Just Me - India

Sep 29, 2005 - An All-India Strike has been called for. Guess what - its reasonably successful.

Who are on strike?

• Airport Employees
• Bank Employees
• Transport Workers - Buses/Autos - in many places
• There are more i do not know of or cannot recall.

Why are they on strike?

• To protest against governments privatization drive of airports
• Many for no reason at all - just because their trade union belongs to the same trade union as the ones that wants to strike. So more like - for support
• To protest against some government policies - with which - they may or may not have anything to do.

Where are all the people who are on strike located?

• All over India !

What does this mean?

• Banks are closed
• No transport available in several places/cities in India.
• Airports are either disfunctional (Calcutta) or operating on low traffic; with skeleton staff.
• Opportunity to do mischief
• Tremendous inconvenience to the common man.
• Loss of earnings/money for the daily wage earner - he will not recover the losses.
• Loss of production and money for several big manufacturing units ! especially govt. owned. As if anybody cares?
• Disrepute.

Are these kind of Strikes Common in India?

Yes, they used to be fairly common. In recent years, though they have become less frequent. But by and large there are far too many of them, compared to other places in the world.

Who calls for these Strikes or supports them?

Ostensibly it is the Trade Unions. But, that is definitely not the complete story. These are called with backing of Political Parties. Trade Unions are simply the front to carry them out. For example the current one is supported by the left-wing parties. Not surprisingly, it is usually the party which is not in power, that calls for strikes.

What are the usual reasons for Strikes?

• Protest against price rise of a commodity - like fuel or railway tickets
• Protest against some kind of violence or atrocity, real or perceived.
• Demand for Salary Hike
• Against the govt policies - in general - or specific. for eg: protest against privatization of Insurance Sector.

Are all Strikes unreasonable?

This is very difficult to answer. Depends on whom you are talking to. Generally most strikes have been unreasonable, and most importantly they don't really serve anyone.

When and how did this practice start?

Like everywhere else in the world, strikes are a way of protest. But, there is something very unique about them in India - w.r.t how the idea spread in recent times - ok over the last century.

During the first part of 20th century(Britishers left India in 1947) , when Britishers were ruling India; Mahatma Gandhi and freedom fighters adopted the idea of - "Non-Co-operation" against the British government - as a non-violent wayof protesting against British rule in India. This was reasonably successful. It required people to gather and take out protest marches in a peaceful manner, burn foreign imported textile, keep the shops shutdown (not conduct business), not attend work etc. This did help the cause to some extent, and served its purpose in those days.

BUT, unfortunately after India gained independence, the practice continued, and degenerated into the present day form. So, there were/are strikes galore. And it is no longer peaceful. If people close their shops, and don't go to work when a strike is called for - it is usually - out of fear of violence.

Why are the Strikes allowed - why are they not banned?

• In a democracy you should have a way to protest. Way to voice your opinion.
• Lack of will of the government. When the political party which is in power today, is no longer in power tomorrow, it will indulge in strikes to paralyze the government.
• There have indeed been judgements from courts - that several strikes that have happened are illegal. But, it is the bureaucracy and legislature that has to implement the judgement. The will is clearly lacking.
• An unwritten rule - that - that the services of govt. servants cannot be terminated. Usually the only action taken against them (if the need arises) is to deny promotion or send them to a different office to work in. This results in govt. servants becoming very often unaccountable for their actions. And therefore, it is very often that government employees are on strike.

Our ancestors understood much more of the world than us. Doesn't it sound strange? It does, but in many ways it is so true.

Consider these facts:

• How many of the tools and gadgets we use today - do we really know how they work?
• How many of the things we come in contact with or read about everyday do we understand?

The answer really - is that we dont understand much. An average man hardly knows how cell phones work, what makes a tubelight glow, what exactly is a blood test or how automobiles work or textile is made. We have a cursory knowledge of these- the details are left to the specialists!

This was not so with our ancestors. Our ancestors had to fend for themselves completely. They used to build their own houses, make their own weapons, grow their own food etc. Doesn't sound very hitech.. eh? But, they understood what they were doing. Life was not at the mercy of specialists !

So, in a way we are becoming more and more ignorant, althought the world itself is advancing and making great strides into the future ! What a strange thing.

But, even this is not bad. The worst thing is that - we are slowly losing are curiosity or ability to learn or do things on our own. We are gaining the attitude of - this is for the experts to deal with. It is not clear what the consequences of this kind of attitude will be!

It is indeed surprising that we throw huge amount of money at different things in India, but invest so little in healthcare. USA has a private insurance driven healthcare system, while UK has government driven one. Both models have their advantages.

Indian model is somewhere in between. Government has attempted the UK model, but it is a complete failure, like most other things driven by govt. The state of govt. hospitals can at best be described as 'bad'. This is comparitively easy problem to fix, provided the will is there. The blame lies directly with the bureaucrats who manage it, along with the politicians who give directions.

This is clearly an area that can be improved quickly, and the gains are tremendous and very visible. People would be grateful to the govt. even now, if it gets its act together.

