Jun 25 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

All Ideas Must be Free

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar





NGOs and their ideas seen as hurting development should be countered, not banned Many foreign-funded NGOs are focused on GM foods and carbon emissions, but the biggest causes of death are unclean water and indoor cooking fire pollution

Free access to ideas of all sorts is a fundamental right.Many ideas may be terrible,but battles against them should be fought in the high country of the mind, not through censorship or bans. Caveat: ideas accompanied by or leading to violence are subject to reasonable restrictions. Yet, such restrictions need to be minimal. We do not, for instance, ban Marxist schools of thought although they seek to overthrow democracy and liquidate class enemies.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) seems unaware of or opposed to a free flow of ideas.
In a report leaked to the media, it alleges that Greenpeace and other NGOs are using foreign money to launch anti-nuclear, anti-coal and antiGM food agitations, thus reducing India's GDP growth by a whopping 2-3% per year. The report expresses outrage that one NGO has got funding for criticising the Gujarat model of development. The IB suggests screening and stopping all foreign funding of NGOs that support such “antinational“ activities.
This is plain wrong. Every human being has a right to her own concept of what is good or bad for development. I disagree strongly with many NGOs on some issues, while agreeing with them on others. To oppose nuclear power, e-waste, large dams or carbon emissions can, in some cases, be called misguided. But it is not anti-national. It is a rival view of what development should be about.
No thinking person views GDP as the only measure of development.
If you go by GDP alone, Mahatma Gandhi was far more anti-development than Greenpeace. He believed that happiness lay in reducing one's wants, not in consuming more. This would be devastating for GDP growth, of course, but the Mahatma did not think that mattered. He opposed modern machinery , swore by handspun cloth, and wanted India to be a collection of self-sufficient village republics. If implemented, these ideas would have slashed GDP growth by much more than the 2-3% than the IB complains about.
Call the Lie But what is the basis for the IB's estimate anyway? The 2-3% of GDP it claims as the annual loss is around . 2,00,000-3,00,000 crore. Has it cited ` any respectable economist in this matter? Does it have a peer-reviewed model? Not at all. Worse, the sums received from abroad by the “anti-development“ NGOs have averaged barely `. 50 crore or so per year. The government can easily spend 10 times as much on exposing the falsity of NGO claims (there is indeed much falsehood around). If at the end of it all, the NGOs carry more credibility than the government or IB, the reason cannot be that dollars are somehow more convincing than rupees.
I would agree with the IB that some foreign-financed NGO crusades and agitations are based on halftruths and plain falsehoods. But that is equally true of agitations by Indian organisations and political parties. Many agitations claiming to promote the public interest actually harm it. Yet, these notions must be combated in public debate, not by executive fiat. Alas, bad ideas are so widely supported by purely desi lobbies in India that foreign money is just the icing on the cake. Blame the cake, not the icing.
Many foreign-funded NGOs are indeed trying to impose their own priorities on India. Their top priorities are carbon emissions and GM foods. But in India, the biggest causes of death are unclean water and indoor pollution from smoky cooking fires. We need every sort of agricultural research, including GM research, to boost farm incomes and reduce poverty . Perhaps the greatest Indian environmental problem of all is free electricity for farmers, which leads to overpumping, and hence to the destruction of acquifers.
Funds Skew Priorities Alas, you will not find Indian NGOs agitating against free farm electricity. You will not find them agitating in favour of GM crop research. Without doubt, foreign funding has skewed their priorities. But why blame foreigners for that? It's only natural for crusaders to have their own priori ties. It is up to Indians to resist false priorities, and establish their own.
Running an NGO I need to make some disclosures about my own possible biases. I run my own NGO, the Mukundan Charitable Trust. I am associated with NGOs like the Centre for Civil Society and Centre for North-Eastern Studies (for whom I have a financed a fleet of medical ships taking doctors to three million people living on islands in the Brahmaputra). I have helped finance tribal land rights, micro-housing, micro-pensions, microfinance and vocational training schemes.
In sum, I am squarely in the NGO business myself. But hopefully , I can claim to be bias-free in this matter since I use only my own funds, and accept nothing from Indian or foreign donors. Also, I strongly oppose Greenpeace and other foreign-funded NGOs on many development issues.
Nevertheless, I support their right to spread ideas freely , regardless of whether these are financed by dollars or rupees. I agree with Voltaire's quote, “I do not agree with what you say , but I will defend to the death your right to say it.“

