Loopholes in CBSE’s NET

n 2014, the University Grants Commission (UGC) handed over the responsibility of conducting the National Eligibility Test (NET), for qualification to the post of Assistant Professor, to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Though this did not seem, on the face of it, much of a change, the harsh reality of this change sunk in on the day of the exam. The exams used to be conducted in universities or colleges earlier. These were places easily accessible, and had canteens and small time eating places around their campuses. With the exam centres shifting to CBSE schools, of which a large number are inaccessible, came their inherent culture that does not take into consideration those without a deep pocket to dip into. Many of these schools are located in the outskirts and fringes of the ever-growing cities. And many such schools exist within townships that are cut off from the rest of the world. For instance, an international school in Coimbatore is bordered off on all sides from the world outside. Probably this is how parents want their children to grow up. With the time given for lunch break, it is impossible for a candidate to reach the gate by foot and have something to eat and return to the hall on time. To add to the misery, there aren’t any eateries around such state of the art educational institutions. The management of the school also ensures that the children who study there don’t catch a glimpse of the common man’s eateries or shacks as that is not what parents want today. While some schools are kind enough to allow a classroom for students to keep their bags in which many carry their food, there are schools that don’t provide such space to leave bags too. Not every student will have a driver outside waiting with the bag in a car or parents who stand in the sun all day outside such gated communities or sit down by the shade of some lonely tree. A particular centre in Kerala had more frisking than in many airports. And it was really amusing to find a young teacher taking a man, almost twice his age to the washroom to attend nature’s call. It is, incidentally a spectacle when elderly persons, sometimes with grey hairs, attempt to clear this eligibility test to teach in colleges. When the man raised his eyebrows, the teacher told him that the rules demanded this. Thank god CBSE does not insist that the exam invigilators are supposed to ensure that the candidate uses the washroom properly. Again take the case of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, a city burgeoning on all sides, and with increasing demand for education from the new elite, many new schools are opening up in the fringes. After CBSE took the responsibility of conducting the NET exams, the centres have shifted towards such schools. For students travelling from unknown places in order to get an opportunity to serve this very nation by becoming college and university teachers, it is really inaccessible.
Another issue is that many such townships might not have local bus services and even if there is, it might be very less frequent. As for people living in such places and going to such big schools, they would definitely be using AC school buses or cars. These are issues any organisation or autonomous body must be concerned about. Like the IITs and IIMs, wouldNET too become inaccessible to the marginalised in this country soon? Change is good and development is needed, as long as it is inclusive. Any change or development that is exclusive would only lead to the increase in disparities. This is similar to the hole in the ozone layer, which if big, will destroy the nation even faster. The educational system in India is already heading towards a disaster with its disparities. A chance to save the nation is a better tomorrow. For a better tomorrow we need to educate the students today. And for that we need good teachers. And the necessary devil to become a teacher is the NET. Many have argued against the very format of this examination for the selection of a very matured and responsible position. But let us now get together and stop the very exam from becoming exclusive and bring this to the notice of the UGC and request them to look into the matter and hence make this exam candidate-friendly and more sensible and sensitive.

Source: DNA, 29-01-2017

Auto driver shares his success story with Class 10 students 

Mahesh Shah asked the students at the event to follow Sandeep Bachche’s advice, to have self esteem, be dedicated in their vocation, and to aim to be a good human bein

 

One does not need fancy degrees to inspire anyone. A small act of social work is enough to motivate others. The management and students of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Vividhlakshi Vidylaya, Kandivli invited a special guest, Sandeep Bachche, a popular autorickshaw driver from Bandra, on Monday to deliver an inspiring lecture for students of Class 10 appearing for the upcoming Board exams.
Principal Dr Sangeeta Srivastava did the unthinkable to conduct an experiment with her students to empower them through music, art, dance, dramatics and chess in order to improve their academic performance, to reduce their aggression and increase their self esteem. But why an autorickshaw driver?
Bachche, who is also known as ‘Munnabhai SSC’, shared his story and experiences with the students. He narrated how he had to stop studying after Class 10, and did odd jobs to help his ailing mother. He started driving an autorickshaw 17 years ago, but he always had an urge to do something extraordinary for people around him. Through his profession he started contributing to society —helping road accident victims, giving free rides to cancer patients and serving them food, charging only Rs 10 from students, serving hot tea in his autorickshaw, equipping his vehicle with Wi-Fi, daily newspaper, drinking water, LCD screen, public phone, and a phone charger etc.
Bachche wears his pride and humility on his sleeve. Even when he is invited to speak on bigger platforms, or is housed in five-star hotels by invitees, he continues to wear his uniform and ensures that his feet are on terra firma.
Mahesh Shah, Trustee of Kandivli Education Society, asked the students at the event to follow Bachche’s advice, to have self esteem, be dedicated in their vocation, and to aim to be a good human being.

Source: DNA, 31-1-2017

India: in search of prosperity 

The state does things that it should not and does not do things that it should

Y.V. REDDY

Iwas on my way to Bhopal to deliver a lecture on “Understanding Black Money In India”. Vijay Joshi’s book India’s Long Road: The Search For Prosperity caught my attention at the airport bookstall. I bought it, and read it in one stretch. Little did I expect that on 8 November, five weeks later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would announce demonetization as a means of attacking black money.
My initial reaction to the announcement was that it was a historic moment, which it still is. I felt that there was bound to be a paradigm shift, which is not improbable. And I thought that the system was ripe for a change, of which I am now certain. After noticing the patience of people in undergoing the pains associated with the process, without serious protests, I am even more certain now.
But there is a big issue. While the pain is now near and clear, the gain is unclear and uncertain.
The gains, in fact, have to be immense and lasting to accord some meaning to the suffering of millions in the effort to nail the few through the process of demonetization.
To be assured of good times to come, structural and institutional changes, well beyond the current agenda of the next generation of reforms, are essential. The manner in which the state functions, the behaviour of market participants and the framework of the relationship between state and market in India, need to change. And they need to change in a fundamental manner. That change should be initiated now when public opinion is demanding it and not later when entrenched interests assert themselves.
In Joshi’s book, I found a work that addressed fundamental issues relevant to black money in India. He has been researching and writing extensively on Indian policy for decades. It was of further interest to me as he had worked as adviser in the Reserve Bank of India. Joshi says, “The argument of this book is that with ‘business-as-usual’ policies, India will be hard put to achieve high-quality and enduring per capita growth of even 6% a year, let alone 8% a year, which would be necessary for it to become a prosperous nation in the next quarter century” (page 6).
Joshi is spot on. What is wrong with what we have been doing? The state (i.e. the government) does things that it should not and does not do things that it should. Joshi is at his best in describing the disease and its symptoms. “The Indian state has systematically underestimated the prevalence and the cost of ‘government failure’. It often intervenes, arbitrarily or to correct supposed market failures, without any clear evidence that the market is failing, and so ends up damaging resource allocation and stifling business drive .... At the same time, the Indian state does not deliver in the areas that fall squarely in its province, such as administering law and order, ensuring macroeconomic stability, delivering speedy justice, making sure that public services are provided, and creating an effective and adequate safety net for poor people” (page 8).
But, what is missing in the book, at least in detail and emphasis, is the problems with the private sector. With this caveat in mind, one should have no hesitation in endorsing his inferences illustrated below.

