The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Indians are coming
Healthy competition is good for all

It is a matter of some gratification that the US sees India among the upcoming rivals and President Barack Obama has warned his countrymen that the “Chinese and the Indians are coming hard at us in an increasingly competitive world”. Before anyone develops the wrong notion that he is being xenophobic, let it be added that he is talking of healthy competition and exhorting his countrymen to improve their education system because the Chinese and the Indians are doing better than them. He did not mince words while admitting that the US kids play far more video games and watch far more TV than their Chinese and Indian counterparts. No wonder, the latter do much better in study, be it maths or science, while the American children settle into mediocrity. President Obama wants them to shed their complacency due to which the US is no longer head and shoulders above others in the field of education. Instead, it is now in “the middle of the pack among wealthy, advanced, industrialised countries” while the Indians and the Chinese are “hungry and they are really buckling down”.

The signs of this change were in the air for quite some time with non-American children winning spellingbee and general knowledge competitions galore while studying in the US. Whereas the American hare went on resting as in the fable, the Indian tortoise remained more focussed on studies and surged ahead. It goes to the credit of President Obama that he candidly admitted that the US education system was broken.

The brave admission has a lesson for India also. Knowledge is the key to its progress and it cannot afford to slacken its pace. In fact, the Indian education success story that Obama is narrating is confined to a select few. The majority is still deprived of it. It is just that we are too many and the few who can make it to the top are changing the rules of the game. Just as the US has fallen behind because of its complacency, we can also slip up if we do not take immediate steps to provide quality education to everyone. If India is to ensure its seat on the high table, it must strive that every single child is imparted adequate education, whether he lives in the snow desert of Leh or in a sun-baked dhani of Rajasthan.

Say no to rote
Education must focus on real learning

Educationists have been deliberating over the negative effects of rote learning for quite some time. However, despite the realisation and some initiatives, the ground reality in Indian education system hasn’t changed much. But now HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has not only declared that cramming should have no place in examinations but also promised to do to Indian education what Dr Manmohan Singh has done to the Indian economy. The resolve, if sincere, is appreciable. Without doubt, the Indian education system needs a significant change — rather a complete overhaul.

With undue emphasis on marks and percentages, education in India stifles creativity and knowledge. What to talk of education in government schools, a survey conducted in the top schools of the nation found serious gaps in student learning. While students faltered on interpretational and analytical skills, even language was being studied as a subject and not as a useful tool to enhance knowledge. Actually the exam- driven education system creates undue pressure and anxiety among students. Besides, it also saps critical thinking. The need to reform education system is being felt not only at the school level but also in higher education where several universities have introduced the semester system to lessen the burden on students. In recent times, the CBSE has come up with many student-friendly approaches. Apart from giving weightage to internal assessment, it introduced the concept of HOTS i.e. higher order thinking skills that lays emphasis on synthesis of knowledge. Its much-touted nine-point scale grading system that is expected to reduce stress considerably, too, is on the anvil.

Still, much more needs to be done to make education a fun filled and stress- free experience. Both curriculum and evaluation system have to be so designed as to inspire imagination and stimulate problem resolution skills. Can Mr Sibal, who wants grading to be based on internal assessments, achieve it remains to be seen. However, he is right in asserting that “class X and XII board examinations should not be the only assessment points in a child’s education”. Education is a lifelong process. Beyond marks and grades, education must equip children to tackle the real world.

Thought for the Day

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time that we have rushed through life trying to save. — Will Rogers

ARTICLE

Rising Chinese military power
Regional security under long-term threat
by Air Marshal R.S. Bedi (retd)

In keeping with its practice, the Chinese government released its sixth National Defence White Paper 2008 recently. Surprisingly, it did not get requisite attention in the Indian media. A similar policy statement on defence was released in 2006. While outlining its national defence policies broadly, the government pretends to assuage world’s concerns about its rapidly growing military prowess.

It thus attempts to achieve a dual purpose of alluding to being a responsible nation while simultaneously projecting its intent and the deterrent capabilities very subtly. In keeping with this line, the white paper goes on to assert that China will never seek hegemony or engage in military expansion now or in the future, no matter how developed it becomes.

The world looks at China’s growth of comprehensive national power with great concern. Its military strategy worries the world. For, it has progressively evolved from a very rudimentary one of “Mao’s People’s War” to the one commensurate with today’s modern age of science and technology. Later, Deng’s “limited wars under high tech conditions” doctrine resulted in changes in force structure, quantity to quality and fast pace modernisation. Multitudes of people’s army (rural) now stand reduced to 2.3 million educated and urban recruits. This has literally transformed the peasant army into a professional modern army.

