India’s GDP is growing at close to 9% and is expected to reach 10%.
India overtook Japan this year in the number of billionaires, with 36 billionaires worth a total $191 billion while Japan's 24 billionaires were worth $64 billion. This is good news!!
But please also note that majority of our population lives at less than Rs. 20 per day, mostly in rural India. Benefits of growth and prosperity are not reaching rural India.
Majority of our rural population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, however share of agriculture in India’s GDP has declined from 59% in 1950-51 to 20% in 2005-2006. Agriculture can no longer provide sustainable livelihood for our rural population.
We need to provide non-agricultural jobs in rural areas.
Local skills based self employment in cottage industries should be encouraged through PPP using Microfinance. With high economic growth and proliferation of service industries (Telecom, Retail, Finance, Security and other support services), our cities are starved of trained man-power in skilled and semi-skilled categories, while our rural youth is unemployed and frustrated. We need to fill this demad-supply gap.
Vocational training to educated and semi-educated rural youth in collaboration with industry with reasonable assurance of job opportunity will bridge this gap.
We have embarked upon one such initiative in Rajasthan under Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood using PPP involving local industries. This initiative has shown a good promise and needs to be replicated.
Institutional Micro credit to marginal farmers in rural areas needs urgent attention.
Farmer suicides have been linked to repeated failure of crops coupled with burden of high interest loan from local lenders. Micro finance schemes have shown great promise and need to be encouraged.
Agricultural productivity should be improved and more land should be brought under cultivation by implementing sustainable irrigation projects urgently.
Farmer must get fair price for his produce through Input Cost based Procurement Price (ICPP) in place of current MSP.
Easy credit facilities and crop insurance schemes should be effectively administered.
Honest & efficient implementation of various rural welfare & employment generation schemes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), National Rural Employment Generation Program (NREGP). 74th amendment should be implemented in its true spirit.
Please read and give your comments..Rural India is in need of urgent attention..
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
I have a DREAM – The India of My DREAMS - Primary Education
I was very young, 11 years. My parents were shifting from one small town to another small town in UP and I had to change my school, mid-session. I spent summer vacation at my paternal village, in Sitapur district and went to local village school till my admission in town school got finalized. It was around 15 months, when I got to see the REAL VILLAGE school. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Our Pundit ji and Munshi ji (we had 2 teachers) used to come from nearby villages and were usually late by 1-2 hrs as they used to finish their morning agriculture/cattle chores before they started for the school. Old cycles used to be the culprits at times. Nearest puncture fixing shop was 1.5 Kms away. Many-a-times, one of us would go to the shop to get the puncture fixed and we really enjoyed this task as it gave us the day off from the school. We scheduled to reach school just before closing time, which was usually decided based on the shadows or someone going to our house and check our old clock, we did not have many in our village.
We hardly had 3-4 hrs of study during which we (one of the students) was made to read a chapter from the book, some math sums and finally national anthem before we left for our homes. We wrote on TAKHTIs (black wooden writing pads) which were made to shine with soot (from Dibiya – Kerosin lamp) mixed with oil rubbed on TAKHTI with DAWAAT (bottle) which had KHADIYA (chalk solution).
Well, it may sound like a nostalgic story from early 20th century, but this was 1975. I am not that old J.
Recently I visited my village and there was a lot of change. We had brick school building, paper note books, pens, pencils and kids looked happy as in good old days. Master jis (still only 2, though sanctioned strength is 4) were coming on motorcycles and had mobile phones. I was also told that there is a concept of mid-day meal but is not a regular affair. No one knew much about it and was not keen to talk about ‘Prdhan ji’ for fear of some future problems.
However what had not changed was the number of hours spent on teaching kids – just 4-5 hrs. Quality and means of education hadn’t changed a bit. Did someone say PC’s in the class room? No where near that. This bothered me a lot.
How can we think of competing with the best in the world when most of India is still primitive in imparting the basic education. Government takes solace in the enrolment numbers and money spent on mid-may meal schemes, but do we have any measure of qualitative improvement in our primary education.
