I am against corruption. I am also against Anna and his ways..

I am going to take a stand on the issue of corruption, not many are in favour of. I have had very animated discussion whenever I have expressed my views which are against the common views. I was almost scared during August- September 2011 when the movement against corruption was at its peak as being singled out and almost made to look like someone supporting the corruption. However, its not so. I am totally against corruption and I am in favour of tackling the issue by understanding why it exists and what should be done to curb the menace. Policing, to me, is not an answer. It will only create yet another layer of corruption and nepotism.

Corruption is a curse..one of the worst ills of the society. In a country like India, where we take pride in almost any defeat and where the population growth, more as a result of, to use Malthusian phrase, lack of ‘preventive measures’ leads almost 98% of the population to lead in general sense of depravity and always competing for those ‘limited resources’ be it jobs, education, comforts, road space, space in life etc and almost everything, corruption has crept in all walks of life like a shadow. Nothing gets done routinely and timely on its own and one necessarily has to grease the other side who is in a position of authority or decider in order to get things done seems to be the firm belief and almost rightly so. From the smallest of things like getting your child admitted to a school to getting your passport made/renewed, everything revolves around “connections” and “bribe”. And it truly sucks.

I would think that except for those at the top end of the population spectrum constituting less than one percent of the population, everybody is affected with this malaise and has been a victim of it in varying degrees at some point in life. Almost everybody who I have met has an unpleasant personal experience to share.

It is in this regard that Anna’s “India Against Corruption” movement came as a much required relief and brought with it a great hope for all the Indians. It was thus no surprise that there was an instantaneous outpour of emotions and response from a common man when the movement staged its demonstration in August in Delhi. It literally caught the imagination of everybody who has suffered at some point or the other and was ably supported by media-both print and more so by the electronic media by publicising the event 24/7 during its entire duration. The response was unprecedented. Ramlila Maidan, the venue seemed to be a sea of people from all walks of life and it was almost as if anybody who had suffered the wrath the bribery wanted to be present there to show solidarity with the movement against corruption. The response, so huge and unimaginable, caught the organisers (of India Against Corruption) by total surprise.

And this to me was the beginning of the fall of this movement. People’s anger and ire which was instantaneous and which was against corruption, was taken as a symbol of individual grandiose and popularity of those leading the movement. The movement, which was supposed to have been a faceless mass movement – where the sheer force of the masses and the pressure it brings along with could have unshackled any system out of its lethargy and systemic rot, became an exercise of individual glorification of few individuals where they started treating themselves as mass heroes and others with utter contempt. It almost has come to an extent that they have assumed upon themselves the role of being the “sole representatives” on the issue of corruption. Everybody has to necessarily speak their language (basically agree with whatever they say and whichever way they say) and any differing or dissenting voice on the methodology, issues and processes is treated with such hatred that such a voice is almost ostracized and boycotted. Such differing voices are almost made to sound like villains. Its “either Anna way or no other way” or “either Anna way or you are corrupt” philosophy that these individuals manning the “India Against Corruption” have adopted that has taken the steam off the movement. This group is just not willing to listen to any other version of “Lokpal Bill”. Whatever they say is “patthar ki lakeer”! As a result, some of the saner voices , including Aruna Roy & Nikhil Dey have distanced themselves from the so called movement. This is not all, some of the core committee members of IAC including Rajendra Singh, the Raman Magsaysay award winner have distanced themselves from the movement. Does that make them corrupt? The problem lies somewhere else.

Key proponents of IAC, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi have made it look as if their version of “Jan Lokpal Bill” (whats the difference between ‘jan’ and ‘lok’ ?) will be the panacea of all corruption and all the ills that come along with. And thats how they have been projecting throughout. The basic issue is whether it will be the panacea of all corruption? The greatest damage, the trio (Anna, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi) have done is that they are exploiting people’s anger and frustration against corruption, by giving them false and unrealistic hope of the Bill being the solution to contain all the corruption. It will not be the case and nobody knows better than the trio. Worst still is the likely blame they are going to attribute on the bureaucracy and the delivery system on the failure rather than addressing the basic issue of corruption. The problem of corruption lies elsewhere and no amount of policing can contain it. We are ingenious enough to devise newer methods to overcome provisions of any legal provisions.
The answer to me lies in (i) having systemic improvements in delivery mechanisms of the services in a manner that minimizes human interface. The online facilitation of services which does not require any human interface can bring in lot of transparency and thereby minimize corruption. Also (ii) a major answer lies within each of us. As they say, it takes two to clap. Corruption exists because there is a giver, however forced or unwilling. Can we go on justifying corruption on the compulsions of our circumstances? If we all decide to follow rules and be mentally ready to pay the fine/penalties if we flout them, half the battle is won. How many of us look for short cuts whenever we jump the traffic signals and happily bribe the traffic constable for over-speeding, or violation of rules? There might be delays or unnecessary delays initially but if all of us decide to be a part of this cleansing drive, things will ultimately fall in place.
It’s very easy to look elsewhere and blame everything on politicians and babus but is it that simple? Is Politics or Babudom the only breeds that are corrupt? Is there no corruption in corporate sector, among NGOs and in formal and informal sector? If we are talking about removing corruption and holding people accountable, why not talk of all such sectors ? Its like this – we don’t want to talk about ourselves and our acts of omission and commission whenever we are a party to corruption when it suit us but we would like to blame politicians and bureaucracy for all our ills. They are the favorite and most easily available targets waiting to be whipped. Is it fair? Is it not closing our eyes to the reality? I remember when somebody asked Anna as to why he doesnt contest an election, his answer was that he will never win because voters can be purchased. Now, my question is, where lies the answer? Are politicians alone to be blamed? It's much more deep rooted and we cant take as easy route out by blaming everything on politicians. Why arent we willing to look into the societal dynamics and the complex Malthusian perspective on deprivation and resulting desire to seek a short cut in everything we do?

