Team Anna has to be like Caesar's wife

 That the government would strike back at Team Anna members was a forgone conclusion when the anti-corruption movement gathered steam. And especially after Anna Hazare's super successful fast in Delhi. The government, and especially the Congress, feels embarrassed and lame as a perception was built that Team Anna brought the government to its knees and that without them, the government would have never passed a strong Lokpal bill.

Moreover, Anna Hazare and his team members were trying to take every opportunity to strike at the government. With the people supporting them and having created a favourable environment for themselves, Team Anna had tasted its success in the limelight. The Congress had to do something about it and show them, who's the boss. The Congress had a perception that it was cornered. And it decided to strike back with every weapon possible. Remember the Hindi idiom डूबते हुए को तिनके का सहारा. 

The first target was Anna Hazare himself. Digvijay Singh, who is inflicted by a perpetual foot-in-the-mouth disease constantly tried to prove that the anti-corruption movement is nothing but a front for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). And he used very lame evidences, such as RSS chief's letter of support to justify his statements. However, the people are reluctant to believe this. Even if RSS was with Anna Hazare on the issue of corruption, people will not mind because they are heavily affected by corruption and would want to see it finished once and for all.

The second case, which was presented was against Arvind Kejriwal. The RTI activist had applied for voluntary retirement from his services and perhaps left the job. The IT department, which was his former employer, refused to accept his application on account of some bond being broken by Kejriwal. The question is, why did the IT department take so long to give its decision. Moreover, how was Kejriwal  so careless in not realising that he hadn't fulfilled the conditions for retirement? After that, he first made a statement that he had not broken any bond. Then, after a few days, he said he will take a loan from a friend to repay the claims made by his department so that he can be released from service. These flip-flops strengthen the notion that he indeed was involved in procedural lapses and his employer was correct in dismissing his application.

And Kiran Bedi takes the cake of all. This was with evidence. She claimed business class air-fare for travelling to deliver talks, while she actually travelled economy class, whose fare too was discounted for her as she was a gallantry medal winner. If she had requested her hosts (some of which were NGOs) to pay her business class fare and she would divert the excess amount to the NGO, then it would have been completely acceptable. After all, the hosts had a choice in saying whether their money should be used in such a manner. Moreover, she could have requested the hosts to give the excess fare as donation to her NGO, which would have also resulted in further tax benefit for the hosts. But by not doing this, she has damaged her credibility to a certain extent. Although she says, there was no mala fide intent in claiming excess fare, as it was her entitlement, she is not supposed to submit false bills to claim the fare. Remember, those NGOs are many times funded by the government, through taxpayers' money and also through donations that individuals make out of their hard earned money. Bedi has no right to claim that money through submission of inflated bills.

Reputation is like glassware. One crack and it is almost impossible to restore it. Integrity of the character is what made the people of India place their faith in Team Anna. Moreover, the media has placed them on a high pedestal, which the people view as worthy for only those with an impeccable character. Team Anna, therefore, has to be like Caesar's wife- above suspicion. Caesar divorced his wife, Pompeia, just because she was suspected of having an affair with Clodius. He did this to indicate that only a woman who is above any kind of suspicion is fit to be his wife. Will Anna Hazare become Julius Caesar? Strong character itself can earn you a place in history.

VFS: The most expensive courier service

The first thing you need, if you have to travel abroad, is a visa to the countries you have to visit. And so, begins the hunt for what is the type of visa you need, the checklist of documents, photographs, etc. In India, most of the embassies, those who witness a large amount of visa applications for their countries, have now begun outsourcing part of their work to VFS.The VFS centres of the particular embassy/consulate collects your visa documents and passport, on behalf of the embassy, sorts them in the order required by the embassy and deposits those with them. On the scheduled day, VFS collects those documents and brings it back to its centre for you to collect those.

For all this business, VFS charges every applicant a processing fee, which ranges from Rs. 600 onwards. If the embassies themselves were to do all the administrative jobs that VFS does, they wouldn't be charging us any service fees, as it is included in the visa fees. But we pay these fees to VFS, because it helps us escape those long queues that we might encounter at the embassies/consulates. Also, it helps us realise whether our form is correctly filled and the right set of documents are attached, thus reducing the chances of visa being rejected due to incomplete documents, incomplete forms, etc.

This means, the VFS website listing the document requirements itself should be updated with the latest visa application requirements of the concerned embassy. If not, then there is a chance of a ruined trip to the VFS office. E.g., take the VFS website for the Chinese consulate. To apply for any visa, it does list the requirements. But, after you have gathered everything and gone to the VFS centre, you are told, "Sir, for the business visa, you need to submit your savings bank account statement." You tell them, that isn't mentioned on the website. Then "executive" says, "Sorry sir, the website might not have been updated." So, how am I supposed to know about what documents are required? I cannot have the latest requirements planted into my dreams. Then, she says, "If your airline isn't a Chinese/Hong Kong airline, you need to get your ticket stamped by the airline office." Again, you tell her that this isn't mentioned anywhere on the website.