It is India’s biggest scare of 21st century. We are creating an army of unemployable youth which will see so much wealth around him. Will he sit quiet?
A country of one billion plus, growing at more than 9% does not even have basic educational aids and tools to educate its young. Teachers are unable to teach as they have not even been exposed to modern teaching methods. There are no mid-career training programs nor is there any monitoring. Absenteeism is rampant and most village schools are under-staffed.
Where will we get qualified professionals to run our factories, write our software, run our power plants, treat our patients and build our dams. This is alarming.
Money does not seem to be a problem. My discussions with the government officials and bureaucrats always point towards the deficiencies in the delivery systems and poor governance, not lack of funds.
We need grass root efforts and awareness to sensitize our rural population about the seriousness of the issue and ensure that local village folks with the help of authorities and NGOs try and improve the quality and delivery mechanisms.
I would like to hear the comments and suggestions.
Read on…"I have a Dream" Series..will continue..
Sunday, January 6, 2008
India begins with “I” – i.e. ME….
There is so much wrong but "NO ONE" is doing anything about it..sounds familiar...??
We all hear this on our daily life. Any meeting, party, casual chat or discussion about nation and society starts with the familiar cynical complaints about various issues and problems facing the nation and how come ‘NO-ONE’ is doing anything about it.
This got me thinking – Who are we talking about – this ‘NO ONE’...who is he? The politician, bureaucrat, judge, journalist, common man... you, ME... This article is trying to demystify this ‘NO ONE’ Character...
Many of my friends and colleagues often complain and look frustrated about so many things going wrong while nothing is being done to rectify and no one seems to be bothered. They also mention about the good experience they had when they lived or travelled outside India and how everyone followed the rules and did their bit of social and civic responsibility. Majority of them seem to have good intentions and some are even willing to do their bit but do not know where to begin. They feel so overwhelmed with the problems that they can not think of a starting point.
They think of ‘WHOLE SOLUTION’ and feel helpless without realizing that ‘WHOLE is made of PARTS’.
As we engage in the discussion and when I ask them as to what are they doing to solve these problems, most of them draw a blank. The common refrain is “WHAT CAN ONE MAN DO” or “I AM DOING MY PART BY PAYING MY TAXES”. I agree with both the statements and but they are only partially true.
Yes, it is true that one man can not solve all the problems – say removing corruption from society or educate every child or fix all broken roads, but ONE MAN can still do lots of SMALL THINGS and if each of this ONE MAN does these SMALL THINGS, the SUM-TOTAL will be very LARGE.
To understand as to ‘WHAT THIS ONE MAN CAN DO’, lets begin by asking some simple questions -
How often do we call our local municipality office to inform them about a leaking water pipe wasting precious drinking water?
Do we ask our maids as to if and where do their kids go to school?
Do we stop to take care of an accident victim and take him to the hospital or we just ignore for fear of being questioned by police?
Do we bother to interfere when we see an eve teasing incident or just ignore it for fear of confronting the offending party?
Have we ever advised a car owner whose kids throw empty chips packets on the road from a moving car?
Do we volunteer to clean our neighbourhood park or add to the mess by dumping our own garbage in the corner of the park?
The list can go on and on....
These are just some examples of our social and civic responsibilities which we encounter and mostly ignore in our everyday life?
Can we call ourselves responsible citizens if the answer to the above questions is 'NO'.
All of this and more can be done by this ‘ONE MAN’ –
I will illustrate this with one real life example -
Our local government school has implemented Mid Day Meal, which is mandatory as per central government directive. On a casual visit we noticed that 2 out of 3 teachers were involved in cooking the meals, where as some kids were helping them with cutting of vegetables etc. Further inquiry revealed that the cook who is paid only Rs. 600 by the government has refused to work for such a paltry sum and since it is mandatory to provide mid-day meal, teachers had no option but to cook meal which took more than 30% of their working hours. We called the cook and promised her extra Rs. 1,400 per month. We also hired one cleaning helper to make sure that teachers and students do not waste their time in cooking meals. All this was done from community donations and is working very well for past one year.