Kiran Bedi mocking politicians

The sort of adulation and hero-worship that the troika got, it perhaps has got into their head. A situation came that nobody should question their own credentials. Well, it’s a well established principle of leadership that the best leadership is the one which leads by his/her own example. And here, cases of improprieties and corrupt practices against some of these members of troika and those closely associated are blatantly ignored by them and infact laughed over. Such arrogance against the truth can only bring them down- there’s no other way and its happening. Everytime I saw it on television the way Anna said "inquilab zindabad" or "bharat Mata ki jai", I got scared..there was so much violence and threat in the tone. What was so gandhian about it? Or the way Kiran Bedi mocked politicians on stage in Ramlila Maidan. The entire issue got so trivialized in the process.



What's Gandhian about it?



The IAC movement has always prided itself in advocating a transparent system in whatever we do in public. I really wonder why one of the IAC members, Mufti Shamum Kazmi, was thrown out of the IAC when he was recording the proceedings of the IAC ? where’s the internal transparency gone? I wonder why this issue has not been raised in the press? Somehow, the majority of media has been subdued to subjugation with the self perceived belief that they have taken up the right cause however illogical or autocratic it might be. In any case, media goes by TRP ratings and all said and done, Anna makes news and sells.



The movement, with its new found popularity , has ventured into newer areas of reforms such as electoral practices. It has also taken up, riding on its popularity, some of the most ridiculous issue such as alcoholism etc. This is totally weird and a complete digression from the very purpose for which people had identified themselves with the drive against corruption.

Anna, as also the media, revels in giving the impression that he is a Gandhian. Anna, basically has been, in my opinion, a village simpleton with very simplistic views on life. For him, everything seems to be black and white. I remember having him as chief guest in one of our functions in Vijaywada in early 2000 when I was Municipal Commissioner. He is a man of principles and lives a simple life.

But I feel, exposure to media and instant stardom and publicity has had its debilitating affect on him and he seems to have lost his sense of balance. Notice some of his recent statements – that somebody



who consumes alcohol should be asked to give it up and if he doesn’t, he should be tied to an electric pole and flogged!! Or that Singhavi “should be hanged if found guilty”. There are umpteen examples of his autocratic violent utterances. Wonder whether Anna+Talibanish statements = Gandhi ? or merely, wearing khadi kurta dhoti and a Gandhian cap make anybody Gandhian? The rate at which Anna is going, the day is not far off unfortunately when he will be a totally discredited figure. His comments regarding Ashok Singhavi that he should be hanged if he is indeed the person in a controversial CD, represents yet another instance of Anna letting his tongue loose, with complete disregard for propriety or good sense. Such remarks , as pointed out in Mail Today, betray Anna as a man with a medieval mindset and narrow vision who has through accident or force of circumstances, been catapulted to the national stage. Somebody needs to tell him that leading an austere existence and seeking

change alone is not enough to qualify as a Gandhian. He is surrounded by sycophants who are using him as a ladder to climb on their own personal glories and gains and he needs to realise how he is being used (abused) by those surrounding him. It’s a pity that Anna doesn’t realise that showing his intemperate side will soon leave him with few options or supporters. The movement off late has become media driven and hardly a people’s movement. The movement, in its last few phases, has become a huntin

g ground of lampoon elements and hooligans who, drunk on “people’s power” and alcohol, go around menacingly on bikes, without helmets and flouting all saner rules. Time for authorities to act tough and time for people to realise whether their frustrations are being used by selected few for their very selfish motives.

 





A good read is better than Lagavulin!- enjoying "Sea of Poppies"

The real test to judge the quality of a novel, I feel, is when we start living in the characters and the theme while reading it and when we actually slow down the speed at which we read as it progresses while never leaving it, for the fear that it will end soon! It brings characters and situations alive and develops its themes without ever being cute, clever, wordy or pretentious.
I don’t claim myself to be well read so far as fiction is concerned but I must also confess that I have got into the habit of reading ‘good’ fiction, based on the recommendations by friends or book reviews. That’s how I came to read ‘Sea of Poppies’ by Amitav Ghosh. I wouldn’t have read on my own but it was strongly recommended, perhaps, knowing that my roots are in Bihar and that I may like the theme.
And it turns out to be one of the best novels I have ever read so far. Amitav Ghosh makes it look so real- the characters, places, theme, language and the historical perspective that one often wonders whether it actually never happened. Its richly textured and minutely researched. For like the opium that forms its subject, the narrative becomes increasingly powerful and addictive as it takes hold. I remember telling my father that I would like to visit Ghazipur (the novel describes an opium factory in Ghazipur, being managed by the Britishers in mid nineteenth century) and he informed that there’s actually an opium factory existing in Ghazipur! Amitav is brilliant in capturing the history, feudal structure as prevalent in eastern part of India, language (Bhojpuri), excellent usage of simple and yet very effective English ( “guilty vividness”, ‘a lamb’s wool sky”) and all the while maintaining the basic theme of the story in a very gripping manner. I almost cried the way he describes the relation between Deeti and her six year old daughter Kabutari esp. when Deeti meets Kabutari, for the last time and the way Kabutari tells her “hamre khatir churi lelaiya?” (please get bangles for me).
I enjoyed this particular paragraph thoroughly when ladies, on board of Ibis, are discussing about how they make pickles – “It was astonishing, for example, to discover that in making mango-achar, some were accustomed to using fallen fruit while others would use none that were not freshly picked; no less was it surprising to learn that Heeru included heeng among the pickling spices and that Sarju omitted so essential an ingredient as kalonji. Each woman had always practised her own method in the belief that none other could possibly exist: it was bewildering at first, then funny, then exciting, to discover that the recipes varied with every household, family and village, and that each was considered unquestionable by its adherents.”
Or when he describes the mixed emotions of Paulette (Putli or Pagli) towards Zacchary as she washes her clothes ”It was not unusual for Paulette, when going through her washing, to come upon a shirt, banyan, or pair of trowsers that she recognized as Zachary’s. Almost unconsciously, she would slip these garments to the bottom of her pile, saving them for the last. When she came to them, depending on her mood, she would sometimes subject them to an angry scrubbing, even beating them upon the deck-planks, with all the vigour of a washerwoman at a dhobi-ghat. But there were times also when she would linger over their collars and cuffs and seams, going to great lengths to scrub them clean. It was in this fashion that she was cleaning a shirt of his one day".
Sea of Poppies is bathed in rich vernacular. The usage of Bhojpuri is just perfect. I have never stayed in Bihar but have heard my parents speaking it while conversing it our relatives. Words such as “...” are sweet and near perfect in expressing the emotions of characters. I also never knew that little couplets in Bhojpuri can be so erotic. Notice this one

“...uthle ba chhati ke jobanwa,

Piya ke khelawna re hoi....”

