Indian Education System - Are we really educating???

Hello friends... Tremendous support from you all for the last two blogs made me write one more blog with an issue that I've been pondering for a long time...

As I keep reading and hear stories about education, employment opportunities created, etc. I keep wondering are we really educating our younger generation.  The idea of education is to impart knowledge and make the student understand the subject.  Are our schools and colleges really doing it?

This blog can be considered as sequel of my earlier blog about Education Institutions (EI), which can be found at: https://eskay-blogs.blogspot.com/2011/06/which-is-best-school-college.html

The meaning of Education is defined as:

1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
2. the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession.

Does our EI's really impart knowledge on students or just prepare them as 'textbook' heroes?

The common belief (among students and parents) is that scoring 90%+ is successful education.  If the student is very good with his/her memory, under the current education system, he/she can easily score 90%+.  But does that mean they have gained knowledge in their subjects?  I don't think so.

In June 2017, NASA launched world's smallest satellite designed by a 18 year-old Tamil Nadu student, Rifath Sharook and his team mates.  What a brilliant achievement for a 18 year-old !!!! But he scored only around 65% in science subject during his higher secondary exam.

Purely based on marks (as always happens in Indian colleges/universities), Rifath would have never got an admission to do graduation in Science field.  

What's the status of colleges in India?  Before we see the statistics for entire India, let us see the statistics for Tamil Nadu as TN has more Engineering Colleges than many other states in India. On an average about 1,57,000 students graduate in Engineering field in Tamil Nadu alone.  All over India, it is estimated that about 15,00,000 students graduate in the Engineering field.  So, Tamil Nadu has little more than 10% of Engineering Graduate turnout.

It's amazing we 'produce' about 15 lakh engineering graduates a year... But, does our country has job opportunity for 15 lakh new engineers every year?  

Below is the statistics of students enrolling for graduation courses in India during the last three academic years (data is provided by Union HRD Ministry):

Stream	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Arts	97.30 Lakhs	109.40 Lakhs	107.10 Lakhs
Science	47.30 Lakhs	43.80 Lakhs	40.90 Lakhs
Engineering	41.60 Lakhs	42.50 Lakhs	42.20 Lakhs
Commerce	40.00 Lakhs	38.60 Lakhs	37.20 Lakhs
Medical	9.80 Lakhs	8.90 Lakhs	8.10 Lakhs
Management	5.60 Lakhs	5.20 Lakhs	5.10 Lakhs
Law	3.50 Lakhs	3.30 Lakhs	3.02 Lakhs

From the table above it's obvious that about 40+ lakh students enroll for Engineering graduation.  But only about 15+ lakh graduate with degree (graduation data is also from HRD and students with arrears and have not cleared during normal academic year are not considered)... Why such a poor rate of pass percentage?  Are we saying 2/3 of students who enroll are not competent enough to finish Engineering graduation or is it the problem of EI which does not teach/train them adequately.

Couple of incidents made me write this blog now even though I've been thinking a lot about quality of Indian Education in recent times.  The stimuli to write now are:

1. Sun TV runs a quiz program every Sunday afternoon (program name "Thaaya Thaarama" - for details of the program you can watch Sun TV on Sunday 12noon).  Couple of weeks back a guy participated in that program with his mother and wife.  The guy was a professor in a college (owned by his family) and his mother was the Correspondent of that college.  One of the question was about how many letters in Tamil language (total "uyirmei" letters in Tamil).  The guy, his wife and mother all three gave wrong answer.  The host told them that it's very bad that they didn't even know about their own mother tongue.  To follow-up he asked the guy "You are a professor.. So, tell me at least do you know how many vowels are there in English and what are they".  The professor guy just laughed and said he teaches Science in College and not English.  Then the host turned to his mother and said "You are the Correspondent of the College.  At least do you know the answer?".  Her reply was "Even though my title is Correspondent, I actually take care of Repairs & Maintenance and collection of Fee in college and I don't know anything else".
2. The second incident was while a phone call with one my best friends from school time.  While talking about quality of education and all he said that his daughter found that the formula taught by her teacher was wrong and she had the guts to go directly to the Head Master and complain about it.  In front of the child, the HM called the concerned teacher and told her "to learn and understand and teach them".  That's all he said and sent the student and teacher back to class.

I believe, the above two incidents should be a real eye opener for us as to the standard of education and EI's in this country.  First incident clearly indicates that if you have money, you can start a college, call yourself a professor, correspondent, HOD, etc...etc... even though you don't even have the basic knowledge of languages.  Hats off to the director to air this episode without editing (it's not a live show) and exposing them.  If the knowledge of the professor is so bad, what about the students studying in that college?  How do we expect them to be a really qualified graduate who has understood the subject?

In my opinion, the second incident is a big shame on the teaching profession.  A student knows that the formula taught by the teacher is wrong... A teacher, who is supposed to have been graduated in the field they teach (in this case Mathematics) and also have experience in Educating (B.Ed or equivalent) doesn't know that she's teaching incorrect.

Both the incidents cited above are just examples of something I came across recently.  I am sure everyone of us have similar experience which came as shock to us.

The day teaching professional became business instead of "service", I think the quality of education really started plummeting.  Every Tom, Dick and Harry who had money has started schools, colleges and deemed universities.  Our EI's have grown in number very fast but not in quality.

What has really happened due to this?  Most of the students who graduate from a college and could not find a decent job, becomes a teacher/professor/lecturer in the same college he studied.  A guy who just graduated becomes a professor/lecturer.  What experience he has in that field to teach the next generation?  I am sure everyone of us knows somebody who has done this.

