it from elsewhere, in turn that vendor pays commission to the school management. 

Talking about books make me remember the most important thing which I cannot ignore. The students are made to carry books for all periods on that day and each day will have a minimum of 6 periods. And each period will again have a text, a classwork, a homework and non-detail if it’s a language. On any day the student is made to carry not less than 20 books!! During my schooling I tried to reduce this count by different permutations and combinations only to end up irking the teacher. Whenever I see a student carrying a huge bag on their back, I feel miserable. What a sorry state they are into! Is it not our failure in finding better ways of mentoring?

Next is the most unfortunate period of Indian student or should I be saying a south Indian student? The Intermediate!! Thinking of which scares the hell out of me… Everywhere, you will start hearing about EAMCET, BITS, IIT – if you come into this flavor you must have faced the hardships in school itself, our businessman are even running schools which teach IIT foundation from class 1, huh what a pity!!!

EAMCET a less dreaded term for me has created such a business for the institutes over the years that they can even compete with the likes of Mittal and Mallaya!! The government conducts this exam which tests more of a student’s memory power or their speed of calculation putting aside the main important aspects that’s need to be tested for a future engineer like his analytical power, his reasoning power, his innovativeness; though we find these sections in almost all of the competitive exams less the EAMCET but there they still test the speed and accuracy more. The reason why they have this test is that the board which conducts the basic intermediate believes that its exam system has got flaws. Instead of correcting that exam they came up with another test, the great EAMCET which has marked its own ill efficiencies.

Every year before the exam a debates start up whether to conduct EAMCET or not, but as long as the corporate institutes are making money by luring the students into the EAMCET trap this exam is going to continue with full support from the govt. The news channels makes business with those debates, the person flashing on the screen with the debates makes name and creates his brand, the institutes makes money from coaching, the govt. / The politician’s makes money from the institutes, the lecturers makes money by troubling the students; everyone associated with it directly or indirectly makes money. But the poor student ends up screwing his valuable 2 yrs of student life restricting himself to the books and ends up getting a seat in an engineering college which he would have got anyways without EAMCET as well and with much less pain. His pain is their gain!!

Now it’s time to study in an engineering college, after wasting two years over some bulky books and also wasting the parent’s hard earned money. The business doesn’t end there; they accompany you in every field that you get into. Once I happen to pass through the Ameerpet lane in Hyderabad, I was so amused with the sight of it the whole lane leaving no gap in all the commercial complexes are filled up with coaching institutes posters. I could see my entire syllabus book (computer science) on the walls of the buildings and also the banners tied over the road. If I had collected all the pamphlets that were being thrown at me, I am sure I could have given my note book a miss for few days. Everywhere I could only see the computer languages, packages, platforms and what not; man they teach a lot!!

Enough of technology let’s move on to Management education. CAT, XAT, SAT, MAT, ATMA, ICET, PGCET – these are the few tests that I remember as of now but the list is a lot more. Every state, every institute, every university comes up with their own exam. And the basic background that they test for remains the same in every exam. Then why do they have all these? When they can follow one centralized test? Why? Answer again is simple; hit the people where they cannot return your blow. Each exam generates huge revenues to the parent institute or the body which conducts it. Most of the institutes seek the applications even before the results are out, so that the student in confusion ends up applying to every institute at the end he ends up joining only one or not even that.

We are at slight disadvantage when compared to the English speaking nations:
If you have imagined that I want to highlight the point that as we are not English speakers we are at disadvantage globally then you are wrong. Infact we are much better speakers of English than the others as our accent and diction is much clearer than theirs. It is very unfortunate to see few of our Indians faking their accents to sound like a foreign national, mostly seen in US. The point I want to highlight here is that from schooling we have to learn more than two languages like if our native language is Telugu, we will have to learn Telugu, again learn the Indian official language Hindi (it is not our national language as most of us think, Hindi is our official language and not national) then we have to learn the universal English language. Whole of our schooling we spend half of our time on these languages, leaving with only half of the time for the other important sciences. Over and upon this in intermediate we are made to take Sanskrit or French as we get higher marks in them. Sanskrit is no doubt a beautiful language and we will love to learn it but the purpose being solved is miniscule.

My Suggestions for better Education system in place:
We should stop glorifying the tried and tested paths. Stop glorifying the IIT’s, IIM’s and other premier institutes, they are also like any other institute with some better facilities and better process. But they cannot make you onto something which you are not, if you don’t have the real talent and a strong intent to achieve even an IIT or IIM cannot help you out. Believe me once you are done with your education and out into the real world, the students of great institutes and not so great institutes all end in similar companies may be with different pay packages. And from there it’s the performance that’s matters and not the institute background. Even a student from just an ordinary college will have a complete chance to prove his mettle and prove that he can do better than an IITian or IIM graduate. There is a need to also increase the present institutes or upgrade the prevalent ones into better institutes, till then the institutes will not stop their exploitation in the name of management quota. It is startling to know that people are more than willing to shell out 40, 50 lacs even up to a crore for a medical seat!!!

We also should stop glorifying few of the professions over the others. No profession is better over the other. It only matters how good you are in that profession and how you perform and you can only perform when you are really interested in it. To take an example from past few years we have glorified the IT profession a lot over the others, only to realize that it is the most vulnerable and now the sheen that it had of high pay packages and fast growth is quickly fading. What about the scores and scores of IT professionals now? They are left at the crossroads with closed routes!! When you stop glorifying certain fields the child will not be influenced by your thoughts and will choose his own path out of his own interest.