You start feeling helpless. You have double, triple checked whether all the documents are in order. And you have referred to the website of the organisation authorised by the consulate for the document requirements. And for all this outdated information, VFS charges you Rs. 610 as service fees. Plus, costs you a futile journey to the VFS centre. Makes you wonder, is VFS only a courier service, transporting your documents to and from the embassy for you? Seems to be a pretty expensive service.

Sibal's foot-in-the-mouth disease

Do you think that the New Telecom Policy being formulated by the Ministry of Telecommunications and IT help in fighting corruption? Do you feel that the Women's Reservation Bill, if passed by the Parliament and enacted by the President of India, will help you lodge an FIR in the police station without any of the current hassles? Also, do you think that, if passed, the Government Services (Declaration of Assets and Investigation) Bill will help those below poverty line get their full share of ration food and fuel from the neighbourhood PDS shop?

If your answer to all these above questions is "yes", consider yourself in the elite company of Shri Kapil Sibal, the Minister for Human Resources and Development, as well as the Minister for Telecommunication and IT. In the video shown below, the honourable (and highly educated; he is a lawyer in the Delhi High Court) minister states that the Lokpal bill (either in current form or that proposed by Anna Hazare and others) will not provide education to the poor children, nor will it stop policemen from taking bribe, nor will it provide for basic infrastructural facilities. And he is the same person who went on record saying that the arbitrary 2G spectrum sale hasn't caused any loss to the government. Why, Mr. Sibal? Is it because the government employees as well as politicians will stop working for they cannot take a bribe, fearing the wrath of the Lokpal? Will a government employee say, "I cannot take a bribe, because the Lokpal might prosecute me and I cannot work if I do not take a bribe"? If so, our system really needs to be dumped into the sea and a new fresh start is needed. Yes, Lokpal bill will not be able to provide these things. But then, it will ensure that the development funds are actually spent on development. Prince Rahul's father, Rajiv, once famously said "Less than 15 paise out of every rupee actually reaches those it is meant for". The Lokpal bill is supposed to increase this amount from 15 paise, to ideally the entire rupee. Only then, will the poor children receive education, the people will get good infrastructural facilities. The Lokpal bill won't cure you of a heart attack or a simple cold too, but it will see that someone who needs these medicines, gets them on time and in the right quantities.

Towards the end of his talk, he urges the common man to take up cudgels against corruption as they are the only ones who can fight it.  Yes, Mr. Sibal, we will fight it. But, all we need from our government (remember, we voted for your return) is a strong legal backing to nail the culprits, without fearing for our or our family's safety. Remember, we are not yet a banana republic, else we could have dealt with some of the corrupt in accordance with the laws(?) of a banana republic. So, do not connect unrelated issues.

Bring on the obituaries for nuclear energy

The tragedy of the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami in Japan has given all the so-called experts and environmentalists to pressurise governments around the world to give up power generation using nuclear energy. And they have forced many editorials, which are virtually writing obituaries for nuclear energy.

Thanks to the 24 hour breaking and sensationalising news channels, those opposing the Jaitapur nuclear power project have got a new lease of life. They have been claiming that the earthquake has shown how dangerous nuclear energy is and are asking the government to think of other sources to generate electricity. What other sources? None have a clear answer about it. Many of them say that renewable sources of energy should be used. The proposed Jaitapur project would generate around 10,000 MW of electricity, once fully operational. Do the opponents have an idea, how much land would be required to generate the same amount of power using wind energy? A rule of thumb indicates that roughly 60 acres/MW are required if wind farms are built on land. This means, roughly 6,00,000 acres of land will be required to build a Jaitapur equivalent of wind farm. Do we have that much land to spare, even when farming is possible alongside a wind turbine?

If catastrophic disasters were to shape events in history, we perhaps would never be driving cars or flying in aeroplanes.The debris of Air France flight 447 hasn't yet been recovered. The crash caused a loss of 228 lives. Over the decades, commercial aircraft have crashed for various reasons and we have lost precious lives in these unfortunate incidents. This hasn't prevented the civil aviation sector from expanding like never before, nor has it stymied the development of new, better, larger and faster aeroplanes. So, why does nuclear energy invoke such fear?

Why isn't similar (or greater) contempt reserved for coal-fired power plants? Though they do not pose a threat of radiation contamination, but contamination of the environment due to fly ash and smoke has had an adverse effect on the people residing near such power plants for over generations. And when people talk of problems in disposing nuclear waste, they conveniently forget the havoc caused by fly-ash waste, which is gathering in landfills. In India, less than 50% of fly ash is recycled. Isn't it a problem? We do not have technology to safely dispose fly-ash, yet do not oppose coal-fired power plants.

The point I want to make here, is that we cannot wait beyond a certain limit to get started with enjoying the benefits of technology. We have to use and develop it side-by-side. Anticipate problems, solve them early and if mishaps or disasters occur, we should learn from them and improve designs and procedures accordingly. Writing such premature obituaries is not going to help in any manner. Nuclear power is currently cheapest among the clean methods to generate electricity and if India desires to achieve all-round development, it will have to make use of this source at some point of time. And the earlier it does, the better it would be.

