India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

A COMPLETELY LITERATE INDIA India’s unique contribution to the growth of the knowledge industry has significantly transformed the global perception of Indian education and raised expectations within the country as well as abroad. Yet paradoxically, India continues to be at the bottom of the pile as far as the human development index is concerned, ranked as low as 126. UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report cautions that the country, along with its South-Asian neighbours and Sub-Saharan African countries, is at the grave risk of not meeting the global commitment to reach the goal of education for all by 2015. Providing education for all is also a national goal. Can India ensure universal adult literacy and basic education for all children by 2015? The question is doubly relevant as the country is drawing up its 11TH  five year plan. Can the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) deliver? There is no option but to make it work. Unfortunately, while more money is being spent year after year, fatigue for action seems to be setting in at the field level, and no significant improvement is visible in the functioning of the public education system. If the SSA has to deliver, there will be a need for radically changing its course. First, let us move beyond the numbers to look at school functioning, and shift attention from enrolment to effective functioning of schools. As revealed by a recent national survey by Pratham – an NGO started by the UNICEF-30 per cent children do not attend school and learning levels are abysmally low. A recent international study on India found 25-30 per cent of the teachers missing from school. In the existing framework of the SSA, school and teacher grants are meant to focus on individual schools. Without careful monitoring and follow-up, the scheme is now a spending proposition with little to show for results. Global experience shows that overall improvement in education can be achieved if financial support to schools is linked to their management and performance and the implementation process is monitored by the local community. Such an approach could be effectively implemented in India by making use of the process of the Panchayati Raj institutions and grass root – level bodies. The second proposition is that the SSA – which is funded through Central plan resources, with a substantial component of international assistance-should invest selectively, that is, in states and on social groups that really [...]

DEAL OR NO DEAL     To understand the future of the Indo- US nuclear deal you need to consider four critical facts. The analysis that follows is distilled from conversations with Left leaders, in particular the CPI’s A. B. Bardhan. First, the reason why the Left is adamant the government must not initiate formal talks with the IAEA is because this is the last point at which they can stop the deal. Once it sails or sneaks past the Agency there is not further intervention required by the Indian government. The Americans will pilot it through the NSG and the Bush administration will secure the final updown vote from Congress.  The IAEA stage is the only point at which the left can obstruct its passage. The Left believes that IAEA’s clearance might only require 72 hours. It’s aware the government has done a lot of the spadework through informal contacts and non papers. Equally importantly, it acknowledges that despite the tricky nature of the fuel supplies assurance India wants, the rest of the safeguards are routine stuff. It doesn’t believe the IAEA will fall back on the 4 days clearance option. This reinforces the need to pull the plug as soon as the government approaches the IAEA. Second, when the Left withdraws support the government will enter what they call a grey area.  This is the interregnum between the Left informing the President and any test on the floor of the House to prove the government is a minority. During this stage, there may be doubts about the legitimacy of the government but no certainty. Therefore the government can or at least, can claim to function normally. The question is, will the IAEA accept a government in this predicament as a credible representative of India? The Left hopes it won’t but isn’t sure. If the IAEA has doubts, it will balk at concluding a safeguards agreement. If no, the deal is through. Third, how late can the government leave the start of negotiations with the IAEA without endangering the schedule for all the other steps that must follow? This will determine how long the present UPA-Left confabulation continues. The government has shared the timeline with the left but neither side has made it public. A safe date would be the end of October but it could stretch to early December. If by then, the government hasn’t initiated talks with the [...]