Adding content to connectivity!
Improved and quality communication networks will help India grow

(column by Shweta Kapoor)

The Indian airwaves are in great demand with big international telecom giants vying for a share in this succulentpie. Keeping in mind this great rush and of course the need to increase wireless penetration deep into the far flung areas, the government recently decided to enhance the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit in the telecom sector from 49% to 74%. Welcoming the bold move by the government, Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Director & CEO, ICRIER & Member TRAI told B&E, “The move is in the right direction as it will create greater confidence in the investor community and help bring in the latest technology and management practices to the sector which has most unambiguously demonstrated the win-win situation of these reforms.” With the economy growing at whopping 9%, India is badly in need of improving its wireless penetration levels, which stands at only 14%. The low coverage area of telecom network in India is a function of low supply rather than the lack of demand (Airtel with presence in all the 23 circles manages to service only 54% of the population). The country needs to spend at least $20 billion in the next two years to bring 80% of the population under the communication network.

Faced with such realities, the government put aside the oft en cited security concerns about handing over the airwaves to foreigners and announced the much awaited reform. The enhanced communications is bound to have a cascading affect on the overall reform process currently underway.

(End of Shweta Kapoor column)

Reservations on quotas
The real failure is not quotas; but lack of access to primary

(column by Sutanu Guru Executive Editor Business & Economy)

And the mindless and self-serving noises over quotas and reservations have started yet again. The Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of a 27% quota for OBCs in institutions of higher education. The proposed quota regime relies on data on backward castes that were generated during the 1931 Census. The Apex Court wants the government to justify the proposed quota regime with more updated data and numbers. Quite predictably, political parties are up in arms and some like the CPI(M)-fresh after the Nandigram episode-are openly criticising the Court for blocking a move that will help the ‘poor and oppressed’ classes of India. Elsewhere, intellectuals debate the pros and cons of affirmative action behind ivory towers of academia while many flog the alleged conflict between merit versus need.

There is a simple point that political parties and the assorted intellectuals who support them are completely missing out on in this stupid debate. And that is the most spectacular failure of the entire political class in independent India; their inability to provide primary education to a majority of Indians. Way back in 1947, when India became a free country, about 270 million citizens were illiterate. Sixty years down the road, more than 400 million Indians are illiterate. In 1948, when China emerged as a single modern nation, about 300 million citizens were illiterate. Sixty years down the road, hardly 60 million citizens were illiterate. For every illiterate Chinese, seven Indians are illiterate. What can be a more disgraceful failure than this?

Reservations for Schedules Castes and Tribes (SC and ST) were implemented initially for 10 years with the hope that education would make them climb out of poverty and destitution. In 1947, about 100 million SC and ST citizens were living in utter poverty. In 2007, more than 150 million SC and ST citizens live in abject poverty. So after five decades of reservations, the actual number of illiterate and poor SC and ST citizens has actually gone up in the country! Quite clearly, while reservations may have been great in theory, they seem to have done virtually nothing for SC and ST citizens of India.

If the political class in India and its intellectual fellow travelers have any shame, they should just stop this nonsense over reservations and ensure primary schools for every Indian who is illiterate and poor. There can be no more powerful and effective way of uplifting the oppressed than through good quality education. That has simply not happened in India.

(End of Sutanu Guru column)

Wheeler Dealer!
Twirling Bush around in circles? Ask Cheney how...

(column by Kumar Anuj)

Behind the shadows of ubiquitous George Bush’s presidency lies a man who has been instrumental in shaping the hard line ideological positioning of his administration. And this man – Dick Cheney, the elusive vice president of United States – remains an enigma. Allegedly the man behind the neo-conservative domestic and foreign policy, Cheney loves power and wields it happily. Yet, he has no aspirations to be the proud occupant of White House. The question then remains, is Cheney an ideologue who wants to steer the neoconservative agenda from behind? Or is he a hard core capitalist, whose ultimate aim is to convert power into profits? Does Cheney control the real reins of power and makes Bush dance to his beat?

Looking at the vice like grip which Cheney holds over the Bush administration, one would be least surprised if after few years, the White House records reveal the asymmetries in Bush-Cheney relationship and show us how the Presidential office had been made subservient to the dictates of the Vice President. At the start of George W. Bush’s presidency, Cheney was viewed as the grown-up, the seasoned hand to guide an inexperienced president. But soon his numerous gaffes and undemocratic handling of various issues brought the entire Bush administration under a tight scanner. The mother of all embarrassments for Bush was when Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion, Harry Whittington last year. His innuendos on Iraq, energy policy, homeland security have all been severely criticised.

