N Vasuki Rao

Killing the killers

2010-04-11T06:37:00.004+05:30

There is so much debate going on these days on how to deal with Maoists. There is no doubt that successive governments have neglected development in large parts of the country. However, there can be no defence of Maoists taking up arms. The sad part is that central and state governments have woken up to the threat only now, when the Maoists are better entrenched. While redressing the grievances of tribals, the government must finish off the Maoists. Try and catch their leaders first. That's the only way to peace.

The “katori” diet or how to stay slim

2009-08-03T19:41:00.002+05:30

Those of you who are constantly battling the midriff bulge would be aware of the many types of diet in vogue around the world. The problem with many of these diets is that anything that is very different from what you generally eat at home is difficult to stick to, and any weight you might lose will be regained rapidly. The ideal solution, therefore, is to build a diet around normal Indian food, and which should not be very hard for your wife to cook.

After a bout of jaundice some months ago, my son now follows what he calls the “jaundice diet,” which consists of rather bland food with almost no oil. I have been following a “katori” (bowl) diet for nearly 10 years, with good results. My weight has generally been steady at about 62-plus, give or take a couple of kilos. The key to weight control is restriction of carbohydrates and oil. I restrict carbs on a daily basis by using a 150-ml katori or bowl. My diet, with no change on a day to day basis, is as follows:

Early morning: A mug of warm milk on rising and before my morning walk. A cup of coffee without sugar at 7 am.

Breakfast: Two katoris of upma or two idlis, or two slices of brown bread with one/two eggs.

Midmorning: Tea without sugar at 10 am, and two small bananas or any other fruit at 11:30.

Lunch: Two chappatis, or one chappati and one katori rice, one katori vegetable, one katori dal and curd.

Evening 5:30: Two idlis or equivalent.

Dinner: One chappati or one katori rice, one katori vegetable, one katori dal and curd.

I avoid desert. If I do feel like having something, then out goes some carb from dinner. I also have no sugar with tea or coffee, and do not consume soft drinks.

This balanced diet will provide 1500-1800 calories of energy, and should be enough for a person whose lifestyle is moderately active.

These days I also work out thrice a week in a gym, including strength training with weights.

The Internet has many calculators to estimate how much you should be eating for your ideal weight. Normally, you need to consume 30 calories per kilo of weight. So, if your ideal weight is 50 kilos, you should not consume more than 1500 calories to stay in shape.

A great profession

2009-05-28T10:35:00.002+05:30

Politics is really a great profession. It's the only professional where you can double your investment in five years, something that even the stock market does not guarantee. Just see the affidavits filed by Lok Sabha candidates on their wealth. It's also the only profession where you can become a minister without having any work experience!

The "strongman"

2009-05-21T11:41:00.003+05:30

When LK Advani was constantly carping about the "weak" Manmohan Singh, the latter retorted that the BJP "strongman" was weeping in a corner when Babri Masjid was being demolished. Is Advani again weeping in a corner of his house now that his "strong" party has been roundly defeated? We haven't seen him come out and acknowledge the mistakes the BJP made, like the comrades are doing.

Hail the astrologers

2009-05-16T16:13:00.002+05:30

Well, it seems the astrologers who predicted that LK Advani would never become prime minister were right. As the results poured in today, the thigh-slapping BJP leaders, who had been challenging the "meek" Manmohan Singh to a wrestling match with "strongman" Advani, were looking pretty glum. Political parties lose elections when they get out of touch with reality and start believing their own rhetoric. The same fate could befall the Congress in five years if it falls into this trap. As for the BJP, it must come up with something better than Varun Gandhi to gain the confidence of the people and show that it can deliver.

Not fools

2009-05-13T12:56:00.002+05:30

The Deve Gowda family in Karnataka thinks people and media people are idiots. When HD Kumaraswamy went to meet Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, he covered his face. His face is well known to media people, and expecting not to be recognised was idiotic. Then, he explained later that he had not covered his face but was wiping sweat of it! How stupid does he think people are? Such politicians cannot be trusted.

In father's footsteps?

2009-05-10T09:49:00.004+05:30

Some days ago I wrote about Varun Gandhi praising his father, and how that may not be liked by the BJP brass. His latest remarks, perhaps indirectly supporting his father's sterilization programme during the Emergency, should make the BJP leaders squirm even more. Of course, Varun later denied supporting sterilization.

Rahul baba and Priyanka beti

2009-05-05T19:21:00.002+05:30

In recent interviews and press conferences, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi displayed great maturity. Priyanka's interview to Barkha Dutt was exceptional, and she revealed a side that is normally not seen. Rahul baba also has become very confident in the way he handles the press.

Beware

2009-05-03T10:55:00.002+05:30

The BJP has been crying hoarse over black money stashed abroad, and is demanding the government get names of the account holders. What if the BJP finds that some of its own supporters from business and industry are on the list? Will there be a quick turnaround then?

In praise of the father

2009-04-30T17:52:00.003+05:30

Sons are expected to praise their fathers, and Varun did just that when he spoke highly of Sanjay Gandhi. I wonder what Advani has to say to the comment that Sanjay Gandhi would have been good for the country. While the Emergency was imposed by a shaky Indira, it was Sanjay who orchestrated its operation for two years. Advani and other leaders spent 18 months in jail, thanks to Sanjay and his mother.

What the stars foretell

2009-04-26T16:03:00.002+05:30

Instead of boring people with a long-winded narrative, I thought I would resume my blog with a crisp, two- or three-sentence opinion or titbit.

I don't believe in astrology, but it was great fun to read that all astrologers are predicting the defeat of the astrology- and God-loving BJP and its NDA in the current general elections. And bogus editor Arun Shourie is already trying to abandon the Advani ship.

A picture is worth a thousand words

2008-11-18T12:41:00.004+05:30

I have not been updating my blog as I have got involved in serious photography. I used to take photos with a 35-mm SLR camera many years ago, and I now realise I need to learn quite a lot about the technical aspects. Learning anything new is a great experience, and I am enjoying myself thoroughly. I try to take photos as frequently as possible. You can see some of my photographs at www.flickr.com/photos/vasukirao

Remove the speedometer

2008-10-02T12:13:00.001+05:30

I have a suggestion for Indian car manufacturers – remove the speedometer and save costs. The speedometer of my Hyundai Getz has a maximum speed of 200 kms. Is that a joke? Living in Bangalore, I am generally unable to drive at more than 30-40 kms per hour. My average speed seems to be 10 kms per hour!

I go to the gym thrice a week. It is about 10 kms from my home. Under normal traffic conditions, it should not take more than 20 minutes to get there. However, even during non-peak hours, it takes about 40 minutes. When I drive back in the evening at peak hour, it often takes more than hour, suggesting a speed of 10 kms per hour. Most of my driving is done in second and third gear. Hitting the fourth gear is rare, and the pleasure lasts only a few minutes. Like most cars these days, there is also a fifth gear, which is hardly ever used, unless I drive on the highway.

Some weeks ago, there was a big seminar on road traffic and related issues in Bangalore. Many experts came and spoke, some even from the United States. Many suggestions were made. During my thrice-weekly drives, I don’t see any improvement. Matters seem only to be getting worse day by day. I don’t have much hope of anything happening any time soon for one principal reason: impatience. People are always in such a tearing hurry as though they have to rush to the restroom. Can’t you wait for just a second so that I can move and give way? Can’t you see there is no gap, and yet you are trying to squeeze yourself between two vehicles? And why is that idiot behind me hitting his car horn when he can see other vehicles blocking my way? We need a cultural revolution to make things easy on the road. There is little hope of that happening soon.

Thank you, Navigator Lady

2008-09-14T11:26:00.001+05:30

Although I am a Bangalorean by birth, I had never lived in the city for long until 2006, when we moved from Chennai. The only area I am familiar with is Basavanagudi, where our ancestral home is located. Therefore, driving on Bangalore’s unfamiliar streets is difficult for me. The situation is exacerbated because of heavy traffic and one-way streets. Night and rain bring added problems, as visibility is reduced considerably. In October 2006, I somehow managed to reach my Indian Express office on Queen’s Road on my first day at work, but didn’t know to get back home. I had to get a detailed map from a colleague to do that.

Over the past two years, my range of familiarity has improved considerably, but there are still large areas of Bangalore that are alien to me. About a year ago, I invested Rs 15,000 in buying a PDA with GSP navigation guidance. It has been a life-saver since then. Once, we went to the Forum Mall, and it began to pour outside. I couldn’t make a U-turn to return home outside the mall because traffic was jammed, and had to take a detour. With rain pounding at the car and visibility very poor, the GPS device took me to the familiar Outer Ring Road, from where I was able to drive more confidently. This has happened more than once, and I thank the “Navigator Lady” in the GPS for getting me home safely many times without having to get out of the car and ask for directions.

The maps I use are from Satguide in Hyderabad. GPS navigation is a great concept, but it is as good as the map you have. If your map is not accurate, then the GPS will not help. There have been occasions when the Navigator Lady has asked me to turn right, and I saw no road. The good thing about the navigator is that you can keep driving, and the computer will calculate a new route for you. Satguide’s city map of Bangalore is reasonably accurate, but their all-India map is bad. On a recent road trip to Yercaud in Tamil Nadu, the GPS device could not link up with the map. There is no doubt, however, that GPS navigation is yet another example of information technology being of direct, practical use to the common man.

Back, but not with a bang

2008-09-09T16:47:00.001+05:30

It’s been quite a while since I updated this blog. I can come up with several excuses, but mostly it has been preoccupation with other things. One, I am now going to a gym three times a week and exercising my muscles. After nearly 40 years of exercising the brain, I thought it was time I gave some time to my muscles. I began working out with weights on May 2, and have been visiting the gym regularly since then except for two days. Those who know me will understand my dedication to things once I take anything up.

As a long-time journalist, one of the first things I do when I take up anything is read up. I did extensive reading on the Internet and magazines about weight training as well, and picked up a lot of tips. One of the things I decided was that I certainly didn’t want to have that extra-muscled look that weight-lifters have. They look quite ugly, and my wife tells me women don’t like that either. A normal muscled look is therefore the target. Although I give my biceps and triceps close scrutiny every day, I can’t say these are growing rapidly. However, I have not given up hope, as a friend in the gym tells me it takes six to eight months for weight training to show results.

There is certainly some benefit from the training. About 10 days ago I went for a routine, quarterly test that included a cholesterol check and blood pressure measurement. I was pleasantly surprised to see that HDL, the good cholesterol, is up substantially. The bigger surprise was my blood pressure, which usually hovered around 150 or 140/80. It has been like this for at least 10 years. The latest reading showed it had come down drastically to 110/70! As I am sceptical about it, I will go for another reading in about two weeks and get it re-checked. If it turns out to be correct, then this is a substantial benefit from weight-training.

I used to be an ardent photographer some 25 years ago, but then gave it up because of work pressure. I also sold my 35mm SLR camera and all its lenses. Last month, my family presented me a new Canon 400D DSLR, and I am inspired to take up photography seriously again. I also now have the time. You can see some of my photos at www.flickr.com/photos/vasukirao/.

The serial bomb tamasha

2008-07-29T18:45:00.001+05:30

The recent serial bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, and the discovery of numerous unexploded devices in Surat, have become a big tamasha for people. When an unexploded bomb is discovered, large, curious crowds gather as if a street play is on. In Bangalore, when an unexploded bomb was discovered on Saturday, people on foot and two-wheelers tried every trick to get closer and see how it was defused. This particular bomb, it seems, was actually placed on Thursday night. It was “discovered” by a pavement shopkeeper, who began to use it as a stool! We Indians will take anything that is free.

In Surat, when unexploded bombs were being found one after another on Monday and Tuesday, curious onlookers stood nonchalantly, watching the whole thing as if it were a Russian circus. Now, terrorists plant and explode bombs to terrorise people. What if people are not terrorised? What if they stop fearing the bombs, as it appears to be happening? The terrorists may have miscalculated when they began to plant bomb after bomb. After some time, people begin to accept the fact, and get on with their lives. That’s why, on Sunday, I and my family went to see a movie cheerfully. The movie theatre was nearly packed, suggesting people were no longer afraid. There was some panic, however, on Monday after a hoax bomb call in a local school, but that appears to have been a small blip.

I was also amazed to read how police and bomb disposal experts who arrived to check a car in Surat left their fingerprints all over, obliterating the fingerprints left behind by the terrorists. Indian policemen are so ill-equipped that they don’t even have a pair of rubber gloves with them when they reach a crime scene.

Now that daring terrorists are taunting the Indian government, there is once again demand for a national agency to deal with terrorism. This Congress government, busy with its do-or-die nuclear deal, can hardly be expected to come up with measures that will quell the terrorists. If setting up a new agency is difficult and time-consuming, the government can beef up the CBI by giving it an anti-terror wing. In the United States, the FBI handles all federal crimes, including terrorism.

Have a big breakfast to lose weight

2008-06-22T11:34:00.001+05:30

Anyone who is overweight has a major problem: What do you eat, and how much? Many cut down on their breakfasts, which studies suggest is a big mistake. There is an old saying: Breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince, and dine like a pauper. Results of a new study suggest that this will work.

According to Reuters, a Venezuelan doctor told a meeting in San Francisco that her patients are able to lose weight and keep it off after eating a big breakfast that contains carbohydrates and protein. Dr Daniela Jakubowicz said she has used this diet successfully in her patients over 15 years.

In her study, the doctor and her colleagues compared results of a very low carbohydrate diet and a high carbohydrate diet. The low carb diet consisted of 1,085 calories a day, while the other contained 1,240 calories. The first group had a breakfast of 290 calories, consisting of 7 gms of carbs and 12 gms of protein. The other group had a breakfast of 610 calories, consisting of 58 gms of carbs, 47 gms of protein and 22 gms of fat. For lunch, the women had 395 calories, and dinner only 235 calories.

After four months, the weight loss in the two groups was almost equal. However, after eight months, the low-carb dieters had regained an average 8 kilos, while those who had a big breakfast continued to shed weight, losing 10.4 kilos on average. The doctors said those who had a big breakfast felt less hungry before lunch.

Walk for good health

2008-06-16T10:55:00.001+05:30

An article on CNN health reiterates once again the benefits of walking. I have been undertaking a 30-minute, brisk morning walk for nearly a decade or longer now. I can tell you it is quite addictive. I try and go for that walk six days a week, unless there is heavy rain. When I was in Delhi, I would put on several layers of warm clothing and venture out even on very cold winter mornings, with visibility almost zero. I am sure these regular walks have brought me health benefits. A 30-minute walk is not enough to lose weight, and for this you have to cut down on carbohydrates. My family physician in Chennai would advise that you should walk for 100 kms every month. That works out to 3 kms every day, and some extra kilometres on Sundays. I am now putting in an extra couple of kilometres when I hit the gym three days a week.

According to the CNN article, regular walking will help your heart, cut breast-cancer risk, help you sleep better, make you happy, reduce weight, delay ageing, and protect your bones.

Read the full article Walking a little can go a long way .

A national emergency number

2008-06-08T11:23:00.001+05:30

I have previously written about and lamented the lack of a national emergency helpline, like the 911 service in the United States, in India. You only have to see still photos or watch video coverage of an accident or bomb blast scene in India to realise how ill-equipped our emergency services are to deal with sudden tragedies. Rescue workers often do not even have proper stretchers to take the injured to hospitals. I have seen horror pictures of badly injured persons being carried like sacks to ambulances.

I don’t know when we will have an emergency service similar to that of 911, but a beginning is being made. According to a report in the Times of India, Telecommunications Minister A. Raja has told Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss that 108 could soon become the national emergency number. The number apparently is already being used by some states for emergency calls.

The central government has sanctioned Rs 732 crores for a national emergency and trauma care programme. The plan is to set up emergency trauma care facilities along 13,000 kms of national highways. By 2010, the government plans to have 10,000 fully-equipped ambulances with the objective of reaching emergency spots within 25 minutes of a call. Whether they will actually be able to do so, given the chaotic traffic in most cities of the country including Bangalore, remains to be seen. There is no doubt, however, that the programme was long overdue, and should be implemented as soon as possible.

New developments in cancer research

2008-06-05T16:19:00.004+05:30

The war against cancer is tough, and medical researchers continue to fight on. Cancer, it seems, is not always a killer disease. Today there are more than 10 million cancer survivors in the United States compared to three million in the 1970s, according to a story on CNN medical news.

The story says there have been important advances in cancer research. Drugs are helping patients suffering from breast, colon and lung cancer.

See full story New developments in cancer research

Battling jet lag

2008-05-23T10:56:00.001+05:30

I don’t travel that often these days, and rarely out of the country. Jet lag, therefore, is not a problem I have had to deal with. However, I know many people who are constantly travelling across time zones, and jet lag is a major problem for them. There are reportedly many ways to combat jet lag. On Thursday, researchers said starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, as this manipulates the body’s natural circadian clock. Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science, said a 16-hour fast was enough to engage this new clock. Dr Saper and his colleagues tried experiments with mice, and the results were encouraging. However, it is not yet known whether it will work in humans, and Dr Saper said he will give it a shot the next time he flies to Japan. I concede that a 16-hour fast will be tough for many people.

See full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24779956/

Confusing research findings

2008-05-19T11:03:00.000+05:30

As a health-conscious person, I am an avid reader of medical research reports that appear in newspapers and magazines. But to a lay reader, these research findings are terribly confusing because of their contradictory nature, leaving you wondering what to do. As an illustration, I refer to a report in the Monday edition of Times of India. Headlined “Juice beats fruit in treating heart,” the report says that grapes, apples and their juices can prevent development of atherosclerosis in hamsters eating a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet. French researchers found that fruit juices had a more powerful anti-atherosclerotic effect than the fruit itself. They said that processing fruit can have a major impact on its health benefits.

Now, what I have read in the past is exactly the opposite. I have read that it is better to eat fruit as you also imbibe fibre, and often many nutrients are present in the skin of the fruit. So where does that leave us? Eat fruit or drink its juice? No wonder people are confused.

This is not the only instance of confusing research findings. I have read that drinking coffee and tea is both bad and good, eating butter is bad and good, and coconut is bad and good. Even alcohol is supposed to have both good and bad effect on health. In my view, the key to good health is moderation in eating, and sticking to natural ingredients (as opposed to processed) as much as possible.

Bayer pulls out heart-surgery drug

2008-05-15T10:55:00.000+05:30

It is surprising how some drugs made by big multi-national pharmaceutical companies are found to be causing serious health problems in patients. According to latest reports, Bayer AG is withdrawing supplies of its heart-surgery drug Trasylol, also known as asprotinin, from the U.S. market after a detailed study found that it increased the risk of death in patients as compared to other drugs. Reports said Bayer faces 46 lawsuits that accuse the company of hiding evidence of harm.

The latest findings, released by the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that Trasylol increased chances of death by 54 percent, compared to two much-cheaper drugs. Six percent of the Trasylol patients died within 30 days of surgery, compared with 4 percent who got either Amicar or Cyklokapron, despite a slightly lower percentage of the Trasylol patients suffering from massive bleeding or needing transfusions. See full story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24624285

I do not know if the drug is being used in India by doctors for heart-surgery. If they are using it, then they must heed the latest development and switch to safer drugs. This is not the first case of popular drugs being found to be dangerous. Earlier, studies have indicated that that long-term use of the diabetes drug rosiglitazone increased the risk of heart attack by 42 percent and doubled the risk of heart failure.

Risk from prolonged desk work

2008-05-14T11:24:00.000+05:30

The adverse impact of long-distance air travel on some people, especially the elderly, has been documented in medical research. Now, a prestigious medical journal says that even prolonged desk work could be potentially life-threatening with associated risk of developing blood clots.

According to results of research published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, prolonged sitting at work was associated with a two-fold increased risk of developing deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Both the maximum number of hours seated at work, and the number of hours seated without getting up, were associated with an increased risk of both DVT and PE.

The report should particularly concern people who work at public-dealing counters as in banks and are unable to get up and move about. The authors of the latest study recommend that such people should undertake frequent leg and foot exercises and try to take a break from their computers.

How to quit smoking

2008-05-13T16:34:00.000+05:30

The row between Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Bollywood super heroes like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan over smoking on screen continues. Ramadoss, in an article in The Hindu on Sunday, defended his campaign against consumption of tobacco and alcohol. He is right when he says that tobacco and alcohol make a perfect recipe for an early death (there are exceptions, of course), and that over a million deaths occur in India due to use of tobacco. Ramadoss said all he is asking Bollywood is not to glamourise drinking and smoking. He further argued that 52 percent of youngsters begin smoking after watching films.

I would agree with Ramadoss that tobacco especially is harmful to health, and probably the number one cause of cancer deaths in the world. It is especially very difficult to stop smoking, because the nicotine in the tobacco immediately enters the bloodstream and goes straight to the brain’s pleasure centres, making a person feel good. Nicotine is a drug and addictive. I can speak on this subject with some authority as I smoked cigarettes for 10 years before I quit. Unlike my friends, I didn’t begin smoking in school and college, but only when I started working late into the night at my first journalism job. The one or two cigarettes at night slowly increased to 10 over a period of time. After some years of smoking, I once went to a hill station in North India and realised I was having difficulty climbing because of the less oxygen at that height and possibly damage to my lungs. Of course, I didn’t give it up even then, and it was probably another five years before I finally quit, after one failed attempt. When I finally did it I used to produce the morning newspaper, and when I was able to do this one night without smoking a single cigarette I knew I had conquered the habit. It takes about a week for the nicotine to leave the body and reduce the craving for the drug. Let me tell you it takes great will power to quit smoking, and it can be done. I haven’t smoked a single cigarette since 1981.

