11 posts tagged “india”
For those who don't know, Mr Vinod Mehta is the editor of "Outlook", probably the best current affairs magazine in India.
Mr Mehta, you're an ex-Mumbaikar in Delhi and I have always believed that you combine Mumbai pragmatism with Delhi political insights very well. I have always known you leaned slightly to the left, which is fine for I believe it is possible to be objective while having specific political views. But you have sorely disappointed me with your articles post May 16. I specifically refer to two articles:
1) "No Hate Politics" on May 25.
When I saw this, I was hoping for your usually solid analysis of the losers. I was willing to ignore the title, which obviously alluded to only one of the two big losers. The BJP's tally went down from 150+ to 110+ - a roughly 25% decline. It's ally, JD(U), improved its tally. A big disappointment to them, but by no means a washout. The Left parties went from 60+ to barely 30 - a 50%+ decline.
You said "Verdict 2009 is an unambiguous, comprehensive and titanic rejection by the country of extremist politics—of the BJP and the CPI(M)". Very true. But why does teh rest of the article only assess BJP while there is not as much as a word on the left - who saw a bigger decline by any standards? You said "Let me flag a few howlers". No howlers you can recall from messers Karat and Yechuri? Where is the balance? Where is the objectivity? This almost sounds like what I see on MSNBC & FOX here in the US- completely and unabashedly biased reporting. I still can't bring myself to believe this is from you.
2) Your last "Delhi Diary"
Here, you pretty much credit the left with "slowing" India so it avoided the financial meltdown and go on to say (of free market capitalism's trickle down effect) "if it did not trickle down in 20 years, what guarantee is there that it will trickle down in the next decade? Remember, the poor vote with their feet!
It is almost laughable to imagine that India would have been a US style free market with a convertible rupee, privatised everything and no social spending if the left had not supported the UPA. Sure we would have had a few more reforms, a few more privatisations etc. but nothing that would have inextricably entangled us in the mess. SBI would not have been a Citigroup kind of case, no matter what. It is inexcusable that the UPA messed up even the most sensible NDA programmes like the golden quadrilateral road project. It is too early to pronounce that programmes like NREG;'s are successes - but I do not dispute the short term benefits to some which no doubt helped the UPA.
Now, for trickle down. What trickled down in the previous 45 yeards, Mr Mehta? 15 paise of every 1 rupee that was spent on welfare programmes (the consensus, more or less). Would BSNL have provided a vibrant cellular market that we have? I do not dispute that we shouldn't ape the west. I do not dispute that social spending is a must even when we know there are leakages.
But I digress. This is not meant to be a left v/s right or free market v/s socialism debate. This is about balance. You say you fear you may be labelled with the "S" word (Socialism). I say you should fear being labelled a leftist editor who has given up the Mumbai pragmatism, objectivity and sense of balance. Very disappointing. I am hoping this is not a trend.
Lots of people don't think Slumdog Millionaires' portrayal of India is kosher. I don't know as I still haven't seen it. But here's an Israeli defence contractor who clearly sees serious sales potential and differentiation scope in a bollywood theme. Though I have to say he's completely blown the execution. His ad looks straight out of the 70's or 80's - not a big help when you're trying to hawk some cutting edge hardware.
But here it is - sit back and enjoy
In case you don't want to register on NY Times, here's another link
http://www.stratpost.com/rafaels-innovative-video-marketing-for-india
Slumdog made it to LA, but this ain't making it anywhere close to Cannes - that's for sure.
It's MBA placement season in India. It is not easy to be graduating - even from a top rung school - this year. Lack of jobs and a feeling that oversmart MBAs are at the root cause of the current problems is stacking up. But fears may also be overblown. I think the top tier institutes (i.e. IIMs and 3-4 others) will see all their students placed albeit in less fancy jobs. As someone who has passed out about 9 years back, this is what I would say to you if you are passing out now
- Show humility. If you do a google search "arrogant MBA Harvard", you will get back a ton of articles that show the current perception. If you show that you are willing to get your hands dirty, learn the nuts and bolts (often from non MBAs at the firm) and reserve judgement until you have all the facts, you should be OK. Also, desist from throwing jargon!
- Be flexible. For instance, Infrastructure companies may have more interesting (though less paying) jobs. They will not frequently send you abroad in business class, but 2-3 years there will teach you more about how things works. That is good grounding for a job in, say in fratsructure finance a few years down the road. Or, who knows, you might just like it there.
- Be realistic. Revisit your projections of where you thought you would be post-MBA. The world has well and truly changed. Also, an MBA pays off in the long run. Even if the placements turn out to be rocky, it is not the end of the world and doing an MBA was not a wrong decision. The peer group that you get is truly worth the time and investment.
All the best!
Two interesting posts:
One on urban development from Basab Pradhan (formerly with Infosys, now with Gridstone) and another from Gurcharan Das (formerly of Procter and Gamble) .