“It follows from this sorry tale that both the state and the statemarket relationship need urgent reform, which is no easy task in the context of India’s political economy, with its democratic turbulence and powerful vested interests” (page 9).
What is the current status? Chapter 11, called “The State Of The State”, provides an excellent overview. It starts with the sentence, “States do not function in a vacuum, but in specific social and political settings” (page 217).
The critical question before us at this momentous juncture is: Has demonetization changed the social and political setting? Does it represent more of the political awakening that Joshi refers to? If so, the institutional decay that Joshi refers to would impede the positive effect of political awakening. Joshi gives two illustrations.
“Firstly, the competence of the state has declined in relation to the increased demands on it, manifested, for example, in the dire condition of the provisioning of public goods such as education and healthcare. There is a glaring ‘administrative deficit’ which needs to be corrected. Secondly, money and crime have taken over politics to a growing extent. Corruption in public life has increased manifold; the prediction of some analysts that it would abate as a result of the 1991 reforms is now seen to be hopelessly optimistic” (page 223). Joshi adds: “Ordinary citizens find that back-handers to police and government officials are necessary to get even the simplest things done” (page 223).
Obviously, the challenge is to ensure, for example, that in government schools, teachers teach; in public hospitals, patients get treated, and common persons do not shy away from them.
Doubtless, Joshi misses some important issues. For example: How to ensure that legislators legislate and that the, judiciary focuses on and dispenses justice in a timely manner. If employees in railways, electricity and water supply follow the example of Parliament, what would be the consequences?
The concluding chapter, “What Is To Be Done? What Lies Ahead”, is a courageous attempt to define the tasks, and deserves to be debated. I agree with much of the book, though I do not share the views expressed in the two appendices, one on inflation targeting and the second on providing a basic income; but that is not relevant.
The recent developments related to demonetization have given a special meaning and great relevance to this book by an economist who is rooted in the real world, devoting a lifetime to study the Indian economy.

Sour


Source: Mint epaper, 31-1-2017

 

The economics of illegal immigration

It can contribute to the economy, but it disproportionately affects low-skilled native workers

US President Donald Trump’s first steps to tighten American border policy have, unsurprisingly, courted controversy. His executive order clamping down on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations is aimed at bolstering national security. The issue that had dominated his campaign trail and much of the first week of his presidency—stopping illegal immigration from Mexico—is a different matter. The driving impulse here, even if obfuscated by unfortunate rhetoric and a border wall solution that is essentially a boondoggle, is economic. That impulse is more complicated than it may initially seem.
The US state of Arizona makes a good starting point. A border state with a high number of illegal immigrants, it started cracking down in 2004. A study carried out by Moody’s Analytics for The Wall Street Journal, distinguishing between the effects of the recession following the financial crisis and that of the crackdown, estimated that the outflow of illegal immigrants from the state had lowered its gross domestic product by an average of 2% between 2008 and 2015.
While the lack of precise data and the consequent risk of confusing correlation with causation should be kept in mind, it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that the crackdown will eventually cost American workers as a lower growth trajectory results in fewer jobs. This is exacerbated by the fact that the replacement rate of American and legal immigrant workers in the jobs vacated by illegal immigrants is low—less than 10%, according to Moody’s. US Bureau of Labor Statistics seem to bear this out, showing a worker shortage as the Arizona economy recovered following the crisis.
Yet, it isn’t as cut and dried a case as these numbers suggest. Those bureau statistics show that wages for American low-skilled workers rose significantly between 2010 and 2014. In short, while clamping down on illegal immigration hurt overall growth and thus the employment prospects for American workers—and is likely to do so in the medium-to-long term too as employers go in for automation to deal with worker shortages and rising wages—it also had a redistributive effect.
Economist Gordon Hanson’s The Economic Logic Of Illegal Immigration highlights these trade-offs on a national scale. He contends, provocatively, that illegal immigration is more responsive to economic growth than legal immigration. The former exists outside the legal framework and can thus respond swiftly to business cycles. In contrast, the latter must be filtered through layers of bureaucracy and is thus relatively unresponsive to the economy’s immediate needs, lagging the business cycle by as much as two-three years. The compromise, as Harvard economist George Borjas has pointed out, is that low-skilled American workers are disproportionately affected when it comes to employment prospects and wage levels. And while the prices of labour-intensive goods also tend to drop because of the productivity yields of illegal immigration, nominal wage decreases will always be more politically visible than real wage decreases. The other trade-off, as Hanson notes, is that the strain illegal immigration places on the state and tax-paying citizens varies from region to region. It is dependent on a range of factors such as the size of the immigrant’s family and the social safety net the state provides. While the strain illegal immigrants place on the education, medical and law-enforcement systems might be balanced out by the taxes they pay and the value they bring to the economy on a national scale, there might be specific states such as New Jersey where they cause a net loss to the exchequer.
And there’s the main takeaway from the illegal immigration debate in the US. Its effect on the larger economy is a wash, according to most economists—neither beneficial, nor harmful to any significant degree—but it changes the proportion in which the pie is distributed. This effect is pronounced in states that have a lower proportion of highly educated people and thus more citizens competing for low-skill jobs with illegal immigrants. Witness India’s north-east and east, for instance. Bangladeshi immigrants have contributed to a rise in agricultural productivity—but the large section of the native population working in the informal economy and thus competing with them, as well as the state’s poor ability to collect taxes, means that they have imposed a considerable cost.
In a 2009 testimony before the Senate judiciary subcommittee on immigration, refugees and border security, Alan Greenspan said, “There is little doubt that… illegal immigration has made a significant contribution to the growth of our economy… Some evidence suggests that unskilled illegal immigrants… marginally suppress wage levels of native-born Americans without a high-school diploma…. However, the estimated wage suppression and fiscal costs are relatively small, and economists generally view the overall economic benefits of this workforce as significantly outweighing the costs.”
This cavalier dismissal of the trade-offs and the costs imposed on citizens in lower socio-economic brackets—not to mention of noneconomic concerns such as cultural—is at the heart of the rise of populism and populist politicians, whether in the US or in Europe. The issue requires debate shorn of demagoguery from both left and right—a rare commodity in present political climes.

Source: Mint epaper, 31-1-2017 

 

How land use affects climate change 

 

The interaction between people and land is as old as human evolution. When early hunter-gatherers started to settle down in the Neolithic transition and practise agriculture, they began to change their relationship with land in a major way. Starting with the Holocene, approximately 11,500 years ago, many plants were domesticated for agriculture. These and the associated social and technological changes led to dense human settlements that then paved the way for the formation of early cities. As is evident, even now human interventions transform land, water and local ecologies, and in doing so deeply affect the availability of resources. Over the past half-century or so, it has become clear that these changes have so profoundly modified the earth that a geological transformation to the Anthropocene is now firmly in place.