The white paper on defence outlines its thrust clearly. It aims to achieve naval and air capabilities for effective sea control and air space denial strategies, though currently it is far from it. It is for this purpose that it has been busy creating strategic infrastructure in South Asian waters both for the purpose of acquiring distant sea operation capabilities as also to contain India. It has for the first time sent its naval force in distant waters to take on the Somalian pirates.

Though the white paper is silent, China has gone for indigenous production of diesel and nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear tipped ballistic missiles to match its adversaries. China possesses an entire range of missiles from 280 km to 13,000 km range ICBMs. The paper also makes no mention of its likelihood of acquiring a few aircraft carriers in a couple of years, without which its power projection capabilities would be limited.

China realised that the space war is still more central to Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). It has an active space weapon programme, called the “4th leg of the triad”. It is developing counter space systems by shooting down its own low orbit satellite, thus demonstrating its potential of anti-satellite warfare capabilities.

Its current thrust is to develop “pockets of excellence” within the military by going for high technology in critical areas while continuing to operate simultaneously at lower level of technology in not-so-critical areas. Long range precision strikes, area denial capability, information warfare, ballistic and cruise missiles capabilities and strategic nuclear force potential are some of the areas China has achieved reckonable competence.

The sub-theme in all white papers since 1998 highlights the fact that China’s greatest challenge lies in the hegemonic global structure, which it feels restricts opportunities for its growth. That is why it prefers multi-polarity as against the uni-polar world of the day.

China is highly sensitive to challenges to its security. It considers US as its long-term strategic threat. It sees US foreign policies and military strategies in Asia in conflict with its long-term interests. Clash with the US is considered inevitable in the long-term perspective, whether over Taiwan without which it feels its sovereignty is incomplete or when it is sufficiently strong militarily.

After Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan is its next objective, over which it is willing to go to war if pushed. Presently, it prefers to concentrate on building economic bridges with the US while simultaneously building its armed forces technologically.

China is wary of resurgent Japan as a future challenge though presently its pacifist military posture is no threat. It also distrusts Russian revival and India’s growing politico-military profile. It doesn’t like India’s closer ties with the US or even Russia, for it views them as detrimental to its regional and global interests. It does not want another giant in Asia. That’s why it tries to keep India on tenterhooks as regards the Sino-Indian relations. It wants India to remain embroiled regionally with its neighbours and dissipate its vital resources.

It’s time India realised the security implications of China’s rising military profile. The government has no long-term plans or resource allocation to meet current or distant security challenges. The plans drawn by the armed forces remain without government approval for want of politico-bureaucratic combine’s reluctance to commit. Consequently, India doesn’t have a coherent strategy to manage its security challenges.

Ad hocism without any defined objective prevails in all matters of security. No other country is so lackadaisical towards its national security. China’s rise as a military power and its policy of strategic containment of India has serious ramifications.

China is creating areas of influence in South Asia. Its interest in South Asia is purely strategic with India in mind. The export of technology and creation of infrastructure in India’s neighbourhood is largely military-oriented. China is singularly responsible for making Pakistan a stand alone nuclear power besides continuously arming it with conventional weapons to India’s discomfiture. China is increasingly controlling investment and major infrastructure projects in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar.

Besides building a deep sea port of Gwadar, China is now building two major hydro projects in POK ($ 1.5 billion) over the river Neelam. In Nepal, the Chinese government plans to extend the Tibet railway right up to Kathmandu. China has surpassed both India and Japan as a leading donor to Sri Lanka. It has given $ 1 billion aid with no strings attached for major strategic projects.

China’s long-term strategy is to link its southern landlocked regions to Bay of Bengal through Myanmar and the Arabian Sea through Pakistan. It is also trying to extend its influence as far as Maldives and Mauritius.

China has global power aspirations; it aims to possess military power commensurate to its economic strength. It finds India as a thorn in its flesh that comes in the way of its aspirations. China’s rapid rise as a major economic power and military expansion has serious implications for Asia in general and India in particular. China’s military behaviour and assertive disposition will affect regional security and stability.

The writer is former Director-General, Defence Planning Staff.

MIDDLE

Indian summer
by Robin Gupta

THE Indian summer has a pristine beauty of its own. One has only to look at the golden laburnum trees raising one canopy after another over lonely stretches of green grass as the love-struck koel calls out from her perch in a grove of mango trees to get a feeling of its lingering beauty.