I would like to end with an interesting quote, I heard the other day. "The earthquake and tsunami have resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 persons in Japan. But the failure of the Fukushima nuclear power plants hasn't yet cause a single death."

IIPM's accreditation paradox

It was probably spoken in hushing undertones, but everybody was quite sure that there is something fishy about the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). Otherwise, why would any B-school come out with full page advertisements almost every month bragging about their so called "achievements", grand course work and daring innocent students to think beyond the IIMs. Throw in a few goodies like free laptops, etc. and call yourself a self-styled management guru, a youth icon and you would have gullible people believing you. But the principle caveat emptor applies to everybody, though most are not cautious and fall into the trap unknowingly.

Notice how IIPM advertisements never carried a list of companies where their students were placed. If you brag about your courses, you can surely brag about the companies that pick your students. But no, in a recent advertisement that appeared in ToI, here's what IIPM has to say

Though almost all students have found placement in the past, we do not guarantee job since we are not a Placement Agency.

Well, they are right in one sense. But then, people definitely expect to be placed in good companies (like ICICI, Tata, HUL, etc.) as IIPM claims that its courses go beyond the IIMs. And in this advertisement, they claim to think beyond Harvard!! When, they do not have even a single faculty who holds a doctorate or conducts any research. So, placements too might come from companies who want to recruit from beyond Harvard!! Who are those? The Professors in-charge of placements at various IITs and IIMs discuss with newspapers about the previous year's recruitment including the companies that came on campus. Never saw Arindam Chaudhari doing it.

Enough of this introduction, I guess. You might know all these things about IIPM. The clincher in IIPM's advertisement is its following statement on Accreditation:

We have never attached any importance to accreditation by national/international bodies. Institute teaching only 600 contact hours have high ranking whereas others teaching around 1200 contact hours have been ranked low by criteria which has nothing to do with the knowledge imparted by such institutes. We have confidence in our own academic standard. Our competition is with our own excellence achieved in the past. Those, who seek statutory recognition, need not apply.

Now, I do not know what excellence they have achieved in the past, going just by sentence construction, whoever writes their advertising scripts, surely, isn't excellent enough. This statement is like Nokia saying, we do not go for regulatory approvals because we believe in our manufacturing capabilities. Surely, organisations like FCC, EU, etc. won't buy this argument from Nokia. Nor, will the customer, who would like an independent standards body certifying the quality and safety of the device. So, why shouldn't we be bothered about such blatant over confidence. Why doesn't IIPM openly say, "We do not offer any kind of degrees. Our so-called degrees are not recognised by AICTE, UGC or any other technical and higher education body in the country." The UGC has finally woken up from its slumber and put an advertisement in the newspapers, declaring that IIPM is not a university nor is in any position to award any kind of degree under the present laws that govern higher education. But then, UGC's mickey-mouse size unattractive advertisement comes nowhere close to the marketing onslaught of IIPM!!

But IIPM believes in the ranking system, as they have quoted it in their statement on accreditation. They believe that higher ranked institutes can do with less course work, because such institutes impart better knowledge. Now, if accreditation itself is not believed in, how can they claim the differentiation between two institutes. The accreditation process might be flawed, rankings might go wrong, but they serve a useful process to help people make informed decisions. All this stuff, makes IIPM nothing more than a private coaching institute. It is not a management institute. Still daring to think beyond Harvard, Mr. Chaudhari? First, try and get beyond Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi.

European diaries, Part 3: Rules, regulations and human rights

Now that I have written a few good and humourous things about Europe, let me also talk about the "bad" things in Europe. Here, in India, we keep on commenting how clean the western countries are, how they follow rules and regulations, etc., etc. Well, mainland Europe is clean, its streets are bereft of any dirt or garbage. People carry leftovers in their bags and drop them off only in bins kept at frequent locations and cleaned at regular intervals.

But, to say that (western) Europeans have highest regard for rules and regulations, is far-fetched. In Europe, smoking is banned in public places and public transport. So, while Europeans do not smoke on trains, you should watch them at railway stations. Before boarding the train, the passengers smoke incessantly. And as the guard blows the whistle, to indicate closing of doors, they stub the cigarette on the platform and get into the train. These stubs are left on the platform, to be collected by the cleaning staff, whenever they do their rounds. Even at intermediate stations, passengers get down from the train, take a few puffs and then get back in the train. It is common to find numerous cigarettes stubs at station entrances and exits.

In the Louvre museum in Paris, there are strict instructions, written on the entry ticket and atleast one wall of every gallery, to not use the camera flash while photographing the artwork inside. Yet, you will find everybody, majority of whom are Europeans and Americans, violating this rule and nonchalantly using the camera flash to click photographs. They do not even spare the cathedral, where others have come in to offer their prayers.

