Monday, July 26, 2010

The minority measure mystery

Rangnath Commission’s rejection of linguistic minorities is illogical and absurd

However, the commission ignored this fact and went on to recommend reservation on the basis of caste and religion. The entire focus of Rangnath Commission has gone so deeply into religious minorities, especially Muslims, that it has tried to reject even the term ‘Linguistic Minorities,’ by saying, “The term ‘Linguistic Minorities’ as such has not been defined in the Constitution or any other law. The term minority has been defined in Section 2 of the National Commission for Minorities Act with reference to the religious minorities only.” This observation is a complete contradiction of its own report in which the commission has written in Chapter 2 that “Article 29 has the word ‘minorities’ in its marginal heading but speaks of “Any sections of citizens… having a distinct language, script or culture.” It further notes that “Article 30 speaks specifically of two categories of minorities – ‘Religious and Linguistic’. The remaining two Articles -350 A and 350 B relate to linguistic minority only.”

Clearly, the panel was not at all in a mood to even recognise linguistic minorities as a basis to determine backwardness. “The Bhojpuri community has been the most backward and neglected since India’s independence,” comments Shaheed Rahim, senior media researcher at Observer Research Foundation and the founder of Kashika Institute in Delhi. He said, “Kashika, Angika, Vajjika and Purabiya people are long neglected.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Utterly ogrely…!

TSI Five-O: Goes ‘Ogre-board’ with punchless jokes in a retelling of Shrek 1

The ogre fun is here again with an interesting twist but Shrek as a franchise ran out of steam by “Shrek The Third” and is pretty much running on empty now.

The latest tale begins with an irate Shrek (Mike Myers), trying hard to shuttle between his daily chores and managing his kids, with absolutely no time for himself. He misses his long lost luxuries of lone time and of having the liberty to take a mud bath as and when desired. A dejected Shrek, desperate to live his bachelor life again, soon gets tricked into signing a contract with the evil Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), who with his magical powers, offers him a deal to live his bachelor life for a day. Once Shrek bites the bait, he finds himself to be a part an era where no one knows him - his wife Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) doesn’t recognise him, his friends the Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss (Antonio Banderas) have no idea about his existence and worse still Rumpelstiltskin is the king of Far Far Away.

How Shrek fights all evils (especially the flying witches) and wins the ‘Kiss of True Love’ in order to turn back time is an interesting watch only if one overlooks the frivolous entry of the Pied-Piper. The 3-D gimmick does not add anything to the adventure and the film is not exactly a bundle of joy if you were expecting a world of entertainment, but nevertheless it is a decent watch. It’s “Shrek 1” redux in a sense; only with fewer funnier moments.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Time to act purposefully on cigarette makers

Out of 1.1 billion smokers across the world, a staggering 120 million live in India. In quick summary, raising taxes on cigarettes and bidis to internationally recommended levels would not only save millions of lives but also will generate additional revenues for the government to the tune of Rs.180 billion, according to American and Canadian economists and public health specialists. Reports point out that in spite of the fact that 51 million Indians alive today will have a premature death because of tobacco consumption, the taxes on tobacco are far too low compared to developed economies. The World Health Organisation recommends that taxes on cigarettes be 65 per cent to 80 per cent of the retail price. In India, the figure is as low as 40 per cent! However, if the figure is raised to 78 per cent, it can ward off 3.4 million premature tobacco related deaths and as well as raise the government exchequer by Rs.146.3 billion each year. The situation is the same with bidis. Though 85 per cent of Indians smoke bidis, the product is taxed at nine per cent of its retail price! Almost 15 million premature deaths can be averted even by raising the tax rate to 40 per cent of retail price and elevate government revenue to the tune of Rs.36.9 billion. One-tenth of all deaths in India are tobacco related – a shocking 1 million every year. The World Bank estimates that a 10 per cent price rise of cigarettes could ensure see a demand fall by 8 per cent in low or middle income countries. Even though a majority of tobacco consumers are poor and young, and very price sensitive, as the demand for expensive cigarettes falls, it is unfortunately offset by the demand rise for bidis. Therefore consumers merely switch to a cheaper priced bidis. This is one of the main reasons that with higher taxes on cigarettes in India, the demand never really dropped for tobacco related products, unlike in other middle income countries. One set of strategies adopted by the Indian government to reduce demand for tobacco products – imposing comprehensive ban on advertising and promotions; apart from restricting smoking in public places and ensuring prominent health warning labels on products – has contributed considerably to reduction in heart attacks. However, prohibition of advertising and promotions still contain certain loopholes – surrogate advertising being one example of the same. Things become more complicated when the company manufacturing the cigarettes is a conglomerate operating in many other business areas.