Land use change lock-in

Land-use change takes place through human activity in several ways. For example, in Indonesia, about 500 sq km of forest area are cleared each year, much of which is replaced with oil palm plantations. Another pattern of changing land use is seen in expanding cities. In many countries, including India, cities are expanding well beyond their formal limits, either along inter-city corridors or in other directions. Various forces shape these patterns of urbanisation, transforming land use from agriculture and forests into industry, residential and commercial buildings and associated infrastructure, and horticulture. Often the contested spaces of peri-urban areas (outside city limits but not quite part of the rural hinterland) become sites from which groundwater is pumped and transported to the city, where new industrial zones are developed, where urban waste is dumped, and where vegetables and other high-value crops are grown for nearby urban centres.These land-use changes are alarming for climate change because they tell us how deeply locked into semi-permanence they can be, just by proliferating at a rapid pace. Cars are replaced on average every decade or so and new breakthrough vehicle technology may spread and change the fleet in one to two decades. Coal power plants may be replaced every four to five decades. However, cities and urban ‘tissue’ last over 500 years. Urbanising areas grow and expand in different ways, parts of them planned, with other portions of informality containing infrastructure, homes, slums and industries, waterbodies and marshlands.
In India, there are multiple patterns of urban and peri-urban growth resulting in different consequences for each region. For example, whether infrastructure is able to guarantee some degree of equity of access to services in cities varies depending on both history and geography. The suburban trains and excellent network of BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking) buses, for instance, defined Mumbai early on in its growth. But in some cities such as Hyderabad and Bengaluru, expansion and infrastructure development took place primarily outside the core areas with the view to establishingsupporting public sector companies such as HMT, Bharat Electronics Limited, and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, and later Information Technology companies. They also serviced an auto-led transport network and associated land-use change. In fact, Chennai, quite intentionally, set up industrial hubs for automotive and parts suppliers. Gurugram, south of Delhi, is a privatised Mecca for several kinds of industries and has developed into a financial and industrial hub. Similarly, the peri-urban areas of many other cities — New Town in Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, and so on — have each had their own version of sprawl, or vast planned or unplanned spaces, that have together extended a large footprint across India.

Implications

The specific patterns of urban growth of a city and its periphery have implications for poverty, food, water, health, jobs and access to services. A city can, therefore, based on its pattern of growth and expansion, lead to particular lifestyles and circumscribe a quality of life for its many residents.
Interventions like converting agricultural land for housing or industry, filling up ponds and building housing complexes on lake beds, etc. impact ecosystem services and climate adaptation. These especially affect the poor who are largely reliant on ecosystems for their livelihoods. Keeping water in the ground, in tanks and waterbodies is regarded as a precaution for dry spells or irregularity in precipitation. These measures can improve resilience towards the possible effects and f climate change.According to some scientists, unlike carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas whose effects last for hundreds of years, land cover and land management generate drivers in climate systems that influence local and regional weather patterns. This is largely due to changes in aerosols, carbon, nitrogen and other gases along with the moisture in the air, heat and light. The urban heat island effect is understood readily, but this also affects peri-urban regions of expansion.

This subject clearly requires more research to provide guidance to policymakers. But we already know that protecting waterbodies, conserving groundwater, reducing our ecological footprint and living in more compact communities are good ways to address both climate change mitigation and adaptation, which are about reducing greenhouse gases and preparing to live in a warmer world.

Sujatha Byravan is Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, Bengaluru.

Source: The Hindu, 31-01-2017

It would be disastrous for India to sign the Hague convention on child abduction

 

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty that establishes procedures that provide for the prompt return of children wrongfully retained or removed from their habitual residence. Although the minister for women and children, Maneka Gandhi, took a decision not to have India sign the treaty for good reasons, there is now some reported rethinking.
It would be disastrous for many reasons for India to sing the Convention. The Convention deals with what has come to be known as “international child abduction”. The Law Commission of India has recently addressed the issue, and the first and most important point made by the Commission is that the word “abduction” when used by a parent is misplaced as no parent can ‘abduct’ her own child. The Commission recommends the passing of a domestic law and the signing of the Convention. The recommendation is surprising since the report itself notes that it is mainly women who are compelled to return to a foreign country to fight lonely battles for custody with no support.
Although the discussion whether or not to sign the Convention is taking place in gender-neutral terms, the fact is that as the Commission itself notes, 68% of the taking parents were mothers; 85% of these respondent mothers were primary caregivers of their children and 54% had gone home to a country in which they held citizenship.
So the first point to note is that this is a gendered issue, which concerns women who live in what has come to be known as NRI marriages. Often a male Indian migrant who is a green card holder comes to India to marry an Indian woman, not a green card holder, who he takes back on a dependent visa. They settle for example in the US and have children.
Trouble erupts between them, the matter is taken to a US court and decisions in relation to child custody are made there, or perhaps ex-party decisions when she has had to leave the country with her children. It is here the Hague Convention will enter the picture and require that if there was a court order in a foreign jurisdiction, and woman has returned to her country of origin with the child, her husband can apply to an executive authority for the return of the child based only on an order of a freight court which could be an ex-parti order or if the husband is “entitled “ to custody under a foreign law.
The mother, will be a “child abductor” and an application can be made to the authority in India for the return of the child to the place of: “habitual residence”, that is the US or any other reciprocal country who has signed the convention.
I have seen cases without number where women fleeing a violent marriage have returned to India with the children, with no desire to return or any chance of going back for want of a green card.
To compel such a child to return to the foreign country, who would obviously go with her mother, would be compounding the original problem.
It is argued that the mother can go to the foreign court and convince that court that she should be allowed to take the child back. To deny a woman to apply in a foreign court for a variation of a custody order in favour of the husband means returning to a foreign land with no support structure in place, with no independent right to reside in that country and would virtually mean a separation between mother and child.
Often such litigation is carried only by husbands with a view to compel a woman to give up her claims to alimony and any separation settlement. It is a known fact that when faced with such a choice, custody of children or alimony, women choose to exit a bad marriage with custody of the children with no alimony.
It is in this context that the issue whether or not to sign the Hague Convention must be seen.
The solution lies in a reverse law on protection of children found in the jurisdiction of the Indian courts. Our courts exercise parens patriae jurisdiction over children, in other words they are the ultimate guardians of children in their jurisdiction.
When faced with a claim from a father who says that the child has been removed from his custody in the face of a court order granting him custody, the court must decide whether it is in the best interest of the child to be sent back to a foreign land.
Indian law does not automatically recognise foreign judgments. Now by signing the Hague Convention, we will be compelled to recognise a foreign judgment regardless of the justness of the decision on custody under Indian law or whether was delivered ex-parte.
We have moved from the father being the sole guardian of the child to joint guardianship, we must now recognise that there is a rational way of resolving the problems of children when a cross-country marriage breaks. It is not my suggestion that the father must have no contact with the children; there are ways in which the non-custodial parent can develop a genuine caring relationship with the child, through access orders, and through sharing vacations, provided there is trust between the separated or divorces spouses.
It is here that the law must focus its attention rather than on its authoritarian and coercive role in punishing mothers who flee bad marriages.