Our EI's very happily send out 15+ lakh engineering graduates a year.  Does our country have the ability to give related employment opportunity to 15+ lakh graduates every year?  No.  Absolutely not.  See below example to see the condition of graduates:

Last September, Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) invited application for the post of gangman, gateman, pointsman, porter and helpers.  These are the lowest level jobs within Indian Railways.  For a total of 62,907 vacancies, RRB received application from 1.90 crore applicants (almost 302 applicant for each vacancy).   According to RRB, majority of applicants were Graduates (including Engineering graduates) and post-graduates even though the qualification required for these jobs were mere 10th standard or vocational training certificate.

Visit this site: https://theprint.in/governance/where-are-the-jobs-crores-of-post-graduates-and-engineers-apply-to-be-railway-gangmen/117282/ to see the heart-wrenching numbers.

So, the new standard of EI's have forced the graduates and post-graduates to apply for the lowest level jobs as labors.  Is this the achievement we want for our future generation?

Let us look around among our friends and relatives circle.  How many BE graduates are working in BPO and do a job which is totally unrelated to what they have studied hard for?  Unfortunately and sadly, our country's current ability to create jobs are in labor sector and clerical sector only.  We may give some glorified titles like "Associate, Processing Executive" and such but end of the day the work they do is just clerical.  Why waste parent's money by paying huge fee and capitation and complete your Engineering Degree and end-up working as a clerk?  Rather you could have saved that money for your future and finished some level of degree and still get the same job.

I do not underestimate the value of education in any way.  But all I'm up against is the quality of education in India currently and blind following (and forcing) of and by children to get into Engineering and such when this country cannot provide so many employment opportunities.  Another negative impact of such education with no opportunity to work is the "Brain Drain" this is creating.  This is another huge topic on which a long blog can be written and will be written by me very soon.

Most of the (so called) prestigious universities in the country has cut-off mark of 99% or so for admissions.  What do they expect our children to be?  If anybody who doesn't get cut-off mark of 99% and don't get a seat in such colleges, are we going to brand them as 'stupid'?  A student who gets 85% mark cannot be dumb or stupid.

Anna University in Chennai is currently ranked at 1,069 in the world (as per web site: http://www.webometrics.info/en/Asia/india) and the cut-off mark they expect is 99% or more.  So if we find a college or university in India which is ranked among top 100 in the World, what would be the cut-off?  300%??

For detailed cut-off mark (again it changes depending on the caste and community you belong to - another sorry state of Indian education thanks to reservation based on community and caste) for Anna University and other affiliated colleges can be found at:  https://info.tnea.ac.in/tinfo/district.php

About ten days back, Tamil Nadu Government has decided to shut down about 600+ primary schools across Tamil Nadu.  Reason?  There were only 10 or less students in these schools.  These schools are in rural areas.  If these schools shut down, how will the children get their education?  Given the financial strength of rural families, they will not be able to send their children to nearby town or village for education.  

Government's argument is that it's not "feasible" to run schools with lower students strength.  This is purely money oriented.  The schooling system started with "Gurukuls".  The Guru didn't bother if only one disciple he had or hundred.  It was Guru's service to the society to teach the disciple.  If Government doesn't want to run schools because of the financial losses, how will poor children get even basic education?  What's the future of those students?  Government cannot think Education is business.  The whole education system is rotting because it's considered as business.

When the craze for Engineering studies started, every parent wanted their children to be an engineer and demand for Engineering Colleges and admission into the Engineering Faculty craze began.  Money monsters with money and political power started colleges in every nook and corner of the country.  The quantity increased rapidly without any quality.

The solution to this is not an easy one and will not happen overnight.  Parents and students should think about the future and decide on what to study.  If we produce 15+ lakh engineering graduates every year, does this country have enough companies and infrastructure to employ this 15+ lakh engineers?  Then, why keep running behind the Engineering field.

So, how did all this start?  Who's to be blamed?  As general public, we have created far too many monsters in our society and now when things are looking bleak, we are worried and also afraid to fight the monsters we have created.  I may soon write a blog on such monsters created by us, which is biting our behind and also eating away our country.  As general public, we are responsible for almost every mishap as we have knowingly and unknowingly created a lot of monsters.

What we can do?  Almost every year about 30% of Engineering seats in  colleges across Tamil Nadu remains unfilled.  Parents and students should avoid colleges that do not have basic amenities and good teaching faculty.  This will force the colleges to be shut down.  Even when the student cannot get what they wanted, go for the second best choice from a better EI.   Again, this is not going to happen overnight or within an academic year.  This is a slow process where colleges with lesser amenities and staff will be eradicated and only good standard colleges will survive.

God willing, when this happens, both students and parents, should not fall into the craze of Engineering or other branches like a swarm of bees attacking.  Leave it to your children to decide what they want to do and guide them accordingly.  Parents (and students) should never go with what's popular in the market.  This is not choosing our clothing or something else.  This is the future of our children and future of younger generation of this nation.  This 'going with trend' has gotten us into such a big mess with so many colleges with poor to no amenities and highly in-competent staff, which has resulted in this grave situation of our education system.  I believe we have already spoiled at least two generation of youngsters with degrees but no in-depth knowledge about the subject.