The advantages it will have:

- It will be less stressful as the child will not be under pressure to enter a path against his interest.

- He will enjoy both while learning, while implementing his ideas and also while working.

- India will have experts and the best people in every field and not just engineering, IT, medicine.

- As the people will choose various paths, the competition for certain sectors will reduce like for engineering or management making the present exams a misfit.

- The businesses will be left with no other option than withdrawing from the Educational field.

Coming to the exam pattern and the system, my mantra is straight and simple; TEST THEM NOT!!!
When, the situation becomes imperative to conduct the test, so as to allot few available seats. Even then the gradual evaluations that was done can be utilized, when it is felt it doesn’t help then there should be only one exam throughout India which is rational and proper with thorough research put into before conducting the exam. This way we will be reducing the trauma that a student goes through to attempt each and every exam that keeps evolving every day.

Talking about our examination based system; none of us can have a doubt over the supremacy of civil services in India over the other exams. The IAS, IPS and others are believed to be the brilliant sections of the society as they have cleared the toughest exams. But the recent survey by an independent agency has placed our bureaucrats at 8th position among the other asian countries and point here is they have taken in the data from only 8 nations and placed India at the last. If our believed to be best persons are rated the last in asia itself it’s a guess for any, where they will be standing over the globe. If the land of billion is not been able to produce the best, then certainly the fault lies with the selection system and for such top posts of India the system should have a process in place to gauge the candidates sincerity and honesty towards the nation along with other process to test the intelligence etc.

Stop testing a student based merely on an exam on a day. Start observing and analyzing as he evolves, as he studies, as he behaves, as he performs throughout the year of study. This system will give a comprehensive understanding about a student in not just the studies but also about his all round personality.

And this system should not be again based on marks/grades. It has to be a conclusive study which identifies his strengths and weaknesses, which identifies his talents and passions. Bases on this study the child needs to be encouraged in whatever he is interested in or whatever he does the best. This way the child grows up with immense satisfaction, grows up in confidence and lives his life to the fullest and not run for it. This will also helps him in making a sound decision about his future career and he will never be in confusion while taking up his path, unlike us the present generation!!

This way a nation of billion will also have diverse profiles, diverse professionals, diverse interests and millions to represent the country in various fields and domains. The day this happens INDIA will be second to none. But for this to happen we need an honest, truthful govt. which will work towards it; with sincere interest. This can change the people’s outlook towards the performance and success. I earnestly hope that I see this happening. The govt. needs to work on this with sincere efforts and think about the reforms in education but I guess they would do so only when the children get a right to vote!!!
Lastly only thing I want to say is
THEY ARE YOUR FUTURE,
TEST THEM NOT!!!

Masters in US coupled along with few of my tangible thoughts

(If you have less time, I request you to read the end part at least which is really important, what I feel)

Thinking about your masters in US or in any other nation? Then this might be quite a handy to read!!!

Here I will talk about few things which we often tend to forget or rather even fail to recognize before we reach US; it will be more relevant to US but can be generalized to other countries too.

Well If I have to talk about my experiences, mine was very unique or did I make it unique? I think I made it unique. Among my classmates in CBIT, I was the first to take GRE, during those days I was very sure that though I will get a campus placement I will leave that for MS in US. But with time and all the factors weighed in well I gave up the idea of MS and got settled with my Job in Infosys. After the strenuous training and having survived the training battle at Infosys, I was able to get the real taste of what a corporate will be like; to put in simple words it will be like you being trained in Hindi to talk in English and work in something which any school kid would be able to do. I was never satisfied with the work I was given in that project. It forced me to look for other alternatives and thought of going for MBA another conventional route. The only point I can pride with it was that, I was again first among all my friends and batch mates to think of MBA in US and also went on to write GMAT. After that with thorough planning I also got admissions from three US universities and VISA too without any help from any consultancy. Few of my friends too joined me in this and they too gave their GMAT later on. But after landing in US and looking at the scenarios there I was taken aback and then started re-analyzing few factors which I never did even think of when I was in India which are quite relevant things which most of us try to evade. Having felt it is better to return back to India and I gave no second thought to it though many of my well wishers advised not to, but I stood with my decision and I did come back in a month, the educational visit turned into a tourist visit! It did have an effect on my friends who earlier were eager to get into MBA just dropped their plans- a good decision if I were to be asked!!!

Concluding my humdrum talk about my experiences, now I would like to discuss the more important and relevant points which needed to be considered or weighed before you take a decision on your further studies at US:

- Know yourself:

Identify yourself and your interests first before merely following the tide. Why you exactly need a master’s degree? Are you really interested in the subjects, you are opting for? And if you want to do master’s in the same field would the bachelors not be enough? How interested were you during your bachelors in the subject, which you intend to master? If it is just the US dreams that is alluring you? Or you have no other opportunity left out in India?

Understand your reasons and needs before jumping unto the MS. Never be under a false illusion yourself though you may try to evade people around you. This is the time when scores of IT companies in India are increasing the pressure on employees having sensed a chance to do so. It becomes an obvious choice for all the troubled professionals to think of Masters but it’s a wrong notion to take up to studies as you have nothing better to do India or as you are idle. It needs to be understood that affluent no of Indians in US who are done with their masters are no better than you, even they remain idle for months together and this recession is really giving tremors for them. They are as jobless as you are added to it a constant fear of losing their Visa status. If you have opted for masters only because you have no job on hand or lost your job do not forget that the situation will be the same after your masters you will again be in the market searching for a job of course with an added degree which will help little at the expense of all important work experience. Well yes, there you will be having the consultancies to help you out initially by faking your work experience and then squeezing you out of your salary later. Thanks to recession even hiring by consultancies have become scarce and they now seem to even charge you to file H1. Well yes, few very few actually end up offers directly without a consultancy but that’s a scarcity and now it is almost extinct.