I read an article in the New York Times that suggested that some people produce a gene-encoded enzyme that clears nicotine from their bloodstreams rapidly, so they tended to smoke more and develop stronger addictions. There is a new anti-smoking medication in the US market called Chantix, which masquerades as nicotine and occupies the brain’s nicotine receptors, where it may reduce cravings. When the real nicotine comes along, it cannot find enough free receptors to latch on to. But it seems enthusiasm for the drug is waning after reports of suicide and bizarre behaviour in people taking it. I met someone recently who told me he had quit smoking but also stopped meeting his friends for a chat as that was the trigger to light up. He is on the right track, and I am sure his friends will understand his temporary absence.

For resources on how to quit smoking, see http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/how_to_quit/index.htm

Changing focus

2008-05-09T11:14:00.000+05:30

I have not updated this blog regularly for some time because it was not attracting enough readers. My blog was initially focussed on current events, but I guess people are flooded with opinions from various sources and are not interested in reading one more. I have, therefore, decided to change tack and focus on health, fitness and diet. These are subjects that interest me immensely, and if I find something interesting I intend to share it with readers. I am not a doctor, but do have some health problems that I think qualify me to comment on health issues.

Some weeks ago a near relative of ours passed away after a bout of colon cancer and other complications. From what I have read in the past, the incidence of colon cancer is higher in Western countries because the diet there is predominantly non-vegetarian, especially red meat. However, our relative was a pure vegetarian, and it is surprising that colon cancer should have afflicted her. This is not the first case I have heard of a pucca South Indian vegetarian getting colon cancer. Doctors say colon and rectal cancer is increasing in India, particularly among the urban population and the young. The issue raises some disturbing questions about the increasing incidence of various types of cancers. What causes colon cancer? Is it because of a faulty diet? A genetic pre-disposition? Is it hereditary?

A quick search on the internet throws up startling figures. In the United States, an estimated 1,48,800 new cases of colon and rectal cancer will be diagnosed in 2008, of which nearly 50,000 persons will die. Research suggests that genetic mutations are responsible for inherited cancer risk. Other than meat-based diet, aspirin use, cigarette smoking, and a sedentary life style have been associated with colon cancer.

There is a lot of information available on the internet. See this site www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/colon-and-rectal

Nothing wrong with nepotism

2008-05-01T13:18:00.000+05:30

I am happy this unimportant issue of Shipping Minister T.R.Baalu’s nepotism could be over. Hopefully, newspapers will stop wasting precious space, TV channels airtime, and the BJP will find another stick to beat the UPA government with. On Wednesday, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, a senior Congressman and an experienced politician, made a statement in the Rajya Sabha absolving Baalu and the Prime Minister’s office of any wrongdoing. For those of you who weren’t paying attention to the media onslaught on the matter, these are the facts: Baalu wrote to the Petroleum Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office seeking supply of gas to companies owned by his family members. Deora clarified that the PMO didn’t issue any order or instruction, and that only certain references were received by him in a routine manner. Deora also stated that gas has not been supplied to the companies, and in fact allocations were cancelled by the previous NDA government in January 2004. In October 2007, a single-judge bench of the Madras High Court had ruled in favour of the companies. The legal battle intensified thereafter, and the matter is now before the Delhi High Court.

I am fully supportive of Baalu, Deora, the PMO and the UPA government on the issue. What is the fuss about? The Oxford dictionary defines nepotism as follows: “the giving of special favour, especially employment, by a person in high position to his relatives.” But as Baalu has repeatedly clarified, he was only trying to help the many investors in the company and protect jobs of workers and not his family members. The company is a public limited company, and answerable to its shareholders. Baalu is right as I am sure his family members don’t need jobs, have enough money and don’t need favours from the government to make more.

People enter politics to help their family, their constituents, and people at large --- in that order. People work in order to feed their families. If you are not allowed to help your family members or make money, then no one will enter politics. Politics is hard business; you make a lot of investment in time, energy, and money. Unless there are good returns, what is the use of remaining in the useless profession? It is a thankless job; one day you are a minister, and then suddenly you may be sacked for no fault of yours. You may get defeated in elections. What happens then? So far there is no provision for provident fund in politics, although legislators do get pension. If the government and Chief Election Commissioner want to ban nepotism in politics, they should introduce provident fund, gratuity and family pension. However, the pension cannot go far when you have to serve tea to 100 persons who come calling at your home every day. Baalu has set the trend. All ministers involved in similar activity, directly or indirectly, should proudly make declarations so that the people can applaud them.

How to beat the stock market

2008-04-25T16:21:00.001+05:30

Wealth managers constantly drill into investors the view that the stock market is the best place to put your money in if you want to beat inflation. If seen historically, the stock market provides a return of 15-20 percent annually, which will beat the 7 percent inflation currently running in India. It is possible, if you are lucky to enter the market at the start of a bull phase, to double your money in a couple of years. It is also true that putting money into the stock market is fraught with risks, and you could lose your capital in a matter of months.

So, is there a better place to invest your funds? Yes there is, and that is politics. Thanks to the Election Commission, which has made it mandatory for candidates to declare their assets, information about a new avenue for investment is available. According to information provided by hopeful candidates in the upcoming state elections in Karnataka, the net assets of many of them have gone up several times in the past four years. For instance, assets of former chief minister H.D.Kumaraswamy have risen by 1,243 percent to Rs 49.7 crore from just Rs 3.7 crore four years ago. Former Congress minister V Somanna and his family were worth Rs 2.6 crore four years ago, and this wealth has grown 707 percent to Rs 21 crore now. No other investment avenue will give you such mind-boggling returns. G Prasad Reddy, a BJP candidate from BTM Layout in Bangalore, has assets worth Rs 313 crore. He owns 14 cars, and his wife has 3 kilos of gold jewellery.

An interesting aspect in the affidavits filed by these and other candidates is that their wives and sons are sometimes richer, suggesting how income earned is shown to the tax and other authorities. In a TV interview, Kumaraswamy tried to defend the accretion in his wealth by saying that his wife ran her own business, and that they were filing returns regularly with the income tax authorities. If that is correct, then the tax authorities must take a closer look at accounts of politicians that show abnormal growth. Unfortunately, the tax authorities are generally interested in harassing genuine tax payers by withholding refunds and trying to extract bribes with threats.

How to be happy

2008-04-21T16:22:00.000+05:30

In my previous blog on the link between money and happiness, I argued that happiness is largely a question of an individual’s temperament, of being able to take the high and low of life in the right spirit. The argument was based on my experience of life and the people I have met. By a strange coincidence soon after, there was a report about a 35-year-old engineer who had been proclaimed “Singapore’s Happiest Person” for unwavering cheer and ability to inspire similar sentiments in others.

The search for the island state’s happiest person started in March after a poll earlier by the Grey Group found that nine out of 10 people in affluent Singapore were stressed. This prompted Philip Merry, CEO of the consulting firm Global Leadership Academy, to find the happiest Singaporean. Members of the public were asked to nominate such persons, and a group of four judges went through more than 200 entries. The winner was Andy Goh, who met the criteria set by the judges that included a happy smiling disposition, ability to be happy no matter what life presented, a strong sense of community and belonging, consistent happiness without ups and downs, and a contributor to society by bringing happiness to others.

It is easy to be happy when life is treating you well. But as soon as there is a problem or calamity, most people will wonder why God has chosen them for a test. It is at times like these that some devout will become more devout, while others may curse their fate. What people do not realise is that life is like a stock market, with ups and downs. If there is a prolonged good phase, there is likely to be a downside at some time. The trick is to expect this and prepare yourself for it. Enjoy the good times, but don’t go overboard. Treat bad times similarly: hunker down, the storm will soon pass.

Money and happiness

2008-04-17T16:20:00.000+05:30

Can money buy happiness? Is there a direct link between wealth and happiness? Economists and spiritual gurus have pondered over and debated this question. According to an article in The Hindu of April 17, the long held theory has been that economic growth doesn’t necessarily lead to more satisfaction, or happiness. The theory, evolved by University of Pennsylvania economist Richard Easterlin, suggested that relative income, or how much you earned compared with others around you, mattered far more than absolute income. He argued that people in poor countries did become happier once they could afford basic necessities, but beyond that, further increases in income simply raised the bar. Studies in Japan found that although that it rose from the ashes of World War II to become one of the world’s richest nations, its people were richer but not happier. In the latest development, the Easterlin theory has been attacked by two young economists from the same university, who said that money indeed tends to bring happiness, even if it doesn’t guarantee it.

Annual global surveys conducted by organisations like Gallup and others have found that life satisfaction is high in rich countries. Commenting on the latest study, Easterlin said he could be persuaded to accept the new theory if satisfaction had risen in individual countries as they grew richer. The Hindu article says in some countries this has happened, but strangely not in the United States and China, where a new class of young, neo rich has emerged.

My own view is that happiness is largely a frame of mind, of individual temperament, of how you see life and its events. In my first job, I was paid only Rs 150 per month, and clearly remember being happy with that money. Many years later, when I was paid Rs 40,000 per month, I could not say with certainty that I was happy. As I write this blog, there is no power in my home. To that extent, if India were to develop so much that power cuts are banished, then certainly my happiness quotient would increase. Fewer traffic jams, a clean city, and good governance also would make me happier. I have met people who are eternal optimists, who continue to smile even in the most trying of times. There are others who crib constantly, even when life has not been too bad for them. Happiness depends largely on relationships you have, with job satisfaction and appreciation, and to some extent on material wealth. I believe that the first two are more important than the third.

Sycophants and stabbers

2008-04-16T16:23:00.000+05:30

The Congress’s assertion, in response to the “Rahul for PM” campaign, that the party does not support sycophancy is laughable. I was really amused because all political parties have sycophancy in varying degrees, with the Congress the leader of the pack at the national level, followed by some regional parties. In the Congress, sycophancy began when Indira Gandhi took over the party in the late 1960s. One-leader parties like the AIADMK and DMK, Mayawati’s BSP, and Shiv Sena are examples of sycophantic parties at the regional level. AIADMK party minions and ministers prostrating before supreme Jayalalitha at public functions is not unusual, as numerous recorded photographs in newspapers will attest. Sycophancy in the BJP and Left parties is not that blatant, but I am sure it exists. The Congress, of course, takes the cake. I remember a photograph of Pranab Mukherjee half bent and making a note of something Rajiv Gandhi was saying when the latter was prime minister. As Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi was entitled to give orders, but it was the abject posture of Pranab Mukherjee that suggested his sycophantic mentality. As it happens, Pranab Mukherjee appears to have lent support to Arjun Singh’s “Rahul for PM” campaign.

That brings me to the larger question: Are Indians generally sycophantic? Perhaps not, but there are numerous instances in history of sycophantic maharajas and princes. You could argue that in many instances it is not sycophancy but sheer opportunism. Sycophancy exists not just in politics but in the work place as well. Once a leader in a company indicates his or her preference for sycophancy over merit, there will be no dearth of sycophants. Even in journalism, of which I have experience, there have been editors who supported sycophancy. One well-known investigative editor had the view that one group that he liked could do no wrong, while the other could do nothing right. Naturally, the first group consisted of “Yes” men.

The other interesting observation is that in India, if someone is not a sycophant he could be a (back) stabber. It is like two sides of a coin. Again, this is most evident in the Congress Party, which abounds both in sycophants and stabbers. See the fate of poor Manmohan Singh. His own Cabinet ministers are stabbing him in the back even as they try to ingratiate themselves with Sonia Gandhi. It has been said that we Indians have “crab mentality,” which does not allow us to support someone who is doing well. Is there any hope of change?

Efficiency and caste

2008-04-11T16:33:00.000+05:30

For the next few days, newspapers and magazines will be full of analysis and comments on the OBC reservation issue. In a landmark judgement on Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the central government order of 27 percent reservation for OBCs in educational institutions, but kept the creamy layer out of its purview. Politicians and political parties dependent on OBC patronage are naturally upset at the Supreme Court caveat. At the end of the day, as a citizen I would be concerned about efficiency in the country, whether in services, manufacturing, governance, or whatever.

I can tell you from personal experience that it doesn’t really matter who is in the chair. I believe three things: 1) Many Indians have limited knowledge about the work they are doing, 2) the right hand does not know what the left is doing, and 3) Intelligence has nothing to do with caste. Let me illustrate by recounting my recent experience. I recently opened a three-in-one account with ICICI Bank, which combines a bank account, a demat account, and a trading account. It is a good concept, and you can use the trading account for share trading and investments in instruments like mutual funds, with funds moving in and out of your bank account seamlessly. Now ICICI Bank is a private bank, and there is no reservation in jobs there. Therefore, you can expect that only smart and intelligent people have been hired. When I filled in my application form, the relationship manager promised to file it in two days, but actually took six. It took another 13 days before the accounts were activated after due verification. My ATM pin arrived before the ATM card and cheque book, which took nine days to reach me. So much for private efficiency, but there is more.

The Association of Mutual Funds (AMFI) has introduced compulsory know-your-customer (KYC) compliance for all fund mutual investments above Rs 50,000. I have complied with this requirement with Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) on an individual basis. When I tried to make an investment of Rs 50,000 in a fund using ICICIDirect, the system would not let me do it, citing the KYC compliance issue. Therefore, I rang the bank’s call centre, only to be told that the CDSL compliance I have was useless, and that I needed to do it with NDSL (National Depository Services Ltd). I later received an email from ICICI saying that AMFI had nominated CDSL to keep the compliance records. Apparently, the ICICI bank people who were calling me had no clue, a classic example of limited knowledge, and the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. In the latest email, I was told to go to the nearest bank branch and hand over a copy of the KYC acknowledgement there. I have sent a scanned copy of the KYC acknowledgement to ICICI, and am hoping there is someone “smart” there to resolve the problem.

Of no consequence

2008-04-08T16:04:00.000+05:30

The chances of the Congress returning to power in next year’s general elections were always slim. Now, with inflation at 7 percent, victory will become more difficult unless prices come down drastically in the next six to eight months. It was, therefore, the right time for a drastic reshuffle, to tell voters that the party means business. However, the reshuffle that took place on Sunday is unlikely to have any impact on the party’s fortunes. The Times of India headline on the story said, “Gen X in the driver’s seat.” With only two new young entrants, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasad, it can hardly be called that. The drivers of the Congress party are still largely a bunch of older men. On this aspect, we do are not much different from China, where old men rule the country. Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister was an aberration in a country where the normal age of a prime minister is at least 60 plus. If L.K.Advani succeeds in his dream, the prime minister will be over 80.

Reshuffles are always interesting, especially when someone is shown the door. In the latest exercise, Manik Rao Gavit, who was minister of state for home, and Dasari Narayan Rao, minister of state for coal, have been kicked out for “lacklustre performance.” With Shivraj Patil as home minister, in what way was Gavit’s performance “lacklustre?” Law and order is a state subject, and the central home ministry does not have much control over what happens in the country. It is difficult to measure performance of a minister when he has little control over things. What can a minister of state do? Similarly, in what way was Rao’s performance bad? May be it is time the Prime Minister explained these things to the people so that we understand his mind better.

The “hot” story in the reshuffle was of course Rahul Gandhi’s refusal to become a minister. I think it was a wise choice. Why become a minister of state in some silly ministry when you can exercise far more power from outside the government? It is also learning time for the heir apparent. He will have more freedom in his present position to travel around the country and understand the issues troubling the people. In these days of caste politics, that alone will not ensure victory in elections, but at least he will get an inkling into the voter’s mind.

A new phobia

2008-04-02T16:09:00.001+05:30

The incessant spawning of new technology is leading to a rash of new phobias. The latest is “nomophobia,” or fear of being out of mobile phone contact. British researchers did a study and found that people were getting stressed about their mobile phones running out of battery charge or credit, losing the handset, and not having network coverage. These phobias afflicted 53 percent of mobile users. The study found that more men, 58 percent, admitted to feelings of anxiety compared to 48 percent of women.

Actually, there are many more phobias yet to be studied. Many people, I am sure, have a phobia about their handsets being outdated. The other day we went to the Shoppers Stop outlet on Bannerghata Road in Bangalore. As my daughter was busy trying on one garment after another, I had a lot of time to kill, which I spent trying to peek at handsets carried by other shoppers. My eyes would scan their hands, and would light up when I spotted something unusual. One woman shopper carried what appeared to be a new handset, something that looked like a Blackberry, which I don’t own and sometimes covet. Then, I found another young man had the same handset. Must be something new and popular, I thought. Of course, I couldn’t summon enough courage to take a closer look for fear of being socked one on the nose by the shopper or the bouncers in the store.

Another phobia is about email. I haven’t seen a quirky name for it, but we can call it “mailophobia.” This is the fear of our emails not reaching recipients and their emails not reaching us. Whenever I send an email out I wait with great anxiety, wondering if it has reached the recipient. Unfortunately, public email services like Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail do not have an automatic acknowledgement feature that is available in company services. The assumption that the email will have reached the recipient if it has not bounced back is incorrect. I have found to my horror that sometimes emails do get lost in the vast Internet jungle. So after biting my nails, fingers, lips and toes for sometime I generally call the person to check.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there weren’t that many landline phones, and the only means of quick communication was the telegram. We depended on it for good and bad news. Generally, the arrival of the telegram was greeted with trepidation, as it often brought bad news like the death of a relative. Interview letters and results came by snail mail, and the postman’s arrival was awaited with bated breath. Once we sent an Independence Day greeting telegram to a friend in Ranchi, probably giving him a shock. Times have changed, and so have the phobias.

Friends and friendships

2008-04-01T16:11:00.000+05:30

In the best-selling book “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo, the main character Don Corleone advises that everyone should build a “wall of friendship.” But that is easier said than done. To build a solid wall, the soil must be firm, and the mortar must keep the bricks together. Any weakness in the soil or mortar will mean the end of the wall. I recently met two people who have been friends since their kindergarten school days, going back perhaps 45 years. I felt a tinge of envy when I heard that. I never envy people’s material possessions, but I do envy their skills and such things as an enduring friendship. What a wonderful thing to meet such a friend frequently over a cup of hot tea, coffee or a drink?

I too have friends going back more than 40 years. Those were the days when we lived in a government colony in Moti Bagh in Delhi, and as children we met every day in the evenings to play and chat. Vinod and Dilip, two people from that era, continue to be friends to this day. Although we don’t meet that often and talk, we are in touch with each other. Vinod especially is the only person outside the family who knows everything about me, about my trials and tribulations. When my father died on March 1, 1977, I was unsure how much the funeral would cost. I mentioned this to Vinod, and he immediately offered to bring his previous month’s salary. In the end I didn’t need to borrow money from him, but he was there to help. Dilip, a former Air Force officer, has been a fun friend. Both of us have met in different places during his career, and done crazy things like driving to Agra and Chandigarh on a scooter. Once, we even slept on a bench at New Delhi railway station while Dilip waited to catch the morning train back to Kurukshetra, where he was then studying. There were other friends then, but except Prakash, who now lives in Kochi, I am not in touch with them because they are not interested in maintaining the relationship.

You meet a lot of people when you go to work. Initially they are just professional acquaintances, but some turn out to be good and lasting friends. I met MC Ramaswamy after I had just joined the Indian Express in Delhi in the early 1970s. He was then a special correspondent in the New Delhi bureau, and twice recommended my name when editors from overseas papers came head hunting. It was due to one such recommendation that I was able to go to Jeddah to work for the Saudi Gazette when I most needed it. My father had just died, and I needed to make more money to feed my family. MCR, who also lives in Bangalore, remains a friend and well-wisher to this day. In 2004, I moved to Chennai to work for The New Indian Express. In Chennai too I met people I liked, and I think I have made at least a couple of long-lasting friends. I am upset with two people who I thought were friends but I believe were involved in the new editor’s attempt to put me down. The least you expect from friends is to rise to your defence when the going gets tough. In Bangalore, where I moved in October 2006, I have not met many people. I liked several people at work during my year with the Express, but how many of these relationships turn out to be enduring friendships remains to be seen. Sometimes you don’t get positive vibes from people. A professional friend of mine, Bhushan Marwah from the Hindustan Times in Delhi, who died many years ago, used to say there are “friends” and “fair-weather friends.” Fair-weather friends will be with you when you are in power, and then dump you when you are not. An editor friend discovered that many people who used to call him frequently disappeared after he resigned.

What is it that cements a friendship and makes it long-lasting? Proximity is certainly one factor. If you meet someone every day or as frequently as possible, that relationship will quite likely last long. For this to happen, there is nothing like living close by. Vinod and I used to meet every day, sometimes twice a day. Second, friendships are like delicate plants—they need to be nurtured. However, this cannot be a one-sided affair. Unless the other party reciprocates, the friendship will not last. Best friends are often from school and college days. Over the years I have tried to revive some friendships, only to find that the other person is not really interested. As a boy, I remember crying when a friend stopped speaking to me after a misunderstanding. I am now more thick-skinned. And I continue to try to make friends. I am planning to join a club hoping to meet interesting people, of whom some may become friends. “Real” friends are more valuable than all the material wealth in the world.

Banking on Rahul

2008-03-28T16:12:00.000+05:30

Like a gambler making one last effort to recoup his losses, the battered Congress party is sending heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi on a country-wide tour. He is now visiting parts of Karnataka, and excited reporters are lapping up every word he utters and sharing them with readers. We are told he had traditional food in someone’s hut. I don’t know what he normally eats, but the food he is getting in tribal villages is festive food, and not what they probably eat on a daily basis, which Rahul might find difficult for his delicate stomach. Rahul has been an instant hit with women and children, who have been charmed by his good looks. His father Rajiv had the same handsome looks, and millions of voters were taken in by that and his youthfulness and pitched their hopes on him. Sadly, Rajiv started off well but soon succumbed to political pressures and let his voters down.

