Desicritics Category: Politics: Consumer Rights

My Name is Khan Mumbai Release - Free Speech or Free Market?

Ruchi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:23:10 EST

The release of Shahrukh Khan's latest movie, My Name is Khan (MNIK) eclipsed all news for about a week. The biggest story in Saturday's newspapers was without doubt its enthusiastic reception. The story was covered on the front page, various back pages and of course, the op-eds. The general tone was celebratory and unanimously supportive of SRK. The act of watching a movie was extrapolated to taking a stand for independence and free speech. And SRK's refusal to apologize deemed heroic, the one act that would serve as a tipping point for restoring democracy in Mumbai against Shiv Sena's regressive xenophobia and hooliganism. A la, Rosa Parks if you will, whose refusal to give up her seat on the public bus sparked the civil rights movement.

The real story though is not about freedom of speech or democracy or Shiv Sena's violent jingoism. At the heart of this episode is good business - and a little demo of the shape of things to come in an increasingly neo-liberal India.

SRK is a consummate businessman expanding his financial interests from film actor to producer to television, panoramic endorsements and now privatized sport. In 2008, Newsweek named as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world, one of the only two from India (Sonia Gandhi being the other). Despite this, time and again when asked of his political opinions his stock response has been that he wants only to "make people smile". For an intelligent, informed individual with significant money and influence and an alleged believer and proponent of democracy to be so consistently and overtly apolitical has to be a calculated economic decision. In this light, his refusal to retract his IPL statement too has to be deemed a personal economic decision. And the consequences would only have been economic - the money lost due to its limited initial release in Mumbai (no one expected Sena's theater vandalism to extend to the movie goers), akin to the losses incurred by traders/shopkeepers when a political party calls for a bandh against some government policy or inaction.

And yet our national news rallied behind SRK with multiple sympathetic interviews, clips and broadcast of his vaguely messianic tweets. Rajdeep Sardesai, editor of CNN-IBN exhorted every Mumbaiker to "go watch MNIK in the theatres, its a small, but important way of taking a stand" and Barkha Dutt (NDTV) earnestly claimed that "im [sic] standing up for a belief". Mumbai government deployed over 21,000 policemen to guard theatres screening MNIK and preemptively arrested over 900 Shiv Sainiks. Nary a squeak from any of our news networks about this shocking display of state repression and targeting based on political affiliation.

For Shiv Sena, this was a calculated political move - the churlish actions of a regional political party with a fragmented support base after Raj Thackeray's defection. Putting this party in its place requires not Mumbaikers flocking to the theatres to watch MNIK but media blackout. A party of this small size can't rely only on its little official mouthpiece, "Saamna" and needs the media platform for survival. However, the lurching illogic of the Thackerays is good drama, which always translates to good TRPs.

Ratings were the primary interest, not freedom of speech or taking a collective stand against divisive/undemocratic intimidation. There have been numerous other instances of clamps on freedom of speech and nowhere near this kind of sustained coverage to drive public behavior. 94-year old Husain is in exile in Dubai. Taslima Nasrin was expelled from India in 2008. Deepa Mehta's movies, Fire and Water both came under Sena and other Hindu right-wingers' ire. While the above have the right to free speech in common with MNIK's release, they lack easy marketability. And easy marketing is at the heart of this campaign: the effortless connection with India's two loves, cricket and Bollywood, a media savvy celebrity, polarizing Pakistan, a comic book goon and the perception of participation by painless retweets and mere consumption. The Save Our Tiger campaign is another example of a high gloss initiative to distract the public. Yes, there are 1411 tigers left in India and urgent measures are required - but the real solution does not lie in citizen involvement as manifested by the campaign's entreaty of "speak up, blog, sms - every little bit counts". Each is completely useless to curb poaching and/or manage sanctuaries. Neither is tiger conservation hampered by lack of funds since even the allocated funds have not been completely utilized by many sanctuaries.

The real fight for freedom of speech and democracy is the fight against our desperate poverty. Yet there is frighteningly little focus and interest in governance, the prioritization and allocation of the country's resources for its people. And there are serious issues at stake. The Food Security Act (FSA) is on the anvil. What does the FSA say about India? There are people in our country who don't even have enough food for basic sustenance. That their numbers are so large that the States and Center have spent months trying to figure out eligibility criteria and a sharing arrangement that they can afford. We also have the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which entitles each rural household hundred days of unskilled work at minimum wage. This Act is testimony to the fact that we've taken an entire people of our country and thrown them out of the economy. These two legislations go at the heart of democracy and what it means to live in a just and humane society; both are going through serious upheavals. However, what is the percentage of airtime and column space afforded to either? Even worse, why is there no national passion for them?