(‘her budding breasts are ready, to be her lover’s toys’)

or

“aag mor lagal ba,

are sagaro badania...

tas-mas choli karai,

barhala johanawa” ..”

(i’m on fire, my body burns, my choli strains, against my waking breasts”)

Ghosh also makes powerful psychological observations such as “power made its bearers act in inexplicable ways –no matter what” or “when we kill people (or export opium to China and wage a war against its protection in the name of free trade) we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause. it is the pretence of virtue that will never be forgiven by the history” .

Ghosh has turned out a novel of intoxicating stuff, sombre brilliance, offering an amazing blend of sympathy (kabutari, Deeti, Neel) and cynicism, irony and joviality. Sea of poppies is the first in 'Ibis triology', a great narrative that gently unfolds the history and I am already onto "River of smoke", the second in the series.

Hidden Biases & how it affects us

How many of us comment sarcastically and critically on the driving skills whenever we see a woman driving a car?
How instantly, we bring a doll as a gift for a girl child and a car for a boy!
Engineering!...hmmm, my son will be and daughter will be a Doctor!
How many of the boys visit their kitchen ?
We do most of these instantly, without even thinking as something which comes so natural. These are unconscious or automatic biases which all of us have in us, in some form or the other and in varying degrees. Most of us like to deny their presence and have this 'not me' syndrome.The ability to quickly and automatically categorize people is a fundamental quality of the human mind. Categories give order to life, and every day, we group other people into categories based on social and other characteristics. This is the foundation of stereotypes, prejudice and, ultimately, discrimination.
Social scientists believe children begin to acquire prejudices and stereotypes as toddlers. Many studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice without really understanding their significance.
People will embrace anecdotes that reinforce their biases, but disregard experience that contradicts them. The statement "Some of my best friends are _____" captures this tendency to allow some exceptions without changing our bias.
Mass media routinely take advantage of stereotypes as shorthand to paint a mood, scene or character. Nothing can explain it better than the hype created by the media around the "Anna campaign". It literally whipped up the pent up frustations of the middle class.
Biases and behavior
A growing number of studies show a link between hidden biases and actual behavior. In other words, hidden biases can reveal themselves in action, especially when a person's efforts to control behavior consciously flags under stress, distraction, relaxation or competition.
Studies have found, for example, that school teachers clearly telegraph prejudices, so much so that some researchers believe children of color and white children in the same classroom effectively receive different educations. The other side of biases is a complex (inferiority). I remember how as a student of a 'Government School', we always had a complex when we compared ourselves with those studying in 'Public Schools' (private schools) and this did affect our interactions in public debates etc. Its a different thing that we competed equally well (in fact better) in competitive exams but the bias remained. Remember the recent gyan of Sri Sri Ravi shankar wherein he mentioned that 'Government schools' are breeding grounds for naxalism!
Experiments are being conducted to determine whether a strong hidden bias in someone results in more discriminatory behavior. But we can learn something from even the first studies:
• Those who showed greater levels of implicit prejudice toward, or stereotypes of, black or gay people were more unfriendly toward them.
• Subjects who had a stronger hidden race bias had more activity in a part of the brain known to be responsible for emotional learning when shown black faces than when shown white faces.
Studies indicate that African American teenagers are aware they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and that they go to school bearing what psychologist Claude Steele has called a "burden of suspicion." Such a burden can affect their attitudes and achievement.
Similarly, studies found that when college women are reminded their group is considered bad at math, their performance may fulfill this prophecy.
Scientific research has demonstrated that biases thought to be absent or extinguished remain as "mental residue" in most of us. Studies show people can be consciously committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice, yet still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes. Do we all have a bias (most of us will deny though) that students belonging to 'weaker sections' are laggards and basically 'inferior'! This is one of the hidden (well, may not be as much) which seems to be only getting stronger with time. It may have nothing to do with the actual intelligence or performance of such students (they may actually be 'superior') but the bias emanates from the fact that there is 'reservation' for them and thus a green channel while others struggle and thus a negative prejudice.
Have you also noticed how most of the Indians continue to mental slaves of the white skin! - whether its Private airlines in India or star Hotels, it is appalling how some of these staff will continue to fish out favours (jumping the queue or attending to them while the lesser mortals of others (Indians) wait. Some may say its 'athithi devo bhava' but is it so? Think about it. Its a clear case of reverse racial bias!Leading to discrimination?
It is possible unconscious prejudices and stereotypes may also affect court jury deliberations and other daily tasks requiring judgments of human character.
People who argue that prejudice is not a big problem today are, ironically, demonstrating the problem of unconscious prejudice. Because these prejudices are outside our awareness, they can indeed be denied.
Learned at an early age
The first step may be to admit biases are learned early and are counter to our commitment to just treatment.
In such an environment, different views are welcomed, punishment is not harsh or capricious, and these children generally think of people positively and carry a sense of goodwill and even affection.
'Feeling' unconscious bias
Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created "Project Implicit" to develop Hidden Bias Tests — called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world — to measure unconscious bias. Hidden Bias Tests measure unconscious, or automatic, biases. A stereotype is an exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth and based on images in mass media, or reputations passed on by parents, peers and other members of society. Stereotypes can be positive or negative. A prejudice is an opinion, prejudgment or attitude. Prejudices are often accompanied by ignorance, fear or hatred.
But there is another aspect of the very experience of taking a test of hidden bias that may be helpful. Many test takers can "feel" their hidden prejudices as they perform the tests. We would like to believe that when a person has a conscious commitment to change, the very act of discovering one's hidden biases can propel one to act to correct for it. It may not be possible to avoid the automatic stereotype or prejudice, but it is certainly possible to consciously rectify it.
It can be easy to reject the results of the tests as "not me" when you first encounter them. But that's the easy path. To ask where these biases come from, what they mean, and what we can do about them is the harder task.
Recognizing that the problem is in many others — as well as in ourselves — should motivate us all to try both to understand and to act.