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/opinion/02das.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=china%20and%20india&st=cse
http://6ampacific.com/2009/01/04/singapore-and-indian-cities/
"PPP" is a term that is making headlines in India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, the PPP has people's attention is the Pakistan People's Party. In India, technocrats, administrators, politicians, news anchors and others (while also paying attention to the first PPP) are trying to grapple with the second one - public-private partnerships. India's PPP debates are around the suitability and effectiveness of the private sector and the not-for-profit sector to complement or even replace the government's role in infrastructure, health, education and so on. In Pakistan, the PPP has formed a coalition government. India has had several coalition governments and the current one is reviewing various aspects of PPP (There are a set of articles and interviews in Outlook on this topic).
I had promised to upload more metre gauge videos but I can't find them! But to compensate, here's a very interesting video - a pretty slick one shot by a German tourist / reporter. Some of the commentary is in German but it's not hard to get the drift. Most of the rest of it is in "Inglish" and there's a little bit of proper Queen's English in the end. So, in a sense, this video happily brings together my previous posts on Indian Rail and Indian English! Without further ado, here's the link.
More depressing news on the graceful feline: there are only 1411 of them left in India. This is supposedly the result of a more scientific census and certainly sounds more believable than the tiger inflation that has characterized official statistics. But what are the next steps? Several states that have tiger reserves with sharp declines in tiger population are in denial. I was particularly surprised by the rubbishing of the statistics by Naveen Patnaik of Orissa who, I was hoping, would be among those spurred to constructive action. Now, clearly the ugly side of globalization and democracy is working against the tiger. First the globalization part : to quote from tigersincrisis.com
"Due to increased demand, tiger bone prices have skyrocketed in South Korea, Taiwan and many other countries. The price is estimated to be between $140-$370 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) in U.S. dollars depending on the size of the bones. In Taiwan, a bowl of tiger penis soup (to boost virility) goes for $320, and a pair of eyes (to fight epilepsy and malaria) for $170. Powdered tiger humerus bone (for treating ulcers rheumatism and typhoid) brings up to $1,450 lb. in Seoul".
Clearly there are more people who can afford these sums for benefits real or imagined.
Then there is the democracy part. Tigers dont have votes while villagers living around them do. While, in some cases, the villagers have been protective of the tiger (Bishnois in Rajasthan), more often the daily grind of subsistence creates conflict. The prime minister was supposed to be personally involved in tiger preservation after the shock and disbelief he expressed after the Sariska debacle (when teh tiger population there was determined to be zero).
It seems to me that we have to harness globalization and democracy to reverse this. Perhaps, make conditional cash transfers to villagers living in the vicinity if tiger counts are stable or increase? Even better, compensate them heavily to move out, perhaps? Improve the conditions of forest guards and give them incentives tied to tiger counts? I haven't thought through these but I think drastic steps are required. Try something that hasn't been tried and try it fast. Just talking about better enforcement and even providing a few extra patrol jeeps isn't going to do.
While the term 'Bangalored' is in contemporary vocabulary - referring to the phenomenon of software jobs moving to Bangalore, India - the city of Bangalore itself is struggling to cope with the inevitable pressure on its infrastructure. While the advent of IT was celebrated as a welcome, labour intensive, non polluting employment generator in the 90's, it is now being seen as the root of all ills plaguing the city. Baffling as it may seem at first, the transition in perception has definite underlying reasons. The left leaning Outlook magazine did a good job in raising this issue though not quite treating it with sufficient balance.
http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071217&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=1
The IT industry is suddenly perceived to be a self-serving monster that will brook no interference in its quest for ever greater profits and IT professionals are perceived as overpaid, arrogant, snooty brats by many sections of the host society. Worse, both are perceived as parasites on the host. Needless to say, much of this is based on incomplete and often incorrect information and lack of understanding.
IT as an industry is not understood the way manufacturing or banking or medicine is. The city, state and country have showered subsidies, tax sops, grants etc. to a host of industries over several decades. These industries, at best, had modest success (and, in many cases, outright failure), employed modest numbers of people, built modest campuses and paid modestly. This, in spite of several other forms of protectionism, captive markets, negligible attrition (where will you jump to?) etc. In other words, they never really stood out. Many institutions were built and run at tax payers expense with little or no pressure to show returns on it. Some have done reasonably well with flashes of brilliance. Many others wallow in mediocrity burning taxpayer money. But they are ‘under the radar’.
Most employees were locals – well integrated in the host society – and did not have the means or the options to consume conspicuously (limited housing loans, no vehicle loans, and even if they could afford - two models of cars to choose from!). Few people monetized the perks that went with many of the old economy jobs – the subsidized housing in residential colonies, subsidized medical care (sometimes stretching into retirement), sometimes subsidized education, subsidized food and transport and so on. They were taken for granted and were not cash – and hence ‘below the radar’ again.