We need to reevaluate our national priorities. Arts and sports are the underpinnings of the country's culture, and integral to national consciousness. We should rightly be passionate and proud of both. However, mere consumption cannot drive culture. And we cannot claim to be proud Indians, yet ignore Bharat.

Shashi Tharoor's Unfettered Tweets

sufferingsocrates — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:14:44 EST

Shashi Tharoor is in news again for his tweeting antics. This time around he has tweeted on the strict VISA regulations following the Headley findings. Tharoor has aired his concerns on Twitter, and this has not gone down well with SM Krishna. He has been pulled up, but Tharoor has once again tweeted on how he missed the whole brouhaha. Tharoor had earlier tweeted into the headlines for his cattle class remarks following the Congress' much publicized austerity drive.

Is Tharoor trying to woo an online audience which is supportive of his tweets? Or is he being too naive and not being sensitive about the reason for the strict VISA regulations. Tharoor might be the tech savvy politician that India may have never had. But his online support will only remain online. Only his offline support can win him elections. So, even if media channels showcase his tweet supports on twitter, ground reality will be totally different. The online audience in India is sadly one which remains online and will seldom wield its voting powers.

Tharoor, with all due credit probably knows what he is doing. It could well be a gimmick to garner media attention and stay in the news. But what is disturbing about this instance of objections to VISA regulations is the matter of national security. Tharoor needn't be explained to, about the circumstances surrounding the need for the strict VISA norms. If Headley can sneak into India multiple times, and questionably as a US agent who went rogue, then India has to be more cautious on VISA restrictions. If U.S. can do racial profiling, then India too can impose stricter VISA regulations atleast. I don't see there being anything to be objected to.

The earlier instance was merely a remark on the austerity drive by Congress, calling politicians cattle class. It could have been a personal opinion and could have been pardoned. Is Tharoor so naive about Indian polity to believe that tweeting will win him support? Or is he being just a citizen and expressing his voice on an open platform? It certainly is arguable that, every politician is indeed a citizen too. So, why not air one's own opinions? The only caveat for a politician to take note of though is, that with great power comes great responsibility. Tharoor this time around has been anything but responsible.

Post-liberalization India - A Free For All?

Ruchi — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:39:08 EST

My Airtel Broadband was down (second time in a month) so I called the Bharti Airtel customer service number from my Airtel mobile. For about two hours, I couldn’t get through ‘cause the “network was busy”. Finally four hours later when I tried again, I got through. By “got through”, I mean, I got through to the irritating menu system. I punched in my account number, reason for calling, type of problem and finally over five minutes of this annoying IVR later, a real live person came online. And her first question to me is, “what is your account number?”

What the hell is wrong with this company? All this song and dance on their stupid menu is just a delaying tactic? Why should the customer provide the same information twice? That too in its entirety! And lo behold, after giving my account number, she asked me the reason for my call. After being told that my broadband was down, her immediate question was when I last paid my bill, the snide implication being that perhaps my payment delinquency was the reason for non-service.

First, that may well be the reason. However, shouldn’t a telecom company of Airtel’s size have at least sorted out these basic customer service questions? Should these questions need to be asked to the customer instead of being shown on the customer service rep’s screen as soon as I call? After I told her to look it up herself, it took her a good minute to figure out that my payment in fact was not overdue. And then about seven minutes after I was connected, did she actually get to (attempting) to solving my problem. Attempt ‘cause problem was not solved. All I got was a reference number and an unapologetic four hour wait time. So about eight hours of work day downtime, pretty much the whole day.

Where’s the mea culpa? There’s none. This is the same company that will send reminder text messages for bill payments, even before the payment is due! And a day late will attract late fee charges. However, there’s no refund for service downtime. There’s also no refund if they add some “service” to your account without your permission. Those annoying “hello tunes” is a classic example. Suddenly callers are hearing some embarrassing song instead of the classing ring tone; yet can you get a refund without a ridiculously long phone call with some untrained newbie on the other side? The thing is, each such transgression costs the customer very little and thus disincents the long annoying phonecall; however, the volumes make a large amount of money for the company.

This kind of annoying in-your-face, bordering or outright illegal “marketing” and deterrent reparation processes is not isolated to Airtel. All service companies that have grown helter-skelter in the past few years, notably telecom and financial services companies have done so on the back of predatory marketing, ill-equipped infrastructure, and of course speed-trained (hence untrained) customer service representatives who are unable to handle even the slightest deviation from whatever crap script they get to read from. Where the customer is at fault either due to neglect or due to plain ignorance (in the case of many new users of service), customer will pay. If the company is at fault, even then the user will pay.