Head in the cloud & social isolation- random thoughts

I was going through the latest edition of “Time” magazine (dated March 12, 2012) and was struck by two unrelated articles. One was on “your head is in the cloud” by Paul (the author of “Origins”) and the other one is “living alone is the new Norm” by Klinenberg. There is then a third issue which is fast gaining menacing proportion and that is 'web or net addiction'. All these three issues sort of highlight the growing role of the web in our lives and how it has been shaping our social psyche.
While the life truly seems to have become so much easier with the “Google search engine” and with the advent of smart phones, we are increasingly outsourcing our memory to such tools and are somehow very sure that the information will be instantly and continuously available. And this is changing our cognitive habits. While the horizon of the information spectrum and the speed with which it’s available is really welcome, I do think that somewhere, it is hampering our natural ability to think and this also is affecting our memory and retention power. I still recall how, we, as a kid used to remember the flags of the countries, their capital, currencies, languages and so on. Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University, based on her experiments has concluded that when we don’t know the answer, we tend to think not of the answer but where we can find the nearest web connection instead of the subject of the question itself. It is also a fact that we don’t remember information as well if we are sure to find it again easily when compared with the situation when it might become unavailable. We get conditioned in being lazy mentally that we don’t encode the information internally. While, some may argue that what’s the need to store things in mind and burden it over things which are otherwise available outside our system, the other side of it is that mind has certain capacity to retain and keep churning information based on competitive selectivity and keeping it idle or not using it to its capacity rusts it prematurely. So, what is it? Is it we turning into a cyborg or this symbiosis with digital devices is just a variant of transactive memory where humans are being replaced with digital engines.
However, one can’t Google context. Skills like critical thinking and analysis are native to human mind and can’t be outsourced beyond a point. As Daniel Willingham, a professor at University of Virginia puts “factual knowledge must precede skills”. It’s strange how, with the advent of “Facebook” etc, we have got so used to the virtual world and virtual friends that it’s almost like a vacuum when one is suddenly deprived of an internet or web accessibility. We are forgetting to go out and mingle and feel fresh air. That way, the web addiction, is also affecting our physical health adversely. It has affected our interpersonal skills and our ability to deal with people, especially among the young. The number of friends, one has on Facebook is taken as a sign of one’s popularity and it doesn’t matter how many of them are actually friends and meet regularly. The question is whether advent of web –socialising has actually diminished the social bonding and thus reduced the quality of life?
A related issue, though, not so apparent in terms of its interconnectivity to web based outsourcing of our knowledge skills is solitary living. As per 2011 census, nearly 33 million Americans which is about 28% of its households, live alone. And the percentage is as high as 47% in Sweden and 34% in Britain. India also has about 5% of its folks living alone. Does the rise of soloists signals the ultimate atomization of the modern world. Robert D Putnam in his book “Bowling Alone”, published in 2000, has argued that social splintering has diminished the quality of life in US. More recently, in “The Lonely American” Harvard psychiatrists Jacqueline Olds & Richard S Schwartz opine that “increased aloneness” and “the movement towards greater social isolation” are damaging health and happiness. Interestingly, there’s little evidence that rise of living alone is making people lonely. Its the quality of social interaction that determines loneliness – the “feel alone” rather than “live alone” phenomenon. Klinenberg, a professor at New York University concludes in his study that most singletons are not lonely souls. For those, who live alone by choice, it serves a purpose – pursue individual freedom, personal control and self realization. I still remember my answer vividly when asked for the reason as to why I preferred to go on a 12 weeks sabbatical to LSE (a paid one of course) which was “for introspection and self realization”! In the age of digital media and ever expanding social networks, living alone offer time and space for restorative solitude.

A heritage walk in Chandni Chowk - Mirza Ghalib's haveli, the first building of St Stephens' College & more