Given the state of things, many private health care business enterprises have sprung up - hospital chains and medical insurance schemes etc. These are mostly for those who can afford them. At least, this is welcome compared to not having anything at all.

Top 5 things that should be done immediately:

• Make the bureaucracy accountable. Start at the top.
• Invest money, and weed out corruption. Remove the inefficient and corrupt. Reward the best.
• Make people pay for services, even if it is a very nominal and a token amount. Introduce people to the concept of paying for services. Free stuff does not last long.
• Pay doctors well. Don't force anyone to work in rural areas. Instead make it attractive enough for them to work there. This is the long term solution.
• Invest in Healthcare infrastructure, spruce up hospitals, make the employees polite (and not rude!) to the visitors/patients.

Ok... so this is all the obvious stuff. Just start performing, and keep improving. It should be a top priority of the government.

Its a shame that we cannot achieve this after so many years (decades) of existence of dedicated govt. ministry and departments to handle this.

The will is clearly lacking.

If nothing else! Let the private healthcare enterprises do their job. Something is better than nothing.. right ?

What are key areas in which rapid progress will happen in the future?

• Biotechnology
• Information Technology - Software/Hardware
• Space
• Telecom/Communication-Audio/Video
• Medicine/Healthcare
• Fuel
• Transport - Air/Water/Road
• Food/Agriculture

Looks like i have stated the obvious here. These are the areas that i think will get tremendously impacted by new knowledge and research.

Not surprisingly, there are tremendous business opportunities directly/indirectly associated with the above.

What are the top few things that should be done to make India a modern happy country:

1. Improve the infrastructure. Make Roads, Rails - the whole transport system better. This will spur business, and confidence of people.

2. Provide Electricity wherever necessary. This spurs business.

3. Provide Efficient HealthCare system everywhere. Government Hospitals should become responsible and modern. Make it affordable.

4. Remove all roadblocks to doing legitimate business. Convey the message: This is the land of opportunity. Red Tape should be thrown out of the window. Indian BPOs have generated several times more jobs than govts. Rozgar Yojnas could ever hope to create.

5. Provide lean, efficient, helpful government machinery everywhere. Convey the message, we exist to help you - the citizen. Remove corruption, encourage efficiency.

6. Encourage Tourists and Business people to visit India. Treat them as guests. Never cheat them. Follow the old adage: Athithi Devo Bhava! And see the tourism industry flourish. Convey the message: We are honest, and care for you.

7. Immediately improve the justice system. Make it efficient. Having millions of court cases pending is representative of a failed justice system. Change that perception.

8. Make the Police force a modern, educated and benevolent force. Thats their real role.

9. Education System - Make it easy to afford and find. Let the rural and poor folks get good education. This is the probably one of the most important investments that can be made for the future.

10. Science/Technology - Research and Development - Invest in them. Knowledge is good. Its a stimulus for growth.

Inspite of the fact that some sections of society are making rapid progress in the area of Science/Business etc. There continues to remain very large sections of people that continue to be poor, and have not benefited from the progress that the country seems to be making or is poised to make.

Why should it be so? Who is stopping them.

The answer wouldn't be straight forward, but there are key pointers to what could be wrong. The huge government machinery has failed them completely. If you see, almost all areas in which progress has been made is - those that are lead by private sector. The only government controlled enterprises that have done well are the those that are in niche area - with no competition for eg: oil and gas.

The benefits of schemes setup by the govt. does not trickle down. Why? Because the implementors are corrupt, inefficient, lazy. The malaise perhaps starts somewhere very near the top if not right at the top. Any group or team is mostly as good as its leaders, very rarely better.

There is no reason poverty to this extent should continue to exist in India. Especially given the fact that monsoon is generally ok, economy is not too bad, fairly large number of educated people who could lead are present, and most importantly we are self sufficient in food!

Some, rural areas are really really poor. Even so in cities. There is probably nothing worse than the curse poverty. Its almost as if, there is a concerted attempt to keep people poor, uneducated.

Not very different from state of movies. Indian Music Scene can be described as: 'CopyCat'. And no, music composers dont just copy others, they keep copying themselves (ok repeating).

The last real solid Music Director in Indian Music Scene was: R.D.Burman. I haven't heard of anyone compose anything better than him.

Same is true of singers: Kishore Kumar was the last real good singer.

And lets not even talk of Music Videos and the so-called chart-busters. Very very mediocre. If you have some money, you can scream something into a recorder, and gyrate in front of a camera. There you are!  An Artist. Its a joke.

Why do people put up with this mediocre trash? I say, they dont have any option! They want to listen to something !! Its like if you dont get the best food to eat, you must eat whatever is available:).

We have really low quality movies being made in India most of the time. There does not seem to be any variety. You can predict the storyline of most of them if you know the following: Who The Director is, Who the Actors are. You don't even need to know the writer !!

Its a very mediocre industry. One very good movie recently was: Swades

I hope there is some variety to begin with, even if movies are not good. Many people disagree that most movies are bad. I think this is because they are not exposed to good variety of movies to begin with. So, there are in many ways unaware that something different is possible!