This raises a serious question. In a country where the population is not previously exposed to organized retail and/or service, who should bear the cost of educating and organizing the customer? Post-liberalization, large multinational companies flocked to India salivating at the prospect of one of the world’s largest consumer base. However, since per-capita incomes are so low here, profits are driven by volume as opposed to high margins. This means that the marginal value of each customer is very little and hence, it makes dollar/rupee sense to reduce after sales-service to a bare minimum to the point of ignoring the customer. However, it is not acceptable for these companies to reduce their after sales service standards (to reduce costs) to such an extent that a new user would almost surely get lost in the maze. If adequate levels of customer service are not profitable, then they shouldn’t be in the business; taking advantage of an unexposed and unorganized populace is pure predatory.

Surviving at the Margins: The Politics of Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi

C R Sridhar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:18:58 EST

On Google Earth, Yamuna Pushta is eerie and striking. The satellite image of this piece of land shows clusters of buildings, roads and the banks of the Yamuna. Though one can see the geographical details of the place clearly, it is also, unwittingly, a falsification of reality. Absent in the topographical details of Yamuna Pushta is the pain and suffering of the thousands of men, women, and children who lived in informal, unauthorized settlements along the banks of the Yamuna. Their lives epitomized a sturdy resilience in the face of cruel exclusion both economic and social. Their consciousness of life was burdened with the pitiless awareness that their lives hung from fragile threads, which could be snapped at any moment. The 35000 working class families who lived here eked out a humble living from occupations such as porters, rickshaw pullers, domestic workers, rag pickers, and construction workers. Many of these people who had migrated to Delhi decades ago from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal, faced the prospect of eviction and resettlement.

The traumatic events that led to the utter devastation of nearly 150000 men, women, and children was the decision of the Tourism Ministry of the Government of India to develop a 100- acre strip of land on the banks of Yamuna into riverside promenade which would be marketed as a major tourist attraction. This announcement was made in January 2004.
Moreover, the Government of Delhi and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), facing strictures from the Supreme Court of India for their lapses in not cleaning the pollution of the river, became partners in the eviction process of juggi-jhonpdi colony on the banks of the river.

The people living in the colony courageously defended themselves by approaching the courts to stay the proposed eviction of their dwelling units. They also pleaded with officials of MCD not to proceed with the eviction, as they would be rendered homeless and destitute. All their pleas fell on deaf ears. The reaction of the court and that of the Government was one of implacable hostility to the plight of the juggi-jhonpdi dwellers.

The public opinion among the middle-class and the affluent –classes was one of intense hostility as the slum dwellers were demonised as criminals who lived in public property as encroachers. In the minds of the urbanised elite the slums were places festering with disease, filth and criminals which had to be cleaned up to give way to a world class cities with shopping malls, promenades and luxury villas.

The slum dweller as an encroacher

The apex court in its various judgments altered its earlier perception of slum dwellers as citizens with rights to that of encroachers without any rights. In its landmark decision in Olga Tellis vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation the Supreme Court declared that ‘ the right to livelihood is an important facet of the right to life’ and laid down the principle that the eviction of the pavement dwellers will lead to the deprivation of their livelihood and consequently to the deprivation of life. The other decisions of the court saw an expansion of the rights of the deprived and the court struck constitutional blows for the indigent slum dwellers in cases such as K. Chandru vs. State of Tamil Nadu, Shantistar Builders vs. Narayan Khimlal Ghotame and others (1990), Chameli Singh vs. State of Utter Pradesh (1996) the court ruled that housing constituted a fundamental right under Article 21(the right to life) of the Constitution. The protective arm of the Apex Court could be seen as it imposed other important safeguards on the state such as providing alternative accommodation to the displaced slum dwellers within areas not far removed for places of work so that the displaced persons could earn a living. The court also imposed a bar on eviction during monsoon times, as any displacement of slum dwellers in such periods would cause grave hardship to them.

But in a series of later judgments the protective arm of the court was withdrawn only to be replaced by the mailed fist. The court in 1999 in the case of Hem Raj vs. Commissioner of Police said ‘ when you are occupying illegal land, you have no legal right…’ The volte-face of the Apex Court was again reflected in other decisions as Dhar vs. Government of National Capital Territory and Delhi where the court differentiated between honest citizens who have to pay for land or a flat and slum dwellers who are unscrupulous citizens. In Almitra Patel vs. the Union of India (2000) the Supreme Court said that Delhi should be the showpiece of the country and described slums as ‘large areas of public land usurped for private use free of cost’ and negatively perceived any rehabilitation measures as rewarding the encroacher.