Indira Jaising is a senior advocate, Supreme Court
The views expressed are personal 

Source: Hindustan Times, 30-01-2017

Don't be a Worrier





Worry causes fear, anxiety , tension and stress. These emotions deplete energy and weaken the immune system.Worriers become sick and this is manifested in poor health, because of all the problems that are eating into their vitals. And worry is certainly not the same as constructive thinking. If it were, we would have found solutions to most of our problems. Worry usually occurs when we find ourselves faced with a likely outcome we feel is beyond the scope of our control -an outcome we think will be wholly damaging and detrimental to us. But how can we be so certain? Maybe some good comes out of it as well. So why despair and agonise over something that may actually turn out well, or if it does not now, it might be okay in the long term?
It would be sensible to look at life as a long chain of surprises and new revelations. So live it sportingly . The goal of life is not to achieve some mythical point of perfect materialism. No such apex exists. The goal of life is simply to work hard at becoming better than you were yesterday .
In life, there are no wars to be won, only battles to be fought -personal, physical social, psychological and spiritual.In our efforts to live life sensibly , God plays the role of the eternal comrade, the invisible companion, the universal friend.

NEC and Ministry of Textiles sign MoU to harness the hidden potential of Cane &Bamboo of NER

Shillong: TheNorth Eastern Council (NEC) and the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)in Shillong today, to harness the hidden potential of Cane and Bamboo of North Eastern Region. The MoU was signedby the Secretary,NEC Shri Ram Muivah and Development Commissioner(Handicrafts) Shri Alok Kumar. The Union Minister of Textiles Smt Smriti Zubin Irani, Chief Minister of Meghalaya Dr Mukul Sangma, Chairman, NEC &MoS (IC) for Development of North Eastern Region Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS for Home Affairs,Shri Kiren Rijiju, MoS for Textiles Shri Ajay Tamta and Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Dr ArvindPanagriya were also present on the occasion. 

The MoU provides a push for the integrated and inclusive development of Cane & Bamboo Sector of North East Region by way of skilled manpower, technology dissemination, marketing support and institutional support required for the holistic development of Bamboo which can coordinate a mission to mobilise masses and promote Bamboo sector as a whole throughout the country.  

The NEC and the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) will promote Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC), Assam and the Bamboo & Cane Development Institute (BCDI), Tripura, as the Centres of Excellence not only in the North East Region, but also in South East Asia. 

As per the MoU, the CBTC will be transformed into a Regional Centre of Excellence and the BCDI will be converted as a separate entity under the name Indian Institute of Bamboo Technology (IIBT). CBTC and BCDI will collaborate for Institutional support for bamboo sector and will generate awareness and cultivating knowledge base among the masses about possibilities of sustainable utilisation of the raw materials cultivated by the sector.  

CBTC and BCDIwill serve as a platform for generating and exchanging the knowledge base on the product development in Cane and Bamboo through the Discipline of Product Design and Innovation. The collective knowledge base of the sector would be documented and made

available through library resources, multimedia, publications and online resources. The Discipline of Bamboo and Cane product Innovation will help in defining the criteria for Industry standards and certification in terms of Quality and protecting the geographical rights for traditional innovations.  

To establish the presence of bamboo and cane as an economically strong industry, education will be imparted at various levels; to Craftsmen and Entrepreneurs, Designers, Farmers, Technologists and Marketing and Management professionals. Training programmes on subjects such as Entrepreneurship development among the artisan community with inputs in product innovation and design will also be provided in order to contribute in the up gradation of the socio economic status of the cane and bamboo industry in the region and at a national level. Inputs in business management and entrepreneurship development will also be a part of the curriculum. The knowledge base developed from such exercises will be fed into the educational programmes like

a)         PG Diploma in Bamboo Cultivation & Resource Utilization

b)         B.Tech Course in Cane & Bamboo Technology

c)         Ph.D/Research Program

d)         Establishing satellite Centres in the other NER states

 

 

Source: indiaeducationdiary, 30-01-2017

For a house to become a home

The poor often spurn government housing programmes because they do not want to risk losing their social networks.

Today, a majority of the world’s population lives in cities, and the global urban population is on track to double by 2050.
In much of the developing world, the first residence for a migrant in the city is in the slum. Life here is often fraught with significant health risks. The illegal nature of housing makes slum dwellers susceptible to extortion by slumlords on the one hand and government officers on the other. The fact that slums are often located on prime real estate compounds the problem: Governments lose significant revenues they could otherwise redistribute to the poor.
Reflecting these realities, the agenda of “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, which was enshrined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 11, was complemented in the October 2016 Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador by a “New Urban Agenda” of giving slum dwellers upgraded housing with basic services by 2030. How to accomplish such ambitious goals? A common approach is to build higher quality, affordable housing for the poor on the city’s periphery. This is a central pillar of the Indian government’s housing initiative, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which aims to achieve “Housing for all by 2022”.
But a report in May last year put the vacancy in urban housing built under the PMAY at 23 per cent. Why are slum dwellers and new urban migrants rejecting this housing? One possibility is the lack of affordable housing finance. In his New Year Eve address to the nation, the prime minister announced two new interest-subsidy schemes under the PMAY; some anticipate further breaks in the upcoming budget. But reality is more complex. In my research with Sharon Barnhardt of Flame University and Erica Field of Duke University, we tracked female beedi workers drawn from Ahmedabad’s slums who had entered a lottery to receive improved housing at far below market cost, 12 km from the city centre. In 2007, 14 years after the lottery winners received their houses, we conducted detailed surveys with lottery participants. Winning the lottery represented a financial windfall and a chance for home ownership in cleaner, safer environs. The monthly mortgage payments, which were guaranteed for 20 years, were roughly half the monthly rent that the lottery participants paid for their slum dwellings. Yet, 34 per cent of the winners chose not to move to the colony. A further 32 per cent returned to the slums within 10 years.
Poor people were turning down an apparent golden opportunity, and it wasn’t because of high interest rates. What’s more, this group represented a best-case scenario, compared to typical PMAY participants: Beedi work is done at home, so one of the family’s earners didn’t face a long commute. In another housing complex in Ahmedabad — where houses were also assigned by lottery — we found only 46 per cent of the winners were living in the units two and a half years after winning the lottery.
Research pointed to the importance of social networks in the housing decisions of the participants. Relative to lottery losers, the winners lived farther from their adult children and saw them less often. They reported feeling isolated, and were six to nine percentage points less likely to know someone they could rely on for borrowing needs. Lottery losers, but not winners, reported receiving money through their social networks during hard times.
Slum dwellers give each other material and psychological support along with informal insurance in ways that, for now, the state cannot provide. Low take-up of PMAY housing suggests that the programme, in its current form, risks some of the same failures as the one we studied. Studies of “Moving to Opportunity” — a programme in the US in the 1990s that gave lottery winners vouchers to move fromhigh- to low-poverty neighbourhoods — provide another useful benchmark. These studies found no financial or employment benefits for participants or their adult children. In our study, we found that lottery winners were not better off on a variety of socio-economic measures, including income, labour force participation, household health outcomes. It may be that such benefits only materialise among those relocated at an early age. A new study on “Moving to Opportunities” uses tax data to show that while those who moved in adolescence showed negative effects, those who moved as children were more likely to attend university and less likely to end up a single parent.
This suggests a need to be more aware of what individuals stand to gain or lose through relocation, and how they will behave, given those tradeoffs. Policies can be designed and tested to allow people to preserve their social networks even as they are relocated. One approach is to move entire communities to new developments. Another is to focus less on relocation and more on giving slum dwellers rights,
investing in the development of slums.