Job is not the only option which you are left with once you are out of college, 60% of Indians are self employed, America’s GDP runs largely due to small enterprises rather than big companies. This needs to be understood we all have our great intellectual thinking and have a profound talent in a field we just need to identify it to make a beginning. And with MS or without MS you will be given same kind of work and will work in the same environment, so it is evident that an added degree will not add to your satisfaction.

- Know your Finances:

The next and the most important is how you support/finance your masters?

Most of the Indians will be of the opinion that they can find sustenance within university or outside university. But you need to identify the adversities coupled with them; American universities are not that dumb to pay your tuition fee without you adding any value to them, well they do under certain scenarios which needed to be analyzed.

You might have heard your friends having their education while a professor pays for him/her, wow what a nice guy he must be!! But sorry this world is not very nice at least it is not nice with most of them. There is variety of aids that you can get from US universities, like

- Fee weaver that comes on i20, the rarest of the all; it can vary from a part of fee to even cent percent. It is given based on the academics and score in GRE/GMAT, TOEFL. A best form of aid you can hope for after which you need not worry much about what you have to pay for this fee concession. But yes the universities and US on whole have gained and will keep gaining a lot from these bright intellectuals, so they never mind in paying your fee that is why most of the times you need to promise them that you are interested in the research. The recession has turned the tables down and now this kind of aid has been confined to a lot of extent.

- RA/TA, the research assistant or teaching assistant. In this category you might be given a fee concession, hourly (20hrs a week – generally 10$/hr) stipend or both. But for this you need to assist the professor in his research or in his tutoring. And your future always depends on the kind of professor you land up with. Most of them were able to land up with RA/TA earlier in many universities baring a few, but now even this has become scarce.

- On Campus job, the other opportunity which can be, a s varied as lab assistant, librarian, hostel in charge and even serving in the university cafeteria. This again is a hourly (20hrs/week) paid job mostly again 10$/hr. Even this has become very scarce now in most of the universities.

- Of Campus jobs, an illegal way of finding a living in US which many even now trade into. These include jobs in Motels, Gas Stations, in malls etc (most of the times owned by Indian or Pakistani owner). Here the pay will vary largely as it is illegal and thus depends on mutual understanding but may not exceed 10$/hr. Few of them will go onto work for more than 40hrs/week by skipping classes and studies and diluting the main aim for which they are in US. It is so puzzled to know now that even these jobs have become so scarce that few of my friends have transferred from their universities only to land in an Of Campus job in some other city!!!

Here, it needs to be out rightly discussed that neither the On Campus nor the Of Campus can help you pay your fee in entirety; only a part of it can be paid, with what remains off after the monthly budget. You have other ways too here, like trying for internship in between, opting for CPT for a semester and landing into a job. But jobs/internships now are scare and no less than an endangered species, again due to recession. Sorry, I have to use this term again and again as I just can’t think of its synonyms.

Indians largely depend on the loans back home, hoping that they can repay it with just few months’ salary once they land in a job. But they need to calculate this very cleverly, as you may not be in a position to repay the loan along with the regular semester fee. So, you can think of repaying the Indian Bank loan only once you land in your job, which might easily take a minimum of 2 yrs or might be even a lot more than that with the present situations taken into consideration. So, a minimum of 3 yrs of compound interest added to what you have taken earlier. Even if we consider that the loan was just confined to first semester fee, it would generally be around 5 – 7 lac for a decent university; but after this you should have paid your fee all with the money you have earned in US. So, I consider a best case scenario that you might have done so, still a basic loan of 7 lac added to it will be an interest of around 3 lac. A complete 10 lacs loan will be lying to be cleared (considering the general situations). But, again you might have taken money from the loan for further semesters as well or from the credit card. Then, you might have to face a situation where you have to clear your credit card debt + Indian bank loan. Thus, even if you land in a job just after your graduation it might take two long years to clear these; that mean’s five long years you will take to start earning, even when I consider the best case scenarios!!!

Yes, in between if you were able to get fee concession or an internship then the situation will well be different but these situations are the very rare and do not take it for granted that you are so fortunate. Five years for settlement is a long big sacrifice and you also would have lost five years of work experience which is clearly invaluable.

- Know the Masters life in US:

The most exciting part to talk about, well everyone will be excited when they see their seniors or friends pictures take in US, when they see them speeding away in their own cars in the videos, but little do they understand the real MS life!!!

You have to be millions of miles away from your home land and more importantly your family, in a small room shared by many friends. The room might look awesome to see in pictures and videos but really needs a lot of adjustment and have to get used to it. You, have to manage your food needs at same time complete the strenuous assignments and manage the monthly budget. Well you might say that’s what teaches you life and make you stronger, sorry then what about the scores of Indians living in Indian itself they haven’t they learnt the hardships? Or is it that they never face them? You have to decide!!!