And at the height of summer presiding over the scorching heat, the magnolia glandiflora with its large creamy flowers and its sensuous perfume like some empress of yesteryear holds court all too briefly, with the ceremony due to a king.

Then there are the gulmohar trees with their brilliant red blossom amidst sensitive leaves that filter the sunlight and the jacaranda bearing lilac flowers that weave magical patterns around her branches before falling at her feet.

At night when the efflorescent moon has bathed wide park-lands in silver hues, to walk amidst these silhouettes is an ethereal experience. And the reassurance of Indian trees Neem, Bargad and Peepal which, year after year, selflessly provide shelter to tired travellers.

I am truly wonder-struck at the sequence by which the Indian trees unveil their dazzling beauty one after the other, until the heavy downpour of the monsoon rains ends this wondrous pageant. The exquisite temple flowers — Champa, Chameli, Bela, Raat Ki Rani, and Madhavi Lata — punctuate the divine presence on summer nights.

These thoughts flash through my mind as I pack my bags to leave for the mountains to avoid the summer months. Again the koel atop a tree heavy with green mangoes chants her refrain resentful of a migration to the cragged hills leaving behind the clear blue skies and purifying sunshine of the plains.

All great civilisations that the world has witnessed — Harappa and Mohenjodaro, India, China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Greece and Rome — flourished in wide river basins and were reliant upon the river as the source of life. Without a doubt, man’s thought reached its apogee in the plains; and in summer time, when meaningful social interaction was possible and not restricted by the extreme cold of mountainous regions and snowbound areas.

It is not difficult to imagine Socrates, Aristotle or Plato walking into a gentle summer examining the dialects of man’s existence, the purposes of life and the nature of nature. In India, the great cities of the sub-continent were built over time in the plains — Patliputra, Mathura, Ayodhya, Sarnath, Shingeri, Bhubaneswar, Calcutta, and the Moghul cities of Agra, Delhi and Lahore.

One hot summer’s day, I gave thought to the extraordinarily exquisite aesthetics behind the abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri. Leaning against a medieval pillar with a sense of impermanence, I gasped at the beauty of green parrots flying over red sandstone and marble terraces in the sunset.

During the long summer days, I am able to listen carefully to the “Ragas”, “Bhairav” that awakens the day followed by “Todi” and its variations. I can then sit back and listen to “BhimPalas”, “Sarang” and “Manmad Sarang” at noon. And when the cows return to the village, it is time for “Sree,” and as the evening unfolds “Mal Kauns”, “Chander Kauns”, and the magnificent “rag darbari”.

It is only in the gentle fragrant summer evenings and after nightfall, when the activity of the day has ceased, that the philosophical questions of life come to mind. And, in attempting a degree of understanding, thought reaches a measure of luminosity.

Often time, I wonder about habitations and cities frozen and wrapped in ice-storms. It is difficult to imagine art in its highest expression in the dark wintry forests of Germany with hungry wolves howling at the gateway of the city.

OPED

Campaign against Taliban has mass support
by Ahmed Rashid

Even before the explosion on Tuesday at the Pearl Continental Hotel killed at least 16 people in Peshawar, Pakistan was at the center of global attention. Yet for all the concern about terrorism, the world has been stunningly indifferent to the plight of the more than 2.4 million people who have fled the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani army is for the first time seriously attacking the Taliban and al-Qaida.

If the internally displaced Pakistanis are not properly cared for, public opinion, which has shifted dramatically in recent weeks to support the offensive against the Taliban, could once again turn in support of compromise.

Last week, the Taliban launched a series of devastating suicide attacks to both divert security forces and cower public opinion. The truck bomb on Tuesday night in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan’s provincial capital, reportedly injured 70.

The mass exodus from the battle zone to the southern plains has been the largest and fastest displacement of people since the genocide in Rwanda 15 years ago, U.N. officials say. Most of the displaced fled the Swat Valley in just two to three weeks last month.

While the government response has been mixed, ordinary Pakistanis have reacted en masse, loading up trucks in Karachi and Lahore with wheat, sugar, electric fans and bedding and sending them north to towns such as Mardan in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the center of the crisis. Yet their efforts seem meager next to the enormity of the humanitarian disaster.

President Obama seems to be the only world leader concerned about the displaced civilians. The United States allocated $110 million and then an additional $200 million after Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke assessed the situation last week.