The disintegration of the once-dominant Congress party began in the late 1960s when Indira Gandhi came to power. Though it revived with brute majorities on some occasions in the decades that followed, it never was able to catch the imagination of voters as it had done in the golden 1950s. The Congress was once a catch-all party, but soon other parties focussed on local and regional aspirations and took away big chunks of its power base. With the death of Rajiv Gandhi, the party’s last charismatic leader, the Congress is now just a shell of its old self and incapable of resurrecting itself in any great measure.

The problem with initially-reluctant politicians like Rahul Gandhi is that they lack confidence and boldness to mesmerise the masses. BJP has such leaders in large numbers, and examples include Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. In the UPA coalition, I see only Lalu Yadav with these qualities. Diffidence does not help in politics, while rabble-rousing is a great vote catcher. No one listening to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be moved to get up and do something. More than anything else, Rahul Gandhi must take lessons in public speaking, and improve his delivery. As a young and handsome leader, he has an inbuilt advantage over ageing BJP leaders, but youth alone will not help unless he can convince voters to bank on him.

Putting value on time

2008-03-25T16:35:00.000+05:30

One of the big differences between India and advanced Western countries is the value people put on time. Every Indian is familiar how shabbily we treat time. Those of you who have attended public functions will be quite used to it. The chief guest will rarely come on time, delaying everything in the process. In the past week, I experienced this on two occasions.

I recently became a member of a local film society. On March 22, the society had scheduled three short films on environment, starting at 5:30 pm. In an email I received from the society later, I noticed that the festival was to be inaugurated by an official. Oh! I should have sat up when I saw that, but didn’t pay much attention to it. So there I was, in my seat in the auditorium well before 5:30 pm, waiting for the screening of films to start. I expected the official to come and say a few words before that. How wrong I was! First, he turned up an hour late, at 6:30, and then went on to lecture on the impending water crisis. Okay, Sir, interesting facts, but I was there to watch three films. I thought that would be it. Wrong. Another guest rose to speak, and went on for another 15-20 minutes, even singing a song during his lecture. Okay, so we are entertained, could we now have the films, please? Well, no. Seven well-dressed women then got up, and proceeded to entertain us with a skit they had written on water conservation. Then they also sang a song they had composed. Finally, at well past 7 pm, the screening began. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see even the first film fully as we had to return home. What a waste of an evening!

I recently also applied for an account with ICICIDirect. I completed the application formalities on March 16, and was told that it would be sent for processing on March 18. It was actually sent on March 20. Last Saturday, I received a call from ICICIDirect that someone would come on Monday to verify my ID and address. Could he come between 11 am and 1 pm? That’s fine, I said, knowing fully well that in India these times are quite flexible. The person turned up at 2 pm, not bad by Indian standards, but certainly not between 11 am and 1 pm. What if I had had an appointment at 1 pm? Again, no value is put on the other person’s time.

Lastly, the situation is not always hopeless. This morning I wanted to get photographed as I had run out of photos that are generally used in documentation. I went to the local outlet of GK Vale. After getting myself photographed, I asked, “When will I get the photos?” In 30 minutes, the shop assistant replied. It took probably less than that, and I had my 16 photos, with a CD carrying a copy for future use. That saved me a second trip and some expensive petrol for my car as well. When will we begin to value time?

A study in contrast

2008-03-24T16:24:00.000+05:30

The lives of two well-known personalities, BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani and Nobel Prize winning writer V.S.Naipaul, have been making the news in recent days with the release of an autobiography and biography, respectively. I have not read the books yet, but what comes out from the excerpts published so far is a study in contrast.

Although Advani has a hawkish-image because of his Hindutva beliefs, I suspect he is a gentle and soft-hearted person. I have seen and met Advani as a journalist when I was based in New Delhi. With time on his hands, he once strolled into the library in Parliament, looking for a magazine to read, and we exchanged a few words. Those were the days when the BJP was only dreaming of coming to power at the Centre, a dream that took some time to come true. His personal and family life is above board and he appears to have largely to stuck to his beliefs. With Advani now designated as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, a lot of people will be curious about his thinking on major issues and at critical moments when the BJP was in power. On Kashmir, Advani says that he was quite annoyed when he learnt that A.S.Dulat, a former RAW officer, had given the impression to some Hurriyat leaders that the government was prepared to look at solutions outside the ambit of the Indian Constitution. Now, the Indian Constitution is a fine document but it has been amended innumerable times. Governments need to be realistic. After the 1962 debacle in the war with China, Parliament approved a resolution saying that all territory would be taken back, something that is impractical. It would be better to settle the border question quickly and use our military resources elsewhere. Advani also talks about the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 that ended with then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh escorting jailed terrorists to Kandahar in Afghanistan. Surprisingly, Advani told a TV channel that he was unaware about Jaswant Singh accompanying the terrorists, and no such decision had been taken by the Cabinet committee on security affairs. Hijacks do bring a lot of public pressure on governments, but I suspect there was confusion in the government on how to handle the whole affair.

Unlike Advani, Naipaul comes out as a cranky and a cruel person. In his biography “The World Is What It Is” by Patrick French, Naipaul confesses that he tormented his first wife for four decades, visited prostitutes and kept a mistress for 24 years before he abandoned her to marry another woman. I am a little surprised that his wife Patricia hung on for so long in a society where marriages sometimes do not last even one year. I can see this happening only in the Indian sub-continent and Asian societies, but even here things are changing now and women are walking out of unpleasant marriages. I have not read many of Naipaul’s books, but from what I have I feel he is a vastly overrated writer.

Krishna returns from exile

2008-03-19T16:17:00.000+05:30

Like Rama returning from exile, former Karnataka chief minister S.M.Krishna came back to Bangalore after a short, four-year gubernatorial stint in Maharashtra. There was, however, no one keeping the throne warm for him in Karnataka, and it is not certain that he will get the throne at all in the forming state elections. His tenure as chief minister and long political innings have undoubtedly earned him supporters, who turned out at the airport on Monday to welcome him. But gathering crowds as a show of support does not mean much when the crunch comes at election time. The Congress has always been wracked by dissent within the party even during pre-Independence days, and over time this has worsened. Politics is a game of power, and all politicians are power hungry. If they cannot have the trappings of power, they at least want to be allowed to make money from it. The days of selfless service to the nation went out of the window when Mahatma Gandhi died.

At his first formal press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday, Krishna was his usual suave and evasive best. As a long-time politician he has learnt the art of answering questions without saying much. Unlike the aggressive H.D.Deve Gowda, who often exhibits irritation at uncomfortable questions and throws a counter-question in response, Krishna answers questions without revealing his mind. When a reporter asked him about mention of actress Saroja Devi in the autobiography of Congress leader and former minister H. Vishwanath, Krishna laughed it away saying there were many books to be read but these days he had no time. Krishna is also the typical Congressman, always sickeningly beholden to the High Command, now represented by Sonia Gandhi. Since the days of Indira Gandhi, the only way a Congressman can hope to get anywhere near the seat of power in his state is to declare unquestioned support to the Great Leader.

The Congress is in a position to come back to power in Karnataka mainly because of the bad impression created by the previous Kumaraswamy administration. If nothing else, the people should see that the Deve Gowda family gets defeated. The BJP has a good chance if it plays its cards right. It has already made a start by appointing Arun Jaitely to oversee the Karnataka elections, and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has also visited the state to woo voters. The BJP has a bit of negative image because of its 20-month association with Kumaraswamy. Whether it will be able to overcome this remains to be seen. As for the people, they want good governance without corruption. Bangalore especially is reeling under infrastructure inadequacies, and unless a strong and forward-looking government comes to power, there is little hope for citizens.

Supreme Court rebuffs Thackerays

2008-03-17T16:10:00.000+05:30

In a strong rebuff to the Thackeray clan, the Supreme Court last week asserted that every Indian has the right to settle and work anywhere in the country. A bench headed by Justices H K Sema and Markandey Katju said, “India is not an association or confederation of states. It is a union of states, and there is only one nationality, that is Indian. Hence, every Indian has a right to go anywhere in India, settle anywhere, and work and do business of his choice in any part of India peacefully.” The bench also deplored the growing tendency among sections to resort to violence on issues, and asked communities to be respectful to each other’s sentiments. “In a multi-cultural country like ours, with such diversity, one should not be over-sensitive and over touchy about a short restriction when it is being done out of respect for the sentiments of a particular section of society.”

In the first part of the ruling, the Supreme Court has only reiterated the constitutional position, which gives every Indian the right to settle and work anywhere in the country. However, the problem with people like Thackeray, and some organisations in other states, is that they have scant respect for the Constitution. I am sure both Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and his nephew Raj Thackeray were aware of the constitutional position, and yet they spoke against migrants, particularly Biharis, coming to Mumbai. There is no mystery here: clearly, the comments were aimed at strengthening their vote bank among Maharashtrians. But at what cost? Some actions often cause incalculable harm in the long run. The Congress attempt to divide Akalis and support Bhindranwale in Punjab led to the creation of a monster that finally had to be put down at great cost to Hindu-Sikh amity. One of the things that a serious government at the Centre should do is to make the law more stringent against those who try to create disaffection among citizens. Raj Thackeray managed to get bail immediately for his utterances though a moderate jail sentence would have cooled his fervour.

The second part of the Supreme Court judgement on respecting the sentiments of other communities is also welcome. In this case, a nine-day ban on sale of meat ordered by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation during a Jain festival was challenged by an organisation representing slaughter houses. The organisation won the case in the Gujarat High Court, which struck down the ban as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court upheld the ban, overturning the High Court verdict.

Is wheat better than rice?

2008-03-12T17:05:00.000+05:30

Six undertrials and convicts from Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have petitioned the Karnataka high court that they are unable to adjust to South Indian food served in the jail, and that they have become weak and are losing weight. The prisoners also complained that the jail is congested and there is often a scuffle for using toilets. The authorities are handcuffing the prisoners while taking them to courts, disregarding the Supreme Court’s directive on the matter.

I want to challenge the first part of the complaint about South Indian food. It is okay for the convicts to say that they cannot “adjust” to South Indian food, but eating such food cannot make anyone weak or lose weight. A senior journalist once commented that people always like “apna khana, apna gana” (my kind of food, my kind of music). This is no doubt true. However, there is a misconception in North India that rice-eaters are weaker than wheat-eaters. This is part of the general misconception that South Indians are “weak,” and that North Indians are “strong.”

Rice is widely eaten and is the most important tropical cereal in Asia. It is said to be the staple food for about half the human race and the main source of calories for millions of people in India as well. It is one of the oldest of food crops, going back to 2800 BC. According to nutritionists, the protein content of rice is a lower than wheat, but it is of better quality and used better by the body than wheat protein. Raw milled rice has 78.2 percent carbohydrates, protein 6.8 percent, fat 0.5 percent, and fibre 0.2 percent. Wheat has 69.4 percent carbohydrates, 12.1 percent protein, 1.7 percent fat, and 1.9 percent fibre. You can see that wheat has higher protein, fat and fibre content, which delay hunger pangs as compared to rice. However, rice has higher carbohydrate content, which provides raw energy, and to say that it makes a person feel “weak” is illogical. According to author H.K.Bakhru, rice has been considered a magical healer in the East. It contains all the elements needed for maintenance of good health. Rice is 98 percent digestible, and is digested completely in about one hour. It has calcium, phosphorous and iron, and essential minerals. If you have dal with rice, you will meet the protein shortfall and the meal will become more nutritive.

The problem with Indian jails is that they are overcrowded, and the authorities couldn’t care less about the welfare of prisoners. Many committees have suggested reforms in the Indian jail system, but I suspect most recommendations remain on paper. Bad food is part of this maladministration and callousness.

With cockroaches as co-passsengers

2008-03-11T16:45:00.000+05:30

I have just begun reading Dan Brown’s “Deception Point,” in which the main character is a woman who works as a “gister” in an US intelligence organisation. Her work is to make a gist of loads of intelligence information with analysis thrown in. As a long-time journalist, I have been a “gister” throughout my career. I can reduce anything to a headline or one sentence. Once, I borrowed a 600-page parliamentary report from a member of Parliament with a promise to return it in two hours. I rushed to my office, made a 600-word story, and returned the original report to the MP on my way back home.

Now you may wonder why I am talking about gists. On Sunday, my family and I made a two-day trip to Chennai to attend a wedding. The trip can be condensed to a simple headline as follows: “Rao family back in Bangalore after two-day Chennai visit.” This would be of interest only if the Rao family had never been out of Bangalore. But the devil is in the detail, as Finance Minister P Chidambaram will tell you. So, a better headline would be, “Rao family travels with cockroaches in Lalu’s trains.” That sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

Our country is interesting only because the unexpected always is round the corner. You never know what to expect. That is what makes travel interesting, if you have the right attitude. Take a simple thing as booking a taxi for going to the railway station. You call the taxi operator the night before, and tell him several times not to forget. Why? Because he did that once, and I am now wary about forgetfulness among taxi operators. In Chennai, the hotel’s travel desk forgets to inform the driver that we need a taxi early in the morning, and we are late for the wedding. Well, the taxi in Bangalore arrives a little late, but that’s okay and we are able to reach the railway station in time. One of the reasons I always reach the station early is because Indians carry too much luggage, and if you get there late, you will find that all the space overhead has been taken, and you will have no choice to balance things on your lap. The concept of the Shatabdi, a quick day train, is good, but it is not meant to accommodate too much luggage. However, you find passengers travelling with huge suitcases as though they are on transfer, and some of them perhaps are. As we take our seats, two foreigners enter, and ask politely if the train will leave on time. As an Indian, I can proudly say that trains in India do leave on time, but whether they will reach the destination always on time is another matter altogether.

Once the train leaves Bangalore, breakfast is served after a while. The upma is hot and nice. Once that is over, everyone wants to take a nap, having got up in the morning at an unearthly hour to catch the 6 am train. Shortly afterwards, my wife notices a cockroach scurrying around near the window. She gives a womanly screech, but cockroaches are perhaps deaf and this one doesn’t hear it. It makes it way on to my travel pouch that hangs near the window. I try to flick it away, and it lands in the aisle, and finds another place to hide. Once on an earlier trip, my wife, who seems good at spotting these things, found a tiny mouse in the Shatabdi, and kept a sharp vigil through the journey on its antics.

On the return journey, we travel by the Bangalore Express. The AC chair car coach, refurbished in 2004, looks dilapidated and depressing. Some seats are askew, and the trays at the back do not open or close properly. As usual, passengers come in with mounds of luggage, and try weight training by hauling them up to the overhead shelf. It is a miracle no one suffers from a prolapsed disc. Unlike the Shatabdi, where the cost of the ticket includes the meal, you have to buy food on Bangalore Express. Like a conveyor belt in a Japanese restaurant, waiters from the pantry car come in with snacks one after another. First it is vegetable biryani, then hot cutlets, onion vada, masala dosai, bajji, omelette, chips and biscuits, cold drinks, coffee and tea, and water. While we enjoy the different aromas that waft by, my wife again notices cockroaches scurrying around on the window. This time there is more than one. A passenger on my right tries to take a nap by putting his head on the food tray, and I find a cockroach trying to enter his luxurious hair. Here and there passengers are flicking away tiny cockroaches, and fortunately none of them is lands in the food going past.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has been taking credit for turning around railway finances, and the railways are making a lot of money. One way of putting the money to good use would be to clean up railway compartments. Train journeys can be a great pleasure, but only if you are able to concentrate on the scene outside and not the cockroaches inside.

Liking cities

2008-03-05T17:07:00.000+05:30

What makes a city a great place to live in? Much will depend on the individual. HR consultancy company ECA International does an annual survey of expatriates, and reported after the latest study that among Indian cities, it is Chennai that ranks at the top, followed by Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata. The annual survey compares living standards and other aspects such as climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tension. Not surprisingly, expatriates rank Singapore at the very top for providing the highest quality of life. I was in Singapore for a short visit in December with family, and I can say, with superficial information that I gathered, that it really is a good place to live and work. There is a great deal of efficiency and infrastructure is top class. The roads are clean and a delight for people suffering from compulsive cleanliness disorder. The political atmosphere too is clean, which many Indians may not like, used as we are these days to live and breathe politics, just as we live and breathe cricket. What will families and old men talk about if there is no Deve Gowda or Sonia Gandhi?

As I said at the beginning, your opinion of a city will depend on what you do and your attitude to life. I once asked a Malayalee colleague, who has worked in other cities such as Hyderabad, what he thought of Chennai. His answer was that he liked all cities, and had no problems anywhere. With that kind of attitude, perhaps typically of a Malayalee, no city will be a problem. I have lived in New Delhi, Chennai and now in Bangalore. I found Delhi, with its nine-month long summer, too hot, and distances too much to travel. Otherwise it is a great place to be in. Chennai is much smaller, but the humidity is killing, and there is no regular monsoon and no winter. Language is a problem in Chennai. Bangalore has a great climate, the city centre is not too far away, but getting there is a problem because of poor road infrastructure. Parking is a nightmare, but you don’t need to know Kannada to get around. Everyone speaks Hindi. Bangalore also has a lot of cultural activities, and for those who like parties, there are plenty of these also, if Times of India’s page 3 is to be believed. For those who like politics, the Deve Gowda clan will provide endless grist to the mill. What more do you want in a city?

Why are Indians suicide prone?

2008-03-04T16:20:00.000+05:30

The Indian people generally are a hardy lot. Due mainly to their philosophic nature, they are able to withstand immense hardship and gamely live on even in the most poverty-ridden districts of the country. What drives them to despair are often the government’s “development” programmes that uproot them from their traditional habitats and destroy their community linkages with nature. Therefore, I was surprised to read that the rate of suicides in India is among the highest in the world.

According to the Tuesday edition of Times of India, Bangalore, 118,112 persons committed suicide in the country in 2006, up 3.7 percent over the previous year. The four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore accounted for 50 percent of the suicides reported from 35 mega cities. Among these four metros, Chennai had the highest number of suicides at 2,427, followed by Bangalore 2,008, Delhi 1,296, and Mumbai 1,195. It is interesting that the two southern cities of Chennai and Bangalore should top the list. South India has sometimes been called a “suicide region.” Not surprisingly, Mumbai as a city had the lowest suicide among metros, which is a tribute to the enterprising spirit of the people living there.

However, if you take a broader look at states, West Bengal tops the list, accounting for 13.3 percent suicides country-wide, followed by Maharashtra (13.1 percent), Andhra Pradesh (11.2 percent), Tamil Nadu (10.5 percent) and Karnataka (10.3 percent). The usually-arrogant Left comrades should take note and wonder why their state tops the suicide list. Are the people so fed up with Left rule that they are taking their own lives? Maybe not, but the reasons are worth looking into by an academic.

The disturbing thing, however, is not just the rising number, but the fact that children between the ages of 10 and 14 are becoming vulnerable to suicide because of academic and parental pressure, depression, helplessness, and low self esteem. People in the age group of 17-25, it appears, make the most suicide attempts. What drives people to suicide? According to expert studies, these include family conflicts, domestic violence, academic failures, unfulfilled romantic ideals, wide gap between capability and aspirations, disintegration of the traditional social support mechanism, and in the case of farmers, failure of crops and rising debt. Studies also suggest that in the case of children, sensitive teachers can spot suicidal trends and begin counselling. Parents too should reduce pressure on children and watch out for danger signals.

Doctors on trains

2008-02-29T16:13:00.000+05:30

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s budget on Tuesday generated a lot of hype as he tried to woo the masses with lots of promises and no hikes in fares. There is no doubt that railway finances have improved with better and more efficient freight management. This year Lalu also promised better facilities for passengers. However, not everyone is impressed by these promises.

Sampath, a 64-year-old man, had convulsions while he was travelling with his wife on the Brindavan Express to Chennai on Monday as the train approached Jolarpet. There was no doctor on the train, and though Jolarpet station authorities were alerted, there was no doctor there either. By the time the train reached Arakkonam, Sampath’s condition had worsened and he died on the way. Doctors did come aboard at Arakkonam but declared him dead. Sampath’s relatives are understandably anguished at the lack of medical facilities. His niece Malathi told the Times of India that while many new trains and other facilities had been announced by Lalu in his budget speech, it was sad that stations lacked medical facilities and onboard doctors. She said her uncle could have been saved if a doctor had seen him at Jolarpet.

There is great merit in Malathi’s suggestion. This is not the first time that passengers have been taken ill on trains and died before they could get medical attention. Providing for doctors on all trains may be difficult, I agree. However, railway authorities can ensure emergency medical facilities are available at all stations, 24-hours a day. Guards and ticket checkers on trains also can be trained to give first-aid and emergency medical attention.

Protecting doctors

2008-02-27T16:33:00.000+05:30

In recent times, legislation by the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh has not been what you may call “progressive” as it tries desperately to woo the Muslim vote with promises of reservation and Haj subsidy. However, on Tuesday it introduced a Bill in the state assembly providing for three years’ in jail for assault on medical staff, and also made the offence non-bailable. The Bill covers registered medical practioners, nurses, medical and nursing students, and paramedical workers. Additionally, it provides for a fine up to Rs 50,000. In Bangalore, junior doctors of Bowring Hospital suspended their strike after the governor promised them that their demand for an ordinance making attacks on doctors a cognizable offence would be introduced in Parliament.

