Illiterate India!

The biggest threat to our nation is not from terrorists or corrupt politicians. The threat is from the people who are not equipped with the weapon to face societal evils like corruption, child marriage, caste system, poverty, etc. It can be anybody’s guess that the weapon is “Literacy”. All the developed countries are equipped with this weapon, but we are lagging behind. According to census only two-third of us has it. But, even this number consists of a large chunk of people whose educational qualification is insignificant and of poor quality.

The government is surely taking steps to eradicate illiteracy. But with current pace with it will take nearly 20-25 years to reach the 90% level. The situation is even worse in rural India. This pace of educational growth will create a huge gulch between the rural and urban India. Massive urbanization and influence of urbane service sector growth has lead to development getting constrained to cities only. Amidst everyone talking a lot about development of primary education to empower India, we loose focus on the 15 to 20 crore illiterate adult population. Are we simply treating them as burden on our nation who exist just to manage a square meal a day and to increase the population to add to the already dismal condition of our motherland? The answer is ‘NO’. We have to see them as untapped opportunity. We have to see them as potential “Manpower”. We can’t wait for 25 years to turn around the situation. We have to develop newer ways of pedagogy as the traditional methodology is slow.

We can see computer as the tool which will help us in serving India and attain the targeted literacy rate. With specially designed software it’s possible to achieve the goal in 4 to 5 years. This software will be developed to include all the features of a teacher. The task of building this software should be very easy for technocrats. The execution of this project can be on the lines of ITC’s e-choupal. The computer(s) will be owned by a voluntary owned group in the rural community. Some work on these lines is being done by TCS in Andhra Pradesh.

This will surely help in removing the ennui from the schooling process. There is no need of professional teachers, who are already less in number in India. The facilitators need not be expert for this. Simple know-how of handling computer will do. The multimedia program will aid in knowing the exact pronunciation of words, making it independent of the teacher’s competence. This program is required to to treat adults very differently from children. Greater importance must be on reading rather than writing. Once they can follow written instructions other things will automatically fall in line. The process should be of just about 40-50 hours stretch over a month or so. Removing the tests of any sort and shorter duration will reduce the drop-out rate. Nominal fees should be charged as anything free is considered worthless. In future further integration can be made to make India computer literate.

Looking at the massive illiterate population of India this endeavor seems to be a minute one with many holes to be pegged but really optimistic. It needs inputs from energetic minds who can revamp their grey matter to generate innovative ideas and make this a presentable idea in front of our socially conscious corporate houses to generate the required revenue stream.

Corruption Corruption!

Our nation is facing a chaotic situation, chaos of corruption, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, etc. We are ranked 127th both in terms of Human Development Index and per capita income. India is ranked 88th by the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a meager score of 2.9. The list of problems seems to be endless. We, the “bright future" of India are very happy about the GDP growth of around 9% as it is in some way serving the ultimate purpose of getting a good pay package at the end of our academic life. But the question that remains unanswered is that is this growth really helping in the development of our nation. The biggest foe of development is corruption as it’s affecting all the four pillars of our democracy namely the judiciary, the legislature, the executive and the press.

Someone who has got a rational thought process can ponder on this simple universal truth, the truth that power corrupts. We have often heard of the saying that knowledge is power. So we as students have been learning to study hard and be evil for all these years. Of course this is not explicitly stated anywhere but by the time we get to know why we are studying; this is the logic which initially defies our moral and ethical learning. Slowly we learn to live with such undemanding reality and our conscience fades because of the tempting power which we will soon have. As I said earlier that we are the “bright future“ of our beloved nation, so we need to find a way out to avoid these kinds of conflicting thoughts. For this we have to first analyze the authenticity of the above truth. It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's truer that power attracts the corruptible. Sensible people are usually attracted by other things than power. They are attracted by the responsibility which comes along with power. Power can never come without responsibility. By power I not only mean a position of authority or some post or some honor bestowed upon us. Power also includes the capability to read and write. This may not be considered power per se in countries like US and UK but in India where literacy rate is around 60% and even the inclusion criteria for so called literates is depressing it 's definitely a power. Education should give us the aptitude to ask questions, to make use of laws like Right to Information Act, Consumer Protection Act, etc. Education gives us the ability to question the existence of so many laws in our land which may perhaps be the largest in number in the world. Our Income Tax Act is surely the largest one in the world in terms of size but sadly not in terms of content. Tax evasion in India is breathtaking. The size of parallel economy is almost half the size of our GDP. There is a famous quotation "The more corrupt the state, the more laws.” I would like to add that the more complicated the law more corrupt are the people who understand it. That 's the reason why the list of most corrupt people include politicians, police, lawyers and professionals like Chartered Accountants (auditors), doctors etc. It does not shock Indians anymore to know that not only the ministers and IAS & IPS officers are corrupt but even the judges, professors, doctors and NGO organizations are also giving them good competition.

