The importance of having multiple interests

Every man (and woman) should have interests in a multitude of areas. I am interested in politics, both international and domestic, consumer technology, sports such as tennis, cricket and the various events at Olympics, history, geography and travel.

Many people I know are interested in only a few things that are of immediate concern to them. When I was a student, many of my peers focused so much on their books that they had neither the time nor the inclination to read the newspaper. And then the same people ran from pillar to post asking others how to prepare for group discussions and interviews when the placement season arrived. Even today I know a lot of people who are one – dimensional when it comes to interests. Apart from cricket that most in India follow, many people would struggle to strike a conversation with anyone beyond one or two topics. So if you are into stocks and follow cricket and happen to meet someone who works in Technology and doesn’t like cricket, the conversation gets muted after just a few minutes. Weather in India is hardly the ice-breaker it is in United Kingdom.

Thankfully, my varied interests help me fuel my passion for reading and writing. It helps me strike and maintain conversations. If you are interested in learning about different things, it not just makes you more informed but also improves your social stock. If your wife isn’t your best friend or doesn’t share the same interests, you can always avoid boredom or loneliness by immersing yourselves in your long list of interests and passions.

That’s what I do.

How Mainstream Media Lost its Credibility

In a democratic system, public opinion is the built-in check and balance that ensures that the three pillars of democracy – Executive, Legislative, and Judicial do what they are supposed to do and not start misusing the system for serving their own ends. In India, like in almost every other nation where media is free to praise and criticize these three pillars of democracy, media has played a crucial role in shaping public opinion. It is for this reason that media has been called the fourth pillar of democracy.

The fourth pillar justified the faith put in it by the citizens when it took up issues that had made a mockery of our justice system as a result of botched up police investigations – the Nitish Katara murder case and the Jessica Lal murder case to name a few. Media’s activism despite criticism from legislative and executive quarters was brushed aside by the public which found a hope in it for fighting the corrupt, inefficient system. Liberalization and growth of the Cable TV led to a mushrooming of private news channels and news anchors and journalists presenting the news became known faces with almost celebrity like following. The age of 24X7 news was here and the masses could not tire of consuming the never ending analyses, talk shows and special reports emanating from news channels which were unbiased voices and not a propaganda tool of the government or some entrenched political party. Or so we thought.

There always were people who did not like the way the private channels sensationalized every story to make it an exclusive. But for every such critic, there were hundreds who hero-worshipped their award winning journalists who were always willing to travel to war zones and rugged terrains to get that exclusive story as it unfolded. It all seemed to be working out fine when something disruptive happened: the rise of social media.

As Facebook and more notably Twitter became popular in India, each and every word that was spoken by these journalists came under greater than ever scrutiny. People discussed them online on twitter and even questioned and criticized those who were previously considered unchallenged demi-gods of public opinion. The result of this has been shocking and a revelation. More and more people are realizing that their favorite journalists of old times are not unbiased, neutral voices but men and women with their own agendas who use their platform to shape the discussion or analysis in a way that suits a particular party or political ideology.

Hence, it makes for an interesting observation:

1. When we see shock on the face of an award winning journalist the moment Allahabad High Court grants a verdict in favor of the Hindus in the Ayodhya dispute case. As she repeatedly asks the Hindu community to be large-hearted and share the land with the Muslims, we wonder if her reaction had been the same if the verdict went in favor of the other party.
2. When journalists, who go ad-nauseam about freedom of expression of a painter who repeatedly painted Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the nude and about the freedom of speech of a writer-turned activist who never lets go an opportunity to speak against India, themselves initiate proceedings against bloggers who criticize them or their reporting
3. When a lady journalist calls twitter users supporting rights and privileges of the majority Hindu community as ‘Internet Hindus’
4. When journalists who worry about religious sentiments of the minorities when it comes to certain cartoons in a Danish newspaper have no hesitation in calling Lord Ram, worshipped by Hindus across the world, a divine encroacher
5. When journalists who dub leaders trying to work up the coalition numbers as ‘brokers’ or ‘fixers’ are themselves caught on tape fixing cabinet positions and the only excuse they have is that it was an error of judgment. And while resignations are sought from anybody and everybody not belonging to the grand old party, such journalists continue to hold their positions
6. When the picture of a 42 year old politician, who happens to belong to the most powerful political dynasty of India, is morphed with those of cricket players and fans after India wins a match against arch-rivals Pakistan in the World Cup and the caption says “Yes, We Did”, we wonder if it is independent journalism or sycophancy at its best.
7. When the pretty lady from the network famous for notices and threats to opposing voices keeps bringing in Samjhauta express blasts whenever Mumbai terror attacks and Islamic fundamentalism are discussed
8. When news channels demand resignation of a CM based on charges contained in a Lokayukta report but question the CAG for its report accusing a powerful CM belonging to another party and refrain from asking for resignation because everybody is innocent till proven guilty
9. When the journalists who didn’t think twice about reporting and speculating on Apple chief Steve Jobs’ medical condition are preaching decency and privacy when the High Command of the oldest political party of India has taken ill.