Why the status of Engineering studies and Engineering graduates has come to this pitiful situation?  Is Engineering new to India and Indians?  Absolutely not... Ancient Indians have excelled in Engineering, Architecture, Study of space and planets and Science.  Some wonderful creations by Indian in these fields include:

• Floating Shiva Linga in Somnath temple.  This temple is first of the Jyothir Linga temples in India.  Nobody really knows when the temple was actually built with the floating Shivalingam.  It is believed that the second time it was built around 649 CE.  To know more about this temple visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath_temple
• Iron pillar of Delhi.  This was erected in 3rd to 4th century (around 1,700 years ago) in honor of Hindu God Vishnu by Chandragupta II (King of Gupta Empire).  This iron pillar is famous for it's composition, which prevents it from rusting even though it is erected in open area.
• Tanjore Bhrahadeesware Temple - Built by Raja Raja Cholan between 1003 and 1010 AD.  This temple is now considered UNESCO World heritage site.  More than 1,000 years ago the temple was built utlizing Axial and Symmetrical Geometry rules.  More about this temple can be found at:  http://www.findmytemple.com/en/thanjavur/t156-tanjore-big-temple
• Chidambaram Natarajar Temple - Built in 9th century.  A lot of research was going on about the temple as to why it's considered so important by Ancient Indians.  After years of R&D, finally the scientists agree that the point at which Natarajar's big toe (the main idol in the temple) is situated is the center point of Earth's Magnetic Equator.  How did our people find out the exact center point of Earth's Magnetic Equator some 1,200 years ago without any scientific advances we have today?
• The Eight Shiva temples built on same Longitude.  Out of this eight, three temples in Chidambaram, Kancheepuram and Sri Kalahasthi are aligned in exact straight line position. These three temples are at least 1,000 years old when there were no satellite imaging technology available.  These are truly an Engineering, Astrological and Geographical wonder (refer this site for more details:  http://www.mysteryofindia.com/2015/12/ancient-hindu-temples-straight-line.html)

Engineering, Architecture, Astronomic studies, Science, Mathematics, etc. was never a challenge for Ancient Indians.  Indeed Indians contributed a whole lot to the world on these fields and were really the pioneers who mastered these Sciences.  From such a big heritage were our Ancestors excelled and lead the way in these fields, what are we doing to our younger generation?

I know the blog is getting long... But to educate today's generation of what our Ancestors achieved without any advanced instruments or science available today is really amazing and should make us all feel proud that we are indeed the pioneers for modern science.  Below 10 facts will amaze you how accurate, intelligent and advanced ancient Indians were:

1.   Sushruta Samhita, the oldest medical and surgical encyclopedia known to Mankind - Written during  the 6th century BC, the Sushruta Samhita contains 184 chapters with descriptions of 1,120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Its author Sushruta is also considered to be the first ever human to perform medical surgeries on humans. The book also has vast details on embryology, human anatomy, along with instructions for venesection, the positioning of the patient for each vein, and the protection of vital structures (marma). The oldest documented evidence (9000 years) for the drilling of human teeth of a living person was found in Mehrgarh along with the evidences of orthopedic surgeries.   

2.   The first ones to acknowledge the existence of the Solar System -While history credits Copernicus for proposing the heliocentric model of our solar system, it was the Rig Veda that first noted the central placement of the sun and other planets orbiting it in the solar system. 

Rig Veda 1.164.13 - “Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier than them.”

Rig Veda 1.35.9 - “The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.” 

3.    Mahabharata mentions the concept of cloning, test tube babies and surrogate mothers - The fact that in the Mahabharata, Gandhari had 100 sons is pretty well known. But what’s unknown is the scientific explanation behind her giving birth to a 100 kids. Each ‘Kaurava’ was created by splitting the single embryo into 100 parts and growing each part in a separate kund (container). This is identical to the cloning process today. The birth of Karan, who was ‘born from the “characteristics adopted from men of her choice” also has striking resemblance to the present-day test tube baby concept.  

4.    Hanuman Chalisa precisely calculates the distance between Earth and Sun

“Yug sahasra yojana par bhanu, leelyo taahi madhura phal jaanu” 

The above excerpt is from the Hanuman Chalisa and translates to: ‘[When] Hanuman travelled thousands of kilometers to swallow it thinking of it as a fruit’. The word-to-word translation of the same excerpt reveals the distance that Hanuman travelled. 

1 Yuga = 12000 years. 1 Sahsra Yuga = 12000000 years. Also, 1 Yojan = 8 miles. 

Hence, “Yug Sahsra Yojana”, the first 3 words mean 12000*12000000*8 = 96000000 miles or 153,600,000 kilometers. Interestingly, the actual distance from earth to sun is 152,000,000 kms. Astonishingly, there’s error of just around 1%. 

5.    Indian Vedas figured out Gravity before the West did.   

      Yet again, way before Isaac Newton explained gravity, ancient Indian scholars had already figured out how it worked.  
      
      Rig Veda 10.22.14 - “This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun.”

6.    We already knew about the speed of light

Sayana, a vedic scholar from the 14th century once said, "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is 9 miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Therefore, 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles per second or 2,99,000 kilometers per second. That’s astonishingly close to the real ‘scientifically-proven’ 3,00,000 kilometers per second figure. It’s often believed that his source was none other than the Vedas. 

7.    Vedas explained the science behind the rather ‘feared’ eclipses

While the world feared the eclipses and associated all types of paranormal occurrences with the phenomenon, Vedas already had a very proper and scientific explanation. The below excerpt is also proof that they knew that the moon wasn’t self illuminated.   

Rig Veda 5.40.5 - “O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden darkness.”

8.     They knew the exact length of a year

Ancient Indians used 4 ways to measure the length of a year namely ‘Nakshatra’, ‘Savana’, ‘Lunar’ and ‘Saura’. Saura was one method based on the tropical zodiac that defines the seasons: equinoxes, solstices, year-halves, and months in relation to the (six) seasons. As unbelievable as it sounds, Saura estimates the length of a year to be exactly 365 days, 6 hours 12 mins and 30 seconds.

9.    Aryabhatta’s deduction of the value of Pi

 According to documented history, the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert. The great Indian mathematician Aryabhata worked on the approximation of the value of pi, and concluded that is irrational and its value is approximately 3.1416. He did this in 499 CE at the age of 23.