Now lets look at this ‘ONE MAN’, who is he??
It is ‘YOU’, it is ‘ME’, it is ‘US’... this is the power of this ‘ONE MAN’ which can change this nation.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want”.
Just imagine, if we all start doing these small acts of our responsibility towards our society, our nation, how nice things will look around us.
I hope this article will get you thinking. I look forward to your comments.
Please visit this space again for more on this ‘ONE MAN’...to be continued...
We all hear this on our daily life. Any meeting, party, casual chat or discussion about nation and society starts with the familiar cynical complaints about various issues and problems facing the nation and how come ‘NO-ONE’ is doing anything about it.
This got me thinking – Who are we talking about – this ‘NO ONE’...who is he? The politician, bureaucrat, judge, journalist, common man... you, ME... This article is trying to demystify this ‘NO ONE’ Character...
Many of my friends and colleagues often complain and look frustrated about so many things going wrong while nothing is being done to rectify and no one seems to be bothered. They also mention about the good experience they had when they lived or travelled outside India and how everyone followed the rules and did their bit of social and civic responsibility. Majority of them seem to have good intentions and some are even willing to do their bit but do not know where to begin. They feel so overwhelmed with the problems that they can not think of a starting point.
They think of ‘WHOLE SOLUTION’ and feel helpless without realizing that ‘WHOLE is made of PARTS’.
As we engage in the discussion and when I ask them as to what are they doing to solve these problems, most of them draw a blank. The common refrain is “WHAT CAN ONE MAN DO” or “I AM DOING MY PART BY PAYING MY TAXES”. I agree with both the statements and but they are only partially true.
Yes, it is true that one man can not solve all the problems – say removing corruption from society or educate every child or fix all broken roads, but ONE MAN can still do lots of SMALL THINGS and if each of this ONE MAN does these SMALL THINGS, the SUM-TOTAL will be very LARGE.
To understand as to ‘WHAT THIS ONE MAN CAN DO’, lets begin by asking some simple questions -
How often do we call our local municipality office to inform them about a leaking water pipe wasting precious drinking water?
Do we ask our maids as to if and where do their kids go to school?
Do we stop to take care of an accident victim and take him to the hospital or we just ignore for fear of being questioned by police?
Do we bother to interfere when we see an eve teasing incident or just ignore it for fear of confronting the offending party?
Have we ever advised a car owner whose kids throw empty chips packets on the road from a moving car?
Do we volunteer to clean our neighbourhood park or add to the mess by dumping our own garbage in the corner of the park?
The list can go on and on....
These are just some examples of our social and civic responsibilities which we encounter and mostly ignore in our everyday life?
Can we call ourselves responsible citizens if the answer to the above questions is 'NO'.
All of this and more can be done by this ‘ONE MAN’ –
I will illustrate this with one real life example -
Our local government school has implemented Mid Day Meal, which is mandatory as per central government directive. On a casual visit we noticed that 2 out of 3 teachers were involved in cooking the meals, where as some kids were helping them with cutting of vegetables etc. Further inquiry revealed that the cook who is paid only Rs. 600 by the government has refused to work for such a paltry sum and since it is mandatory to provide mid-day meal, teachers had no option but to cook meal which took more than 30% of their working hours. We called the cook and promised her extra Rs. 1,400 per month. We also hired one cleaning helper to make sure that teachers and students do not waste their time in cooking meals. All this was done from community donations and is working very well for past one year.
Now lets look at this ‘ONE MAN’, who is he??
It is ‘YOU’, it is ‘ME’, it is ‘US’... this is the power of this ‘ONE MAN’ which can change this nation.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want”.
Just imagine, if we all start doing these small acts of our responsibility towards our society, our nation, how nice things will look around us.
I hope this article will get you thinking. I look forward to your comments.
Please visit this space again for more on this ‘ONE MAN’...to be continued...