And finally, while the European Union champions itself as an organisation that strives for enforcement of human rights, it falters in its own backyard. One of the most basic right of any human is access to potable water. Even in India, (supposedly "third world" and having a bad record of human rights violations) there are free water fountains in cities, towns, railway stations, etc. where anybody can drink water. And restaurants are bound by law to provide potable water free of costs to their customers. But, none of this exists in Europe. You are required to buy your beverage at the restaurant, whether it is water or Coke. And both are priced at the same rate. Of course, tap water in Europe is so potable, that you can even drink from the wash basin tap. But then, isn't it necessary to provide for free (or cheap) access to water to commoners? Why should water be priced at the same rate as cold-drinks or slightly cheaper than beer? I do not see any of the European countries acting on this issue any time in the future. Even the USA has a law which makes it compulsory to provide free potable water at every place that serves food.*

While we brood about our uncivilised ways and their civilised ways, let's thank God for the things we already have.

*About the free potable water in USA, I was told about this by a US citizen. I personally do not know if such a law exists and do not hold me responsible if this information is incorrect.

Google please answer: To which country do Arunachal Pradesh and J&K belong?

In October 2009, what caught my eye was the news of Google Maps showing Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China. This 'anomaly' appears if you access Google's localised version for China. Of course, news says that Beijing considers various swathes of Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, etc. to be its own (as a part of Greater Tibet). But then, so does India claim those very parts and the entire Jammu and Kashmir state to be its own.

Google "clarified" that it is the company's standard practice to depict any country’s official position on Google’s localised domains for that country. A lame excuse, I would say. And in the global versions, it classifies those territories as "disputed territories". In many "international" products of Google, such as Google Analytics, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is depicted wrongly. The part of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is not shown as a part of India. Neither is it shown as disputed territory. But, it is blatantly shown as a part of Pakistan. See the adjoining image and it will be clear to you. The border of PoK and Pakistan is not separated, but PoK is engulfed into Pakistan. Quite contrary to Google's "standard practice". And of course, Google has shown the China-occupied Kashmir too, as a part of China, again, deviating from "standard practice". The entire world knows that Kashmir is still a "disputed territory". And Google being search engine giants, should not be ignorant of this stand.

These double standard shows how various companies and nations have being towing in line with Chinese stances, fearing Chinese wrath if they do not follow. But, they do not seem to care if they incur the wrath of the Indians. Somehow, India doesn't seem to matter to them. At the most, after doing such activities, they will make a statement, "India is an important stake holder for us," and we will feel happy about this. Nothing else after that.

But, what next? Google is blatantly and unabashedly committing these blunders. What can be done about it, is the question. For one, I've abandoned the Google search engine (Google's bread and butter) and switched to Yahoo! Now, many would say, that I should switch to some other blog service, well, I might just do that. But it is search engine that earns Google most of its revenues. If Indians slowly stop using Google's search engine, then there should be some cause of concern for Google.

Prepaid or Pre-failed cards?

"Yes sir, your documentation is now complete. Here is your SIM card. The connection will be activated within 48 hours." The sales person across the counter assures the customer. "Why 48 hours? Why not in the next few hours?" Asks the customer. "Sir, your documents will be handed over to the company, only then can the connection be activated. Government rule, sir," comes the reply. Since the customer is vaguely aware of such a rule, (s)he resigns to the fact, that nothing can be done about that. "But then, are the documents correct? There will not be any problem about that, right?" A concern expressed by the customer. The sales person once again assures, "No sir, there won't be any problem. If anything happens, give me a call, I will take care of it." And the customer walks out of the shop, waiting for those 48 hours to end, so that (s)he can be reconnected to the rest of the world.

A typical conversation with a sales agent in a shop that sells prepaid phone SIM cards. After 48 hours, the connection is duly activated. And the customer is happy talking and sending SMSes to everybody informing them about the new number, new place, etc. Until one week later, when (s)he receives an SMS from the cell phone company to submit the documents at the nearest customer service centre or else face disconnection.

The subscriber frantically calls the customer care number. After getting through the labyrinth of the IVRS, (s)he finally gets to speak to the customer care "executive". This "executive" is actually the one who only executes orders. They are not allowed to think or deliver practical or long term solutions. "I've submitted my documents in the shop from where I bought this SIM card," says the harried and worried customer. "What documents did you submit, sir?" The executive asks in a voice that sounds as "cool" as ice. "I submitted a copy of my _____ as photo id-proof and _____ as my address proof." "Sir, the documents are fine, but they haven't reached us. Can you submit them once again?" asks the executive, as if it is as easy as drinking a glass of water. "How can it happen that the documents haven't reached you?" The subscriber tries not to lose cool. "Sir, many times the shops take documents and do not submit it," the executive. "But then, I was told that my connection would be activated only after the company receives my documents. So, how did you activate my phone, if you hadn't received the documents?" With a rising anger, the customer poses a tricky question. But the "executive" is trained to bluff the customer. "Sir, sometimes the shops get the connection activated through their contacts in the company."

What?? How is that possible? Company employees breaking rules and regulations, not only of the company, but those of the government of India. What the customer care "executive" is also telling, is that the shop that sells pre-paid cards is not submitting the documents to the company. So, what do they do with it? They have my photo-id, phone number and my address. They can easily sell it to some tele-marketing people for a few hundred rupees.