I have always been intrigued by Chandni Chowk and its galiyan right from my childhood. Its strange how we dont visit any of the historical sites in our own cities thinking we can anyway do that anytime. And all this while, we arrange these visits for our guests and loved ones. I visited Qutub Minar last when I was in Primary school. I have been to the Chandni Chowk number of times when I was in school but I haven't really seen it from the eye of a tourist. Visiting Chandni Chowk thus has been one of my priorities since I came back to Delhi and I finally got a chance last Sunday (Jan 29, 2012) when I took a heritage walk, along with Sai Prasad, a friend from Andhra Pradesh who is also posted now in Delhi. We followed "Delhi - 14 historic walks" by "Swapna Liddle" a westland publication as our guide. I always would have thought that it would be a long walk and would be tiresome. But, it turned out to be a very pleasant and a memorable one. The entire heritage route, as suggested by Liddle took a little more than two hours (plus whatever time we spent in Gulzar’s haveli).
The route and landmarks along with is :
Jama Masjid (North gate) – Indrapastha Girls School - Chah Rahat – Digambar Jain Naya Mandir – Meru Mandir – Shsih Mahal (St Stephens college) – Kinari Bazaar – Naughara – Parathe Waali Gali – Ballimaran – Gulzar’s Haveli - Town Hall
Let’s quickly go through each of them.
1. Jama Masjid- Its the most important and prominent landmark of Shahjahanabad. This congregational mosque was built on a natural rise called “Bhojla Pahar”. It represents the high point in Mughal architecture.
2. Indraprastha Girls school – founded in 1904, it was one of the first schools for the girls in Delhi. The school was in a Haveli and part of the school today too is housed in the same Haveli while a new building has come up by the side of it for the school. Take immediate right narrow lane to go to Chah Rahat.
3. Chah Rahat – its the “well with the Persian wheel” which supplied water to the Jama Masjid. A Persian inscription on the top of the well is intact though the well is now locked.
4. Digambar Jain Naya Mandir- as we go north of Chah rahat, one crosses through the gateway of Kucha Ustad Hamid, turning left and walking through bazaar Gulian and then taking the second left turn, one reaches the Naya Mandir. I was surprised to learn that Jains were important merchants and bankers during the empire time. This particular temple was built in 1807 ( and still called “new”). As one goes along further, there’s Meru Mandir. This was built in mid eighteenth century and its worth a visit inside. Infact, at the time of our visit, it was very crowded.
5. Shish Mahal – As one goes further and turn left and walks through Katra Kushal Rai, one comes across a Haveli on the left “Shish Mahal”. This is where St. Stephens’ college had its beginning in 1881. I almost didn’t believe and went inside. It’s just like any other four storeyed haveli.
6. Kinari Bazaar- Katra Kushal Rai ends up in Kinari bazaar. As the name suggests, this is known for the “Kinari work”. It was Sunday and early morning and not many shops were opened though we could catch a glimpse of the colourful Kinari Bazaar. This is a slightly wider lane and one sees lots of foreigner tourists enjoying their visit to this part in rickshaws.
7. Parathe wali gali - Kinari Bazaar continues in a north-westerly direction until it meets up with two other lanes, forming a tri-junction. On the right is Parathe wali gali. This is famous for its roadside eateries serving deep fried parathas (breads) with an unusual variety of fillings. It was my first and I was a bit disappointed as it is a small lane having just about 6-8 Parantha shops ( I was expecting it to be a bigger lane with number of shops). Interestingly, all these shops proudly highlight “fifth generation shop” ! I stopped by and observed one of the shops. They have huge variety of Paranthas and one can have possibly all kind of stuffed paranthas.
8. Ballimaran- On the left is the road called Maliwara. Take this and walk on it for a while. It will intersect with Nai Sadak or ‘new road’, build in the 1860s. On the other side is Ballimaran. There is an interesting controversy about the name Ballimaran. Most say it refers to the makers of ‘ballis’ or oars. However, a letter from Ghalib suggests that the word might actually have been ‘Billimaran’, referring to the killers of cats! (who else but Ghalib!!) . More than cats or oars however, Ballimaran has been known historically for its hakims or doctors of the system of medicine called Yunani. The best-known family of hakims in Ballimaran is the Sharif Khani family, whose members were physicians to the Mughal emperors.
9. Mirza Ghalib’s Haveli -

As one makes way up Ballimaran, there’s a lane (next to mosque) called Gali Qasim Jan on the left. in Gali Qasim Jan, the third building on the left is one of the first important buildings ie the haveli of Mirza Ghalib . It is entered through a semicircular arch made out of brick, and there is a small memorial inside it. There was a controversy last year when most of the newspapers highlighted how the haveli was being rented out for “parties” where alcohol etc was served freely. We all felt outraged at that time. Thankfully, the expose had an impact and there seems to have been sincere attempts to restore the dignity to the haveli. There are details of the life history of Mirza Ghalib and also some of his most famous couplets. This house belonged to one of the hakims, and he lived here towards the end of his life. Only a small part of the house—much modified, is the memorial. The remaining part of the house is still a private residence.
The visit to the Haveli was the best part of this visit.
One comes out on the main road which joins the main road towards the Town hall . As one walks down towards the Red Fort on this main road, there are heritage buildings on both sides of the road and most of them house Banks.

I came across folks selling old coins. We just stopped by and it was amazing, I mean their collection. Coins dating back to Akbar, and modern day coins right from 1913! I bought a set of five coins - 1913, 1925, 1939, 1943 and 1959.

I will strongly recommend this trip to all those wishing to explore Chandni Chowk and its beauty in leisure and at a speed when every thing is observable and enjoyable.

Indian ranks 73rd out of 74 countries- PISA findings - time to take stock of ailing education system and come out of denial mode