But corruption is not restricted to these strata of society. It’s trickling down to the bottom of the pyramid. Corruption is not only prevalent amongst rich who are greedy in spite of possessing enough but also amongst poor. I dare to say that up to a certain extent our education is also responsible for this. The way of transfer of knowledge in our nation is not taking into considerations the above stated simple yet inevitable facts. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. We are thought to think like the western world but India is very different in all the aspects of life. We can use our grey matter in developing some India centric education system which lays emphasis on learning with earning to solve the problem of poverty and illiteracy. We need build India centric business model, which could be implemented with minimum capital, have scope for innovative ideas and serve as employment generator for the society. We are not here to accept the things as they are. We can’t be adorned by the golden words "bright future" if we are so dull that we only see what we want to see. We have to change the way we look at the world and we look our self. We have the power, what we need is desire to take the responsibility. To question what we do and then to question what people around us are doing.

Investing for the future

The next wave of growth in India will come from the rural markets. Presently India is facing a crisis in the infrastructure sector. Once the growth story embraces this sector, the biggest gainer will be the Indian villages. Government policies and employment generation programs will also improve the standard of living of rural masses by enhancing their per capita income. How can an ordinary, presently low-income earner, Indian become rich? The answer to that question is as simple as it is routine: Start by saving and investing something regularly, even modest amounts, in anticipation of big returns in the future. If an Indian villager will look for big returns it cannot come from the traditional sources like bonds or insurance. Any investment instrument which can be offered needs to be linked with the equity market but the returns have to be assured. There must be no risk to the capital invested. Looking at all these aspects a special type of mutual fund has to be designed for the rural Indian market. The per capita income is below Rs.50 per day for a huge chunk of the population. So keeping their standard of living, risk profile, awareness towards such instruments, etc. the concept has to be very unique. It’s very difficult on their part to accept any instrument which can require even an iota of their wealth. The device needs to be backed up by some assurance from a trustworthy sponsor like the government or reputed business houses like Birla or Tata. For a player who has low recognition in the rural market it is difficult for the rural masses to accept it.

In the initial stage, the mutual fund can be introduced for as low as Rs. 200 to join; this variant of mutual fund can be targeted to daily wage laborers and landless farmers as they have the ability to pay that small sum up front when they get their wages or remuneration. They have surplus cash whenever they get their pay and will be willing to invest it if the terms and conditions are simple. To keep the depositor involved and interested in the process of making money from the savings, the mutual fund needs to bring in the option of adding to their investment in increments as small as Rs. 20 and as frequently as daily or weekly.

The next point of concern lies in redistribution of the returns as they understand simple things like the value of their money doubling in 5 years. This is possible considering a modest return of 14-15 % compounded annually over a horizon of 5 years. The money can be tripled in less than 9 years at the same interest rate. They can understand this concept better than the complicated NAV for MF. Generating this kind of returns will not be a daunting task for the expert fund managers who are at presently generating much higher return than that.

For this MF, information technology will play the most vital part. Instead of making it too complicated by involving paper work, chip embedded cards can be issued to all the investors. The rural population is familiar with such cards like Kisan credit card, etc. These cards will store all the information regarding the investor and all the addition to the fund can be easily made without any paper work. The investor should be allowed to check the value of his/her investment. Different schemes can be made based on the requirement of the investor. The minimum time period for exit should be 3 to 5 years for any scheme. The people who start investing for the marriage of the son/ daughter or retirement planning, etc can remain invested for a longer period of time.

There should not be any entry load for the fund but exit load of around 3-5% should be imposed. We can make this instrument a unique one where the investor can see his money grow and be encouraged to invest more money. The surplus money is generally wasted because it is difficult for them to find rational avenues for spending this money or to invest them in a cogent manner. The investment opportunity should be made as trouble-free and effortless as possible.

People in rural areas should be educated about such instruments with the help of Gram Panchayats and other influential people in rural areas.

There are many complexities involved in the model. Keeping in mind the basic framework suggested above we can work upon the idea of such a MF by presenting the idea among the people who have crystal clear knowledge about the conditions prevailing in the rural market and those who are competent enough to chalk out the intricacies of the MF. I am sure this mutual fund has the potential to see the light of day and also show the rural Indians some light at the end of the long tunnel.

MBA…infatuation?

With all the intentions to make judgmental statements and express my viewpoint as an individual MBA student I am writing this piece of article. MBA has entered into the league of most sought after degrees in the recent years. To understand if it is really worth, first of all let me define what MBA is. It’s a launching pad for the so called begging for a welfare job branded as “executive of a big company”. I’m not bothered about the acceptance of my definition by the B-schools or MBA aspirants, but I’m sure the existing MBAs and students pursuing it will agree with me. What do brilliant MBA students look for? A foreign placement, getting settled abroad, getting a green card. Surely they are capable of getting all these. What they get is a fat pay cheque, what the foreign companies pay is remuneration for cheap skilled labor available in India. We are taught a wholesome lot of managerial skills to move up these corporate to a great height.