In the meanwhile, the "executive" offers the subscriber a solution. "Sir, why don't you go to our company store and submit your documents there? We will activate the phone immediately after you submit those there." "But then, what about the documents that I have already submitted?" The subscribers anger is slowly increasing. "Sir, they haven't reached us, so you will have to re-submit the documents. It is a government rule, sir." "Yes, but then it is a government rule not to activate phones without verifying documents." The subscriber is justifiably annoyed at the dumb answers of the "executive". "I'll report this to the consumer courts. That you disconnect phones, even after all the documents have been submitted," thunders the customer. "Sir, one moment please. I'll transfer the call to my supervisor, who will try to address your concern."

And after a few moments, the supervisor comes on phone, who has to do nothing but just supervise whether the "executive" below him has given the correct answers. "Correct" as per their manual, not whether answers are actually correct. And this person, who is supposedly in a position above the "executive" and hence empowered with some more decision making powers, replays the same answers that the "executive" had given. With, a sweetener added, "Sir, next time this won't happen again." "Hell", says the customer,"next time I am not going to buy a card from your company." And the poor customer repeats the process of documentation, just for the sake of having the number that was painstakingly conveyed to all the acquaintances.

This is where the failure of these mobile phone companies lies. It cannot ensure a smooth service for its customer from the point its SIM card is bought. Why should the customer be penalised for the sloppiness of the phone-shop? The mobile company has a record of which SIM card was given to which shop. So, can't it warn the shop and bar it from selling its products? The company won't do so because the more number of shops that stock its products, the more will the sales be. One consumer is insignificant in terms of revenue. And since, once the subscriber has a number, (s)he has to stick with it, to avoid all the efforts of updating records everywhere, it is advantage the phone company. And it cannot (and will not) regulate its own employees who illegally activate phone numbers. Since it gets revenue as soon as and as much as a customer uses the phone. And it also cannot answer what happened to the documents that the subscriber had submitted earlier. They have no respect for the sanctity of the data that was handed over to their agent. Their common answer is that they are third party persons, and we have no control over them. How is this possible? You cannot control your own contractors? Then what kind of a company are you running?

All in all, mobile phone companies are more interested in earning revenue, more than providing a good experience to the customer. As they say, caveat emptor! That's the only thing we can do.

Do we still respect our teachers?

The last few weeks had a sad series of events, which went unnoticed in the mayhem of the swine flu scare, the euphoria of the Ganesh Utsav. Faculty from all the IITs resorted to an unprecedented action which, till now, has been attributed only to unionised employees and many government employees only. In order to get a fair deal in terms of pay and career benefits from the Sixth Pay Commission, they first went on a mass casual leave. This was a huge event in itself. Never in the history of IITs have classes been cancelled except under extreme emergencies, like the swine flu scare. In IIT Bombay, classes were running even in the immediate aftermath of 26th July 2005. Such has been the dedication of faculty towards maintaining the teaching schedule.

Considering the wealth of knowledge and understanding of a subject that a IIT faculty has, he/she can get a corporate job easily, which would pay much more than IIT does. But, they have taken it onto themselves to work for the advancement of their field and develop the next generation of engineers, researchers and scientists. They are not those people who couldn't get any other job and hence took the IIT job. While they are not demanding astronomical salaries, like IIM-A faculty, they should be treated with dignity. The Sixth Pay Commission has inflicted huge blows to their career path in terms of growth and monetary compensation, as well as robbed them of their status of "national importance". More details of how the Pay Commission has degraded the IIT faculty's position can be found here.

The Ministry of HRD is on a path that would lead to sequential erosion of quality of faculty at IIT. Suddenly, out of the blue, they have accepted a report which states that Assistant Professors should have a work experience of atleast 3 years, which does not include the experience gained during their Ph.D. Now, how many would want to join IIT after 3 years of working elsewhere? If that was not enough, IITs have been asked to hire people with Masters' degree at Lecturer positions. IITs have long ago scrapped the Lecturer position and have hired only Ph.D. holders directly at Assistant Professor level. Instead of raising the bar to improve quality, why is the government hell bent on lowering it? In a knee-jerk reaction, it has already ordered to increase the number of students (through reservations), without caring to improve the infrastructure in the IITs. Even the basic facilities like hostel and messes are already overloaded due to lack of construction of new ones.

The government's continuous negligence of this matter forced the IIT staff to go on a one-day fast, that too on Teacher's Day! What appalled me is that this is the same government and Parliament which passed an enormous increase in the salaries and facilities of its MPs in a jiffy. But is reluctant to give the IIT professors their due. The previous Speaker Mr. Somnath Chatterejee had correctly mentioned that it is not correct for MPs to appraise themselves about their salaries. Is this the way we treat our teachers? And that too, in the country's advanced and coveted places of learning and development. IITs have been one of the most impartial institutes when it comes to admitting and grading students. That is the reason for their ability to produce technology greats who have proved their talent not only in India, but around the world too! If this is the way IIT teachers are treated, I shudder to think of the treatment meted out to primary and secondary school teachers.