Though you might have fantasized about having your own car after seeing your friend’s pictures on orkut /facebook, the fact remains is that the MS students usually set their hands on used cars which comes in just a throw away price. If you have fantasized about huge roads and classy infrastructure then fact remains that most of the life you will spend in your tent like room. If you have fantasized about spending a gala time with friends yes you do and most of them make very good friends but again fact is that everyone will be so busy with their own life that you will be glued to your laptop all day and nights too!!!

- Know the life after Masters:

So, finally you are done with masters! Next what? And these days almost every MS student think of this question and they are so bewildered when they face this!!!

Well the option what the previous batches has set is to join a consultancy, when I talk about most of them, then they go through a 2-3 month training usually imparted by the Indian consultancies. Then market their faked resume with the companies and join in as a contract employee. Very few fortunate also get into the job directly without a consultancy. And few who were really interested in the subject or for the aid reasons continue with their phd’s. But these are things of past…

Now, many who have completed with their masters, of whom I know are just clue less. As, the Indian consultancies which earlier used to take in with open hands have shut the doors and taking in the students after lot of apprehensions. Still they do not prefer to file H1 this year at least, and they will file only when you pay for it. Thus, students are continuing their OPT status; it has its own advantages when it comes to Tax. But, then you are cut out from one of the two valuable chances of filing H1. With H1 or with OPT getting a job is all the more important, which is very hard to get now!!!

Few of my friends who have not yet completed their graduation have plans to extend their courses by taking in few irrelevant courses etc as they have a supporting aid, hoping that when they come out into market, this recession would be a past. But, I feel what they fail to recognize is even if this recession ends now which is unlikely to happen. Job’s will still be hard to get for at least a year. They also are not realizing of losing precious and the most productive years of their life!!!


What every Indian needs to understand?

It is my earnest plea to every Indian to read from here even if you haven’t read the earlier part. My aim of writing on this topic is also more and largely to make every Indian realize the following….

America has pioneered its university system by this I do not want to emphasize on its leadership in education. But the strategy it has been following over the decades, America has built fully ultra modern world class infrastructure over the years with its revenue and may not be completely its but that’s not presently the focus of our discussion.

Every Indian joins a US university pays double the fee than what an American pays called as Out of State fee if I am not wrong. That means every Indian when he pays for his education in the university he also sponsors for an American. May not be literally, but that money reaches the university or to the government who in turn transfers that to their nationals. It is so amazing to even think that we who think twice thrice and may not even agree to sponsor the education of a person very close to us are actually sponsoring the education of a foreign national!!!

If that was not enough the prominent Indians like the politicians the top notch businessmen mainly are in the advisory boards of many US universities and its equally surprising to find their children studying in those universities considered the best in the world which is really tough to get, in a competitive manner; then how are these guys able to get into it? If it’s the case with one or two then it might have been really because of their caliber but almost every prominent Indian has their children studying in best of the business schools and other best universities. Here it needs to understand that these politicians and businessmen transfer scores of revenue in form of funds to the universities in return of few seats for their closed ones.

We need to realize the bad we are doing to our nation intentionally or unintentionally, if only we chose to study in Indian universities the colleges and universities of India will take no time in developing the infrastructure with that huge amounts. But when it comes to India we think of government subsidy, we need subsidized education. I know few of them who even having come from decent families used to apply for BC, SC, ST scholarships during B.E in Hyderabad. That means without even paying a penny they have graduated from Indian college at the same time the govt. has paid them in return and what a shame now they are in US paying huge amounts of fee, sponsoring Americans education too. We all have enjoyed our subsidized living in India and we crib about the graduate education in India which costs just a few thousands due to govt. funds. And every time there is an increase in the fee by a fraction there’s a huge hue and cry but the same persons are able to pay lac’s for US universities.

This notion needs to change and it has to change for our own and for our future generations good, we are being forced to leave our home; for which we cite the infrastructure and facilities as a reason. Then the onus lies with us to at least see that the coming generations do not cite this as a reason. Of course the equations of the world are changing thanks to recession again. And thanks the huge consumer base that India has the companies will have to reach out to India for their own survival and the development will shift it gears from western countries to India and other developing and largely populated nations but importantly India because of its young population. No Obama, no bailout packages can stop this.


GOOD for India is going to happen.
But let’s not wait till it happen, let’s make it happen!!!

Points to be pondered before casting your VOTE

I was desirous of penning down few points which might help us in choosing a right candidate for our constituency and just not that it might as well be helpful in enriching the righteous political party with number of seats. Hence, I do it now; but, yes I know I am late still it’s never too late.


I cite this with the trend in AP politics as I am from Andhra Pradesh. But, this will be quite similar in many other states too. In AP we have different and many political parties in the foray now, added to the existing strong parties. And everyone seems to make an impact during election 09. Thus, for our better future and better living we need to be extra careful in voting. The political parties constantly keep on strategizing and evolving based on different happenings in and around our Nation, so that they can get into the nerve of public and influence them towards their party. I feel the educated and thinking class of India needs to have their own strategy if not at the levels of the parties’ at least should have a plan before they enter the polling booth.

AP for years have a strong foot hold of Congress and TDP, both the parties have equal cadre and strength in almost every part of the state and power shifted gear’s only between these two till now. But this time around we have new entrants which seem to pose a good challenge to these two parties yet still it’s being predicted that the power will remain between these two only. But, the post poll alliances can turn the tables around even beyond any ones expectation. Few of the analysts expect to have a hung assembly for first time ever in AP, if that happens any one could jump into the steering wheel.