There is no ideal policy. A policy that works out, becomes ideal. Cuba may not be fully successful but there can be lessons from its policy. Its first aim was to portray "smoking is a socially unacceptable behaviour". This was followed by creating awareness about smoking’s harmful affects; and providing education, research to evaluate peoples' psyche about smoking and framing strategies towards changing that. Above all, strong political will is all the more important, considering that tobacco related illness and deaths cost India an incredible sum of Rs.300 billion a year!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

It is anything but a failed state

There are other positive developments as well. A large section of civil society has started to shift its focus to issues that were left on the backburner for decades. Increasingly, people are willing to talk about issues like poverty, health and education. Although Pakistan fares better than India on several indices of health, hunger and poverty, and is visibly ahead in infrastructure, there is still a long way to go. Civil society is coming up with innovative ideas to deal with these issues. And they are questioning authority like never before. The way civil society and media has been hounding the power minister and the power supply authorities for the painfully long outages is worth taking note of.

It does not mean that emotive issues are dead. In almost every meeting, somebody or the other will raise the issue of Kashmir or for that matter, increasingly, water. But in every meeting a substantial section is willing to look through such individuals and talk about other matters. A classic example was our meeting with the Vice Chancellor and faculty members of the University of Punjab, Lahore. It was heartening to see how much effort academia was making to improve higher education in the country. In the middle of the discussion, a long retired army man now doubling up as a researcher, started taking a hawkish position on Kashmir. The other faculty members not only snubbed him and but also started talking about the more pressing issue of how history is being taught in South Asia. The academicians were putting in lots of labour while trying to write history textbooks with a fresh perspective, free from partition era hangover. For these academicians more pressing issues lay somewhere else.

The head of the Centre of South Asian Studies lamented that he has not got access to the Persian manuscripts of an old history book that was lying somewhere in India. Half of the same manuscripts are in Lahore. But he needed the entire thing to write the authentic history of the period. Similarly, other academicians were more concerned about a lull in academic exchange and non-availability of visas to India than they were with Kashmir.

Similarly, there are lots of concerns about how their country is presented in the international media, particularly in India. Questions after questions were thrown at us about Bollywood’s stereotyping of everything Pakistani. It appears the masses there want to detach themselves from the state and want to be treated as an independent entity. The selection of news is an issue. For example, two days in a row, there were items about a Hindu feudal lord kidnapping a Muslim girl and violating her. However, the Indian media only carries the news when there is a role reversal. Also, the siege mentality one would have expected to see on the roads was missing. Average Pakistanis are the fiercest critics of fundamentalist forces. They snub rightist elements. They question everyone: the state, the army and ISI.

The visit also coincided with perhaps the greatest event in Pakistan’s democratic history: the 18th amendment. The way all political parties came on board to introduce political reforms was unprecedented. Who would have imagined Asif Ali Zardari of all people would let go of his extra-constitutional powers so easily. Democracy is indeed trying to find its feet in Pakistan and the 18th amendment, with the restoration of legislative power, will go a long way to strengthen it.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Tuesday, June 08, 2010

OBC face of the Ram Mandir movement

It may be recalled that even after the BJP had expelled Uma Bharti, the RSS continued to support her. The RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ had also attacked the BJP leadership over her expulsion. She was arguably the party's most charismatic backward caste face. Uma has been associated with the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) since her childhood before coming into the BJP fold. She was a gifted child preacher who was groomed by the Parivar. And since the BJP's inception in 1980, Uma had been a loyal soldier of the party.

On being asked if RSS was pushing the BJP to re-induct Uma Bharti, RSS spokesperson Mohan Vaidya completely denied this and said, “This is a party matter. The BJP will decide. They will do whatever they think is good for the party.”

Soon after appearing on the national scene in the early 1990s, the BJP began a project to build a strong backward caste leadership with the help of K. Govindacharya, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti but after their departure, BJP had started to look like a party of floating leaders without a mass base. According to sources, the party is planning to re-induct many stalwarts like Babulal Marandi and Govindacharya as well. As a senior leader says, “Govindacharya’s departure had been extremely costly for the BJP. The former was one of the key strategists of the party.”

According to one faction of the divided party, differences related to Uma Bharti’s re-induction have been solved but the other side is still opposed to the move. But the opposition notwithstanding, the fact remains that Uma Bharti has the strong backing of a section of the RSS. Her re-induction cannot be ruled out. Sources say that the announcement to launch Uma Bharti as the face of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh will be made very shortly.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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