10.  First ones to measure the circumference of Earth

Sadly, the Greeks enjoy the credit for this discovery while it was actually Aryabhata, who deduced a formulation proving that the Earth is rotating on an axis. Then, by estimating the value of pi to be 3.1416, he concluded that the circumference of Earth was approximately 39,736 kilometers. The actual circumference of Earth, as deduced by scientists today, is 40,075 kilometers.

The recent craze (after Engineering) is being a Chartered Accountant.  If I meet 10 guys who just finished High School, at least 6 of them say they want to pursue Commerce and Accounts and appear for CA entrance exam.  This CA craze is the new breed of Engineering craze.  In another 10 years, every company may have to employ about 10 CA's so that these people will not fall in the "unemployed CA" category.  Another shocking recent trend is students taking a break during second year of graduation to pursue and finish CA... Is this the right approach? I am not too sure and if anybody can enlighten me on this, I would be really happy.

We force our dreams and ambitions into our children.  If our dream was to become an engineer or scientist and couldn't do it, is it fair on our part to force it on our children?  Every human being have their own dream and desire to do something with their life.  As parents, we should ensure their dream is realistic, achievable and then guide them in that direction so that they don't fail.

World's first university was established by us, Indians.  The first university was University of Takshashila, details of which are below:

As early as 700 B.C., there existed a giant University at Takshashila, located in the northwest region of Bharat(India).

Taxila also known as Takshashila, flourished from 600 BC to 500 AD, in the kingdom of Gandhar. 68 subjects were taught at this university and the minimum entry age, ancient texts show, was 16. At one stage, it had 10,500 students including those from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China. Experienced masters taught the vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance and other performing arts, futurology, the occult and mystical sciences,complex mathematical calculations. 

The panel of masters at the university included legendary scholars like Kautilya, Panini, Jivak and Vishnu Sharma. Thus, the concept of a full-fledged university was developed in India.

When most of the Western World and today's developed nations were in Primitive stages and hunting, we built an University (the concept of University to teach varied subjects under one roof was Indian) and taught students in diverse subjects.

Aren't we all proud that we established the world's first university and at one stage (in those ancient days, when traveling across was difficult) had 10,500 students who studied varied subjects in a single university?  But what's the current status of Indian Education Institutions?  We don't even feature in the top 500 in the World.  What a tragic way to destroy our heritage and now our future generations are running abroad to get better quality education.

Unfortunately, current education system is not working on the principle of 'imparting knowledge' but making money as business unit.  Sadly, even the parents and students are looking for EI's which has good placement records (even if not in the desired sector) so that they can earn right after graduation.  Most of us has stopped bothering about knowledge we gain than look at what we can earn after such education.

With the current situation of graduates being getting qualified in branches were we cannot provide employment, there may be a day when our "Swiggy" delivery person be a "B.E degree holder", Amazon delivery person a Post-Graduate in Science and Big Basket delivery person may be a Ph.D holder.   Even though this thought sounds cruel, looking around us at youngsters working in totally unrelated sector gives a scary feeling that this is a possibility in future.

Swami Vivekananda said "We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet".  Can we honestly cross our heart and say our EI's today do this?

Why did we forget our backbone

Hello friends... Happy to meet you all here in my blog again.

After writing the previous blog (regarding social media, fuel prices and all), had too many discussion with friends and critics and that kindled me to write this blog.

There was a time when we knew Agriculture was India's backbone.  What's the current situation of agricultural sector in India?  With the population growing every second, have we improved our agricultural production and how close are we to being self-sufficient in this field.

For the FY 1950-51, Agriculture and allied sector contributed around 52% of India's GDP.  Since 1951, this saw a steady decline and for the FY 2016-17 Agriculture sector contributed only 15.11% of India's GDP.

Agriculture is the source of livelihood for about 70% of rural population and agriculture and allied services sector employs almost 49% of India's total workforce (data from Dept. of Agriculture, Co-operation & Statistics).  If this is true for FY 2016-17, we can imagine how poorly paid those workers are.

While Agriculture and allied sector contribution came down drastically, did we at least industrialize to call ourselves an Industrialized nation?  NO.... Industries contributed around 14% of India's GDP in 1950-51 and grew up to only 24% in FY 2016-17... So, Industrial sector also didn't see a major growth.

India's GDP growth is estimated at 11.52 per cent for FY 2016-17... With consistent GDP growth of about 5% (average since 1950), where did all these contribution come from?

Did it come from our core competency of agriculture?  No, it came from services sector.  During FY 1950-51 services sector contributed about 32% of India's GDP.  For FY 2016-17, services sector contributed about 58% of India's GDP.

It's a whopping growth of services sector... What does services sector include??   Services sector include the following sections of trade:

• Trading, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting
• Financial, real estate and Professional Services
• Public Administration, Defense and other services

For more detailed listing of sectors and other economic indicators refer this web site: http://statisticstimes.com/economy/sectorwise-gdp-contribution-of-india.php

Why did we deviate from our core strength of agriculture and started urbanizing by demolishing agricultural land?  A whopping 15.98% of India's GDP comes from Real Estate, Ownership of dwelling and other professional services...

This growth in real estate sector during this period is due to urbanizing of much required and needed cultivable land.  By urbanizing we just didn't have enough agricultural production but also lost much needed water source.  India's agriculture always depended on rainfall and after Independence, India started with negative growth rate in agriculture and again production dropped during FY 2002-03 due to severe drought.