We have the likes of PRP, Loksatta and few others in the battle this time. Though Loksatta and others are believed not to make much of an impact but, I honestly hope it thus play an important role in the post poll scenario. It is already being alleged that the parties have sold their tickets for few crores, PRP topping this list and now the onus lies with us to put the business minded people out from politics. And it is all together a different situation with Loksatta, though even it has been alleged of diluting their tickets with money but it is really hard to believe. Having JP (retired IAS officer) an honest and talented person as its founder and steer runner it becomes imperative to believe that his party might have not done such a heinous act.


But, even Loksatta has its own limitations, like it has got no other efficient and popular public persona attached with it whom can be believed to deliver when entrusted with the responsibility. So, it is again a responsibility of us to understand this and be clever while voting. I had to discuss this as there is a popular belief among the educated class that their job ends by just voting for Loksatta but their job is much more than that. To know what it is keep reading the points!!!!


- Analyze the Prominent Parties:


Analyze each of the parties in the battle on their track record, what are they promising now is it relevant or just a political gimmick? Who are its strong men? Thus it has enough intellectuals to rule the State or Nation? What does the party visualize or rather it has any aim for the state? Or it just relies on the populist offerings? Does it encourage dynasty rule? More importantly its candidates, whether they have any proven record or are they active in the public welfare activities or at least who can be believed to be an honest individual?

If these questions have a clear answer and made you think about any party which stands for all these then you have nothing else to think about. But in today’s scenario it’s rare to find all these in a single party.


- Analyze the Situation:


Analyze the situation that is presently in your state, like you might believe that a party is really honest in its will, but it might not really stand a chance of winning may be because of not well know candidates like the case with Loksatta. Here, you need to be even more clever as you, the educated class and few others might cast their vote to it but that’s never will be enough for them to flung into power they also need a strong backing from the other sections of the society too which might well not happen.

More importantly if this honest party has not fielded a strong or efficient candidate who is not well known in your constituency then here you have to think about the next best political party which might not be as good as the former but a lot better than the rest. Though you may not like to cast your vote to your second choice but you have to, to keep the rest worst parties out from your constituency and largely from the state.

This way the parties will be forced, at least in future elections to field better and right candidates. Even the party which you believe to be honest will learn a lesson and will urge for better known candidates coupled with honest intentions and icing on the cake if he/she has a track record of public service.


- Analyze the Candidate:


This the foremost and the most important point, but largely no one really think about the candidate in their constituency before voting. It is always the parties that rule their mind and not the candidate of the constituency. I believe if every voter think twice and analyze their constituency candidate well then it will not take long in improving the standards of India Politics. If only all the voters cast their vote based on the person and not the party, in no time the present situation will turn upside down and the parties will be vying for the righteous candidates and might even start offering them with perks. I sincerely hope this happens and for this to happen the change has to begin from us and we need to mark this change.


FORGET ABOUT THE PARTY IN DECIDING YOUR VOTE. VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE AND NOT FOR THE PARTY!!!!

And not to forget analyze very well about the probable candidates of your constituency before your decision. Your decision is important in marking this change!!!!

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I also had the intention of penning down my analyzes of the parties and the present situation in the State and the Nation and also about my predictions with all the little knowledge that I have gained by watching NEWS, TALK SHOWS etc due to maybe I was interested or maybe I had nothing better to do.

But, now I feel I shouldn’t influence my thinking and my predictions upon even a single person. As I believe it’s not right and not good to influence the minds of the voters by our predictions or surveys which we see happening now and then on TV and paper, it may not influence everyone but it certainly has the power to do that on some. And most of the times it’s the honest parties that get ill effected by these predictions and surveys. Again, on other hand I feel that as an individual and as a citizen I have every right in propagating what I think will be right for the State/Nation or in a way promoting a candidate/party. Once I come out of this debate that’s going on my mind I will come up with my next writing, till then ponder and analyze over the Party, the Situation and most importantly the Candidate!!!

My view on Caste, Reservations their history and its effects on India and AP exclusively!!!

This particular post was actually composed by me as a reply to a mail from someone to the group BM (Bharat Uday Mission)

I appreciate you for all the time that you have spent to elaborate on situations faced by the women; I also appreciate for expressing your anguish on the reservation system. I am sorry that you have lost an opportunity of medical seat due to the reservation system!!!

But at the same time taking this opportunity I would like to raise a few points….
With what you have stated about Eamcet, I guess you are from Andhra Pradesh. Even I am from the same state so I have a little bit of idea about the issues and facts of A.P.

Getting into the details, it’s is no secret that in A.P. there are just two main communities which have tasted all the prominence and privileges. Yes, there are other very few communities which can be considered of having as importance as these two communities. But largely only these two are able to enjoy the resources of A.P.. Right from the Politicians (the C.M.’s and even the Speakers of A.P. till now were only from these two, barring a one or two C.M.’s. Even the 2 major parties, is divided among these communities only). Coming to Real Estate, Contractors and other privileged classes will again be largely from these two. Going into the land records ...,.. HUGE and HUGE chunk of land in A.P. is still under the possession of these two alone.

