VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:116

Date: 09.06.2012

Contents:

1. Justifying The 2 New Toilet 'Complexes' At The Planning Commission

2. Gag Order On Gen(retd.) V K Singh

3. The IIT Admission Test Controversy

4. MIPB The New DGTD

5. For ‘Janata Toilets’ Talk To Sulabh Shouchalaya?

Justifying The 2 New Toilet 'Complexes' At The Planning Commission

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Dy Chairman of the Planning Commission is trying to do the indefensible by batting for the 2 toilet 'complexes' built at the Planning Commission offices at a cost of Rs. 35 Lakhs. This is completely irresponsible and irrespective of the number of people using the toilets at the same time, 10 for each as stated by Ahluwalia, it still works out to Rs. 1.75 lakhs per person. When the PM & the FM are talking of austerity measures, should the Planning Commission not have taken the lead in continuing to use the existing toilets. Also the aspect of pilferage is no logic to support Ahluwalia's contention for using a smart card system to control and limit the access to these toilets to a select group of officials since then it shows that the Planning Commission is playing true to form since it oversees the loot of the country's resources by its politicians. In any case, now that the 2 toilet 'complexes' have been built, let them be converted to Pay per Use toilet at Rs. 10/- for each usage so that the cost can be recovered, which exercise can also be accelerated by throwing it open to all personnel, visitors and the like to the Planning Commission and charge Rs. 2/- per use per head as per Sulabh Shouchalaya rates. There is now news that come 1st July 2012 everything will come under Service Tax except very few activities on the negative list. Thus if the government expects us to pay for every service and also get taxed on it, one would think that Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Planning Commission officials should take the lead in setting the ball rolling by converting the new toilets as a Pay-per-Use facility as suggested above.

Gag Order On Gen(retd.) V K Singh

There should be a gag order imposed on Gen(retd.) V K Singh for continuing to shoot off his mouth even after demitting office. Apart from asking the defence forces to stand up to civilian officials which is quite an unnecessary comment really and is probably to shore up his position on the antics that he orchestrated in the last 4-5 months of holding office, Gen(retd.) V K Singh should be hauled up under the Official Secrets Act for blowing his mouth about Siachen & the 'mythical' Chinese tunnel that China is building in that area to outflank India in case of war with either them or Pakistan.Talking of people who live but do not learn, Gen Singh is but a shining example and fit for psychiatric case studies in our medical schools.

The IIT Admission Test Controversy

The IIT issue of admission based on the weightage of the 10+2 exam and then a two stage test is probably the correct way to go. To ensure that all students are given a level playing field, the marks from the State boards and those of the CBSE/ICSE in the short term need to be normalized to take away the fact that the State boards are more liberal in giving marks. It is understood that IIM Kolkata has done an extensive study on this and is ready with a statistical system to rationalize the marks. Ultimately in the long run we should think of having a single 10+2 exam doing away with these multiple boards and syllabii which are all a part of our colonial heritage. Something similar to the A & O levels should be implemented across the country. But that is another debate. If the IIT admission test is given based on the 10+2 marks then students will then give proper attention to these 2 years of school rather than become engineering or medical school automatons and keep rushing to coaching centres to prepare for competitive exams. The new system will also give a better leverage for those who are not able to afford the fees of coaching centres and who do well in their 10+2 exams. This apart we need to look at the situation on the ground vis a vis the IIT’s where we had three-fold comment lately. One is that the teaching faculty at the IIT’s is not paid properly, that their quality is not good and that there is a shortage of teachers. The second is the industry comment led by Narayanmurthy of Infosys fame that the standard of engineers from the IIT’s is not at par. The third is that the majority of IIT-ians upon passing out go abroad and leave their technical discipline to pursue MBA’s or end up working in multinational banks. The first is a real problem since getting good teachers at the college and post-graduate level in India is a difficult exercise and the IIT’s are no different. The issue also is of paying top grade salaries to lower than par or indifferent teachers. This could be one of the reasons for the lessser standards of the students coming out of the IIT’s. It is also a known fact for more than 50 years now that IIT –ans look for greener pastures abroad and pursue careers in other than technical professions while the country subsidises their education substantially. It is not possible to control this and therefore the best way is to do away with the elitist tab of the IIT’s. This has already happened to some extent by the spread of IIT’s beyond the traditional locations of Kharagpur, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kanpur in the last few years. For those talking of brands the IIT brand has already been diluted by this spread and will be diluted more by the clamour of more IIT’s by individual States. Therefore it is best that since the country needs more of good engineers rather than few exceptional engineers we willfully dilute the brand further through this process of the new admission test system. This will also be good for the teachers since their demands will thus be scaled down and we will not have the ugly situation of teachers from IIT/IIM’s going on strike since their aspirations will be balanced with their ability. The mushrooming coaching centres of one or the other type for the IIT and other technical competitive exams will also be reduced over time. There is also the question about different tests for admission to various engineering colleges and here again we should aim to wards a GRE kind of score based on which admission can be given even at the IIT’s. Thus the test becomes college independent. In fact for MBA programs we should move towards something similar to GMAT based on which IIM’s will also give admission. This also applies to similar tests for medicine and other professional courses. This comes from an IIT-ian of 41 years vintage from Kharagpur and after seeing the degradation of standards at the IIT’s and firmly believing that it is pointless pursuing a philosophy of elitism in contemporary India.

MIPB The New DGTD

The DGTD under new avatar ‘Manufacturing Industry Promotion Board’ harks the ‘Licence raj’ back to the India political scene. With elections likely in 2014 if not 2013, it is imperative to raise money or not! That is the refrain within the UPA.

For ‘Janata Toilets’ Talk To Sulabh Shouchalaya

One cannot understand why should Jairam Ramesh talk to Bill Gates for ‘janata toilets’ and not to Sulabh Shouchalaya? The latter organisation has an experience of working in rural India and can provide a more appropriate functional and cost-effective solution. But if lobbying Bill Gates was to get him to fund these projects then it is OK, but one cannot understand why we still continue to beg foreigners for this, that and the other need rather than fend for ourselves.

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