However, such approaches will require greater upfront investment by the government, not in interest-rate subsidies, but in collecting data on the preferences of poor migrants and targetting a smart programme at those who need and want it. The broad strokes the government is making — subsidies directed imprecisely towards the poor and even middle-income recipients — may well lead to more unoccupied units in undesirable locales.
In some cases, local authorities have demolished slums and provided residents with rental subsidies until PMAY housing can be built.
Governments should be aware these are not just rickety structures falling under bulldozers, but also strong and deeply beneficial social networks.

The writer, a professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, co-directs the Evidence for Policy Design Initiative

 

Source: Indian Express, 30-01-2017

 

The idea of Gandhi is universal and immortal

When an unwritten truth confronts us in an extraordinary moment, it leaves us awestruck. Oh I knew this! Why didn’t I realise this till today, we think.
I had a similar experience many years ago at Uganda’s Lake Victoria. We had reached there from Kampala. On the way, someone had told us that Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed here. I was captivated. In those days, Lake Victoria hadn’t yet become a tourist attraction. If the lake was a human being, people would have been left mesmerised by its natural beauty. A little eddy was forming noiselessly at the place where the Nile emerges from the lake’s womb. I imagined that the Mahatma’s ashes would have dissolved into a similar whirl. At that moment I realised for the first time how deeply people from my generation — who have grown up listening to all sorts of lofty statements for and against Gandhi — are connected to the Mahatma.
Even Gopal Godse’s flawed logic made us revere the Mahatma even more. Nathuram Godse’s younger brother was an accused in Gandhi’s assassination. After completing his prison term, he went around the country justifying why they had carried out Gandh’s ‘vadh’ (murder). During this time he offered some laughable examples. At one time he claimed they had killed the Mahatma the way Krishna had slayed Jarasangh. I replied by asking him whether he put himself in the same category as Lord Krishna? How does it matter, he argued, our feelings were similar. At Lake Victoria I had discovered a connection with the Mahatma along with a growing feeling of sadness. During my conversation with Gopal Godse, the sentiment was turning into a seething anger, but there were people in Agra who had hosted him. They listened to him with a lot of respect. On that day I realised Gandhi’s biggest strength are his detractors. The more they resist him, the more his ideas will keep inspiring people.
It has happened with every great man.
That is why, when the Father of the Nation’s picture was missing from the All India Khadi Gram Udyog calendar this year, I wasn’t upset. Power attracts sycophancy and that is how sycophants damage the image of politicians in power. The prime minister’s office didn’t just offer a clarification, but also tightened the screws, but the Opposition had sensed an opportunity by then. One result of this illogical debate over Gandhi was that the Mahatma’s magic was again before the world in all its glory. According to Google News statistics, the number of people searching for the Mahatma grew by 50% in India and 62% worldwide in this period.Clearly, those in this generation who were not familiar with him got to know the Mahatma. This inquisitive quality in the younger generation is its biggest elixir.
 
I am fortunate that I have visited Gandhi memorials in various corners of the globe. Surprisingly, even after so many years, how does the Mahatma manage to elicit such a mix of curiosity and respect, that too in alien lands? In October 1997, when I met Nelson Mandela face to face along with former Prime Minister IK Gujral, at the residence of South African president Mahlamba Ndlopfu, I wanted to ask him the same question, but could not get an opportunity.
Later, the secret of Gandhi’s popularity was revealed while speaking with anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada. Kathrada told him that when Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island, he had many charges of violent crimes against him. The prison was the South African equivalent of our Kala Pani (Cellular Jail). It was a tried and tested method of white colonialists. They confined people to such uninhabited islands. Mandela realised this tactic. He told his colleagues they would protest against the white regime staying within prison regulations. Mandela was imprisoned there for 28 years, but pursuing his unique policy, he evolved from a person to an idea. It is the only instance in the history of humanity that a man could lead a freedom movement for so long from within the prison. And when he was released, he saved his country by adopting the policy of forgive and forget.
According to Kathrada, Mandela had learnt this lesson from the Mahatma. Perhaps, Kathrada said this as a mark of respect to his guests, but not just Mandela, four other Nobel laureates of the 20th century — Martin Luther King Jr, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel — have admitted that Gandhi’s philosophy influenced them. If we take out these evolved human beings from the last century, we’ll be left with nothing more than two World Wars and injuries from innumerable other wars. Gandhi and his ideological disciples have played a big role in keeping the earth worth living for human beings.
Today is January 30. Do you remember this was the day Nathuram Godse pumped bullets into the Mahatma’s body. But could he kill Gandhi?
He certainly couldn’t. Gandhi is alive in the minds of innumerable admirers and will continue to live there.
Shashi Shekhar is editor in chief, Hindustan

Source: Hindustan Times, 30-01-2017

Service Before Self





The ideals and motto of the Divine Life Society -“Serve, love, give, purify , meditate and realise“ -are reflected in the life and work of Swami Chidananda Saraswati. His spiritual journey began on a Buddha Purnima day in 1943 inspired by his mentor Swami Sivananda. Chidananda's fervour to serve found the perfect outlet in the welfare work he undertook at Rishikesh. He believes that service alone can purify and prepare the soul for deep contemplation A story is often recounted of how Chidananda found a leprosy-afflicted person on the Hardwar-Rishikesh road. He carried him all the way to the ashram on his shoulders. He served him through the day , as a mother would care for a child Eventually , he established a colony for similar patients in Rishikesh, as a means of preserving the self-respect and dignity of the suffering. The spirit of seva has become the core of his own teachings on sadhana. When he was asked what was necessary to obtain the Guru's grace, Chidananda immediately pointed out that the path of selfless service, seva, is what should be valued as the perfect sadhana.
According to Chidananda love is the law of life and to love is to fulfil the adage: “To live is to love“. You live that you may learn to love, you love so that you may learn to live. True religion is not about ritualistic observances, baths or pilgrimages, so the Swami asks us to heed the universal psychological law: Hatred breeds hatred, love begets love, and fear breeds fear.

