Tele-medicine should reach India’s remote areas. The budget makes generous allocations for education. But not enough for health. The allocations in the budget for national rural health mission allots just less than Rs. 2,000 more ( from Rs.8,420 crore to Rs.10,280 crore).

We have a non-speaking Prime Minister and an over-talking Finance Minister.It seems that we have to amend our Constitution that should mandate the Prime Minister, besides being the chief executive of the government must also be an educator! The PM must be talking, talking and talking! Like Gandhi and Nehru in the earlier generation, we need our leaders first be educators. We have to educate more so now, not only the masses but also the various vested interests!

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International Baccalaureate? IGCSE?
Public Schools and established schools must go for them!

Indian schools need updating!Indian schools must become international standard schools. There is an Indian Public Schools Conference organisation.Not much is heard of its activities, perhaps its activities are not worth reporting in the press or worthy of public attention. It is time we stir them all to new initiatives and action!

There are schools,or at least some of the good ones which are making news these days are the so-called International Schools or International Public schools. They are announcing the offer of the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme awarded by the IBO,Geneva,a non-profitable educational organisation located in Geneva.Some of the famous Swiss schools too conform to the French education model.The IB plus, another one, the IGCSE are now the two current favourites with the rich and ambitious crowd! IGCSE is now on a marketing drive to make it wider, as it operates in 150 different countries.

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Where too many theories don’t work!

Amartya Sen was in India recently and he was at his usual best: brilliant, insightful and oh, too many stimulating words and suggestions. So too another Nobel Prize economist, the American Joseph Stiglitz too was in India and he too was so brilliant and made very many insightful points. He is an expert on Globalisation and its “discontents”! Capital movement is part of the globalisation, in fact, the chief trigger. Fine. But then this economist says, rightly, that it is better that the physical movement of labour is much more a stablising force than the capital movements. There is somehow in India the notion that economic development of the country can be brought about by listening to the professional economists. Or, as we have done, entrusting the policy making (as we have done with Ahluwalia at the Planning Commission) and policy implementation as with Manmohan Singh in the Prime Ministerial chair.

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The new national policy is too long a statement and short on realistic issues! Agriculture can thrive only in a growing economy! More industrialisation, urbanisation and services sector can only make agriculture market-driven and more efficient!

Who says agriculture can grow only when there is more concentration on agriculture. Yes, it seems ironic that those states that have remained predominantly agricultural, states like Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal have remained poor, in terms of every know economic criteria. Per capita income to education, healthcare and infant mortality etc. Orissa and West Bengal are supposed to be surplus in power generation. But do you know that these states sell power to other more power deficit states and yet these states have 80 per cent of their villages without electricity! Orissa buys electricity at Rs. 1.10 per unit from its generating units and sold it to traders at rates as high as Rs.5.50.West Bengal SEB books a profit of Rs.0.76 crores. This is an illusion. Maharashtra reports a loss of Rs.1638 crores and yet it remains the most industrialised state.

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There was this innocent news item. It said “Sharad Pawar has to take greater interest in the cricket game and think beyond the millions and billions involved, the money, after all the all of us are contributing”(Asian Age). Yes, Pawar is more known for the game than for the game of politics and in particular the performance in the Agri Ministry!

Sharad Pawar is a veteran leader and we have always considered him as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate. We hold him in high regard. Vadamalai Media know him for long and we have always rated his agricultural knowledge as highly rare and a model for other states. Pawar is a highly successful agriculturist, we know. His Bharamati Constituency is a mini-development paradigm for a host of activities, agriculture, rural development, rural industries, future agro-industries and education advancement etc. Some of India’s progressive agro-industries were started there. All this and much more can make Pawar as the tallest leader in the Congress history, that is he is also a long time Congress leader and his present split with the parent party makes him no less a national leader and a committed Congress ideologist.