But like most other educational qualifications in India, what an MBA program is doing is producing clerks. Exceptions are always there and companies do offer good profiles also. However these offers remain constrained to premier B-schools. Total number of students passing out of all these premier B-schools is an insignificant fraction of the pool of MBAs produced every year.

By this time you must have realized that I’m talking about some problem. As an MBA I am supposed to provide solutions. So now let me present a solution to this problem. Solution lies in asking the right question. The questions, which are generally asked while opting for MBA are, should I get one? Will it be good for my career? Will it be worth the money? Is it worth the time away from the workplace to do it full time? Are part-time MBA programs too hard to do while working full time? Is it worth going back for an executive MBA once I'm already in management? The most surprising thing is that among all the questions, few are about what an MBA is and what it isn't. Most of the discussion centers on the credential and the cost rather than the content. Few ask about what you learn or what it prepares you to do effectively. Doing the cost benefit analysis of the degree, where cost will also include the sacrifice cost, there is a surprising lack of consumer interest in the actual product. The answer to this question will raise many eyebrows. The answer lies in consumer awareness. So for the sake of information dissemination, MBA is not teaching us Management or leadership, it’s just teaching us different functions of business in isolation. It’s impossible to see the complete picture and feel being a part of the big picture once an MBA get into the corporate world. This is true with all the clerical jobs, which an MBA job is not supposed to be. Even the recruiters are only interested in the Brand name of one’s institute.

Another solution lies in the change of pedagogy of the MBA course. We are taught how to work for money but not how to make money work for us. Entrepreneurship should be the biggest thrust of an MBA program. This can also help in coping up with the existing problem of faculty shortage. Entrepreneurs are everywhere - small and big. They should be called to share their experience. When Dabbawallas can deliver a lecture on Six Sigma and it’s unintentional implementation, I am sure in a country of more than a billion, the B-schools can find more such people.

India needs people who can make money work for them, those who can answer all the questions erupting while starting a new venture, and those who know where to find the resources to show the world their real potential.

If I’ve got the Midas touch I’ll make gold for myself and my country’s prosperity and not for an MNC or any company who forces me to forget the real meaning of my existence. We are meant for much bigger things then merely chasing sales target. Education is imperative but not if it educates me to win a rat race.

Religion: Panacea or curse

I have tried searching for the definition of religion at various places. I wish to find out why a word which is explained in similar fashion everywhere is interpreted in such extreme gamut of connotations.

Is religion simply believing in god?

We don’t seem to believe this. Since I live in the Indian secular state, I put “we” for all the religions put together. We can completely trust someone only if he can protect us at all times, good and bad. We feel our god is powerful when there is peace all around. What about the times when there is violence? The weak pleads for mercy but he dies. Some of us who feel that we are powerful enough take the onus of helping god to protect him. Can you ever imagine communal riots happening in Godhara and Ahmedabad, cities in Gujrat, which is perceived to be the home of understanding, soft mannered, kind and peace-loving people? The irony is that Gandhi’s Gujarat faced all this barbarism, even after five decades of his dream of secular India. But it doesn’t seem to be an irony, yes not an irony because we have forgotten the past and only know, only want to know the Gujarat of Mohammad Ali Jinnha, Advani, K. K. Shastri, Narendra Modi and Pravin Togadia; erasing the faint traces of the Gujarat nurtured by Gandhi with humanitarian values. Coming to the point, all this happens because the activists and religious fanatics (popularly known as religious militants) believe that they are the “knights in shining armor” who are ordained to save god itself from the evils of non-believers. They become so powerful, that they get all the rights to butcher, rape, molest, oppress and humiliate the weak and the feeble. Do they believe in god, who is the savior of humankind?

Is religion a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny?

May or may not be. The most intrinsic part is “a” supernatural power. I don’t know about supernatural but talking about many of us who want to become superpower, we have seen their supremacy in our life. They can wipe out countries and generations as it happened in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All we need to witness the end of this planet is, one eccentric individual who will defend his deed of obliteration as “an ordain from some supernatural power”. A question often strikes my mind and I am left pondering… So, finally who controls our destinies?

Is religion a cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion?

Can we ever undermine the zeal of the young and juvenile members of the terrorist groups, who are ready to ‘sacrifice’ their lives for “their” god? We may call it myopic zeal or momentary obsession, but who defines it for them, who makes such religious decrees so important for them, their god? If not god, these elders are considered to be the messengers of god and no one can deny them. Same thing is happening with the young blood working for the political parties serving “the larger cause” of liberating their states from their countries. Who will run these countries? God is there, isn’t it?

These are only the questions, where are the answers? After deliberating for sometime, we realize that the answers lie in the questions themselves. Religion possesses all these and many more questions to persuade a believer to penetrate deep and search for the answer in religion itself.