Seminar: January 2017

• COMING UP: A CRUCIAL DECADE
  T.N. Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard Private Limited, Delhi
• A QUARTER CENTURY ON
  Omkar Goswami, economist; founder and Chairperson, Corporate and Economic Research Group Advisory, Delhi
• GROWTH IN 2017 AND BEYOND
  Mihir Swarup Sharma, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, Delhi
• LABOUR IN NEO-LIBERAL INDIA
  Praveen Jha, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
• INDIA'S TROUBLED NORTH WESTERN MARCHES
  C. Raja Mohan, Director, Carnegie India, Delhi
• NAVIGATING UNCHARTED TERRITORY
  Srinath Raghavan, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi
• TRAPPED IN PAST PARADIGMS
  Ajai Sahni, Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management, Delhi
• THE MARATHA 'UPRISING'
  Kumar Ketkar, journalist and political commentator, Mumbai
• A FAILURE OF IMAGINATION
  Barkha Dutt, author and television journalist, Delhi 
• DILUTING POLITICAL EQUALITY
  Suhas Palshikar, Professor (retd.), Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

• HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT: CULL THE CAUSE, NOT THE SYMPTOMS
  Tiasa Adhya, Shivona Bhojwani, Postgraduate Programme in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, WCS-India Programme, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; and Nandini Velho, Earth Institute Fellow, Columbia University, New York
• THE BURKINI BANS
  Mira Kamdar, Paris based author
• OF LAW, RESURRECTION AND A FUTURE
  Kalpana Kannabiran, Professor and Regional Director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad
• THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING MAHASWETA
  Anjum Katyal, writer, editor and translator; Co-Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival and Consultant, Publications, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata
• A LIGHT UNTO HERSELF
  Deepti Priya Mehrotra, independent author, political scientist, teacher; Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Delhi
• INDIA VERSUS INDIA 
  Gopalkrishna Gandhi, civil servant and diplomat; Governor of West Bengal (2004-2009), Chennai
  
  
  all published issues from 1959 to 2015 and interactive index of all articles and issues of 2016
  

After the quake

Bhuj shows that disaster management practice remains technical, instrumental

As the nation celebrated its 68th Republic Day, Gujarat mourned the 16th anniversary of the worst disaster that struck the state on January 26, 2001. Gujarat’s historic earthquake killed over 20,000 people, injuring 1,66,000, destroying nearly 4,00,000 homes. The shock waves spread over 700 km; 21 districts were affected and 6,00,000 people left homeless. While many believed that Gujarat would take years to get back to normal, the massive rehabilitation and reconstruction undertaken brought a resilient Gujarat back from the rubble. Bhuj, epicentre of the earthquake, managed to emerge strong after the disaster.
In fact, the pace of development in Bhuj following the disaster has been unprecedented. The town is now spread over 56 sq km — almost four times its size in 2001. It boasts high-rise apartments, sprawling supermarkets, beauty salons, recreation centres, wide four-lane highways, a modern earthquake-resistant hospital and an operational airport. Aid workers, global experts, journalists, corporates and religious groups of every denomination live in Bhuj today. Development banks and state governments have invested vast sums in infrastructure. Land has become an attractive investment. It is now common to hear Hindi spoken in Bhuj and hotels and cyber cafes complete to win the business of immigrants. If an earlier earthquake in the 19th century is thought to have encouraged many people to leave Kutch and settle overseas, then there is some irony in the fact that the 2001 earthquake brought thousands of people to the In Bhuj’s rebuilding, the Gujarat approach is widely looked at as a model for reconstruction. From the recent post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal in 2015 to the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the Gujarat model is widely replicated. Yet, although the model is celebrated, it is vital to highlight certain concerns flattened in the Bhuj plan. Any relief programme needs to be based on proper assessments of needy and vulnerable groups. But the rehabilitation packages announced soon after the Bhuj disaster offered unequal treatment to various categories of earthquake-affected people. Those who’d suffered equally in terms of damages were given unequal amounts of aid. The size of agricultural lands was also adopted as one of the criterias for assistance given. Places nearer the epicentre received higher assistance. Relief provisions also accorded more assistance for completely collapsed houses in urban areas than rural locations. Pre-earthquake house sizes were taken into consideration; that meant richer people were likely to derive larger benefits.
Post-earthquake development was envisaged to attract investment and create a corporate sector. In the process, the informal sector was pushed to less valuable, less visible spaces. Post-disaster development planning also completely ignored the entitlements and rights of the landless. The pro-rich, anti-poor bias of development plans in terms of land use became clear in the imagination of a new Bhuj. The entitlement of land for the urban poor, who perform important functions, is critical by changing such settlements, development snatched away entitlements. Expensive public land in Bhuj has been given to better-off residents; land inhabited by the poor in Rabari was acquired for government offices. To improve public transport, Bhuj roads were widened; this adversely affected hawkers and other occupiers of public space, who were evicted. The 60 per cent population of Bhuj town, who lived in 32 unauthorised pockets outside Kotvistar for over 25 years, did not receive any compensation from the government as they didn’t possess requisite land entitlement (legal claim on the land). Earlier, these residents wanted regularisation of these pockets — but no action was taken. Bheer Bazar, earlier the centre of all commercial activities where artisans and hawkers worked, was dismantled. Similarly, the Waghri community (mainly comprising of Muslim labourers) residing near Dadupeer Road for generations was also driven out, on the pretext of encroachment.
In Bhuj’s relocated villages, the situation isn’t different. Most relocation has been done on agricultural land acquired from other villages. Some villagers either lost land or were relocated far away. The new villages are also larger; this meant expensive infrastructure, again “provided” by the government. But what wasn’t thought of was the lack of village committees’ financial resources to maintain this infrastructure; local village committees had to increase taxes, which many villagers can’t afford. House allocation on the size of land holdings also created new disparities. While NGOs emerged as a significant stakeholder in rehabilitation, local self-governing bodies like panchayats and municipalities were not sufficiently empowered. As Bhuj shows, disaster management practice in the country remains highly technical and instrumental — the current model does not have any effective policy framework to address social exclusion and the marginalisation of the poor. But any discussion on disaster management must address the proper assessment and identification of vulnerable groups. Reconstruction doesn’t mean only rebuilding houses but rebuilding lives, particularly of the weak. That alone leads to real development.

The writer is assistant professor at the department of political science, Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi

 

Source: Indian Express, 26-01-2017

 

Amway India ties-up with IIM Calcutta for a special course focused on entrepreneurship and leadership for its high potential direct sellers

Kolkata: Amway India, the country's leading direct selling FMCG Company, has tied-up with IIM Calcutta for a special course focused on entrepreneurship and leadership for its identified high potential direct sellers. This is the first time that Amway India has tied-up with a premier management institute for a special course for its direct sellers.  The company has shortlisted 100 direct sellers who have demonstrated strong performance and business excellence over the past few years for this program.