The reaction of these journalists to differing views and criticism goes totally against the rational image they had cultivated before social media arrived on the scene. Criticize their stand and you would be called a troll, a right-wing hatemonger or at the minimum a moron. Sometimes, if you are arguing with their supporters, these journalists tend to jump in and would then ask you to learn some decency or take your poison elsewhere. In fact, there has been an instant where a lady journalist was found cheering her supporters when they hurled some profanities at another lady who has been quite vocal in her criticism of the said journalist. So much for women empowerment and respect for women!

People all across the world have their biases. Journalists are no different. It is perhaps better to openly declare one’s political allegiance than play up the charade of being an independent news agency. News networks in USA openly back one political party over the other. It would be better if Indian news channels and media houses start doing that. It would save their journalists lot of criticism which they cop up for pretending that they present an unbiased, neutral and factual account of what’s happening in the country minute by minute. Thanks to twitter and other forms of social media, it is no longer easy to make fool of your audience. Mainstream media in India must wake up to this reality that they cannot fool all the people all the time, By continuing to try, the only thing they are going to achieve is to further dent their already punctured credibility.

The ‘What Else’ Phenomenon

Let me start by setting the context straight away. This post is a response to a post by Ms. Suchi Kumar on her blog which talks about non-focused nature of most conversations on any chat engine. To see this post, click here.

In her article, Ms. Kumar has highlighted three irritants:

The usage of ‘what else’ in chat?

The difference between friends and social acquaintances

The need to draw a line between good friends, friends and acquaintances

She has given the most importance to ‘what else’ and therefore, I would weave my story by outlining why ‘what else’ is important in today’s shrinking world.

It is said that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. This is commonly known as Six Degrees of Separation. This concept is at the heart of the social networks we use (Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn etc).

The main benefit of a social network comes from the loosely-knit ties that characterize it. Let me quote a few lines from wikipedia’s entry on social network –

“The shape of a social network helps determine a network’s usefulness to its individuals. Smaller, tighter networks can be less useful to their members than networks with lots of loose connections (weak ties) to individuals outside the main network. More open networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties.”

Chat engines like Yahoo Messenger, MSN and Google Talk were developed to help people stay in touch with family and friends. As the social networking and collaboration concepts like Web 2.0 became buzzwords in our societies as well as professional set-up, the chat engines were integrated with social networking sites. In fact, Google perhaps was the first one to integrate orkut and Gmail contact lists. This has resulted in your social networking contacts appearing in your chat engine’s friends list. As a result, as of today, online chat has become a form or medium of social networking.

Therefore, when someone pings Ms. Kumar, this is no more a simple chat as it used to be in 2000-01. It is social networking and since it is based on loose connections, most of those doing the pinging may turn out to be mere acquaintances. And by design, these people don’t know much about you and hence ‘what else?’ is the best conversation starter.

I will quickly now address the second and third points raised by Ms. Kumar. We know each other for around 10 months now. How on earth would I know whether she considers me a social acquaintance or a friend? Like one-sided love, one-sided friendship is more common than we think. The whole idea of drawing a line between different kinds of ‘friends and contacts’ is flawed. I may pour my heart out to an acquaintance when I am emotionally broken but when I have recovered, I start thinking about propriety and limits. This is a self-serving thought which can be used as an excuse to accuse others of crossing the limit time and time again. And most importantly, it is not practical as the person on the other side of the chat engine would never know if he has reached the line that marks your area in the jungle. Unless of course, the intrusion is into somebody’s personal life.