What I always wonder is ‘How the communities which accounts for a lot less than 10 % of population in A.P. are able to access the majority of Land and other resources? How the important and efficient people in A.P. come from only these two? What about the rest 90 %?’ I tried finding the reason for it, not sure if it is right. Though the Castes were well prevalent from ancient days and its origin and being Indian is still debated at large, it was during the British Rule was when these communities were given prominence. Englishmen were more inclined and favored a few sections of society and they made the other sections of society be deprived of even the basic needs and made these sections to serve them and their officials. This ideology benefited the English in many ways and also it was successful in creating the disparity among the Indians. According to certain British laws (such as the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871), many castes and tribes were described as habitually criminal and adult male members of such groups forced to report weekly to the local police. The caste-based classification was also used for other purposes such as legislation controlling LAND TRANSFERS, the grant of proprietary rights, the regulation of rents, recruitment to the armed forces etc. British policies of divide and rule as well as enumeration of the population into rigid categories during the 10 year census contributed towards the hardening of caste identities. The word 'caste' is derived from the Portuguese, 'Casta' during the Portuguese occupation and rule of sections of India (For some Gyan Quotient :) ).

I feel because of this caste system India has lost many intellectuals who could have contributed in lot better way to the Nation. Because of the caste system a person born in a particular community was forced to work according to his caste. And never was his interest, talent, intellect taken into account or even considered. There might be many who could have made lot of inventions / discoveries or other major things but they were just confined to the work related to their community, a big LOSS!!!

I have gone deep into the History only to support the point, how some sections were deprived, left unfortunate and snatched from the basic rights and the LAND to a large extent only to gratify the other sections. The fruits of which is what the present offspring of the privileged classes are having. The lost opportunities of large section of society became opulent opportunities for the rest few sections. So, there has to be an equal ground at least in the present civilized society. But, for that what is being used, ‘The Reservations’ is not the right remedy. Reservations in India are in existence from much before the Independence, from Government of India Act 1935, which went into force in 1937. But till now they have not been able to get the expected results. If it’s not been successful for all these 70 yrs, it will not be successful for coming 100 yrs too.

So, why is all the hue and cry about ‘RESERVATIONS’? Why is the age old concept still in vogue? Are all the modern intellectuals not capable of finding better efficient means of upbringing the socially deprived classes other than this failure, Reservation? Why Politicians still lure the innocent people with reservations? Surprisingly why the deprived classes are lot happy and feel very fortunate to have a reservation?

The answer for these questions is ‘BASIC LACK OF AWARNESS’. That is what has become a blessing in disguise for the Political Parties and also point to be noted, the so called representatives of the deprived class too. Both the political parties and these representatives exploit on this factor as they do by initiating few little policies as if they are showering their money on people. They are luring the innocent common man by showering the interest, but the deprived class should actually raise their voice for the Principal and not the interest.

The solution I see here is basic land possession, the huge possessions by few fortunate classes needs to be brought to justice. A proper survey has to be done completely the means and origins of how the owner got the land. Unless he had got through very legal means and through his own earnings the land should be sealed away. All the acquired land should be distributed among the land less. These kinds of initiatives were well done long ago too, but not in a proper and mass means. If this is done properly I am sure it can solve half the social inequality issue. And through proper surveys, the economically deprived sections need to be identified. And based on their economic position, through slab system they have to be given a monthly pension. If a family has been thrown into a severe condition because of their economic position, the solution also lies economically and not politically by throwing away some course/job/assembly seats at them!

From 2008, OBC Creamy Layer was introduced which is a good concept. But again why it was constrained to just OBC? Why not SC and ST came under it? If we go by the definition of Creamy Layer I don’t see any reason why it should not be extended to SC and ST and at least I hope it is extended to General Category as well (A reservation to all based on Economic factor and not Caste). I see a reason for this disparity by Govt. As, never was the BC’s seen as a potential voters to any party, they are never seen as a united section like the SC or ST’s. BC’s are a divided lot and rarely are they united for their cause they mostly take it lying down. Though BC’s account for more than 50% of the population no political party fears of BC’s strength as they do of other section’s strength. Because of the simple reason they are not united.

Talking about the land and equality, here I want to raise another point. We have a Govt. department to look over the Temples and its properties in AP. I again, wonder why other religious institutions don’t come under that department? Why does the Hindu Temple lands being encroached (even the posh locality of Hyderabad the Banjara and Jubliee Hills where all the high level prominent live is an encroached land of a small temple, which is still there) by some and few of them even sold by the Govt.? whereas the properties of other religious institutions are never dared and be touched? Why the Hindu temples are under the Govt. surveillance and other religious institutions under their religious heads? Why does the Govt. pay the pilgrimage money for one religious section and why doesn’t it pay to the other? What kind of religious equality and secularism do these political parties talk about?

By these few measures, I feel it will not take long enough to see everyone on same platform. Everyone will have equal access to their land. But in this present society who cares about everyone?

The Recession

It has been a long time that I put my thoughts into writing or rather typing. So why not I get my thoughts into something which remains a most talked, most discussed, most written topic recently and it’s ‘The Recession’. Though many haven’t yet been affected by it, at least not every country has experienced it but it still remains the biggest challenge to all.

Before I put something on this word document, before I even think to think about the Recession and the Global Slowdown I would like to confess that I might have little or no knowledge on the economics or the even the remote part of economics, as basically I am from a technology background and after my schooling I haven’t read anything worthwhile on it. But, in recent times I have gone through various articles and that is what making me write the present one with whatever little understanding I have. I might be right I might be wrong and if I am wrong I will certainly be happy if I be corrected.