Bulldozed into oblivion.

The fate of the thousands of people living in make shift habitats along the banks of Yamuna was sealed when the public opinion went against them and the courts refused to intervene.

What was to follow was a tragedy of immense proportions in post independent India that was ignored in the mainstream media. In February and April 2004, the Pushta demolition was undertaken with a brutality reminiscent of the emergency excesses. Personally supervised by the then Minister of Tourism Jagmohan, the battalions of the Uttar Pradesh PAC were pressed into service. Those who resisted the demolition were mercilessly beaten up. Some died trying to save their children. Even women and children were not spared. The ruined colony was set on fire and the police attacked the people who tried to salvage their belongings with lathis.

The onslaught on the indigent slum dwellers did not pass unnoticed. The authors Kalyani Manon Sen and Gautam Bhan in their book titled ‘Swept off the Map’ have relentlessly documented the trauma of eviction and the resettlement of the dispossessed community of Yamuna Pushta. The traces of wounds suffered by the people of Yamuna Pushta is analysed with rigour and passion and laid threadbare for urban planners to contemplate the unspeakable brutality of a public policy bent on creating a world class city at an unacceptable human cost.

Nailing an official lie

By adopting scientific methodology with a feminist perspective, the authors question and challenge bland official statements that the evicted slum dwellers of Yamuna Pushta were happily resettled. In fact the Minister Jagmohan went on record that the evicted slum dwellers expressed their gratitude after they were resettled. Nothing could be further than truth. As a benchmark to test the claims of the government the authors adopted the key principle –‘shelter for all, economic development, quality and safe environment’ laid down by the Government of India in the Urban Housing and Habitat Policy in 2005 and reiterated in 2007. The Report ‘Swept off the Map’ is structured around a set of socio-economic parameters of rights of humankind, namely, Shelter for all, Economic development, quality of life and safe environment. ‘The Report,’ the authors explain, ‘ presents the results of our enquiry- data collected through our survey, information and perspectives contributed by members of the community over the course of several interviews and interactions and insights from our own experiences of working in Bawana.’

The results of the enquiry make depressing reading. As the authors observe with respect to the policy of resettlement in the Bawana area, ‘the levels of squalor in Bawana are definitely higher than in Pushta, contradicting the government’s claims of improved conditions in resettlement colonies.’ The access to services in Bawana was inferior as they were not regulated and the informal providers charged the people more. The authors also nail the canard that slum dwellers are free loaders living off public services. According to them many of them were paying for the services. If granted a secure tenure in the housing area, they took an interest in their environment in improving water supply, electricity, and garbage disposal. If sanitary facilities (Sulabh toilets) were available they used them even if they were expensive.

On other parameters such as economic development, life in resettlement is hard as there is unemployment staring at the work force. As the authors point out ‘our data from Bawana shows that 58 out of 1000 men and 93 out of 1000 women are unemployed.’ Apart from open unemployment, as the authors say, there is underemployment or hidden unemployment, which worsen employment conditions in the resettlement colonies. The workers in the casual sector end up ‘working harder and getting less’. They point out women are worse off as they bear the brunt of the disastrous effects of eviction.

Moreover as the resettlement colonies are located in the periphery of the city the job opportunities decline for the work force increasing insecurity for all. ‘The overwhelming majority have touched rock bottom,’ say the authors, ‘ Consumption has been cut to the bone.’ On the other parameter Quality of Life the residents of Bawana have slender chances of achieving even minimal benchmark. With non-existent safety nets and an indifferent government they exist in a fragile state on the fringes of existence. Other factors compound the problem such as increased crime and violence, which abound in resettlement colonies. Especially vulnerable are again women who suffer violence on a disproportionate basis.

Emerging from the debris

Painting on a larger canvas the authors make an interesting observation. The crisis of eviction and dispossession in Delhi is not unique to Delhi. The shock waves of dispossession are felt in other parts of the world. ‘ It is not only in the cities of the global south that growing numbers of people are being pushed into surviving precariously at the margins of the economy’ they thoughtfully add. Even in cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen the political commitment to social housing is waning with land prices shooting up. The ‘zero tolerance policing’, which is becoming popular in large cities of the world is the brutal response of the state to the problems of homeless people by making the homeless disappear from the city. Mike Davis in his Planet of Slums has written that the present trends indicate a creation of underclass of workers who are excluded from the formal economy constituting a permanent class of the dispossessed. One estimate puts the figure in the region of one billion, which is roughly one-sixth of the total world population.