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Tatas car project a prestigious issue for the West Bengal government

Mamata Banerjee is variously called, the stormy petral, Didi and the various names, both complementary and also negative. Somehow, the Trinamul Congress leader is known for her unpredictability and her party is also known for its changing political alliances. Sonia Gandhi tried and failed and yet the wooing of the only leader of some mass appeal is not yet called off. Mamata is being courted by the Congress and also by the BJP which paid a high price in trying to pacify her. Her defiance of bigwigs, both in the national and state politics is well-known.

Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamul Congress chief had created an ugly situation in late November by proceeding to the Singur village in Hooghly district when she was prevented by the police. Then, she proceeded to the State Assembly where too she was unwelcome. Knowing her penchant for unpredictable moods, the government rightly feared some untoward incidents which in the event turned out to be the most ugly scene, the TV shots showed all over the country showed that brutal behaviour of the elected representatives, they were so capable of destruction and wanton debris created out of the so many wonderful woodwork, the chairs and tables and sofas that were turned overboard and broken down so mercilessly and the result was a site of vast destruction. The Assembly Speaker did the right thing by inviting the public to come and take a look at the sort of destruction caused by Mamata’s fury.

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Our economic reforms must have a cohesive economic philosophy
The government machinery must act pro-actively to solve the many problems

We seem to be living through a very strange phase of our national life. We have leaders, in high offices and others as party leaders. Yet, we seem to be witnessing more routine attendance to offices, as if running the country is just one more bureaucratic existence! The President, Prime Minister and other leaders are of course discharging their duties. But it looks they do this without even bothering just to look outside their windows!

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The Congress and the CPM have a long history and tradition.
The BJP and the chauvinistic, casteist parties thrive more on populist agendas

The easy part is the political agenda! The difficult part is the economic agenda. Political agenda has its noble ideals as well as some anti-modern, anti-historical, narrow, and chauvinistic and even sometimes(or, mostly these days?)Blatant fascist, violent, hatred-filled empty rhetoric! Should we mention the names? Hope readers can identify these parties! As for the economic agenda, here too, there are well-informed agenda and also the agenda born of ignorance!
The major parties, the Congress, the BJP and the CPM have their own political roots we all know fairly well what these parties stand for. When it comes to economic agenda, there is no clarity even for the Congress party.

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Javed Akhtar on society’s values! Society’s education perceptions and priorities

After going through the BJP education minister days it seems a springtime under Mr.Arjun Singh, the new HRD minister.
But poor Mr.Singh! Can he deliver on the promises of the government? We mean the education for all and the midday meals targets? We are not sure! The new minister had initiated some positive changes. Textbooks being revised, committees appointed, the much-neglected Education Advisory Board was convened and the boiled and the beautiful, the wise and the best gave their wisdom. Fine! Now, what is happening? We don’t have a DD to tell the latest programmes of the government. We don’t have the information from the ministry itself first. The newspapers in this country are after bigger games, they want to curry the favour of the big and mighty. That is one reason why they change sides so quickly. They, the Indian media is as good or as bad as any other media, say like the American media. There in the USA, we are also having politicians who care only for the privileged and rich.

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Exam-driven schools, Schoolheads showOver- schooling is killing students and teachers!

Bureaucratisation of school education had reached its limit in India.So too the minds of students,teachers and parents in the unshakeable government fixed school texts,exams etc.
The other day we visited a well-established school in a district suburb.There was also a National Award won Headmaster in the car.When we wanted to visit the senior teachers in the school,the very gates were tightly shut.The watchman,there were more than two or three, all in forbidding uniform came and blocked the car and told us the teachers were not inside.But when we protested they opened the gates. Teachers were all there right inside! The school buildings were in a row of barracks-like and the very teachers were frightened to come near us,they took time,got permission before they could say hello!

It is the same everywhere in private schools these days.The education entrepreneurs are all not angels, there are so many shady elements in commercial education. Whenever you visit a school, they invariably say they are busy with exams! The students are burdened everyday with mind-killing tutions.

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