NATIONAL PRIORITIES - Inclusive Growth (Urban-Rural Divide), Essential Services (Health & Education for Poor) & Growth (Infrastructure)
NATIONAL PRIORITIES - Inclusive Growth (Urban-Rural Divide), Essential Services (Health & Education for Poor) & Infrastructure
1. Inclusive Growth – Rural-Urban Divide
India’s GDP is growing at close to 9% and is expected to reach 10%. India overtook Japan this year in number of billionaires, with 36 billionaires worth a total $191 billion while Japans 24 billionaires were worth $64 billion. This is good news!! But please also note that 77% of our population (836 million people) lives at less than Rs. 20 per day, mostly in rural India. Benefits of growth and prosperity are not reaching the rural India.
Majority of our rural population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, however share of agriculture in India’s GDP has declined from 59% in 1950-51 to 20% in 2005-2006. Agriculture can no longer provide sustainable livelihood for our rural population.
SOLUTIONS –
We need to provide non-agricultural jobs in rural areas. Local skills based self employment in cottage industries should be encouraged through PPP. With high economic growth and proliferation of service industries (Telecom, Retail, Finance, Security and other support services), our cities are starved of trained man-power in skilled and semi-skilled categories, while our rural youth is unemployed and frustrated. We need to fill this demad-supply gap.
Vocational training to educated and semi-educated rural youth in collaboration with industry with reasonable assurance of job opportunity will bridge this gap. We have embarked upon one such initiative in Rajasthan under Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood using PPP involving local industries. This has shown a good promise.
Institutional Micro credit to marginal farmers in rural areas needs urgent attention. Farmer suicides have been linked to repeated failure of crops coupled with burden of high interest loan from local lenders. Micro finance schemes have shown great promise and need to be encouraged.
Agricultural productivity should be improved and more land should be brought under cultivation by implementing irrigation projects urgently. Farmer must get fair price for his produce through Input Cost based Procurement Price (ICPP) in place of current MSP.
Easy credit facilities and crop insurance schemes should be effectively administered. Honest & efficient implementation of various rural welfare & employment generation schemes. 74th amendment should be implemented in its true spirit.
2. Essential Public Services for the Poor - Education & Health
Educated & Healthy population is a prerequisite to sustain high growth rate of any economy. Given our high economic growth rate, with share of services and industry in our GDP reaching 80%, we have a historic opportunity to provide gainful employment and respectable livelihood to each of our employable adult.
Unfortunately, majority of our population is UNEMPLOYABLE, because they are not suitably educated and lack required skills.
70% of our population is rural, dependent on agriculture. Education will provide them with an alternate means of employment. Sadly education is accorded a low priority in rural India due to the need for helping hands with daily chores of agriculture. Lack of infrastructure and poor quality of teachers has compounded the problem.
Efficient implementation of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan & Mid Day Meal Scheme with effective monitoring using DISE (District Information System for Education) should improve the situation.
Quality and affordable health care for poor should be made a national priority. We spend just 1.2% of our GDP on health care. Our Public Health System is inefficient and has lost its credibility. This is in urgent need of revival and resurrection. Our poor can not afford private healthcare.
Subsidized Universal Health Insurance for poor should be accorded high priority.
3. Infrastructure is Essential for Virtuous Growth Cycle – PPP is the way to go
Rapid economic growth must be an essential part of our national strategy since it is only in a rapidly growing economy that we can expect to raise the incomes of the masses sufficiently to bring about a general improvement in living conditions. With sustained economic growth rate of 8-9% and population growing at 1.5% per year, the real income of the average Indian would double in ten years.
Infrastructure has become a major constrain and is threatening to impede our economic growth. The matter has acquired extreme urgency and calls for a substantial increase in the allocation of public resources for infrastructure sector. However, public resources alone may not be sufficient.
The private sector has a critical role to play in achieving the objective of faster and more inclusive growth. This sector accounts for 70% of the total investment in the economy. Given the huge investment requirement in infrastructure sector, private participation is critical and must be encouraged.
Government should device appropriate policy framework, dispute resolution mechanisms and MCAs (Model Concession Agreements) which would encourage private investment in infrastructure. Success of private participation in Telecom and National Highways should strengthen the case for a mutually beneficial Public Private Partnership Model in infrastructure.