So many Indians taking up jobs in US and Europe especially since late eighties and dominating certain sectors such as IT & medicine , given an impression that the education system in India has finally come of age. A stage came when Obama actually had to take a public stand on the issue of outsourcing urging companies in US to go in for in-sourcing within the country. Most of us in Indian cities take great pride in our elementary education system and we all love to think that children in India are exceptionally good in Mathematics and science subjects. It's a sort of self styled image that's been created over the years.
I was thus taken aback when I came across recently about OECD'S PISA study showing India at the bottom of 74 countries (at 73th rank marginally above Kyrgyztan) while evaluating the performance of elementary education. Let's see what PISA is all about?
OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA) PISA is an international study which began in the year 2000. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating countries/economies. Since the year 2000 over 70 countries and economies have participated in PISA. The PISA tests are carried out every three years (2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009). There were 65 countries initially in 2009 exams and India along with 9 other countries agreed to participate in the exam in 2010 taking the number to 74 countries.
PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society. In all cycles, the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills needed in adult life.
A very informative video on PISA is available on youtube. It points out that PISA is less interested in knowing whether a student can repeat what’s been taught in the class – like parrots. Rather, the survey is designed to find out whether students can use the reading skills to make sense of the information for eg in a newspaper, government forms or instruction manuals. In it, individual student is not graded on how well he has performed. Instead, the site says that PISA results are analysed and extrapolated at the national level. Many countries now set national goals and benchmarks based on the performance in PISA test. PISA considers an education system successful only when all students from all backgrounds perform well in the test. It examines the characteristics of the successful results of a country – are teachers paid more, do schools decide their own curriculum, class size and so on and once the profile of a successful system emerges, it can be used by other countries for their education system. PISA is not about achieving high scores.
India's participation and findings
India decided to undertake PISA evaluation in 2010. The Ministry of HRD decided that about 16000 children in Tamilnadu and Himachal Pradesh ( the two States considered best in the country) would take the examination. The PISA 2009+ results, which are both official and are beyond gain-saying, are unspeakably bad. They confirm the worst of what anyone has been saying about the levels of learning in India elementary education. The shocking findings are:
In reading, of the 74 regions participating in PISA 2009 or 2009+, these two states beat out only Kyrgyzstan.
In mathematics, of the 74 regions participating the two states finished again, second and third to last, again beating only Kyrgyzstan.
In science, the results were even worse, Himachal Pradesh came in dead last, behind Kyrgyzstan, while Tamil Nadu inched ahead to finish 72nd of 74.
But just coming in last (if we can dismiss as a relevant comparator for India a tiny Central Asian state) does not convey the enormity of how bad these results were, as not only was India last, it as far, far, behind its aspirations, both at the bottom and at the top levels of performance.
PISA expresses the levels of performance in two ways, an overall index number and the
fraction of students achieving various “levels” of achievement. The PISA index numbers for each subject are scaled so that the typical OECD student is at 500 and the standard deviation across OECD students is 100.
The testing of thousands of students allows the results to present not only the average but also the worst (5th percentile) and best (95th percentile) students do in each country/region. PISA also classifies student performance into “levels” that represent different degrees of mastery of the material. I wish to quote a comparative study undertaken by Lant Pritchett :
Table 1 compares India’s performance to three groups of countries. The economic
Superstars have successfully completed the transition from poor to rich economies in just two generations – Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea (China’s only results are just for the city of Shanghai, which are the highest scores of any region tested, but this is too a-typical to really be comparable) and India aspires to their sustained success economically.
The current superpowers are represented by the USA and the OECD average reflects India’s aspirations as a superpower. The rising powers are represented by the BRIC countries of Russia and Brazil which reflect the rise of the emerging markets. Compared to the economic superstars India is almost unfathomably far behind. The TN/HP average 15-year-old is over 200 points behind. If a typical grade gain is 40 points a year Indian eighth graders are at the level of Korea third graders in their mathematics mastery. In fact, the average TN/HP child is 40 to 50 points behind the worst students in the economic superstars.
Equally worrisome is that the best performers in TN/HP – the top 5 percent who India will need in science and technology to complete globally – were almost 100 points behind the average child in Singapore and 83 points behind the average Korean – and a staggering 250 points behind the best in the best.
As the current superpowers are behind the East Asian economic superstars in learning performance, the distance to India is not quite as far, but still the average TN/HP child is right at the level of the worst OECD or American students (only 1.5 or 7.5 points ahead).
Indians often deride America’s schools but the average child placed in an American school would be among the weakest students. Indians might have believed, with President Obama, that American schools were under threat from India, but the best TN/HP students are 24 points behind the average American 15 year old. Even among other “developing” nations that make up the BRICs India lags – from Russia by almost as much as the USA and only for Brazil, which like the rest of Latin America is infamous for lagging education performance does India even come close – and then not even that close.
So? what's the takeaway?
There are some very important general findings that emerge from the PISA evalutation such as: 1. Girls do better than boys in reading skills in every country that participated; in OECD countries, they did exceptionally well than boys almost equivalent to an extra year in school;
2. There is no major difference between boys and girls in how they perform in science;
3. Boys generally do better than girls in mathematics
4. Early tracking is not generally good for overall better performance and need not be encouraged; it also encourages greater inequalities among the students esp those from disadvantaged group
5. Given the opportunity and support, all children have the potential to excel
6. Home background has a major role in the student’s success in school. If there are no books at home and if children don’t see their parents reading, they will be less inclined to read
7. It’s not the number of teacher but the quality of teachers that determines the performance of children in schools
8. A country doesn’t have to be wealthy to be able to provide high quality of education to its students (Shanghai and Poland are the examples)
9. Country’s performance in PISA does change overtime. Chile, Poland, Germany etc have shown improvement between 2000 and 2009
10. Successful education system make education a priority .
Whats required in India is first and foremost, come out of the denial mode and acknowledge that something is seriously lacking in our elementary & secondary education policy. The general findings as mentioned above are extremely important. It's not just about certain schools and certain students belonging to certain strata doing well. It's about complete overhaul of the elementary & secondary education which makes education more relevant in our everyday life. It's time we realise this.

For the purpose of census, a person aged 7 & above who can read and write in any language is considered as literate. The country has made very impressive progress in terms of spreading the education and increasing the literacy levels in the country over the years.

What's now required in emphasis on the quality of education and that will make a difference. Quality education is not just the right of privileged few and a sincere policy intervention in this direction will automatically improve the intended learnings and this is the takeaway from the PISA findings.

Ethics & MicroFinance - role of excessive commercialization, Compartomos, SKS & the likes