People ask what have the IITs done for the nation, so that the government should extend and continue its largesse towards them. Well, there can be counter questions to this. What has the DRDO done till date, that the government should continue supporting it? For the past 25 years, they couldn't build an effective tank. Time and again, their tank has been rejected by the army. None of DRDO's projects have been completed without a huge time and cost overrun. So, is the case with the GTRE. They haven't been able to develop the engine for the LCA since the inception of the LCA project. Same with BARC and AERB. Where are those fast breeder reactors that use thorium and could free India from dependence on foreign technology? Nobody asks the effectiveness of these organisations. But still, the government has increased the grade of scientists in these organisations as compared to IIT professors. The only successful organisation that comes to my mind is the ISRO, which has fulfilled India's programme of space technology.

When will this country give the teachers their due? They are the true builders of society. When our parents are at their work place or mothers take care of our homes, these teachers are the ones who develop and blend our personalities. They are the ones who can ignite our interests in various subjects. They have the greatest impact on the development of our thought process. A teacher with highest regard for ethics and greatest interest in teaching is an asset which needs to be nurtured with care, so that he/she can positively influence the lives of generations to come. Why did the situation come to such a level where IIT teachers had to protest? Even before that, there were protests by college teachers in Maharashtra, demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission for them too. Why can't they get their dues, without having to resort to such protests?

We always recite the prayer

गुरु: ब्रम्हा, गुरुर्विष्णु, गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः|
गुरुः साक्षात परब्रम्ह: तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ||

But, do we realise the disservice we are doing to these teachers, who will be shaping the future of this country? How many times, do we look back to our school or college days and say, "Yes, it was because of these teachers, that I am what I am!" And when we realise this, will we force the government not to rob the teachers of their dignity.

Leaderless India?

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link has been thrown open to use for the general public. On 30th June 2009, Sonia Gandhi found time to do the honours. A good question to be asked is, what post does Sonia Gandhi hold? She is free of all constitutional responsibilities (except those that are thrust upon her while she is an M.P.) and hence not liable to any actions in case of government failure. But, the Congress likes to give her the credit of every "success" that either the central government or a Congress-ruled state government achieves.

An engineering marvel like the Sea Link should have been inaugurated by someone who holds a Constitutional post. The President was in Mumbai two days ago, she could have done the honours. Or the Prime Minister, who is the captain of the team that shapes the nation's future. But no, the government of Maharashtra felt that Sonia Gandhi has a standing that is higher than the President or Prime Minister. But, we have not protested against this. We are silently accepting all this. Why is there no protest? Why aren't there any protests visible? If the BJP would have called the RSS chief to inaugurate such a facility like this, imagine the uproar that would have taken place. But then, Congress is secular, while BJP is communal.

And the old wily fox, Sharad Pawar, also an off-shoot of the Congress culture sucked up to Sonia Gandhi and requested Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to name the bridge after Rajiv Gandhi. The CM, being a second generation Congressman, promptly agreed to the suggestion, in a bid to please his 'high-command'. The arguments put forward by Sharad Pawar to support his request were equally ridiculous. He said that Rajiv Gandhi was a 'son-of-the-soil' as he was born in Mumbai. Rubbish!! Mr. Pawar, are you forgetting the other leaders who have worked tirelessly for the benefit of the state of Maharashtra. Those 105 people who were killed when this very Congress wanted a bilingual state of Gujarat and Maharashtra have contributed more than Rajiv Gandhi. The only thing that I agree about Rajiv Gandhi was that he ushered in a technological revolution and had recognised the necessity of modern technology. But, he is the same Rajiv Gandhi who infamously agreed to amend the constitution to annul the Supreme Court's judgement in the Shah Bano case. He is the one who made the statement 'when a big tree falls, the earth shakes', thus backing those Congressmen involved in the anti-Sikh riots.

I would say, there were more worthy leaders than Rajiv Gandhi after whom the bridge could be named. Going back in history, there is Kanhoji Angre, the famous commander of the Maratha fleet. He tormented the English and Portuguese with his attacks on their ships. Since this bridge crosses the sea, his name should have been a favourite. Then there were Lokmanya Tilak, Acharya Atre, Shankarrao Chavan, Yashwantrao Chavan, Ahilyabai Rangekar, C.D. Deshmukh, and many more from politics. J.R.D. Tata from business. Homi Bhabha from science. Tata and Bhabha have been pioneers in their fields. Air India was Tata's baby. Homi Bhabha kick started atomic energy research. Both were Mumbaikars. There are many more social activists, famous cricket personalities, litterateurs who have contributed to the well-being of the people of Maharshtra. Anyone of them could be chosen. But no, the Congress doesn't know anybody beyond Nerhu and Gandhi. Thankfully, they aren't naming anything after Sanjay Gandhi now-a-days.

An India that dreams of becoming a super power, doesn't look at leaders apart from the Nehru-Gandhi family as worthy to be remembered through engineering and technology marvels. This picture doesn't look good. Though, it would have been nice if the sea-link was simply called Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

Developed west asks world to pickup tab of economic crisis

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of UK, while addressing the US Congress said: "America and a few countries cannot be expected to bear the burden of the fiscal and interest rate stimulus alone. We must share it globally."