Jun 25 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

All-India Service likely to Run Subordinate Judiciary

GANGADHAR S PATIL

NEW DELHI





Proposal to come up for law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's consideration in a couple of days

The disparate lower judiciary of varying abilities may be transformed into a national body of professionals along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service, if the government agrees to take up a long-pending proposal for the creation of an all-India judicial service to run the subordinate judiciary.The proposal, kept in the cold storage by the UPA for long, is expected to come up for law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's consideration in a couple of days. Law ministry officials told ET that they have prepared and will soon send a detailed note on the objections and views of state governments and chief justices of all the high courts during various meetings held on the issue.
“After the last attempt to reach a consensus in the conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high court in April, 2013, the government has not taken any major decision.
We will apprise the new minister on the status of the scheme,“ said a senior law ministry official.
The recruitment to the lower judiciary is now done by the respective high courts. The two routes to the service are the lower subordinate entry level of magistrates and the higher one of additional session judges, recruited and administered by the high courts, which have the authority to promote, punish and transfer these judicial officials. Once they become district judges they are eligible to be considered for positions in the high courts as well. The new scheme provides for centralised, direct, recruitment of judicial officers. So, instead of the high courts recruiting courts recruiting and administering them, AIJS provides for a centrally administered exam and monitoring by a central administrative authority, which could even be the Supreme Court.
The union government has been working with the state governments and chief justices of various high courts to push through the AIJS. Article 312 of the Constitution was amended in 1977 to provide for AIJS, but because of concerns like the issue of litigation in local languages raised by some state governments and high courts, successive governments at the Centre could never implement the scheme.
“States and high courts are apprehensive of the scheme because, if implemented, it would take away their powers to appoint and administer subordinate judges,“ said the senior law ministry official.
The Supreme Court had in 1991 endorsed the creation of an AIJS.

Jun 25 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

TOI delivery boy cracks IIT-JEE with 255th rank

Mysore: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





C Prashanth of Mysore is now closer to realizing his dream of studying engineering in an IIT. He cracked the IIT-JEE (Advanced) with 255th rank (ST category). Prashanth, 18, is from a poor family as his father Chandra Nayak is a construction labourer. To supplement the family's finances, he delivered the Times of India newspaper to homes in Mysore when he was in high school.“I was not expecting the 255th rank. It's a wonderful feeling. All credit goes to my family and Rashtrothana Parishat and Base institutions which encouraged and gave me education free of cost,“ Prashanth said, adding that he couldn't afford to buy a newspaper, but while selling them, he managed to read them and that helped him crack the exam.
Till SSLC, Prashanth did not know what IIT meant. “Initially , it was very difficult to follow the IIT subjects, but hard work and my teachers' interest made things easy for me,“ he added. He wants to pursue electronics, mechanical or civil engineering. His father and mother Jyothi saw to it that poverty didn't come in the way of providing education to their three children.
Prashanth's elder brother C Vasanth Kumar is pursuing BA in My sore and sister C Chandana finished her SSLC this year with 87%.
His maternal uncle, Gopala, who is in the police department, ensured that once he finished schooling, he came to a Bangalore college. “I was scared of Bangalore as it's a big city . But my uncle forcibly brought me to Bangalore to study ,“ he said. Tapas, coaching centre of Base institutions, provides free education for economically weaker students who are keen on studying in the IITs.





Jun 25 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`University painted a rosy picture but first year was a mess'