In the 1960's and 70's India's agriculture got a good boost and recorded impressive growth rate due to "Green Revolution".  Contrary to many people's belief, Green Revolution was only a short-term fix and the negative implications of Green Revolution was far greater than the growth rate in agricultural sector achieved in 60's and 70's

The negative impacts of Green Revolution can be summarized as:

1. Disparity in consumption of fertilizers where the district-wise fertilizer consumption in the country varies from 50-200 kg/ha.  By increased usage of chemical fertilizer to achieve desired production, we started doing irreparable damage to soil.
2. Excessive use of chemical fertilizer (150-200 kg/ha) as reported from some states like Punjab and Haryana causing destruction of useful microorganisms, insects and worms in soil.
3. Imbalance in nutrient status causing significant deficiency of N, P, K, Zn, S, Mo and B and disturbance of soil texture and it's physio-chemical properties.
4. Environmental degradation like depletion of stratospheric ozone, nitrate toxication, etc. causing health hazards  like cancer, methamo-globinemia, respiratory illness, hypertension, etc.
5. Pollution with heavy metals and pesticide chemicals causing serious damage to food quality from the safety point of view.

Far too many environmentalists and health institutions have been warning us about too much dependency on chemical fertilizers and it's impact on health and quality of food... People like Late Mr. Nammalvar (organic farming expert, who wanted us to use only time-tested natural ways of agriculture) have dedicated themselves to change the agricultural habits from the Green Revolution era.  But unfortunately, with depletion of cultivable land and non-availability of water, it's making it very difficult for this sector to grow.

Urbanization, chemical fertilizers and other such factors have contributed in significant reduction of ground water levels, which has affected the agricultural industry and not to mention the normal living conditions in urban areas as well.

Just to give you an idea of India's population during this period, for FY 1950-51 India's population was 376 Million.  For FY 2016-17 population was estimated at 1.35 Billion.  This is a staggering 259% growth in population during this period but our agricultural resources are depleting fast and our production in this sector was moving at snail's pace.

Now, imagine with reducing agricultural production and ever increasing population, what's the effect it's having in our economy?

This urbanization has not just reduced India's agricultural productivity.  It's having much bigger impact which many of us have started to feel now.... One big problem in many cities in India now is the availability of water (both potable and non-potable for general use).  Ground water levels have gone alarmingly low.

One great impact of urbanization Chennaites can see is OMR.  In late 80's and early 90's I used to travel through OMR quite often.  It would be very scary scene in the night with single track road and open vacant land on both sides and probably see some huts in distance and very few shops even if you have to stop and ask for directions.

What's the scenario today?  4 to 6 lane roads with bumper-to-bumper traffic, high rise office buildings with very little to no greenery.  The once fertile OMR has severe water scarcity now.  Most of the office buildings in that area are buying water on a daily basis (not just for drinking but also for other uses).

During the floods in 2015, OMR was badly affected thanks to the urbanization... No proper drainage and open land to absorb water caused this and many people were stranded... This is the condition in many parts of the city.

Late 1980's saw first of the many apartment blocks coming up in Chennai.  This development of apartments meant ground water levels started receding very fast.  In a plot (let's say about 2 grounds) were one or two family was living was converted into multi-storey apartment building, which housed about 10 or 15 families at least... This meant, more water requirement for the same size of land and this sort of apartment style housing developed too fast.

We have a tendency to blame the Government for almost everything.  Who's responsible for such a huge urbanization?  Why did we forget that the basic strength of our country was agriculture and have started selling the cultivable land for real estate development?

Many parts of the cities do not have sufficient ground water.  Isn't this mainly due to over development of real estate?

One of the major fault of the Government was to encourage IT sector (for BPM and other related services to foreign companies).  This has resulted in massive real estate development.  The previous ruling party came out with this encouragement and even allowed tax concessions for such companies.  What did this bring to us?

The once peaceful and beautiful Bengaluru is now a concrete jungle with horrible traffic jams.  The once green and open fields of OMR is now a nightmare to live and drive-by.  Many major and small cities across India has seen a boom in real estate due to this IT/BPM development.  The development looks good to the eyes, but has become a nightmare to live with traffic jams, non-availability of water, pollution, etc.

Even after this frantic developments to support IT/BPM sector, it's contribution to India's GDP is only 7.70% in the FY 2016-17.  But at what cost did we get this contribution?  By drastically reducing our production in agriculture and depleting ground water and other resources.  Also, these rapid developments meant more requirement for automobile and fuel, which resulted in massive import of fuel and thus weakening our currency.

As a country we shouldn't have bothered to promote the IT/BPM sector to this level... It has created an adverse effect in many fronts including revenue loss to Government due to tax holiday given to this industry.

We need to concentrate on our core competency and develop it.  With such a huge coastline, Fishing and Aquaculture sector contributes only 1.06% of India's GDP.  Forestry & Logging contributes only 1.58% of GDP.  Both these sector comes under Agriculture while calculating GDP.  With the coastline we have we can develop the fishing and related sector to improve our GDP contribution and provide employment and seafood without having to depend on external sources. Preserving, developing and curbing unlawful deforestation can develop our forests and can also contribute in a better way to GDP.

There's a common belief in the world that the Third World War may happen for water.  If this is to happen, what a tragic situation we have put this planet into? 

We, Indians, take pride that we are one of the oldest civilizations and have learned to cultivate, hunt and even build universities much before most of the world...  Our ancestors have shown the way on how to live self-sustained and live as a community and more importantly, to live with the nature without disturbing it.

What have we done to keep up with that?  We have started modernizing everything and now we can proudly say that we contribute about 16% of India's GDP in real estate sector.  From being the pioneer in teaching the world on civilization, education, cultivation, etc.  have we become mere real estate brokers?

As I was finalizing this blog, I happened to read a  recent study by Global Burden of Disease.  GBD has reported that 32% of world's respiratory related diseases are reported in India...  Is this the development we need by depleting natural resources?  This massive urbanization has resulted in such a big pollution and the resulting sufferings for us.

