'G' for Growth

Post Liberalization, India has witnessed exponential growth services and manufacturing sector ( whoop ! License Raj bye-bye) and blessed monsoons are pushing up the GDP, the BSE sensex is unleashed ( on a certain day it even defeated the grandfather of all indices: the DJIA ), broadband internet is becoming a rage and express high ways are becoming a need. The society is witnessing a plateauing phenonmenon as well. The movie industry has started to look beyond 'boy meets girl,villain enters, fight out and they lived happily ever after stories', the household have started to shop at groceries, the student has began to pay for his education and the parent has started to understand International Baccalaureate.

In the last 2 years, the pace has been franatic and at times scary. At times, it gives one a feeling of a bloated balloon that is being flown precariously apprehensions are not baseless. As every sector is trying to post better results and government trying to accelerate reforms with privatized and law amendments, we are faced with issues like instability of markets,unethical business practices and socio-economic resistance towards reforms. The Sardar Sarovar Project's tortoise pace, the Global Trust Bank debacle, the caste based vote bank politics giving birth to unjust quota propositions and wide spread contempt of individualism buttress our fears.

The solution is for all citizens to adopt a liberal and tolerant stand towards reforms and for the government to provide sufficiently for the risk inherent in the reforms and other issues that ramify out of it. As citizens we could help by abiding by the laws,actively participating in forming the legislations ( the government has recently invited opinions on proposed tax reforms), choosing the right and competent people to the parliament and shedding age old beliefs in caste, socialism( Communism is equal economic injustice). The government on its part should be more transparent and encourage regulators ( TRAI, RBI, SEBI) and judiciary to clean up business practices thereby forstering citizen's faith in growth and justice. Another 10 year project the government can undertake is to decrease GDP dependency on monsoon by accelerating and justly executing irrigation projects of small and medium size. ( Narmada is by all means a mammoth and bound to walk slow on a slippery ground ).

As we race through the boom, we'd also take the necessary precaution and ensure safety.

Life in a bee-hive.

I have just moved into my new office premises. The place is ultra modern with plush interiors and a lounge like coffee area and soft music at certain hours of the day. The space utilization is amazing. What interested me most is the design of the bay. They are of the shape of a trimmed and pasted hexagons.

At 7.30 am this infrastructure just reminds me of a natural home. The bee- hive. The symbolism is not intended, its obvious.

At the entrance of the hall (hive) is Mr Manager. The King bee. His job; oversee and inspect. When he is not playing meeting meeting', he please himself with phone calls and seeing money mangers to help him with this overflowing bank account. Pose around with golf clubs and electronic gadgets. Mang-ese ( Managerial English) is their favorite language. The leader bees look at him and dream , Mera number kab aayega ....??

For a group of 5 cells there is one leader bee each. The leader bees; each of them have his/her designated function. And what is that ? Phone calls, Excel sheets and Motivation. They are not to be blamed. After years of hitting keyboards and churning out LoC, ( lines of code) they are better now and can enjoy longer coffee breaks, relaxed work times and Ah ! sitting on the other side of a appraisal table. Mailology is their favorite science worker bees, and a handsome of them, pester the leaders for little troubles, crowding around him, flattering him

The last category of bee is the worker. Poor soul indeed ! At the bottom of the pyramid, its surely hard to slog and look to the peak, it pains in the neck. A typical day starts at 9.00 am ( some workers like me start when others are still asleep), after checking all mails, reading all personal mails ( may be twice), reading all leading newspapers and the morning coffee, workers finally realize that there are supposed to hit the right keys on the keyboard and let the poor mouse rest.(It is tired of being dragged and revolved all around the place and all over the www). Some code, tickets, issues fill up the time between the morning and lunch and then its time to gossip and smoke. WWW helps him awake in the 2 hours that dawn after lunch. By this time the leader is on this head and workers hit the board hard. Finally after the mail-hour', another fag break and one more coffee, engines rattle and the workers are out of it all.

Indeed this is the phenomenon that the world calls the 'Indian Software industry', cheap and superior honey cultured in the best equipped and managed hives. As I finish this post and look out of my monitor I see black heads in hexagonal cells. This place is truly a 'e-bee-hive'.

Diversity or Discrimination?

Since a while we are hearing and tracking this uproar about reservations in India. I realized the seriousness when I took to my doctors clinic , a small practice place in a very secluded corner of Mumbai and met a humble note saying " The clinic will be closed today in protest against the proposed reservations"

India has had reservations since a long time now. It hasn't helped as much as it should have. My personal opinion is that, it has just made higher education for a certain proportion of the population extremely easy, there by ignoring their merit and denying meritorious students an equal opportunity. Women's reservation, Reservation for SC/ST and OBC's are in place and with in acceptable limits. The present bill is to increase the reservation for OBC's to around 50%. There are also hints to bring in reservations for these castes in the private sector. Civil services already have a certain number of jobs reserved.

Reservations have been considered necessary all these years , however they have not proved themselves sufficient. There are ethnic tribes that need uplifting and representation in educational institutes and professions. Reservations at various levels for help them and their future generations to mature and keep pace with the growing economy. However, these reservations also inculcate a laziness in the students belonging to reserved castes and demotivate them to be more meritorious. This harms the spirit of the deserving students and punish them for belonging to a certain higher caste. Additionally, the proportion of seats that is reserved is itself subject to doubt. Various reports released by Government commissions point out that the actual number of seats reserved is not proportional to the population belonging to the caste or category.

Having said that, I do not oppose reservations entirely. Reservations if arranged based on reliable statistical data from census and if numbers are revised every 5 or 10 years will help towards creating diversity. An alternative is to create appropriate full scholarships for the economically challenged population irrespective of their caste, c, creed and religion provisions will encourage the youth who is capable yet suffers from insufficient funds. While the government set a minimum number, it should allow institutes and deemed universities to create additional reservations and scholarships which will allow them to create their necessary diversity and culture.

Reservations in the private sector, if enforced by means of law could deteriorate the quality of services and efficiency of enterprises would be a severe blow to the FDI India is attracting on it merit of being an efficient and competitive. Investors and Corporates are proponents of capability and talent, it will hurt their performance hard, if they are obliged to hire less talented people just to fulfill legal requirements.

All these days I assumed that the government would budge under pressure from the handful of students from Delhi, AIIMS and Delhi university when students from all walks and professional even in little corners have taken to the streets, the government seems to be least heeding.

It amazes me that even in lieu of such services breakdown of services, the government is unwilling to offer adequate explanation for the bill. The only words we hear are those from our honourable HRD minister , "It is the decision of the parliament.". The Lok Sabha has close to 500 members and hardly is anyone willing to come out and explain the bill, its rationale and consequences as they see it. A mature address from the Union government would go a long way in pacifying the agitated students and professionals and help them see the government's outlook if at all it is fair Police too have failed at handling the protest. Beating up students and abusing them is unfair. The youth and the professionals are educated citizens and they deserve to be treated with respect atleast when they are standing up for a fair and progressive thought. The press and media are have also been pressurized to publish and broadcast only certain happenings. Any independent report or feasibility study is being suppressed or discouraged.

By proposing to create caste based reservations, failing to justify them, failing to instruct the peace keepers to act appropriately and handle public opinion and denying press and media the freedom to distribute fair information, the government is drawing a poor picture is the largest democracy, however it is not the best, the fairest and most respectable democracy.