Both developments are welcome, as most strikes in public hospitals occur after relatives of patients attack duty doctors. Public hospitals all over the country are overcrowded because their numbers are insufficient. With job security guaranteed in such hospitals, service is often lax. Patients who come seriously injured want quick attention, and if this does not come, their relatives end up attacking the duty doctors. Sometimes there could be negligence by doctors. The proposed legislation in Andhra Pradesh will, to an extent, reduce the attacks, but only if the public is made aware about it. Many patients who come to public hospitals are illiterate and poor, and couldn’t care less for any legislation.

At the same time, there is a tendency among staff in critical posts like medical care, aviation, railways and others to arm twist the government with a strike to concede their demands. Although there is a law called the Essential Services Maintenance Act, governments are hesitant to use it quickly when strikes begin. Strikes are generally allowed to continue for a few days before the government begins to talk “tough.” Why not defuse the situation before it worsens? Why not ban strikes in critical services? And if a strike does take place, governments must not hesitate to use ESMA.

The railway revolution

2008-02-26T16:27:00.000+05:30

India is a slow moving country. The only things that come up quickly are perhaps slums and shopping malls. However, as the country plods along, there are three visible “revolutionary” developments that suggest progress. First, it was the milk revolution. There was a time when milk shortage was common, and people had to queue up in the morning to get their short quota of milk. Plenty of milk is now available. Next came the telecom revolution. Once, owning a telephone was a luxury or sign of an important position in government or private sector. This again has changed. The mobile revolution especially has swept the country, and put telephony in the hands of the common man. I am constantly amazed at kind of people who own mobile phones now. Three, the ticketing revolution in the Indian Railways. Standing in a queue in a hot railway station was once just the beginning of a painful journey. The computerized, railway ticket reservation system made it somewhat painless by speeding up the process. Then, with introduction of online booking, it became totally painless. You can sit at home and book tickets on your computer to wherever you wish, and cancel them if needed.

However, all is still not well with the Indian Railways. The first sight of the train, often dirty (even the Shatabdis), is always depressing. Enter the compartment and your depression will only worsen. The toilets are clean at the beginning of the journey, but get progressively dirty as the train gets closer to the destination. Food is generally boring, if not bad. Contrast this with the trains in the Western world. How clean they are, and how fast they move!

Some of this could change, if you were to believe what Railway Minister Lalu Prasad promised in his budget on Tuesday. Queues at ticket counters will be ended in two years. Ticket booking will be enabled on mobile phones, making things further easier for passengers. There will be special stress on cleanliness, with introduction of on-board, continuous cleaning of passenger trains, for which contract has been given to a private operator. Railways tracks at stations are filthy because people use toilets when the train halts. For this, discharge-free Green toilets are being installed in coaches. There will be boards on trains to display departure and arrival information. A public address system will be provided in passenger coaches. Getting on and off trains is a pain because of low platform height, which will be increased. The railways will provide escalators and lifts at stations, and multi-level car parking.

All this, of course, will not happen overnight. But the announcements are welcome, and will make rail travel perhaps a bit more of a pleasure. Air travel, pampered by young and good looking air hostesses, is fine. But from 30,000 feet up you see nothing except a cloud cover. When you travel by train from New Delhi to Bangalore or Chennai, you will see what India’s diversity is all about, and what a fascinating country we have.

An absurd move by BIAL

2008-02-23T11:28:00.000+05:30

I have been opposed to keeping HAL airport in Bangalore open after the Devenhalli facility becomes operational on March 28. This is because HAL airport is a military facility and was never meant to handle the exponential growth in civilian passenger traffic Bangalore has witnessed in recent times. Over the years, HAL has provided only minimal facilities and these are a great pain to travellers. Everything from car parking, baggage belts, and food facilities sucks. There is nothing like a spanking new, spacious airport. People who have been to airports in Hong Kong and Singapore, for instance, will appreciate their efficiency and the large number of shops they have. Even if you are only window shopping, these shops are a great way to kill time between flights.

Airports far from the city are a reality in most places in the world. Part of this is due to availability of space, and partly because of environmental pressure against noise from aircraft taking off and landing. The noise can be deafening if you live close to the airport, and over time perhaps affect your health. For this reason, many overseas airports do not allow flights during particular times of the night so that people nearby can sleep. However, it is also true that the farther the airport, the more time it takes to get there, and it is going to be expensive, particularly by taxis. In Hong Kong, for instance, the authorities have provided a fast rail link to the city centre.

There are two things I find disturbing about the new Bangalore International Airport (BIAL). One is the high user development fee it plans to charge from every passenger. The other is the restriction on small taxis entering the airport. Saturday’s New Indian Express says BIAL will allow only saloons and luxury taxis to be operated from the airport. If you want to find small taxis, you will have to walk seven kilometres to the national highway. This is really absurd. Flying is no longer a rich man’s prerogative. The entry of cheap-fare airlines has brought aviation to the reach of India’s vast middle class. As the low-cost airlines expand, this section will eventually dominate air passenger traffic, and their interest must be kept in mind.

The campaign to keep HAL airport may not succeed. However, Bangalore citizens can certainly put pressure and change things where it is possible. Allowing smaller taxis to operate from the airport is one of them. This will keep costs down for passengers from south Bangalore.

The second issue is the user development fee. This must be kept at a reasonable level. It is no use arguing with BIAL on this issue. BIAL will, understandably, try to milk revenue from all possible sources. The central government has promised to set up an airports regulatory authority soon, which hopefully will consider the passenger viewpoint, just like the consumer-friendly Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Difficult choices

2008-02-21T16:19:00.000+05:30

Many years ago, when I worked on the news desk of the Indian Express in New Delhi, a colleague of mine came on the night shift and said his son was crying when he left home. When he got back early in the morning after work, his son was still crying. My colleague’s wife didn’t work, and yet he was stressed. Balancing work and family is a very difficult thing, and it is becomes more difficult and stressful if both partners work.

A just-released study by staffing company TeamLease on career couples points out the difficulties and problems faced by working partners. As many as 54 percent of those polled said they had become “weekend parents,” 34 percent said both spouses working substantially increased the chances of divorce, and 32 percent felt a woman’s career suffered after taking a break to have a child. Fights over spending quality time and work-related travel are not uncommon. A large section of parents is not able to attend their children’s school function.

In recent years, with intense competition in the market place, work has been taking a heavy toll on a person’s time and energy. The days of 9 am to 5 pm workdays are long gone; 12-hour workdays are the norm, especially at middle and senior levels. Add to this the long commuting time to home, leaving little energy for a family life. No wonder many couples said odd working hours were having an adverse impact on their marital life.

A major problem occurs when one spouse gets transferred. As many as 52 percent said they were not willing to hamper their career for the sake of their spouses, a decision that surely will lead to marital problems. However, 48 percent polled felt the quality of work-life balance will improve, if spouses were working in the same organisation. Many organisations are against both spouses working in the same company. Companies must review this policy.

One factor that I didn’t find mention in the survey was tensions from varying velocities in career progress. It is not easy for many men when their wives move up faster in their careers, and earn a lot more. The other thing is about wives giving up careers to look after the family. If the wife has never worked, it is a bit easier, although she will sometimes feel she is like a glorified maid. A woman who quits a good career will find it tougher, giving up a life at the work place and freedom. Society tends to look down on people who don’t have a regular job. In the end, it is for individuals to make wise choices, and have no regrets.

An avoidable strike

2008-02-19T16:40:00.000+05:30

Groan! Not another strike! Truck owners have again threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Friday night over the speed governor issue. About four lakh vehicles from the southern states, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and West Bengal will not enter the state. Supplies of essential commodities from the southern states will be hit. This is the second time truck owners are going on strike in a month. The previous strike mercifully lasted just a few days. While the truck strike itself did not cause too much inconvenience, the support strike by other vehicle owners, especially private cabs, created problems for IT employees and others.

The truck strike is in protest against the Karnataka High Court order calling for installation of speed governors in all transport vehicles. After June 30, no transport vehicle will be allowed to move in Karnataka without a speed governor. The matter first caught the attention of the court while hearing a petition on the spate of accidents on the state’s highways. When it asked the transport department to come up with ways to curb rash driving, the department suggested speed governors. Truck owners say governors limit the speed to 60 kmph, which is too slow for highway driving. Indian highways have improved considerably, and can take higher speeds. It is also discriminatory as other states are yet to implement the order, they argue. The Karnataka court has sent a notice to the Union Surface Transport Ministry asking why the rule should not be enforced throughout the country.

Having driven a car for more than 20 years in cities and on highways, I can authoritatively say that accidents are caused by “negligent and rash driving” rather than high speed. Of course, driving at high speeds makes it more difficult to bring the vehicle to a stop quickly. If the road and visibility are good, and there is no habitation on the way, it is possible to drive safely at higher speeds. Rash driving, however, involves driving at high speeds through crowded areas. Negligent driving is just bad driving and not following road rules. Both will lead to accidents at some point.

The argument of Karnataka truck owners that the authorities create a level-playing field merits consideration. At the same time, rash and negligent driving by transport vehicles must be strictly checked. Most of the drivers are illiterate and probably have little knowledge of traffic rules and road etiquette (just try overtaking a truck on the highway).

What I am worried about is the support strike by taxis in Bangalore and elsewhere. The speed governor rule does not apply to them, so why are they joining the strike for two days? This will create problems for thousands of IT staff who depend on cabs and maxi-cabs to go to work. People also use taxis to go to the airport and railway station. Everyone will be needlessly harassed.

Getting bolder by the day

2008-02-18T17:34:00.001+05:30

The Naxalite attack on Friday night near Bhubaneswar in which they killed 14 policemen and took away 1,100 weapons shows not just intelligence failure but police and state government complacency as well. Just how bold the Naxalites, or Maoists, are getting can be gauged from the way they planned the attack, sneaking into Nayagarh in buses and other vehicles in plain clothes, and then launching an attack to overrun three police stations and two police outposts. Locals said some 500 Naxalites were involved in the attack, a number that boggles the mind. This is not the first time such an attack has occurred. In June 2005, at least four security men were killed and property worth over Rs.1.6 million looted in at Madhuban in East Champaran district of Bihar by nearly 300 Maoist rebels. The rebels simultaneously targeted two banks, a post office, a petrol pump and a police station, besides the houses of Sitaram Singh, the Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Sheohar, and two of his supporters.

Okay, the first major attack was in Bihar, but don’t the powers that be in Orissa read newspapers? When 300 Maoist rebels launch a major offensive like an Army operation in a neighbouring state, even Kumbakaran would have woken up. What are lessons that should have been learnt? Train people, improve intelligence gathering, and last of all, protect the armoury. With every such attack, the rebels are improving their tactics, leaving the local policemen quite helpless. Reports said that in the latest attack, the 500 rebels took control of the town, fired gunshots, and blocked all roads leading to it before hitting the town police station, the reserve police office, and district armoury, all located in adjacent buildings. They took away AK-47s, light machine guns, self loading rifles and Insas rifles from the armoury. And where were the defenders? Most of them ran away, reports said, although some did bravely put up a defence for sometime.

After the horses have bolted, the authorities have now launched a massive combing operation. For the first time, Air Force helicopters are being used, and police have been given night vision binoculars for night operations. Well, at least there is some technological progress and escalation in response. Will all this help? Only to a limited extent, as unlike a regular war, the enemy is difficult to spot. As in Vietnam that became the graveyard for Americans, the enemy cannot normally be seen. What is worrying is that the problem has been allowed to fester for more than a decade. It began in Andhra Pradesh in the 1990s, and now more than 160 districts in the country are plagued by the Maoist menace. Having allowed the menace to grow, tackling it is now that much more difficult. Land reforms and development projects are obvious solutions, but how do you get them going when Naxalites rule these regions?

Nearly three years ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told chief ministers that “there can be no political comprise with terror.” Recently, he again expressed concern about the Maoist menace. What has the central government done in the intervening time to check the menace? Nothing, it seems.

Standing firm

2008-02-15T16:15:00.001+05:30

There is no dearth of laws in India. There is a law for everything under the sun, or the moon. The problem is not lack of laws, but implementation. Take a simple thing as traffic discipline. The Motor Vehicles Act lists a range of violations, and the fine and punishment that must be handed out to offenders. Yet, how many traffic law offenders are booked? When you see traffic police checking offenders, it is not so much to uphold the law but to grab some additional income. Does the law against corruption help? No.

Therefore, I was quite intrigued when I read in the Times of India on Thursday that the UPA government plans to amend the Anti-Hijacking Act 1982 to make it more stringent, providing for a policy of no negotiations and death penalty for hijackers. The government will treat hijacking as an “act of aggression” and permit even shooting down of the aircraft. Authorities will get more freedom to immobilise the aircraft if it is registered in India. These intentions are laudable. Hijacking is a real threat, in spite of the numerous security checks passengers go through at airports. India actually has had a relatively stricter check of passengers and their baggage much before 9/11 occurred in the United States.

The last hijacking incident involving an Indian aircraft was in 1999 during the NDA rule, when Indian Airlines flight 814 was commandeered when it took off from Kathmandu. The Indian government was at a loss how to handle the situation, and the events revealed the confusion in the minds of senior ministers. As public pressure mounted, the government capitulated and released prisoners as demanded by the hijackers, and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh even escorted them to Kandahar.

The V.P.Singh government was put to a different kind of test in December 1989, when the JKLF kidnapped Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. The kidnappers demanded that the government release five specified JKLF militants in jail in exchange for Rubaiya’s freedom. Farooq Abdullah, then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, did not want to yield to the kidnappers, but V.P.Singh overruled him, and the militants were released a week later.

Both the incidents show that strict laws will not necessarily help in cases of hijackings and kidnappings. The government must stand firm, and this is very difficult as public and political pressure mounts to save the victims. One of the few public leaders who stood firm was Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister. In 1976, the British government withdrew special category status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1980, seven prisoners went on hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. In 1981, a second hunger strike began, and was called off after 10 prisoners starved themselves to death. As the prisoners died one by one, Thatcher stood firm. She was truly the Iron Lady.

Fear of flying

2008-02-13T16:31:00.000+05:30

The first commercial test flight landed successfully at Hyderabad’s new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday. In an odd coinciding, news reports said fast road connectivity to this new airport, like the one being built at Devenhalli in Bangalore, has been delayed, and that it would take passengers a good two hours to get to it. Bangalore or Hyderabad, the fate of passengers remains the same, thanks to poor planning by the state governments concerned.

The Hyderabad airport is being built at a cost of Rs 2,478 crore by the GMR group. There have been reports that apart from the steep increase in taxi fares passengers will face, users also will have to pay a substantial “development” fee. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in Hyderabad that the Centre will be setting up an Airport Economic Regulatory Authority by the middle of this year to regulate user development fee (UDF) and other financial issues related to the new airports. Patel confirmed reports that UDF would be levied progressively, which means it will be lower for short and higher for longer distances. But there will be no escape from it. “You must have a user development fee when you get world-class facilities,” Patel said. Unfortunately, there is no concept of paying users when the government “does not” provide good facilities. If that were the case, air passengers would be able to recover ticket costs by using the horrible HAL in Bangalore and similar facilities elsewhere.

A major component of your air ticket price is fuel cost and taxes. In Hyderabad, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy announced that VAT on aviation turbine fuel would be reduced from 33 percent to just 4 percent. The state will lose Rs 60 crore annually from this cut, but it will bring considerable savings to airlines. If other states follow Andhra’s example, airlines must pass on the savings to passengers. Minister Patel said he is pushing for a uniform VAT across states on aviation turbine fuel.

In Bangalore, activists appear to be wasting their time in trying to keep HAL airport open. One advocate has even filed a public interest litigation in the Karnataka High Court, where the judge sent it to a larger bench for consideration. Under the agreement Bangalore International Airport Limited has signed with the state government, HAL airport must be closed when the new one opens. This is a contractual obligation, and arguments that the new airport is far away and will cost more to travel will not wash with the courts.

Just harassment

2008-02-12T16:37:00.000+05:30

Courts in India are overburdened and overworked at all levels, right from the Supreme Court to the lowest district court. Last year, the Ministry of Home said over three million cases were pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases in subordinate courts. Thousands of cases are pending in the Supreme Court, the highest appeals court in the country. Most people have to wait for years to get justice. Yet, there is no dearth of frivolous litigants in these courts.

One such case was against Hollywood actor Richard Gere for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the cheek last year at an AIDS awareness programme. Now, anyone with a bit of awareness should know that kissing on the cheeks is considered perfectly normal in the Western world, and has no sexual overtones. Kissing scenes have already crept into Bollywood films these days, after decades of being coy over them. Social mores in the West are different, and even by Indian standards I do not think there was any vulgarity or obscenity in Gere kissing Shilpa. Gere is a handsome actor, like George Clooney, and I am sure many women, both in India and overseas, would happily kiss him and be kissed by him. Therefore, it is rather strange that a Jaipur court should have taken cognisance of a complaint against Gere and issued an arrest warrant against him. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard an application from Gere seeking a stay on the arrest warrant, and issued notice to the complainant. The court case against Gere is needless harassment of someone who is trying to do some good in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. Cases were also filed against Shipla Shetty in an attempt to harass her.

Closer home, Chennai-based actress Khushboo also has been a victim of numerous cases filed against her by advocates in Tamil Nadu on one pretext or another. In Kumbakonam, a local court dismissed a private petition seeking action against her for allegedly showing disrespect to Hindu deities at a film launch in November last year. The court dismissed the petition saying there was no sufficient ground to proceed. Similar cases were filed against the actress in Chennai and Rameswaram, suggesting that these are just meant to harass her. Earlier, Khushboo’s comments on sex in a magazine interview entangled her in legal wrangles two years ago. The courts can reduce the burden on themselves by being selective in admitting cases. Unless they do that, the ordinary citizen will continue to get delayed justice.

Terrorists in the backyard

2008-02-11T17:06:00.000+05:30

I left New Delhi and moved to Chennai in April 2004 for several reasons. After living in New Delhi for nearly 50 years, I was bored with the city. I felt that I knew the city well, and it no longer offered any surprise, a journey of discovery. The only surprise lately in that city was the occasional bomb blast by terrorists. You never knew when it would come. We were close to one such blast in Sarojini Nagar market during a short visit at Diwali in 2004. I heard a big thump and thought a gas cylinder had blown in one of the restaurants in the market. It was only a short while later that people began running and we thought it would be wise to join them. The two and half years I spent in Chennai were peaceful, without any fear of bomb blasts. The only thing unexpected was unusually heavy rain during November one year, and the tsunami in another. The thing that we feared the most as journalists was not a terrorist attack but then chief minister Jayalalithaa’s anger.

Therefore, I looked forward to living a quiet life when I moved to Bangalore in September 2006. I knew from previous visits that Bangalore was not a place for retirees anymore, and that vehicular traffic and pollution had ruined the garden city. What I was not prepared for was Karnataka becoming a haven for terrorists. Of course, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. Terrorists are smart, and they will choose as havens places where the administration and police are lax. I am a little surprised, however, that they haven’t found criminalised Bihar a good place to live in. G.K. Chesterton, in one of his books in the Father Brown series, asks: “What is the best place to hide a leaf? What is the best place to hide a body?” The answer: a forest, and a battlefield. Who can find a leaf in a forest, or a body in a battlefield? Going by this logic, Bihar would have been a good place for terrorists. But then Bihar may not have news worthy targets to attack, except Lalu Prasad’s buffaloes.

Newspapers these days in Bangalore are full of stories some terrorists caught by the police are revealing. Reports also said that that these terrorists, caught by chance, were nearly released on bail, and that there is general slackness in the police intelligence network. The police these days are so busy protecting politicians that intelligence gathering has become a lost science. However, once the police get their hands on someone, they have enough tricks up their sleeve to make even an ass sing. These days they are helped by legal methods like narco analysis, which is injecting a “truth” serum into the victims. Under the influence of the serum, one of the terrorists has revealed the name of the person who attacked the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore two years ago. Senior police officers also said more anti-terrorist squads will be set up. States need to do more than that. Terrorism is set to become a major headache, and they need to gear up seriously, and ensure effective coordination with other state police.

Khanna was right and wrong

2008-02-08T17:23:00.000+05:30

Delhi Lt-Governor’s Tejinder Khanna’s comment on Thursday that road-users in north India take pride in breaking the law is substantially correct, and he should not have buckled to pressure from TV channels and politicians and issued a clarification later in the day. Khanna also said people in the South followed rules out of habit, and cited the example of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, saying there was no need to be strict with the people there. The comment, implying that north Indians were “naturally” inclined to break the law, angered political parties, including the Congress, forcing Khanna to issue a clarification.

While Khanna was probably correct in his assessment of north Indians, he was wrong about south Indians always following rules. Khanna is a north Indian, and has probably not lived in the South. I am a south Indian who has spent much of my life in Delhi and am now living in Bangalore. I can say with authority that as far as violation of traffic rules is concerned, there is no difference between people in New Delhi and Bangalore, or for that matter in other cities. When I first moved from New Delhi to Chennai, I had no difficulty driving there as I expected people to break traffic rules, and I was not disappointed. It is the same with Bangalore. When the traffic light turns red, I expect some vehicles to continue driving past. Before it turns green, some chap on a motorcycle or bicycle is bound to make a dash. At roundabouts and road intersections, I always expect people to come from the wrong side. At traffic signals, there will always be vehicles in the wrong lane, blocking your way. Always expect people to overtake from the left, just when you are trying to turn left. The list can go on.