So let’s begin…………. I have come across few of them including some of my good friends trying to tell me eagerly that India is in recession and I should also take that into account before I decide on anything that I want to do. But, being an Indian I want to make clear of this point that India is not in recession and most likely it will not fall into the clutches of this Recession. India is just experiencing a growth slowdown which I guess is around 6 or 7 now due to the global slowdown effect. Yes, India is not insulated from this trend and it will have an effect and it is having an effect but only on the exports that India does with the other countries largely to US and Europe. And that accounts to just 20% of the overall GDP and most of it is the software exports. So, are the Indian software giant’s baring the grunt due to the bad hit on their exports to the US and Europe as they largely depend on the foreign markets forgetting their own.

The definition of Recession says ‘Having a negative growth for two consecutive quarters’. Happy that India has not touched the negative growth. Going on with what went really wrong and what had made most of us to experience this slowdown? Yes, it began with the subprime crisis in the US. What is subprime crisis? Based on what I have read; US banks classify the loanees into Prime and Subprime. Prime are the people whom the bank is confident of repaying their loans and about the subprime they really doubt of their repaying credibility. What really make me wonder is why they have to loan the amounts to the people who they are not sure of repaying? If I have to lend my money to someone definitely I won’t put my money on someone whom I don’t trust. The strategy should be same with the huge lending’s that the banks undertake, but I am not sure as it gets really complicated on the bigger picture and the businesses that are carried out might vary completely when put up in comparison to the individual dealings.

Though the recession started with the subprime crises, but the subprime crises had just fueled in the recession. The recession would have come in US with or without the subprime crisis in fact it was begging to happen. The fact that there had been no major new inventions and better goods being developed in the US in recent past had swung the technological advantage towards the other countries like the China. Now the major goods that is being used by everyone has some connection to China, and it is exporting a lot to other countries even to the US, earlier US used to do this. Now the question arises what makes China goods so appeasing? The cost factor comes an instant answer and off course also technologically better and feasible. It is also being said that China manipulates its currency value and undervalues its Yuan such as to make it exports look cheaper, now the US is cribbing about it. But I guess as the US owes a lot of money equaling to 1 trillion USD to China it doesn’t really act much on it.

US now have a debt of 2 trillion USD to the rest of the world. And each of the Americans has a debt of 140 percent than their disposable incomes. It is happening and it is happening because US is not been able to catch with the technological advancement that is going on elsewhere. And I feel it is tough for US to come out of the recession only based on the stimulus plans and economic reforms, what it badly needs is the capability of producing better and more economically feasible goods. US, spends high enough funds on research and development it doesn’t lack there, it has to find out the real reasons that is holding it back on the research front. US basically works on a credit basis and most of the nations had invested heavily there, so anything happens in US will have an effect in those nations as well that is what we are seeing now. Even China’s growth has slowed down drastically to some 9 if I am not wrong because of bad hit it had it on its exports.

During my talks with my friends on this particular topic, I was repeatedly asked, ‘If India is not facing recession then why the INR had lost its value when pegged up with the USD?’ Yes, that seems right if US is facing the recession and India is not, If India is not yet facing the drastic slowdown then why is that trend not reflecting in the currency exchange? Well it happens so because the currency value is estimated based on the supply demand chain. And all the nations which have agreed for an open market which even India had agreed to from the 1990’s and I guess China is not yet into that group as it values its own currency. So coming to Demand supply, at the present situation when US is in recession it badly needs its USD to invest in its own markets or for hugely talked bail outs, the stimulus plans, talking on general terms to invest in US. So naturally it is pulling up the USD from the foreign markets which creates a demand for USD. There arises this situation creating a more demand for USD and less supply and as the demand raises for USD even its value raises when pegged with the INR. A currency value is not a pure indication of the economy of a nation, like the Euro or GBP are valued higher than USD. But fact remains that for now US is the biggest economy.

Here, I have a free advice for the patient readers of my long post. For all the NRI’s residing in the recession hit countries it would be a good idea to transfer your funds to India before the recession ends. Because, as the recession comes to an end the USD or other currency valued in comparison to INR won’t be as high as it is now, it might as well come down considerably if I am not wrong. I sincerely hope this happens. At least that would be able to put a break on the brain drain. I feel brain drain is bigger draw back to a country then it is actually talked about or is thought about.

For instance, from India every year many of its brightest lads leave the country having their own reasons to cite at. May it be the better exposure, better education, better lifestyle, better enjoyment, individuality, better infrastructure. Yes, all these reasons seems’ good enough for them to dream about others land and work on others land. And for that they do whatever possible, they get their funding from India be it on their own, their parents hard earned money, or the Indian banks and they finally invest it in the US universities, It remains a fact that US universities depend a lot on the International student funds because of the high fee they pay. I always wonder if all of them choose to study in India that money will actually help a lot in improving the infrastructure of schools in India.

Off course few of them end up getting the funding from the schools in US, but that number remains really low when compared to the bigger number joining for the courses. And others make up their mind that they can earn by working on campus or off campus etc. anyway I prefer talking on this elsewhere than here. Coming to the research work that is carried out by these immigrants it again adds value to the foreign country only which they can eventually make good money from, by making better goods etc. and every good idea or every good research that churns out from the Indian brains in other countries is a lost opportunity of India. Sadly it had happened in lot many cases in the past and it will go on till we feel and realize of what we have lost and what we will be losing. For me, brain drain is no less than the corruption and at times even bigger than this, in affecting India badly and its chances globally.