So, if you’re busy and cannot talk, please don’t leave the status green. Better still, log off and come online only when you can manage a chat. Don’t confuse others by flaunting the green signal. Filter out acquaintances from your chat list if you don’t like them pinging you. And don’t think somebody pinged you because they didn’t know what to do with their spare time. They might actually unwind seeing you act pricey.

In 2007, Microsoft paid a $240 million price for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook valuing the start-up at $15 billions. Bebo and LinkedIn are worth $850 million and $1 billion respectively, based on relatively recent valuations whereas the last valuation of MySpace was $580 million, back in 2005 when it was acquired by News Corp. Let us not forget this value has been created by users who have flocked to these sites; Users who are friends to some and social acquaintances to most members on these sites. And they network using an irritating phrase that reads – what else?

Let me start by setting the context straight away. This article is a response to a post by my friend Ms. Suchi Kumar on her blog which has left me wondering if I am her friend or a social acquaintance. But let’s leave that for some other day.

In her post (To see this post, click here), Ms. Kumar has censured the non-focused nature of most online chat conversations and highlighted three irritants/issues:

1. The usage of ‘what else’ in chat
2. The difference between friends and social acquaintances
3. The need to draw a line between good friends, friends and acquaintances

She has given the most importance to ‘what else’ and therefore, I would weave my story by outlining why ‘what else’ is important in today’s shrinking world.

It is said that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. This is commonly known as Six Degrees of Separation. This concept is at the heart of the social networks we use (Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn etc).

The main benefit of a social network comes from the loosely-knit ties that characterize it. Let me quote a few lines from wikipedia’s entry on social network –

The shape of a social network helps determine a network’s usefulness to its individuals. Smaller, tighter networks can be less useful to their members than networks with lots of loose connections (weak ties) to individuals outside the main network. More open networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties.

Chat engines like Yahoo Messenger, MSN and Google Talk were developed to help people stay in touch with family and friends. As the social networking and collaboration concepts like Web 2.0 became buzzwords in our societies as well as professional set-up, the chat engines were integrated with social networking sites. In fact, Google perhaps was the first one to integrate orkut and Gmail contact lists. This has resulted in your social networking contacts appearing in your chat engine’s friends list. As a result, as of today, online chat has become a form or medium of social networking.

Therefore, when someone pings Ms. Kumar, this is no more a simple chat as it used to be in 2000-01. It is social networking and since it is based on loose connections, most of those doing the pinging may turn out to be mere acquaintances. And by design, these people don’t know much about you and hence ‘what else?’ is the best conversation starter.

I will quickly now address the second and third points raised by Ms. Kumar. We know each other for around 10 months now. How on earth would I know whether she considers me a social acquaintance or a friend? Like one-sided love, one-sided friendship is more common than we think. The whole idea of drawing a line between different kinds of ‘friends and contacts’ is flawed. I may pour my heart out to an acquaintance when I am emotionally broken but when I have recovered, I start thinking about propriety and limits. This is a self-serving thought which can be used as an excuse to accuse others of crossing the limit time and time again. And most importantly, it is not practical as the person on the other side of the chat engine would never know if he has reached the line that marks your area in the jungle. Unless of course, the intrusion is into somebody’s personal life.

So, if you’re busy and cannot talk, please don’t leave the status green. Better still, log off and come online only when you can manage a chat. Don’t confuse others by flaunting the green signal. Filter out acquaintances from your chat list if you don’t like them pinging you. And don’t think somebody pinged you because they didn’t know what to do with their spare time. They might actually unwind seeing you act pricey.

In 2007, Microsoft paid a $240 million price for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook valuing the start-up at $15 billions. Bebo and LinkedIn are worth $850 million and $1 billion respectively, based on relatively recent valuations whereas the last valuation of MySpace was $580 million, back in 2005 when it was acquired by News Corp. Let us not forget this value has been created by users who have flocked to these sites; users who are friends to some and social acquaintances to most members on these sites. And they network using an irritating phrase that reads – what else?

Do we really need state-run schools?

What picture comes to your mind when you hear about a Government School?
If you have a kid, where would you send her – a government run school or the private school in your neighbourhood?

Before we look at what the answers look like, let us consider the school structure in India. For this discussion, let us consider three kinds of schools: state-run schools, government-aided private schools and privately managed schools.