The frightening facts of how fast we deplete natural resources can bring a fear about our future generation.  If we can spread that fear in a more useful manner for the human race to take care of this planet's natural resources, that will be the biggest contribution we can do than anything else.

My scary thoughts have made me read more and more about the civilized problems we are creating and I may end up writing more blogs on this topic (this is my official warning of things to come!!) 😆

Social Media.... Should we ban this for good????

First off, it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog (little more than 5 years as my last blog was published on 11^th February 2013)…. Finally I decided to break my silence and write this blog as I was getting frustrated with all the (mis)information which seems to have taken every common man’s life by a storm through social media.

Thanks to the mass social media, now every Tom Dick and Harry knows about every subject on the earth, heaven and beyond and has their own opinion on all these subjects… Of course, you should have got the same forwards so the arguments won’t be longer.  If you have received different version of forward, then probably you both will end up fighting over which of the (mis)information is correct and probably you both will never see each other eye-to-eye.

Many of you may remember the viral video/photo/post about rubber rice being sold in the market.  This mass spreading of rumor happened probably about two years back… What happened to that?  Did the manufacturers of rubber rice stopped manufacturing such stuff after all these viral spreading of social media message and people becoming aware of the rubber rice?

The most recent viral spreading of (mis)information is the problems due to usage of refined oil… The cooking oil companies have started spending crores of rupees to advertise that refining process of oil is indeed very good and being followed in 100+ countries… Suddenly, people thought refined cooking oil is causing cancer, heart attack and what not and now the onus is on these manufacturers to prove them wrong and, as usual, like fools, we are going to end up paying more price for oil which will include these advertising costs.

Another recent information being shared in social media is about the price of LPG cylinder in India.  Every common man is crying that the price of LPG cylinder has gone up to about Rs. 850+ from being around Rs.400+… What they all conveniently forget is that they get back a subsidy of about Rs.350+ in their bank account within seven days after paying the full price of Rs.850+… So, the price difference is normal considering the inflation. 

Why the common man who is spreading these messages in social media is forgetting that he has got the subsidy already in his bank account and that he has not paid Rs.850+ for the cylinder? 

For those section of people who are always against the ruling political party, the most recent trend to blame the Government is the conversion rate of Indian Rupee against dollar (and all other foreign currency for that matter). 

Anybody who knows a bit about economics and foreign trade and such will understand there are far too many parameters which decides the strength of a country’s currency against international currencies and in particular against USD as USD has become universal currency for all foreign trade.

If INR’s exchange rate against USD is a failure of the Prime Minister, then I would like for us to look at below data:

Average exchange rate in 1967 - 1US$ = INR 7.50

Average exchange rate in 1989 - 1US$ = INR 16.23

In the 22 year period as above, only for about three years, Mr. Desai was PM of India.  Otherwise, it was Mrs. Gandhi and later Mr. Rajiv Gandhi were the PM and Congress party was in power.  Can we say the reason for such a huge difference in the exchange rate is due to the failure of that political party?  If we say yes, then we also belong to that group of people who believe in the rumors spread in social media.  

By now many of you may be thinking the increase in exchange rate is not huge over a 22 year period.  But before you condemn me or start cursing me, please reserve your thoughts till you read this blog entirely.

Does anybody have any clue why INR is on such big free-fall of historic propotions?  Today (first week of September), 1US$ = almost INR 72…

One of the major reasons for such a huge decline in INR’s value is due to the fact that between 2009 and 2014, India continued to import oil from Iran.  International community has imposed sanctions against Iran and no country was allowed to make payments to Iran.  India and Iran signed an agreement to the effect that Iran will continue to sell oil to India and we can pay them after international sanctions have been lifted (this agreement was signed when Congress party was in power and Mr. Manmohan Singh was the PM). 

After 2014 when the sanctions were lifted, we started paying Iran for oil we imported since 2009.  This is one of the major reason INR went on a downfall against USD since 2015 and this trend still continues.  Why Congress leaders who are blaming BJP for this are silent about this fact? 

This link will give you better understanding of what happened after the sanctions were lifted against Iran and how India decided to pay out and also how we paid during the sanction.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-ready-to-clear-6-5-billion-of-Irans-oil-dues-seeks-clarity-on-payment-channel/articleshow/52063669.cms

Another blame game happening against the Prime Minister and Central Government is the so called 'uncontrolled' fuel prices in India.  Can the PM alone be blamed for increase in fuel prices?

On 20^th June 2005, price of Diesel was Rs.31.51 per liter in Chennai. On 23^rd May 2013, price of Diesel was Rs. 52.92 per liter in Chennai.  During this period Mr. M.M. Singh (Congress) was the Prime Minister.  The % of price increase is about 68%.  Can we just blame Congress and Mr.Singh for not controlling this?

Read my paragraph about paying in USD to Iran for fuel bought from Iran since 2009.  Our requirement for USD increase and INR got weaker.  With that weakened rate we are buying oil currently and obviously the price is going up on a daily basis.

Also, many brilliant people who create these memes about fuel prices and share them in social media say that Crude Oil is only around US$ 60 per barrel and so why should Diesel or Petrol cost so much in India…  I think these people believe that we buy crude oil and transport it free to India and supply directly to petrol bunks and we fill our vehicles with crude oil.

Why are we forgetting the other elements involved in arriving at the fuel price?  To the best of my knowledge below is the processes involved before we get the final product (Petrol, Diesel, LPG, etc.) for our use domestically:

• Purchase of Crude oil by paying in USD
• Transportation of crude oil to refineries by paying in USD (India does not have enough refineries to support our entire requirement)
•  Pay all charges to refineries in USD
• Transport finished product to India by paying in USD
• Cost of transportation locally from various ports in India to final destination

In above, you will understand that as our currency gets weaker and weaker, we keep paying all of the above charges in USD and those prices are calculated based on the exchange rate when we receive the finished product in India.