But there are winds of change. In the last chapter of this remarkable book in a section titled ‘Reclaiming the Rights of the City’ the authors mention that the dispossessed are becoming more politically aware and are organising themselves. This is evident in the spirit of resistance expressed in diverse forms- squatters’ movement, movements around environments, struggles against evictions and demolitions, movements for access for services. That resistance can only deepen, the authors say, unless we shed the myth that the poor are dirty, ineducable, immoral and prone to violence.

The realisation that the slums have vibrant communities would pave the way towards a more egalitarian society where the Right to Shelter is not an empty dream but a reality built on the solid foundations of bricks, mortar and constitutional rights.

Reference:

Swept off the Map- Surviving Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi.

Kalyani Menon Sen, Gautam Bhan. Yoda Press- 2008.

Joy, Killjoy of Thesis, Antithesis: Waterless Urinals & Water Crisis

Vivek Sharma — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:32 EST

New 'waterless' urinals installed in some of the restrooms in MIT and Harvard proclaim that by installing these approximately 40,000 gallons of fresh water will be saved every year. If we say that India needs to install around 25 million urinals to prevent people from watering the roadside grass and trees, then by not installing those 25 million urinals, we are saving a trillion gallons of water every year.

If we account for the amount of irrigation water and organic manure that is provided by this roadside act of 'free giving', as well as account for cost of having old urinals constructed and buying new ones at a formidable price, as well as the cost of maintaining the buildings, and so on, we must have saved over 100 billion dollars in last two decades (10% of Indian GDP in 2008). This is the money that we have saved from going down the drain, if you wish.

If you knew Marcel Duschamp's work, and if you knew that such saving requires one to have the fountain of knowledge, you will know that by not having the 'fountain', we have shown a genius, that goes beyond the realm of conceptual art. I am often reminded of his art, as we were born on the same day, separated by space, time and thought process; while he calls that physical object a fountain, I am pleased to refer to its absence as 'fountain of life'.

I think everything in this world happens first as a farce, then as a tragedy. I can explain my arguments, but I think it is better to give the reader a whiff of the idea, and if they wish, they can read books and wikipedia to understand that I happily and angrily argue from the both sides. The rage for progress has brought us to this page, but by the time you will turn it, you will yearn for the absence of it. Or maybe not.

The per capita water consumption in United States (and many European nations) is at least twenty times higher than per capita water consumption in India. Water used for bathing is minimal if you get a bucket (15 -20 liters) on your turn, as opposed to a shower or bath-tub. Our ancestors preferred a dip in the holy rivers and holy lakes, and let me remind you, all Indian lakes, rivers, streams, rainfall, all water-bodies are sacrosanct. Since no man steps into a river twice, through a dip in the river at the dawn, our ancestors were led into a habit of cleanliness as well as a realization of evanescence of human existence. Returning to question of water consumption (the holy dip was necessary to cleanse my mind of extraneous thoughts), Indians consume less water, and if they stop aping the West, they would consume less water in coming centuries as well, and run a lower risk of undergoing the imminent water crisis. We know that water will be next oil, and even though finding water on the moon is a step in the right direction for India, formidable transportation costs will limit its availability only to politicians. Meanwhile, the common man, general public must learn to not forget their ways, and teach their kids the importance of holy rivers as well as the concept of "gagar mein sagar" (ocean in an earthen pot).

Ghada (घड़ा) (earthen pot) was one of the greatest discoveries ever made by human beings. To shape a container for water using a wooden wheel, a chakra, out of mother earth, requires a metaphorical, spiritual act that is both of scientific and engineering value to humanity. By replacing ghada with refrigerator, we have become more dependent on electricity than ever, and we eat more stale food than our ancestors were ever able to. The unhealthy way, the way of fridge, involves drinking water with ice, and by making extra effort to drink water at those inhuman temperatures, we are merely making power producing companies richer, cough syrup producing companies (that serve alcohol and sedatives to non-drinkers) richer. By not buying refrigerators, 50% of India, implying at least 100 million households, have saved another 100 billion dollars, if not more. Plus they have been drinking cool water, cooled by evaporative cooling, and they have been drinking water, conditioned by the mother earth herself.