Government-run schools are a mess: a study found that on any given day, one out of four teachers in state-run primary schools is absent, and of those present half are not teaching. And this is true for both government and government-aided private schools. If you consider this with the fact that around 85% of Indian children are in government run schools, the future seems grim.

The talk that private education is only for the upper layers of the Indian society is a myth. A survey by George Mason University indicated that even poor parents prefer private schools for their children. Why? The three main reasons that emerge again and again are:

• The private schools are English medium which is a very important factor for 96% of the parents.
• Parents perceive that the private sector provides a better quality of education.
• 75% of the parents said they would choose a private school even if a government school was available.

In a paper published by the Liberty Institute of New Delhi, James Tooley gives an interesting insight. He says that private school students, when unaided by any government funding, showed test scores in reading and math that were twice the levels of students in the government schools or in the government aided private schools. He concluded that the significant difference was in the accountability of teachers towards students. NIIT Technologies, a private company with 4,000 “learning centers,” has trained four million students and helped fuel India’s information technology revolution. And there are many state-run centres that are faring poorly. Clearly, this proves that accreditation or government recognition is not necessary to be successful or effective.

So why are government aided schools not doing as well? Almost everyone believes that no learning happens there. Poor, crumbling infrastructure and lack of competent teachers are another factor. In many villages, the government school doesn’t even have a toilet for girl students. Sometimes, students, especially in the tribal areas, have to walk several kilometers to reach their government school. No wonder the dropout rate is as high as 80% in some cases. In many government schools, there is just one headmaster who acts as the instructor for all subjects. In almost all cases, the school teachers are not paid on time; it is needless to discuss whether their salaries are attractive enough to keep them from looking for other jobs. So, what right does our bureaucrats or politicians have to complain about the mushrooming of private schools if one in each of these villages can help educate the children?

So should we dismantle all government schools? While the arguments mentioned so far may seem to indicate that this is the way to go, it will not be easy to do away with such a large system. Besides, many argue that only government schools are sensitive to social objectives such as raising the enrolment of girls, SC/ST students, and those from lower income groups. Though there are private schools that voluntarily work towards these objectives, it would be unwise for the government to wash its hands off in this area.

So what can we do? In India, state departments of education manage 66% of all primary schools, and local bodies manage only 20%, with the rest managed by tribal social welfare departments, private aided and unaided institutions. It is here where a change could work best. If education is decentralized in India with local bodies having more control, these institutions would be better suited to manage the local needs and preferences. Government can fulfill its social objectives by acting only as a watchdog with at best none or minimum interference. Even for private schools, financial incentives can be provided as a means to entice them to cater to socially and economically weaker sections of the society.

Doing all this would mean that Government gives a serious thought to the amount of money it allocates for education every year in the Union Budget. Currently, the expenditure on education is around 3% of the GDP and if new initiatives are to be successful, this figure needs to go up. In addition to the education cess already levied, the Government should consider raising the fees to government managed colleges of higher education as these centers charge fees that is much below that charged by private parties.

If these measures are taken, and the money meant for education is used to strengthen private parties and local bodies working towards education, the results would be far better than what we have achieved so far by spending on an inefficient model of public education.

From Bad to Worse

Shibu Soren is the first MP to be held guilty of murder and to be sentenced to life imprisonment. While the conviction has reinforced the common man’s belief in the system, it also has once again brought to the forefront the question of criminalization of politics. Even if one leaves Guruji, as Soren is known among his followers, aside, there are many others who have cases pending against them. Two years ago, a study by an independent watchdog had said that almost a quarter of the over 540 people elected to the Indian Parliament in 2004 faced criminal charges ranging from murder, extortion and rape. (Source: ANI)

I have always been unable to understand why do our universities need elections or a Student Union for that matter? I did my engineering from a private institution, a deemed university under the UGC act, and we did not have any union. For all our issues and concerns, we used to approach the dean or the warden. Needless to say, sometimes the concerns were addressed and sometimes we were overlooked. But never did we feel the need for a student union. I wonder then why students of our universities are so interested in student politics. Some days back, a teacher was murdered by activists of a student union in MP. In Maharashtra, a professor’s face was blackened on the charge of molestation though there was no evidence to prove the charge. In most of these cases, students wing of political parties are involved.