Holbrooke castigated Europe for its lack of support and then sought to raise funds in the Arab world, which has not responded to the Pakistanis’ plight. Islamabad says that no European or Muslim Arab country has sent any major aid.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the United Nations may be forced to cut all its services, including food supplies, by July if its appeal for $543 million in emergency aid goes unmet. After nearly a month, donor countries have pledged only 20 percent of that.

The International Committee of the Red Cross — the only aid agency working with civilians wounded from the fighting and with those civilians who have remained in the destroyed towns of Swat — seeks $38 million, which would double its Pakistan budget for this year.

Strategically, much is at stake. The fighting in Swat is not just against extremism but for the hearts and minds of future generations. “Pakistani public support for the campaign against the Taliban and help to the (internally displaced) could dissipate fast if international aid is not forthcoming,” a senior U.N. official told me. “Moreover, dissatisfied (displaced civilians) could become targets for recruitment by the Taliban and al-Qaida.”

Already, the police here have caught more than 50 Taliban adherents among the displaced, either hiding or trying to coerce youngsters into becoming suicide bombers. Worryingly, among the many secular Pakistani charities working here are extremist organizations such as Falah-i-Insaniat, as the Lashkar-i-Taiba militant group that carried out the massacre in Mumbai last year is now known. Falah-i-Insaniat also supports the Taliban and al-Qaida. Such groups — which are heavily funded by extremist sympathizers abroad — are not likely to run out of money soon.

The humanitarian situation is bleak: Only about a tenth of the displaced are living in proper refugee camps. The rest have been taken in by relatives or locals and are living in private back yards, homes, fields, mosques and school buildings.

This amazing public generosity and concern are part of traditional Pashtun culture, but they cannot last indefinitely. While Pashtuns are the major ethnic group in the region, the Taliban — whose followers are largely Pashtun themselves — has sought to denigrate and destroy traditional Pashtun culture.

The real battles this summer against the Taliban and al-Qaida will be fought in Pakistan as much as in Afghanistan. By refusing to see this humanitarian crisis as an exercise in winning hearts and minds, however, the world seems to be sleepwalking its way to defeat.n

The writer, a Pakistani journalist and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy, has recently authored “Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.”

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Bankruptcy of General Motors
by Bikram Singh Virk

If General Motors sneezes, the US economy catches cold”. Thus went the saying about the 101-year-old the automobile manufacturer which filed for bankruptcy on June 1, being the fourth largest bankruptcy after Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual Funds last year and WorldCom in 2002.

GM has a debt of $ 172 billions against the reported assets of $ 82 billion. The company has already received a bailout package $ 18 billion in the first two quarters of 2008.

Though the company sold 8.5 million cars and trucks in the world in 2008, its sales were down by 12 per cent compared to last year’s.

Set up in September 1908 by William Durant, a successful auto executive from Flint in Michigan, who earlier was making horse-drawn cabs, General Motors made a history of sorts in many ways. The auto industry was a young fledgling industry in the early 1900s and there were many young players, like Wilfred Leland, Ransom Olds, Dodge Brothers, Charlie Nash, Cadillac and Louis Chevrolet.

Most of these entrepreneurs were French, who came by chance and settled permanently. Louis Chevrolet had come for a race of cars, whereas Cadillac came as a soldier to fight the British colonists and established car companies after settling.

William Durant purchased most of these companies and by 1910 made a conglomerate of all these companies with a common name of General Motors. By 1916 he had 25 top brands under his belt. About half of the cars of GM were branded after the names of these persons of French origin.

It was a time when there were only 8,000 motor cars in the US, most of them driven by steam, electricity and a few by petrol. By this time, Sir Henry Ford had also given his world famous T-Model car and GM was the main competitor of the Ford Motors, another auto player of Detroit’s, the house of all auto companies.

By the 1920s another legendary, Alford Sloan, joined the company who really transformed GM and gave the famous slogan “a car for every purse, person and purpose”, which brought GM on top.

Sloan really made a car for every segment of society and also formed-finance company to help people buy their products. Where Cadillac was GM’s top-end brand meeting the needs of the super rich, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmith and Chevrolet were other popular brands meeting the needs of upper middle and middle class people.

While GM was growing under the supervision of Alford Sloan, its founder William Durant lost his fortune in Wall Street and declared bankruptcy in 1936, going back to Flint, from where he came as a roller skater and spent his last days in penury without having a dime in his name.

General Motors braved two World Wars and the great depression of 1929, but yielded to the worldwide recession of 21st century. During the Second World War, it made parts of planes, lorries and tanks for the US army and also motors for the US railroad locomotives.