Coming to the brass-tacks, all the presidential nominees picked up by the Bush administration have been heavily influenced by Cheney. Running the administration like his personal fiefdom, he was categorical in placing only those people who had a gory background as chief of multi-national companies. Much like the company that he worked for earlier, John Snow, the Treasury Secretary nominated after active lobbying by Cheney, has been one of the veterans of the hands-off capitalist brigade. Despite lacking adequate international financial market experience, Snow was awarded for his experiments as representative of a railroad company that benefited directly from Washington’s back door policies. In his present assignment again Snow was expected to continue the market liberalization bent heavily on benefiting Washington’s capitalist cronies across the globe.

It's not only his behind the scene skilled manipulative abilities that have placed him among the top policy makers of the administration. "More than the manipulations, it has been Cheney’s CEO credentials and close contacts with the oil companies, which have tarnished the image of US democracy", says Ajey Lele, a noted columnist & author of the book Bio-Weapons-a ginne in the bottle, while talking to B&E . Cheney's work as head of Halliburton (the leading MNC providing products & services to the oil & energy firms) is duly recognised – mainly to lobbying for getting mouth watering contracts from the US military. His role, ironically, was not for understanding corporate ethics but cementing relationship with powerful decision makers across the globe. Not only this, his contacts then with Arab Sheikhs as with the Bush family were instrumental in placing him at the helm of affairs.

Cheney is no simpleton, but a smooth operator. He is the leader of neo-conservatives, aiming to keep the world in a constant state of revolution.

(End of Kumar Anuj column)

Stop appeasing the outsiders!
The Nigerian public needs to throw out corrupt and anti-nationals

(column by Mayank Singh)

The ensuing April elections have introduced a fresh set of problems and despair in the Nigerian capital. And the ‘clash of civilization’ rather than issue based political debate is the predominant theme this time. All this has resulted in a vicious atmosphere of mistrust not only among the Christians & Muslims but also among and within the political forces, for Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been denied participation in the ballot for alleged corruption charges supported by President Olusegun Obasanjo. These facts have come out explicitly in the latest report of International Crisis Group, which states, "Approaching vote would offer Nigeria the first opportunity to achieve a genuine constitutional succession from one civilian administration to another since independence in 1960. Failure could provoke violent rejection of the results by wide sections of society & intensification of the insurgency.”

The religious divide, which the world is really worried about, is not a natural phenomenon. Explains Dr. S N Malakar, Centre for West Asian & African Studies, “The societal fragmentation is a predicament created by the external forces. The problems in Africa, including Nigeria, are due to consistent intervention of colonial countries. So, when the colonial forces feel challenged, they encourage the ethnic groups to create disturbances". And shockingly, this fragmentation process is aided by none other than the Nigerian Military, which sadly acts as a “state minus the nation”.

So, the challenge is not just to complete the election process, but to ensure that Nigeria unites to confront both the external and internal challenges for the larger good of the masses. The immediate need is to establish a genuine democracy while protecting the sovereignty of the trouble-torn country.

(End of Mayank Singh column)

Tough nut to crack
Restore people’s faith in the nation

(column by Saurabh Kumar)

In what may change the political contours of Indo-China region in months to come; the Election Commission (EC) of Thailand has decided to go on with its plan to conduct parliamentary elections by the end of 2007. The move is bound to bring much needed respite to a nation that has been ruled time and again by military establishments. The announcement for this election came from the EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond in the wake of his meeting with the members of the international forum that wants the restoration of democracy in Thailand. However, he maintained that the elections can only be held once the new constitution is formulated and enforced.

Thailand is witnessing political turmoil since May 2006 when the caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was declared unconstitutional by a bench of Judges. It was followed by a coup. Since then, the military led by General Sonthi Boonyaratglin has, repeatedly promising to hold free & fair elections and restore democracy. In the past, elections in Thailand have been marred by incidences such as rigging and ‘vote-buying’. Therefore, in order to make the elections free and fair, EC is planning to introduce Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for the first time. Apart from that, international monitors will be brought in to check other prevalent irregularities.

The latest move has been welcomed by international community, as agrees Vijay Sakhuja, a Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Singapore, to B&E, "Restoration of democracy and political stability in the corruption-ridden nation has become a quintessential requirement for stability & progress". Indeed, it's time that military Junta should work like car mechanics who come to fix broken cars and once when their job is done they hand-over the steering wheel to the real owner.

(End of Saurabh Kumar column)