Many, many years ago, before the time of Arundhati Roy and Medha Patekar, before engineers and scientists learned that dams cause irreversible damage to local flora, fauna and folklore, apart from displacing people like their cattle and other calamities, when the first dams were constructed in India, the farmers in Punjab refused to drink and use water from canals. Their argument was that the government is trying to dupe them by providing them "powerless water", as its shakti (शक्ति) (power) was extracted by government in form of electricity already. It took a lot of convincing: world bank grants, field trips by the scientists of green revolution era, multimillion dollar corporate sponsorship, NGO work, government subsidy, brainwashing and wallpaper campaigns to convince these farmers that canal water was 'good' and God-sent, high yield seeds that require more water for irrigation were good, that changing their water tables and water habits was "good". In past ten years, two million of those farmers have committed suicide, due to a water crisis that is affecting at least two hundred million farmers in India. The reason is that the 'rain gods' were not consulted before corporations that supply single-crop yielding seeds, were brought into the system, and 'low water use, low fertilizer' local varieties were discarded for providing the greatest profit to greatest number of people. Some people are still profiting, but our seedless, waterless farmers, must be wondering, why did everyone laugh at their grandparents who believed that by supplying them this canal water, the government is giving them 'powerless' water.

What I Would do if I was in Nandan Nilekani's Shoes

Venkatesh Sridhar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:44:04 EDT

Nandan Nilekani has taken over as the Chairman of the National ID project. That ignited a thought in my head as to what would I do if I were him.

1. Create a matrix structure: It is essential for Nandan to create a matrix structure so he can keep the structure flat to be able to keep a close eye on the bureaucrats. It will take time for both Nandan and the 'crats to get to know each other's working style. One is enterprising, quick and fast, the latter procedure oriented. A matrix structure will allow Nandan to create a culture in which things will happen fast and move fast.

2. Evangelize the bigger picture: You have got the opportunity, make it big. Take the concept to the next level, eventually even replacing the passport, voters card, driving license, ration card, PAN card, etc. Keep talking about this vision, kick it up always. This will ensure that you will leave a legacy behind for someone to follow it up, remember you are doing this for India.

3. Use social media to gauge feedback and ideas: Make appropriate use of social media to gauge feedback and get ideas from people. It will make people part of the process and get more and more involved.

4. Leave Infosys out of the bid: If I were him, I would definitely ask Infosys to stay out of the bid. It has the potential to raise heckles. Yes we all know that Infosys and the associated folks are known for their values but it will still set an amazing example and will ensure no one kicks any kind of dirt later on, especially if Infy ends up winning the project.

These are major things that I would do if I were he. What will you do if you were in his shoes?

Air India Under Investigation For Over-Boarding

Ashish — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:26:47 EDT

Airlines frequently overbook, given that there is always a number of people who will cancel, and hence there is a mathematics related to the number of people who overbook. Sometimes airlines land up in a situation whereby they find that this mathematics goes awry, and they find that there are more passengers than seats available. In such cases, the airline has to placate irate passengers, and decide who can go and who needs to be refused. Such cases typically cause a lot of unhappiness. However, it is not accepted that an airline boards more passengers than there are seats available.

Even in these bad economic times, it is unacceptable to have more passengers on board than there are seats, given that these are paying passengers who have a right to proper treatment. Modern airlines have automated systems whereby boarding passes are issued which prevents extra passengers from getting loaded. However, if the airline wishes to violate such conditions, there is very little that can be done.

Further, after the terrorist incidents, the cockpits of planes are now high security zones where passengers are no longer allowed. So, if there is a case when a passenger is allowed inside the cockpit, that is against all security norms and needs to be thoroughly investigated.

We have a case where all this happened. Air India, the national carrier of India, had a case whereby it was found that the airline had boarded 3 extra passengers; this case is now being investigated by the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). In order to ensure that this case is brought to its logical conclusion, the investigation needs to be thorough (link to article):

In these recessionary times, airlines globally are operating on half-empty seats. But Air India, which is passing through its worst ever financial crisis, is in fresh trouble for allegedly carrying extra passengers on a fully loaded flight. What adds to the irony is that the excess passengers were discovered in a probe into the aircraft's door falling apart when it started moving while attached to an aerobridge!
"Of these three, one woman passenger was accommodated in the cockpit and two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off and landing," said sources. The DGCA can now take criminal action against AI for this violation. The cockpits in modern aircraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot and co-pilot, the third is called a jump seat which is usually vacant. Since the process of issuing boarding passes is completely computerized, the system stops generating passes once a flight is full. In this case, however, the probe has found that boarding passes were allegedly issued manually to enable the extra passengers to clear the different levels of pre-embarkation security checks.

This action by the airline was a gross violation of the air safety norms. In this case, the airline was caught because of another incident, and this fact came out during the investigation.