The open question is- should we? The current fiscal mess is a creation of American investment banks. They extended credit recklessly, by throwing all caution into the wind. Even the American Fed didn't bother to check the ever inflating real-estate balloon. And when it did try to check, the balloon had grown to big in size and the Fed's check caused it to implode. Along with it, the real-estate market has taken down big financial companies and all those people who were lured into buying those fancy financial instruments. The real-estate bubble has sucked out more than a trillion dollars directly from the system. Indirectly, it has sucked more than that, if you consider the financial companies' business plans, based on projected incoming cash flows. And now the situation is that capital supply is scarce but demand is high. So, banks have started charging a premium for money supplied, that to in insufficient amounts.

This is a catch-22 situation. If the world doesn't get its act together, there is a danger of the economy sliding into a long time recession. But if they get together, it is like helping America get back on its feet using global money. Everybody is looking towards the western world to stimulate the entire world economy. The world was progressing on the model where the west consumed while the east produced. A tectonic shift is being predicted, where the west would see itself significantly diminished, while the BRIC nations would have come to the forefront. Inspite of the slow-down, China has returned a 7% + growth in its GDP, while India has a 5%+ growth. If India and China focus on developing their infrastructure to the levels of first world countries, they would end up stimulating a huge section of both, the local and global economy. Imagine Brazil and Russia chipping in with similar efforts. China and India have lots of dollars stashed in their foreign exchange reserves. There is a possibility of using these at least in part to build up the infrastructure. That will stimulate local economies to a certain extent. Keynes was right in a certain extent. The government cannot detach itself from the economy, the way Reagan and Thacther did with their respective economies. Everything in life needs regulation. In the hindsight, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did a commendable job by increasing interest rates at the right time and regulating the flow of money. However, it was criticised at that time, when people said that RBI is sacrificing growth at the cost of inflation. Such regulated systems allow the economy to maintain its health, even though it may not grow spectacularly. It also provides a soft cushioned landing when the economy passes through a bad phase. The RBI now has the ability to pump money back into the system to stimulate demand.

Is the west ready to accept such regulated systems? Brown and co. do not provide any answer to this question. So, if the West (especially US and UK) are not ready to regulate their economies in a better way, why should the rest of the world pick up the tab for their recklessness?

An update on my previous post

In my previous post, I had talked about laptop manufacturers not offering a choice between Windows and Linux operating systems, atleast in India. It turns out that I am somewhat wrong. Asus and HCL offer a choice between Windows and Linux OS on their "ultraportable" series of laptops. These are also termed as "Netbooks" aimed at people who want to use the laptop for surfing the internet, light editing type works and light multimedia. The main reason, though, for offering Linux is not about giving a choice, but cost reduction and resource utilisation, as the processors in these netbooks are pared-down versions of the Core2Duo.

But I still maintain my protest, as the mainstream manufacturers do not give the option to those who are more heavy users as compared to the netbook customers.

Monopolistic practices (and cartelisation??)

Over the years that I spent at IIT, I have begun to like Linux a lot. Although I am not particular about a distro, I prefer having Fedora or Ubuntu loaded on my PC. And over time, my liking towards Linux has grown along with the fact that I began disliking Windows. There were several reasons for me to starting liking Linux. One of them is that it was free and the freedom to use Linux the way I wanted it. Also, Windows had a hundred conditions that needed to be satisfied before I could use it and continue using it. To top it off, Microsoft never offered free upgrade to later versions. Only free updates and patches for the installed version were offered. And once a new version was out, Microsoft slowly reduced and eventually stopped support and updates for the previous version. This forces many customers to either upgrade to the new version by again paying for it or remain vulnerable to various shortcomings of the installed version. Linux being available freely means that one can upgrade to the new version without incurring any costs at all.

When I wanted to buy a laptop, I decided that I would not have Windows with it. I wanted a machine that would have only Linux on it, preferably a distro of my choice. However, to my utter dismay, when I looked around in the market, none of the laptop companies were offering a choice between Windows and Linux operating systems. Neither did they offer a laptop without an operating system. I was forced to buy a laptop with Windows loaded on it. What's more, the laptop manufacturer doesn't provide a Windows CD/DVD but loads the recovery system on a partition of the hard-drive that can only be accessed by the recovery software, there by eating into existing disc space.

My laptop has since then become defunct due to a hardware failure. But, I was thinking about this issue for very long. Why don't the laptop manufacturers offer us a choice? Why are we forced to buy Windows? Of course, there are open source supporters, like IBM-Lenovo supports Fedora/Red Hat, HP supports open SuSE but where do they put their preaching into practice? Their laptops too come pre-loaded with Windows OS. Isn't this some sort of cartelisation between Microsoft and the laptop manufacturers? Sure, the manufacturers can order Linux distros at very cheap rates and distribute them on DVDs instead of trying to restrict the Windows OS to a single machine by loading it on the machine's hard drive. Why hasn't any government taken action against the laptop manufacturers? In other sectors, this kind of bundling (without offering a choice, when available) has been frowned upon by the regulators. Will there ever be action against such caterlisation? Microsoft being a dominant force in the OS market, will try to exert its influence over the laptop makers. But isn't it the duty of the regulators to see that others too have a fair chance? And with options being available, the regulator should ensure that customers get the choice of operating systems. Why should we ever be forced to take stuff from Microsoft?