If any of us have paid attention, we would understand that the price of fuel costs is different in different cities even within the state.  This is due to the additional transportation costs involved in transporting the fuel to those cities.  Chennai will be cheaper compared to other interior cities in Tamil Nadu as Chennai port receives the finished product.  But to other cities within the state, they add the additional transportation cost from Chennai to that particular city.

Also, as we grow faster and urbanize ourselves much faster, our need for fuel has increased drastically.  This increased requirement for fuel has resulted in increased buying with foreign currency, of course.  This is a vicious cycle, where when our demand goes up and we need more foreign currency, INR gets weaker.

Below is the statistics of India's crude oil requirement:

1980 - 643,000 barrels per day

1990 - 1,168,000 barrels per day

2000 - 2,147,000 barrels per day

2010 - 3,305,000 barrels per day

2013 - 3,660,000 barrels per day

Look at the staggering increase in demand for crude oil in India.  Also, remember that the above numbers are the requirement per day!!!

Source for above data is: 

https://www.indexmundi.com/energy/?country=in&graph=consumption&product=oil

For anybody who's interested, below is how a barrel of crude oil is converted:

Every 159 liters barrel of Crude oil produces the following: 

• 73 liters Petrol
• 36 liters Diesel
• 20 liters Jet fuel & heavy fuel oil
• 6 liters Propene
• 34 liters of other products (Butane, Asphalt & Sulphur) 

India is the third largest buyer of Crude Oil in the world.  Just to give you an understanding of how much of fossil fuel we consume, please see the data below:

Total number of vehicles registered in India as of 31-March-2016:

• Two Wheelers    - 16.90 Crores
• Cars                    -  2.56 Crores
• Jeeps & Taxis     -  0.46 Crores
• Buses                  -  0.18 Crores
• Goods Vehicles   -  1.05 Crores
• Misc.                   -  1.85 Crores (tractors, three wheelers, etc.)

Let us assume average two wheeler consumes 1 liter of fuel per day, car/jeep/taxi 10 liters per day,  Buses 75 liters per day, goods vehicles 100 liters per day and Misc. consumes 10 liters a day.  This makes average daily requirement for fuel at a staggering 184.10 Crores liters of fuel per day.  If we take an average fuel price as Rs. 75 per liter (cost of diesel), daily sales of fuel in India is just in excess of Rs. 13,800 Crores per day.

The number of vehicles listed above is based on March 2016 and definitely there's an increase in the number vehicles in last two years.  Again, remember in above calculation we have not considered the requirement of fuel for generators and other industrial usage. This is an alarming rate of depleting fossil fuel.  The world is depleting fossil fuel so rapidly I am not sure where will be the future generations find fuel.

If we keep urbanizing ourselves at this rate, I won’t be surprised if 1US$ becomes about INR 150 very soon.  The reason I say this is a recent study in India says that only 22% of India’s rural income is from agriculture sector.  Once upon a time, this country’s back bone was agriculture and at least 60% (if not more) of rural income came from that sector.  Thanks to urbanization, our agricultural resources are depleting at an alarming rate.

With the rate at which population is growing and agricultural sector is shrinking, the days when we will be forced to import even our basic staple food items is not too far.  This will put a lot of strain on Indian currency and our requirement for USD will be much higher.  When this happens, all imported goods and services including fuel will be at least 75% expensive then it is today.

We forgot our grass roots and started ignoring and wiping out agricultural lands to build IT centers.  Can we eat Java script for breakfast and raw EDI data with flowcharts for lunch?

When population was less and India was almost self-sufficient in agricultural sector, the exchange rate was low and imported goods and services were cheaper (including fuel).  As the population grew, our requirement for imported goods and services started increasing rapidly and we are now seriously facing the outcome.  If we do not go back to basics and start to develop our agricultural sector, unfortunately, the future looks very bleak and scary.

With all this rumors and misinformation being spread in the social media, some very important news/information is not reaching the general public.  Couple of days back I’ve read an article about a study conducted by IIT Bombay.  The study conducted by them has found that lot of micro-plastic particles and plastic fibers were found in many popular brand salt sold in India. 

Here’s the link to that news: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/sea-water-microplastic-in-popular-salt-brands-reveals-iit-b-study/story-n7EWL1QZA7lNFBCiJmdd7L.html

The result says that this is due to the pollution of the sea and has nothing to do with quality of the manufacturing process by these brands.  How many of us have read this?  What a serious pollution issue this is!!!  We continue to pollute the world and we are leaving behind a very bad legacy for the generations to come.

One fine day someone will find a bigger plastic particle in salt and will start spreading rumor that table salt is made with plastic in India (like the rubber rice).  Then, every common public will have a lot of opinion about how to manufacture quality salt.

Why are people being so blind-sided and are not even willing to think before they share / spread such messages?  The way the things are going makes me wonder if we are producing human beings without brain and the basic skill of analyzing the information before coming to conclusion and spreading them… By God, I hope I’m wrong.

While talking about these social media forward messages and other rumors being spread, a friend of mine told me “With social media and our current education system, I think we have created more educated idiots”.  I think he was spot on in his assessment.

I hope that all those who forward messages in social media, will also forward this blog of mine to reach a mass audience and make this blog go viral… 😀

Time to break the silence????!!!

Hello to everyone...

I guess it's been almost 5 years since I have written a blog and have now decided that I should write...

Already started on a topic and have few topics in my mind... Just wanted to share (warn) this information with everybody...

Soon, you can see a blog from me ... Another reason for this short post (warning) is to see how many of my friends are still interested in reading my blog...