Amway India strategically invests in skilling and nurturing entrepreneurship amongst its direct sellers. The company offers free training to them by conducting more than 18,000 training sessions during an average 12-month period besides the presence of a comprehensive digital learning portal (E-learning).

Speaking on the occasion, Anshu Budhraja, General Manager, Amway India, said, "The tie-up with IIM Calcutta is focused on building skills and competencies of our high potential direct sellers to help them compete in an evolving entrepreneurship landscape. Micro-Entrepreneurship, generating self-employment through skilling is a key priority for government of India. We too are aligning our training strategy by focusing on enhancing skills and competencies of our direct sellers."

 "Amway India approached IIM Calcutta to arrange a series of workshops for their high potential direct sellers on subjects related to Entrepreneurship, sales, marketing and motivational leadership. The key takeaways from this short residential course at IIM Calcutta would include (1) building their direct selling businesses through innovative thinking, (2) training team members in latest sales skills, and (3) becoming a motivational leader and team builder through effective communications," said Prof Ramendra Singh, programme coordinator and faculty at IIM Calcutta.

 
Source: Indiaeducationdiary, 25-01-2017  

Demonetisation effect? Corruption index ranking improves but a long way to go

Global perceptions regarding India’s corruption levels remain high, going by Transparency International’s Corruption Index ratings for 2016. India has improved its standing, rising two points to 40 from last year. The trend line is positive if extremely gradual. India has improved perceptions regarding its degree of corruption by 10% since 2012. But the base figure is extremely low -- 40 points still places India, if not among the blackest of economies, then among the strong grays. The Transparency International survey tends to be taken seriously because its figures are drawn from a compilation of a dozen other surveys and indices of corruption.
As the figures are for 2016, the impact on black money of the so-called demonetisation effort will be unclear for some months to come. What the figure does indicate is that the Narendra Modi government’s earlier efforts against corruption including setting up a Special Investigation Team and the like have only had a marginally impact. That is not a surprise as corruption is deeply embedded in Indian society -- many poor Indians assume that paying a government official to provide the service that should be part of his job is the norm. Such petty corruption has barely been touched by events. The evidence is that reforms have gradually helped in reducing the macro-economic potential for corruption. The scope of discretionary power among bureaucrats, for example, has been reduced. Digital payments have received a boost and they also reduce the scope for illegal hoards of wealth. India seems to have done well here. The Economist’s Crony Capitalism Index, a measure of billionaire wealth derived from politically controlled sectors of the economy, showed such cronyism dropping from nearly 12% of GDP to less than 4% between 2014 and 2016. There is a case for saying that India should be compared to similar emerging economies rather than developed countries. But this does not cut any ice: There is an inherent moral laxity in claiming that a people should suffer from greater corruption because they happen to be poorer. Using that criterion, however, India is doing well. South Africa and Brazil have been dropping points on Transparency International’s index over the past several years. Turkey has fallen a remarkable nine points since 2012. India can still do more. For all its progress on crony capitalism, it is still worse off than comparable economies like Brazil and China.


Source: Hindustan Times, 26-01-2017
The Modi government’s ambitious plans on digitalising economies, including using the planned Goods and Service Tax to push all business transactions online, should reduce the scope of corporate corruption drastically. However, the government’s dilution of the Whistleblower’s Act and dilly-dallying on the Lokpal and Lokayutkas Bill seem to indicate that government corruption remains as much a low-level priority in New Delhi as it has in the past.

 

Music of the Holy Spheres





Divine music, when you experience it, brings with it intense and lasting bliss. How can one who has heard this divine melody describe it to one who has not? Anyone who attempts to describe it would have to use pale analogies. If we think of the most beautiful music we have heard in this world, it still does not compare with the music known as the Voice of God. The divine music is playing within us all the time. We don't hear it because no one has shown us the way to listen to this inner music. There is reference to this inner music in the scriptures. This sound has been called the Word in the Bible, naad, jyoti and sruti in the Hindu scriptures, sraosha in the Zoroastrian scriptures, kalma in the Muslim scriptures, sonorous light in the Buddhist scriptures, naam or shabd by the Sikhs, and the Theosophists call it the voice of silence. It is the power of God manifesting in creation.
God created two principles: light and sound. The current of divine light and music was the cause of all creation. This current flows out from God and also returns to God. We can access this current within us through Shabd meditation.
Once we awaken to the Music of the Lord, our life will be the same -but only on the surface. We will still have the same job, the same family , the same house and the same body , but a whole new inner life will open up for us. To everyone else, we will look the same, but inwardly, we will be lost in the ecstasy of God's love.

Patriarchy doesn’t harm women alone

If men are engaged in the process of empowering women and towards a gender-equitable, violence-free world, it will benefit both

Gender-based crimes against girls and women will increase in this neo-liberal society of ours

At least five or six cases of various forms of violence against girls and women from different cities are being reported every day since reports of the New Year’s eve incident in Bengaluru led to an outcry. Drawing attention to the seriousness of gender-based violence, there is a demand for stronger punishment for male offenders. But very little attention has been focused on what is being done to address the root cause of the issue.

If men and their attitudes are “part of the problem”, can we address the problem effectively without involving men as “part of the solution”? In our vision of a gender-just society where there is peaceful coexistence of men and women, does a person belonging to the “oppressor” gender have a role?

If yes, what would be that role? Are the empowerment and assertion of the oppressed and the sensitization and transformation of the powerful, mutually exclusive agendas?

Gender issues, including gender-based violence, are seen largely as “women’s issues” by all concerned—a majority of policymakers, women’s groups, funding agencies and media. This approach insulates men from the process of transformation, reinforces masculine stereotypes and deepens the gender divide.

Patriarchy disadvantages women but it also brings a set of behavioural norms and responsibilities that hinders men from expressing their pressures to perform in adherence with traditional notions of masculinity. Masculinity, in its current form, harms not only women but also men in the long run. Men cannot cry or express emotions freely, they have to be always winners/achievers, bread-earners, caretakers, etc. They have to perform at various stages from bedroom to boardroom. They cannot do household chores without the fear of being labelled “sissies”.

If gender is a social construct, then men are not born violent and aggressive. It is faulty socialization and upbringing that promotes a macho image. Do we find alternatives to this model of masculinity?

There may be umpteen examples of women as role models for girls who are growing up, but there is a woeful dearth of positive role models among men; role models who can embody a gender-sensitive society and engage adolescent boys and young men in the discourse. We have examples of sportsmen like Roger Federer who have expressed what “healthy relationships” mean to them personally, but when did we last hear sportsmen in India talking about gender?

We need to address how men analyse perceptions of masculinity and create appropriate alternatives. But to do this, men must first feel the need to do so. Men can introspect on the existing dominant model of masculinity when they are able to relate to the issue; when they know the “costs” of increasing violence on women to them individually and socially.

If men are involved in any intervention that seeks to stop or prevent violence against women, it may help in making the lives of women safer and healthier, but what’s in it for them? What are they going to get out of it? Unless this is answered seriously, we will not come up with any meaningful strategy of engaging men in the long term.

