Global Financial Crisis and India

What these entrepreneurs, CEOs, promoters and lobbyists (Overall MBA graduates) did to United States? They dragged the world economy into the great financial crisis. The highest positions like US Treasury Secretary, Economic Advisors, Head of Securities and Exchange Commission, Head of Federal banks etc. were occupied by leaders of financial conglomerates but instead of serving the nation these people cheated with their own nation and created wealth for themselves and for organizations.

Once they got the chance, they diminished the financial regulation imposed by Law on Investment banking and Insurance industry and these investment conglomerates made the investors fools by selling them securities & derivatives that were never owned by these firms or never existed. By evading the regulatory rules they cooked the books and earned money by issuing debt beyond their curb. These people went to the highest extent of corruption by issuing the bad debts to their relatives/kins in spite of knowing the fact that these amounts would never be paid back which led the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. and several other firms.

Since these business tycoons were there in the top Administrative and decision making position, they just used US Cash reserve to save their own companies in the name of bailout package. Which federal officers would have made the call that they would not purchase the shares in these firms when they were bailing them out of crisis?

So, it’s clear that these entrepreneur, CEOs, top officials of companies work for their own profit. If they have to cut their costs, they won't think for a minute and will fire thousands of people.

Do you want these things happen to India? If the Indian Administrative officers won’t restrict these corporate houses and MBA graduates then I am sure that our nation would become dependent on the mercy of few Conglomerates. You can’t say that these CEOs work for nation, they work to increase their wealth.

No doubt, MBA graduates from top institutes are the brightest minds and do know business well. But in India, very few Administrative officers have the courage and dedication to take the society as well as the Indian economy to the best level but the dirty politics is always there in their root.

A combat on a street of Dhanbad

Hi everyone. I cant forget an incident that happened one evening while I was traveling with one of my friends. We were in hurry to make ourselves back at our hostel from the City Center Dhanbad. We came to the Bus stand to catch an auto going towards ISM. After a long wait non of the auto rickshaws showed up. So, we were a bit frustrated. suddenly I saw an auto standing besides the road. I approached the driver, to ask if he was willing to drive us back to ISM. He told that he would charge Rs. 3/- per person instead of the fair fare Rs. 2/-. We were so irritated after waiting for such long time that we would have given him Rs. 10/- if he had asked for. So we made ourselves move to the middle row of the auto rickshaw. Then two gentlemen came and sat beside us. While I and Muthu (my friend) were talking some non sense, one old person with a Girl (she might be his daughter, I guess) came to catch the same auto. I must say that the Girl was beautiful with the proper combination of height, weight etc... She was around 21. We were happy that the auto got full of its capacity so the driver would start driving soon.

But what happened next you can't imagine. The driver told the old person that he would charge Rs. 3/- instead of Rs. 2/-. So what happened next you can probably guess. You are correct, the old man got irritated and insisted that he would not pay the extra rupees. Driver told them to get off the auto if he was not willing to pay the extra sum but they declined to get off the auto. As the things didn't work out there, so her daughter caught the hot conversation and she abused the driver for an being an A-hole. She gave the driver the toughest time of his life. She credited him of being a slave, beggar, bankrupt and unethical person. While everyone standing around were bit surprised by her behavior, suddenly she said in English to the driver, "Shut your mouth" . We were wondering if the driver knew the meaning of this sentence. Anyway after few minutes we decided to ride another auto as that quarrel was not going to end soon. So we left that auto so did the old man and his daughter. But the exchange of spicy things were continue between them. So the people around came to see what was happening over there. The girl was so aggressive that she would have punched the driver right in the face if she was allowed by her father to do so.

Though the father and daughter had taken the stand that the driver should not charge even a bit of extra money. So, finally the old man dragged the driver out of the auto and pushed him backward. I think he would have experienced almost an earthquake. It was like a wresting competition. The girl was supporting her father. After the intervention of 3-4 person the combat was over. Ohh!!!!!!!!What a moment....The girl was still abusing the driver in a language mixed with Hindi and English. So the session was over and we thought we should catch up another auto.

While we were thinking about what happened out there, an another auto rickshaw came with full of its speed. That auto was just going to hit me and Muthu but somehow God almighty saved us. We thought we should just hit the driver right there, but we had to leave that idea as that was the only auto going towards our destination at that time. What happened next, Ohh!!!!God!!!! We checked in with this driver if he was going towards ISM. We realized that he was drunk and he was also smoking the WEED. He was completely stoned. So again we decided not to catch that auto. Then suddenly that old Man and that Girl came to inquire. The stoned driver shook his head. Then what.... the old man and the Girl sat on that auto and no one else. The stoned driver accelerated the auto as much as he could. Few second later that auto, the stoned driver, the old man, and the Girl was out of our sight.

Everyone out there who wanted to go home early, were pretty surprised and were wondering that what would happen if the stoned man would mingle his auto with another vehicles passing by?.... Anyway the DRAMA was over and after waiting for minutes, we got another auto rickshaw. We checked the consciousness of this driver but he was OK. We sat on this one. On the way, both of us were looking besides the road if any accident had happened somewhere.....