Schools, Children, and "Personal Fiefdoms"

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:32:23 EDT

The recent tragic incidents that were widely reported on the deaths of two schoolchildren in New Delhi ("Aakriti's death a systemic failure", Teacher denies punishing Shanno, and School girls abused on bus) have brought home the freebooting ways of school administration in India. While colleges and universities are heavily regulated, perhaps much more than they should, schools operate in a no man's land of wilfully set fee structures, dubious affiliations, authoritarian management, and little regard for the rights of the child.

While most are careful to stick to the letter of the law and adhere to the guidelines of whichever affiliated board they operate under, they nevertheless set their own course and are rarely reprimanded for false claims, non-transparent selection procedures, and worse. The school might be a private place where the laws of free speech do not apply, but this is seen as a means to stifle dissent, whether it is of teachers, parents, or children. Rote learning is still the norm, even though efforts appear to have been made towards creative education. The rights of the consumers are, in short, treated as secondary to the right of the providers.

Being a rant, one is overlooking the many fine institutions and the overall high standard of private school education in India. All the same, when things go wrong, as they often do, it is hard to find sufficient scrutiny of for-profit management, apart from the usual platitudes and commissions. 27% of children in India are educated in private schools, with demand outstripping supply. Innovations are rapidly copied, quite poorly of course, as is evident in the current craze for "International schools."

The state of government schools is deplorable, to say the least. Even though government schools are free, many of the poorest prefer to pay for shady, illegal private schools. Government initiatives like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are purely aimed at meeting their numbers, although that too is well behind its targets. It would be better to move towards a school voucher system, where families are provided credit to pay for education at the school of their choice, rather than at the lumbering, poorly-run government schools. While not enough studies have been done on how this might work in the Indian economic scenario, the right to education is a travesty, so anything new might be better than what we endure today in the name of public education.

Learning communities and home-schooling are other modes of education that might be worth promoting. With appropriate testing and access to social interactivity, non-formal schooling can be as beneficial as the endless hours spent in boring classrooms for the majority of young life. Schools, from the outset, are subsidized babysitting centres, that later morph into state-approved open prisons, intended to conform and regulate thought.

The wipe-the-slate-clean approach would take far more political courage than can be mustered in the current environment, though, and it is unlikely anyone would want to kill either the golden goose of for-profit private education or the other one of government largesse-funded educational programs that make little difference in the aggregate sense.

Disabled Children Wait up to Two Years for Wheelchairs

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:22:04 EST

You know I keep on moaning about the fact that the ways of meeting children’s needs here in this country are strange? We are doing something for our long term sick children’s education by providing them by computers but i suppose you can say that that’s sort of optional.

But how about children who are unable to walk and need a wheelchair? If we have a fully funded NHS, surely they should be getting a wheelchair immediately? Well, no, unfortunately no. Read this and weep. I quote:

The NHS was told today to stop relying on charities to fill funding gaps after figures revealed many trusts would not pay the full cost of electric wheelchairs for disabled children.

Why on earth is this situation allowed to happen? Why aren't they given a wheelchair immediately? This is mental child abuse. And then not only people have to pay their taxes, but also give charity? Talk about being inefficient.

Statistics from 54% of NHS trusts in England and Scotland revealed that disabled children in England are forced to wait five months on average for a wheelchair.

5 months. Can you imagine? If you aren't disabled, think about this, you are forced to wait for 5 months for shoes. You dont have shoes. You cannot just go and buy them but are waiting to get them. Not for 1 day, not 2 days nor wait till the weekend so that you can purchase it, but for 5 months, 20 weeks, 140 days. 140 days without any shoes. Can you imagine what that will do to your feet? Now think about the poor disabled child. 5 months without a wheelchair.

The worst performing primary care trust (PCT), East Lancashire, in the north-west of England, had an average wait of two years for an electric wheelchair.

5 months was average across the country, but this area had an average wait of TWO years. And if you think that manual wheelchairs are possible, remember we are talking about children who are unable to control their muscles, so they cannot literally move about without assistance. Electric wheelchairs allow them to do so. And this is average 2 years, means 50% of the children in that area would have spent much more than 2 years waiting for an electric wheelchair.

The survey showed 58% of children in England had to wait at least three months for an electric wheelchair and 14% waited more than six months.

It gets worse. We are indeed a 3rd world country if this is how we treat our children in need. And then apparently we have sunk tons of money into the NHS.