What Khanna did not mention was that New Delhi is the accident Capital of India. In 2005, for instance, Delhi had 1,703 fatal accidents, while Bangalore came second with 704, Mumbai 595, Chennai 463, and Kolkata 442. Between 2001 and 2007, fatal accidents in Bangalore had risen from 668 to 957, and those killed from 703 to 981. So, while Bangalore and other cities have not yet caught up with Delhi, it would be incorrect to say that everyone in south India follows rules. They don’t.

With the number of vehicles increasing every day, India now accounts for 6 percent of the world’s total accidents and 10 percent of road fatalities, in spite of the country having less than 1 percent of the total world vehicle population. The most vulnerable are pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler riders. Every year, about 100,000 people die on Indian roads. Traffic experts predict that the situation will only get worse as time goes by.

A welcome initiative

2008-02-07T17:05:00.000+05:30

Health is one sector where the rich-poor divide is glaring. You have hospitals such as the Apollo for the rich at one end, and crowded, inadequately-equipped facilities like the Vani Vilas Hospital in Bangalore at the other, with nothing much in between. In a welcome initiative, Dr. Devi Shetty, chairman of the Narayana Hrudayala in Bangalore, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of Biocon Ltd., have announced plans to build a “health city” in every state over the next five years. Initially, they will build a 5,000-bed hospital each in 11 states. In Bangalore, the Narayana Health City will be ready by mid-June.

Other than adding much-need capacity to major cities, what is noteworthy about the initiative is that these hospitals will charge moderate fees for treatment. Dr Shetty said the health city would primarily cater to the working class and the poor. “We want to make health care affordable to the weaker sections,” he said. Dr Shetty clarified that the health city will not be a substitute for public health services in costs. It will be priced between a corporate hospital and a government one. It will be better than the former, and treatment will be of the highest quality. Dr Shetty said that according to WHO estimates, India needs to add 80,000 beds every year for the next five years, but the country is not adding even 5,000 beds. Dr Shetty is expecting insurance cover for patients from the state government, and is hoping the health city initiative to stimulate the launch of micro-health insurance programmes for the poor.

The initiative must be welcomed by state governments as they are short of funds and cannot undertake such a programme on their own. In most big cities, there has been negligible or zero addition to public services. The gap is being filled by corporate hospitals, which naturally keep a sharp eye on their bottom lines. I am not against companies making profits, but am afraid of being overcharged and given treatment I do not require. Let me give two examples. Last year, I went to a dentist who has been trained overseas and has a fancy clinic near my home. All I had was a dull pain in one of the molars. The dentist X-rayed all my teeth and presented an estimate of Rs 18,000, which nearly gave me a heart attack. It is possible that some of my teeth needed treatment. However, first he said one molar on the left needed root canal treatment; then he said it was the molar on the right side. That created doubts in my mind, and I asked him if the treatment he was suggesting was necessary. That seemed to upset him, and he retorted the clinic was so full of patients he didn’t need extra work. On another occasion, I needed surgery for trigeminal neuralgia, which is a severe pain in the facial nerve, last year. A private Delhi clinic said it would charge Rs 50,000, while I got the surgery done at NIMHANS in Bangalore for Rs 1,500 after a two-week wait. See the difference in cost.

The central government, in its health policy of 1983, had promised “health for all” by the year 2000, but that target was not hit. Now the central government has vowed to increase spending on health to 6 percent of GDP by 2010. In 2005, a World Bank report warned that many developing countries were falling behind the target in lowering infant and maternal mortality by 2015. More than 11 million children died in 2002 before reaching their fifth birthday from preventable illness, while 500,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth. Health care in India has not only been largely neglected by insufficient spending, it has also been urban-centric and inequitable. The World Health Organisation has pointed out that India continues to bear a heavy burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, and is experiencing a slow epidemiological evolution from infectious and parasitic diseases to non-communicable diseases. The new initiative will, hopefully, make a small beginning in tackling this huge problem.

A daft idea

2008-02-06T16:49:00.001+05:30

The opening of the new Bangalore International Airport is about seven weeks away. Normally, such an event should have generated intense excitement among the city’s citizens. However, there seems to be only a great deal of scepticism and despair about what is in store.

On Tuesday, major industry and citizens’ bodies came together and urged the state government to explore “all options” to keep the present HAL airport open to commercial traffic once the new airport opens. I am somewhat surprised that such a suggestion should be coming from industry leaders, who should know the sanctity of a contract. Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) has a firm contract under which the state government has promised that another airport will not function in its proximity for some years. Infrastructure projects need huge investment that gets paid back over many years, and for that to happen a steady stream of revenue is needed. This revenue will get reduced if another facility is cutting into it. That is the logic behind the agreement. Uninformed citizens and vote-hungry politicians asking for a change in contract terms is one thing, but not industry leaders like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director of Biocon Ltd.

Why anyone should want the awful HAL airport to be kept open is a mystery to me. For a city that has huge air passenger traffic, it is one of the most terrible facilities in the world. I feel horribly depressed whenever I use it to fly out and back. The cramped and makeshift terminals, the crowded arrival facility, the choked parking lot, everything is depressing. Getting there during peak hours is a pain. All this because HAL is a defence airfield and was never meant to handle huge civil passenger traffic.

The new airport will be a modern facility, and free from much of these problems. All those people who have seen Hong Kong’s new airport and Singapore’s Changi should be happy that Bangalore too will have something similar. However, I would agree with people who fear that reaching the airport will take too long, especially from south Bangalore. For this, I would lay the blame squarely on the state government, particularly the Gowda clan, for neglecting connectivity. Hong Kong airport is quite far from the island, but you don’t feel it as the administration has provided fast trains for transportation and even luggage check-in facilities in the city itself. In Singapore, once you hit the airport expressway, you can drive to the terminals non-stop without any traffic signal slowing you down. Instead of coming up with daft ideas like keeping the HAL airport open, pressure must be brought on the state administration to provide fast connectivity. As for BIAL, it should not see this as an opportunity to milk users with high fees. The central government should quickly resolve the issue of airport charges and set up a regulator for private airports.

Mirroring society

2008-02-05T16:37:00.000+05:30

Do institutions reflect what is happening in society? To a certain extent, yes. If politics has become somewhat criminalised, then logically legislative assemblies and Parliament cannot remain immune to it. Therefore, it is not surprising that Vice President Hamid Ansari should express concern at the growing number of elected members with criminal backgrounds. Speaking in Mumbai on Monday, Ansari said 23 percent of members of Parliament elected in 2004 had criminal cases registered against them. Over half of these cases could lead to imprisonment of five years or more. “The situation is worse in the case of MLAs,” Ansari said while addressing a conference of chief whips.

If one were to see the composition of the first Lok Sabha, most of the members were well educated and had taken part in the freedom struggle. As the years passed, the composition began to change. By the late 1970s, 36 percent of the members of Parliament came from agriculture backgrounds, against 22 percent in 1952. There were changes in their education levels. Until Socialist leader Raj Narain began his infamous antics, debates in Parliament were serious business, even if they were acrimonious at times. No one entered the well the House and shouted slogans, damaged furniture and disrupted important legislative business. In recent times, such incidents have become common. According to Ansari, the present Lok Sabha had lost 21 percent of its time due to disruptions, up from 13 percent in the previous House. The number of sittings of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, has come down by 20 percent during the period 1951-2001. Ansari lamented the inability of Parliament to discharge its duty to legislate and deliberate on issues of national importance.

I began covering proceedings of the Rajya Sabha in 1982, and later the Lok Sabha from 1990. By then, most of the great speakers had gone from Parliament, and disruptions had become common. These were particularly frustrating for a reporter who wished to cover the debate, drive to the office and write the story in time for the morning paper. Many a time I felt like taking part in the disruption myself, throwing my pen and notebook at the members shouting below. As Ansari said, the situation in state assemblies is perhaps worse than that of Parliament. What is sad is that there seems little hope of change for the better.

Monday morning blues

2008-02-04T16:53:00.001+05:30

Many of those who must go to work would have suffered from Monday morning blues today. This applies also to women homemakers, who probably dread the arrival of Monday after a hopefully restful Sunday. I am now in the fortunate position of not having to rush to work on Monday mornings. Yet, this morning’s newspapers carried several reports that can depress anyone not afflicted by the Monday morning blues.

The Bangalore edition of the Times of India carried the following stories on its front page and inside: Second (terror) camp unearthed; Is this tape a clincher in a Lok Ayukta case?; Cabinet may finalise fuel price hike today; Did top doctors help (kidney) racketeers?; and 7 dead, 20 hurt as hotel collapses. The New Indian Express had the following stories: Old woman murdered; Engg., medical colleges must teach Kannada, and Violence erupts in Mumbai (a reference to attacks on Biharis). Murder, mayhem, corruption, regionalism, and greed. What a nice picture of present-day society!

Some stories on the inside pages also attracted my attention. The New Indian Express wrote about the efforts by the Defence Research and Development Organisation to put the Awacs (airborne warning and control system) project back on track. As a defence correspondent in New Delhi in the late 1980s, I had visited a DRDO facility in Bangalore and been “impressed” enough by the Awacs project to write a long, front-page report in glowing terms, brushing doubts expressed by the editor. I should have known better. Awacs is a very complex and difficult project, and DRDO’s grand hopes crashed when the Fokker plane that was being used crashed. Another DRDO project that has not seen the light of the day for more than 20 years is its attempt to make a jet engine. Its other ambitious projects like the light combat aircraft and the Arjun tank have had their share of delays and problems, but at least DRDO can some claim success here and in developing a range of missiles. The motto: promise more (for funds) and deliver less.

I was reminded of DRDO when I read another report about how a claim by Bangalore’s local authority that it would erect an underpass on a busy road junction in 72 hours turned out to be a huge flop. As it happened, the authority, lacking information, cut a working water mainline, and then a sewage line. Instead of 72 hours, the project has taken nearly three weeks. Now the authority is talking of building overpasses instead of underpasses. The problem with Indians, many American businessmen told me during my years as South Asia correspondent for the U.S. Journal of Commerce, is that they don’t give an accurate estimate of how long something will take, and instead try to impress by promising a shorter schedule knowing fully well that they will not be able to deliver on time.

Canal of controversy

2008-02-01T16:30:00.000+05:30

The controversial Sethusamudram canal project has been virtually on hold for some months now, and the latest statement from the Coast Guard chief could put it in permanent cold storage. Coast Guard Director General Vice Admiral Rusi Contractor said on Thursday both the Coast Guard and the Navy had conveyed their security concerns about the canal to the central government. He said there were security implications (meaning threat of attacks from the LTTE) of the canal because of the closeness of the India-Sri Lanka maritime boundary. The Navy also feels that with merchant ships forced to move slowly in the canal, it will make them vulnerable to attacks and piracy. Separately, the Supreme Court gave the central government four more weeks to file its affidavits on the project. The Sethusamudram project has been on hold since September last year when the government withdrew an affidavit doubting the existence of the Lord Rama, and set up a committee to study all aspects of the project. The opposition, particularly the BJP, is opposing the project as it believes there exists a bridge built by Rama to cross over to Sri Lanka, and that it should be preserved.

The Sethusamudram project, which involves cutting a canal linking the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, will shorten the route between the east and west coasts of India by 350 nautical miles (about 555 kms), and reduce the sailing time for ships by about 30 hours. The Rs 2,300-crore project, according to officials, will spur infrastructure development in Tamil Nadu’s southern districts, and activities such as ship building, road and rail transport, and services. These projects are expected to create thousands of jobs in the region. While these expected benefits would be welcomed by people in the region, environmentalists and fishermen have been concerned about the canal’s impact on marine life. The project will involve massive dredging and dumping of the material at selected points. Environmentalists say the waters around Adam's Bridge are home to one of the world's richest biosphere reserves, with 3, 600 types of marine life, including about 400 endangered species. Sri Lanka has also raised doubts about the environment stability of its coastlines from the dredging.

Sethusamudram sometimes is compared to the Suez, but it seems unlikely that it will be able to match that canal. The Suez Canal saves ships as many as 24 days of sailing time, while Sethusamudram will save only 30-36 hours. India is hoping to wean some merchant ships away from Colombo port to Tuticorin, but this too is being overly optimistic. Reports have suggested that merchant ships will not really gain in cost savings as they will have to pay a toll for passing through the canal. In this debate, one aspect that has not been discussed publicly before is the security angle. There was a view earlier that the canal would allow ships of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard to move from coast to coast much more quickly than possible now. However, the latest statement from the Coast Guard chief on security threats might appear more compelling to shelve the project rather than the issue of Rama’s bridge. The LTTE is still active and there have been reports earlier that it had set up a maritime wing. Clearly, security considerations should take priority over keeping a southern ally happy.

Easier said than done

2008-01-30T17:24:00.000+05:30

The BJP is gearing up for the next general elections. On Tuesday, the party attacked the UPA coalition as a non-performing administration, and promised tough response to terrorism, forward-looking economic programmes, and a robust foreign policy. BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K.Advani (in Britain he would be called shadow prime minister) promised that the NDA government would be “different” from the Congress-led UPA coalition in many ways. The political resolution attacked the Manmohan Singh government for presiding over a “high tax, high interest rate” regime that had hurt the urban population while neglect of the rural economy continued. Advani also spoke about high-cost housing, education and medical care, and water and power becoming more expensive and scarce.

Speeches and political resolutions are one thing, and delivering on your promises is another. It is not as if the NDA was able to eradicate terrorism from the country during its tenure. The roots of terrorism take long to get a grip in the soil, and the threat of Maoism is not of very recent origin. The NDA ruled the country until May 21, 2004. However, by October 2003 (during NDA rule), 55 districts in nine states were already facing the Naxalite menace. Terror attacks also took place during the NDA regime. And no citizen will forget how foreign minister Jaswant Singh escorted jailed terrorists out of the country during the hijack of Indian Airlines flight 814 in December 1999.

The BJP resolution spoke about the “high tax, high interest” regime. Bringing these down is easier said than done. Once you are in the hot seat, an administration will find that room for manoeuvre is limited. The cost of housing, water and power is high because of inefficiencies in the system and government policies. If water and power is subsidised or given away free, someone else must foot the bill, which naturally will be higher. Medicare cost is high because there are not many government hospitals, and private care is expensive. The cost of education must be more at higher levels, and low for basic education. That is the way it is the world over. In India, higher education comes relatively cheap.

I am not a great admirer of the UPA government. In my view, there is generally not much difference between one administration and another. Once a party comes to power, greed and other factors become more important than the welfare of the common man. One important measure of efficiency is corruption. You will find there is no difference in the level of corruption, whether it is the NDA or UPA government.

Increase in intolerance

2008-01-29T16:36:00.000+05:30

Indians seem to be becoming more and more intolerant, especially in the matter of politics and religion. This is best illustrated by two incidents on Monday, one in Hyderabad and the other in Mysore.

In Hyderabad, fans of megastar Chiranjeevi chased and attacked actor Rajasekhar and his family for a comment he had made on Sunday. Asked at a media conference in Bhimavaram whether he would join Chiranjeevi’s party, Rajasekhar said he could not as the party had no political experience. Rajasekhar said if at all he decides to join a political party, it would be an established one. There is nothing wrong in what Rajasekhar said. No abuse, and just a statement of fact. It seems strange, therefore, that Chiranjeevi’s fans should get enraged at this statement and attack Rajasekhar and his family. Reports suggest that Chiranjeevi, quickly realising the damage done to his image, went over to Rajasekhar’s home to apologise for the attack, and asked his fans not to be undemocratic.

The second incident happened in Mysore, where supporters of former chief minister S.M. Krishna attacked and created a ruckus at a function organised to launch the autobiography of Congress leader and former minister H. Vishwanath. The protestors were objecting to the release of the book, in which there is a reference to actress B. Saroja Devi and the possibility of her contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Mandya constituency. Based on what has appeared in the press, I don’t see it as a bid to “malign” Krishna, who is getting ready to make a come back to Karnataka politics. Supporters should know that political leaders these days are quite thick-skinned, and they can shake off even court convictions and jail terms.

These incidents, suggesting an increase in intolerance in politics, come when there is already intolerance in religion. Reports of attacks on Hindus, Muslims and Christians are becoming common. We are proud that India is the world’s largest democracy, but such incidents are a blot on that image.

The redundancy factor

2008-01-28T16:19:00.000+05:30

India’s GDP is expected to grow by 8.9 percent this fiscal year, which ends in March. I would like to suggest that a part of this growth is contributed by what can be called the redundancy factor. If the economy were to become more efficient, would GDP growth dip somewhat, given the same set of conditions? Let me explain. In a passenger aircraft, redundancy is ensured by putting more than one engine. If one engine fails, the others can bring the aircraft down safely. This is understandable. In India, however, there seems to be redundancy in many things.

Last week, after a 15-month-wait, BSNL people finally came and installed the broadband connection in my home. The broadband is supposed to be “always on,”, but I find that uptime is not 100 percent. Why? There seems to be noise on the telephone line, which disturbs data signals. I now have three connections to the Internet: BSNL, Sify broadband, which again does not have 100 percent uptime, and a Reliance wireless connection, which has 100 percent uptime but is very slow. See the redundancy in this: While I need only one good broadband connection, I must keep at least one more for redundancy. If BSNL’s broadband had 100 percent uptime, I would disconnect the other two, and they would lose income from their business, and their contribution to GDP might go down. Many people have two landline connections at home as they don’t want to be caught with only one phone that is dead.

It is not just telecommunications. Take power. In our apartment block, we have a generator for backup power. In my apartment, I also have an emergency light, just because the power supply is unreliable. If the government could ensure uninterrupted power supply, we would not need the diesel generator. The generator not only provides income to the manufacturer, but also to petroleum companies for supply of diesel, and maintenance people for regular service and repairs. Some 13 years ago when I visited Hong Kong, my bureau chief there had 12 computers running in his office. I was surprised to see that he did not have an UPS, as the power supply was regular and there was no voltage fluctuation to damage his computers. In India, computers will not survive without an UPS.

Water supply is another example. With municipal authorities unable to ensure regular water supply, everyone is drilling tube wells. As the water quality from the tube well is suspect, you need to buy a water filter. As power is unreliable, there are now water filters that work on batteries. The chain goes on. When will India reach a stage when redundancy will not be needed?

A persistent problem

2008-01-25T20:17:00.000+05:30

More than 16 million children in India work on farms, in hotels and teashops, automobile repair shops, and as rag pickers, according to academic Prof Abdul Azeez. Giving a lecture in Bangalore earlier this week, Azeez said the worst hit among them were children of scheduled castes and tribes and Muslims. School dropout rate among these sections was the highest, and there were even children who didn’t go to school. Azeez said the main reason for the high incidence of child labour was inadequate income of their parents.

The government acknowledges that child labour is a serious problem in India. There are a plethora of laws against such labour, and both the central and states are publicly committed to eliminating child labour. However, the problem continues unabated because implementation of the law is weak and ineffective. The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement in December 1996, gave directions for withdrawal of children from hazardous industries and their rehabilitation, and the manner in which working conditions for other children should be regulated and improved. Human Rights Watch reported in 2005 that in Tamil Nadu, the state government had simply abandoned the Supreme Court's rehabilitative framework for any children found working in hazardous occupations after 1997, in clear violation of the court's order. In Kanchipuram, a major silk sari weaving area in Tamil Nadu, child bondage is open, and the district collector, instead of prosecuting employers, had opened night schools for working children. A survey in Chennai by an NGO – Peace Trust --- found that small hotels employed 43 percent of the total child work force, medium hotels 29 percent, and big hotels about 28 percent. Fifty-two percent of child workers were found to be between 12 and 14 years of age, and had been subjected to poor working conditions, long hours of work, low pay, and sexual abuse. For the record, the Tamil Nadu government does not deny the existence of child labour in the state. It even set itself a target of eliminating child labour in hazardous industries by 2005 and in other industries by 2007. As expected, these targets have not been entirely met. States such as Karnataka and others too have child labour in varying numbers.

The problem of child labour is well understood. It mainly comes from poverty in the family, making it difficult for parents to even think of sending their children to schools. Many solutions have been tried. In Tamil Nadu, an industry grouping, a non-governmental organisation, and a well-known corporate figure in the state have come together to tackle the problem of child labour. NGO Hand in Hand has been working in Kanchipuram for 15 years, and brings child workers to schools. Governments say they are trying to create awareness among the citizens against child labour. Creating awareness is only part of the solution. What the country needs is a concerted social welfare programme to safeguard against hunger and illness, easy access to schools, and more jobs and living wages for adults. Only then will the number of child workers go down.

Innovation is the key

2008-01-24T17:01:00.000+05:30

When India and China are compared as investment destinations, the former’s Western-style judicial system gets a higher rating. While foreign investors can be sure that they will get a proper hearing and justice, the common Indian citizen faces huge delays in courts. In the middle of last year, the Ministry of Home said over three million cases were pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases in subordinate courts. Almost a quarter million prisoners were languishing in jails awaiting trial. Of these, about 2,000 had been in jail for more than five years without their guilt or innocence being established. This situation has been there for years due to shortage of judges and the inordinate time it takes for cases to be resolved. Two years ago, Justice Markandey Katju, judge of the Supreme Court of India, said in a speech that the Indian Judiciary faced an “alarming situation” due to the massive arrears in law courts and the consequential long delays in disposal of cases. “People in our country are simply fed up with the long delay in deciding cases,” Katju said.