Now, coming to the poster boys of every family of major cities in India i.e, the Software brigade in India. The Indian software giant’s they used to leap upon every major college campuses and also provide offer letters to as many as they could, Yes, it is really great to have a job offer even before you complete the course but………………... Let me put a break here; I guess my discussion was on Recession and just the talk about India made me to get drifted. Not surprising enough, it happens quite normally with me. Anyway I again prefer talking on this some other time.

Coming back to Recession, it did had it effects and the one’s it had hit it did it hard. The lost job’s, the lost home’s…. well the good thing for them is it can’t get worse than this, it can only get better from here so naturally good days ahead, so pin up your hopes high. These times also gives us an advantage where in we can work to improve our profile which we usually neglect being busy with our daily work life. We have a chance of switching our field; we have a chance of working on our ideas for which we never had time earlier, again due to the daily work load.

And for the ones who have some good ideas and entrepreneurship is what excites you. I feel there is no better time than a slowdown or recession to start working on the idea. Yes, getting a business might be really tough. But it is expected to be tough for any starter be it in recession or not. And good things are that you can get the employees or working men on a lesser pay than in a normal condition, the banks will be providing loans on lower interest rates, land is cheaper to acquire and the government will ease out it policies to encourage more investments. Thus, we have the labor, the capitol, the land all on a better deal during recession. And as I remember what I read in my school economics these are the three prime things needed for any business enterprise. So, though a recession has it bad effects it also has the good effects coupled along with it.

PS:

Whatever I have talked about here, it might be right it might be wrong. You might agree with it, you might not agree with it; but I hope you certainly won’t be ignoring it.

To correct me if I am wrong on something please do contact me on harishkumarba@gmail.com .

My views and perceptions on Chiru Party (Praja Rajyam)...

This is my very personal opinion and perception, which can be wrong and if it is not correct I apologize for it before hand.

The new parties coming into the political arena have to be encouraged, it increases the competition and competition always gets good service along with it. It’s great that we got an alternative over the rest two main parties.

But going into the inner depths and details, there was nothing new nothing different being offered by the Praja Rajyam. I could just find one interesting point in the whole of the speech, the concept relating to Economic Backward Class but again even this is not new it’s been put forth by Jayaprakash Narayan and other political analysts numerous times. If we think over yesterday’s meeting and gathering it very nearly resembled the first day openings of any Chiru movie(30 injured, 3 seriously injured). We find that if the producer and the unit are apprehensive about the performance of the movie they will try to cash in with first day/ week’s collection by creating huge hype for it. Even this was very similar now the performance has to be watched. Here we got a very bad culture of creating the hype that some hero movie has to run for min 100 day’s even though the movie is worst in every sense, this is done at the expense of the loss for the producer and the distributors. Hope it doesn’t continue here again, coz here the expenses will be levied on the public. Praja Rajyam for sure will be able to win few seats and the business minded people in and around Chiranjeevi for sure will try to make a profit on all the money spent by them from those seats.

About the name Praja Rajyam means ruled by the public themselves it’s a synonym for the democracy and am sure we now follow democracy only, or is it something new they are going to add to it?? Atleast I was not able to find something new or better way of democracy they are planning for in yesterday’s meeting. Have to be watched for.

The Flag, even it had nothing new or different to offer. The idea for the flag is directly copied from our National Flag, it’s good that it has not been copied from other countries flag. The 24 rays in the flag is the Ashok chakra in our flag with same meaning. The saffron, white and green colors are repeated, just it’s been reorganized and the meaning of those colors is also the same here, Praja Rajyam seriously needs a good designer. Hope the ideas and its implementation atleast won’t be copied from other parties.

The money that is being spent all this while may be few crore’s sorry not few many J and the plans of buying an helicopter which is going to cost a fortune. These finances part really needs to be explained how they are able to get such huge amounts? coz again it will for sure be earned from the public money.

Everyone talks about Chiru being emotional kind etc but there is something more he’s also very diplomatic. It is evident in scenes with Rajashekar, where he goes and says sorry to him in front of the media its great needs to be appreciated but when rajashekar tries to talk to media after that he cuts him short then and there and leaves from the place even without listening what he was saying to media. Also in the issue with Mohan babu. Every time whenever he’s in front of media he’s at his diplomatic best. I am afraid that Diplomacy only helps in personal gains but not to the society.

Whenever there is some need and something needs to be acted upon he gives a message to his fans to look into it, Don’t know how much really he gets into it. Even very recently he has called upon his fans to help the people affected by heavy rains, I am not sure how much he himself got into helping them. Hope he doesn’t do the same here after getting into the power.

If Chiru has got no motive of getting into the power and his sole intention was to serve people and change the society, I feel that he should have better joined hands with Jayaprakash Narayan. As it would be more advantageous to the society. JP being very knowledgeable person about politics, he has good command on every issue and has done a great study in everything. He’s a very good person with very good intentions which no one can disagree with.

It’s evident from the Loksatta party website where, all his ideas are explained in detail. The organization structure, the implementation of the ideas everything is explained in detail. Which every other party needs to learn from, even the new party has to. I was surprised to see the Financial Accounts when I visited it earlier before by-elections in detail posted on Loksatta party website which really needs courage to, not every can do this. But now am unable to search for it may be they are updating or I was not able to search this time. Being transparent gets in accountability and that is very important for the betterment of any organization.

If the accounts and financial details of the new party are made transparent than it would be great and be believed that the governance under them will also be transparent. On the whole I see it as just another Political Party with a great person with huge following leading it. But it needs to work on these issues as well. Hope it does.

PS : I am against none, I am diehard fan of none