1. Inclusive Growth – Rural-Urban Divide
India’s GDP is growing at close to 9% and is expected to reach 10%. India overtook Japan this year in number of billionaires, with 36 billionaires worth a total $191 billion while Japans 24 billionaires were worth $64 billion. This is good news!! But please also note that 77% of our population (836 million people) lives at less than Rs. 20 per day, mostly in rural India. Benefits of growth and prosperity are not reaching the rural India.
Majority of our rural population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, however share of agriculture in India’s GDP has declined from 59% in 1950-51 to 20% in 2005-2006. Agriculture can no longer provide sustainable livelihood for our rural population.
SOLUTIONS –
We need to provide non-agricultural jobs in rural areas. Local skills based self employment in cottage industries should be encouraged through PPP. With high economic growth and proliferation of service industries (Telecom, Retail, Finance, Security and other support services), our cities are starved of trained man-power in skilled and semi-skilled categories, while our rural youth is unemployed and frustrated. We need to fill this demad-supply gap.
Vocational training to educated and semi-educated rural youth in collaboration with industry with reasonable assurance of job opportunity will bridge this gap. We have embarked upon one such initiative in Rajasthan under Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood using PPP involving local industries. This has shown a good promise.
Institutional Micro credit to marginal farmers in rural areas needs urgent attention. Farmer suicides have been linked to repeated failure of crops coupled with burden of high interest loan from local lenders. Micro finance schemes have shown great promise and need to be encouraged.
Agricultural productivity should be improved and more land should be brought under cultivation by implementing irrigation projects urgently. Farmer must get fair price for his produce through Input Cost based Procurement Price (ICPP) in place of current MSP.
Easy credit facilities and crop insurance schemes should be effectively administered. Honest & efficient implementation of various rural welfare & employment generation schemes. 74th amendment should be implemented in its true spirit.
2. Essential Public Services for the Poor - Education & Health
Educated & Healthy population is a prerequisite to sustain high growth rate of any economy. Given our high economic growth rate, with share of services and industry in our GDP reaching 80%, we have a historic opportunity to provide gainful employment and respectable livelihood to each of our employable adult.
Unfortunately, majority of our population is UNEMPLOYABLE, because they are not suitably educated and lack required skills.
70% of our population is rural, dependent on agriculture. Education will provide them with an alternate means of employment. Sadly education is accorded a low priority in rural India due to the need for helping hands with daily chores of agriculture. Lack of infrastructure and poor quality of teachers has compounded the problem.
Efficient implementation of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan & Mid Day Meal Scheme with effective monitoring using DISE (District Information System for Education) should improve the situation.
Quality and affordable health care for poor should be made a national priority. We spend just 1.2% of our GDP on health care. Our Public Health System is inefficient and has lost its credibility. This is in urgent need of revival and resurrection. Our poor can not afford private healthcare.
Subsidized Universal Health Insurance for poor should be accorded high priority.
3. Infrastructure is Essential for Virtuous Growth Cycle – PPP is the way to go
Rapid economic growth must be an essential part of our national strategy since it is only in a rapidly growing economy that we can expect to raise the incomes of the masses sufficiently to bring about a general improvement in living conditions. With sustained economic growth rate of 8-9% and population growing at 1.5% per year, the real income of the average Indian would double in ten years.
Infrastructure has become a major constrain and is threatening to impede our economic growth. The matter has acquired extreme urgency and calls for a substantial increase in the allocation of public resources for infrastructure sector. However, public resources alone may not be sufficient.
The private sector has a critical role to play in achieving the objective of faster and more inclusive growth. This sector accounts for 70% of the total investment in the economy. Given the huge investment requirement in infrastructure sector, private participation is critical and must be encouraged.
Government should device appropriate policy framework, dispute resolution mechanisms and MCAs (Model Concession Agreements) which would encourage private investment in infrastructure. Success of private participation in Telecom and National Highways should strengthen the case for a mutually beneficial Public Private Partnership Model in infrastructure.
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