The Supreme Court and the government have been trying various ways to reduce the ever-increasing workload in the judicial system. One of them is the introduction of fast-track courts. However, these have been generally dealing with civil cases. The Supreme Court asked the Law Ministry last year to find out whether trial in all criminal cases, which are pending for more than five years, could be put on fast track. The judicial system is clogged by a rapid increase in criminal cases without any corresponding increase in the number of trial courts to handle them. Officials pleaded that criminal cases should get priority over civil cases as they involved the human rights of prisoners under trial.

India and the U.S. do not see eye to eye on many issues, but the Indian judicial system is borrowing something from the U.S. judiciary. This is the concept of mediation to settle civil disputes. Karnataka High Court chief justice Cyriac Joseph said this week in Bangalore that mediation was becoming the success story of judicial reform. More than 50 percent of cases that went for mediation had been resolved in the first year of introduction of the concept. Some 80 lawyers have been trained in mediation with the help of the US Institute of Legal Systems. Joseph said the Karnataka mediation centre can hear 14 cases simultaneously. Once a settlement is reached, it is approved by the court and the persons involved cannot appeal against it any other court, thus preventing an increase in the workload of higher courts. Mediation has been introduced in states such as Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and others. The mediation centre is housed in court premises, giving comfort to litigants that judges are keeping an eye on it. Innovation is clearly the key, and it is time the Indian judicial system adopts it on a wider scale.

An unjust demand

2008-01-23T18:49:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I wrote that while I admired Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s blunt speaking, I didn’t like his brand of party politics. In an interview to his party newspaper ‘Saamna,’ Thackeray has warned that the Shiv Sena will not permit construction of new apartments in Mumbai unless 50 percent of these are reserved for Marathi-speaking persons. He indicated that the Shiv Sena might launch an agitation in support of the demand. Thackeray said he had earlier fought for jobs for local people, and now the party’s priority was housing. Thackeray’s statement is not surprising as it comes when the party is trying to revive itself after defeat in the last Maharashtra state elections. The Shiv Sena’s relations with the BJP have also not been good in recent times.

There are two aspects to the demand. One, whether it will withstand scrutiny of courts if converted into a law. Two, whether it will translate into votes for the Shiv Sena. The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of movement to its citizens, and to live and work anywhere in the country. Thackeray’s demand for 50 percent reservation in buildings will be rejected by courts if made into law, one builder told the Times of India. Thackeray is swimming against the tide in the matter of the changing demographics of metropolitan cities in the country. In cities like Mumbai and Bangalore, the local-language speaking population is in a minority. According to author Maya Jayapal, Bangalore has been multi-lingual for years, and Kannada is the mother tongue of only 38 percent of the people, although it is spoken by many more.

Mumbai has a large population of Gujaratis and other people from the state. When Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC), a Bombay Citizens Committee, headed by business magnate Purshottamdas Thakurdas, was set up and had JRD Tata as one of its members. The committee’s main agenda was to keep Bombay out of Maharashtra. It argued, according to historian Ramachandra Guha, that there was little Maharashtrian immigration before the 19th century, and that Marathi speakers comprised only 43 percent of the city’s population. The SRC, in its report in 1955, recommended that Bombay remain a bilingual province of Gujarati and Marathi speakers, and proposed a separate state of Vidharbha comprising the Marathi-speaking districts of the state’s interior.

Getting an apartment at reasonable cost or rent is difficult in Mumbai, and this has forced people to move to areas far away from the city centre. While Marathis may just vote for the Shiv Sena, unless they are in a majority in a constituency the party will not win the seat. In a scenario where local Maharashtrians are possibly a minority in Mumbai, Thackeray’s demand is unlikely to go down well with non-Marathis in the city.

Blunt speaking from Thackeray

2008-01-22T16:44:00.000+05:30

I am not a great admirer of Shiv Sena party chief Bal Thackeray and his brand of party politics, but I do sometimes like his blunt and honest statements. In an interview to a local news agency, Thackeray said he would reject the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, even if it were offered to him. Thackeray said politicians had taken the sheen out of the award by recommending names of people “who do not deserve it.” He said he did not have even an “iota” of attraction for the award, and failed to understand why some people were craving for it. There is no one in the country who is worth the award, Thackeray added bluntly.

The Bharat Ratna award movement was kicked off some weeks ago by BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, who wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly recommending that this year’s award be given to BJP’s former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. There was nothing wrong with suggestion, except that Advani made the mistake of releasing the letter to the press. It is unclear why he did that. May be he wanted to show gratitude to Vajpayee for retiring from the prime ministerial race. In any case, it exposed him to avoidable embarrassment as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was unlikely to have supported giving the award to Vajpayee. What the release of the Advani letter did was to trigger a spate of recommendations from other political parties, putting Vajpayee in the class of less-deserving politicians. Among the parties that were quick to send their own recommendations was the CPM, which wanted the award to go to Jyoti Basu, long time chief minister of West Bengal. It was followed by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, who wanted BSP founder Kanshi Ram to get the award. Other names suggested were DMK president M Karunanidhi, Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, short-time former prime ministers Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar, former Congress leader Jagjivan Ram, and others. NDTV new channel made further mockery of the whole thing by initiating a poll in which one of the names was of artist M.F.Husain, who now lives outside the country fearing attacks for his objectionable paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses.
Latest reports say due to intense political pressure the central government is unlikely to announce a Bharat Ratna this year. It was last given in 2001 to Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan. Analysts say when the award was first instituted, it was not given posthumously. As it often happens in politics, political pressure subsequently led to award of 10 Bharat Ratnas posthumously. Morarji Desai as prime minister suspended all civilian awards between July 1977 and January 1980.

Civilian and gallantry awards are announced on January 25 every year, on the eve of Republic Day. Because this has now become routine, the government is forced to include names of persons who may not really deserve the civilian award. But this is not the case with the gallantry awards, given to both military and civilians for exceptional bravery. Often gallantry awards are given posthumously, and it is heart-rending to see the widow of a slain Indian Army man standing before the President as the citation for his bravery is read out. Ideally, the government should dispense with the practice of giving civilian awards on a regular basis year after year, and do so only if it can find exceptional persons.

A dream scenario

2008-01-21T19:37:00.000+05:30

India has the second largest railway network in the world, but there are parts of India, such as the north-east region, where children have not felt the thrill of seeing a train rushing past on tracks. Similarly, there are parts of India where children have not seen water coming out of taps. One can expect this in rural India, but water has been scarce even in urban areas for several decades.

Experts warn that future wars could be fought over water sharing. Two years ago, the World Bank predicted that India would face a water crisis in 20 years if the government did not change its ways, and that clashes were already taking place because the resource was so scare. “There is a widespread complacency in the government about water,” a bank official said. The report said India had no proper water management system in place, its groundwater was disappearing and river bodies were turning into makeshift sewers. No city in India has a 24-hour water supply. In fact, Bangalore citizens get municipal water supply once in three days. They supplement this by drawing water from a tube well. However, people are finding that they have to dig deeper and deeper to get potable water. Once this becomes too expensive or difficult to tap, a serious crisis can be expected. The World Bank report said 70 percent of India's irrigation water and 80 percent of its domestic water supplies now come from rapidly-depleting groundwater. According to the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment, in parts of New Delhi, the groundwater level is dropping by 10 metres (33 feet) each year.

Amid this gloomy scenario, I was surprised to see a report in the Economic Times late last week that said 10 Indian cities would get 24x7 water supply under an ambitious central government project. These include the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. As details of the project were not given, it is difficult to make a proper assessment. For many cities the water source, often a river, is generally far away, and there is heavy wastage in bringing water to the city. The central government is, therefore, asking cities to bring down water wastage to 15 percent from 50 percent now. Chennai, which was largely dependent on nearby, rain-fed reservoirs, has managed to bring water from several hundred kilometres away by pipe. India has a highly seasonal pattern of rainfall, with 50 percent of it falling in just 15 days. Yet, the country has invested little in infrastructure. Indian dams can store only 200 cubic metres of water per person, against 5,000 cubic metres in arid, rich countries such as Australia and the United States. India can store only 30 days of rainfall, compared to 900 days in major river basins in arid areas of developed countries. The key to survival, therefore, seems to be in improving water storage.

Some time to relax

2008-01-18T20:59:00.000+05:30

A friend of mine, who has become an armchair philosopher after losing a whole leg, says that when young persons proudly tell him they are earning a million rupees, he asks: “How much free time are you getting?” The question is very relevant in the context of the routine and minimum 12-hour workday that has become the norm in India, not just in the information technology sector but others as well. These 12-hour workdays can extend up to 16 hours on occasions.

People who have just taken up their first job are young and full of energy, and can withstand punishing schedules. In my first job, I once worked 24 hours non-stop, and was back in office after going home for just a wash and change of clothes. However, a few years down the line, there is risk of burnout and serious health problems. There have been several reports about how punishing work schedules are affecting both the physical and mental health of IT professionals. Some time ago, a software engineer in Bangalore, unable to cope with intense work pressure, jumped off a building and committed suicide. Although this was probably an extreme case, doctors say there is no doubt that IT professionals are highly stressed. In India, the Factory Act, which regulates working conditions, prescribes a 48-hour workweek for employees. However, as the IT industry does not come under the purview of several labour laws, it gets away by making employees work far beyond normal hours and not paying any overtime. Employees also get only two weeks’ earned leave, against the usual 30 days offered by most other industries. Because of the continuous workload and related stress, employees barely touching 30 begin to look middle-aged. By their mid-30s, many develop serious health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, ulcers, piles, and skin-related disorders. If both husband and wife are in the IT industry, they hardly get to meet and lead a normal life, which often leads to divorce. IT companies are aware of what they are doing, but choose to ignore the problem. Companies win contracts by promising very short delivery times, which leaves them no option but to flog employees to work harder. Worse, companies appear to be insensitive to employee burnout, saying that such employees can be easily replaced. With the government unwilling to meddle in the IT industry, trade unions have been trying to make inroads and bring some relief to employees.

Interestingly, fresh graduates about to enter the job market are now becoming conscious of the perils of too much hard work and no play. A report in the Economic Times says that for students studying at IIM-Ahmedabad, a healthy lifestyle is more important than a fat pay cheque. One student was quoted as saying, “More than a fat pay cheque, I would want some time for myself at the end of the day.” Other students made similar statements. It is a good thing that such realisation is dawning on young persons. Will companies also sit up and take notice?

NRIs, Big Brother will be watching

2008-01-17T16:12:00.000+05:30

The only way bureaucracy, in India or elsewhere, can survive is to create more work for itself. After 9/11, paranoid governments have begun introducing more and more security measures that increase travel hassles. The latest in this list is Britain, which has begun fingerprinting all visitors. When all this is happening, can India be left behind?

A report in The New Indian Express on Thursday says that the Indian government plans to monitor the movement of non-resident Indians (NRIs) visiting India, and Indians going overseas. NRIs coming to India will have to give full details of their itinerary and purpose of visit in a new disembarkation form at airports. Similarly, Indians going overseas --- whether for business or pleasure – will be asked to provide details about the places they intend to visit. A decision to introduce new forms is reported to have been taken at a recent meeting of the central ministries of home, tourism and overseas Indian affairs. The home ministry expects to develop a huge data bank of overseas visitors, which it hopes will enable it to keep a watch on suspicious NRIs.

This may sound good on paper, but will it work in practice? It is true that in the past many visiting Pakistanis have simply disappeared after arrival in India. It is particularly easy for Pakistanis as they generally look like Indians. However, monitoring the large number of NRIs visiting this country will not be easy. Part of the problem is that police computer networking in India – and other government departments -- is still way behind that of the West, making information sharing difficult among states. What will happen is that immigration desks at airports will end up with loads of information, which will be useless unless it is entered into a national data bank. Does the immigration department have enough manpower to undertake the task? As it is, the government is unable to provide sufficient manpower at immigration desks in international airports, which slows down clearance.

The move to seek more information from outgoing Indians is especially idiotic. The present embarkation card already has a column to state where the person is headed. How will it help the Indian authorities if the citizen is asked to give a detailed itinerary? It is also puzzling how the tourism ministry has come into the picture. The information gathered from NRIs about their itinerary will help the ministry know which tourist spots they are visiting, said one official. How will the government use this information? Will it improve tourist facilities? Get real, Big Brother.

Beware the Chinese dragon

2008-01-16T16:39:00.000+05:30

The idea that India and China pursue improvement in bilateral trade and economic relations, not letting the decades-old border dispute come in the way, is a good one. This has been reiterated once again during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to China. It is a practical way of looking at things, as prime ministers will come and go and the border dispute is likely to go on forever.

The India-China border dispute is largely a relic of the British raj. At that time, China felt it had been subjected to all sorts of indignities by Western imperialism in the first half of the 20th century, and the McMahon Line in the eastern sector was one of them. The Chinese had earlier occupied Tibet, and Nehru, instead of strengthening India’s defence along the border and working seriously for a settlement of the border dispute, had done nothing. In July 1958, China Pictorial, an official magazine, had printed a map showing large parts of NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) and Ladakh as Chinese territory. This was noticed, and a formal Indian protest was made, and a month later Chinese Prime Minister Zhou En-lai wrote back saying the McMahon Line was illegal, and suggested that the status quo be maintained, pending a final, “friendly settlement” of the border question. That did not happen, and led to the 1962 war when China taught a lesson and humiliated India.

Historian Ramachandra Guha says in 1959 Zhou had suggested indirectly that India keep the territory in the east, while China would hold on to the area it had grabbed in Ladakh. Zhou repeated the offer when he visited India in 1960, and India missed a chance to settle the border question. In 1962, after the humiliating defeat, the Indian Parliament adopted a resolution vowing to take back all territory in Chinese hands, which was unrealistic then and unrealistic now, even though India is now a nuclear power and not what it was in 1962. India and China have been holding talks at the officials’ level for some years now, with little progress towards actual settlement of the border question. Meanwhile, there have been reports of fresh Chinese intrusions along the border with Arunachal Pradesh, which are intriguing and a matter of concern. What is China up to? India paid a heavy price in 1962 for trusting the Chinese in the decade earlier. While continuing to build on economic relations, any government that is in power should not trust the Chinese on the border question and remain vigilant.

Never on a Sunday

2008-01-15T16:59:00.000+05:30

Many people in India believe bad things happen on Tuesdays and Saturdays, while others may have a different view. One thing is certain, however: Do not risk falling sick on a Sunday. Lacking an emergency care network like 911 in the United States, anyone who has an accident or needs immediate medical attention in India must rely solely on God to save him or her. All doctors close their clinics on Sundays. According to a report in the Bangalore Mirror, in hospitals senior doctors and specialists take their weekly off on Sundays, leaving patients largely at the mercy of junior doctors.

The report is not an exaggeration, as my own personal experience and those of others will bear out. Many years ago, while trying to hammer a nail in a doorframe, a wood sliver impaled itself in my eye. I washed my eye with water, but the sliver wouldn’t come out. Within half an hour, my eye became red and inflamed, and I began to feel pain. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I knew I would have a hard time finding a doctor. I rushed to the nearest chemist and asked him if there was an eye specialist close by. He gave me an address, and I drove one-eyed to the doctor’s clinic-cum-residence, only to find that he was in bed with viral fever. Somehow, I managed to persuade him to attend to me, after which he put an anaesthetic in my eye and pulled out the sliver. It took several days for my eye to heal, but I thank the doctor. There have been other occasions when my wife has had a heart problem on a Sunday and we found doctors reluctant to attend to her.

Doctors, especially senior consultants, undoubtedly work hard during the week, spending time in hospitals and at their own clinics. They certainly deserve some rest and recreation at the end of it all. Most people in India are reluctant to go to hospitals anyway, and do so only when there is an emergency and there is no other option. No one can choose a day to fall sick. I realise that senior doctors can’t be expected to be available 24x7, but surely hospitals can put in a system of giving weekly offs by rotation? Often, a person’s life may be in danger, and survival will depend on how quickly the person gets proper medical attention. Every life is precious, or is it in India?

A measure of backwardness

2008-01-14T16:25:00.000+05:30

Last week I wrote that the number of car models available in a country could be taken as a measure of economic progress. I now want to suggest that a country’s backwardness can be measured by the number and state of its public toilets. I have been provoked to write this after reading a story in the Times of India, which said Nirmala public toilets funded by Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murthy across Bangalore are in terrible shape. According to the report, BBMP received Rs 8 crore from Sudha Murthy personal account to build more than 100 toilets. However, many of these are in an appalling state, with broken tiles and washbasins, gaping holes, missing taps and other fittings, and a horrible stink all around. All the sanitary fittings have been stolen. Murthy said she was saddened by the development, but BBMP officials said they would look into it, perhaps a euphemism for filing and forgetting complaints.

One of the first things that strikes foreigners coming to India is not just the lack of clean, public toilets, but also the use of public walls and open spaces to urinate and defecate. We who live here amid the general squalor have become somewhat immune to it. Back in Delhi, I used to live in a nice, sixth floor apartment, which had a balcony overlooking a vast open area. I could never sit in the balcony and enjoy a cup of coffee in the mornings as I would see people from a nearby slum visiting the open area for their morning ablutions. Local administrations are largely to blame for the poor state or lack of toilets in urban areas, particularly where there are large slums. The administrations, of course, will plead lack of sufficient funds, but unfortunately, when they do get them from persons such as Sudha Murthy, the toilets are not maintained and allowed to rot.

While it is easy to fault the administration, a larger part of the blame must go to the public. Why should fittings be stolen from public toilets, which are serving a greater public good? Clearly, it is a reflection on the local citizens. Western cities and places like Singapore are clean due not just to stricter administration but voluntary compliance from citizens as well. We need to become like that. However, changing people’s behaviour is one of the most difficult things to achieve.

Politics of Bharat Ratna

2008-01-11T16:11:00.000+05:30

The problem with seeking a favour for a friend from someone is that there is a risk of it being refused. This can be doubly embarrassing if the request has been made public. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L. K. Advani finds himself in this situation in writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting that this year’s Bharat Ratna award should go to BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee. Should the Congress government of Sonia Gandhi, who I assume has hardly any love for BJP leaders, ignore the request, it will embarrass not just Advani but Vajpayee as well. Already, Congress ministers like Priyaranjan Das Munshi are saying that there is a procedure laid down for Bharat Ratna nominations, and that going public with it was not proper.

The Bharat Ratna is India’s highest civilian award, and should normally go to a person who has done extraordinary work for the country. But a look at earlier awardees suggests a mixed bag and politics in their selection. Among the past awardees are such personalities as Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, C Rajagopalachari, B. R. Ambedkar, C.V. Raman, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Vinobha Bhave, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, J R D Tata, Satyajit Ray, A P J Abdul Kalam, M S Subbalakshmi, and C Subramaniam. I don’t think anyone will dispute the award going to these leaders. However, I find that most prime ministers in the past have been awarded the Bharat Ratna, including Gulzari Lal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rajiv Gandhi, and Morarji Desai. Former presidents in the list are V V Giri and Zakir Hussain, and politicians like M. G. Ramachandran and K. Kamaraj. How well deserved was the award to some of these leaders? Politics certainly had a part to play in giving the award to MGR and Kamaraj, who were undoubtedly popular state leaders, but did they do something that was extraordinary?

Seen in this light, Vajpayee’s long service in Parliament, which began in the 1950s, and his moderate leadership of the BJP, certainly deserves to be recognised. In the late 1950s, when Nehru was staunchly defending his China policy and protecting Krishna Menon’s role as Defence Minister, Vajpayee was among the young parliamentarians who brought intense pressure on the prime minister to come clean and take a more pragmatic approach. Had Nehru listened to the then voices of reason, perhaps the 1962 debacle at the hands of China could have been avoided.

A new people's car

2008-01-10T16:18:00.000+05:30

If economic progress is measured by the number of different car models available in a country, then India has certainly come a long way since the days when you had to wait years for a Premier or Ambassador. There were many jokes about these cars: that everything made a noise except the horn, and that drivers held the roof with their right hand so that it would not fly away. However, these cars were reasonably sturdy, and the Ambassador was also roomy and could seat five to six persons in comfort. They could be serviced and repaired even in small towns. Once, eight relatives of mine drove all the way from Bangalore to Delhi in an Ambassador, a feat that still amazes me.

The hot story today, of course, is the launch of Ratan Tata’s small car, appropriately called the Nano. Indians are often blamed for their crab mentality, and nothing better illustrates this than the latest addition to the already large variety of cars available in India. As Tata said, the people’s car has been the subject of scepticism ever since it was mooted some four years ago. Among those who expressed doubts was the head of Suzuki Motors, which dominates the Indian market. Suzuki was the first to shake up the Indian car market with its Maruti 800, whose initial cost was Rs 50,000. I recall a senior colleague of mine, who was among the early ones to get a Maruti 800, going gaga over the multi-speed wipers and other things. The Maruti 800 was truly India’s first people’s car, and although it doesn’t sell that many these days, its legacy is being carried forward by the Alto model. Tata had a dig at the political opposition as well when he said the company had received unsolicited suggestions that included calling the car “Mamta”, or “Despite Mamta,” a reference to the firebrand Bengal Trinamool politician Mamta Bannerjee.

Rata Tata was inspired to produce a Rs 1 lakh car after he saw a family of four going on a motorcycle. In the four years that the car took to develop, its price will be more likely Rs 1.5 lakh for the customer. Although families certainly like to own a car, many buy motorcycles or scooters not just for their lower capital and running costs but other factors like easier movement in traffic and parking. Young men love their motorcycles for different reasons and they are unlikely to give them up. However, there is no doubt that there will be a market for the Nano as it looks cute and will particularly appeal to the younger customer. The build quality of Tata’s earlier car models was not that good, and if the Nano is able to promise more, there is no reason why it should not sell in large numbers.