Not so long ago, Microfinance was considered a fascinating and very positive idea in alleviating poverty. The Noble peace prize to Prof Muhammad Yunus in 2006 was recognition that MF is one of the most humane part of international finance system, perhaps the only humane part. Yunus acknowledges that “lack of access to financial services is one of the main reasons why poverty is perpetuated, making massive and long-term poverty one of the greatest threats of peace”. However, much has changed since then, not only in terms of the performance of MF and its affect in removing poverty but mainly on a plain moral & ethical issue. The questionable role of microfinance in poverty alleviation, the exaggerated claims made in this respect by Yunus (?), the tension that exists between moral standards and economic imperatives in setting up and operating MF institutions (MFIs) and the role and merit of “commercial approach to MF” are the issues that need to be looked into in greater detail. By Commercial approach one means a strategy of setting up and running MFIs in a manner that can cover their full cost, including the cost of equity and be permanently independent of subsidies from development institutions. While Yunus is a strong critic of such an approach, there is a general understanding that lack of financial viability can threaten the very existence of an MFI and that MFIs can’t depend on charity and aid for long run sustenance and if to be scaled up on a broader level. However, what’s worrisome is what Schmidt calls “excessive commercialization” (of MF). Development of MFFor long, western development-aid policy is based on the plausible assumption that poor countries lack capital and that having a better financial system would spur economic growth. The concept of a financial system and its improvement overtime has led to the emergence of MF.
In the initial phase in 1950s, development finance consisted of channelling large amount of capital from western countries to government related development banks in the recipient countries. However the ‘trickle down effect’ in terms of ‘a rising tide would lift all boats’ didn’t work and in fact the inequalities increased.
In 1973, Robert McNamara’s speech in Kenya, as World Bank President, marked the second phase of development finance and the emergence of MF. Capital was no longer only provided in larger amounts to large banks and central agencies but also directly in smaller amounts to the newly identified target groups of the poor and of small enterprises. It required finding “delivery channels” . Since Banks had general interest rate restrictions, they were not suitable to reach poor clients. Instead, novel institutions which were not-for-profit institutions and high ethical standards came up for this purpose but they all had very high cost structure and most of them couldn’t survive for more than a year. The second approach to development finance failed with an ethical lesson- “ it is simply not enough to have good intentions”.
Towards 1990s, a conviction emerged that small scale and very small scale enterprises in the developing countries were the ideal targets and the small NGOs , setup and operated by local people were the ideal organizations. A number of international development agencies took up this idea and sponsored several of these new credit-granting NGOs. There were two types of NGOs – first type are the ones which are concerned about limiting costs and increasing revenue. This implies containing cost by concentrating on credit as the sole service provided and increase revenue by charging higher & possibly cost-covering interest rate of loans. The second type consists of MFIs that provide many kinds of services that poor need, charging lower rate of interest on micro loans and being less stringent with respect to repayments. It is a softer approach. In 1992, a study on the “effiency of credit granting NGOs” covering MFIs of these two types, by Inter-American Development Bank, the report of which was published in 1996 concluded that even though softer MFIs were worse, no MFI would be able to survive & would be permanently dependent on subsidies. Given these findings, there were serious attempts to reduce the cost. J. D. Von Pischke, a leading development finance expert, suggested a goal that the sum of administrative and risk costs of a good MFI should not amount to more than 20% of its loan portfolio. Costs of this magnitude would be low enough to be passed on to their customers, thus allowing MFIs to cover their costs and expand the scope of their activity in accordance with their dual goals of sustainability and increasing outreach.
The second half of the 1990s saw dramatic developments in microfinance due to a series of innovations in credit technology and organizational structure of MFIs and of the types of development projects that served to create new microfinance institutions and programs. The best MFIs were able to reduce their costs to a level of about 20% of their loan portfolios. A few even managed to cover their full costs entirely through current revenues.
Two main “approaches” were followed to achieve this. One is the “institution-building approach”, which considers creating viable institutions that can achieve sound performance as the key issue and a prerequisite for financial and developmental success. The main protagonist of this approach was the German consulting firm International Project Consultant (IPC). The other approach was called the “commercial approach”, mainly associated with ACCION, a United States-based microfinance support organization. But the labels do not mean much since there is hardly any contradiction between the two approaches: financially viable MFIs must also be commercially oriented, and if they are to achieve the commercial success necessary to make a lasting impact, they must have a suitable institutional form. Thus, both qualify to be considered as “commercial approach”.
Towards the end of the last century, the commercial approach had clearly won out over the more traditional well-intentioned but inefficient “softer” ways of doing microfinance. However, it would be a mistake to assume that the views shared by IPC and ACCION were universally accepted. The key figures of many MFIs, including Yunus, as well as many experts working in development-aid institutions or academia, had strong reservations vis-à-vis the new approach, in whose view, trying to achieve profit through development projects was morally reprehensible a priori.
By the middle of the 1990s, the economic and regulatory conditions for financing small and very small enterprises had changed. Most importantly, the upper limits for interest rates that banks could charge their clients had been removed in most countries. In view of the serious efficiency problems that most microfinance NGOs had encountered, microfinance experts started to think that it would be more effective and more efficient to have specialized microfinance banks instead of NGOs for providing microfinance services. The most important advantage of banks would be that they are permitted to take deposits. Another advantage is that formal, licensed banks as specialized providers of microfinance services would be regulated as supervised institutions and for this reason alone could be expected to be more efficient. One way of creating the desired kind of banks is a new type of development finance project called “upgrading”. An upgrading project consists of three steps. The first step is identifying a credit-granting NGO whose founders or current leaders would be willing to make their NGO undergo a profound institutional transformation. As the second step, foreign aid is used to strengthen the NGO and turn it into a good credit –granting institution able to cover its full costs or at least well on its way towards full cost-coverage. The final and decisive step consists of changing the legal status of the NGO into that of a corporation, obtaining a banking license and then starting banking operations within the new legal structure.