Access to credit by marginal farmers

Access to credit is one of the most common ways of improving farmer’s access to inputs. Credit is necessary for the marginal farmers not only to meet their basic economic needs in present, but also for their future socioeconomic development. Since marketable collateral are not always easily available to poor farmers, the risks of lending the money to the borrower are very high. The credit flow problems are not only affecting rich farmers but also marginal farmers who sell labour in the market. In India more than 70% of small farmers have no access to credit from financial institution, and many are often forced to rely on “extortionate money lenders”. The rural financial system comprises not only of traditional sources within both formal (commercial banks, co-operative) and informal (e.g. rural moneylenders) segments, but also new generation institutions with emphasise on micro finance within the two segments.

Kisan Credit Card(KCC) was started with the view of improving farmers access to credit besides the existing facilities for providing the crop loan, the scope of KCC scheme has been enlarged to include loan for agriculture and allied activities and a reasonable component to meet he consumption needs. The credit delivery mechanism is being simplified and more flexible in the use of Kisan Credit Card. A non-wilful defaulter, tenant farmers, sharecroppers who may have been outside the fold of the various schemes, has been included in this scheme. However for this scheme to be successful, education of both the farmers and also the bank official, about the scheme, is required.

Self Help Group (SHG) is a village based financial intermediate usually composed of between 10-15 local women. Members make small regular savings contributions over a few months until there is enough capital in the group to begin lending. Funds may then be lent back to the members or to others in the village for any purpose. In India, many SHGs are linked to banks for delivery of micro-credits. The group members use collective wisdom and peer-pressure to ensure proper end use of credit and timely repayment. This system eliminates the need for collateral and is closely related to that of lending.

There has been a steady increase in the flow of the institutional credit to agriculture. The agency wise share of the credit flow to agriculture shows that the commercial banks accounted for the major share, followed by co-operatives and regional banks. However, there is a declining trend in the share of co-operative banks in the flow of institutional credit over the years, which is indicative of the need for restructuring and reforming these banks. Security requirement problem can be solved by commercial and co-operative banks by evaluating the incremental income resulting from use of credit. National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and commercial banks can play a major role in solving the problem of inadequate loan amount available by using the realistic scale of finance to meet the basic consumption of the poor farmers. There should be a uniform rate of interest applied on the farmers. To meet this purpose NABARD should implement a policy of differential rate of interest which would help the poor farmers since the rate of value addition is positively associated with the land holding. Time lag between application and disbursement of loan amount problem can be overcome by commercial and co-operative banks by reducing the time lag between application and disbursements of the loan. Commercial and co-operative banks should simplify the documentation process to take the transaction cost to the lowest level that has been achieved. Recovery and overview is the biggest problem encountered by financial institutions. To overcome this problem recovery of the loan amount must be done in the period of harvest. Also recovery of the loan amount should be rephrased during severe distress like floods and drought or localized events.

Access to credit is not a panacea for alleviation of poverty. The full potential of credit access lies in increasing the welfare of the marginal farmers. This can only be realized if it comprises adequate investments in hard and soft infrastructure as well as investments in human capital. We can hope that if these amendments are implemented, then it would become easier to access loans which will help farmers break out of the clutches of the moneylenders, increase incomes and improve livelihood.

Poor Quality of Education in Government Schools

According to the ‘Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2010’ (UNESCO), India’s rank was 105 among 128 countries. And it continues to figure, along with a lot of African and one or two Asian countries, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, in the group of countries with a low educational development index(EDI).

In India, that is, as much as 34 percent of the children enrolled in Grade I drop out before reaching Grade V. Children drop out because of unattractiveness of school, economic constraints and lack of a tradition of going to or continuing in schools.

In the rural areas one government school is not there within a 3 km radius. Even in urban areas, there are many slum settlements without access to schools. About 14 percent of the schools have a single classroom each, and single-teacher schools constitute a similar proportion. While the national norm is one teacher for every 40 students in primary schools, 30 percent of the schools have a ratio above this norm. Only 85 percent of the schools in the country have drinking water facilities; 37 percent do not have toilets; only 44 percent have separate toilet facilities for girls. Hardly one-fourth have electricity connection; only 5.7 percent have a computer. Facilities such as separate toilets for girls and boys and clean
drinking water are rare.

One of the main reasons cited for the poor state of government schools is lack of funds. The government invests only 3 percent of GDP, a far less from 6 percent, recommended by the Kothari Commission as early as 1964.

Even where the physical infrastructure is better, teachers in many parts of the country have to deal with huge and multi-grade classes. Teachers are often forced to teach subjects for which they are pedagogically not prepared, with only the barest minimum of basic teaching aids. So, it is not particularly surprising that the quality of education in such circumstances is sub-standard. Schools also compromise on quality; with high rates of teacher absenteeism, unfilled vacancies of teachers, absence of teaching material and shortage of trained, motivated teachers, education becomes a farce in government schools. Not only is the quality of education in these schools abysmal (it is common to find Class V students unable to read or write), but they work for hardly 150 days a year against the stipulated 250 days. This is because, apart from declared holidays, teachers are often assigned other jobs -
Census survey or election work.