Continuing agrarian crisis

2008-01-09T16:48:00.000+05:30

Sitting in my cosy apartment in Bangalore on this warm and sunny day in winter, thinking of traffic jams and wondering how long it would take to drive to the new airport when it opens in March, it is easy to forget that there is another world outside the cities. Today’s edition of Bangalore Mirror has a story inside about three onion farmers in a Maharashtra village who have written to President Pratibha Patil seeking permission to commit suicide. Suicide by farmers is no longer hot news for Indian media as they have been going on for so many years. According to official data, about 150,000 farmers committed suicide in the nine years from 1997 to 2005, nearly two-thirds occurring in five states.

Farmers who have committed suicide in the past did not give any advance warning like the latest three. Almost all men, they have quietly consumed pesticide. In one recent case, the farmer electrocuted himself from a nearby power pole. The reasons for suicides are now generally known. The farmer takes a loan for a cash crop, but prices fall after the harvest, putting him in debt. Perhaps he borrows more money from the private moneylender. After a while, unable to repay the loan, he takes the easy way out by killing himself, leaving a wife and children to fend for themselves. I believe those who take this extreme step are weak in mind and body, but it is easy for me to say all this as I am not in their shoes.

Experts say numerous committees have gone into the problem. At least 16 committees and panels – from the National Farmers Commission led by Professor M S Swaminathan to the Planning Commission's fact-finding mission led by bureaucrat Adarsh Misra – have visited Vidarbha in Maharashtra, where a large number of suicides have taken place, but nothing has come out of all this yet. Experts contend that the green revolution has collapsed, and the continuing suicides are a reflection of this. There is an agrarian crisis all over the country. Farmers are victims of policies that have siphoned off money from the rural economy, says Devinder Sharma. The green brigade blames globalisation, WTO policies, and domestic neglect for the crisis. Some blame the influential Swaminathan for these policies.

So what is the solution? Swaminathan, for instance, has suggested small farmers who take loans for cultivation have no capacity to meet the calamity of crop failure, and that traditional crops like jowar should be revived. Organic farming and crop-livestock integration must be promoted. Others say farmers must get more institutional credit to reduce their dependence on private moneylenders. I am sure there must be many reports with good suggestions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said recently that he had not taken a holiday since he came to power. Sadly, nor have farmers contemplating suicide.

Give it back to them

2008-01-08T16:13:00.000+05:30

Newspapers and television channels are understandably full of the Harbhajan Singh affair. The issue has agitated the average person, and on Monday, there were protests in several cities of India, and effigies were burnt. Bloggers, both Indian and Australian, have let loose a torrent of comment. Not surprisingly, most of these have taken the side of their respective teams. However, comments that particularly drew my attention were those that went against the tide. I especially liked the comment of Peter Roebuck, who said Ricky Ponting should be sacked for “his arrogant and abrasive behaviour and for turning a group of professional cricketers into a pack of wild dogs.”

Anil Dharkar, writing in the Times of India, said Indians are victims of racism, and that it is very patently there. According to him, there is the white man’s racism, and black man’s racism. Dharkar says that there is a strong feeling of dislike against Indians for various reasons in many parts of Africa and elsewhere (Kenya, Uganda and Fiji). Steve Bucknor exemplifies this prejudice in the worst possible way. The brown man of the sub-continent gets it from both sides, Dharkar wrote. The Times of India also carried a story about racist taunts Indians in Australia have been facing. Indians in the United States may not face too much problem as it is a larger multi-racial society than other countries, but I am sure it is there. Prejudices do not come to the fore in normal times, but when there is an incident or situation that forces people to take sides, racism will rear its ugly head. The British are sometimes labelled as racists, but I have worked with British colleagues in Saudi Arabia and they were quite friendly. However, I suspect that some of them didn’t like the fact that the Indians in the organisation spoke and wrote good English.

Watching the television coverage of the Bhajji affair on Monday, I noticed one remark that was often made: “We Indians are not racists.” Now, we may not have racism, but I think casteism is a form of racism. Lower castes are perennially complaining about the long years of discrimination they faced at the hands of upper castes. In the last century, it was the turn of upper castes, particularly Brahmins, to face discrimination, and constantly hear taunts from others. Indians are also extremely colour conscious (see the matrimonial advertisements for fair, good-looking brides), and anyone who is dark complexioned is looked down upon.

This brings me back to the Bhajji affair. There is much speculation about what he actually said to Symonds, and I for one feel that if you are abused, you should give it back. No Gandhigiri for me. Indians are generally too meek unless they are fighting amongst themselves, and it is time we became more aggressive, even in sports where money has come to dominate the game. If India continue to play in Australia, they should not tolerate any sledging, and should lodge a complaint about every utterance of the Australian players heard on the field. Whether white, black or brown, the only thing men appreciate is the stick in the other person’s hand. Use it.

Bedi – government’s loss, people’s gain

2008-01-07T16:25:00.000+05:30

Dedication and sincerity alone in your job will not necessarily get you promotions. I’m sure many people have discovered this in their careers. One of them is Kiran Bedi, the Delhi IPS officer who recently quit service after being denied promotion as Police Commissioner. She had a long and illustrious career with plenty of experience, but in the end that didn’t help her get the coveted job. Anyway, the government’s loss could be the common man’s gain.

Her first initiative after voluntary retirement has been to continue police reforms that she introduced while in service. She has launched an e-portal (www.saferindia.com) where people who have been refused help in police stations can register their complaints. Bedi told the Times of India that an astounding 96 percent of crimes are not registered, and wants to let the government know that crimes can now be registered through the portal. A project of her NGO India Vision Foundation, the portal will forward unattended and unacknowledged complains to respective state police headquarters. The email complaint will be valid proof of receipt that the police will not be able to ignore or deny.

Bedi’s initiative comes a day not too soon. The police are generally reluctant to register complaints. For one, it increases the number of registered crimes, which does not look good when crime statistics are released. Two, it means more work, which most people hate. Why not just ask complainants to get lost? That is the standard response of the police, as people have discovered in recent days. In the Mumbai molestation case, the complaint was not registered by one police station citing jurisdiction problems. In Bangalore last week, two journalists had to seek the Lok Ayukta’s intervention to get their complaints registered. These are not isolated cases. People who approach the police are often told to pay up or get lost.

Once in a while the government comes up with a bright day, but that is spiked by unenthusiastic police. For instance, Tamil Nadu boasts of nearly 200 all-women police stations and 10,000 women police officers to deal with crimes against women. However, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has said in a report that Tamil Nadu has one of the highest rates of violence against women in India. The police claim that the number of cases is rising because more women are reporting crimes. But the NCW proved, during a series of public hearings held by the commission, that women police themselves were insensitive to women’s issues. In many cases, first information reports did not correctly record what the victims had said, and cases of domestic violence were treated as a trivial matter. Often, the police came up with laughable excuses for letting crime flourish.

Calling 911

2008-01-04T16:08:00.001+05:30

India reportedly records a death due to road accident every two minutes. Although roads in cities are already jammed with all types of vehicles, as a percentage of the population I expect the number of vehicles is still low. Imagine a time when every Indian has a vehicle. Of course, at that point you may not be able to drive anywhere, and our roads will be quite safe.

As it often happens in this slow-moving elephant country, the central government has finally woken up, and promised an integrated, highway trauma care system. Under this programme, according to reports, one well-equipped ambulance will be provided by the central government for every 50 km stretch of the 3000-km long golden quadrilateral highway network. When the system is ready, the ambulance is expected to reach victims within the crucial first hour and possibly save their lives by rushing them to the nearest hospital under proper medical care. The central government has identified more than 100 state government hospitals for this purpose, and each will get a grant of Rs 4 crore to set up emergency and trauma care centres and a communication system to deal with accident cases. In the first phase, the programme will be launched in the six states of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Maharashtra. The programme will be rolled out first in Andhra and Tamil Nadu.

India badly lacks an emergency ambulance care system not just on the highways but also in cities and towns. Those of you who watch American television shows will know that the first thing that police officers yell, when there is an accident or shooting, is, “Call 911.” That is the emergency medicare service that comes equipped with personnel trained to handle injured victims. In contrast, if you have seen television visuals in India after a bomb blast, you would have noticed how victims are carried. Often, four people will grab the limbs of the victims and haul them along. The sight is horrifying. There is good news coming on this front too. I read some days ago that the central government is planning a system similar to the U.S.’s 911 in India.

We are far behind the Western countries in emergency care because health is a state subject, and generally is given low priority by local governments. Other than setting up a couple of government hospitals in cities, state governments have not bothered to address this vital need. A key factor, of course, is funding. It would naturally take a lot of money to set up a proper emergency care system with sufficient number of ambulances. Now that the central government has agreed to provide grants for the highway programme, it will see the light of the day. The central government should also fund the 911 programme and ensure that it is rolled out quickly in cities and towns.

BSNL’s 'fraud'-band

2008-01-03T16:13:00.000+05:30

BSNL, in a half-page advertisement in The New Indian Express of Jan. 3, proudly proclaims that India’s fastest broadband is now readily available across more towns in Karnataka, and that it is “available at all locations in Bangalore.” I don’t want to contest BSNL’s claim of being the “fastest” in the country as many friends are happy with the service, but to say that broadband is “available at all locations in Bangalore” is a lie.

I applied for a broadband connection, along with a new phone connection, in October 2006. While the phone connection was given in a week, BSNL said broadband would take three months. Well, three months is not much in India’s long history. We are always proclaiming that our civilisation is 5,000 years old. Long ago, I waited seven years for my first Bajaj scooter. Other people waited equally long for their first Premier or Ambassador car. We wait from a week to 10 days for a gas cylinder to be delivered even now. We are used to waiting for services in India.

In December 2006, I suddenly received a call from the local BSNL customer care centre, and the woman on the phone said BSNL had a shortage of modems, and if I could buy one myself, then the broadband connection would be given shortly. Not a problem, I said, and promptly bought a modem. The woman gave me a letter, which she said must be submitted to the area commercial officer. When I went to him, he hummed and hawed, and said the woman was mistaken, and it was not because of modem shortage that connections were held up but due to shortage of ports. At that point the commercial officer was unsure how long it would take to give a broadband connection.

Meanwhile, there were news reports that confirmed that BSNL was indeed facing a shortage of ports, so I kept quiet, which is the best way to keep your blood pressure under control in this country. Several months later, BSNL announced that it had bought new equipment, and that it would start clearing all pending broadband connections. I gave an uncharacteristic whoop and smiled. When I didn’t hear anything from BSNL for some weeks, I went back to the area commercial office, only to be told that in Padmanabha Nagar, where I live, there is a capacity problem, and I would have to wait maybe up to one more year to get the broadband connection.

The matter now stands there. I am making do with a Sify broadband connection, and it keeps going down frequently. The problem is that for the last mile connection Sify uses local boys, who simply do not answer their mobile phones. Today, the girl at the Sify call centre told me, “Sorry, Sir, the local person is not cooperating…” What a sad state of affairs.

A painless tax law

2008-01-02T16:37:00.000+05:30

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the draft, new tax code is ready, and that it will be released as soon as he clears the accompanying draft discussion paper. The new tax code, he has clarified, is not an amendment of the Income Tax Act, but a totally new approach to direct taxes, taking into account the emerging economy.

Now, this should be great news for all tax payers, and particularly those who have suffered at the hands of the income tax department for one reason or another. Everyone knows that the revenue departments of the government, both at the Centre and in the states, are among the most corrupt in the country. Corruption is rampant in the income tax department for two reasons: One, most citizens are reluctant to pay income tax, which they see as “unfair’ cut on their hard-earned money. Two, tax laws are often ambiguous or vague, and therefore open to differing interpretations. This gives scope to tax officers to interpret the law their way, and you can get out of it if you agree to pay a bribe.

A common way of arm-twisting the tax payer to pay a bribe is the matter of refund. Many tax payers end up paying higher tax during the year. If the amount is more than Rs 10,000, then the income tax officer needs to send an “advice” to the Reserve Bank along with the refund cheque. They often withhold this advice and demand a bribe -- the going rate being 10 percent of the refund -- to release it. Therefore, one of the things that the new tax code should do is to make payment of refund automatic, directly into the tax payer’s bank account. This is happening now to a limited extent, but it should be extended to all refund cases. Refunds also should be paid promptly, which will also save the tax department the interest it is now obliged to pay for delayed payments.

While tax laws relating to individuals are not so complex, those relating to companies and businesses are a mine field. Disputes on interpretation of a particularly clause often end up in courts, and there are thousands of such cases. I am not sure what the situation is like in the Western economies, where tax compliance is better and enforcement stricter. If there are any lessons on taxes to be learnt from these economies, Chidambaram should incorporate them in the new code. The primary aim of the new tax code should be clarity, simplicity, and reduction in the scope for corruption. If these objectives are met, I am sure the new tax code will be welcomed by the people.

New Year resolutions and living on hope

2008-01-01T16:54:00.000+05:30

New Year resolutions, I suppose, do serve a purpose. At the simplest level, you might resolve to give up smoking, for instance. That is easier said than done, but it is possible. There can be other resolutions, like learning something new. That’s also possible. Making time to exercise regularly. Certainly possible, although difficult to stick to, like giving up smoking. Then, there are resolutions that are difficult, or distant dreams. Like Pranab Mukherjee resolving to become prime minister. Compared to Rahul Gandhi, he is certainly overqualified, with his long years’ of administrative experience. But he will not achieve it, at least in this life.

I was, therefore, amused to read a New Year forecast in The New Indian Express of Jan. 1 for the year 2008. The paper said, “People in the South will become addicted to The New Indian Express in 2008. It will be the most sought-after early morning fix either with, before or after the morning cuppa.” The paper didn’t say this was a resolution, but it sounded like one.

I have worked in the Indian Express, in Delhi for 18 years, and with the southern group for three and half years. I wish the paper well, but this is one resolution that will remain a dream. In Bangalore, for instance, the paper is at the bottom of the list. A newspaper, or magazine, sells well for several reasons. These include content, packaging, and marketing. The New Indian Express, particularly, is weak on all three fronts. Undoubtedly, the Express is a great brand name, but that alone will not sell. Bata, for instance, was always a well-known shoe brand, but it lost ground steadily to new entrants and suffered losses. The Express was once known for its investigative stories, but not any longer in the South. The northern edition continues to produce such stories, but yet it does not sell much.

Packaging is a key element in sales. No one will buy a product that looks shoddy, and The New Indian Express does look bad, with poor printing and bad paper. Unlike its rivals in Bangalore, which have all pages in colour, the Express is able to print only a few pages in colour. Without latest printing machines and hardly any use of colour, and absence of great layout and graphics, the paper is poorly packaged. Third, marketing was, and remains, a very weak area. The success of the Times of India is in great measure a tribute to its marketing department. Lastly, good manpower is a key element in producing a good product. With low salaries, the Express is unable to keep talent.

One of the most difficult things in marketing is to revive a dead brand. When better – and sometimes cheaper -- alternatives are available, getting consumers to come back is an impossible task, and I am not sure how many brands have achieved this. The task for The New Indian Express, in spite of its new and brash editorial leadership, will certainly not be easy.

The Song of the Highway

2007-12-31T18:47:00.000+05:30

Driving out of a city is always a pleasure as it allows you to get away from crowded and jammed streets, and lets you test your vehicle at different speeds. As a young man, I have ridden pillion on an old Vespa scooter with a crazy friend in the Indian Air Force. We once drove in winter from Delhi to Agra, arriving half frozen at the IAF mess, where a couple of hot rums thawed us out and we were able to speak again. On another occasion, we drove from Delhi to Chandigarh on the same scooter. Those were days when my spine was in good shape, and I don’t think I would be able to do it again now.

Later, when I acquired four wheels, we began driving from Delhi to the numerous hill stations and other places in North India. Over the years, I have driven to Nainital, Mussourie, Shimla, Chandigarh, Agra, and Jaipur. Those days highways were reasonably good, and Haryana particularly has built motels all along the way, which I think no other state has done. I always feel heady when I hit the highway and see India as it is. You come across green farms and sometimes local smells as well, as in the sugar belt of Uttar Pradesh where the sweet smell of sugar and molasses will hit your nostrils as you drive through. After I moved to Chennai in April 2004, we drove several times to Pondicherry on the excellent East Coast Highway, which runs along the Bay of Bengal. Driving from Chennai to Bangalore, we initially stuck to the Old Madras road, and later discovered the pleasure of the new highway that takes the Krishnagiri route.

Indian highways have become better over the years, but what they lack is facilities along the way. Except in Haryana, you will not find good eating places and toilets at regular intervals in most states. And God save you if there is an emergency, like your car breaking down in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, there is always an element of fear when you drive on Indian highways. The saving grace these days is the ubiquitous mobile phone, with which you can summon help.

Over the years, I have been able to estimate time to destination reasonably accurately. I have found that generally your average speed on the highway will be around 50 to 60 kms per hour, and on hills 30 kms per hour. There are taxi and other drivers who will drive faster, risking their lives, but I am talking about a city driver with a compact car.

Our latest adventure on December 30 was a drive from Bangalore on the Mysore highway. I have done the trip earlier in 2006. Here again, the two-lane highway is a pleasure to drive, and you can reach Mysore in about two and half hours driving comfortably. This time around I noticed the police have put steel barricades all along the way, for a reason that I cannot fathom. A highway is meant to take vehicles from one destination to another in the quickest possible time. So, why put barricades? I can understand barricades at the approach to a town to slow down high-speed vehicles somewhat, but there are many more than required on the Mysore highway. You also need to watch out for that bullock cart or tractor trailer that will suddenly come out from the fields on to the road. In the late 1970s, when I was working in Saudi Arabia, I went with a friend who drove his Mercedes at 160 kms per hour on the Jeddah highway. I am envious when I read about the expressways overseas where you can drive at 200 kms per hour. Our highways have improved, but we still have a long way to go to reach the levels of those in Germany and the United States.

Benazir, and a visit to Pakistan

2007-12-28T12:34:00.000+05:30

Benazir Bhutto is dead, gone just like poor Rajiv Gandhi. He too was an opposition leader and on election campaign when the LTTE blew him to pieces. Both had been in power earlier, voted by a nation that had put much faith in their youth and dynamism. In both cases, voters had been let down and disappointed. After promising the moon to the people, Rajiv and Benazir had succumbed to political pressure (military pressure in case of Benazir), and become just like any other politician. Yet, when they were killed, it seemed that the people were getting ready to give them another chance.

I was working for the Saudi Gazette in Jeddah when Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death in March 1978 by the Lahore High Court after being ousted from power by General Zia-ul-Haq. I remember the News Editor liked the lead headline I gave for the story. Over the next few months, Zulfikar tried hard but lost his appeal against the verdict and was hanged in April 1979. At a briefing in New Delhi many years later, a senior official told us in background briefing that if Zulfikar had remained in power, the Kashmir issue would have been resolved.

The years of hostility and mistrust between India and Pakistan is enshrined in our minds. In Jeddah, all the press and printing staff was Pakistani. There, away from our homeland, there was no tension between Indians and Pakistanis, and relations were very friendly. When I returned to India in mid-1979, some of the Pakistanis wanted my home address, and said they would look me up if ever they visited India. I must confess that I gave the address reluctantly, afraid of the police calls if Pakistanis began to visit me regularly.

I had occasion to visit Pakistan in 1994, when the U.S. Journal of Commerce (I was its South Asia correspondent for nearly 15 years) asked me to go to Karachi to cover a textile fair. Usually, Indians have a hard time getting a Pakistani visa, but I got a business visa in less than two hours at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. I am sure this was because I was working for an American paper. However, as I was an Indian, I was asked to report to the police in Karachi for registration. As it happened, I didn’t have the original invitation letter from the fair’s organisers, and I had to go back to them to get some sort of letter. At the foreigners’ registration office in Karachi, there was some delay in my registration. I got a little annoyed, which enraged the superintendent of police, who seemed like a typical Indian police officer. However, I quickly cooled down, realising that losing my temper would not help.

Covering the event was great fun. I went along with some other journalists to a briefing, and the executives and officials there mistook me for another Pakistani, an impression that I had to correct. But everyone was friendly, and answered my questions without hesitation. Pakistan produces fine textiles as it grows good cotton, and apparel that I bought for my wife and daughter lasted many years without looking old.

Going around in Karachi, I felt I was in an Indian city. One evening, the Indian consul general invited me to dinner, and sent his official car to pick me up. The driver, also an Indian, said we were being followed by Pakistani intelligence agents. I couldn’t make out who was following us in the busy Karachi traffic, but I assumed the driver knew what he was talking about. I was the only guest at dinner, and the consul general and I discussed the situation in Pakistan. For desert, he offered some very sweet Pakistani mangoes. It is sad that nearly six decades after partition, suspicion and mistrust continue to dog our relations with Pakistan.

Not consumer friendly

2007-12-27T16:29:00.001+05:30

There was a time in the 1930s and 1940s when the front pages of newspapers carried only advertisements and news was relegated to the inside pages. Later, as editors became powerful, only one advertisement was allowed at the right bottom corner of the front page. In the 1980s, when papers like the Times of India began aggressive marketing of the paper, more and more advertisements began to appear on the front page. Improvements in technology enabled not only colour advertisements, but allowed them to be placed within stories.