The Lyngdoh Committee, a six-member committee headed by former Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, was constituted on the direction of the Supreme Court in December 2005 to study various aspects of student union elections. The committee examined aspects like the criminalization of student politics, financial transparency, eligibility criteria for students and standards of academic performance and one of its key recommendations was that political parties should have no roles to play in the university and college campus. The committee has recommended a check on the money being pumped into the elections and says students older than 26 years should not be allowed to contest elections and those studying to get a third degree irrespective of the age should also be barred. Despite these recommendations, the UP government has decided to go in the opposite direction. It has strengthened the hands of prospective goons in university campuses by giving gunners to many university students. For those who love numbers – in Lucknow University alone, there are as many as 80 students with a criminal background. With elections in UP round the corner, the region is abuzz with rumours that Mulayam’s Samajwadi Party may offer a ticket to gangster Abu Salem, who is accused of playing a critical role in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.

If criminals are to be kept away from public life and politics, it has to be done not only at the centre but right from the state-politics level. Our MPs are not happy with the interference of judiciary in legislative matters but the fact remains that the legislators have let the nation down and it is up to the judiciary to clean up the system. They may not like this judicial activism but the people are all for it.

Unfortunately, the political parties will again turn a blind eye to all this. After all, it serves their interest to scare the common man using the muscle of the criminal activists. And the quality of education and students will go from bad to worse as it has happened in the case of our elected representatives.

Superpower Dreams: A Long Road Ahead

Often in the newspapers or on TV, we hear special reports that would make us feel that in the next 15 years, India will truly arrive on the world scene. It feels good to think that we would be a superpower along with the US and China isn’t it?

Contrary to this perception is the ground reality. We are a country divided on caste lines, a country where people of two states don’t see eye to eye, a country where merit takes the backseat whether it is education or jobs or promotions. And to top it all, we are a nation that is very corrupt and where every day more than one farmer commits suicide for lack of funds.

India and eight other countries share the 88th position on a list of most corrupt among 159 countries. Last year, we were ranked 90 in a field of 146 countries with a corruption index of 2.9. The recent CBI reports about a former Chief Minister of a relatively small state alleged that the man had made a whopping Rs. 1500 crores in his six-year tenure as chief minister. It may not seem very large when you think what Bill Gates earns but when you compare it to the poverty in our country, the figure assumes significant proportions. Consider this: 41.4 percent of our population lives on less than $2 (Rs. 90 approx) per day. In spite of this, our government continues to shield the corrupt. Our people continue to support the corrupt. It is unfortunate that we are willing to accept the corrupt for either fear of their power or for the simple fact that most of us don’t mind paying someone off illegally to get a job done.

We are also a country where the poor does not have access to quality healthcare. Female infanticide is very high in states like Haryana, M.P. and Rajasthan. A huge number of poor, rural women die in childbirth. In addition, we have the highest number of HIV positive cases. After years of pulse-polio campaign to eradicate polio, one case was detected in Maharashtra a few days back. The worse part of the picture was the victim had been given polio drops. Clearly, corruption and inefficiency is rampant even in healthcare industry.

Many Years ago, in a conference in New Delhi, Mother Teresa told a stunned audience, ‘I am so happy to be amongst all you successful and powerful people. I have only one small request. I would be grateful to all of you if, after you finish eating today, I could collect all your leftovers.’ Hunger is the worst punishment one can inflict on anybody. Recent studies show that between 80 to 200 million men, women and children go to sleep hungry every night in our country. The ones who are slightly fortunate survive on one Vada Pav a day.

Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, is a city where wining and dining never stops but the reality behind all that came out in the open a few months back when a number of malnourished children were admitted in Mumbai hospitals. Sixty million children in India are malnourished, half of which live in rural India. Of every three malnourished child in the world one lives in India. Still, we waste a lot of food. The next time you go to a dinner, remember Mother Teresa’s words.

The education scenario is no better. Hardly cutting-edge research is actually done In India. Today, tens of millions of children do not get the minimum education that is their right as citizens. The government schools run out of dilapidated buildings and hutments that often do not have toilets. The teachers seldom teach and the drop out rate is high. There is political interference and the history textbooks are changed every time we have a new occupant in Human Resource department. The unemployment situation is equally grave. Most of the jobs are being created in the services sector and the performance of the agricultural and manufacturing sector is nothing to boast of.