A paradigm shift in looking at women’s issues as gender issues, which are equally men’s issues, is not going to be easy. With all our social subsystems—family, religion, governance and media—reinforcing patriarchal, male-dominated attitudes, it will definitely be a process that will face periodic threats, hiccups and setbacks.

Apart from addressing men as a group, it calls for simultaneous interventions with different groups of men. For instance, we need to address men in the police not just as law-enforcing agents but also as men. Similarly, we need to reach out to men in the corporate and healthcare sectors, in Parliament, male bureaucrats, male journalists, religious leaders, school and college teachers and administrators.

A couple of token gender-sensitization programmes for these men is not going to change the male mindset. What is required is focused, long-term intervention with a clear vision and purpose of “process-oriented” work by all stakeholders. There has to be a pool of male facilitators in all sectors who can engage men in a gradual process of transformation and humanization. It calls for investment, financial and otherwise.

The moot question is: Do we have a sizeable number of people who would like to invest their time and effort in engaging men towards addressing gender issues? Even if a handful of them do (like this writer, who has been working on the issue for 24 years), there is a dearth of people who would strengthen their efforts.

If men are engaged in the process of empowering women and towards a gender-equitable, violence-free world, it will benefit both. Men also would be liberated from the shackles of patriarchy. If they are liberated, their own lives would become humane, enriching and harmonious.

Gender-based crimes against girls and women will increase in this neo-liberal society of ours in the coming years. What will change is only the nature and forms of violence. There will certainly be more crimes by minor boys.

It would then be, perhaps, too late for all concerned to seriously examine the root 

Source: mintepaper, 25-01-2017

cause of the problem.

Cabinet approves Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2017 

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Indian Institute of Management(IIM) Bill, 2017, under which the IIMswould be declared as Institutions of National Importance which will enable them togrant degrees to their students.

Following are the salient features of the Bill:

         i.            IIMs can grant degrees to their students

       ii.            The Bill provides for complete autonomy to the Institutions, combined with adequate accountability.

      iii.            Management of these Institutions would be Board driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an Institution which will be selected by the Board.

     iv.            A greater participation of experts and alumni in the Board is amongst otherimportant features of the Bill.

       v.            Provision has also been made for inclusion of women and members from Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the Board. 

     vi.            The Bill also provides for periodic review of the performance of Institutions by independent agencies, and placing the results of the same on public domain.

    vii.            The Annual Report of the Institutions will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their accounts.

  viii.            There is also a provision of  Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body.

Background:

Indian Institutes of Management are the country's premier institutions imparting best quality education in management on globally benchmarked processes of education and training in management. IIMs are recognized as world-class management Institutions and Centers of Excellence and have brought laurels to the country. All IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act.

Being societies, IIMs are not authorized to award degrees and, hence, they have been awarding Post Graduate Diploma and Fellow Programme in Management. While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and Ph.D, respectively, 

Source: indiaeducationdiary, 24-01-2017

the equivalence is not universally acceptable, especially for the Fellow Programme.

Lift the veil of secrecy

The primary aim of the demonetisation exercise was to tap black money. To mark the last day for depositing the demonetised notes, on December 31, 2016, the Prime Minister, in his address to the nation, fully acknowledged the great hardship suffered by common people due to the serious delay in making the new currency notes available in the banks, ATMs and rural areas, and thanked them for the faith they reposed in him in spite of such hardships. He announced a slew of financial sops to the marginalised and farmers. While he made a passing reference to black money hoarders being on the run, and about collusion on the part of a few bank and government officials, he made no mention of specifics like the government’s estimates of black money and counterfeit money unearthed by the demonetisation. Perhaps it was too early to arrive at such estimates with some precision.

Subverting the system

Newspapers were full of reports of some sensational cases of hoarding of new currency notes, within a few days after the demonetisation, even as common people could not get more than one, and then two new ₹2,000 notes even after standing in queues for hours. As of December 10, it was reported that a stash of ₹242 crore in new currency notes had been uncovered. Cases have to be investigated with the greatest speed as top priority and persons involved should be given exemplary jail terms. The investigation should reveal how the new notes, which were in such short supply, reached these hoarders in record time. The Prime Minister or his representatives should have given some details about the likely time frame for strong action against those caught, including hoarders and corrupt officials, to reassure the common man about the government’s seriousness in dealing with black money.

There are two other aspects of demonetisation on which clarity is required. One is the status of political funds, and the other the status of donations/offerings made to temples and religious institutions, through the so-called temple hundis.

Political donations as conduit?

Political party funds are exempted from income tax, though parties are required to maintain books of accounts, and file income returns. Moreover, they are not required to keep any details of the source of funds if the individual contributions are ₹20,000 or less. It is well known that almost 90% of the funds of major political parties are of this nature.

The Union Revenue Secretary reportedly said on December 16 that political parties can accept cash donations even after November 8. The Finance Minister, however, said a couple of days later that political parties cannot accept donations in old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes. The question, thus, is whether parties did accept cash donations in demonetised bills after November 8. If so, it could have been a great device for converting black money into white in the hands of unethical political parties by breaking down huge contributions into a number of small ones of ₹20,000 or less; an unethical political party could even receive cash contributions after November 8, but show in its books that the money was received before that date.

Disclosure of figures about cash donations received by political parties before and after November 8, and the amount deposited in the banks by December 30, and whether any part of it will be taxed, would help in an informed debate. It may be noted that all political parties have taken a stand that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Right to Information Act.

It would also be useful to find out the amount of cash deposited by temples after November 8 purportedly received as donations to know how funds so received will be dealt with (so as not to enable conversion of black money into white), and whether any part of such collections would be taxed.

Keeping the public informed

Even if the entire ₹15.4 lakh crore of demonetised currency is received back in the banks, obviously a part of it would be black money (i.e. money that hadn’t been taxed). The government should ask the Income Tax Department to finalise suspicious cases within six months, if necessary by putting aside all routine work relating to regular assessments, etc. for the time being.

Before the demonetisation exercise, it was reported that the Income Declaration Scheme, which ended on September 30, 2016, has fetched ₹67,382 crore of undisclosed income and should result in tax and penalty of ₹30,322 crore, to be paid in two equal instalments on November 30, 2016 and September 2017. The government should reveal how much tax was actually received by November 30 out of the estimated ₹15,161 crore.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana provides a window from December 17, 2016 to March 31, 2017 for holders of black money to declare their assets. Fortnightly data of remittances to this fund should be released for information of the public.

Most people think that the fountainhead of black money is the provision that political parties need not disclose source of contributions of ₹20,000 or less. Support for the Prime Minister would have soared sky-high had he declared that from the midnight of December 31, all cash donations to parties were to be banned. But he missed the opportunity, and now it cannot be done even if one wants to until the upcoming Assembly elections to five States are over.

K. Padmanabhaiah, an IAS officer of the 1961 batch, served as Union Home Secretary and is the Chairman of the Court of Governors of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad.

Source: The Hindu, 25-01-2017