Overall, 50% of the PCTs that responded said they did not fund the full cost of a powered wheelchair for a disabled child. Westminster PCT made an average contribution of only £700 towards the cost of a child's powered wheelchair, it said. Almost all PCTs contacted by the charity said the cost of a wheelchair was around £2,000 but in fact the true cost of a basic electric wheelchair would be around £3,000.

Holy crap. And rest of the money comes from charity, eh? typical.

A separate patient survey of 237 children found one in three did not receive any funding at all for their wheelchair.

And 1/3rd of the children dont receive any help whatsoever. Wonderful, you silly twits in the government. Do something!, get off your fat backsides and give this money to the kids. Or else, we will take the money for your shoes and give it to the kids. I bet that then the money will be found very quickly, no? And then when you read something like this, you feel so sad. I quote:

Family doctors are failing to provide improved services for patients, despite being paid tens of millions of pounds to do so, a report claims.

Technorati Tags: Children, Charity, United Kingdom

Bimaru States In India

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:53:38 EST

States and regions also become sick besides companies and human beings. When they become sick, you get a doctor, then you dose the patient with some foul smelling medicine, and then you get better, and to stay better, you keep on doing good healthy things so that you do not fall ill. But then, there are some fellows who will smoke, drink, eat fatty foods, then get a heart attack, and then continue on with being a bad old egg.

But what's with Bimaru in the title? It is a play on words, the word itself stands for 4 Indian states, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. When you select those letters together, they mean sick (Bimar in Hindi means sick). And yes, Sir, they are sick in terms of almost every socio-economic indicator that is going.

Obviously, the reasons are multifarious, but mainly is because of the venality of the politicians of all stripes. Corruption is rife, illiteracy rampant, health is poor, economics horrible, generally a sad old reflection of what India's missed opportunities are. What makes it even worse is that these are poor states in a poor country, but other states have done much better. I realise that somebody has to come bottom, but when we are talking about poverty levels which are at or below starvation levels, then being at the bottom has severe implications for rest of the country. It does not also help that these states are some of the most populous in the country.

One would expect that every state would be hell bent in trying to improve its investment climate so that jobs are produced and better quality of life is achieved. But no, most of the leaders of these states are too busy being corrupt and feathering their own nests. By and large, they are a venal lot, seriously. And having had experience of living, studying, working, running firms in these states, I can personally say that the situation isnt improving fast. For entrepreneurs, it is tough, really tough. When you have borrowed money from your father's General Provident Fund (pension fund), and have invested in the anticipation that you will provide sufficient returns so that your old man is not left on the street, the last thing you need is your own government and its officials being like vultures, bent on capturing your hard earned money. Well, perhaps it is too much to expect, but what exactly are the problems facing entrepreneurs?

The World Bank recently released a paper comparing the investment climate in 16 Indian states for which they had data. Here's their main graphic which shows the investment climate in the 16 states.

So what did the author evaluate to make up the index? This is what I mean by saying that the issues with these states are simple but implementation needs just simple hard work. Nothing magical, just keep on plugging away at it. Here are some of the factors relating to infrastructure: Hours of power outages last year, Hours of telephone outages last year, Percentage of sales lost in transit, percentage of sales lost due to power outages, Days of inventories kept for main input (proxy for quality of transportation). What about inputs? Excess labor, Cost of finance: value of collateral required to obtain a loan, Proximity to raw materials (share of inputs bought by domestic sources) Proximity to domestic customers, Share of firms using new technology, Trade credit: share of sales sold on credit, Trade credit: share of inputs bought on credit.

Finally institutions make a huge amount of difference to the investment climate and the authors included security cost, losses due to theft , Manager time spent dealing with regulations, Days spent with officials to deal with regulations, consistent interpretation of rules, Tax evasion (% of sales not declared), Days to obtain a telephone connection, Days to obtain a electric connection, Days to obtain a construction permit, Bribes to "get things done", Share of firms reporting officials request gifts etc. etc.

While one can only exhort the states at the top to do much better, but its the stogy lump of undigested mass of states at the bottom which is the issue. Not only do the good state's get their tax revenues diverted to support these Bimaru states, the diversion of tax revenues is then not invested in productive matters. So, all in all, these are giant holes where a significant proportion of productive wealth generated by India disappears.

The concluding paragraph from the author is particular important but would not be particularly surprising.

The analysis of 46 investment climate variables shows that power, transportation, corruption, tax regulations and theft
remain the major bottlenecks policymakers need to address in order to improve the business environment in India.

Same old, same old. Long way to go, my friends, long way to go.

Technorati Tags: Corruption,Public Sector,Development,Economics,India,World Bank