In spite of our huge population, we find it difficult to win medals in Olympics. And the excuse we offer is that participating is more important than winning. Child marriage, superstition and sati are still part of our culture. We have laws against Child labour but the administration is not bothered to implement it. Thousands of cases are pending in our courts. A mail from Pune takes four days to reach Mumbai and even that is not guaranteed. I am afraid to admit this but the truth is that we are satisfied with our mediocrity.

India will not become a superpower if it gets nuclear technology from US or if gets a seat at the UN Security Council. That day will come when this corrupt nation gets out of its slumber and works together to ensure that all countrymen have access to education, housing, food, clean drinking water and quality healthcare. It will happen if we match standards set elsewhere in the world, not just in sports and education but also in the way our bureaucracy functions.

The wish list is long but the wishes are achievable. It isn’t easy but it can be done. And for it to happen, all of us need to contribute instead of leaving it all to the government. The road ahead is a long one.

Blame it on the Middle Class

Cursing the country’s middle class has become a fashion these days. It all started during the students’ rightful protests when the GoI took its first step to reserve seats for OBC candidates in centers of higher education. They said the selfish middle class is getting what it deserved. That all it ever cared for was its own prosperity. That it snubbed elections because it thought it can prosper while fellow countrymen languished in poverty.

All this rhetoric sounds like music to the supporters of the quota. But there are a few learned men who have fallen for this fallacious argument. One such gentleman is former Director of National institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies astrophysicist Rajesh Kochhar. Mr. Kochhar lamented about the appalling teaching science teaching standards in our country in an article published in the Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times. He rightfully suggested that the boom in the services sector has led to fewer and fewer students opting to pursue science. He was highly critical of the services sector and indirectly criticized the low wage jobs (read outsourcing and BPO) that our youth is involved in. He said that since Indian’s share in IT revenue is less than two percent, India is actually a ship-breaking superpower rather than the IT don it likes calling itself.

Mr. Kochhar is not entirely wrong. He is a scientist who is frustrated that no one wants to study science for his post-graduate studies. But his criticism of the services sector is uncalled for, as I will demonstrate. The main flaw in his argument was that he blamed the middle class for the mess scientific pursuit is in. He wrote that the extant middle-class has got used to a consumerism-oriented lifestyle that can be maintained only by doing petty jobs for advanced economies and that this self-absorbed, selfish group is not interested in a career in science.

It is here that the flaw lies. Whether you like it or not, it is the middle class that has been responsible for whatever India has achieved so far. Look at it like this: the poor could not be expected to contribute to science and technology when they hardly get two square meals a day. For this class, survival comes before science. The upper class consists of rich businessmen who do not see any reason for pursuing sciences. Their heir apparent had better study commerce. Thus, you are left with the salaried middle class who must work hard through schools and college to earn a degree to find a well paying job. As far as being selfish is concerned, everyone is with the possible exception of Mother Teresa. Is Arjun Singh not selfish?

The middle class has always taken interest in country’s politics. It still votes but the problem is because of the gun-totting politicians with several criminal cases on their heads, a majority of which belongs to the OBC. It is better to stay alive than get killed by one of them. Why is any party not opposing reservations? Because OBCs dominate country’s political stage and no one would want to earn their wrath for the fear of losing their deposits.

Look who is opposing these reservations. It’s the middle class.  They are the ones who are serious about maintaining India’s competitive advantage. To blame them for every ill that plagues India is foolish. Then why pure science has no takers today. Well, it is actually because it gives you nothing in return. That is the truth of today’s job scenario in India whether Mr. Kochhar likes it or not. Show me one person who gets a job after completing his B. Sc. or M. Sc. When these studies cannot guarantee a job, why blame the students for ignoring them and choosing courses that give them a way to feed their families. If you pursue science, the only job that you are guaranteed of is that of a teacher. But as recent incidents show, all you get there is humiliation and hunger for the government will pay you salary once in six months or so. The student unions would blacken your face and worse, some political activists may murder you and go scot-free.

One must also talk about education standards. Why our best brains go to the USA? That’s because government’s expenditure on infrastructure and facilities is not sufficient to carry out any useful research in our universities. Our primary education churns out parrots and our history textbooks are changed every time we have a new occupant in Human Resource department. Who is responsible for this- the politicians or the middle class?