It remained the largest employer of the world and also the largest tax payer for many years. GM, which gave the slogan, “To Keep America Rolling” post-9/11, could not keep itself on the track and tumbled.

Though there are several reasons for the fall of the world famous company, a few of them are prominent and obvious, which the outgoing CEO Rick Wagoner admitted in an apology.

The first and foremost was the folly of killing its first electric car EV1, which it did under the pressure of oil giants like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP, the three Texas-based oil giants and the fellow auto players.

Though the company denied it vehemently earlier, it was made amply clear by Sony Pictures in its movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” in 2006, where it was shown how under some conspiracy it crushed the EV1 in its secret testing grounds. Except for the collusion of auto and oil giants, there is no reason why no alternative could be found to the internal combustion engine in over 100 years.

The second was ignoring fuel efficiency, which gave way to the Japanese companies to capture the market. Toyota, Honda and Nissan snatched the US and world market from the fuel-guzzling autos of GM, Chrysler and even Ford Motors.

The companies also suffered for having too many brands, numbering 25 at a time, one cannibalising the other and mounting the costs, whereas Toyota had no more than four brands at a time. Efficiency is another factor which acted as a dampener, with Toyota making a whole car in just 30 hours in 1998, whereas GM and Chrysler made one in 47 hours, making its products dearer.

The pension schemes under the pressure of the United Auto Workers (UAW) also added to its woes as it had three pensioners after every one worker, where as the Japanese companies had a comparatively young and dedicated workforce.

Last but not the least was the company’s focus on SUVs like Hummer and Saturn, instead of making small and fuel-efficient cars for the middle class, which led to a fall in demand of its products in the wake of rising fuel prices.

The fall of GM is a big event in the corporate world and the US government is trying its best to save it by taking over 60 per cent holding in it, the other 30 per cent being taken by the Canadian government and UAW.

Chatterati
Krishna likes to design clothes for men
by Devi Cherian

In the tight-buttoned, image-conscious MEA, anything remotely non-serious is liable to be dismissed as “un-diplomatic” and so unworthy of attention. Its new minister S.M. Krishna lists “designing clothes for men” among his hobbies.

His profile on the Karnataka government website mentions this but not the one on the website of the MEA. Somebody in the ministry seems to have decided that designing clothes, that too for men only, wasn’t diplomatic enough and, therefore, needed to be excluded from his profile.

For that reason, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna is being compared with Shivraj Patil. Like Patil, Krishna is from the Rajya Sabha and reputed for his sartorial taste. Moreover, he is said to be in the office more because of his ‘loyalty’ than merit.

Return of Sangma

The youngest Union minister, Agatha Sangma, says there are no personal differences between Sonia Gandhi and her father, P.A. Sangma, who had quit the Congress opposing her candidature for the post of Prime Minister. This is a non-issue now. Sangma has said that he will welcome Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister.

Sangma excelled as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Then he left the Congress when Sonia Gandhi took over. Well, he seems to be back in full form now. He has shifted to Delhi now to help his daughter in her ministerial duties. So, all’s well that ends well.

Duty evasion

The list of multi-millionaires evading tax on their luxury items is never ending. It starts with Mukesh and Anil Ambani, the two richest brothers. Their jets were seized by the Air Intelligence Unit Wing and released after they paid Rs 50 and 30 crore.

Also on the list are film stars, who make crores in each movie and live life king size like Sushmita Sen and Akshay Kumar. The kings of Bollywood, the Bachans, after a shopping trip to Harrods in London, walked through the Green Channel till a Customs guy caught them and then they coughed up the duty money.

They take VAT refunds at the airport of departure. When you do take a VAT refund, of course, your own country will know. Saving a couple of thousand pounds and staying in custody is just not worth it. It is amazing how such frequent fliers feign ignorance about the tax. It is as bad as smuggling. And some have made it a way of life. Evading duty seems to have become a “habit” of the powerful.

Back with PM

With the Congress back in power, the Prime Minister has settled for a good five-year term. Press secretary Sanjay Baru, who left a year ago on a posting to Singapore, is set to return soon to the PMO. Pulok Chatterjee, the man who was a link between 10 Janpath and the PMO, also left a year ago on a posting in the US. He is likely to take over as the Cabinet Secretary.

Many others, who had flown away, are slowly coming back, knowing that this government is here to stay. Also it’s good for the PM to have his old team back in the PMO. MK Narayanan, NSA, and T.K. Nair have already been given extension.