The marketing gimmicks have now gone too far. The Times of India and Economic Times often have a half vertically-cut advertisement page before the front page. This looks fine as long as you do not open the paper to read. Then the half-page falls out and dangles, as you cannot hold it in your left hand. As a regular reader of the Times of India and Economic Times, I think it is one of the stupidest gimmicks from their advertisement departments. Obviously, no one is bothered about reader reaction. I am sure many in the editorial departments of the papers probably feel the same, but then in the Bennett Coleman group, they don’t have much say.

Undoubtedly, newspapers and magazines must make profits, and advertisements are the main source of revenue. Many newspapers have a ratio of advertisements to news, which is 60:40, which means 60 percent news and 40 percent advertisements. Magazines too have similar formulas. However, newer magazines for women and homes are so full of advertisements these days that it is hard to find the articles in them. Clearly, although the reader is the consumer, he is no longer the king.

Footnote: Benazir Bhutto was killed on Thursday, and all papers on Friday devoted their front pages to the story. In the Bangalore edition of the Times of India, the front page was an advertisement with a big photo of Dhirubhai Ambani. A reader looking at his picture would have wondered if something had happened to Ambani. Talk about commercialism over journalism.

Fear of flying

2007-12-26T11:04:00.001+05:30

Winter is a great time to visit North India, particularly Delhi. South Indians fear the cold, but for those who have lived in the North, winter is the best time of the year. For one, you don’t get exhausted and there is no dust in the air. Nights, of course, are cold, but the days are generally warm and pleasant, and you can often manage with minimal warm clothing. All this makes winter a good time to travel and see the sights.

These days, however, winter is also a bad time to visit the North, particularly Delhi. It was not so some years ago. But a combination of increasing pollution and other factors brings thick fog over the city in the morning, making travel by air, and even rail, almost impossible during December and January. On Tuesday, for instance, the seasonal fog clothed Delhi, reducing visibility to less than 600 metres, against the minimum 1,000 metres needed for flights to take off and land. The result: More than 50 flights were delayed up to three hours, and the terminals were choked with passengers. About 15 flights were cancelled and 10 were diverted. Reports said the new system of using one runway for takeoff and another for landing added to the woes. Apparently, the minimum visibility was increased to 1,600 metres for the secondary runway against the normal 1,000 metres.

Some weeks ago, the Ministry of Civil Aviation took out huge advertisements in newspapers to prepare the ground for these delays. Delhi airport is equipped with latest landing systems for fog, but airlines do not have pilots trained to use these systems. Only Air India (formerly Indian Airlines) has sufficient pilots trained to use the latest landing systems. Why aren’t private airlines training their pilots? One reason could be the additional costs, considering that the fog lasts only two months. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, however, must pressure private airlines to train more pilots. Airlines may be taking the situation lightly, but imagine the plight of a passenger who must reach Delhi for an important appointment, which could be an interview for a job. Similarly, if someone is not able to get out of Delhi on time, what is the use of an expanding aviation sector?

The weather in Europe and the U.S. can be pretty bad in winter, with snow and fog at airports. Most airports in these cities continue to function during such times. Interestingly, dozens of flights were cancelled on Monday at Heathrow airport in London as weekend fog continued to cause travel chaos. Up to 1,000 passengers spent the night at Heathrow on Sunday as flight cancellations wrecked their holiday plans. It would be tempting for Indian authorities to point to Heathrow, but we must take measures to ensure that it does not happen at Delhi airport.

The Modi phenomenon

2007-12-24T12:02:00.000+05:30

It was truly Narendra Modi’s day on Sunday, and Monday’s newspapers reflect it. Briefly, newspaper analysts are saying that Modi won because of three main reasons: his strong leadership style, blunt speaking, and the economic development in Gujarat. In my view, it is the first reason that probably encouraged Gujarat voters to back him. The problem with India today is that we have too many weak leaders. There has been no really strong leader since Indira Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi had charisma, but he was a not a strong leader. Vajpayee too has charisma, but is not perceived as a strong leader. L.K. Advani is perceived as a strong leader, but appears to lack charisma. Electoral politics is not just about parties and their programmes; you need a good leader to sell that message. Even the Left parties, which claim to shun personalities, banked on Jyoti Basu’s image to remain in power in West Bengal.

Of course, Modi’s success, based on his strong leadership style, charisma and blunt speaking, will make him a strong contender for BJP’s top leadership. There is no doubt, as analysts argue, that he will most likely be Advani’s successor. Advani has been named as the prime ministerial candidate by the BJP, but he is too old and may not be able to carry on for long. Modi, at just 59, has years of politics left in him (reminds me of similar comments of our senior cricketers). Advani has, for now, praised Modi’s success, but will he back him as his successor? That remains to be seen. The Congress party was largely united before Independence, but all the differences came to the fore once it came to power and fights began over the sharing of spoils. No leader likes another leader to come up – that’s a natural human reaction, even in the corporate world. It happened with Nehru, and then Indira Gandhi. Indira was clever enough to emasculate all opposition within the party, and other Congress presidents continue to enjoy that legacy. The BJP has been lucky so far. Advani is ambitious, but kept his ambition in check because of Vajpayee. How will he treat Modi? It will be interesting times for BJP watchers.

I have not been to Gujarat, and therefore cannot comment about the economic progress in that state. It is true that Gujarat, along with Maharashtra, was even earlier one of the most industrialised states in the country. My daughter, who visited Ahmedabad recently, came back impressed and praised the wide, smooth roads, fast flowing traffic, and the malls that were as good as Bangalore. Economic development, however, should not be confined to cities. What is the situation in villages just outside Ahmedabad? Has there been any improvement in their standard of living? If there has been an improvement, then we can certainly laud Modi for the percolation of economic growth.

Philips – no better than Sify

2007-12-22T11:54:00.000+05:30

Some weeks ago I had occasion to write about Sify’s atrocious broadband service. I was not surprised as Sify is an Indian company, and I expected shoddy service. Efficiency would have knocked me out. I, therefore, assumed naively that multi-national companies would be better. Imagine to my surprise that they are the same – when in Rome (or India in this case), do as other Indians do.

A week ago, impressed by some new features in the Philips’ water purifier, I bought a unit from Big Bazaar. I was told that it would have to be installed by a Philips technician. I, therefore, called the Philips call centre, and the executive there said the technician would come between 9 am and 11 am on Friday, December 21. We cleaned up the kitchen and waited, and waited. At 10-45 am, I phoned the call centre, and was promised somebody would come. We waited, and waited. At 1 pm, I phoned the centre again, and once again promised action. We waited and waited. At 5 pm, I phoned the centre again. I was told that there was a “technical” problem, and someone would “surely” call me in half an hour. We waited, and waited. No sign of technician.

On Saturday, I called the Philips centre again, and have been promised that the filter would be installed positively by the evening. “Does Philips want me to use the filter and remain a customer?” I asked. The answer was yes, but we will have to wait and see.

Poor customer service is the bane of Indian business. Once you have bought a product, you can scream until you are hoarse, but no one will resolve your complaint. At one time, you could reach a senior executive. Now, there is only a call centre executive. You have to explain the same thing over and over again. What bugs me no end is their final question, “Is there anything else?” “You moron,” I say calmly, “My main problem is yet to be resolved. How can there be anything else?”

“Have a nice day,” the call centre executive says. I have been at home the entire day waiting for the technician to come. How can that be a nice day?

A corrupt paradise

2007-12-20T11:58:00.001+05:30

People generally consider most politicians as corrupt. The latest raids by Karnataka’s Lok Ayukta suggest that corruption in the bureaucracy is also widespread. Of course, this should not be a surprise to the common man who deals with these officials whenever he visits a government department. There was also a misconception that it is the lower ranks in the bureaucracy who are corrupt as their salaries are low. However, the latest list of corrupt officials suggests that salaries have nothing to do with bribery. What is surprising is that many of these corrupt officials have been taking bribes for years, and no one in the administration has dared to catch them and take action. Karnataka reportedly ranks as the fifth most-corrupt state in the country, which is a blot on its good image of being the “Silicon Valley” of India.

Those caught in the latest raids are generally from the PWD, transport and taxation departments. Revenue, police and PWD departments are known to be the most corrupt. But there is also a district surgeon from Mandya, who has amassed Rs 2 crore in assets. What kind of “service” was he providing for people to offer bribes? Was he giving false medical certificates? If that is the case, then he should be suspended by the Medical Council of India.

Corrupt officials generally shield their own, which is why they never get caught. Even when they do, the administration will delay action against them, as it happened recently in Bangalore. Only after the Lok Ayukta wrote a second letter that the government suspend some 13 officials earlier caught in corruption raids. However, don’t expect officials to keep quiet. Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde has warned that the central government plans to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to pass the onus of proving the source of income of corrupt officials on investigating agencies. Hegde said if the amendment is passed, the legislation could well be called “Protection of Corruption Act.” He accused the central government of buckling under pressure from the bureaucracy in planning the amendment and called on the people to write protest letters to the central government against the amendment.

India now has global recognition in information technology, but it also has the dubious distinction of being among countries with poor efficiencies in many areas. In addition, Transparency International has ranked India as the worst performer on its global bribe payers’ index, which is based on the propensity of companies from the world’s 30 leading exporting countries in bribing abroad. A dilution of the legislation against corruption will only make matters worse.

Internet-induced death

2007-12-19T12:46:00.000+05:30

The report that the “suicide” of a 13-year-old boy in Mumbai some days ago was in fact because of an Internet-inspired stunt must cause additional concern to parents. Gaurang Dalvi’s parents told the Times of India that he was a part of a group of school mates looking at Internet sites that taught children how to cut off supply of oxygen to the brain to get a temporary “high.” This is apparently known as a “choking game” in the West, and is already worrying parents in the United States. Gaurang’s parents said they received a phone call on the day he died, and they heard a bunch of boys and girls giggling in the background while one of them asked, “Gaurang, are you dead yet?!” The line was then disconnected, the parents said.

The Internet is one of the best things to have happened in recent decades. It is a massive storehouse of information, and you can get solutions even to obscure problems. Yet, it is becoming a dangerous tool, particularly where children are concerned. In the West, governments have already woken up and are actively working on educating parents and others to the dangers from the Internet. The US Justice Department, for instance, warns on its website that children are especially vulnerable to victimisation. It says their trusting natures and naiveté make them perfect targets for perpetrators—both people they know and those they don’t. As children grow into adolescents, they remain vulnerable to victimisation. Youth are often curious and eager to try new things. Many youth struggle with issues of rebellion and independence and seek attention and affection from people outside the home, often by using computers. Other experts warn that a few factors make some children more vulnerable than others. Older children are at greater risk because they often use the computer unsupervised and are more likely to engage in online discussions of a personal nature. Some become unwitting participants as they actively participate in chat rooms, trade e-mail messages, and send pictures online. Troubled or rebellious teens seeking emancipation from parental authority can be susceptible to Internet predators.

Predators are constantly stalking the Internet to seek and groom children for criminal and sexual purposes. Child pornography has mushroomed to huge proportions. The US Justice Department says the nature of Internet crimes presents complex new challenges for law enforcement agencies with regard to investigating crimes, collecting evidence, identifying and apprehending offenders, and assisting child victims and their families. Victims and perpetrators are often separated geographically, which may hamper investigation efforts.

In Gaurang’s case, it may be difficult for the police to prove that his school mates induced him to try something that led to his death by hanging. But the incident should be a wake-up call to parents, who must keep a sharper eye on what sites their children are surfing.

A really unwelcome invasion?

2007-12-18T16:17:00.000+05:30

The “IT invasion” of Bangalore is once again a hot topic of discussion. The New Indian Express carries different views in its edition of December 18. A large section of Bangalore’s population believes that the “IT invasion” has done more harm than good. One advocate was quoted as saying, “IT has benefited only 10 percent of the population. The rest of us from other sectors have only suffered inconvenience.” A software professional acknowledges candidly, “I have to agree that people not employed in the IT sector do suffer because of disparity in the income.” A counter view comes from an HR professional working for an IT company: “IT has done no harm. The sector has given employment to many…IT has done a lot of good to the city. The people have to learn to live with both.”

As it often happens, both sides have strong arguments, and there is truth in what they say. Before the IT invasion, Bangalore was a sleepy town, and the main employers were even sleepier public sector companies such as HAL, BEL, HMT and others. Engineering and technical students from the state aspired to get into one of these companies, and those who couldn’t --- and could not move out of the state – remained unemployed or took other low-paid jobs. The IT invasion has created a new and huge market for engineers with its insatiable appetite, and transformed Bangalore’s employment market. Other than direct employment to not just engineers but accountants, HR specialists and others, it also has opened opportunities in support sectors. Food outlets are thriving, and so are others. Many families, including mine, have benefited from the IT industry growth, with our children jumping on the bandwagon and bringing in high income. On the whole, then, the IT invasion has been beneficial to the state’s economy.

But critics have a point when they argue that high incomes in the IT industry have contributed to a rise in prices. Prices of real estate and rentals have risen because supply does not match demand. When this does, prices will come down. There is some anecdotal evidence of auto-rickshaw drivers charging extra from people carrying the ubiquitous notebook computers. The IT boom has certainly strained Bangalore’s poor infrastructure. It never had a system of good public transport in the first place, and its narrow roads are unable to cope with the explosion in private cars and motorcycles. We must fully blame the local government for not looking ahead and improving Bangalore’s infrastructure. But then, these days most governments are incompetent.

Stinging the sting

2007-12-17T11:11:00.000+05:30

TV news channels hard pressed to come up with something new and novel to fill their 24-hour slots sometimes resort to “sting” journalism. Last week the sting journalism itself was in the news when the Delhi High Court proposed that media organisations telecast sting operations only after they have been approved by a government committee. The court suggested that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry set up a committee empowered to vet sting operations and issue no-objection certificates after being satisfied that they served public interest, and hoped that the suggestion would be incorporated in the proposed broadcasting bill. The court made the suggestion while disposing of a petition on a fake sting operation against Uma Khurana, a Delhi school teacher.

The court said sting operations “showing acts and facts as they are truly and actually may be in the public interest and as a tool for justice. But a hidden camera cannot be allowed to depict something which is not true or has happened because of inducement by entrapping a person.”

This is not the first time that the modus operandi of sting operations has come into focus. It happened first when Tehelka did an operation against then Defence Minister George Fernandes and the BJP during NDA rule. In the end, only some defence officers suffered the consequences. The issue has understandably caused concern to the Editors Guild of India, which expressed shock at the court suggestion. The guild said the suggestion, if implemented, would bring in “a draconian, judicially-backed emergency through the back door.” The guild, however, favoured restraining sting operatives through a stringent, pre-telecast self-regulatory mechanism. It pointed out that sting operations should be used only when information cannot be obtained by “any other means.”

Indian TV reports have kicked off a national debate on several issues, including the ethics of sting journalism, the role of television, and privacy. Sting journalism, as we know it, is not generally practiced by “respectable” newspapers here and overseas, but is largely the domain of tabloids. The British News of the World often does reports based on sting journalism. Once, its reporters enticed a British earl to buy cocaine and share the drug. A detailed account about the peer’s conduct was carried by the paper. The earl was arrested and convicted for selling drugs, but significantly the presiding judge refused to send him to jail, citing the subterfuge of the News. But for the sting, the crime would not have been committed, the judge said.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association is the world's largest professional organisation devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. RTNDA represents local and network news executives in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries. The association has a code of ethics for electronic journalists, which says hidden cameras or microphones must be used only as a last resort. Article Four relating to privacy issues of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council says that journalists must respect the dignity, privacy and well-being of everyone with whom they deal, and make every effort to ensure that news gathering and reporting does not unreasonably infringe privacy except when necessary in the public interest. Hidden audio and video recording devices should only be used when it is necessary to the credibility or accuracy of a story in the public interest.

Many reports from a sting operation do not reveal anything new. For instance, TV channel Aaj Tak’s sting revealed corruption in the Delhi sales tax department. Was that something new? Ask any trader, and he will tell you a lot more about corruption in excise, income tax, customs and so on. Why are TV channels resorting to such journalism then?

The reality of the market place is that TRP ratings and advertisement revenues drive the media. In the television industry, while advertisement revenues grew by 250 percent to Rs 700 crores between 2000 and 2005, the number of news channels sharing the pie shot up to 19 from five. It is, therefore, no wonder that some news channels have turned to sting and sex to be noticed.

Under Indian law, the news reporter of a TV channel can be charged with abetting a crime, if such an event were to take place during a sting operation. Unfortunately, TV news channels will probably get away without being punished as local administrations and governments are generally wary of touching the media, for fear of triggering cries of attack on press freedom. Ideally, TV channels and newspapers should be doing investigative reporting that reveals something that is not widely known. But then, that costs a lot more time, money and effort.

Delaying capital punishment

2007-12-15T11:39:00.000+05:30

I am not a great fan of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but I do support him when he asks why the execution of Afzal Guru is being delayed. Afzal was sentenced to death by the trial court five years ago in December 2002 for the attack on Parliament in December 2001. In October 2003, the Delhi High Court confirmed the sentence, and this was upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005. The Delhi court even fixed the hanging date as October 20 that year, but two years on he continues to languish in jail, not knowing what fate awaits him.

There are two major issues involved in the case. One, whether we should have capital punishment. Two, once the highest court has upheld the death sentence, any mercy petition should be swiftly dealt with. Opinion is divided on continuance of capital punishment. Personally, I feel people should be hanged for heinous crimes and crimes against the State. Generally, Indian courts do take such a view. During my early years in the Indian Express in Delhi, I remember visiting Tihar central jail and meeting the librarian there. It turned out that the young Sikh had been a student of the prestigious St. Stephen’s College, and was in jail for having shot his father because he refused to give a paltry sum of money. The court sentenced him to life, recognising that the crime had been committed in a fit of anger and was not heinous. At the same time, there was an inmate in the jail’s death row who had hacked his family to pieces. He certainly deserved to die.

The second issue is of delayed justice, and the mental torture that the prisoner undergoes on account of this. In the late 1970s I spent two years in Saudi Arabia. Justice was, and continues to be, swift in that country. Often, a criminal would be convicted and the sentence carried out within weeks of the crime. In countries like the United States, justice is far quicker than what we have here. In India, thousands of undertrials languish in jails, and often stay there far beyond the sentence they would have got had the trial been quicker. In Afzal’s case, the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition and upheld the death penalty in January 2007. A newspaper report says the Delhi government is yet to respond to the mercy plea forwarded by the President’s office a year ago. Why such administrative callousness? Sadly, Article 72 of the Constitution prescribes no time limit for the President to decide on a clemency petition. It is time this Article is amended.

Bangalore broadband blues

2007-12-14T11:44:00.000+05:30

What is worse? Not having something or having something? Puzzled at my question? Let me elaborate. Supposing you don’t have personal transport. That would mean taking a bus to work or wherever you want to go. This can be quite frustrating, what with overcrowding and infrequent bus services. As you wait for the bus, you see people whizzing by in their motorcycles and cars, and you envy them. One day the frustration gets to be too much, and you finally decide to buy a car. You are very happy, as you take possession of the vehicle and take it home. You park it lovingly at home. The next day, when you try to take it out, you find the gate blocked by some idiot who has parked his car in front and vanished. Or, you do manage to get the car out, and find you are stuck in a traffic jam for one hour. Then, you wish you had simply walked to the bus stop and taken the crowded bus. At least you would have reached your destination on time.

I want to take this analogy further. The situation is especially applicable to broadband connections in India, particularly Bangalore. In September, Sify took 25 days to give me a broadband connection after taking my deposit and monthly subscription. Well, everything was fine for some days. We found the connection much faster than Reliance, and we were in some kind of heaven. These things don’t last long in our country, however. Suddenly, one day we found we couldn’t log in, and we began to get error messages saying there was no Internet cable connection. On investigation, I found that the business associate (Sify and other companies palm off last-mile connectivity to so-called business associates who are horribly unreliable) had put a hub on the top of our apartment. The power to the hub was being drawn from a computer in another apartment. When this computer was switched off, others connected to the hub were disconnected from the Internet. Now to expect a home computer to be kept on 24x7 is stupid. If tech savvy executives at Sify are suggesting such connections, then they had better go back to college and take a refresher course. After much complaining and yelling over three days, Sify restored the connection. It lasted 24 hours, and now I see a fresh problem.

Bangalore is touted as the IT capital of India. However, it probably has the worst broadband connectivity for individuals. BSNL is not able to provide broadband to everyone. Sify is unreliable. I was intrigued by Reliance Wimax, introduced in July, but I found hundreds of complaints on the Internet about this service. Airtel, which is a better service, does not have connectivity in all locations. What a pitiable situation for an IT capital.

Horrible Sify broadband service

2007-09-29T15:57:00.000+05:30

After 1991, when India kicked off economic reforms, domestic companies benefited from the removal of licence raj and began to make huge profits. You would have thought that they would use some of these profits to improve customer service, but that has not happened. Many Indian companies, if not most, have neglected customer service.

A prime example of poor service is internet service provider Sify. My own experience should be a revelation to new customers.

On Sept. 12, taken in by the numerous advertisements in my neighbourhood, I signed up for a Sify broadband connection in Padmanabha Nagar, Bangalore. The order number is 473512. The person who came promised the connection in two days. One week later, even the cabling had not been done. When that was finally done, it took another eight days for the technical person to come and install the software to connect to the internet. Later that evening, we were unable to connect. Numerous phone calls to the local service provider have not helped. Often, he will does not even answer the phone. When he does, he promises to rectify the problem that day, but never turns up. Complaints to even CEO of the company have not helped.

As I write this, it is the 29th of September. I signed up on Sept. 12. Seventeen days later, we have not been able to connect to the internet using Sify broadband even for a single minute.

How bad can a company be?