Love to all

SK

Women issues.... What is it actually??

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I am forced to break my long silence in my blog now… Been feeling like a pressure cooker after hearing too many criticisms and objections for a status update I did in my Facebook.

Finally, I thought I cannot live with this “pressure cooker” like thoughts inside me and the result is you are unfortunate enough to read this blog :)

Below is what I posted in FB:

I got the petition to sign seeking speedy punishment for the rapists in Damini case.... I do understand the sympathy and condemn this wild act by few animals who are in our society.

But, how does signing an internet petition, changing profile picture to black dot, etc. help? Are we satisfied that we 'protested' sitting in the comfort of our house/office? Everything else will be alright?

Once again, I think I have to blame the media... Only about 4 days back a 42 year old woman was raped by a person known to her and couple of others in same Delhi and was thrown on the road side.... Why no 'black dot' or internet petition signing campaign for that??? Because she is 42 year old?

Our people need to understand how to fight.... When the elections approach the public happily accepts all 'gifts' and freebies from the Government and bring the Government to power.... Why can't the public exercise their right properly first???

In no way I am supporting any of the criminal activities going on but these fights of signing petition and black dot profile pictures will help you as much as a paper boat will help you to overcome Tsunami waves...

 

After I posted above status, I got a lot of mails, FB chats, etc. condemning my status update and that I am not contributing anything towards a solution but only find faults in people’s unity in fighting a crime…  Some good souls also told me that I’m probably a MCP…

Now, here’s my viewpoint.   I am still of the belief that these internet petitions, changing of profile pictures, etc. does not help the society in any way.  These are just a publicity stunts and business tactics used by the media and general public are falling prey for it.

If we are really to fight and protest against women being abused and been seen only a sex objects, there are quite a few other areas which we need to look at before we go behind the rapists and other sexual assault culprits.

One of the major requests/demand by women who were on the street and internet protesting this was that ‘do not look at how we dress… bring up your son not to be a rapist’…

Wholeheartedly I agree with these women… Irrespective of how a woman dresses (again this is debatable and I will try to address this also at later part of this blog), we should respect women, first of all, as a fellow human being and we should not treat women as a sex object.

Now, my problem (I know I have too many problems) is why these women and women activist groups protest only against the rapist and leaving everybody else who portray women as sex object?

Who is the biggest culprit in portraying women only as a sex object?  Below are my views:

1.       The first place in this should go to the movie industry.  In majority of the movies (I’m talking about Tamil movies here), the only goal of the hero is to attract the heroine and get married to her… The way the screenplay is written in the movies for hero to achieve this should be awarded #1 spot for women abuse (many movies have references to women as “sema kattai”, “party”, “dhool figure”, etc.).

2.          The second place should also go to visual media… Here the winner is the advertising industry.  There only goal is to market the product they are representing.  They don’t care how they portray women or any other person in the advertisement.  Recent example being one of the condom advt. and also an advt. of Axe deo spray.  Does any women think it is a respectable portray of a woman who is shown as tearing the clothes of an elderly gentleman?

3.          Print media… They are always there in everything… Most of the magazines need a good looking, ‘less dressed’ actress or other photo in their cover so that the magazine can gain popularity.

4.          Cheer Leaders in IPL matches.  Are they portrayed as Ambassadors of world peace?  No, just ‘eye candy’.  When did Indian cricket fan say that he won’t come to the stadium if cheer leaders are not there?

5.          Other sorts of media – Why do you need what they call “race queens” in car races and motorcycle races?  Are the spectators coming there to see the race or to see the women?  This trend of using women as race queens is becoming popular in India also.

Why women and women activists do not protests against above people and demand them from stop using women as sex objects?  Is it because these are powerful people in big industry?  Or women forgot that these are also form of women abuse or women are portrayed badly?

One advertisement campaign I’ve been seeing in the last couple of days is what actually forced me into this blog… Advt. released by Gillette calling for soldiers to respect women… This is the height of ‘double act’.  Every Gillette advt. when they come out with new razors portrays that women will feel the man’s cheek and kiss if he has shaved using Gillette razor.  So, the company indirectly promoting their product saying if you want a kiss from a girl use my product.  What Gillette thought?  Women will kiss anybody who shaves with Gillette razor?  Is this a way to respect women?  And now they are releasing “public interest” advt. stating respect women…. Beautiful !!!

Now about the way some women dress.  How can people say “don’t worry about how I have dressed… Still respect me as a woman”?

Provocative dressing by both gender should be restricted.  India has not fully got used to the so-called western culture.   If a group of men come out and say we plan to wear only underwear… Do not worry about how we dress, just respect us as men… Will women accept this? Or is it really good for the society?

There should be a line drawn as to what is respective clothing in public.

A pub in one of malls in Gurgaon was closed.  Mall management justified the closure stating the pub is ‘raunchy’ to be operating in a mall.  What did some of the regular women customers of this pub do?  They removed their tops and were only in under garments protesting against closure of the bar.  The CCTV footage of this was spreading like viral in internet for a while (web link: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gurgaon-sahara-mall-eunuchs-stripping-cctv-footage-raunchy-pubs/1/241072.html).

So, these women who protested for their pub’s closure deserve respect when they start stripping in a mall?  Again, this is a minority group of women and I understand that.  Similarly, both the genders have their own faults and plus points.

I don’t know if I feel better after writing this blog.  But as many of you know I always wanted to convey my opinion rather than keeping it to myself.  We cannot be partial in our protests.  Anybody and everybody who is involved should be straightened. 

As many of you know, so far I have restrained myself from writing anything political in my blogs… Whoever follows Indian political scene, please read about the new emergency law passed by the Indian Government to by-pass few recommendations made by Varma commission.  Why no protests from public for this??