Whatever pressure they generated in the real estate market or on general infrastructure was incremental spread over time and mostly within the buffer capacity of the city to absorb. The city incrementally improved infrastructure and the buffer was again restored. The negligence and incompetence of city planners never got exposed. IMO – Bangalore anyway has less buffer capacity than other metros due to various structural reasons I do not fully understand at this point – and thus less margin for error or delay in infrastructure development.
And, last bit not the least, there were no 24 hour TV channels, a few staid magazines and newspapers and few incisive journalists.
Needless to say, the expansion of the IT industry has been more non linear and less incremental. Many IT employees are ‘outsiders’, most are young, fairly well paid and conspicuous consumers. I say ‘fairly’ well paid because there are far too many misconceptions about IT pay. Yes – a few people made it really big. But most others are doing well but not outrageously so. An economic and cultural gap opened up. The numbers employed by IT are far more and growing at a very healthy clip. Their contribution in engendering economic activity, providing employment of all sorts, generating revenue (indirectly via income taxes if not directly via corporate taxes) and putting the city on the global map was far greater. But that got drowned in the very visible ‘problems’ in infrastructure – mostly because of city administration not increasing the buffer capacity of the city in a timely fashion. When the IT industry asked the city to step up, it was perceived as arm-twisting and riding ‘free’ on taxpayers money.
I am really interested in knowing how this gap can be bridged - which, I believe, is necessary for the long term sustenance of the city and industry.
A Nat Geo documentary series on the tiger prompted me to put pen to paper (or mouse to blog or whatever is the apt adaption of that phrase) on a topic that is close to my heart. I have visited various tiger reserves in India - Corbett (twice), Dudhwa, Ranthambore, Nagarhole, Bandipur, Thekkady/Periyar, Bhadra - without sighting a single tiger. Admittedly, I went in broad daylight with other noisy tourists rather than waiting by a water hole on a machan at dawn. But if the tiger populations are anywhere near what Project Tiger - the part of the Indian bureaucracy that is entrusted with the monumental task of protecting the tiger - claims it is, I should have been rewarded with at least one sighting. On its website (http://projecttiger.nic.in/index.asp), one is supposed to believe that all is well and tigers are not just surviving but thriving. The situation on the ground is, alas, very different. There are three basic issues
- Lack of reliable statistics/census:. It is in nobody's interest to show a declining trend or even marginal drops in tiger populations. So there is inflation - numbers that the mandarins want to hear are produced and sceptics are silenced or ignored. And we're not talking of minor or even moderate differences - the gap has widened to a point where official numbers are almost meaningless. For instance, the official number of tigers in Dudhwa is 90 or so. I had the good fortune to meet Billy Arjan Singh (http://www.wildlifeofindia.com/billymain.htm) and he put his esttimate at 25-30. The recent debacle at Sariska - where the realistic estimate is now 0 - is another case in point. You can't control what you cannot measure. Also, if a tiger reserve has an unsustainably low population - such as below 10 - the future is doomed anyway as the gene pool is unlikely to be as robust.
- The human-tiger conflict: The villages around (and, in some cases, inside) tiger reserves are valuable "vote-banks". The tigers themselves are obviously not. The difficulty in reconciling this it is well articulated in this article - http://indiatogether.com/2007/nov/env-tiger.htm. This makes me wonder if democracy and the tiger are compatible. Arguably the best period for the tiger was under prime minister Indira Gandhi - also, arguably, among the most authoritarian and least democratic leaders India has had. Much of the current Project Tiger came up under her reign. Billy Arjan Singh - who has been very active in various tiger conservation activities - concurred that she was the biggest tiger backer he has seen or met. In stark contrast, the current well-meaning prime minister - Manmohan Singh (forced to be completely driven by compulsions of a wobbly coalition) - seems to have achieved precious little in spite of promising to take personal interest after the Sariska debacle.
- Crime and accidents: Poaching is alive and well to cater to the 'traditions' of the Orient - what with parts of the tiger prized for various things real and imagined. Tiger skins are routinely found in raids on areas bordering troubled Nepal (which is close to tiger reserves such as Dudhwa and Corbett) and further east. Then there are accidents - Railway lines run through at least a couple of tiger reserves (Again, poor Dudhwa among them). Much as I love trains (and the MG line through Dudhwa is special for its nostalgia value), this is one adversary the tiger can do without.
A sustained effort based on reliable numbers and strong, consensus-driven political will might still protect the tiger. But the tide is unlikely to turn anytime soon. It's only when the numbers drop to alarming levels will tiger protection come back to the top of the agenda. And that might be too late. Ironically, some well managed tourism might help more than it can hurt. We need vocal, influential folks (mainstream intellectuals, writers, journos, bloggers - not just the Nat Geo types) visiting these reserves, talking about it and keeping the issue alive. From a tourism perspective, Karnataka's reserves are probably ahead of the rest - what with Jungle Lodges and Resorts doing a sterling job (http://www.junglelodges.com/) at eco-tourism. Trying to visit many others (like Dudhwa), sadly, can be a nightmare with primitve logistical support systems - for transport, stay, information and so on. So what's your take on the tiger situation in 2020?