However, being a strategic shareholder-or simply an owner – of an MFI requires more than merely putting up equity. A qualified owner must feel responsible for the institution and its success in two dimensions – both a financial and a developmental dimension, and act accordingly.
The time between the late 1990s and the middle of the last decade were the golden years of microfinance. What had started as a domain of well-intentioned but hardly competent amateurs became more and more a domain of professionals. In parallel, microfinance also became more and more effective in financial and developmental terms. Many new MFIs were set up and managed in the spirit of the commercial approach, and a considerable number of them became quite successful in purely financial terms and at the same time started to have a sizable impact. The institutions and the networks of MFIs set up by ACCION and IPC/ProCredit served as models, and their “best practice’ was copied by several imitators. The “new world of microfinance”—to quote from the title of a book edited by ACCION—seemed to show that the commercial approach had scored an all-out victory in the battle of finding the best solution for an important problem in social and economic development. It was part of the apparent success of commercial microfinance that commercially oriented investors and their advisors also started to be interested in microfinance as a new and “interesting asset class (!!)”. This interest was welcome because the loan portfolios of the new MFIs were growing fast at that time. There is also the growing tendency of some genuine MFIs to adopt “excessive commercialization”.
Apparent victory can lay the seeds of defeat. Not only those who had for many years worked in microfinance for the purpose of mitigating development problems noticed that commercial microfinance can be profitable.
The new found ‘commercial approach’ over the past few years, have led to five MFIs undertaking IPOs—three of them located in Asia, one in Africa and one in Mexico.
Let’s first discuss the IPO of the Mexican MFI Compartamos, a case that serves to highlight the ethical dimension of excessive commercialization. Surprisingly, this case study has been kept under wraps and not many are aware of genesis of crises in MFI through this route of excessive commercialization has been before the SKS saga.
The IPO of Compartamos in early 2000s was extremely successful in financial terms. The issue price of Compartamos shares was 13 times higher than their book value, which corresponds to an extremely high price-earnings ratio. Assessed at the offering price, Compartamos was worth about US$1.5 billion, although at that time it was still a rather small institution. Despite the high issue price, the issue was oversubscribed by a factor of 13. After the issue, the price rose once again, by about 50%. Over a period of seven years, between 2000 to, and including 2006, the value of investment had doubled each year. The mere fact that shares in an MFI were sold to a broad range of investors or that the IPO was extremely profitable for the investors have the positive effect of increasing the reputation of microfinance “as an investment opportunity”, making it easier for other MFIs to access the capital market and use it as a source of much-needed equity capital. There is cause for concern, however, over the reason why Compartamos shares became so valuable. In this case, it was the extremely high profits earned over the time span since the conversion from an NGO into a corporation.
The past profits of Compartamos were the result neither of low-operating nor of low-funding costs. Rather, it was its pricing policy which consisted of charging an average interest rate of close to 100% on its loans. There had been an outburst of inflation in Mexico in the late 1990s. When inflation shot up to about 100% Compartamos raised the interest rates on its loans accordingly so that the inflation –adjusted interest rates remained positive. However, very soon the inflation rate in Mexico fell back to its normal level. Nevertheless, Compartamos maintained its high interest rates, which suggests that its interest-rate policy may have been chosen with an eye to the planned IPO. This leads to the conclusion that at least until 2007, the commercial orientation of Compartamos was simply excessive and incompatible with the ethical mandate of microfinance—constituting a major ethical problem.There is another issue. Roughly half the shares were sold to hedge funds in the course of the IPO. Hedge funds are not the kind of shareholders likely to show a strong commitment to social and development-related aims. Transferring power to them by issuing ordinary shares with full voting rights amounted to definitively losing power and renouncing the original developmental aspirations.
Interestingly, though, the general public did not really become aware of the Compartamos IPO and its questionable aspects.
India was a latecomer to microfinance and one reason for this was that government-owned banks and government-related programs had dominated the microfinance scene in India for many years. Therefore private MFIs, and especially those with a commercial orientation, had a very slow start. But once it began, microcredit almost exploded in India. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of borrower-clients of commercially oriented MFIs grew from 8 million to 28 million $, and the volume of outstanding loans grew by a factor of 8.
Two events took place in this part of India in 2010 that led to a situation termed by observers a “major crisis” (Wall Street Journal) and even “the death of microfinance” (Global Post, India). One of these was the IPO by SKS, and the other was a series of about 80 suicides that were linked to repayment problems of microfinance borrowers and the pressure that seems to have been applied by MFIs’ debut-collection agents.
Let’s examine the issue of SKS. Over the Years, the ownership of SKS has changed dramatically. It was mainly owned by its clients until 2003. Then before and after the IPO most of the shares were held by American private-equity companies. Measured by the size of its loan portfolio at the time of the IPO, SKS was about twice as large as Compartamos. Shortly before the IPO, Akula (the founding chairman) and other top managers sold their shares, cashing in substantial profits. On 28 August, 2010, 23% of the SKS shares were issued to the general public, including more institutional investors. In financial terms, the IPO was at least as successful as that of Compartamos. On the basis of the issue price, SKS had a total market value of around US$1.5billion, almost exactly the same as Compartamos at the time of its IPO, and the issue was also 13 times oversubscribed.
There is a legal requirement in India that banks must provide a certain fraction of their loans to low-income borrowers. However, they can meet this requirement if they lend money to microfinance institutions; and that is what most Indian banks do. Therefore, for a long time funding was not a problem for the major MFIs in India despite their enormous growth rates. In the case of SKS, the average annual growth rate of the portfolio was more than 160% during the five years preceding the IPO.
Poor borrowers felt encouraged to take out loans from several MFIs. Multiple borrowing was widespread, leading to clients’ inability to repay their loans. With surging repayment problems, debt-collection practices became increasingly ruthless.
However, even though it is premature to diagnose a general microfinance crisis, as some commentators do, the damage is done. Apart from the fact that it means great hardship for the people directly affected, the general effect of the events in South India is that microfinance has lost almost all its former ethical and political appeal. As Chuck Waterfield, an expert in microfinance puts it, ”we run the risk of the world seeing no difference between microfinance and the moneylenders we set out to displace”. Milford Bateman, a British expert, paraphrases Shakespeare by writing “something is rotten in the state of microfinance” and blames “the international-development community’s preferred model of microfinance, the commercial model” for the current situation. As he sees it, “hidden behind the focus upon extending outreach, was the awkward fact that a MFI’s senior managers were quietly turning the institutional gains into private gains taken out in the form of spectacular salaries, bonuses, dividends and, eventually, windfall profits arising from an IPO.”

In both cases of MFI IPOs, people who may once have created MFIs with the noble intention of making a contribution to development, put the MFIs they had created into the hands of “the capital market.” Apparently they thereby lost control over the MFIs and became unable or unwilling to maintain the developmental orientation they may once have had. More precisely, they put their MFIs into the hands of hedge funds and private equity companies – that is, of investors who presumably are only interested in profit and are indifferent to developmental and social effects and aspirations.

We can thus conslude that while MF continues to be socially, morally and economically valuable undertaking, recent developments have caused a moral crises of MF resulting from the excessive commercialization which should and can be avoided.

India has recently come out with a draft bill on MF which among others proposes to cap the upper rate at which loans can be given, method of recovery of loans from the borrorwers, limit on multiple laons by the borrower and bringing a tighter regime of the regulator on the functioning of MFIs. While it may address some of the ills that have plagued and paralysed the sector, the ripple effect of what happened in Andhra Pradesh, the defiant attitude of some of the MFI (thinking that Government in any case will have to bail them out), reluctance of Banks to pump in further funding into the MF and a slight political bias against MFIs (which, while may be justified in terms of excessive commercialization has the danger of drying out entire MF market and forcing people esp women to turn to money lenders yet again)may continue to pose serious obstacles in restoring a MF market which works for the benefit of the borrowers and yet is commecially vaible. The need for MFI has emerged on account of the failure of the Banking sector to be accessable in every nook and corner of the country and thus forcing poor borrowers to pay that extra differntial and the long term solution is "Financial Inclusion" which will ensure that Loans are available to the poor and needy and the Bank determined interest rates.

ps. I was greatly inspired reading "Ethics in Microfinance" by Reinhard H. Schmidt ("Value & Ethincs for the 21st Century, a BBVA publication) and most of these thoughts flow from him.