Anahita Sagar





People reading this might call it overly critical, but studying for a year un der the FY UP pro gramme has been nothing but a waste of time. After successfully making it through a highly unproductive first year of college, I haven't a clue as to what degree I am pursuing. When I enrolled for a degree in journalism and mass communication a year back, FYUP was talked up as this great new idea. Students were made to believe this was the programme that could change our lives. It has, but not for the better.The idea, we were told, was to align DU with the American system of education. Officials painted a rosy picture of how it would be so simple to get into a university abroad (read: the US), and how we'd have a double degree, which obviously has more value than a simple honours degree. The idea behind the foundation courses was to make our college-level education more holistic. All this sounded so promising on pa per that, despite my scepticism, I decided to accept this new system with bucketloads of enthusiasm. However, there seemed to be a vast difference between what was promised and what ensued. I remember the first two months of college as utterly chaotic. Not only did the new system lack direction, its structure would also keep changing every two weeks. I think I finally lost faith in it once I started studying the foundation courses. Weeks went by with all of us struggling to complete gazillion assignments, projects and presentations for these courses.
However, if someone would ask me what exactly I learnt from these subsidiary courses, it would seem like a cat has bitten my tongue.
All right, maybe I brushed up my mathematical skills by learning about prime numbers for at least four hours every week. Oh, and I may also have learnt I must never write an email without a `subject'.
Sounds ridiculous? At 18 years of age, when the Constitution deems me capable of voting and driving, I am studying about ways to integrate my mind, body and heart. It probably sounds amusing when I describe the situation, but in reality it was far from funny . It was disappointing to see a university of this calibre and reputation making a fool of itself and of the 60,000-odd first-year students.
The only aspect of the programme that most students got attracted to was the prospect of studying a minor subject, that is, the discipline course-II. For students like me, it was a boon because it let us study a second subject of our choice. This meant I could study political science alongside my journalism degree.
Now, we were told we had the freedom to study any subject we wanted. Little did we know there was a catch. To wards the end of the first year, the university randomly announced that we would get our DC-II subjects on the basis of our FC marks of the first semester.
Obviously , we were stunned. Simply because we couldn't fathom how our knowledge of internet etiquette or polymers decided whether we had the ability to study English or political science or even economics. The UGC is now talking about FYUP being a hasty move. The only question on my mind is: where were these so-called academics when teachers and students had vehemently opposed this system? All this makes me wonder if there will ever be any accountability in our education system. Our policymakers are taking haphazard decisions and here we are, wondering about our future. Amid all this cacophony , the only reassuring thing is that someone has finally woken up to the reality--even if a year too late. I sincerely hope FYUP is scrapped. Having spent an entire year wandering around like a headless chicken, it would be nice to have some clarity on what I am actually supposed to be studying.
(A second-year DU student offers a student's perspective on the furore over FYUP)

Jun 24 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

Scientists explain stress-heart attack link

PARIS AFP





Scientists may have unravelled how chronic stress leads to heart attack and stroke: triggering overproduction of disease-fighting white blood cells which can be harmful in excess. Surplus cells clump together on the inner walls of arteries, restricting blood flow and forming clots that block circulation or break off and travel to other parts of the body.White blood cells “are important to fight infection and healing, but if you have too many of them, or they are in the wrong place, they can be harmful,” said study co-author
Matthias Nahrendorf of the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Doctors have long known that chronic stress leads to cardiovascular disease, but have not understood the mechanism.To find the link, Nahrendorf and a team studied 29 medical residents working in an intensive care unit. Their work environment is considered a model for chronic stress exposure given the fast pace and heavy responsibility they carry for life-and-death decisions.
Comparing blood samples taken during
work hours and off duty, as well as the results of stress perception questionnaires, the researchers found a link between stress and the immune system. Particularly, they noticed stress activate bone marrow stem cells, which in turn triggered overproduction of white blood cells, also called leukocytes. White blood cells, crucial in wound healing and fighting off infection, can turn against their host, with devastating consequences for people with diseases like atherosclerosis ­ a thickening of artery walls caused by a plaque buildup.