Students' protests at IIT

Last week, on Saturday, the students of IIT Bombay carried out a peaceful candle-light protest against the introduction of reservations in faculty positions at IIT Bombay. The students are absolutely right when they say that this is a wrong move on part of the government. IIT Bombay is an institute, where very few candidates manage to succeed in getting a faculty position. In the past one year, my own department has seen more than three open category students (the surnames made it obvious that they were from the general category) being rejected because the interviewing team did not find them good enough. These were candidates with a Ph.D. from prestigious universties and had work experience as Post-docs with reputed advisors. Some of them held a B.Tech. degree from one of the IITs itself.

Such has been the selection procedure at IIT, that despite a shortage in the number of faculty, they are not hiring any Tom, Dick or Harry. Now, when candidates are hired just because they have a caste certificate, and not enough credentials to match the rigour of work at IIT, it will naturally lead to a drop in teaching standards. A student who enters IIT may inflict harm on just himself/herself, if he /she doesn't manage to cope up with the curriculum. However, if a teacher who doesn't meet the IIT mark, comes in to teach, he/she causes harm to entire generations of students. And if IIT is not in a position to terminate the services of the teacher, then around 35 batches of students are likely to suffer. While it is acceptable for a trainee to be of standards that may be a tad below par, you cannot accept at trainer whose skills are below par.

The Minister of Human Resource Development should understand that not everybody is cut out for every possible task. Allow the under-privileged to find their core competence based on opportunities provided to them during their training. Please do not let them occupy positions just because they have a caste certificate. No person with below-par skills should be allowed to be at a position from where he/she has a potential of damaging various careers.

ITC or DOW Chemicals: The bigger picture

Disclaimer: I am not an advocate for Dow Chemicals. I hold Union Carbide solely responsible for the Bhopal Gas Disaster and support all efforts to persuade Dow Chemicals, the current owner of Union Carbide, to clean up the entire area in and around the site of disaster and make it a safe place for the future generations. However, in this process, we must not forget the people who are dying daily due to consumption of tobacco in any form.

Tobacco related deaths in India for citizens between the age group of 25-69 hovered around the 600,000 mark in 2006. In the cigarette market of India, ITC has a 70% share by volume. Thus, out of every 100 cigarettes sold in India, 70 are manufactured by ITC.

Now let us look at the Bhopal Gas Disaster. The worst of all claims put the number of deaths due to the gas leakage and in the aftermath at 20,000. The number of chronically ill and suffering due to disorder is around 150,000. These deaths have happened over a period of more than 20 years. The owner of the factory, Union Carbide India Ltd. sold its assets to Eveready and part of the proceedings from the sale were pocketed by Union Carbide, the parent company of UCIL. In 2001, Union Carbide was taken over by Dow Chemicals.

Now that Dow Chemicals has setup its shop in India, it wants to tie up with local academic institutes for recruitment purpose as well as for carrying out research work. Many people associated with the Bhopal Disaster movement, plus IIT faculty, students and alumni are opposing these tie-ups, on the grounds that Dow Chemicals should first, own up for the mess in Bhopal and second, either clean up the existing mess or pay for cleaning the site and decontaminating the ground water. Some groups have been successful in stalling Dow's efforts of campus recruitment.

At this juncture, I would like to pose the following question to people who claim to be fighting for justice to the humankind of Bhopal. If Dow Chemicals is being banned from recruiting people from IIT campuses because it is responsible for the death of more than 20,000 people and the injury and illness of more than 150,000; why isn't the same law applicable to companies like ITC? ITC has a major cigarette business. It earns a lot of revenue from sale of various kind of cigarettes. Cigarette smoking has killed and is killing a lot more people than those who died in the Bhopal Tragedy. Yet, we see IITs welcoming ITC with open hands for placements. ITC recruits talented young B.Tech./Dual Degree students from IITs who might someday end up working to increase profit from cigarette sales. The company usually gets a slot in the first two days of placement, which indicates the kind of pay it offers to the students.

Do we fail to realise that ITC is as big (if not more) a killer as Dow Chemicals? Or as Freakonomist Steven D. Levitt says, our reaction is based more on the perception of threat rather than its actual impact. We do not feel threatened when someone smokes a cigarette standing next to us. But just the very idea of MIC hanging around our neck makes us feel that Dow is threatening to human kind. Can we get beyond the perception of threat and see the actual one? Also, can we evolve a sustainable path (the golden-middle path) so that all parties involved get maximum benefit at least costs to them? Is the government willing enough? Are the people willing enough? What is the golden-middle? These are the questions that need to be answered by the stakeholders- the people, the activists, the industry and above all, the government.