The curriculum and teaching methodologies stand obsolete and outdated, with the emphasis being on rote-learning and merely developing reading and writing skills instead of holistic education. Lack of vocational training and non-availability of such courses renders students with barely any employable skills at the end of their schooling.

Clearly, a substantial increase in public spending is a condition for improving the quality of education. A part of money should be utilized for necessary expansion in schooling facilities. We need good quality teachers in sufficient numbers. Professional development programs for Heads of Secondary/Higher Secondary Schools should be started. The objective of schools should be to encourage student to undertake the curriculum enrichment projects in the areas such as Science, Environment, Population Education, Human Rights, Languages, Fine Arts, Music, Folklore, Yoga, Sports activities, etc. Co-curricular activities such as Poster/Painting/Debate/ Elocution/Essay Competitions/ Quiz contest/ Special Interactive Lectures should be organized at the district/sub-divisional/block headquarters. These may be organized while observing World Population/AIDS/Environment/Women Day and other International/National Days/Events.

System in which the schools are owned by the government but managed and operated by
the private sector is a workable alternative. The government could bear the costs of running the institution, with suitable incentives to the private players willing to invest in such a venture (possibly in the form of tax benefits to the private organization); while the management and operation of the school would be in the hands of the private organization/establishment. While this would ensure an exponential increase in the quality of education that is accessible
to the masses, but it may drive up the government’s expenditure on education. However, a public-private partnership in education is the most suitable scenario to check corruption, ensure efficiency and proper utilization of allocated funds. Besides the touching faith in the efficiency of the private sector, there is also the presumption that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can ensure credibility and accountability.

I could produce whatever was in my capability. Brilliant opinions are invited....

Jamui

Hello everyone,

I welcome you all to my blog. I am an Undergraduate Student at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India.

My hometown is Jamui ,Bihar, India. I would like to let the information available about jamui on the web. So, here I dedicate my first post to my lovely hometown.

Jamui was formed in 1991 as a result of its separation from Munger. The district, located in the centre of Bihar has a total area of 3122.80 sq kms. With Munger and Lakhisarai in the north, Giridih in the south, Deoghar and Banka in the east and Nawada in the west .The city of Jamui is at the outskirts of south Bihar. The main towns in Jamui district, apart from Jamui are Jhajha, Gidhaur, Mallepur, SONO, Sikandra, Chandradeep, Aliganj, Chakai and Khaira.The JayaPrakash Narayan International Airport in Patna is about 161 kilometers away and the Gaya International Airport is only 136 kilometers away.Jamui is well connected by Railroad from Kolkata ,Patna ,New Delhi,Cochin,Mumbai,Bangalore, Hyderabad,Ahmedabad, Chennai and Guwahati . The facility of Bus root is also available which connects it to Patna,Deoghar,Bhagalpur and Ranchi.

Jamui has been divided into four legislative assembly seats of the state.The whole of jamui district comes under the Jamui Loksabha seat.It has 11 blocks named as Laxmipur,Barhat,Jamui,Chakai, jhajha,sono,khaira,sikandra,asalmanagar,aligunj and gidhaur.

Whole population of district is around 1.3 million.People of sc/st comprises 25% to the total population. 90% people used to live in Rural area and rest 10% of total population resided in suburbs of the district.Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Jamui has an average literacy rate of 42%, lower than the national average of 59.5%.

The town of Gidhaur, situated 17 kilometers away was the seat of kings during the British Raj and many buildings from the period still survive. Minto Tower in Gidhaur is a prime example of architecture from the period. Jamui district is also famous for having many places related to the origin of Jainism. There is a holy place situated at jamui named gidhyachal parvat or gidheswar,which is 13 km away from jamui railway station and 3 km from bhounr. The story of gidhewar is related to ramayana. The famous picnic spot Bhimbandh is situated just at a distance of 10km from Laxmipur. The mountains of Bhimbandh have resources to produce hot water, as a result of which there are several rivers and ponds of hot water. This place has been given adequate infrastructures to lure the tourists around.

On the several hectares of it area there are mountains and forests.Some of the rivers also delights the area named Mohane, Harohar and Kiul. Main crops are rice, Wheat,Lentils. Mining and agriculture are the two main source of revenue of Jamui. With 55,570 hectares of net cropped area, it has reserves of Stone Chips, Granite, Morram Sand, and Quartz among others.

With 28 Commercial Banks and 35 Gramin Banks, the district has a Sub-divisional Hospital, 7 Primary Health Centers, 3 Referral Hospitals, 152 Health Sub-centers, 3 Gramin Aushadhalayas, and 24 Additional Primary Health Centers. It boasts of achieving the national target of 40 litres of drinking water per person per day.With 474 Primary Schools, 45 High Schools, 2 Degree colleges, 7 affiliated Colleges and 202 Sarva Siksha Aviyan Schools, Jamui is pacing up towards a rewarding future. But, Naxalite is a big problem to the administration of the district.

Enriched with full of untapped natural resources, Jamui is all geared up to compete with the best cities through the implementation of its various welfare schemes. I hope to see it within the top cities of India in next few years.

So my fellow residents of Jamui, wake up. I would love to see your comments.