Jun 24 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

PUBLIC HEALTH - The Ageing Imperative: India Needs to Act Now

Jack Watters





An Indian born in 1950 could expect to live for a mere 37 years. Today, India's life expectancy at birth has risen to 65 years and is projected to be 74 years by 2050. Indians are living longer -that's the good news. The bad news is the number of older Indians who will be affected by long-term, chronic conditions will increase, leading to serious economic, social and healthcare policy consequences.By 2030, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will account for almost three-quarters of deaths in India and the years of life lost due to coronary heart disease will be greater than in China, Russia and the US combined.
In a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, the economic burden of NCDs in India will be close to $6.2 trillion during 2012-30.
Rapid urbanisation in India, associated with unhealthy nutrition and physical inactivity , may also contribute to the increase of age-related, infectious diseases such as pneumonia and influenza, as well as non-infectious chronic diseases such as stroke, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, mental illnesses, cancers and respiratory infections, adding to healthcare costs and impacting productivity and the need for support. The disquieting feature of population ageing in a place such as India is that ageing is taking place at lower levels of socioeconomic status, and the gap in health-related outcomes between the rich and the poor is widening.
This will result in greater demand for healthcare, but older Indians may not be generating as much income as before to support it, leading to greater pressure on the working-age population to support senior members of the family financially and through care. This phenomenon puts added pressure on India's healthcare systems. So, how do we ensure the healthcare system can cope with the extra burden an older society poses?
Much is being done through civil society and institutions but more is needed. India as a nation needs to find ways to approach healthy and active ageing by promoting a healthy life course. With Indians living longer lives and India being the secondmost-populous nation in the world, the future of the country depends on healthy , active and productive ageing of its people. First, there is a greater need to educate citizens about preventive measures such as optimal nutrition, regular exercise, screenings and vaccinations.
A public health imperative to focus on preventive care and managing lifestyle factors should be the need of the hour for the new government. This will address some of the psychosocial factors and the productivity of ageing societies. For example, in the US, strategies to reduce salt intake to help address obesity and to control tobacco use cost as little as $1-2 per person and avert millions of deaths and billions of dollars of loss in economic output. Second, preventive care programmes must be supported by all stakeholders and integrated into national healthcare systems to be successful. The work by institutions such as the Public Health Foundation of India, among others, is key .
There needs to be an industry-wide coalition of governments, care providers and businesses to create methods to promote wellness and enable healthy living. India should encourage research to translate knowledge into innovative and effective products, strategies, interventions and services that help prevent disease and improve well-being while being cost-effective. For example, this could include tackling communicable diseases through new prevention frameworks, including immunisation programmes for children and adults.
If the needs of older people are properly recognised, this newly-burgeoning population need not be a demographic catastrophe, but can become a demographic dividend. Everyone should collaborate to ensure that barriers to the healthy ageing of society are eliminated. The clock is ticking.
Western and developed nations are preparing for the demographic transformation; and India, as one of the world's fastest-growing economies, can't afford to fall behind.
Ageing and prosperity can go hand in hand and a life-course approach to healthy ageing is the most reliable way to ensure that India takes its rightful place in the world.
The writer is vice-president for external medical affairs, Pfizer

Jun 24 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

How Leaders Need to be Lifelong Learners, Too

JEAN-FRANCOIS MANZONI





Execs need to develop new responses & capabilities to stay ahead of the curve ON IMPLEMENTATION Today's executives know much more than they act on. Knowing something doesn't guarantee that you can implement it

Leaders need to continue learning throughout their careers. About 50 years ago US president John F Kennedy argued that, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other,” and soon afterward Alvin Toffler became famous by saying that tomorrow’s illiterate people will be not the ones who haven’t learned to read, but rather the ones who have not learned how to learn.This has become ever truer in the modern world, which is as complex and ambiguous as it ever has been and even more volatile and uncertain. It,
therefore, is necessary for leaders to continue developing new responses and capabilities. Years of leadership research have shown that it is indeed possible for senior executives to learn new capabilities. Their personalities do not change, but they don’t need to.Despite being armed with greater access to knowledge and training than ever before, executives still need to be able to integrate that knowledge into their behaviour.
There are 3 steps to doing that.
You must begin by identifying a need for improvement. Next, you must achieve an initial competence in the new skills. Most of us have been here before. When learning to ride a bike, this was the point at which we took off our training wheels and realised that we couldn’t balance. We then had to master staying upright. This requires a tremendous amount of attention, practice and persistence. Finally, you must reach a stage at which your new
competence is unconscious, rather than conscious. When practice makes perfect, it's exactly like riding a bike: Once you know it, you always will be able to do it without thinking. Unfortunately, for senior executives learning new capabilities is more complicated than learning to ride a bike. My research during the past 25 years has led me to identify four major obstacles: The Knowing-Doing Gap Today's executives tend to know much more than they act on. Knowing something doesn't guarantee that you can implement it. Executives sometimes confuse understanding a concept with implementing it. When they understand a concept, when the whole thing makes a great deal of sense, it seems as though that box has been checked -at least until they get a strong feedback that their behaviour doesn't really measure up. Insufficient Investment Too often today's senior executives underestimate how much effort is required for them to learn new leadership knowledge in a way that will be helpful. They are quickly satisfied with a vague understanding, so often they underinvest in developing a more granular understanding of a concept. If it's not in your head, you can't use it under real-time conditions. If you want the knowledge to be in your head and usable, you must take notes and re view them regularly.Insufficient Persistence If you want to behave differently from a habitual response and more consistently with a new objective, you need to intercept the habitual response before it is produced, search your mind to identify a more appropriate response and produce that more appropriate re sponse -all of this in real time and under pressure.
s s Insufficient Support When executives manage to become t conscious of their shortcomings y and invest enough time and energy to develop and practice new beha viours, often they are tripped up by their environment.
(Writer is a professor of manage ment practice at Insead.) e d NYT News Service